Life Update

I have officially accepted that I will never be an avid blogger...let me try to catch you up as briefly as I can:


Fall semester ended pretty well (yes, I work with high schoolers so I still think in terms of semesters), but I was definitely ready to go visit home.  I went up to PA to be with my family for a couple weeks.  It was so good to see them all and spend lots of time.  I'm so thankful for my parents and my brother.  Although I'm not the best at talking on the phone with them, my heart wells up with affection for them that makes the distance between us frustrating at times.  It was also a great time to see a good bit of my extended family that I have not seen in at least a year (some much longer!).  Most memorable experience while home: lacing up my skates with my Pop and playing some pickup pond hockey with about 20 Amish kids in the middle of nowhere.  All in all, great and restful time with family and friends while home!

From January 3-7 I was staying in Charlotte with Stewart Neely and his family.  Stewart and I, as well as Margaret Lee, all took a week intensive seminary course at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte.  The class was Acts/Romans, and was definitely one of my favorite experiences thus far in my internship.  It was so overwhelmingly fruitful to spend a week studying and learning the books of Acts and Romans with a handful of brothers and sisters!  I love learning, and I especially love learning when the subject is the word of God and how we can know Him!  Outside of class I got to know Stewart and his seminary buddies pretty well and really get a feel for the culture at RTS Charlotte.  I also had the opportunity to grab lunch with our professor and fire loads of questions at him as well as grab lunch with the Dean of Student Development Rod Culbertson.  What a sweet time it was in Charlotte to soak up the Word as well as wisdom from many men and women around me.  I left Charlotte really feeling like I squeezed every ounce I could out of my time there, and the Lord has been using it to teach and guide me since then.

Things in Wilmington have been interesting since then.  Although the lectures for the Acts/Romans class ended when I left Charlotte, I still had an exam to take and paper to write.  Add this to two jobs and things begin feeling a little overwhelming.  I am thankful for the grace I was given by Christ Community staff in allowing me to really focus on this monster of an exam/paper.  If you know anyone who is taking seminary classes in their "spare time," slowly working toward a degree while holding a job and managing a household, stop and encourage them.  I had a hard enough time, and one of my jobs basically allowed me to forego all responsibilities but working on my coursework.

The content of this class has really been continuously reverberating in my life.  We started up the small group I lead for high school guys again, and we are going through the book of Acts with a focus on what Acts teaches us about evangelism and the importance of the word of God within it.  In my community group and other conversations, I continuously find understanding of Scripture and life by recalling what Romans has taught me about my need for God, and how He has met my need for Him through His Son, and how He continues to meet my needs through His Spirit.  I will also be teaching the Adult Sunday School Class for the month of June, likely on the topic of evangelism in Acts (so pumped for this learning experience!).

Finally, my experience in Charlotte really felt like the Lord was prompting me to move forward in pursuing seminary.  I have applied to several seminaries, and am in the process of visiting them to decide where I feel called.  In two weeks I will visit Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO.  That will be wonderful both to see and meet many people connected to that seminary, and to see my friends the Gayle's who are currently living there!  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to visit Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando sometime in March or April.

Although I feel the call, a big question is how I will financially make it through seminary.  Part of my visits is to practically sit down with a financial aid counselor and see what kind of aid I am eligible for.  Because of my educational debt, I will postpone attending seminary until I can gain enough financial support from seminaries, the church, and elsewhere to responsibly make such a big financial decision.  I do sense the call to ministry, and trust God will provide for His will to be done.  Whether that is at a seminary, in Wilmington, in international missions, or anywhere else come Fall 2011, only He knows for now!

I will continue to update you on my coming plans.  Please be praying for these finances to come through to enable me to attend seminary, but above all that God's will would be done in my life.

Thanks for supporting me in many different ways!  I am so thankful for you all, and would love to hear from you!  Feel free to email me updates on your life, questions, concerns, prayer requests to jason.m.pogue@gmail.com.

Just in case you were wondering what I do when my host family is out of the house.

Things Coming Up:

February
Visit Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis
Discussing possible international missions work for this summer

March
Visit RTS Orlando?
High School Jr/Sr Backpacking Trip

April
Gospel Coalition National Conference - Chicago
High School Spiritual Disciplines Retreat - teaching meditation