Graduating SBS

This last week has been a whirlwind... but I have officially graduated SBS. This year was awesome getting to go through God's word. It was a blessing to see that God's plan for me is to walk in the reality of his word... to live according to his word in my life. It was also a huge blessing and an honor to get to live with such amazing people... to get to see God's word transforming their lives as he has transformed my life.

So this has been my last week just to recap before it all becomes lost and I move onto some posts about what's going on now. After turning in my last book I decided I was burnt out on staring at my computer all day every day so I've abandoned this thing for the last week... praise God!

This was my last week in SBS...

Sunday June 22 = We had our graduation dinner where each student got some words of affirmation... my three words were "passionate, generous, kind"

Wednesday June 25 = Our final exam in the morning... then a whole afternoon of playing at the lake as a school. We had a boat and got to go tubing... and also played a bunch of board games and stuff just at the lakefront. The water was still freezing but it was an awesome day of fun. That evening we had a night to reminisce about the past year and just encourage each other. A few people played some lovely songs and others just shared what God spoke to them.

Thursday June 26 = Graduation night... a lot of people's families came into town and we had a really nice formal graduation with worship and our school director Sean Ellis shared words over each of us as students. Myself and another student Hans were honored to get up before the audience and share what God had revealed to us so that was a huge honor. Sean spoke honoring words over all of us... mine were just words honoring me for my diligence in doing my work as I somehow finished top 3 in our class of 44 students. He also spoke words of encouragement to how I had spent much time in prayer for our class and was just a source of encouragement to the other students to be excellent for Christ. Yeah, his words were a great honor. That evening we had a nice reception afterwards with lots of great food... and one of the ladies who I have worked with with the youth group came to be my family... Nan. She is the mother of one of the students at the youth group in town I have worked with and she and I have led a small group for students there... so it was fun to have her come and be a blessing to me since I didn't have any family there.

Friday June 27 = One of our students, Michael Packard got married the day after we graduated so we just had an absolute blast together as most people stayed for the wedding.

So this last week was a big week of just spending time together. Now... Monday the 30th of June... most everyone has left save a few of us. This past weekend has just been one full of tears and goodbyes as many of us will likely not be seeing each other again. It is hard to say that this has been the best year of my life... mostly because I have been thoroughly blessed with some amazing years... but truly... yeah... not only because of God's word... but also because of these people... this year has been such an amazing time. I consider myself so utterly blessed for this time in my life... thank you Jesus.

(Each student got a picture from the staff to represent who they are... everyone had amazing and beautiful pictures... this was the one they chose for me... I love it!)