Luke Wilsie Phillips

the pensive thinker face...just like Dad.

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Last Saturday Julia and I welcomed a new baby boy into our family.  Luke Wilsie Phillips, 7 lbs 4 oz.  After pulling an all niter at the hospital with our daughter Anna, Julia and I were determined to get to the hospital as late as possible with Luke.  When Julia started pushing we got in the car...We got to the hospital at 5:50 pm and Luke was born at 6:40...oops.

He's healthy and strong, and seems to have gotten the memo about sleeping at night and being awake during the day (yeah!)...

I think he's probably allergic to Myrrh, so just send gold and frankincense (UPS is totally unreliable with precious metals, better bring it in person)...the wise men are leaving on Sunday, once they clear out the basement is open for anyone who wants to come visit....:)

New ESBS staff member!!

Todd Livingston

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We’re proud to announce the addition of another great ESBS staff member!  Todd Livingston, a current ESBS student, will be joining our staff for next year’s program.  Todd holds a sports management degree from Texas A&M and was a youth pastor intern before enrolling as a student in this year's ESBS.  He’s got a huge heart for discipleship, a solid knowledge of the Bible and he knows every Taylor Swift song by heart.  What more can I say, we're blessed to have him in the mix.

Ron and Judy Smith in the house!

Ron and Judy Smith

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This week and next week we're excited to have Ron and Judy here guest teaching the books of Ezekiel and Daniel.  Ron and Judy started the SBS program with YWAM in the early 80's, and have been along for the ride as the SBS program has grown to around 60 schools all over the world.  They're fantastic people, incredibly encouraging to have around, and we're totally fired up to have them here.

This week during Judy's lecture series on Ezekiel she taught an hour on idols and idolatry.  It was fantastic...a must hear.  We've posted it on our audio page under "special lectures"...there are also new audio posts from the prophets to check out.

Judy's Idolatry Lecture

This year/next year etc.

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We're 7 weeks from the end of this year's program.  I can hear the cheers coming from the student dorm from here.  We have such an incredible group of people here this year.  It's easy to lead a group of all-stars like this, and I for one am going to miss this group a ton.

Interest for next year's program continues to grow.  Currently for 2011-12 we have about 15 staff/students/spouses (not including children) who are planning on being here.  We also have a solid pool of people still somewhere in the question asking/application process.  Needless to say, 2011-12 is looking like it will be a somewhat larger community than we've had in the past, and we're excited about what that will look like.

In the meantime though God isn't finished with our current community. The students here this year have achieved a level of mature, gospel centered openness with each other than I've not seen before.  I continue to maintain that there is no better way to change someone's life forever than to bring them face to face with every page of scripture in 9 months.  I'm so thankful to be a part of this program, and I hope we get to do this forever.  (we'll maybe not FOREVER, but at least for a very log time).

Tom

Ben and Julie

Ben and Julie Knopp

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Last week we were fired up to have Ben and Julie Knopp here teaching the books of Jonah and Nahum.  Ben did his SBS in Montana in 2005 and puts together a mean power point presentation.  Julie was a student here in 2007 and never stops smiling.  They're awesome people and we were so excited to have them here teaching in our program.  April/May is packed with guest teachers...which is good news for me because its almost baby time...(Julia is due May 7).

Tom