My Call pt. 3

In the previous 2 blogs I shared about how I was called into ministry and what events led up to me applying to and getting accepted to Rhema. Today I would like to share with you about my experience at Rhema. The trip to Rhema all the way to my departure.

After getting my acceptance letter from RBTC, I continued to work at Interforest and sow seed towards my Rhema adventure. Finally on August 13th, I and my folks made the 1,050 mile trek from Monaca, PA to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. This was my first time driving this far of a distance and so I was not used to sitting so long in a car(ouch!!) We made the trip a 2 day event to save us the pain, agony and tiredness. A straight shot would have been 18 hours, but that wasn't about to happen. We stopped just outside of St. Louis Missouri after driving about 12 hours, I was sore and stiff, but hey, my first cross-country trip!! We took two cars and after driving 12 hours, my dad and I felt that we needed to stop. We found a Ramada Inn just outside of St. Louis; come to find out that a Six Flags was next door, thus making the price for a room astronomical. So we got back in the cars and drive some more. We eventually found a place 5 miles down the road which was reasonable. To be honest with you, I slept so well that night.

On Sunday morning, we finally arrived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I expected to see desert and cacti, I was so wrong. It was actually green. I won't bore you with details, but let me say that I was able to get a place in the Student-housing complex across from Rhema, which was a total blessing.

Living at Student-housing was a blessing because I met so many interesting characters. Some, I wondered whether or not they were called because of how they acted. For instance, there was an egg fight in the parking lot and some of the cars were hit. I had a knock on my door and the maintenance guy, told me that I had to pay for the damages done to his car because one of the kids who threw eggs actually lived in my apartment the previous year and was friends with my room mate. I told the guy (Dale Hayashi) that I wasn't paying a dime because I didn't even know the kid or even the fact that eggs were thrown. Actually, I insulted the guy because he made me mad.......That's how I was baptized into the apartment life.

Making friends was real tough for me because of my introverted nature. I was shy and really struggled mightily, what turned all this around was just people taking me under their wing (The Hagins, Wiggins and may others) and helping me to really open up. I eventually by the time I graduated, became a social butterfly and was the go to guy at student housing. What I mean by that is that I helped people out with their roommate problems and other issues. I had roommate problems too because I didn't get a long with them. It was a combo of both of us. When you live in a one bedroom apartment, you're bound to have problems.

Anyways, I started school in September and was blown away by the amount of knowledge that the instructors had. I had classes on so many different subjects and a mountain of books to read. The key to the books is (1) Read the books for Doug Jones's class first....these were usually due by midterm (2) Read the larger books and the boring ones to get them out of the way (3) Read the smaller ones which won't take too long.

After the first week, I was thrilled about the adventure the Lord had for me. I was enjoying school and meeting many, many people. The classes were not difficult if you'd just pay attention and do what the instructor wanted.

I can remember in N.T. Literature that for midterm we were to do either the maps of Paul's missionary journeys or do a written report of his letters (Prison, Pastoral, General). The teacher stated that she was grading the maps harder because everyone does them. so being the Einstein that I am, I chose to do a report on the Prison Epistles. A few weeks later we got them back and I got an A. It wasn't a 100% A, just an A. On the paper it said, "This isn't the oder in which I taught." So what? was my response, but still it was an A. A lady did the map and she got an F because the teacher couldn't see the lines. This woman bawled and cried and wined....hehehe.
This woman said a few weeks previous that she was going to doll her paper up, I mentioned to her to be careful and just do as was instructed, she didn't listen and so she received a big, fat F. F as in failure. F as in foolish.

As she was crying, I rubbed it in and said, "I told you, you dingbat!!!" The other ladies didn't like that too much, but so what. She was eventually allowed to do it over and received a C because she was late. As I mentioned earlier, we had many, many colorful characters at Rhema; including yours truly.

We had a guy that laughed all the time and at everything. We had a guy with growths all over himself. I have an interesting story on him, but if you want to hear it, just email me....LOL

One of the memorable highlights of my first year was the Christmas Banquet. The weather that morning was around 60 degrees and nice, four hours later, the weather turned south and it was 20 degrees and snowing like crazy. I picked up my date and drove to the NRC for the banquet. I couldn't believe the weather changing that fast. Later that night after having an awesome time, we were heading to leave when we were informed, "During the Banquet, it snowed 3.5" and had freezing rain to top it off." What a lousy night, it took me almost 40 minutes to drive her to her apartment which was about 4 miles away. The drive was hairy, but I got her there safely.

During my first year, I met so many wonderful people. I made it a point to go to ORU every week to sit in the audience during "The Hour of Healing", hosted by Richard and Lindsay Roberts. I was there so much that they eventually learned my name and even asked if I wanted to help by running a camera or something. I refused only because I wanted to focus on my studies. During this time, I met the cream of the crop when it came to TV ministers. Everyone from Creflo Dollar to Jerry Savelle to Jesse Duplantis and many others. Talk about having favor!!! That's what happens to a Kings kid...

The year just flew by and before I knew it, I was finishing up my first year. I had so many interesting things happen to me and so many opportunities to prove that the Word works.

All in all, I believe that I was at Rhema at the right time. If I only knew what would happen down the road, I would have been in doubt because God had a plan and it was His timing that made the difference.

Well, this is long enough so I will stop here. Sorry to disappoint you by quitting so soon, but my creative juices are finished for now.

Be blessed,

Josh