First, Jim (my youngest brother-in-law) left the USA for the very first time to attend Hillsong Leadership College in Sydney, Australia! How exciting is that?! Here's a link to his blog.
Second, Brent found out this weekend that he's being honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps due to budget cuts. This may not seem like an exciting thing, but believe me: it's an answer to prayer! Brent had put in for a transfer for when we move to Tulsa, and was kind of dreading it. He was already established in his current unit, and only has a year and a half left. And of course, there was always the possibility that his new unit could deploy. Plus the daunting task of having to leave once a month for drill. Needless to say, neither of us were big fans of Brent being in the military, and both of us were ecstatic (to say the least) when he found out! It will be a less than honorable discharge for now, and then in six months it will be an offcial honorable discharge, so he'll still qualify for his VA benefits! That means that during our time at Rhema, he'll get half of his tuition paid for the first two years AND a monthly housing allowance! He's served our country, and now he gets the benefits of being in the military without actually being in the military. Now we just have to be quick and sign up with USAA for an awesome deal on car insurance!
And finally...WE GOT ACCEPTED TO RHEMA!
Yesterday (well, last night really), Brent went to grab the day's mail and HeyTell'd me immediately and said "Guess what came in the mail today!" (HeyTell, by the way, is a kind of voice message app - if you have an iPhone or Droid, download it and let's talk! It's also totally free.) I guessed correctly and told him not to open his until he got back. When he got home, we dug into those things like it was Christmas!
We both figured we'd get accepted, and we did!*
The letter was accompanied by an "acceptance packet" that included tons of great information and important dates. Tuesday, September 4th at 8am is our registration day, and Orientation Week is September 7th-14th (Which is Friday through...Friday?) from 8:30am-noon. Now, I can't speak for Brent, but I absolutely LOVE stuff like that - registration day and orientation week. Those types of things are always so super fun and exciting! A few key notes about Registration & Orientation Week:
- On Registration Day, we'll receive ALL of our class books for the entire year! The books are included in tuition, so that makes it super easy!
- The day after Registration Day (but two days before Orientation Week begins...???) we'll take our school pictures for our photo ID and for the yearbook. Yep. We get a yearbook. Holla!
- We'll get our class schedule for the whole year during Orientation. Woot woot!
And quick change of topic. You'll notice that I'm writing on here again, even though I said I was still going to hang out at The Lady Butler until the end of May. Well, the truth is...I'd rather be here. I don't know what it is, but all of a sudden, I'm far more excited about this blog than my previous, er...current blog. There just wasn't much direction at The Lady Butler, even with weekly features and the like. I didn't know what it was, or what I wanted it to be. This on the other hand...this feels like my new home in the great big blogosphere, and I'm loving it. Now, I do have another blog that's kind of in the works through this account that I'm pretty excited about, but like I said, it's still "in the works." It's called Proverbs Thirty-Wannabe and it's my all-things domestic blog. But again...it's in the works. Check it out if you want, but I probably won't have much there for another week or so. And I still want to develop an awesome writing blog (or revamp my official website and use it as such) but I haven't gotten there yet. The point is I've realized that if I'm going to have multiple blog focuses...(focusi?)...I need to have multiple blog sites for them. End of story.
So with that, I say a fond farewell to The Lady Butler. It will still be available to view, but there won't be much of anything new. (RHYME!)
*We weren't being arrogant, we promise. I mean, c'mon...it's BIBLE SCHOOL. Who doesn't get accepted to Bible school? Seriously. I've always wondered what exactly would cause someone's application to a Bible or ministry program of any kind to be denied. And if you've ever filled out an application to any kind of spiritual program - at least if they're applications like the ones I've filled out - they ask you all kinds of questions about your background. I've always been overly honest on any application I've ever filled out, and have always been accepted. (I never went to any of these programs, but I was in fact, accepted!) And why wouldn't you be accepted? Jesus was all about forgiveness...Paul was all about moving away from the past and moving on towards the future. So I have to believe that no legit Christian ministry program would ever deny someone for a previous habit or lifestyle, especially when they're obviously trying to change or have already changed and are going to flippin' BIBLE SCHOOL. And of course, there are going to be applicants who are only applying because their parents are making them or something along those lines, but it's not like they're going to write that on their application. (If they did, maybe the school would deny them out of courtesy, or out of the "if you don't want to be here don't come" mentality...maybe.) I assume all of the questions are so they have an idea of what you've struggled with so they can better steer you if they ever see you headng towards those tendencies again...maybe? Obviously none of this really matters, and the point is that people get into Bible schools and have an oppurtunity to grow in the Lord and forever change their lives. Still, I've just always wondered. Maybe I'll ask someone at Rhema, and just maybe, they'll have an answer for me.
