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. :)