Marriage Week at the Tute

Marriage Week at the Tute

Dear reader,

This week at the Kanakuk Institute we talked about marriage.  Let me start by saying that I'm glad that I'm already involved in marriage with a WOMAN who loves me even though I don't deserve that love 105% of the time. 

You see when you're wife loves you like that, you know that she's a blessing from God.  Polly is my personification of the grace that we receive as believers in Jesus Christ.  By the way the Jesus Christ guy is the one true God who came down to earth as a man to live a perfect life so that He could die as a perfect human sacrifice for the sins that you and I commit on the daily.  The only way for any human being to live eternally in Heaven is for said human to place faith in Jesus that He is who He says He is.  The reason I say "is" instead of "was" is because after He was dead and buried for three days He was resurrected back to life by the power of God.  He then ascended into Heaven via a cloud.  A bunch of folks saw him get carried off into the sky, so don't act like I'm trippin.  Oh, and the reason you can live eternally when you believe in Jesus is because in exchange for simply believing, God offers you grace for your sins and sees you through the lens of Jesus' perfect righteousness. 

Holler at that, right!  I know man, it's crazy good news.  Lots of people call it good news too.

God even goes further than grace though (as if that weren't enough).  He comes and takes control of our soul and lives within us.  How?  There is an aspect of God called the Holy Spirit.  This is the part of God that dwells here on earth in order for us to live empowered and stay connect to God.

ok, back to the marriage stuff

So I didn't ever do relationships with girls perfectly.  I actually made tons of mistakes.  One time I realized how much of a failure I had become in the area of interacting with females; so I literally asked God to shelter me and girls from myself by distancing me from them.  Well along came Polly (oh get over it) about three months after this, and I wanted to treat her like she deserved to be treated.  So I tried to treat her good.  I messed up again.  The crazy thing though is that Polly forgave me for messing up and helped me learn how to treat her better.  God even let Polly fall in love with me after awhile (I was in love with Polly after two weeks of just being her friend).  So you see, grace is this phenomenon that comes from God, and it is crazy because no matter how much you or I mess up, God continues to hang in there with us and teach us how to serve him better.  He continues to trust us even after we betray His trust. 

So you see, He trusted me with Polly and helped taught me how to do right even after I had messed up a bunch of times before. 

Thank you God! I think this blessing everyday, and I will never take her for granted because I know that I only have her because of Your lovingkindness (yep, one word. no spell check line came up).

My assignment this week is to tell you 5 new things I have learned about marriage this week that I didn't already know, and tell you 5 goals that I want to implement in my marriage.

I'm combining them.  Here we go:

0.       I learned that my own quality of life is not based on my wife being the person who I think she needs to be.  My stress level is based on how my relationship with God is.  When I trust in Him to work things together for good according to His purpose, I can be at peace.  My goal from this is that when I get stressed and life is stormy, to be still and know that Jesus is God.  I need to remind myself that I'm not the sovereign authority on anything, and taking anything out on Polly is moronic.

1.       If Polly needs to change, God will work that out with her.  Im here to love and encourage  and pray for her just like Christ's love and sacrifice for the church is continual.  I'm so dang critical, and I should have my mouth permanently gagged because I say some dumb, hurtful things to Polly sometimes.  If I were to take a second and think before I speak, I would surely realize how much of an idiot I am.  My goal is to trust God's wisdom in how to correctly love and serve Polly.  I know there is wisdom in thinking before I speak, especially when I am frustrated.

2.      Proverbs 22:4 Says that "The reward of humility and fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life."  I've got to be humble.  I've got to humble myself as a servant to Lord, to my wife, and to other people.  Mark 12:30-31 say that I must love the Lord and love my neighbors.  Humility in the marriage relationship is something that has hit me this week, and it is also my goal.

3.      I learned today that Polly has 3 doors to her heart.  The first is Logic which is opened by the Holy Spirit.  The second is Emotions.  Part of loving Polly is treating her emotions as important.  My goal is to validate her emotions by listening to her tell me about them and having empathy.  I can't easily do that.  I know that makes me sound like a jerk, but I'm being honest when I say that it is difficult for me. The third door is Spiritual.  I need to love her by participating in her walk with God.  I need to know what's going on with her, and she needs to know what's going on with me.  This takes time, and my goal is to make time.

4.      At the beginning of this week, we took spiritual gift assessments and personality assessments.  Polly and I learned that she is gifted with encouragement, and I am gifted with prophecy.  We also learned that I have a more task driven personality, and she has a more whimsical free spirited personality.  We kind of already knew the personality stuff, but the tests reiterated that it's true.  The goal from this is for us to be able to love each other better and serve God's kingdom better because we have a better understanding of who we are and what we are naturally bent to do.

Thanks for sticking it out through all that.

There are some things that convicted me, but they weren't new things.

5 new things is awesome! I have a lot to work on!

The Tute Made Me Do It

One of my personal policies for my blog is that I never force an entry.  That is to say, I do not want to put pressure on myself to come up with something to say, simply so I can  have something posted.  I have had things to say since my last entry, but I never felt compelled to say them through the medium of my blog. 

Well I am breaking my own policy out of obligation.  The obligation is not something that I am disappointed with though.  The obligation (I'm tired of saying obligation, duty would have been more fun) is this, I have to do an assignment each week while I am at the Kanakuk Institute (google it). These assignments can be in the format of an essay, a talk outline, a lesson-plan, or a blog entry.  Naturally, I chose the blog entry. 

So, are you reading my first assignment? Yes you are.  This assignment is about the Inductive Bible Study Method.

Say what?

Yeah I'm about to explain.

You think it's going to be a boring read don't you? Well shut up thinking and read it anyway.  You aren't too busy to blow this off.

The Inductive Bible Study Method is a strategic plan for studying the Bible in a way that allows the studier to understand the Word literally.  That definition sounds like I copied it off of something, but I thought it up myself.  Go me.

 

The three major areas of the IBSM are observation, interpretation, and application.

Observation is simply examining what the text says.  Some great things to look for are who, what, when, where, why, and how. You also want to keep your eye out for words and phrases that get repeated a lot.

  Interpretation is understanding what the text means.  Ok, so this is getting a little deeper.  The biggest thing you want to remember to note is the context that the text is written in.  If you pluck a single scripture out of somewhere without reading the context that verse is set in, you can't really be confident  that you know exactly what the author meant by writing that verse.  So when Paul says that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.  He is saying that whatever situation he is in (rich, poor, prison, sickness, healthy) he can serve the Lord faithfully.  If you didn't read through the context of that verse, you might think that he's saying that you could run a marathon in an hour, or flap your arms and take off in flight, or feel great after eating at Griff's / Steak n Shake.  Context is a big deal y'all.

Alright, application is applying the meaning of the text to your life.  So, this is talking about your belief and your behavior.  If you believe something, your behavior should prove that.  For instance, if I believe that the stove that I turned on 10 minutes ago is hot, I won't put my hand on it.  Also, if I read in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, my application to that is to believe in Jesus.  If I read in Mark 12:31 that I shall love my neighbor as myself, I choose to believe that I am supposed to do that.  I should apply that to my life and start loving my neighbors as myself.  Application is mostly easy to understand, yet many times it is difficult to put into practice.

So speaking of application, I have to answer the question of how the Inductive Bible Study Method applies to my life.  Well, I can start by saying that learning things like this is exactly why I wanted to come to the Institute (the reason that I actually came is that Polly made me).  I've gotten to the point in my quiet times that I've heard about most everything I read, so it is familiar.  However, I don't grasp much meaning.  The results of these quiet times are two-fold.  I don't feel like reading my Bible because I don't know what I'm reading, and I am motivated to learn how to understand what I read at a deeper level.  So learning this method of understanding the scriptures is meeting a need in my spiritual life that can help me out of neutral and into drive.

Man I have to tell you though, this Kanakuk Institute life is intense. I would say something cliche` like, "it aint for the weak and faint-hearted," but if that were the case I wouldn't be here because I'm definitely weak and faint-hearted.

If you want some more info on the Inductive Bible Study Method, holler at your boy.  andygrass100@gmail.com

I'm also a recent Twitter convert, so you can look me up at @andygrass. or not  

Sugar Free Gum and Mickey Mouse Camouflage

Back when I was like 8 or 10 or 12 years old, the Pendergrass side of my family would do some squirrell hunting in the woods in North Louisiana. I remember my grandfather always fussed at my dad about me and my brothers having "mickey mouse" hunting gear (not that our camo actually boasted the mouse man of Disney on them, but that they weren't quality threads).

That random thought has nothing to do with the main point of this blog. However, this next random thought does strangely enough have to do with this blog.

Another auxiliary memory to the actual squirrel harvesting is that my Uncle Bill would always offer me, my brothers, and my cousin a piece of the pink Sugar Free EXTRA Gum. It tasted like bubble gum, but could scarcely form any respectable bubble. To this day, if I ever see a pack of that gum, I think about squirrel hunting with my family. And if I think about squirrell hunting, a pack of pink gum often flickers through my thoughts for a brief moment.

weird right?

just one of those things I guess.

so the other day I thought about both squirrell hunting and the pink gum simultaneously like there were two screens in my mind and one side was a first person view from my junior self tramping around the woods amidst my kin. The other side was a still frame of the pink gum.

This time it was a new thought that triggered the flashback.

I was talking to Mrs. Pat (my employer) about how I had gained some encouragement from her husband earlier in the day when he talked about how he was praying for some discernment about a decision he had to make. He told me that he had reached a point when he just told God, "you know that I don't want to do the wrong thing, so I will just be at peace and wait until you show me what is right."

That was a lesson and encouragement to me because I am a hasty decision maker...even when I offer up a dutiful prayer asking for discernment I usually already have my mind made up. #hardheadedtomfoolery

So when I was talking to Mrs. Pat- I was like, "truly wanting to do His will is pressure-less if you allow yourself to be at peace and wait for His lead."

Little did I know that Mrs. Pat was packing a six-shooter loaded with spiritual wisdom bullets.

She cocks back the hammer and sweetly says, "yes, I don't even need to know where I'm going when He's leading me. I just go!"

BABOOOOOM - picture a sweet little lady in her sixties on the outside, but a righteous Doc Holliday on the inside. So that makes me Ringo. (watch Tombstone, but not around small children..or any sort of children)

So this is when I see gum and mickey mouse camo

Why?

Back when we would go hunting, we would be out near Lake Darbonne, Corney Lake, or on our hunting lease outside Minden. I had know idea where we were on a globe, in the state of Louisiana, or especially in the actual woods. If I were by myself I would have never known how to get anywhere. Even if I got out of the woods and to a road, I wouldn't have known which direction to take the road.

I was simply following wherever the people that I trusted went.

So all of this applies to my life in this way: I have felt a lot of pressure to make decisions about my future recently. Like, what am I going to do after the Kankakuk Institute? Where are Polly and I going to live? What do I want to do with my life? What can I do with my degree?

The truth is this: I will make these decisions and others when God leads me to the right things to do. I wont try to make stabs in the dark just to have answers. I trust that God will lead me where there are lots of squirrels, and if he sees fit then maybe he'll even offer me a piece of that pink sugar free gum at some point along the way.

July is Fun

Whew it is time to check in with you.

We've been so busy enjoying life that I kinda forgot that I have a blog.

I'm pretty sure that I've spent every moment since my last blog entry having a great time. That is except for when I got food poisoning on my birthday and spent the 4th of July under attack of some vile thing that was in the king crab dinner I had.

But alas, I shook back and had a great rest of the week.

We love our employers! They treat us like family. We love hanging out with them and also Mary's fam bc we get to be a part of family atmosphere (which we need in our lives).

So we hosted Scott again for the better part of a week. He and I caught some salmon. We all hiked up Mt. Roberts. Polly and I really enjoyed Scott's company.

Polly and I have been hanging out on sandy beach a lot.  I make a fire and then we only pause our reading to roast weenies or make s'mores... I also write thank you notes while out there.

It's just what I do ok.

Our friend Kelly got us free spots on a SWEET tour that involved taking a helicopter to the ice fields, landing on a glacier, and being pulled on a sled by Alaskan huskies that have done the iditarod race (google it).

 And yes I named this puppy Craig Michael Turner.

That was almost as cool as the weekend trip we just got back from. Me, Polly, Josh Garmon, Mary, David, Kelly, and Marg hopped on a float plane and flew across the ice fields to the Taku Lodge which is on the Taku River and looks out at the Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier. (oh yes, something this awesome exists).

We ate a grilled salmon feast (nature's solution to cleaning off the grill) and then took a 20minute boat ride to a guy's 60th birthday party. We got off the boat and Josh says, "where the heck are we?" which is exactly what I was thinking. So we partied with some backwoods Alaskans and then went back to the lodge to stay the night.

When we got back to Juneau on Sunday, Polly and I spent the day with Mr. Howard and Mrs. Judy Doughty. We went out to the Mendenhall with them and hiked a little bit to Nugget Falls. We were glad to get to see and hangout with them!

I'm so proud of Josh and Kyle. They have been appointed to leadership positions in the Juneau Men's Project because staff just left. Kyle is the Project Director, and Josh is the Director of Manhood Development.  They are both perfect for those positions, and project is in good hands with Kyle and Josh leading it.

Those are some legit dudes.

Speaking of legit dudes... None other than The Michael S. Plette (aka the most attractive man in the world) is set to arrive in Juneau today. I can't wait to give that dude a hug before I push him into the ocean. He doesn't know it, but we are going to make him cook gumbo at Mary's house one day this week. I cooked crawfish bisque for them last week, and it was a hit. So they want to experience more Louisiana food.

Well I'm not sure when I will blog next, but in the meantime you can find me in downtown Juneau, Alaska - where we happily break out our shorts and t-shirts on 70 degree days like today.

 I almost sweated yesterday...

I need to go to bed because it's 2am, which is actually not too far from sunrise.

But I don't want to end this entry without a shout out to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Polly and I are blessed to be living this good good lifestyle. We feel so fortunate to be able to be here with a roof over our heads and food in the fridge, not to mention getting to do all the amazing things that we are getting to do. I don't want to trip like we could've pulled this off on our own, and I don't believe in luck.

Where the Whale and the Polar Bear Run

Man I love me some John Denver

It has been quite awhile since I told you what is going on with Polly and I. So here we go...
We've gotten settled in to our apartment nicely.  After cooking with a headlamp, sleeping on camp beds, and having to look at a wall full of star wars posters for 3 weeks; we bought a nice bed off of craisglist, got our kitchen light fixed, and our wall tapestry from urban outfitters arrived to cover up yoda (I was just thankful that Jabba-the-hut wasn't on a poster).

Meanwhile.

Polly and I hiked out the the ice caves at the Mendenhall Glacier and had us a nice little pick nick.

We went kayaking with our dear friend Mary.

We built a fire on sandy beach and watched a beautiful sunset.

We hung out with Josh, Kyle, and our new friend Ann on the docks at Auk Bay

We have packaged and sold too many bars of soap to count.

We got to hangout with Scott when he came to Juneau and stayed a couple of nights with us.

And lately we've been doing some salmon fishing.

This week we have been working a lot more than usual because Mrs. Pat and Mr. Jimmie took their youth group on a mission trip to Palmer, AK.

I am looking forward to getting out into some nature more in July because we have just gotten used to our apartment and work routine.

It has been such a blessing for us to be here.  We have experienced a lot of stress relief and a nice break from lives of business and being pulled in many different directions at the same time.  Nowadays, work pulls me 6 blocks down the hill from my apartment 5 days a week, and the only other pull I feel is nature.  The good thing about nature in Alaska during the summer is that I've got an 18 hour window of time to see to it everyday.

I really really wish you (yes you, whoever you are) would come up here and experience life in Juneau with us.

To finish out this blog, I want to tell you about something that happened yesterday...

A friend of mine and Polly's stopped by the soap shop yesterday and told us about a conversation that she had with one of her co-workers.  The co-worker asked our friend, "Do you really believe all of it (the Bible)?" 

"yes"

"really?"

"yes"

"all of it?"

"yes!"


That made me smile.

So

Do you really believe all of it?

really?...All of it?

If you don't know whether you do or not, and you want to talk about it. Shoot me an email at andygrass100@gmail.com

Tyrus Lamar Pendergrass

Blog readers, I apologize for the lengthy gaps in my blogs lately. There is just so much life to live in Juneau, and we don't have our own internet in our apartment. I would love to update you on what has been going on with Polly and I, but today is a special day that calls for a special blog.

Today is June 19, 2011 - Father's Day

As I was sitting and thinking about my Dad in church this morning in Juneau at 11am, my Dad was probably at my brother Jeremy's house in Ruston, LA hanging out with Jeremy, Emery, Luke, my mom, and Emery's fam at what would be 2pm his time.

Man I really wish that I could have been there to give my Dad a hug.

I like hugging my Dad, but sometimes his glasses are hanging from around his neck and I'm afraid that they are going to break when our chests meet.

Anyway, I take my Dad for granted. Always have.

I thought about how tons of sons don't worry about breaking their Dad's glasses when they hug him because they never hug him. Some wouldn't even know their dad if he was in the same room with them. And some would rather give their dad a firm handshake and a weak smile because their relationship was never one where love was shown. Yes, some sons would probably rather take a swing at their dad than hug him.

Hugging my Dad isn't the only thing I like about him though. Oh no, I could make a huge list. So, I will just stick to the things that I like about him most.

My dad has always been available. It has been such a blessing for my whole family that my dad's job has allowed him to be available and present whenever we need him. Even though I'm willing to bet that it's not always super convenient for him. I always thought that it was awesome that he could be at all of my baseball games in high school (they began at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and he worked til 5 but he would take off). That was really cool, and he was always noticeable in the crowd because he wore a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off of his neck. I have never told him that I liked that, but I really liked it a lot.

My Dad has always pushed me to do things that are honorable, respectable, and purposeful. I can't say that I've always done those things. Actually, I don't think I could say that I've often done those things, but I probably would have never done anything that had those characteristics if my dad didn't always advise my towards them(no wonder he is good at his job). One thing that is true for as long as I can remember is that Dad has been a good role model for doing things that are honorable, respectable, and purposeful.

My Dad's love for me doesn't have a limit. He has been upset with me a lot, mad at me a lot, disappointed with me a lot. But he has never abandoned his post as a loving father. He has been patient with me a lot, prayed for me a lot, and worked things out for me a lot.

Dad has never ceased to be interested or involved in my life. He wants the best things for me and now Polly as well.

I have never ever EVER needed anything that my dad wouldn't either provide me with or help me get.

I am so thankful for my father.

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

I desire to honor my father and my mother, and I aim to do so by not departing from the way they trained me to go.

The blessing of having a father like mine should not go unnoticed by his son. There have been a bunch of times when I have not obeyed my dad and didn't listen to him. Probably every kid does his own thing sometimes (maybe not quite as much as I do), but it doesn't negate the things I have learned from Dad.

there are plenty of things that my Dad has taught me by the way he lives his life that I have chosen to follow after and duplicate in my own life.

Dad emailed me and Jeremy and Tristan the other day to thank us for something, and at the end of the email he told us that we had grown into fine men.

I cannot even express how deeply that pleased my soul.

My whole life I've heard people call me grandfather and my dad fine men. It always made me so proud to be their son and grandson.

So, for my dad to call me a fine man is not a small compliment to me. It is a huge affirmation that encourages me!

So obviously, this blog goes out to my Dad.

Thanks Dad. I love you.

God Bless America

Whewww we are glad to be back in the United States of America.

Don’t tell any Canadians you know, but I am not a fan of their country.  I don’t think Polly is too fond either. They can have their metric system.  We’ll do just fine with our miles, inches, yards, pounds, and gallons. 

Ok. Some things in Canada are cool like the Canadian Rockies and all the wildlife that tends to hangout on the Al-Can highway.

But Alaska is so much better….Ok so I’m mostly happy to be back in the US because things aren’t as expensive and I can use American dolla-dolla bills yall again.

So a quick update:  Polly and I camped out by a frozen lake last night at Summit Lake Campground along the Al-Can Highway.  I’d tell you where it is located but all I could say is the longitude and latitude.  No civilization for miles.  It was a lot of fun for us-our first campout together as married people. Oh, and it didn’t get dark until midnight.

Yesterday (Saturday) we drove the rest of the way to Skagway and stayed in the Skagway Home Hostel which still smells the same as it did two years ago….soupy

Polly and I are on the ferry from Skagway to Juneau right now! Aren’t you so excited?  We just saw Polly’s first whale!  Oh yeah, we did end up seeing tons of cool animals yesterday on the last leg of our drive.

Black Bear: 14

Elk: 8

Caribou(tay): 2

Moose: 2

Buffalo: 10

Bald Eagle: 1

Pretty cool stuff for a couple of yahoos from Louisiana.

So this afternoon/tonight we are planning on hanging out with Josh and Kyle.  Funny story, when we were leaving the hostel in Skagway this morning, we saw “Thanks from Bunkie, LA” written on the white board in the kitchen.  Definitely Josh’s handwriting.

It is so weird to be 4000 miles from home, but have some home waiting for you at your destination.

Speaking of home

When we got into Skagway and all the cruise ships were docked, I felt this odd sense of being home.  I think a combo meal of being back in the USA and seeing things that I remembered so vividly from last time made me feel that way.  Then the realization that I am home for now hit me.  Polly and I don’t have a dwelling except for the one we are moving in to on Tuesday (326 4^th Street.  Juneau, AK 99801.   mail us something).  We are our own family unit.  Wherever we go together to reside is home for us.  It’s a really different feeling than anything else I’ve felt.

I am thankful that God has brought us to this place.  I am also thankful to have a wife who had the guts to make this move with me, and we are both thankful to have families that support us like they do.

The world is smaller than you think.  Get out there and see it.