You’re kidding… Dude, I am off today and you’re back with more questions. Lucky for you, I have the time. Let me run it down for you quickly. We had our evangelism week, a staff dinner, started pulling out old beat-up cars from the dirt hills, volunteered with Operation Christmas Child, started our new vocations, went to another Penn State game, made a few more Walmart runs, and now everyone has left me to be with “family” over “Thanksgiving”.

Evangelism Week

Firstly, let me explain evangelism. Evangelism is spreading the gospel. We went out twice during this week and had classes every day on how to evangelize effectively. Classes started with worship and then led into talking about the gospel and creation. It was important to understand the message before going out because otherwise what could we even say? Another point that was stressed in the classes was this: We are just a messenger delivering God’s inspired word to His people. This helped me realize there is no reason to be stressed, God wants me to go out and witness, and if He is doing all the talking all I have to do is show up. We had many encouraging conversations the first day we went out. The second day was a little more interesting. We went to a strip mall in Wyomissing and split up into groups, Aidan and I grouped together, and we all seemed to have high hopes. The first couple of stores we walked through we had a few talks in passing but could not focus it back to God. Around this time I felt a little discouraged and was starting to doubt. As I expressed this to Aidan we were coming up to a Bath and Body Works. Jokingly I said we should go in, but then I had a thought. I did not think God would use us in that store. Two teenage guys walking into a Bath and Body Works? So I said to Aidan, I do not want to limit God so let’s do it. The second we walk through the door the greeter says, “Hey what are you guys doing here?” She was nice about it but we definitely looked out of place. But since she asked I walked up to her and said, “Hey we’re just out praying for people and talking about God.” I thought it was really cool that God delivered right in that moment. I was doubting how He could use us and He showed me right away that He has all the power! We finished up in the mall and met up with the group for lunch and decided to go out again. This time to 5th Street in Reading, the 7 of us split up into 4 and 3. I was with Nolan, Caleb, and Sandra. We all had amazing opportunities to talk to people on the streets of Reading, and everyone was super open to talking and praying with us. It was so clear that God was working this whole week.

Staff Dinner

Our Thanksgiving staff dinner was on November 3rd because everyone knows Thanksgiving is really on the first Friday of November. The food was great and so was the fellowship. After the meal, we played a game called Outburst. Basically, each team gets 1 minute to guess 10 things that were on a card (Thanksgiving-themed). It was young people vs Older people. They aren’t that old (most of them) but compared to the students, you get the point. So midway through the game while we were already pretty confident in the outcome, Aidan nudged me and showed me his phone ready to play “We Are the Champions”. I nodded in agreement and Logan brought a speaker down discretely. Once the final score was tallied, Aidan played the song and I picked him up, and we celebrated as if we had won the Super Bowl. Not everyone (the losers) found it as funny as we did.

The Dirt Hills

During the second week of November, Caleb, Aidan, and I asked to use the push truck to pull out some old cars that were stuck in the woods on the CMTS property. So every night for maybe 2 hours after vocations, we would go back there and figure a way to get new cars out. We found a few hidden gems that in their prime would have been super cool. Still, they are nice and make you wonder what stories they hold. We pulled out an old Toyota Tacoma, among a few others. Some we would load up for scrap but others we would just “Toodle” with as Caleb would say. For those of you who are not 85 or Caleb, we would just mess around and run them hard until they might not run anymore.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is a product of the Samaritan’s Purse. What they do is fill shoe boxes with school supplies or toys or toothbrushes, anything they can find as well as Bible tracks, and then ship them off to kids that have never received gifts before, kids who have nothing. This is a project I had always wanted to be involved with and finally had the opportunity. Ray Pete who does the maintenance around CMTS (spoiler alert, he is my new vocational leader) asked if I would like to serve with him and his church as a drop-off point for these shoe boxes. I was immediately intrigued and also asked the guys in the dorm. From that moment we served 2 hours a day for 3 days. From making some shoeboxes to packing them into bigger boxes, and then putting boxes into a truck that would then offload somewhere else with even more shoeboxes. I was really blessed to be a part of this process and to see just some of the stuff those kids will receive. Really widened my eyes on how blessed I was as a kid to have received much more than that. I highly recommend getting in contact with your local drop-off points for next year and making a few boxes to be a part of this.

New Vocations

Logan moved to the shop, Caleb is in the Warehouse, Aidan is in the Bodyshop, and I am with Ray in maintenance. Maintenance is essentially fixing the odds and ends that fit under no real category. Sometimes we are fixing a cabinet, sometimes we are taking the bed off of Ray’s truck to get to his transmission. I used those examples because those are exactly what we have done. It has been very fun and I have already learned a lot. Especially about things that do not exist. Like Sky Hooks and Board Stretchers because Ray likes to tell stories of times either he or someone else was sent for a tool only to find out it is not real. Kinda like how you may tease a friend by telling them they need blinker fluid.

Penn State

My dad, my brother, and I went to a Penn State game on November 18th. This was quite the adventure for several reasons but it was truly a great time that I am glad I could share with my family. The first adventure was getting there. Even though I had been there before we ended up not knowing exactly where to park. This leads us to a dirt road with a hidden tunnel, which is super fun when you’re in a place with so many buses. After playing chicken we managed to get through the tunnel and find a good place to park where we threw football and I even caught a pass from a complete stranger. The walk to the stadium was not too bad at all, and it was nice being able to lead the way around the stadium from previous knowledge. Our seats were amazing and in the end, Penn State won 27-6. After the game, we went out to eat at a place nearby to wait out some of the traffic. All in all, it was a great experience and I will be doing it again next year.

Classes

I realize now that I have not talked much about our classes. We have had a class on apologetics (defending the faith) which ended in a mock courtroom where we used evidence to decide what was true, A class going through the book of Ephesians, an addictions class, and a class about biblical money management. We are still going through a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan, a class about creation, and a class about how to study the Bible. Every single class has been amazing and has provided amazing reading material, which should not be taken lightly by someone who does not like reading. I am very grateful for all the teachers taking time out of their schedules to strengthen us in our faith.

How God has worked

God has been working on me a lot since I have been here. He has called me out on pride and lust in ways I have never really thought about simply because it is a part of my old nature. A few of my friends and I have started memorizing the book of James, which is going slower than I had hoped but God is keeping me committed to the task. The dorm is thriving and we have a Bible study also in James which is proving very important in all of our lives. I have also realized I need to put more faith in God when I pray because in James it says, “Let him ask in faith for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”

Well, that’s just about it. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and remember to involve God in all that you do. Work as if unto Him!

Later,

Donovan Allen James Checket