Thursday, October 4, 2007
USA is Amazing
Just a real quick thought. If you have to mail a letter to someone in Indiana and you happen to live in Illinois when might you expect it to arrive? I would personally expect it to arrive in three or four days at the latest. I would have no doubt of this either. It would make it in plenty of time. Now let's say you wanted to mail a letter to someone in Indiana from the UK, when might you expect it to arrive? I would say 1-2 weeks would be a reasonable timeline. Now remember you are mailing from a socialist country where government employees can go on strike. Therefore I have no idea when any of my mail will arrive in the USA. This country literally has a mail strike going on. I have mail that must arrive by the first Monday after the first Sunday in November (those who care about there country know what I am talking about), yet I have no guarantee because a bunch of nuts are on strike. I am so grateful to be living in the good ole US of A. By the way, my German roommate insisted on me copying him some of my patriotic music for him. He said nobody cares that much in Germany about their own country and he just loves the music. It has been nice to hear American music being played in my flat.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Just an Update
Wow, the last three days have been fun. My time basically consist of reading and playing ball. I had more basketball practice on Monday night. We went somewhere in the city I had yet to go. It was very nice. Plus next door was their version of Wal-Mart. In fact I think it is actually owned by Wal-Mart. It was bigger than most of their stores, but it was still no Wal-Mart. The practice was good and we actually learned some fundamentals. Currently the team lacks a lot of fundamentals to the game of basketball. It was here that I found out that I got to play in our first game which was today. This means that I am either second/third string for the first team and they just wanted a few new guys to get some play time or I am actually first string for the second team. At this point I do not care I was just glad to be offered the chance to play.
Tuesday was pretty typical for me. As part of our introduction to Luther we actually watched the recent movie Luther. I had not previously seen it. It was quite impressive. It just amplifies how much Luther endured to make the gospel available to the common man. This is most definitely my favorite class. My early church history class is starting to move along, but is still not moving to the top of my list. It is interesting because I have almost all first year students in that class, but those students are not allowed to take the Luther course because it is labeled third year.
Today was a pretty productive day. I had my second Greek course of the week and then I had my second dose of counseling. I may end of appreciating the class. I am yet to learn much about the skills of counseling that I did not already know and may never learn that much knew information, but I am learning from the class. I have grown up with at least one close friend or someone I could consider a confidant at all times and often more than one. We were asked today to think of a time when we approached someone for help and felt like they just blew us off. Minus minor occurrences of little importance, I honestly was having a hard time thinking of a time this had happened. I do not know if it is a function of good hindsight in choosing who to approach or if I have simply been blessed with good people in my life. The women in my class had no trouble thinking of instances. We did not discuss the instances, but rather talked about how those people made us feel or what they did wrong. It was really eye opening to discover these basic principles of honesty, empathy, listening and caring are truly not instinctive for many people. It was a good lesson and insight to life.
Finally, tonight was my first basketball game. I was placed as third string, seeing that we had 13 guys playing. However, they finally put me in to guard the other team’s big guy. You must understand I am not the tallest or by any means the best offensive player, but I do love playing physical defense. The word physical is not in the vocabulary of European basketball. This big guy was probably only two inches taller than me, but weighed, I am guessing, 270 pounds. Unfortunately for him a lot of this weight was in his upper body and not lower. He scored ten points in the first quarter, however I held him to two points the rest of the game. I think I threw him off guard when I accidentally knocked him to the ground on a rebound. He was not use to getting pushed around. Believe it or not I actually had a decent offensive game as well. I managed to score seven of our sixty-five points. My brother should know I was three for four from the line. As a team we did not play so well. We had a whole lot more talent than their squad, but only won the game by fifteen points. I guess we have only played together for ten days.
Well, I have to go for now. If you are interested I attended a Bible Study last night that had me a little frustrated. We talked about truth from Ephesians, but we neglected to talk about whom the letter was written to, why, and its implications. We simply sugar coated the fact that God loves us. My rant can be found on Jonathan’s blog youareholy.com or colossiansonetwentytwo.blogspot.com
Tuesday was pretty typical for me. As part of our introduction to Luther we actually watched the recent movie Luther. I had not previously seen it. It was quite impressive. It just amplifies how much Luther endured to make the gospel available to the common man. This is most definitely my favorite class. My early church history class is starting to move along, but is still not moving to the top of my list. It is interesting because I have almost all first year students in that class, but those students are not allowed to take the Luther course because it is labeled third year.
Today was a pretty productive day. I had my second Greek course of the week and then I had my second dose of counseling. I may end of appreciating the class. I am yet to learn much about the skills of counseling that I did not already know and may never learn that much knew information, but I am learning from the class. I have grown up with at least one close friend or someone I could consider a confidant at all times and often more than one. We were asked today to think of a time when we approached someone for help and felt like they just blew us off. Minus minor occurrences of little importance, I honestly was having a hard time thinking of a time this had happened. I do not know if it is a function of good hindsight in choosing who to approach or if I have simply been blessed with good people in my life. The women in my class had no trouble thinking of instances. We did not discuss the instances, but rather talked about how those people made us feel or what they did wrong. It was really eye opening to discover these basic principles of honesty, empathy, listening and caring are truly not instinctive for many people. It was a good lesson and insight to life.
Finally, tonight was my first basketball game. I was placed as third string, seeing that we had 13 guys playing. However, they finally put me in to guard the other team’s big guy. You must understand I am not the tallest or by any means the best offensive player, but I do love playing physical defense. The word physical is not in the vocabulary of European basketball. This big guy was probably only two inches taller than me, but weighed, I am guessing, 270 pounds. Unfortunately for him a lot of this weight was in his upper body and not lower. He scored ten points in the first quarter, however I held him to two points the rest of the game. I think I threw him off guard when I accidentally knocked him to the ground on a rebound. He was not use to getting pushed around. Believe it or not I actually had a decent offensive game as well. I managed to score seven of our sixty-five points. My brother should know I was three for four from the line. As a team we did not play so well. We had a whole lot more talent than their squad, but only won the game by fifteen points. I guess we have only played together for ten days.
Well, I have to go for now. If you are interested I attended a Bible Study last night that had me a little frustrated. We talked about truth from Ephesians, but we neglected to talk about whom the letter was written to, why, and its implications. We simply sugar coated the fact that God loves us. My rant can be found on Jonathan’s blog youareholy.com or colossiansonetwentytwo.blogspot.com
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Busy Weekend
I have had an incredible weekend. Friday I more or less took it pretty easy and just spent some time resting up. I attended the Aberdeen Christian Union, here by referred to as the CU, in the evening. I had an absolutely wonderful time. The message was a little bit all over the place, but the fellowship and time of musical worship was wonderful. It is becoming more and more evident that the basics have to be taught here over and over. It has little to do with the fact that people don’t understand, but more to do with the fact that there are so many brand new Christians. It is quite wonderful.
Saturday I slept in and then made myself some lunch. I eat pretty well most of the time, but at times I eat things that would make most people nauseous. Saturday’s lunch was an example of that. I had two tuna and Nutella sandwiches. For those of you who are yet to have Nutella in the states; it is basically chocolate peanut butter made with hazelnuts. I very much enjoyed this high protein sandwich.
I then headed to the park to play some ultimate Frisbee. It was so nice. They actually have a team, that competes, but the park time is for both the team and anyone that just wants to hangout. After almost two and a half hours of Frisbee I was exhausted. I came back home and got ready to go out with two of my friends. We went to a local Pub called the Bobbin to watch Scotland beat Italy to go to the quarter finals of the world cup in Rugby. It was so exciting.
This morning I went to my third church. It was called Oasis. I had a fantastic time. The preaching was not the best I have heard, but I was quite touched during the music. I had been giving some thought to how we approach God. During this service the children walk around or sit in the back and color. When it comes time for the message they leave for children’s service. The band is to the left and there is nothing in the center during the message. Therefore an 18th month old boy decided to crawl up to the alter and sit and wave at people. While I know he had no idea what he was doing, all he desired was to sit as close to the front as he could. It was truly a picture of approaching Christ like a child on our knees, just begging to here him speak.
The rest of my day flew by. I read a little and took a brief nap before going to basketball practice. We had a new coach show up and he had us run a lot. Maybe guys will learn to listen better. It was a good practice though and I really am feeling like a student here.
The one thing that could use prayer are my flat mates. I do not know where all of them stand on Christianity, however I know at least two of them and maybe three of them are going to attend a class called Alpha tomorrow night. It is designed to introduce people to Christianity. They serve a free dinner (always good) and then have a short lesson. It will run the next ten weeks. My prayer is that is sparks some incredible conversation in the flat. Well, that is all for now. I am tired and am going to go eat my pizza dinner.
Also a quick shout out to all of my pledges at Wabash. I have really enjoyed all of the Homecoming pictures. It looks as if you all did as well as Wabash did at stomping Earlham. Just wait Depauw, it won't be pretty.
Saturday I slept in and then made myself some lunch. I eat pretty well most of the time, but at times I eat things that would make most people nauseous. Saturday’s lunch was an example of that. I had two tuna and Nutella sandwiches. For those of you who are yet to have Nutella in the states; it is basically chocolate peanut butter made with hazelnuts. I very much enjoyed this high protein sandwich.
I then headed to the park to play some ultimate Frisbee. It was so nice. They actually have a team, that competes, but the park time is for both the team and anyone that just wants to hangout. After almost two and a half hours of Frisbee I was exhausted. I came back home and got ready to go out with two of my friends. We went to a local Pub called the Bobbin to watch Scotland beat Italy to go to the quarter finals of the world cup in Rugby. It was so exciting.
This morning I went to my third church. It was called Oasis. I had a fantastic time. The preaching was not the best I have heard, but I was quite touched during the music. I had been giving some thought to how we approach God. During this service the children walk around or sit in the back and color. When it comes time for the message they leave for children’s service. The band is to the left and there is nothing in the center during the message. Therefore an 18th month old boy decided to crawl up to the alter and sit and wave at people. While I know he had no idea what he was doing, all he desired was to sit as close to the front as he could. It was truly a picture of approaching Christ like a child on our knees, just begging to here him speak.
The rest of my day flew by. I read a little and took a brief nap before going to basketball practice. We had a new coach show up and he had us run a lot. Maybe guys will learn to listen better. It was a good practice though and I really am feeling like a student here.
The one thing that could use prayer are my flat mates. I do not know where all of them stand on Christianity, however I know at least two of them and maybe three of them are going to attend a class called Alpha tomorrow night. It is designed to introduce people to Christianity. They serve a free dinner (always good) and then have a short lesson. It will run the next ten weeks. My prayer is that is sparks some incredible conversation in the flat. Well, that is all for now. I am tired and am going to go eat my pizza dinner.
Also a quick shout out to all of my pledges at Wabash. I have really enjoyed all of the Homecoming pictures. It looks as if you all did as well as Wabash did at stomping Earlham. Just wait Depauw, it won't be pretty.
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