So begins another post and another week here in Jackson and this was by far the HOTTEST week here. I'm pretty sure it was over 100 at some point every day this week which is normal for summer, but we're outside a lot so it's pretty draining. God is faithful though. This was the biggest week in Union Fuge history and they've had these here for over 20 years (I'm pretty sure) so lots of work to be done. It started off with Registration being an hour shorter than usual because Union was having orientation for incoming freshmen. (Totalfreshmove and very inconvenient) Registration actually went pretty smooth though and all the churches were here before 4 o'clock so it was awesome!
Some weeks of Bible Study are better than other weeks and honestly this one was a bit rougher for me. I had a couple children who just didn't want to be there and had to be the center of attention. God kept on encouraging me though. There was a couple moments in Bible Study where I had everyone's eye on me and I cherish these moments. There's an exercise we do called an "All Access Pass" and I ask the students if they could spend the day with any one person (deceased, famous, etc) who would it be and why. One student spoke up about their deceased grandparent and then over half of my class talked about people they were missing in their lives. This hit home for me because I think about my grandma all the time. I just encouraged them to live a life worthy of bringing that deceased person honor because I know my grandma would be proud of me working here this summer.
I had two kids approach me after class and want to talk which is like the coolest part of my day whenever they do that. I had one girl tell me how she feels led to tell her cousin who is atheist/agnostic about Christ. I was telling her some basic ways to defend her own faith and encouraging her to just love on her cousin because being an example is probably the greatest way to show God's love to the lost. Another student asked me how you determine God's voice from your own wants and that's one of the most difficult things to do as a Christian. I encouraged her to get in the Word, pray, and listen. I heard a message once that posed the question "Why do you do the things you do?" and it just really stuck out to me. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3 We have to examine the motives of our actions to determine if what we do is for our own ambition or if we're doing it for Christ. This life isn't our own. We live for something so much greater, powerful, and eternal.
Teaching choir is always such a unique experience for me because it's something that I can do but teaching it is a completely different experience. I gotta rely on God so much to teach that class because I don't know what I'm doing lol. The composer of the song ("We Are") we perform at the end of the week was actually our worship leader this week. (James Tealy) It was pretty cool to have him here this week and encouraging to hear from him as well. I also had a special needs student in choir and I just gave her a bit more attention because she needed it. I didn't really think much about it, but her adult came to my class and really appreciated my patience so it was cool to get to do that. I had a legit church group come from Virden, IL this week too! Grace Southern Baptist was excited to have me and I was excited to have them so it was fun to love on them and see how God is moving near my family in Illinois. They also left me enough food to last through the rest of the summer so that was a blessing for sure.
Well I have three more weeks left to work here in Jackson. This next week is a half week so I will have the afternoons off. I'm hoping to catch up on some sleep, get a haircut, and just get some much needed rest while I can. I don't want to let the small numbers for this week cause me to just check out though. This is my students' first week of camp and I need to get intentional with them and help them through their struggles the best I know how. I just gotta let God do His thing cuz I don't know what I'm doing half of the time haha. Bri and I have been together for 5 months now and I'm looking forward to returning home to her, my family, and friends. In the meantime, I'm ready to "Get it!!!!" as Ezra would say. (I love this staff in case you haven't noticed) Please be in prayer that we don't take this week lightly because the broken are out there and need Christ. Pray that we don't get sick because there's a lot of that going on with the lack of rest we get. Also pray that we don't overexert ourselves in the heat. God's watching over us and I'm excited for these last 3 weeks of Centrifuge!!!
In Love,
Bill Bouillon
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