Holy Homework Batman!!
Today is day three of Introduction to Missions: History of Missions and oh my. What have I gotten myself into?! Last night’s homework was 33 pages of reading from Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, a written response on one of the articles, and prepep for the test tomorrow (which is three memory verses and 40 match the verse with the reference questions). And today (as well as the night before) look just as busy! Wow. Was college always like this? How did I have time to hang out with my friends so much? How did I do mutiple part time jobs? True, I still have time to hang out with my little guy and do my work study job (called practical training here) but just barely.
And my class break is over so it’s back to class for me!
Community
My favourite thing about this school (and our missions agency too) is the communal lifestyle they live. Here on campus live not just students but faculty, staff, and a multitude of retired missionaries. The retirees live in the building just across the courtyard from us. Next to that is the building where the stafflive with their families. The result is an incredible age range with the youngest community member still being in utero and the oldest being well over 90. I think it’s a beautiful picture of how the church should be. All these people not just living in proximity to each other but interacting together. They share meals in the main dining room, attend Wednesday chapel together, work alongside each other (many of the retirees still volunteer at the same campus jobs the workstudy students do), play together. Last night after one of the elderly residents passed away (in his sleep after a busy day working on the playground) they all morned together, standing out in the moonlight singing hymns, comforting each other, and celebrating his journey home. It was sweet and sad and beautiful.
First Class
So, I thought I wrote this post and saved it as a draft but it’s no where to be found (I probably forgot to hit the save button or something). Anyway, last Friday was my first class. Now you may wonder how I only just went to class when orientation ended a week ago. Let me explain.
Four days of the week classes here are run in 3 week modules. The way our program works M and I spilt the module classes so one of us can always be home with K. He’s taking the first module. Then I’m taking two. Then he’s taking one. Next semester he should only have to take one and I’ll take the rest.
Friday is different though. There’s a class everyone has to take called Spiritual Formation 101 which ties into their mentoring program. They discuss a topic (this week they just went over class policies) or have a guest speaker and after class we meet in groups to discuss how the topic pertains to our lives, our goals, how God’s been leading us this semester. This week we went over introductions and our testimonies. I found out I’ll have a weekend retreat this semester with my group of ladies. I’m assuming K is invited too. Everyone here absolutely loves him though I don’t know how much praying/introspection I’ll get done with my little sidekick distracting me.
And I got homework! My first homework in over five years! I have to read Psalm 119 out loud and write a journal entry about it. If it’s something exciting I’ll post it here. If it’s a lot of rambling to fill the page I’ll spare you all.
Getting Outdoors and Church Hunting
I can’t believe we’ve only been here a week. It seems like so much longer!
This weekend was gorgeous so we took the opportunity to get out in God’s great creation! We went raspberry picking (yay for pesticide-free, U-Pick farms), canoeing, exploring an amazing playground, and M even got in a hike while K and I took a nap. It was a busy but wonderful Saturday!
Then Sunday we visited two churches. The first was an international church with a big South Asian population. I remember almost nothing about it as K decided it was a great time to be discontent and super squirmy. :/ Then in the evening (after making a batch of freezer jam to save the berries from dying a moldy death) we visited a holistic Christian community. It was SO cool! It was like hanging out with all our hippy friends back home except they’d all become Christians. It was really family friendly. Everyone sat on couches and kids could just wander around. There was even a fenced off section for those with wild running toddlers and one for crawlers. During the discussion they offered a play/music and movement time for the 18mo-5yr olds in another room which K joined happily so I actually got to listen! They are just starting a series on Genesis so it’s a great time to join them and I’m really excited to hear this pastor’s spin on it. We’ll definately be back!