HSE Alumni Blog

Candace is engaged to Ben. Monica's no longer engaged to Joe. Larry's going to Africa for six weeks this summer and then continuing with his internship at Horizon. Tanya's going to Israel with JC's team. Monica B's going to africa for two weeks, I'm going for six months. Daniel's also praying about going but hasn't made a firm commitment yet. Diana M's engaged to Merek. Naomi's going somewhere across the world to work with orphans, but I don't know where and I don't know how long. Lia and John and Diana D. are all still around--somewhere, but I rarely see them (even though I live with Diana! I don't know how that works). Chris, Ryan, and Nicole are all pretty busy serving on the HSE team. And there's a bunch of other people I really neeed to get in touch with and hear how they're doing.

In a couple weeks, Dave is going to be going back to Denver, Colorado to work with one of the churches Team Roadtrip visited on their practicum. There are two ministries on his heart. First, he wants to build up a youth ministry at the church. Second, he wants to build up their outreach ministries, to improve the follow-up after individual outreach events. He is also keeping his eye open for opportunity to continue to share and speak publically about HSE, such as his testimony of what HSE has done in his life, and how God used that to bring him to where he is now in minsitry, and encourage others to attend HSE and seek out discipleship.

Dave is also looking forward to the possibility also of going back to school to get a college degree at a Christian college while he is in Colorado. Since he was formerly in the military, he has GI Bill money that would pay for most of the cost of such an education. His first classes would be in some of the important general education topics like English that would help him communicate truths about God in a scholarly, respected way and fill in some of the gaps in his previous education.

Bonus Link

Monica Brown is officially engaged to Joe Maloney!

Joe proposed to Monica on the steps of the Philedelphia Museum of Art, the same steps Rocky Balboa screamed "Adrianne!" from in Rocky I. Joe quoted Proverbs 18:22, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord" and got down on one knew and asked Monica to be his wife. She, of course, screamed yes, and started crying and dancing and jumping up and down in excitement, before Joe could exchange Monica's purity ring for an engagement ring.

The ring was Joe's Grandmother's engagement ring, so it had extra honor and sentimental value, in addition to being the most beautiful ring Monica's ever laid her eyes on. Monica was quick to give all the glory and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for this happening, knowing none of this would be possible without His unconditional grace and love.

Although they aren't certain yet what their next ministry calling will be, Monica and Joe are looking forward to living a supernatural life together, with God as their rock and foundation, not settling for mediocrity, but living to serve Jesus and Him alone, finding their strength in His word and prayer. They are both ready to make that daily choice to serve each other to the fullest in denying one's self and pouring out into the other, and face the challenges ahead such as shedding the weight of their pasts and the pollution that had brought into their hearts. Joe expressed that "as we grow closer to God each day, we will in turn grow closer to one another".

May God bless their future richly!

While the rest of our class was in HSE2, a few of our classmates went on five month mission trips with SEND Ministries. Hailey was on their Morocco team. God was really working in her heart while she was there, its quite apparent how much she's grown! The biggest lesson God was showing here was being comfortable with who God made her, not needing to impress anybody or put on an act or feel judged based on performance.

In Morocco they were invited by many families to come over for cous-cous (dinners). One way God used Hailey's gifts uniquely on the team is that she created paintings that they gave these families as thank-you gifts. Hailey smiled with excitement as she explained that she got to share with the host families the symbolic meaning of the paintings. For example, one painting was of two hands holding each other, representing how God wants to be the strength of their life.

Now that she's back in San Diego, she's going to be going to be starting classes at Palomar. She conceeded that at first she wasn't excited about the idea of going back to school, but God's totally changed her heart and now she's looking forward to starting school. Not only is it honoring her parents, who really wanted her to get a college education, but she also will be taking classes that she's genuinely interested in including english, art (painting), and world religions.

One of the hardest things Hailey anticipates in the upcoming semester is staying spiritually fed, plugged in, and focused on God, and I'm sure she'd appreciate your prayers for that! Also pray that her world religions class would not be a stumbling block to her faith and would instead give her well-informed information that will help her to minister to people of other faiths!

Bonus Link

The slogan of HSE is "world changers" and a video was shown at Graduation about how each person is going to change the world. Now that we've been discipled, we are being sent out in different directions to serve God in very different ways. Here are just a couple examples of the different directions God is calling people in.

Tanya will be serving in the prayer and encouragement ministry at Horizon. Larry will be serving with Tom Philips in Pastoral Care at Horizon. I (Jessica) will be serving in the Missions Ministry at The Rock and going on a short term missions trip to Uganda in June.

Dave will be going back to Colorado to serve with one of the ministries he worked with on his internship. One way we definitely see God's hand in this is that they have offered to help him with a lot of his needs there such as housing and transportation.

This blog will soon be hosting short stories and testimonies about what God is doing in the lives of our fellow HSE graduates.

If you would like to contribute a story email Jessica at: raebear@gmail.com