All is peachy in Petersburg

So I am starting to realize that I am not a very disciplined blogger. It has been over a week since the last post, and a lot has happened here in Petersburg with the Martins and God has been showing up in a big way! First, I had my big Physical Fitness (PT) Test last Thursday which I had been worrying about for probably the last 3 months. Physical fitness is a big deal in the Army and especially for Officers, and doing well on this test goes a long way towards making a good first impression and demonstrating good leadership. Knowing that this would be one of the first things I would have to do here at BOLC, I had been working out fairly consistently this summer to ensure that I was in good shape. But I can honestly say that I was not working out as  often or as intensely as I could have. So I was a bit worried going in to it and not sure of how I would perform. Waiting in line getting ready to begin the test at zero-dark-thirty ( Army slang for being awake at an insanely early hour) I asked God to help me to praise Him and bring Him glory no matter what the outcome of the test was. I literally had no idea how I would do, but was really trying to focus on praising God even if I failed. He gave me a sense of peace about it, and I began the test just trying to do the best that I could. I truely believe that He must have given me some sort of miraculous strength and energy that morning because I ended up scoring the highest I have ever done! In the 4 years that I have been in ROTC doing monthly PT tests, I have never scored over a 250 out of 300 possible points. I did 68 push-ups, 78 sit-ups, and ran a 14:30 2 mile, and got a 271/300. I literally have never done that many sit-ups or push-ups before, and can totally attest that performance to the power of God. Praise Him!

That same day, God answered another prayer that Sarah and I have both been praying, and that is that I would find a fellow brother in Christ in my class. I stumbled in to a conversation about guns with a guy in my class, and eventually I asked him where he went to school. He said he went to Liberty (which immediately got me excited) and so I asked him why he decided to go there. He told me that he chose the school because he really liked the Christian faith and values that the school has and that he wanted to be in a school that shared his faith. Wow! God just smacked me in the face and said you are welcome. I was so overjoyed. It even turns out that he is married, and Sarah and I have begun hanging out him him and his wife. It is such a blessing to have found them, and we are really excited to have a Christian couple to build a friendship with down here.

This weekend, Sarah and I made a spur of the moment decision and decided to go with a good friend of ours, Joe Shenk, to help out at the Rockbridge Younglife camp for a men's retreat. We spent Saturday running a high ropes course for the men, and Sunday helping to build log benches for the camp. I spent the majority of the day Saturday 50 feet off the ground helping the men transfer between a section of the ropes course and a zipline, while Sarah kept to the ground and helped them get off the giant swing which marked the end of the course. We met a bunch of really cool men; some who were terrified of being that high off the ground and literally clung to me and made me push them off on the zipline. and a man who had lost his leg last year in a hunting accident and did the whole course with a prosthetic leg! I was blown away by his courage, and was in awe of his perseverance to not let his injury slow him down. God always end up touching my heart in some way when I make the decision to go serve in His name!

Well, there is much more I could write about, but this post has already gotten long and my tummy is telling me that it is time to eat. Stay tuned for more stories from the Martins!