Update and room picts!

On a much more upbeat note than the last post...

Last Wednesday I moved to Colorado Springs. In case you missed my last newsletter (read it here http://www.ministryupdates.org/layton ) I returned from Serbia this summer sensing a new or redirected call on my life. Moving away from serving Christ through technology and towards direct ministry with college students.

When I told my leaders in Crusade what it seemed God was doing in my life they were excited and quickly reassigned me to the Southern Colorado team (pending completion of the new phone system). [Hence some of the angst I describe in the previous post].

Well with the phone system up to speed I was able to report to my new assignment which is based out of Colorado Springs but covers all of the campus's in Southern Colorado. The main school I will be focused on is UCCS but I'll be spending time on a number of other campus's which you will probably hear about in coming months.

Ok now onto the fun stuff - my new room. Oddly enough I started praying for my fall living situation last January when my life just started to hint at being crazy. Up until about 2 weeks before I moved I had no idea where I would live. Then God provided this neat place.

Its a room in a basement of a Christian couples house. At first that doesn't seem neat at all BUT its got big sliding glass doors so it isn't dark at all. The walls are all wood paneling. The room itself is stinking huge (I measured it to around 16X20). I fit all my furniture plus a couch and there's still a ton of room! But it gets better - it has a fireplace and built in bookshelves. I even setup a little tea nook which if you know how much I love tea you'll know I'm in heaven right now.

Ok so now for what you've been waiting for - pictures!


Fireplace!!!
Tea Nook. I tried for a closer shot of this but they all turned out blurry. But you can see I can make tea and sit on the couch and read without leaving my room. And I do every morning!

I cant wait for winter and having a fire while it snows out. Perfection!

Love YOUR enemies.

Alright so its been awhile. I'm back from Serbia/Montenegro. But I'll update you all on that in my next post (hopefully just a few minute after this one).

First I want to share quick little life lesson I learned this month. It goes something like this...

Over the summer while I was gone the phone system at the Great Plains regional office died a horrible death. At the same time we got a new Telco/ISP (phone service and Internet service provider). Since I wasn't in the U.S. when that happened the setup was all wrong to work with our network. I've probably already lost some of you so I'll avoid the technical mumbo jumbo. Summed up Jon had a minor headache on his hands when he returned to the office in August.

Not to worry just have the Telco provider make a few minor settings changes on their end and we'd be up and running in no time. And this was also a prime opportunity to setup a sweet new phone system based off of an Asterisk style pbx (more tech mumbo jumbo - just believe me when I say its sweet). Starting off in August I was actually pumped about the chaos because it meant I could finally put in place some technology that would give the office some solid footing for the future.

Then came the seeming un-ending weeks of struggling to get the Telco to make the simple requests for our network. And some difficulties in purchasing the pbx (tried several vendors before finding the right one). After calling and emailing people at the Telco everyday for 3 or more weeks I finally talked to the right person and the changes were made in around 20 minutes. It was insane. By that time my stress level had gotten through the roof and as my coworkers can attest I had started to develop a bit of an anger problem.

Then a few days after everything came together I was driving in my car still praying for God to reduce my stress level (it took awhile for me to calm back down). That was when I heard the Lord's rebuke. He brought to mind the passage about loving your enemies. And showed me how it doesn't mean what I'd thought it meant.

It doesn't just mean to love people who hate you. It means that too but it also means to love those who I chose as My enemies. It can be easy to 'love' someone who hates you - that kind of loving your enemy can come from a sense of being morally superior. But when the person you despise has no idea how much you have made them your enemy and THEY become who you 'love and pray for' that's another thing altogether.

Needless to say my stress and anger finally started to dissipate when I began to pray for everyone I had interacted with at the Telco.

Who else do I pick as my enemy that I need to begin praying for???