+Stoking the Fire

I haven’t written in here in *seven* months?!  Sheesh!

I really ought to write about how my enormous hospital debt got resolved (yes, it got resolved), but what’s moved me to write is a new friend I’ve made, a good brother.

He’s one of my students, and his name is Casey.  A freshman, 18 years old.  I started working with him a couple months ago.  He’s been a good student, sincere and willing to learn.  (Main obstacle has been making up some gaps in math, and remembering key trigonometry facts.)  But I’ve only got to actually know him personally in the last couple weeks.

It came out in conversation that we’re both Christians.  He’s grown up Baptist, but he isn’t all that familiar with Scripture – I gather his family wasn’t the most involved.  Anyway, I offered to do some Bible study with him and he agreed enthusiastically, saying he’d been feeling for some time he needed something like that.

We decided to start on Acts, as he’d never read it before. (!)  So in our first meeting, we went through Acts 1 and 2, reading it all through, then going through line by line.  During Peter’s famous sermon on Pentecost, regarding the line, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit," I mentioned, "It always makes me nervous when people say they don’t have to be baptized, because this verse is pretty clear."

Then afterward, I suggested we read slowly and quietly through the chapters again, to see what the Lord had to say into our own lives through them.  And after a few minutes, I asked him what he thought… and he said quietly, "I think the Lord is calling me to be baptized."  I had no idea he hadn’t been!

And he was serious.  He told me the next day that he’d called his pastor and set everything up for mid-June.  At that point, I went into action. 🙂  Hunted up a bunch of passages on baptism and offered to go through them with him, alongside of Acts.  He agreed enthusiastically.

He is a dream student, a positive *joy* to work with.  He is eager to learn, asking questions, pondering what he learns, trying to put it all together – and getting more and more excited about what’s coming.  I swear, if that kid gets any more "on fire" he’s going to burst into flames right before my eyes. 🙂

I’ve been cautious, as I didn’t want to screw things up the way I did with Mark…  Pushing him to grow faster than he was ready for.  But it turns out I needn’t have worried.  Casey’s desire to grow right now quite frankly outstrips anything *I* could come up with. 🙂  At last, a student who wants to learn as much as I want to teach – it’s an amazing combination.  I literally can’t even offer more time for Bible study than he is willing to do – it’s starting to be every day, as we both started getting impatient with waiting until our next scheduled session!

I love this kid SO MUCH.  He is so appreciative, so eager to learn, so in love with the Lord.  And even apart from our work together, he is a very sincere, open, enthusiastic, and vibrant person.  Fun to be around.

I might add that now he’s reached a certain critical mass of knowledge in his academic studies, he’s starting to really enjoy them too, and getting enthusiastic about our tutoring, too.  Definitely a bright point in my week.

I’d write more, but the library’s about to kick me out!