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