Minor Prophets Class

Yesterday in the Minor Prophets class, we studied through the book of Jonah! What an absolutely amazing book! One thing that I can really say is... the LORD really spoke! This picture here is at the beginning of the class where we stood before the LORD and worshiped Him! One of the songs that we sang was "Mighty to Save." I asked the students to stand for the time of worship so that we could really present ourselves to the LORD! Then for the next two hours we studied through Jonah. I do believe that the Lord did a mighty work of His Spirit in all of our lives! The theme of the book is really God's Love for ALL Nations! Well, if you know me, you know that I was really stirred and excited to share on the LORD sending our His people to the Nations. Now I am pretty sure that you know the story of Jonah and how he was actually the resistant prophet who did not want to do the will of the LORD, and yet by God's grace he was still used to be the mouthpiece that led to the greatest revival that has ever been recorded!
At the end of the class we stood before the LORD once again began to pray for the Nations. I do pray that the LORD would raise up these students and send them out to the nations so that all the nations would be glad in Him!
PRAISE GOD FOR WHAT HE DID AND IS DOING!

Bible College - Part 2

In Psalm 16 it says, "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places..." The Lord has completely blown us away to be here on the Bible College Campus for this season in our lives. Here is a little video put together by the bible college to give you an overview of the campus! Be Blessed

Bible College

Here is a picture from one of my old youth that came to sit in the class for the day. Thought I would share it with all of you!

Roper Family Update

Well, it has been a few weeks since our last update. There have been a few things that have taken place and so we thought that we would catch you up. For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you might know a few of these details, but for those of you who don't, this will really help you know what is going on with us.

NOAH'S INJURY

On Sunday, February 4th, right after the Superbowl had ended, we were about to sit down to eat dinner with my parents, when Noah started to run after a ball and ended up running into a table and cutting his head open pretty bad. When Rebecca saw the injury, she immediately knew that we would have to take him to the hospital and that he would need stitches. So we first headed over to the local fire department, since we live so close, just to confirm it. We then headed over to the Pomona Valley Hospital to take care of our little boy. That morning we had prayed Ephesians 2:10, which says, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We asked the Lord specifically that morning to direct our steps and to prepare us for the steps that He would have for us that day. So as we started to drive to the hospital, I specifically remembered that Rebecca had prayed those verses that morning. So we once again prayed over those verses and asked that the Lord would even use this situation for His glory. Well, we ended up being at the hospital somewhere between 4-5 hours and Noah indeed needed to get 5 staples, not stitches, in his head. Ouch! While we were in one of the waiting rooms, the Lord did open an opportunity for us to minister and pray with a mom and her son. The little boy had a fever for a few days and had not been eating. I asked if I could pray for him and within a minute of praying for him, he asked him mom if he could have something to eat. She was so shocked and amazed and that was truly an answer to our prayers for him. We were then able to give her the info for CCCH and Lord willing they will check out the church. I do have to confess that I really become frustrated with the amount of time that we had to wait, for the whole process that they performed on Noah only took about 20 minutes. 

It was amazing that He only needed them in his head for 5 days and then he was able to get them removed. The good this is that he did not even feel it when they were taking them out. He does have a scar on his head that is still healing, but it is in his hairline and so you will not see it at all. Thank you Jesus that You have healed our little boy!

NOAH'S BIRTHDAY

On Saturday, February 4th, we celebrated Noah's 3rd birthday! Out little boy is growing up so fast! We originally had the party planned for a park, but that morning it started to rain and so we decided to have it at Grandma Karen's and Papa Bruce's house. The Lord ended up blessing us with good weather throughout the party and as soon as it was over, it started to rain again. It was so great to have our family get together, as well as a few friends to celebrate the life of our little boy. As you can see in the picture, Noah sure did enjoy his birthday cupcakes. You should have seen his face light up when he saw the cupcakes. Noah loved playing with his sisters and cousins and is so thankful to have a family who loves him so dearly.

LIFE ON CAMPUS

We cannot say how thankful and blessed we are to have this opportunity to live on the bible college campus. The spring semester has officially started and there are close to 400 students this semester. It is one of their largest spring semesters in a very long time. They have around 100 first semester students alone, which is very rare for the spring. Each meal of the day, we have the opportunity to eat with the students here and to get to know them. I have really been praying for the Lord to use us as a family this semester to minister to these students. Well, it has only been a few weeks and He is already opening up doors to do that! The students love talking and playing with our kids!!! The kids are getting warmed up to a few of them are getting to know their names as well. Maybe Rebecca and I will be able to go on a date night soon, since we might have some future babysitters :). This past weekend the Lord opened an opportunity for Rebecca to sit and share with a few of the girls here on campus and encourage them. The girls shared with Rebecca how thankful they are that she spent the time to encourage them and pray with them. Needless to say, we are praying that the Lord continues to use us, as a family, to minister and encourage these students in their walks with the Lord!

MINOR PROPHETS CLASS

I am completely blown away at what the Lord is already doing in and through the minor prophets class. I am completely humbled even to be a part of it. I have 55 students enrolled in my class. When I found that out, I was completely shocked! I honestly thought that there would be 10 students in the class, especially since it is more of an elective class. On the contrary, there is a great interest in the class and many of the students have been sharing how blessed they are to be a part of it. So far we have only done the Introduction and the book of Obadiah, but I do believe that the LORD has already been speaking to us through these classes. At the end of class this past week, I had the opportunity to talk with a few of the students and really speak into their lives. So blessed and humbled!

For those of you who know me and know that I can teach for whole hour on just a verse or two or know that it took me 3 1/2 years to go through the book of Genesis.... will be shocked to know that I will need to teach through 12 books in just 13 classes. Needless to say, I am being stretched and I am really looking forward to it. I do ask that you would consider putting Thursday mornings from 8:30-10:40am on your prayer list to be praying for the students and I as we study through the minor prophets. This week we will be going through the book of Joel!

REVOlution

There is still so much more to share with you, but I will have to do that in the next update, so stay tuned. BUT, I do want to end with this event. This coming Saturday, February 25th, the Lord has opened up a door for me to preach the Gospel to 200-400 youth at a monthly outreach called REVOlution. In Ephesians 6:19 it says, "(pray) for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel," Please be praying for myself as I prepare and for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of these youth for His Word! Pray that many nonbelievers will come and hear the Gospel message and respond to it! 

We love you and are so thankful to have you praying for us and supporting us in this season!

Love the Roper Family

Prayer Please

Hello Everyone. I wanted to share with you a prayer request. This past Wednesday morning I went to the doctor's office because I really needed to. That morning, not only did I look horrible, but I felt horrible. Long story short - I have strep throat! As we were driving to the doctor's office I sent a text message to one of my friends about my situation. He then reminded me, "Let the warfare begin." What a great reminder as I am less than a week away from teaching my first class on the Minor Prophets. The students are starting to arrive here at the Bible College and I am studying away, preparing for my class. One major problem right now. I cannot really talk! Well, I can talk, but not for very long. Each of my classes are two hours long, so to say the least, I am going to need some prayer support in this area.
I am looking to the LORD in all of this and am excited to see what He is going to do!
Thank you so much for your prayers - I am going to really need them!

Following after Him

Well it has been a little bit since I last updated you and so I want to give you a little more information with what the Lord is doing with us as a family.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Katie and Aliyah are both going to school now! Aliyah is attending her kindergarten class and is loving it! For the next three weeks she will be staying another 45 minutes each day so that she can get caught up with the rest of the kids in her class. Her teacher says that she is doing great and is adapting very well. Katie just took her first test last week and got 11 out of 12 right on here spelling test. The only reason why she missed one was because she forgot to do the last one. We are so proud of her. She is also behind in her class, but is working really hard to get caught up. Rebecca is working with her after school and she is learning to read more and more every day. If she gets 100 books read by the end of the school year, she will be able to participate in a pizza party. She has only been in school for one week and already has 7 books read. So there is a lot more to go, but we believe she can do it. Please continue to be praying for the girls as they go to school on a regular basis and pray that they will be able to catch up in their schooling, so far their teachers say that they are doing a great job!

OUR LITTLE NEST

“Our Little Nest” is what we have named our one big room place that we are staying in. The place consists of a walk in closet, a little bathroom which has a shower, sink, and toilet, and then one large room where we fit a bunk bed for the girls, a single bed for Noah, and a queen size bed for Rebecca and I, a refrigerator, a table, and a two drawer dresser. Ok, we do admit that it is not big, but we are tremendously blessed to have this little nest of ours to be living in. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways! I cannot go into too much detail right now. During the morning hours Rebecca and Noah have been running errands, looking for the different things that we need to get our little nest put together and organized. My mom has helped us out so much as well and has blessed us in so many ways! Thank you mom! We are almost finished, still looking for a tall dresser that we can put in our walk in closet, but we are almost there. We have officially been living here for two weeks now. SO THANKFUL & BLESSED!

CC CONFERENCE CENTER 

  Right now the Lord has opened the door for me to volunteer with the Conference Center for a certain amount of hours per week so that we can live here. Every day I have different duties that I am involved in on the campus. Through living here, we are getting to know more and more people as each day goes by. In just a few weeks the Bible College semester will be starting and part of my responsibility will be to oversee the students in the area that they will be serving in and really seeking to disciple them during those hours. I am looking forward to this opportunity to minister and speak into the lives of these students.

Now I have got to admit, this campus is absolutely beautiful! We have been here many times in the past, attending conferences or visiting friends, but never did I ever think that we as a family would be living here. Now I know that it is only for a season, but how blessed it is to be here and to be a part of what the Lord is doing here, no matter what capacity that might mean!

CC BIBLE COLLEGE

This last section will have a lot more information in future write ups, but I have got to share with you what the LORD did last week. He opened up a door for me to be teach a class at the Bible College through the Minor Prophets. I will have to share the story another time, but how amazing is God to answer a prayer of mine on the very same day that I had prayed it. I wasn’t specifically praying to teach at the Bible College, but just putting a desire of mine before Him. Although it has been great to have these past few months off of teaching, I have honestly missed the whole process of studying God’s Word, putting together the studies, and then declaring it to His precious people. PRAISE GOD! HE IS SO GOOD!

So I will be teaching through the Minor Prophets for the spring semester here at the Bible College. That will be 12 books in just 14 classes. For those of you who know me are probably thinking, “YEAH RIGHT – Joey could never do that!” Well, I will be and it is going to be something that I will definitely covet your prayers. Any time you are thinking about us, this will definitely be an area that we ask you to be praying for. Not just for me, but also for the students that will be in the class. At this point I am not sure how many students I will have, but the LORD knows that and I will trust Him with that!

So, like I said, more to come on this…

The Goodness of our God

"I will sing to the LORD, because He has dealt bountifully with me.". Psalm 13:6

Well it has been awhile since I lasted posted on our blog. For two reasons 1) we do not always have the Internet and so we are unable to and 2) we have been really busy and so we haven't really had the time. So now that I am done with my excuses, let me share with you what the Lord has been doing.

MISSIONS CONFERENCE

 As you may know, Rebecca and I had the chance to go to the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference at the beginning of this month at the CC Conference Center in Murrieta, CA. We were so blessed to have the chance to go to our first missions conference together. I have had the chance to go to some in the past, but this time we were both able to go! Thank you grandparents for watching the kids for us!

Our desire in going to the conference was to clearly hear from the LORD on what He is calling us to do in our next steps. We know that we have some immediate steps to take  here in California, but before making those steps, we wanted to hear more clearly for our future steps as well. We will share more with you on those future steps in the future, as we are still seeking the Lord on details with that...

OUR IMMEDIATE STEPS

 These past months we have been blessed by our parents as the have so graciously hosted us and yet we knew that it was time for us to get out on our own, to get our own place, to get the kids back into school, get our own car, etc. etc. etc. While at the missions conference we were able to meet a lot of other missionaries and catch up with a few that we have met throughout the years. The was one couple in particular, Tim and Talisa Rogers, that I have helped in the past down in Brazil, that are also at a transition time in their lives and have been staying on the Bible College campus in Murrieta for the past four months or so. After talking with them a few times, they told us how they would be moving to Costa Mesa at the end of the week. After hearing a little more with what was involved in the place they stayed at on campus and after talking about it and praying over it, I decided to make the steps to see if it was a possibility for us to be able to stay in this place. So on the last night of the conference, at the end of dinner, I talked with Tim and asked him who I would need to talk to regarding this place. After hearing who it was I needed to talk to, I immediately turned to a pastor friend of mine and told him, "We need to get a hold of ____(name not necessary)_______." He then called him and connected him and I on the phone. I told him our situation and asked if it would be possible. He then told me that I would need need to get a hold of another man and relay our situation and his agreement to the situation. If I have not totally lost you in all of this, the answer came the next morning and it was, "Well, we don't have anyone lined up for the place and so you guys are totally welcome to move in as soon as you would like."

Now before I finish the story I want to share with you some verses that the Lord really spoke to us during a time of afterglow on one of the evenings and then again the following morning during our devotions.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

As we were coming to the end of the conference, we began to think of our immediate steps that were ahead of us and began to worry a little bit about those immediate steps. After surrendering it all to the Lord once again, He was so faithful to speak to us once again through His Word! He is so good to us!

So back to the story! On Monday, January 9th, we began our move to the Bible College campus in Murrieta, California. We have spent the week setting up our little place and getting all of the paperwork together to get the girls into the local public school. So, it looks like the girls will begin Kindergarten and the 1st grade classes at Alta Murrieta Elementary School on Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday. There are still a few steps that we need to finalize with the girls paperwork for the school, but they are going to let the girls begin on Tuesday morning. 

Please do be praying for the girls as they begin on Tuesday morning! 

 I will be meeting with the director of the Conference Center on Monday to see how I will be able to help out on the campus here. This will not be a paying job, but it will help us to live here on campus for free and take care of our meals as well. I will still be looking into getting a job in the near future, but one step at a time. There may be a few doors opening up for that as well, we shall see.

So there is still so much more to share with you, but I will leave you with that much for now. Please do continue to pray for us as week continue to seek the Lord in all that  He has for us in this season! Here is a picture of the kids eating breakfast on our first morning here at the campus!

2011 ---- 2012

Can you believe it? 2011 will be officially over in less than an hour. I have got to hurry up and finish this so that I can sneak out of the house and go spend some time with the Lord looking over many different cities and really present myself and my family to Him!
2011 has come and gone by so fast! I cannot believe that we are already done with this year! It went by so fast! I would have to say it was the fastest year of my life. Is that because I am getting older? Anyways, as I sit here now in SoCal in my parents home, I would have to be honest with you... this is the last place I thought I would be sitting and living at the end of this year! Last year I was bringing in the new year with our friends in Germany with snow covering the ground. Today it was around 80 degrees or more as we departed the Disney on Ice event with my family! What a difference! While I must say that I do miss my friends so much in Germany and do miss what the Lord is doing in Europe, I am very thankful to be with my family during this holiday season in this warm weather. I am thankful that the LORD is in control and is working in many new ways!



2012! What will this new year bring? I am not sure, but it is so nice to know that I know the ONE who knows it all! As most of you know, we are in a season where we are waiting on the Lord and really seeking Him as to what is next for us! We are just two days away from the missions conference that we will be attending. We are really looking forward to go and hear from the Lord and what He has in store for us! I am so thankful that He is sovereign and in complete control. Some of these last days have been hard for us, in the sense that we really want to start making decisions and start having direction from the Lord. And yet I know that I have been told time and time again to wait and not rush ahead. So as we (the Ropers) look into this new coming year, we will have our eyes upon the LORD - for where else shall we go, He alone has the words of eternal life!
I am excited to see JESUS be glorified in our lives! I am excited to enjoy Jesus with my wife and kids! I am excited to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus in a new and living way this year!

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!

Prayer: Health

Hello Everyone!
We are writing with a prayer request. Noah woke up a while ago throwing up and he has done it a few times. He is now back to sleep and everything is cleaned up.

We do want to ask you to please be praying for Noah and for all of us these next few weeks. As the missions conference is quickly approaching, I have personally been praying for health for us as a family because I know that the enemy would love to get in any way possible. So please do keep this in your prayers!

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

• quick recovery for Noah
• a peaceful night's sleep and rest for everyone
• protection for the rest of the family

Thank you all and God Bless you!

Love,
The Roper Family