Sunday, May 25, 2008

We are really bad at this...

So what has happened to the Shives in the last oh almost 6 months? Let's see... Here's some in no particular order:

Jason took Step 3, and will soon receive his score. I know he will pass! Almost a licensed physician =)

Jason has been doing Bible studies with a young man that was demon possessed!! The demon even talked to Jason during one of the first Bible studies. Jason kept thinking about the story in Acts 19 where the demon says, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Since then the young man has made some major changes in his life (especially in MUSIC!!) and has been free of possession.

We were looking to buy a house because the economy is so bad, and house prices keep falling, but God intervened and showed us he didnt want us to be tied down to Orlando with a house.

Speaking of not being tied down, we received a letter from the General Conference of SDA's stating that we had been assigned to serve in West Central Africa after Jason's residency. Janelle is very excited because she has been saying for years that they should go to a French speaking country, since God divinely orchestrated (she believes) both Shives to take French in high school and college.

Since neither of us have been to Africa, we are going to go check it out in July & August (sorry Tim & Sunny). We will be going to Ile Ife in Nigeria and Bere in Tchad. Jason is doing a month medical elective and Janelle will be doing... umm... Learning the language and cooking Afro food! Actually Ile Ife does have a nursing school, so maybe I'll be teaching some more A&P. More on this once we go.

Janelle spent 2 weeks in Loma Linda working on the ever so illusive thesis. It was all work except for Sabbaths. It was really wonderful to be back at the "other" Advent HOPE and see all my beloved friends! The very last Sabbath I was there Brad, Amber, Fanny, and myself spent the afternoon at the beach. It was beautiful and relaxing, complete with gray whales migrating and a pod of dolphins (and of course HERMIT CRABS)!






















The tide kept coming in on us, almost stranding us on some rocks, and Brad was anxiously waiting for a wave to get me while I was looking into the tide pools, but it never got me! hahaha. After sundown we began the new week with some delicious vegetarian Philipino food before they took me to LAX to fly back to my Babycakes!





The picture was taken by a lady that Fanny boldy offered 3 Christian booklets too! She was very receptive, good job Fanny!

Advent HOPE Florida is such a blessing! Our little group has seen awesome changes in the lives of the attendees. I got tears in my eyes when one Sabbath afternoon recently a group of us were sharing our testimonies and 2 different people included Advent HOPE Florida as part of their testimony of coming to know Christ!

Our small groups are going really well. From 1 original group, we have split into 5! Jason & I have one on Friday nights. We have an awesome group! I will do a whole post dedicated to our group soon. And that is just our Friday night study, then Jason has that men's one on Tues night (with the demon possessed guy), I have one on Tues night with my very sweet neighbor Norma, and I (Jason is usually there too) have one on Thurs night with an awesome lady named Estela. She is Cuban, goes to Catholic mass, but doesnt agree with everything they teach, she doesnt agree with us on everything either, but despite that she has become our adopted mother. Here we are jumping on our trampoline.
















Pray that we can keep up with all that God wants us to do here!
P.S. Janelle apologizes for switching between 1st and 3rd person. I am sure that will bother someone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To the owner of this blog, how far youve come?You were a great blogger.

Rachel and Eric Nelson said...

That was awesome! I really enjoyed catching up on your lives!