All Campus Retreat 2008

This weekend was a ton of fun. On Friday night we left campus around 4:30 and headed up to Big Bear for the All Campus Retreat. We had the privilege of hearing three talks from Pastor Mike Schout from Zion URC in Ripon, CA (I was pretty excited when I heard him pronounce almond amand). He spoke on this year’s theme, Not Our Own, and theme verse 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 which says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” His talks were very challenging and made me think a lot about how I chose to live my life. I could probably go on and on, about all that he talked about, but I think it would be the longest blog entry in history if I did, so I will spare you all.

On Friday night after dinner, worship and talk #1 from Pastor Schout, we played some games. The first one we had to pass a banana to our teammates(CARE group members) by using only our feet. Then the last person had to eat the banana. It ended up being quite an interesting game. The second game everyone had a chair and sat in a circle. One person stood in the middle and said something along the lines of, “I’ve never been on a plane.” Then everyone that has never been on a plane has to get up and find a new chair. There is always one person that won’t have a chair and has to say something new. It was a great way to get to know more about people. We ended up playing the game for like 2 ½ hours. After the game a bunch of us went down these tepees that the camp has and laid under the stars. Throughout about an hour span we saw about 10 shooting stars. It was so pretty.

Saturday morning we all got up around 9 and headed to breakfast. The weather was simply gorgeous the entire day. Throughout the day we played games and listened to two more talks from Pastor Schout. We left after dinner that evening.

Here is a link to pictures on my facebook if you want to see more from this weekend.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8231&l=45b4b&id=1051860014

Why go to church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.(or Saturday)'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'

This started a real controversy in the'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals But I do know this.. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!' When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

Frustration & Stress--An Everyday Thing

This week has been one of extreme frustration, stress, and a lot of studying. My week began with a Bible test, a paper due in Developmental Psychology, and a quiz in Spanish. Wednesday I had to give a 5 minute speech and take a quiz in Communications. Today I had an English paper due, and tomorrow I have a Communications test!! I am glad that the worse of the week is over and am looking forward to a fun weekend.

There are many days that I wake up and feel like all I want to do is crawl back into bed and just sleep all day. I have been pretty homesick lately and wish that I could be with my family…or to go to South Carolina. I miss my Aunt Kristina and Lily, Marielle, and Paisley. I hate that they are so far away and that I don’t know when I will see them next.

Most days I find myself stuck in doubt and frustration not knowing what I am supposed to do or say. God has surely been testing my patience and my commitment the past few weeks. I have spent a lot of time in prayer and in my Bible trying to figure out what God is trying to teach me.

Tomorrow (Friday) I leave to go up to Big Bear for the All Campus Retreat. This is a great weekend to get to know people better without the stresses of homework and the world around us. All of us (students) are split up into CARE (Covenant, Accountability, Responsibility, Encouragement) groups. We meet with our groups every other week during chapel. I love CARE groups!! It is an awesome time of fellowship and prayer with other students. Part of the retreat is a bunch of games where the different CARE groups compete against each other. Each group is given a color to wear. It’s a fun way to have some friendly competition and group bonding time. I will be writing a blog when I get back from the retreat about all that happens.

Round Two

Summer just flew by and now I am back into the swing of things of college life. Coming back for a second year has definitely proved to be a different experience. It was so exciting to come back to already established friendships and anticipate what this year would hold for me. It’s been great catching up with Lorah and Rachel and sharing are very different summer experiences.

Although it has been great catching up with these two, it has been extremely hard not to have Meg here this year. I am sure most of you remember who Meg is, but for those that are unaware…Meg became one of my best friends last year. She made the decision last year that she wasn’t going to be coming back to PCC. This summer she got a full time job as a Starbucks Barista and loves it. It’s been hard to adjust not having her here. We try our hardest to keep in contact through phone calls, but it’s still not the same. Luckily in about 10 days she is coming to visit. I am very excited to see her again!!!

My classes are going well so far. This semester I am taking New Testament Studies, Developmental Psychology, Spanish, English, and Communications. New Testament is pretty much the same as my Old Testament class, but still challenging. Developmental Psychology has a lot of homework every week so I have spending a lot of outside class time on it. Spanish is probably my favorite class. I really enjoy my professor’s style of teaching and am thinking about possibly spending a semester studying abroad in a Spanish speaking country. English is just English…not too much to report about. Communications is going much better than I had anticipated.

In the coming weeks I will be writing about my roommates and other things that have been going on. Until next time…