A really good trip home (Part 1)

It’s not over yet, I’ve still got one more day to see friends, visit the fire department, catch up on some studying and go to Moose’s Tooth. However, this trip home so far has been awesome and much needed!
--spend time with the Hawes family…check
--spend time with the Doepken family…check
--visit Dr. Perkins…check
--try to set up some 3rd and 4th year rotations…kind of check (tried, but…)
--go to the Girdwood Chapel…check
--beer with the pastor…check
--enjoy little kids and just life in general…check!!!

I love being home. It’s snowed, it’s been sunny, and I got to see real mountains again. I miss this place…I miss the kids, I miss the community, and I miss having a church family that knows everyone. One of the reoccurring comments this trip was that I need to find a church for fellowship in Yakima. It’s not that I don’t know this and haven’t been trying, but nothing seems to fit. There may be a lot of areas in my walk with Christ that still need a bunch of work and he’s still working on me; however, I feel I’ve learned to recognize the Spirit’s proddings. If I have failed at everything else in my life, this has gotten me to where I am now and I know I’m where I should be.

First term went incredibly well, better than I could have ever hoped. Second term has been more of a challenge, especially after a 6 day pain-induced insomnia stretch that led to failing 3 out of 4 tests by one point each. It was frustrating and discouraging, but I came back from it with a LOT of prayer. My grades are doing pretty well now, and have even been asked to start tutoring one of the classes. But I miss having a community. I must have tried 12 to 15 churches in Yakima, even tried to force a couple of them to work, but it’s not there. I think it may be time to go back to the Catholic church for this season. Maybe not for good, probably not, but at least at this point I may need to face the issues and stereotypes that drove me away in the first place. The church I grew up in was Catholic… we were strongly discouraged from praying to God because he was too busy and we’d just say the wrong stuff anyway. Instead we could only pray to Mary and the saints (to me this seems like worshiping them, so please someone give me another insight). We also weren’t allowed to read the bible because we were too stupid and would just misinterpret it. (I’m with Luther here) Those are the two biggest issues for me, there are other little ones as well, but I won’t drag on with those.

Over the last three years, I’ve made several Catholic friends that I highly respect and do read the bible and pray to God. They even seem to have a personal relationship with God, something I’ve only known was possible for the last 5 years. I’m starting to feel this is just another stage of journeying and maturing with God…to go back my roots and embrace what was good and true and holy, and yet be able to sift out the rest with prayer and dedication to His Word. I’d appreciate any insight and guidance from you guys…this is a really big step for me.