6 days left.....

...and I'm trying not to count them. I'll try to catch you up to date with the happenings here at Summit Semester for the past two weeks.
Last week(13-19) was a normal week of work crews, study times, solitudes, and class with Dr. Bauman. Actually, it was our last normal week. Finals for Bauman were taken on Saturday. I studied as hard as I could with as much time as I had, however, I studied a bit incorrectly. I thought that Dr. Bauman would be asking us to defend our opinions and beliefs. Instead we were tested on what we had learned over the ten weeks he had taught us. By reviewing all that we had studied, I think I remember and understand a lot of what we learned better now. We had finals for three hours in the afternoon and an hour and a half at night covering Church History, English Literature, and Politics. English Lit was the easiest, while Politics was the hardest. But I think I did pretty well. It was definitely a good experience for me.
Dr. Bauman spent two hours that night answering questions that we as students had been wondering for our entire time with him. He is an amazing man, I must say. I am privileged to have studied under him. As alumni have said, Dr. Bauman will now be a voice inside my head which I don’t mind at all; in fact, I’m very thankful for that. One student asked how we could thank him for what he did for us. He said the way that we have thanked him is by improving in the way we think and speak. That’s why he does what he does, to see us improve in those ways. Dr. Bauman excels in his intelligence, teaching methods, and physical strength. Although sad to see him leave Summit Semester(at least for this year), I never will I forget him.

This past week(20-27) was a very abnormal, yet super awesome week. Eric Smith came back to teach on Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning and night. He finished an overview of the Old Testament and covered the intertestamental period. I found that period to be quite intriguing because of never hearing the history of "the 400 years of silence" before. Next week, he will finish by teaching on the New Testament. The Tuesday work crew was our last Tuesday work crew. We spent our time preparing for our holiday guests( I think around 60 people came) by making lots of food and cleaning. The guests began arriving Tuesday night and didn't stop coming until Thursday.
For our Thanksgiving meal, all the students signed up to make either a family tradition dish, a favorite dish, or a "required" dish. I made frog eyed salad! It turned out pretty well I must say so myself, except for the clumpy noodles. Baha. The kitchen was full of people and dishes and food for hours on Wednesday and Thursday. At one on Thursday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving(my first thanksgiving away from home; however, it wasn't especially difficult to be away from my family. It was kind of exciting to be on my own in a way) by eating tons and tons of food. Then for dinner, we ate the leftovers. Super duper yummy. We ended the night by playing games.
Friday was a free day, which meant I got to sleep in until ten thirty. :) Awesome. I spent the day studying IVP, the Intro to the Bible( last book due), making Christamas ornaments for the humongous tree that Nathan and Shelly and some of the students went to chop down in the morning, watched Home Alone, and concluded the evening( at 1:30 am) by playing two hilarious games of picture telephone. Our mentor, Jeremy, also came "home" that evening. He had gone home three weeks before to be with his dad who passed away. I am so grateful to God that Jeremy was able to come back to spend the last week with us. It's so good to have him back.
Saturday was a semi free day, however, with planned optional events. The afternoon was spent in a gingerbread making contest. Teater, Kara, Maggie, Matt, and I were on a team. We started out by making a ski lift(worked out perfectly), and began building our ski resort, when the building wouldn't stick together. All of us were frustrated for a while until we came up with an idea( with Clara's help): the ski resort was destroyed in a practice run by the Swiss army. It consisted of two demolished buildings, little people covered in blood, tanks, and canons. Lots of blood and death, which was super awesome. My fav. just kidding. kinda. We got second place though. That surprised us because we didn't think anyone would vote for us. Everyone else's houses were quite creative. Pictures will be on facebook next week when I get home. In the evening we had a quite entertaining white elephant Christmas party with delicous foods. Afterwards we watched Elf, typical. :) It was super funny.
All in all, this week was quite relaxing with lots of holiday decorating, games, music, and food. However, I'm ready for another week of semi structure. I guess I get antsy when there isn't any structure. Haha.
This morning the chuch body at Grace Fellowship "sent us off" with their prayers since it was our last week with them. I cried. That was probably just the beginning of the tears that I'll have to face this week. I think I am ready to go home; I'm not afraid of the future, but filled with the hope of Jesus. And this week I was reminded that the Holy Spirit will always be with me. I am not alone in this journey of defending my worldview and my faith and my opinions, this journey of learning and sharing. I am extremely sad about leaving this community of amazing people, and I know that it will be a drastic change to go home. But this is God's plan for my life, and I will follow him with courage.
Next week will be my last blog here at Summit Semester, and it won't even be posted here in Pagosa Springs. Thank you for reading and joining me on my journey. I know that the journey will continue when I go home.

Short Note

This blog will be the shortest blog compared to the others. My power cord for my lap top committed suicide yesterday so I wasn't able to copy my blog posts from this week. I'll post it next Sunday though. So yeah. I'll post next week!

Time is Flying By...9th week.

November 7^th, Monday

I was just laying on the couch pondering God’s awesomeness and faithfulness, when I realized how dark the room had become. Hearing a loud crash like thunder, I went to look outside! As I looked through the window it began snowing softly and fog began covering the mountains. Strangely, thunder boomed and lightning flashed in the midst of the snow. Never had I seen snow, thunder and lightning all at the same time. Then occured a downpour of hail-like-snow, more thunder, and more fog. No longer could I see the mountains. The incredible sight made God’s awesomeness even more awesome. God, full of surprises is a God of restoration, of love, of comfort, of faithfulness. He is indescribable and wonderful. Psalm 148:7-12 “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children.”

November 8^th, Tuesday

Yesterday, in addition to the snow storm, was simply wonderful. More than half of our group traveled to the Grand Canyon Sunday morning(they camped in snow!), so it was very quiet in both lodges. I was able to spend peaceful, alone time with God, finish my sonnet for English class, study “Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult”, and ponder life in silence. It was exactly the atmosphere I needed after these three insanely busy weeks.

The group arrived home around ten last night very satisfied with their journey. So life is back to “normal” again here at Snow Wolf Lodge. J.P. Moreland arrives tonight and begins teaching tomorrow. Hurrah!

November 9^th, Wednesday

This morning and evening in class Dr. Moreland gave a case for the evidence of God. Here is my summary of it:

The universe exists right now(obviously). It either had a beginning or didn’t have a beginning. This beginning was either caused or uncaused by something or someone. The something or someone had to be personal.

® Proofs for the beginning of the universe: 1) the second law of thermodynamics states that the amount of useful energy in the universe is being used up day by day(like a tank of gas). If something is running out then there must have been a time when it was full or complete. So there must have been a beginning to this energy, the beginning of the universe(I think this makes sense). 2) The universe is expanding and galaxies are getting further away from eachother; therefore, there must have been a time when the universe and galaxies were at a perfect spot, hence the beginning of a universe.

® Proofs for the universe caused by something/someones: Scientists have discovered that if certain constants in the universe(charge of electron, mass of proton, gravity) were off by a billionth of a second, life would be impossible. Chance could not have gotten that close. Also thinking about the complexity of DNA and the cells. There just must have been a causer who could create such intricate, working things. Moreland continually reminds us that if there are two explanations, complex or simple, it’s more knowledgeable to believe the simple explanation. I’m still thinking about that theory.

® Proofs for a personal causer: our free will and our consciousness. These couldn’t have come from a non-spaceless, timeless, immaterial, supernatural, invisible causer. Looking at creation, there are proofs for an intelligent designer.

November 10^th, Thursday

Today Moreland lectured about picking a religion and the problem of evil. Summarizations again? I think, yes!

Picking a religion requires four criteria(according to Moreland): 1)Pick a religion whose picture of God harmonizes with what we know about God from creation. He said that Buddhism and Hinduism do not explain the origin of the universe while Christianity, Judiasm and Islam do. 2) Pick a religion whose diagnosis and solution of human condition is most profound. Or in English(hardy har har), pick one that tells or analyzes what’s wrong with us and helps us fix that problem. What is wrong with us? Humans everywhere experience alienation from God, others, and themselves; experience shame and guilt; desire for life after death; desire for meaning in life; have a need for help and empowerment to live a life of character; and desire intimacy with God. 3) Pick a religion whose origin/continued success is best explained by miraculous and supernatural activity. If it doesn’t have the supernatural, then there is no reason tha God is behind it. 4) Pick a religion where you get all of Jesus, not just a watered down version of him.

Problem of evil is a bit more complicated and confusing. In a nutshell, evil is a privation or lack of goodness that should be there. A defect is evil. Evil came from humans’ (and angels?) choices due to free will. God created us with free will; we disobeyed his commands, hence, came evil. Free will is a very good thing. If God had forced us to choose and love him instead of letting us choose, it wouldn’t have been real love; it would have been forced love. Moreland presented an important point: God paid a high price by giving us free will. He was willing to be rejected by his own creation by letting us choose. This point really stood out to me. Evil serves as a warning to humans that something is wrong, and it also points to the fact that there is a way things are supposed to be. Summarizing it, God didn’t create evil. He created humans, gave them free will, and due to our disobedience, evil arose.

During our evening class we also learned about epistemology, the study of knowledge. One point that Moreland believes was the fact that when you believe something it has to be between 51% and 100%. I had never thought about this before. He said if you believe something 60% then it doesn’t mean you don’t believe it; it just means that it’s a weak belief. But the point is to continue to grow in the belief until you reach 100%. Pretty interesting I thought.

November 11^th, Friday( My brother Caleb’s birthday!)

Today we learned about empirical knowledge and states of consciousness and how the states of consciousness are not physical. Just like there are 3 states of water, there are 5 states of consciousness or so Moreland believes. These are the following: sensations, thoughts, beliefs, desires, and volitions(acts of free wills and choice). This intrigued me. The difference between a thought and a belief is that a belief can exist without thinking them while thoughts can’t exist unless you think about them. Makes sense! I won’t go into all that we learned, just because it’s complicated and I don’t want to bore you with all this philosophy. But I’m really loving learning all these important facts about knowledge and beliefs and truth. Although it’s complicated and takes me a while to comprehend, I enjoy it a lot.

Today is our nine week anniversary, which means that we only have three weeks left. Insane. I’ve been thinking a lot about how life will be at home after these three months. It scares me honestly because I’ll be out of this “bubble”. But like I said, I know God has plans for me at home, so that’s where I’ll go. J

November 12^th, Saturday

Dr. Moreland wasn’t exactly what I expected him to be. I found myself either disagreeing with him or being skeptical towards what he was teaching us quite often. He talked a lot about words of knowledge, the presence of angels and demons, experiences of people dying then returning to their bodies, and his belief in old earth creationism. His beliefs in the first four caused me to think about my beliefs in those, and I realized that I am very very skeptical towards miraculous things occurring today. I’m trying to figure out if that’s a bad thing that needs fixing or just something that needs looking into. I didn’t dislike Moreland; I just disagreed with him on a few points. One student said that we’ve been spoiled by Dr. Bauman. He doesn’t tell us what he believes or thinks. He teaches us the facts then forces us to make a decision about what to believe in. It seems like Dr. Moreland teaches us facts, but then adds his own beliefs into it. This is important though because it causes me to not just believe in what Moreland says. I have to think about his beliefs and compare them with what I have been taught and then decide which best fits into God’s story. Dr. Moreland deserves praise, however. He has spent years researching, studying, preaching, and teaching. He has gone through depression and anxiety, yet has remained faithful to the Lord and continues to serve him. He takes his vacation time to come to Semester to teach us. I am very grateful for his service to us and to God.

Speaking of God….he’s super duper amazing. His faithfulness is unending; his love is continuous. He rewards when I obey him and brings peace to my troubled soul. Joy fills my heart as he restores my broken relationships and teaches me to trust people, to be more relational, and to be intentional in my conversations and listening to others. In addition to those, He is teaching me to be slow to speak, to be patient with those I don’t get along with, and to not be legalistic in many areas of my life. He reveals, teaches, and rewards with patience and love. Serving my Savior is so fulfilling.

Other aspects of this ninth week: late night conversations with my roomie as she massages and beats out the stress in my shoulders( as she did this one night, I had a thought: there will be no stress or anxiety in heaven. that’s awesome ); reading and learning about the life of a president to whom I never gave a thought: Ronald Reagan(I have to write an essay about how he beat communism); eating breakfast in silence as all of us pray for a mentor’s father who was close to death; rejoicing that God is allowing the father to live at least for a little while; and thinking about the future.

Thanks for reading!

Two months down...

...only one short month left. :(

October 31^st, Monday (My sister Charity’s 25^th birthday!)

This was definitely the best Halloween I’ve ever experienced. We(students, staff, director and family, some alumni) started off our day down at the game field where we ate a delicious breakfast in the freezing cold. After breakfast, some students and alumni ran\jogged\walked a 5K while the rest of us waited at the field. My friend Teater and I took part in “negative cheering”. hehe..as people ran past us, we yelled at them and told them to quit running, that they were going to die from the cold, and that they should have been sleeping not freezing their butts off. It lasted about three minutes before we went back to the field. Hehe. Once the 5K was finished, we cleaned up and took part in a photo scavenger hunt. I was in a group with six other people and we had to take pictures of different activities listed on a sheet of paper, such as doing a chore, or doing what we were meant to be doing at Summit( playing volleyball). The rest of the afternoon was spent carving pumpkins, making and eating caramel apples, and shooting guns( I did not take part in this and people were quite angry with me J). There was also a volleyball tournament. Then for an hour, all of us girls got our costumes, make up, and hair ready for the costume\dinner party in the Echo Canyon Lodge. My room mate and I were from the eighties(pics on facebook eventually); we looked pretty amazing, I must say so myself. At six all the students and staff arrived in their costumes at the transformed lodge. there we ate dinner, played games, and took lots and lots of pictures. Finally, the dance party started. Yup, I did dance. I even danced the reel, with a guy no less, and a guy I didn’t even know(he was an alumni). Very awkward, but entertaining. The night ended in exhaustion, but happily. the whole day was a blast, way better than any other Halloween I’ve experienced.

November 1^st, Tuesday

For the past couple of weeks, the girls have been planning an appreciation day for the guys. Yesterday was the day it occurred. For breakfast, we, the girls, helped make breakfast and three of us covered three of the guys’ dish crew duties. At lunch we did the same for dish crew. I was part of the kitchen work crew, which consisted of four other girls. In addition to baking bread and cinnamon rolls and croutons, cleaning the stove, grill, and griddle, organizing dishes and utensils, we also made a delicious chicken and rice entrée with salad and juice and decorated the tables. In addition to those “extras”, all of us girls wrote letters to each of the guys(including staff and mentors); every guy got 15 letters. It was so awesome to watch them standing around the mail basket reading our letters. Somehow they caught on to us doing something special for them because they all came to dinner dressed up. They were super surprised with the festivities and appreciated it immensely. I loved doing that for them; we all did. And we never thought it would turn out that well. After the stressful and tiring week we had last week, we didn’t think it would turn out very well. But it was definitely a success.

The guys here are amazing, I have to say. Never in my life have I met more mature gentlemen in my life. They are all unique and talented in their own way, but they share the same desire: to glorify God in all that they do and to learn to be studious, learned leaders. Someday they will make amazing husbands and fathers. I am so blessed to be sharing these three months with them.

November 2^nd, Wednesday

Woooooow. I finally feel like life at Semester is getting back to normal. These past two weeks have been insanely busy, stressful, tiring, and packed. I’m sure I have mentioned that at least twice. J They definitely weren’t as bad as I was expecting though. I managed to read a plethora of articles, chapters, and books in addition to many extra hours of class, the sand dunes trip, lunch with a different family, alumni weekend, farvest hall, and lots of emotional, physical, and spiritual “trauma”. Hehe. I’m glad that things are back to normal though. I spent over three hours today catching up on studying my history books, a book about Switzerland’s incredible army and free\warless country, and sonnets by Milton.

During the family meeting today, Dustin brought up the fact that we’ve been here for sixty days and only have thirty days left. In one month we’ll be graduated. So depressing. I want to go home, but I want to bring Summit Semester with me. I wish this was a 2 or 4 year college, not just a semester. I am so thankful to my Lord for bringing me here. This was honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made. The skills and knowledge I am acquiring I will keep close to my heart and use daily. And I am praying that these relationships will last a lifetime. I am also praying that I will be able to function after leaving this amazing haven.

November 4^th Friday (my niece Naomi’s 3^rd birthday!)

8 week anniversary; 4 weeks left. I don’t know why I keep reminding myself of this. Haha.

Dr. Bauman arrived Wednesday night, and the regular Summit school week began. For politics class that night, we learned about how the Constitution was made. It was a topic continued from Saturday. Dr. Bauman definitely gave me a new appreciation for our Founding Fathers. There were 74 men elected; however only 55 showed up. Just imagine 55 fallen and flawed men trying to agree and compromise on what laws and systems their country should abide by. But they did it. And I think they did it very well. They made it as hard as possible for changes to be made to the Constitution and they gave as little power to the government as possible. I applaud them for their efforts and their success.

In our English Literature class we have been reading through John Milton’s sonnets, which, though hard to read at first, are very impacting. Milton lost his eyesight, was imprisoned, and buried his young son and three wives during his lifetime. Yet despite his many struggles, he stayed true to his calling, to write the epic poem, Paradise Lost. He is an example to me to never give up on my calling and to continue to obey God despite whatever may happen. Dr. Bauman called on me in this class and asked what I thought my calling was. I said youth ministry. He asked if I could still do that if I was blind or a parapalegic. I said I could, however, that would be insanely difficult. But Bauman continues to get us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes and see what we would do if we were them. It’s a difficult matter to mull over, but so important. Why is it important? Because people like Milton are heroes and examples for us to follow; in order to imitate them we need to know what they believed and why the believed it and why they did what they did. Looking at history’s successes and failures causes us to be changed, if we are willing.

Writing those last two sentences was difficult. I’m so used to making a statement such as, it’s so important, but not proving why it’s important. I’m not even sure I like my argument for why its important. But this is a vital fact I’m learning at Summit: to defend, support, and argue for everything, even small things like that one statement. It’s hard to change these habits that are ingrained in my mind and lifestyle, but I know it’s necessary to change in order to glorify my God in the fullest way that I can.

November 5^th, Saturday

The past two days have been a bit rough due to a head cold. Paying attention in class is majorly difficult with a pounding head ache and runny nose. Just sayin. J

We’re all finished with politics class, sadly. I guess we got behind in Church History class because that’s where we have the most discussion, so we’re focusing mostly on that and English Literature. Next week, philosopher and scholar, J. P. Moreland is coming to teach us. I have been awaiting his arrival for 8 weeks to be exact; therefore, I am super excited! In two weeks Dr. Bauman comes for the last time. And the week after that Eric Smith comes again to finish up our Biblical Foundations class. And then comes our final week, sadly.

During all three classes today we learned about pre-reformation reformers: John Wycliffe, John Huss, Giralamo Savonarola, and Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus took up much of our time. These men are amazing. Despite opposition, slander, torture, and death they fought for what they believed to be truth. Although I feel like some of their opinions and beliefs didn’t correspond with the Bible, I still applaud them. They’re flawed just as we all are so of course their beliefs will be flawed. But they still fought for what was right. They taught, preached, wrote books…their lives were dedicated to their Lord. I desire to imitate them in that way. One of the discussions that stood out to me regarded Erasmus. He used satire to mock the Pope, to share the truth about what he thought about the Pope and his methods. He did this through a book called, Julius Excluded. Bauman questioned us, asking what our biggest problem in America was and if what our approach is to fix it. He brought up abortion and if we should use mockery to get rid of it. Abortion is a problem. 3,000 babies are dying a day. But would mockery actually help? Would mocking abortion doctors and those who get abortions do any good to our cause to get rid of abortion? I don’t think it would. I guess I’ll have to think more about it, but I think that by mocking people it wouldn’t be showing Christ like love. But did Christ show love when he criticized the Pharisees, when he overturned the tables in the temple, when he called Peter Satan? Is there a line between criticizing and mocking? Can I love a person and criticize or mock them at the same time? Is that telling the truth in love? Arg. Sometimes I just want questions answered right away, but it’s not possible to answer them that quickly. I have to keep looking at them and searching and questioning. And I have to think deeply. That’s the main reason I came to Summit Semester, and it’s working out pretty well however difficult it is.

Thanks for reading this week’s blog! Hopefully it was semi enjoyable and not too monotonous. J 4 more weeks and I’ll be home. J L