Musings and Generic Updates

(Sunset over Jasper, Oregon, from a not-as-mountainy-as-some-mountains mountain right next to the ARISE campus)

We've come to the end of our second week here at ARISE - first full week of classes . . . and already I feel like I have attempted to get a drink of water from a fire hose, as one person has described it. The classes here are fantastic and the instructors are powerfully opening up words of Truth, but it is overwhelming, to say the least . . . I picture someone trying to take a shower in a hurricane storm.

We begin our morning class at 9:30, and it goes until 1:30, at which time lunch is served. During those four hours, we are going through the "meat" of the ARISE classes - The Story, as they are calling it. This year, and for all proceeding years, rather than presenting various topics and subjects outside of a greater context, the ARISE directors and instructors have organized the entire semester into a chronological story - or meta-narrative, if you will. The seven stages of the story are pre-creation, creation, fall, covenant, messiah, church, and re-creation. All of the studies we will be doing in the morning fit into these chapters - ultimately painting the entire story of redemption in a thorough, chronological, and beautiful way. We're just about to finish up our pre-creation lectures, which have included topics like "Who is God" (a Trinity study), "How did we get the Bible," and some others.

The afternoon lectures are more about the practicality of that greater story in our own personal lives . . . how to share it. So, the morning is "The Story," and the afternoons are, "The Telling." The afternoon classes are only two hours (3:30-5:30), so they're not as taxing on the butt and droopy eyelids after consuming awesome vegan lunches by our very own chef. The experience here so far has been a real blessing. The people are incredible. They're here from all over the world - USA, the South (which always deserves its very own special mentioning in my mind), Canada, England, Australia, Austria, Venezuela, etc. . . . and yet somehow we have all experienced the Truth and beauty of the same Gospel in the same Person. He is the common denominator. And somehow all of a sudden, we all feel we've known each other our whole lives, as His story continues to become ours. I don't think I'm used to being around so many people who are seeking God so deeply all at once. It's a little overwhelming at first. Truly devout Christians usually have the natural assumption that they are the minority - sadly the reality even in our own denominational institutions - but here I often tend to feel like everyone else has everything together so much better than I do. I just reread the last phrase of that sentence and was somewhat displeased with its grammatical structure, but oh well.

Almost every night, we all gather together and just sing and play guitars, violins, piano, and whatever else for like two hours . . . I've never been in the presence of so many people who know every hymn and every verse and sing as loudly as these. It's quite nice. It makes me really miss my musical family and my close friends . . . Matthew would eat this up. I've spent a lot of time doing music with our dean, Matt Minikus, who's quite a big name in Adventist music. I've really enjoyed learning what I can from him . . . specifically alternate tunings, to unleash the wave of possibilities of Grandfather, as I so affectionately call my guitar, due to its low, rich timbre that reminds you of a grandfather telling a long, melancholy, droned story. His help has been awesome . . . and anyone reading this should definitely check out his music on iTunes! . . . He has a lot of good stuff - I recommend "Song of the Martyr." . . . the name, again, is Matt Minikus.

I started typing this update last weekend, and I got carried away with nonsense things and left my work unfinished. It is now Tuesday night, and I will try to bring this to a sufficient cut-off point.

We start outreach this week. I am excited . . . but I'm nervous. I was talking to someone I really admire, and she was saying that it's really nobody's instinctive nature to want to go up to a door and say, "Hi, do you want to do Bible studies?!" . . . It sounds dumb. But it's true. That's not easy. But I'm excited about this opportunity to be pushed to a point that I believe no one can really feel comfortable. How can I pray for experiences like Moses, Joshua, and Gideon if I will never put myself in situations of complete God-dependency like they constantly found themselves in? How can any of us really come to trust God with everything - not just the parts we want to give, but the parts that we cherish as much as our life - if we are unwilling to subject ourselves to moments of potential failure? Ridicule? . . . So . . . here goes. Thursday afternoon we're goin' a-knockin'. Look out, Eugene, Oregon! I know God will lead and bless and reap the harvest that He desires regardless of the ineptness of this sower.

Pray for Egypt and the Middle East. How clearly we see the echoes of Abraham's failure. I look forward to the day that all spiritual sons of Abraham are gathered forever to the Kingdom, with all ethnic and ancestral distinctions having vanished in the blood of the Lamb.

Exciting pieces of useless information:
- All of the ARISE staff are obsessed with disc golf. There is a huge course on campus.
- It is feasible to eat an entire meal of fruit just by going for a walk on the huge campus: apple trees, plumb trees, pear trees, blackberry bushes, and much more
- All our meals are vegan, but could bury 50-80% of non-vegan meals instantly.
- One of my friends that I made here (one of the interns) completely stole Andrew Price's voice!!! (to those who make the connection)
- My towels stink
- J. Rosario wears Crocs every day . . . every day . . . every day
- David Asscherick is funnier in a classroom setting than when he preaches, his whole family are ultimate frisbee fiends, and he has agreed to wrestle with me before the semester is over.


May God's road rise up to meet you
May the wind be ever at your back
And may sorrow never find your door

(Some of the crew, climbing the "mountain" on our first day)



To check out some of Matt and Josie Minikus' music, check out this website:
http://www.lightbearers.org/songs-of-ascent/