Portland

I am in Portland now. For those who haven't followed my life recently, I was going to go to Columbia International University, but I changed my mind a month-ish ago. I decided to attend Multnomah University (formerly Multnomah Bible School). So lo and behold, after a lot of scrambling around getting papers signed, resigned, lost, found, lost again then finally sent. I got accepted. By God's great hand I am sitting in my room after a day of orientation and hanging out in downtown Portland. Oh, I am studying Intercultural Studies and the Bible... (Double major).  

I like it down here a lot. I feel somewhat intimidated though. Having gone to a community college for two years, then spending a year in Sweden doing not a whole lot of scholarly work. We'll see what happens when my first paper comes in. I love the dorm life already, it is so much fun. Met some solid guys. And no, I haven't met a girl yet (well, I have met girls, but not a girl I am interested in). I am not really looking either. Just so you know. But if God wants to "inconvenience" my life with a wonderful young woman, I guess I could roll with that.  

Downtown is nice. We went to Waterfront park, and watched Chris Tomlin play. It was neat. I sometimes don't like events like this though. But that would be a lot of typing. Maybe I will write a paper on it.  

What else... Oh! I got a Macbook. This is really fun. I like it a lot right now. Apple gave me a good deal too. I got the 'Book and got a free HP printer and a free 8 gig iPod touch. Yay materialism. I still struggle with the purchase, couldn't the one grand gone somewhere else? Probably. Did I need a Mac? Hmm. The computer will last me a long time, so I suppose it was a good investment.  

God is good. His promises are steadfast. I enjoy life with Christ. The more I walk with Him, the more I realize it is not a process of self improvement like our culture likes, but a process of self denial (denying myself and turning to Christ), our culture doesn't like that.  

Goodnight. Nate

What a break! God is so good, I was continually amazed at how good God was even in the little things. I was blessed every single corner I went around. This is definitely a life experience.

I’ll start at the beginning, I started my journey with Dustin S. from B.C. Canada, Joe V. from Nebraska and Emily D. from B.C. Canada. We got out to Gothenburg a city on the west coast of Sweden, which is not nearly as nice as Stockholm which I spent 4 days in November. We looked around the city and enjoyed some dinner and being away from the school (our first night of freedom!) We met some people at our hostel from Australia and the States and had some fun conversations with them. The next day we walked around a little while and then got on our plane to go to Dublin, once in Dublin we immediately jumped on a bus to Belfast in Northern Ireland.

We got there and Arietta (Joe’s friend) picked us up and we walked to her house. Joe, Dustin and I stayed a few blocks away at the YWAM offices which is a parsonage to an old Presbyterian cathedral. It was a very cool building, in a bit of disrepair (leaking sinks and shelves). After a good nights sleep the fantastic four jumped on a bus to the coast of Ireland where we saw the coast, and something called Giant’s Causeway, it was very pretty there. After that Dustin and I walked around Belfast at night (I love to see cities at night). It is a very nice city at night too.

The next few days involved seeing the city and going to various church services leading up to Christmas. Christmas day after church we served lunch to people who didn’t have homes or a place to have a Christmas meal. It was a very cool time, I was able to share the gospel with one man and hopefully the love of Christ was evident in my life. The next day I got on a bus early morning down to Dublin and then got on a plane to Germany (Stuttgart).

A fellow student Lisa and her boyfriend Lorenz were there to pick me up and we went to a village called Kirchheim Teck, a nice little place of about 4000 people I believe. The next few days involved meeting friend’s of Lisa’s and hanging out with her family too. The Stark family (my host family) was very hospitable to me, I had a nice bed and always a full stomach. The German food is very delicious! For New Years (Silvester as they call it there) a few other Holsby Brunn students in the area came over to Lisa’s house and some of Lisa’s friends and I hung out all night, had homemade pizza and chocolate fondue. After one more day of hanging out in Germany I jumped on a train to Switzerland.

After a very beautiful ride through the German countryside I made it to a small town near the German/Swiss border called Steckborn. Here another fellow student named Barbara, her parents were waiting at the station for me. Barbara was feeling very ill that day. And they speak hardly any English, and I have learned a bit of German (I speak more German than they speak English I speak very basic German [how are you? How did you sleep? Can you please pass the___? And a few other phrases and words]) So with their tiny bit of English and my limited German and a LOT of hand motions we had somewhat of a conversation. We got to the house, the village called Hinder-Homburg that has about 25-30 houses in it, right on the edge of the Swiss Alps. That evening we hung out at the house and I enjoyed a typical European meal called Raquelette which is potatoes, ham, corn and you melt a special cheese in a small pan and put it on top. As they say in German: Das ist sehr gut (That is very good)!

The next day we went to an old town on the German-Swiss border called Stein-am-Rhein, it was a very pretty city, that evening we went to Barbara’s home fellowship group, it was fun to meet her friends there. I was far more interested in meeting the people than seeing the sights that I saw. The next morning I got on a train to head towards Italy. It was exciting to ride through the Swiss Alps, I missed the mountains so much,
Sweden is nice, but lacks the mountains. I was sad that I was not able to go skiing there.

Once I arrived in Italy my friend (also fellow student at Holsby) Davide, was there to pick me up. We got on the subway and went to his church, where we dropped off my stuff and walked to a coffee shop down the road. You get a very small cup (about 1.5 ounces) filled with very strong coffee, so different from what many North Americans are used to. I believe that I enjoyed it more than ours. After a prayer service in Italian I met Davide’s family and we went to there house a bit outside of central Milan. After a brief dinner (Italians have their dinner at 8 or 9 in the evening) we played some card games and went to bed. The next day we went to Central Milan and walked around the shops saw all the expensive stores like Gucci and even walked around one, however I was somewhat disgusted, how can people say that God is unjust in allowing children to starve and then turn around and buy a purse for $2500 (that was actually a mid-range priced purse). That day I was challenged to look at my own life and how I spend the money that the Lord gives me. I challenge each one of you to do that too. The next day we went to church and had some real Italian pizza (which is just as they claim, the best pizza) then we went Ice Skating, which is a pretty popular thing in Italy. After that we got prepared for our train to Rome which left at 11:30 that night. So after packing we got on the train.

It was somewhat of a restless ride, night trains really aren’t that comfortable, I probably slept 3 or 4 hours the whole night. We arrived in Rome at 7:00 am, where we immediately embarked on our journey through Rome. First we got some breakfast and headed through the streets towards the Vatican City and the Pope’s palace (whatever it is called) we saw the square that the pope speaks at and then we got to have lunch with him =). After a bit of time in that area we walked across the city to the ruins where the coliseum is and walked around there for a bit, what a neat area. It was fun to wonder about the original Christian church in Rome, and Paul’s imprisonment there (we saw the prison), it was also neat because I had just finished going through Paul’s letter to the Roman church in my personal devotional time, so it made it all the more real. Rome was not just a mythological place, but a real place with stone buildings and people living there! After the ruins we went to the Palace and watched a changing of the guards ceremony, it was a very special one, there were probably 60 horsemen, some were in a marching band playing patriotic songs and the national anthem, others were the guards and the carriers of the flags. It was a cool time. Then we worked our way to the train station and got on a train to Florence at about 5:00pm, needless to say it was far too short a time in Rome, but it was still fun to go there.

At Florence Davide’s friend Luise was there to pick us up and we went to her house a few minutes away where we had some pasta and drinks, Luise’s roommate, Nicole was from Portland and came over to Italy a few years back with Campus Crusade For Christ and Luise works for them too, so it was fun to talk with both of them about that. Luise had also been a student at Bodenseehof, the Torchbearers school in Germany. Then we went to bed and slept very soundly on real beds, it was nice not sleeping in a train. The next morning we said our thanks and walked out to see Florence, which is a very nice little city. This is where the famous statue of the naked David is, which we did not see because it cost $20 to get in to see it (we are travelers on a budget!) We did see some models of him though. We walked around the city, it was very beautiful, the weather was wonderful probably 60-65 degrees in the sun. We hiked up to a hill the looks out over the city and enjoyed our views from there. Then we caught a train back to Milan.

The next day we basically hung out, relaxed, and I packed up and left that night for Sweden! After a non-eventful flight I arrived at a small airport an hour south of Stockholm at 11:30 pm hoping I would have a place to sleep, and somehow the airport was open all night long (it was so small I was surprised, I’ve seen bigger airports close at night) So I tried to sleep on the floor there, that was relatively unsuccessful, so after a long night I hitched a ride on a train back to Holsby Brunn. And Sweden was never more welcoming, it was nice that even though I still don’t understand Swedish it was familiar compared to Italian, so it felt familiar! I even got to see a sunrise on my first day back.

Not only did I have a nice time seeing Europe. I came out from this time changed too. God did substantial work in my life even away from school. I was challenged by a biography of Keith Green called No Compromise, I was called to my knees in repentance several times for certain things and compromises I have made in my life. A little sermon we heard before we left was that reading and studying the Word of God was dangerous because it is living, active and energetic. You will be changed by it when you study it. And in my studies over break on Romans and 1 Corinthians I was changed and my heart was continually transformed into hopefully and better image of Christ our Lord.

Now may the Lord bless you and go with you this year. Thank you for your prayer and support. God bless you all.

Nathan Kellogg

Everything

Well, how do I sum up everything that has happened in the last month.

I am in Sweden now, for those just tuning into my blog. I have now been here a month, which is absolutely insane. I am already a ninth of the way through my school year.

Alright, now for the nitty gritty: We have lecture four days a week and there are five hour long lectures each day, three in the morning and two at night. We have our afternoons free, where we study, play soccer, practice in our worship teams or go on various outreaches to the surrounding community.

The study load is not bad. However there is work to do, over the course of the year we will have read through the entire Bible. Every week we memorize two passages. There are a few book reports to do (not big ones, just one page reactions to the book). And various other smaller assignments.

The lectures are so rich. This week we have a guy name Peter Reid from Bodenseehoff, the torchbearers school in Germany. The title of his lecture is The Blessings of having nothing. And wow, we've only had one hour of real lecture (the first hour was his introduction then the third was talking about an all school outreach we are doing in December), just in that one hour I have learned so much. I am going to invest in buying a copy of all his lectures this week, they are amazing. Just as a highlight, it is about finding our sufficiency in Christ, and finding our need for Him.

The food here is very good. I have not had a single meal that I have disliked. There are some meals that I like more than others though. And the candy here isn't too bad either, I eat German chocolate though, because it is better. I did have swedish pancakes the other night at a staff member's house, and those were amazing, with different homemade jam. So good.

There are about 60 students here, 22 guys and 40-something girls.

The weather here is fine, it was sunny for a few days, now it's just been chilly and overcast. I look forward to the snow. In the winter we have four hours of daylight which is not that much.

All in all, my time here has changed my life already. The friendships I have made here are deep and genuine. Being in the Word so much you can't help but be changed by the power of Christ.

I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and for those at the school as the school year continues.

How are things going for everyone else?

Blessings,
Nathan

PS. if you want to mail me something:
Nathan Kellogg
Fackelbärarna,
Brunnsvägen 31
570 15 Holsby Brunn
Sweden

Today I met a guy named Johan from Sweden, he went to the torchbearers school in Colorado with a friend of mine. So she had told him about me, and given him my information, so we met today (not on purpose he just kind of showed up at the school). He lives in a city about an hour and a half away and said I could come stay at his place for a while if I wanted to and he would show me around. So if the YWAM base (where some missionaries I know are staying at) falls through I may end up going there, and stay at the Base on my christmas break. It's amazing how the Lord is working this whole ordeal out for me. Also the RA Dan wants to travel with me on Christmas break so we may go to Denmark and a few other places. I am excited.

The guest speaker this week is Chris Thomas, the founder of Torchbearers' Son. We heard about the history of the school this morning and it was really cool. I knew quite a bit of it from Greg up at the homestead but quite a bit of it is new. I loved hearing the stories. He will be going through 1st and 2nd Peter this week, which should be really neat. Next week he is going to Germany where another one of my friends is at, which I found pretty neat.

Today we have our first worship practice, it sounds like I am the worship leader for one team. We have two teams, the other leader is Jonathan from Germany (whose house I may stay at for Christmas break for a few days too). So I am excited to see where the Lord will take us this year.

I am signed up for a ministry where we go and work at a Cafe or just hang out with kids on Saturday nights, it's a place for kids to get off the streets and have good clean fun. I am really excited to see what that will be like.

The days here are getting shorter and shorter too, this morning the sun was just coming up at 7:15 when I woke up. By the shortest day it will come up at 11:00! And then it will set at about 3:30. I can't even imagine that yet.

The weather is very similar to Washington right now. Except it's been sunny for the last three or four days, which has been wonderful. Saturday I went for a 5.5 hour Canoe trip. It was so beautiful. I'll send some pictures later on. I have to go to worship practice now.

Love you guys,
Nathan

The summer is winding down and my travel preparations are winding up. As the time of departure draws nearer I find more and more that I am unprepared. I don’t know if I will be prepared until I sit down on my plane seat. As I seek the Lord out as to where He is leading me I find that when I am in His will, and following His call on my life things begin to line up. All of my concerns, funding for school, student visas, plane tickets and different loose ends, every single concern has been taken care of. I am at the point where I am ready to step onto that plane and set off to Sweden, and none of this is on my own accord. I am continually reminded of God’s character, the God of provision. In Zechariah the Lord gives His promise to us:

Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.

The more I learn of God and His character I am captured by hope, not a “Gee I sure hope things go well for me!” But rather, a knowledge and trust in the goodness of our Lord. A hope in God’s promise saying “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” On a daily basis I am reminded of the Lord’s goodness and loving-kindness.

I leave for Sweden the 18^th of September at about noon, my studies begin the 21^st. Throughout the course of the year I will be in an intensive study of the word of God. I will have a break in December for a bit, and then in late March I will have another break. Here I will hopefully take the chance and travel around Europe, however I am hoping for an opportunity to serve an ongoing ministry on one of those breaks. I come home in the early part of June 2008.

For those wondering what I will be doing after I come home from Sweden, I plan on attending Western Washington University up in Bellingham to finish out my degree in Cultural Anthropology. With this major I will have a deeper understanding of how to effectively work in other cultures. While I don’t know specifically what I want to do after this I know I will be working in other countries after my studies. Maybe as a relief worker, teaching English in a university, I don’t know where the Lord will take me. But wherever He leads me I will follow Him, and hopefully His light will shine out of me.

As I continue my journey, away from home for the next nine months, keep me in your prayers. Don’t be afraid to shoot me an email from time to time, I would love to hear from anyone and everyone. May the Lord bless you and go with you! Thanks for your love and support.

Love with all my heart,

Nathan Kellogg,

I believe that the body of Christ (the church) has wandered too far away, we are too much on the line of being man pleasers and trying to bring people in. Yes, there are times for elementary principles to be taught, but I think church needs to be a time of encouragement, and growth, where truth, God's word is taught. I think in a lot of churches we cross the line of being of the world rather than just in it.

Keep in mind, there are some absolutely amazing churches out there, but I think a lot of churches are on the wrong track. The evil one is subtle, and may have the appearance of a shining angel, but his ways are wrong, and I believe too many people in the body of Christ are giving into his seduction.

Bottom line: God's word aka the Bible NEEDS to be taught in the church today, NOT good morals or good living.

I Timothy 4:6-16 (NASB)
A Good Minister's Discipline
6In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. 7But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
8for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
9It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance.
10For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
11Prescribe and teach these things.
12Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
13Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
14Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.
15Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
16Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

Verse 8 is really where I see it, bodily discipline is of little profit, the context is how Timothy is to teach, no? The whole chapter deals with how a minister is to go about teaching. So, teaching good morals (bodily discipline) is of little profit, rather teach godliness! How do we teach godliness, well, I believe there's a good book, it's called the Bible, it is the word of God! That is where minister's should be teaching from. I'm not saying good morals should not be taught, because that is part of godliness, but, good morals should not be taught to believers outside of the word of God, otherwise there is a chance a half truth may be mixed in there.

As a side note, people use verse 12 out of context a lot. I think it's funny, I've seen it done, Timothy, from this verse, sounds like he is young, and Paul is charging him to be straightforward, to persevere in teaching truth, regardless of his age.

May the Lord speak His truth to each one of you, and may you teach truth to those around you.

That's different

My truck got broken into, in my driveway. The thief/thieves took the removable faceplate control panel deal on my CD player, but not the whole deck. So that sucks. Hopefully I can buy that from JVC without having to buy a new deck.

They didn't take anything else, that I can see. But they definitely went through my truck looking for things of value. It's kind of funny, because I have about $300 worth of tools in my truck, and not one of them was missing. I am pretty sure the thief was an idiot. Oh well. It's just money, right? *flops arms* I am kind of really mad. But oh well.

I am going to Dare 2 Share this weekend. I am pretty excited about this. Actually, I am very excited about it.

Finals next week. Spring break next one. Spring quarter begins the next quarter. Then ten weeks and I am a graduate of highschool! YES!

There are things I want to move on from in this life, and yet part of me is fighting to its death to not move on. Why am I wasting my time with this kind of thing? But is is really a waste of time? Is all the bouncing around worth it?

That was really vague. If anyone knows anything about my life, you will know what I am talking about. But I haven't really talked to a whole lot of people about it.

I found a new artist I really like, his name is Jonathan Coulton, he is hilarious. But his music is amazing.

It's funny. I am kind of just pouring thoughts out randomly. But as I have gotten older, I have gotten more and more conservative. In the way I act around people, especially dealing with girls. I pretty much do not have physical touch with girls other than a side hug. A few years back, I was all about the big bear hugs. Hmm. I was retarded then.

I used to hate hymns. Now, I have come to greatly dislike a lot of non-hymn "worship" music. So much truth is in the hymns. So much Biblical meat. In worship songs today, it is all about how we feel. And yes, we are humans, we have feelings, but really, worship is not about how God makes us feel (like being wrapped up in a warm electric heated blanket!) worship is not about showing how good of a singer/musician I am (hence the 20 minute guitar solos I always have in worship sets). Don't get me wrong, I love to hear good music in worship sets, but, it is not a concert, it is a worship service (and a worship God service, not a worship the guitarist service). Hymns are so honest. They are so deep. They cause me to sit down and think "God has been faithful" "Christ is my solid rock" And all of these things cause me to thank Him for what He has done. This is worship. Worship is not getting an emotional high, I have had more amazing times of worship where I am just sitting there pondering the words being sung in a hymn, than I have in a room filled with thousands of teenagers singing "All I want is you! All I want is you" Repeat about infinity times.

As a musician, I must be careful, because it is not the music that should be driving the emotions of the people (as I believe happens so often in large conferences with major artists involved), I believe that if the Lord chooses to move, then He will move, regardless of how "powerful" the music is.

Anyways, back to the hymns, don't get me wrong, I love some of the newer P&W music, but I also think there is a lot of fluff that absolutely should not be played in a worship setting, but is being played.

I think worship music needs to speak truth, absolute Biblical truth. I think worship music needs to be simple, so that the emotions are driven by God, not music. I think worship music MUST ascribe greatness and thanks to God, if it is doing neither, then it does not belong in a congregational worship setting.

Boy. I could write a book on this subject. Maybe one day I will. Or maybe not.

Go in peace to love and to serve
Let your ears ring long with what you’ve heard
And may the bread on your tongue
Leave a trail of crumbs
To lead the hungry back to the place that you are from