Marion and I started a class called "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement". It is a 15 week, in depth course that requires a lot of reading, studying, homework and we will be getting graded. It is a program that was developed 35 years ago to prepare missionaries and people interested in spreading God's word out to others.

We just finished the second night of class, and the second week of homework. I knew that the class was designed to give us a greater understanding of the biblical meaning of the word "missions" and what God's mission really is, what I didn't know was how personally challenging and how eye-opening the course would be.

So many people think that missionaries go out and scare people into believing / accepting Jesus, that the only reason people ever believe is so that they don't have to go to hell. However, do you really think that God just wants to scare us into loving Him? What about all the blessings He gives us (even when we don't deserve them)?...

Last month, while posting the Sunday Bulletin for the upcoming service to the OCEC website, I noticed that they were going to be holding a baptism at the beginning of 2011. I instantly thought, what a great way to kick off the year, as I had not been baptized when I was younger. But I guess I should back up and fill in the story for those that weren't in the loop...