Rest?

Well, we just finished our 4-week Hebrews class, in which we studied the concept of “rest” as mentioned in the epistle. That kind of rest refers to abiding in Christ/living our lives with Him at the center, if you will. by trusting and obeying Him and His Word, as well as living in the confidence of the hope He has given us in His promises, we can indeed ‘enter that rest’ for our lives as Christians AND experience His ‘inexpressible and glorious’ joy!!

The rest I was questioning in the subject line was the more basic, physical aspect of rest. Not sleeping. We’re getting along fine in that area. But as we are now entering our 5th week of our second year here at NTBI, we are indeed finding ourselves busier than ever!

To clarify again for some folks, Noe and I are BOTH students. That means we both are studying the Word, and we both have a significant homework load. The difference is that Noe is a full-time student (16 credit hours each semester), and I am a part-time student (10 credit hours each semester). Hope that helps! 🙂 We both finished up our Hebrews class, which started out the semester. Noe also finished his James/Jude class (that was not one of my classes. you can refer to past blogs for a sample of our daily schedule).

Beginning today, Noe started his 8am class- “Missions in Church History.” We also began our 9-10 week Romans class, and 2 Corinthians. We have a hefty homework load, but we are SO looking forward to studying all of this!

If it’s not too obvious a statement, I’d like to mention that our #1 prayer request is for priorities/time management. Our two little girls are very charming and very active. We want to raise them lovingly, in the fear and wisdom of the Lord. We also recognize the great honor and blessing it is to be here at NTBI, and that we only have 1 more year to study the Word here. It is important to give that its proper place as well. Additionally, Noe is youth pastoring at a church in Tekonsha, Michigan. That takes a chunk of quality time and energy as well. For me, I also have the blessing to continue learning how to maintain a home (sounds like Fiddler on the Roof here…) (cooking, cleaning, bathing children, etc. etc.). SO, LOTS of elements to life right now, ALL of which we love, and we want to be above reproach in all things, making the most of our time for His glory. Please pray for us!

Please also pray for us this year that our relationships will grow in love and Truth. Our marriage, our parenting, our new Church family here, the Body of Christ here at NTBI (students and staff), and also very importantly our family and Church family (friends) back home in the Pacific Northwest.

OTHER/LIGHTER NOTES:

-Naya is just about finished potty-training! She hasn’t worn a diaper in over 2 weeks, and we’re thrilled!
-Jocellyn is ‘cruising’ now, standing up and sometimes daring to take a step or two to the side. She has at least  8 teeth now.

-Naya also celebrated her 3rd BIRTHDAY on September 9th! Happy birthday!! 🙂 We had lots of friends come by our apartment for bunuelos and cupcakes. It was grand. 🙂

-We really enjoyed the Summer Training Program in early August (that we referred to in our previous blog). We spend 10 days studying the Biblical concepts of “Need”, “Provision”, and others. Basically, God exposes our need (of Him, of redemption) through His Word and by the Holy Spirit. The provision for that need comes from HIM! How glorious is that?! We spent 5 of those 10 days at a camp about 45 minutes from the world’s 6th most beautiful lake- Higgins Lake. It was indeed VERY beautiful! We had a wonderful time of fellowship with the other 40 or so people. What was it all for? Noe is a student leader this year, which means he has about 15 students for whom he is responsible to oversee their work detail (every student does 3 hrs of work in and around the school to keep it clean and maintained). Some of the training during this 10 days was specifically with leadership in mind.

Until next time,
The Martinez Family