Semana de Numero Dos

The beautiful mountains I get to see every single day.
My roomie, Kara. I kind of like her lots!


Once again, here are my thoughts from this past week. I hope you enjoy. My grammar\sentence structure probably needs some work(my dad corrected me on last's week blog hehe)(does my title need correcting, dad or mary kate??), but honestly, I try to write all this down as fast as I can when I get the chance. I try my hardest to use my grammar skills, but sometimes I mess up. :) So don't judge me. :) Thanks for reading though!

September 19^th 2011 Monday

Our first outing!

My classmates, all the staff, and I traveled to the “Switzerland of Colorado” today. It took us three hours of winding, mountainous roads to reach our destination. But the car sickness was definitely worth the drive. We drove so high into the mountains that some snow was visible. And the leaves have begun changing, so the scenery was gorgeous-filled with greens, reds, yellows, and browns. The mountains, hills, streams, and small towns were lovely. The small, tourist town(about 7,000 feet in elevation) of Ouray was completely surrounded by towering mountains. Main street was lined with antique shops, jewelry and clothes shops, restaurants, hotels, pubs, and coffee\ice cream\chocolate shops. I window shopped through most of them(not the pubs of course), and also took some time to call family while staring at the enormous mountains around me. On our way back to Snow Wolf Lodge, we stopped at Wal-Mart(YUCK) to buy some essentials. Some of my purchases included hiking boots(for our six mile hike next Monday), ear plugs(I have to study and sleep in complete silence), and milk(I guess milk is too expensive for them to give to us every day). For dinner, all of us girls dressed up in crazy clothes. I’m kind of liking these chicas a lot. J So that’s what an outing day is like here at Summit Semester!

I’m definitely excited to start my second week here at Summit. It has been incredible so far. I’m still learning to adjust to all the changes and homesickness has been a bit overwhelming the past couple days. But I’m looking to my Savior for strength, and He is providing it like usual.

September 20^th 2011 Tuesday

Earplugs=the greatest invention on earth. I used them last night while studying Experiment in Criticism, and I could barely hear myself type on my laptop! Success!

September 21^st 2011 Wednesday

Yesterday we had a discussion during lunch about the American Revolution. The main question was: was the Revolution biblically justified? The “Americans” rebelled against the King. They weren’t rebelling against his authority as the Bible says not to do, but they were rebelling against him because he didn’t fulfill his end of the contract. While reading Historians of the Christian Tradition I realized that in a way God rebelled or in other words, was against the Israelites, because they didn’t keep their end of the covenant. This occurs many times throughout the Old Testament. So in a small way this relates to the American Revolution, and I believe that their rebelling was, in fact, biblically justified. Correct me if I’m wrong, though. That’s why I’m at Summit: to be corrected, to think things through, to formulate reasons and proofs, etc. I just wish I was able to come up with an answer on the spot instead of a day later. L oh well. That’s another reason for my being here!

Tonight I joined a discussion group. Yeah, little shy Abi, hehe.. I thought it would be beneficial to learn how to express my opinions verbally in a smaller group of people instead of among all 31 students. Plus, I have so many questions I need to answer somehow, and there’s very little time here to sit down and try to figure them out( I have a document on my computer labeled. Therefore, if I’m part of a discussion group, I kind of questions”, and I’m writing down every single question that I have or that Bauman asks us and an answer isn’t provided). Tonight we went around the group telling about our academic interests and any classes we’ve taken to help us in our pursuit of those interests. It’s so awesome to see how God has brought people from all over the country to this one place. And everyone has incredible talents and diverse interests, but everyone has the same goal: to serve and glorify our Savior by learning to learn and think and live better. It is so very exciting.

September 22^nd 2011 Thursday

I think the devil is attacking Summit Semester. Even before the Semester started, people began to get hurt. So far we have had or have the following: pulled leg ligaments, a finger bone shattered into eleven pieces, an ear infection, a car accident, a high fever, a pulled neck muscle, and several colds. I wonder if I’ll be next. L

September 23^rd Friday

I think we had the most heated debate\discussion in class tonight. The topic was politics so I was expecting to hear more about political parties. No way. We discussed abortion. Dr. Bauman had us list all the argument for abortion that we could think of. He then wrote them on the board and picked one that we were supposed to prove wrong. The first one, I believe(my brain is a bit muddled because I’m exhausted), was if the baby was a human. I think we came to the conclusion that the baby is a human because it has it’s own genetic code and it develops like a human. People say that it’s not a human because its development is tiny compared to mature adults, but so is a toddler compared to a fourteen year old. Some say it’s not a human because it’s dependant, but all humans are dependant on all humans(we’re dependants on our parents’ insurance policy. just because we’re dependants doesn’t mean they can kill us). So we all concluded that it was a human. The next thing he asked was if your wife was pregnant and got in a car accident and her life and the baby’s life was at stake, who would you pick. This one discussion went on for an hour or longer and everyone came up with different sides. It was insane and by the end of it my mind was completely baffled. Dr. Bauman pointed out something that at first I thought was insane. He said that the couple had sex and knew that it could lead to pregnancy so it’s their moral obligation and responsibility to save the child. The child is innocent and had no part in the parents’ decision, so it should not be punished. Therefore, the baby should be saved instead of the wife\mother. Like I said, it sounded insane at first, and I think it would be the hardest thing ever for a husband to do, but it’s our moral responsibility. Now, so many other factors came up that I can’t even remember, but the responsibility argument was favored by most. I agree with it as well. But the moral of the story or one moral of the story: make sure you discuss this kind of situation with your spouse before you go ahead and have sex. Think about what you could be getting yourself into. I have never thought about this, or thought about it in detail. Like one classmate said, I have thought about it but I didn’t know what I would do, so I just let it go and quit thinking about it. That’s what Dr. Bauman is teaching against. He is teaching us to think, look, think, look for hours, days, weeks, years, until you arrive at an answer, a proof, a logical conclusion. I thank God for the privilege of being here and learning from someone who really cares about us and our minds.

September 24^th Saturday

I’m definitely being humbled right now. At home, I always thought of myself as a really studious student. I studied long and hard for all my tests and quizzes. I planned in advance for everything. And I became proud(although I’m only now realizing it) that I was “better” than my other siblings. I’m truly sorry, guys. L Here, however, everyone seems to study better than I do and get better scores than I do. So I’m definitely being humbled. And I’m trying to figure out how to study well without comparing myself to others. Some classmates have given me a few tips, so I’m beginning to use those, and they’re pretty helpful. God is great. Realizing how proud I am is such a challenge and is quite discouraging at times, but I know it’s a lesson I need to learn.

Wow. Another heated discussion\debate occurred during class this morning. However, it wasn’t as intense as last night’s about abortion. We were discussing Tertullian, an ancient Christian theologian, and his views on heresy and Christian values. He believes that a woman should not adorn themselves (piercings, tattoos, jewelry, etc.) because it’s immodest and glorifies her body. I have reached a decision, a very complicated decision.

First of all, since God doesn’t say in the Bible that you can or can’t adorn yourself, I think it mainly depends on the motive. If you are adorning yourself to impress others or to draw attention to yourself(which is a very fine line), then you’re probably doing it for the wrong reason; pride would be the main motive. Or if you’re adorning yourself because you don’t believe that you are beautiful without those things, such as make up, then that is an insecurity motive.

I wear jewelry and have my ears pierced(however, I’m thinking now that the pain isn’t worth my initial desire). I normally do not wear jewelry or clothes for that matter to impress people; if I catch myself doing that, I know it’s sinful and try to turn away from that. I do not adorn myself because I believe even without I, I am created wonderfully and beautifully, and I don’t need those things to make myself beautiful. I wear jewelry, clothes, shoes, and make up because it’s fun to look nice and dress up-at other times it’s obnoxious and gets in the way. I go without make up at times to make sure that I know that I can live without it and that I’m not dependant on it.

Some say that women adorn themselves because it enhances their beauty. It may enhance our beauty, but we are still created beautiful without it. That’s the main thought that we need to keep in mind.

Maybe it’s not that complicated of a decision, but it’s hard for me to explain in logical, thought out sentences. Perhaps after you read this, it sounds illogical. It may be, but I’m trying my hardest. I still have a lot to learn though, so bear with me! J

September 25^th Sunday

Sundays are super hard for me. I miss my church-especially the worship(Vineyard worship, at least where I attend seems so free, and I love it for that)-and I miss my youth group. And I miss my family so much. Sometimes I just want to go home, especially when the “community” life gets difficult. I love the people here for sure, it’s just hard to be with the same people every single day. And I’m still getting used to this new schedule where I can’t just go and be by myself whenever I want. I love it here though, and I know that I am doing God’s will by being here. Prayer would be greatly appreciated though. Thanks! I’ll blog again next Sunday!

PS I'll be posting some pics on Facebook-there are some of Ouray; it's such a beautiful place. :)

First week at Semester!

So I wrote a few things during the week, so that I wouldn't have to go back over every day and try to think of what occurred. Here are my musings over the past nine days. Enjoy!

September 10, 2011

Already, even after only a day of being here, Summit Semester is better than anything I’ve ever participated in or heard of. For instance, at what school or program do the students make the rules? This morning, the director of Summit Semester, Dustin, along with all the staff, left my thirty classmates and I to formulate our main values along with rules and guidelines. We spent over two hours discussing values most important to us, definitions of values, important rules, and necessary guidelines. Finally we nailed it down. Our main purpose or mission statement is Imago Dei, which stands for the Image of God. We are image bearers of Christ and our purpose is to reflect his character. The values that we chose were humility, integrity, unity, and excellence in dedication. Then we formulated some basic rules\guidelines(curfews, language, no complaining, etc). Of course, we disagreed at times(I shouldn't say we, because I didn't give many ideas. I'm still getting out of my little shell.), however, we all ended up agreeing on our values and rules. One rule is to not complain-a bit difficult to me, especially when hiking. Hehe. But I'm here to be challenged, so no complaining would go along with my challenges. :) One of our main guidelines is Matthew 18:15-19(which is not talking about prayer) which talks about conflicts among the brethren. If one of us has a conflict with another person, we need to talk to them about it personally. If that doesn’t work, we gather two or three brothers who understand the situation and talk to the person at fault about it. If that doesn’t work either, we then bring it to the whole “family” and discuss it. If none of those work, we take the issue to the director. I think this procedure is very intelligent-especially since we’re following Christ’s model of communication. I love it because we’re a family here, or at least becoming one. We’re going to be learning how to be honest and loving with one another, especially in communicating. And coming from my stubborn, non-communicative family(no offense, guys), myself included, I definitely need to learn this lesson.

So it's the first day here, and I’m already being challenged in my character. Learning to communicate and not complain are not the only areas I'm being challenged in. Being away from my family my comfortable environment for the first time and being among strangers is a major struggle for me right now, but God has placed me here for a reason. I know I need to learn to be more independent and be myself(whoever that is.) and get out of my comfort zone. So that’s why I’m here. There will be times when I really want to go home though, but that’s when I rely on God’s grace to get me through it. Plus, the people here all love Jesus and want to live like he did, just as I do. So I’m excited to get to know all of them and grow and be challenged with them.

September 12, 2011

Well, it’s the end of the third full day here. Honestly, it feels like I’ve been here for a week. I’m not exactly sure why that is. It’s not a bad thing though. It feels as though I’m at the two week Summit again or some kind of Bible camp that will end in a week, but then I realize that I’m here for three months. Crazyness! It’s super exciting, though. I’m getting to know my classmates daily and really enjoy their company, personalities, talents, desires, etc. I really love being in a place where everyone loves Jesus and really wants to learn how to think. It’s so exhilerating.

Today I hiked three miles in about three hours. Yup, me, the hater of hiking. And I tried my hardest to do it without complaining. When I stopped looking at where my feet were going and glanced around at the scenery, I was in awe. This is probably the most beautiful spot in Colorado, I have ever been. It’s so secluded and covered in evergreen trees, oak trees, and lots of brush. There are mountains and hills everywhere you look. This area also houses black bear(I saw lots of poop today!), elk, deer, squirrels, birds, etc. It’s so lovely here. I’m definitely excited to live in this area for three months.

We also had our first day of classes today. Mike Mandt started us off with biology, evolution vs. creation, young earth vs. new earth, and some physics. I understood most of it, except for the physics. That’s kind of where I turned my brain off because I had no clue what he was talking about. I guess that’s where my personal research comes in. I think I'll wait for that until I go home though.

As I continue to get settled in here, I am struggling with being disciplined and scheduled like I usually am, and not in a legalistic manner. It’s hard to focus on prayer when I’m usually always around people, and it’s difficult to sit down and read my Bible when I want to be playing games with my new friends. But I’m hoping in the next couple of days when I get used to the schedule here, I’ll be able to start focusing more on my spiritual disciplines. Speaking of, Numbers awaits me!

September 16^th 2011

On Tuesday night Summit Semester was Baumanated! Dr. Michael Bauman arrived, in other words. He’s the scariest teacher I’ve ever experienced in my life. He calls on everyone at random and asks the most difficult questions; then he questions and attacks every single answer you give-even if he agrees with it(though we can never tell if he does since he's attacking it). But he does it for our own good. He wants us to think, not just give answers that we’ve heard or learned. He desires for us to prove our answers and our reasons. And he wants us to know why we believe what we believe. So I know it’ll make me a better thinker in the end, but he terrifies me right now. I'm sure in time I'll get used to his methods and hopefully start sharing my own opinions. I got called on for the first time today, and my heart started thumping rapidly. Haha… Everyone looks and sounds foolish when they answer though, not just me. So that makes it a bit easier.

Dr. Bauman teaches us Tuesday night through Saturday afternoon. He teaches three classes-each an hour an a half long. Those classes are History of Christian Theology(most familiar with), Politics and Christianity(most challenging), and English Literature(most favorite). I'd love to explain everything I'm learning about in those classes, however, it would take way to long. So you'll just have to read my thousands of pages of notes when I get home. :) I'm learning so much, and am really thinking about everything-we're supposed to end up with writer's cramp and mind cramp by the end of class.

September 17^th 2011

Today during class, we debated about women and men’s roles in the church. This is my least favorite discussion because I don’t know how to support my side very well. But I’m learning how to. Anyway, Dr. Bauman brought up something I’ve never thought about. The first church had to start their church from scratch. Just think of it: how to worship, what passages to read, what order everything goes in, what roles people take, etc. Churches these days think they have trouble trying to decide on these issues, but at least we have a pattern to follow. The same goes for the Hebrew historians. They were some of the first historians, and had to formulate their own way of writing biblical history, without any models to follow. Those are just some ideas I've been thinking about. God presents many things that I've never appreciated that I should be grateful for.

The books we’ve begun reading are the following: Experiment In Criticism by C.S. Lewis(extremely difficult to follow and understand, but interesting), Historians of the Christian Tradition by Michael Bauman and Martin Klauber(Thickest book I've ever seen, but extremely fascinating), Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley(my favorite so far), and Of Wealth and Poverty by Ronald Nash(haven't started it yet).

Here is a typical schedule of my week:

Mondays-no classes. We'll be taking some trips(tomorrow we'll go to an old mining town;next week we'll go camping)-either day trips or overnight trips. Or we'll just have free days.

Tuesdays- family meetings(where we discuss our week, prayer requests, problems, etc), 90 minutes of solitude with God, an hour of exercise, an hour and a half of study time, and an hour and a half of class(from Bauman). We also have three hours of work crew(working on the property or in the kitchen or in the lodges). And small group at night.

Wednesday- Saturday9 to 12 is class by Bauman, then 90 minutes later in the day either afternoon or evening. An hour and a half of study time, free time, three hour work crew(Friday), exercise(Thursdays and Saturdays).

Sundays- church, eating in the park, and internet time from 12 to 4. Then an optional movie\discussion time in the evening.

We'll also be getting other professors throughout the Semester-some that I'm very much looking forward to!

Well I have to go! The last portion was a little rushed and not put together very well, but hopefully it makes sense. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, just email me! I'll look forward to posting again in a week. :)

Summit Semester.....

...here I come!

Described by the website, Summit Semester is... "nestled in the Rocky Mountains a beautiful, modern facility where 30 students will learn from some of the top Christian scholars in the country. Our environment will nurture spiritual formation and hone intellectual skills, while also helping our students develop strong interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to prepare students for the challenges they will face at the university while motivating them to be influential leaders, shaping the ideas of culture for the glory of God and the good of our society."

Being accepted to Summit Semester and God providing the funds and great timing is seriously a dream come true. I discovered Summit Semester at a 12 day long worldview conference/seminar that I attended this May with my sister, Mary Kate. At the Summit Ministries I sat in class for about 6 hours a day(which is about 72 hours total) listening to lectures about worldviews, abortion, same-sex marriage, philosophy, politics, literature, apologetics, and much more. I never imagined liking it as much as I did. I loved it. I wanted to learn so much more. As soon as I got home, I starting reading all the "intellectual" books I had purchased at Summit. I wanted to go back to the classroom and learn all of the subjects over again.

That's when I started thinking about Summit Semester. There I would be able to learn about all those subjects I fell in love with even more in depth. And I would be able to belong to a community of believers who desired the same things I did: to glorify God through learning about the world, past and present, around us, and being challenged in so many ways. I would also be able to be "independent" and leave home alone-very challenging to me, but also a great desire, for some odd reason(probably cuz I'm 18) :) Summit Semster was in my mind for a few weeks, but then it faded, and I decided to go to Salt Lake Community College in the fall. But then God started putting Summit on my heart. So I filled out an application, sent it off, and waited for the response. I got an email from the director asking to have a phone interview. This I did with much anxiety( I hate talking on the phone, and I hate interviews). I thought that my answers to his questions would definitely deny my acceptance to the program. One week later I received another email saying that I was accepted! I was also granted a scholarship that provided for the funds that I was lacking( a major part of my decision making).

So for the past six weeks since being accepted, I have been preparing to go to Summit-working to save money, spending time with friends and family, shopping, meeting all my classmates on Facebook, saying goodbye, and packing. I leave tomorrow morning at six. I'm finally leaving for Summit Semester! I can't believe this is real. I'm so thankful to God for his provision and for the wise counsel he has placed in my life. Without those, I wouldn't be going to Summit Semester. All praise and glory goes to him. I am so excited to learn, meet new people, be challenged, and serve him in every way possible in the next three months-and forever.

So here I go, off to Summit Semester!