Arrived in South Carolina

I suppose there are no real good times to be gone, but at the same time, I am convinced that god has a plan and a timing in everything.

I am thrilled to hear that all is going so well back home in Twin Falls. I hear that Brad did fantastic, and that we even had a larger than normal attendance for Sunday morning. Woo Hoo!!

As expected, my schedule here in SC is rapid and full. I have been surviving on minimal sleep about 3 to 5 hours a night. Working on homework assignments. (turned in 4 just today) and constantly thinking about my family at both 1119 golden Pheasant AND 204 Eastland Drive North.

I am not too sure how often I will be able to keep an update, but I will do my best.

THINGS TO PRAY ABOUT:
- My computer is having difficulty accessing internet; This is not good since all my homework assignments are posted online. (I am currently on a lobby computer as I write.) Limited access to e-mail as well.
-Pray for my Physical Training Test on Friday October 31st. Push-ups, Sit-up, 2 Mile Run
-Pray for me to continue to lose weight. I don't have to be skinny but I do have to meet Army Standards for my age and height. (26% body fat)
-Pray for our student ministry at Eastside. Sunday School Teacher for the Youth Boys.

Blessings,

-John Martinez

Fireproof

I recall a time not too long ago when our family had just moved from New Mexico to Twin Falls, Idaho. In the excitement of transitioning into a new and fresh ministry, there were lots of details that we dealt with as they arose.

In certain cases I suppose this philosophy works OK. The problem is that with vehicle insurance this is not the best plan of attack. It is here that one must be proactive.

We came here with insurance on our vehicles from New Mexico but by the first December we lived here we allowed it lapse. Not a good thing to do.

Number 1, Idaho requires insurance. Number 2, if something happens, the cost for repairs and injuries come out of your own pocket. OUCH!

Guess what, something happened....

A few months after the insurance lapsed, we had been looking at starting a new policy and only one week after telling Shari that I wanted to get another quote because I knew we could get a better deal somewhere else, Jessica had an accident.

Alright, let me just state for the record, we were wrong. Never hunt for insurance while you don't have a current policy. This is flat out dumb. And never let a teenager with a drivers permit drive a vehicle without insurance.; Very, Very Dumb!

Long story short: we learned a multitude of lessons the hard way.

There are some types of lessons that can be learned at different points along the journey, that we can look back on and say thank you Lord for protecting us, and others we have to say: thank you Lord, for teaching us the hard lessons of life.

Had we owned an insurance policy we would be looking back at all of this in a different way. We would have been "Fireproofed" in a manner of speaking from the financial predicament we allowed ourselves to fall under. Well you get the point.

Interestingly enough, there is a movie that hits the big screen this weekend here in Twin Falls. It's called "Fireproof". It is about a fireman and his marriage that is on the rocks. One of the truths of the story is that for everyone there will come fire. Some will be prepared for the inevitable struggles, and so many others will find themselves looking back at the broken pieces, wondering what happened.

I would encourage you to take your sweetheart, or if you don't have a sweetheart, take yourself and join Pastor Paul at the Twin Cinema on Eastland and Kimberly Road this Friday night for the 7:00pm showing of Fireproof the movie.

We are all at different points along the journey; Some of us have fantastic marriage relationships, others at are at a point of calling it quits and walking away. Some perhaps are not even in a relationship at all, but this is what insurance is all about. Its called fireproofing before the fire shows up.

All in all, we payed about$2,500 out of pocket dealing with our lack of insurance, a lot more than if we would have paid through a policy. How we wish we could turn back time.

-John Martinez

Forgiveness

It is nice and neat when we can follow a formula and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we got the right answer.

I remember in elementary school when I was learning how to multiply and divide multiple numbers, it was new territory for my brain. I had to apply all those memorized times tables and I had to know how many zeros to add each time I started a new line.

Once I was done, or at least once I thought I was done I had to submit my work to the teacher and hope that my answers matched hers. But the most liberating feeling was when she taught me how to check my own work and know for sure if my answer was right before I turned it in.

No she didn't have me look at the back of the book, she told me about how to apply the opposite of what I was doing in order to check my work. If I was multiplying, all I had to do was divide my answer with one of the multipliers and see if I get the other number. as long as I did my division right, I knew I had the right answer.

When we have blown it before the Lord, one of the most natural places to start for a Christian is to seek forgiveness. But we're funny aren't we? We somehow think that God wouldn't forgive THAT sin. Or perhaps we didn't ask sincerely enough and God wasn't convinced that we really wanted to be forgiven and so He just didn't do it.

It is so liberating when we discover how to "check our work" . 1 John 1:9 says that we receive His full forgiveness if we confess. You see God is the faithful one. We forget that it was His idea in the first place to create forgiveness and offer it to us to begin with.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

So here is where I think we get nervous and start wondering if we really are forgiven. According to this verse, we are to "confess". Confession is very simply uncovering our sin before God, and calling it what God is calling it.

Felling sorry and guilty for getting caught is not confession. Confession is also not just tallying up all your wrong doings and handing God the list and saying: "Here You go God, I would like to be absolved of all these shortcomings with an emphasis on #'s 12 and 34.

Confession is not only an admitting of the offense it is also promise to God that you will not do that again.

Lets not get too technical... if you sin again after God has forgiven you, it doesn't mean that God will undo all His previous forgiving. He removes our sin as far as the East is from the West. I love how Casting Crowns puts it: "What Sin?"

But the point of the matter is simply that when we confess, He forgives.

The bonus part of the whole deal is that God makes a promise to US as well; He promises to not only forgive but to cleanse. Now that is liberating! In the words of the song, "Not because of What I've done, but because of who You are, not because of Who I am, but because of what You've done!"

-John Martinez

I VOTED TODAY!

Yup! Since I will be in Military Training at Fort Jackson during the general election, I got to vote today.

The County Courthouse Building is actually quite a bussel with early voters.

And now, along with them, I get to wear this dandy sticker.

-John

Good To Go!

I suppose I knew I would be heading back to finish up the final phases of training at Chaplain School in South Carolina, soon enough, but today I got the final piece in the puzzle and I am as they say in the Army "Good To Go".

I wll be departing on the 25th of October to Fort Jackson, SC, Chaplain School. I will graduate on December 12th and hopefully Shari will be in he audience.

My Church has been more supportive in this endeavor than I deserve. Their flexiblity as well as those individuals who are enthusiastically willing to cover my responsibilities while I am away is representative of the "family" we have come to know as Eastside Baptist Church.

You can't hide love, and you have shown it to Shari and the girls and I through your actions and support.

As always, I will maintain an active BLOG, however, I will warn you that the last half of Chaplain School is not quite as exciting as the first half where I was going through Smoke Chambers, Challenge Courses, Jumping off towers, and climbing over walls. So please don't be too disappointed if my Blogging has more to do with less.

Thank you in advance for watching out for Shari and the girls. I am sure they will appreciate your occassional dropping by and call to see how they are doing. I cannot express how much this truly means to me while I am away.

-John Martinez

Here is a video produced by ABC News about some of the things Chaplains are doing around the world. It may not be one you would let you kids watch, but it is factual.

Meanwhile, I am looking at finishing up the rest of my Chaplain School Training starting this next month and hopefully by Summer of 2009 I should, by the grace of God, be finished with the classes I am taking online. At that point I should move from being a Chaplain Candidate to serving as a Chaplain.

Through the overwhelming support of my Church, Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, I have already been able to serve the soldiers of the 116th BSTB (Brigade Special Troops Battalion) in Twin Falls.

We all hear that deployment is likely but not guaranteed. I am Ok either way. I have learned to love the ministry that God has given me to the members of Eastide and the 116th BSTB. Both have taught me so much and both are places I love to be.

I have also discovered that I don't have to go get my boots in the Arabian sands to actually minister to soldiers. The ministry to the soldiers will exist wherever the soldiers are located.

Mostly, I just bless God for the way He has revealed to me and invited me to join Him where He is at work in people lives. I love that it is God who is doing the work and changing lives and that he chooses to do it through weak vessels like me.