My Wife is AMAZING!!!

So, you guys may have recently read about how Melissa's crazy and about how she thinks that I'm the best thing since sliced bread. I thought that I would take some time to clear some things up. Be it known that I'm the one who is blessed beyond understanding. I have been studying a series of lessons by John Piper about Biblical manhood and womanhood. Piper has adopted and, throughout his life, helped develop a complementary view of the roles of manhood and womanhood in a marriage. That's complement, as a complete circle or a complete set of something, not compliment as in, "you look nice." Basically, Piper asserts that men and women are equal in the sight of God, and have been blessed in receiving unique roles as man and not woman/woman and not man. These roles do not make the man higher than the woman, rather they assist man and woman in equally completing a marriage. The man is to take primary responsibility for leading a marriage. One could argue as to how good of a job I have done at that. There is no mistake, however, that Melissa has done an incredible job of fulfilling her role of supporting me, affirming me in my leadership, praying for me in whatever I do, and in honoring me, even when I don't feel that honorable. She is gentle, kind, servant hearted, a lover of God's word and passionate for His glory. She has ministered to young women, old women, immature women, mature women, children, single moms and broken youths. She speaks the word appropriately and biblically and understands the truths in the Bible better than most of the guys I know. If I can be accredited with leading this marriage, she can be accredited with being a wife who fulfills her roles in a way that makes it hard for me to mess up. She takes seriously our calling to share the gospel through our marriage. I am not leading an immature, selfish, gossip goodie-goodie. I am leading a woman who has a broken heart for what it is that breaks God's heart. The most important thing is that she loves God more than she loves me. He truly is BEFORE ALL THINGS, and IN HIM, ALL THINGS ARE HELD TOGETHER.

She doesn't know I'm writing this, she's working on our budget.... sexy... ha ha.

I guess I should tell you guys how things are going.... We had some big events and some smaller ones.... and then... we had a day off. That was good. We did an open-mic night and we had a HUGE turnout. We were able to share the gospel there and have built significant relationships with some new students. The day after the open-mic night, Melissa decided to try to scare the mess out of me with a really bad migraine. I ended up taking her to the hospital when she spent all of Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The hospital wouldn't let me stay the night with her, so I had to go sleep by myself at the creepy old annex. Fortunately, Melissa feels much better and we were able to find a neurologist and get an appointment within a day. We're still looking into options for treating the migraines, so please pray for us. We've had a lot of suggestions..... Some of them were helpful. lol. We were unable to promote the next event, a hip-hop concert, because of our hospital fun, but God blessed it and we had a good number on non-believers there when we shared the gospel.

We're having a Thanksgiving day dinner at the student dorms for the ones who cannot go home or be with family. We will have a lot of food. Pray for this event as we often have opportunities to meet new people every time we have an event at the dorms. We cannot initiate a gospel conversation, but the students generally ask why we give them food for free, so it works out.

This will be my first Thanksgiving without my family. Good chance to practice the "leave'n'cleave" technique. We're excited about the first Thanksgiving of OUR family. I think we're going to have lasagna.... we don't want too much turkey.

We're super excited about the arrival of our newest nephew, Jonah. We've been looking at pictures every 10 minutes, but Melissa hogs the computer. It's funny to think that I'm a Godfather.... lol. Congrats to Matthew and Casey.

Melissa and I are enjoying marriage and we appreciate your prayers. We are looking forward to coming home for Christmas and seeing everyone! We love you guys!

I'll upload some Pictures from our events later!

Jay

b.t.w. Thanks for the money Zack. You're very generous/ugly.