What a nutsy week!
No, ridiculous is more like it, and only 3 days so far... It's been a week of intense things happening and intense spiritual growth. That growth stems from certain events and from my strengthened commitment to remain in daily and constant communication with God [1 Thess. 5:17].
Monday after Geometry I entered the SUB and caught the news on the televisions and saw semicircles of students whose jaws dropped and whose phones immediately left their pockets and were used to contact VT loved ones and leave the message, "Yo man, I saw your school on the news... let me know if you're okay."
And I called CJ and I texted him, although the busy signal gave me hope that he was answering others' dozens of phone calls [but I still worried about him all day until I found out he was fine]. Stressful flippin' day. What was great was that we'd been carrying on a prayer vigil at the Christopher House [pre-planned], so we dedicated a lot of that time asking for strength, comfort, healing, and salvation. The Lord will bind up those broken hearts [Isaiah 61:1]
Yesterday Brandon and I drove out into the boondocks to Chaney's house. After visiting his home/property I see in him the persona of George Ohr. Maybe I will be the female version of this someday. We spent 5 hours throwing logs into this massive kiln [every 10 minutes] and watching the pyrometer move from 1000 to 1275. Go us. Re-stoking the fire every 10 minutes for 5 days straight is what causes a bit of hallucination from insomnia and aloneness and repetition.
Home Group included Levi's testimony and Jason's "12 Steps to Being a Successful Christian". Following Home Group was a Bible study that led to some big topics and decisions. 2 Peter 1, why-does-everyone-associate-Christianity-with-right-wing-politics-and-vice-versa?, and eventually to standing out on campus as Christians. It seems to me that the KU view of 'what Christians are' is [or was, up until today] that we are polite people who don't use curse words and won't go out to the bar with you on a Friday night. Pretty tame. Pretty lame. The discussion that ensued was about how we wanted to stand out, not for ourselves, but for Christ. We know that doing "little things" and having "good conversations" are baby steps in the right direction, but they are not enough. Conclusively we decided that we had to do something radical, which led to planning a tenative finals-week "giving" event that will really show Christ's love for people - real love, not literature. We want to be radically different and not absorbed into the culture of this generation [Romans 12:2]. We want to have an impact and show that the church [universal, catholic with a little 'c'] truly has a heart that reaches out to all.
Ironically, today was met with a near-riot situation, which made me feel very cool, sort of like student protests during the Vietnam War when people cared about things. Today was the "Day of Silence" for Allies [the campus gay/lesbian group] to show their stance against abuse against "gays". Individuals took a vow of silence - I suppose to indicate that someone else had lost their voice through a hate-crime related death. An anti-violence day, that's good.
A fundamentalist group [not student-led or even local] had decided to visit the campus at the same time. Their agenda was to spread the Gospel by claiming the sinfulness of homosexuality, letting the Allies know that they could be freed from it through Jesus. Truthful. Biblical. However, the signs that said "Jesus or Hell" were rather threatening. True, but ridiculously unloving and putting everyone's hearts and minds on the defence against the Gospel for sure. And of course, information was misconstrued as is was passed on through the rumour mill on campus. "Homosexuality is a sin" posters transformed by verbal passage into "God hates gays". Clearly not what the group was saying. However, if they're going to use signs and shouting into a crowd, the defensive screen in their ears will change what is being said, as will the "telephone" game that lets everyone hear exaggerated stories of what really happened.
Even more worrying about the tendency of rumours is that a friend of mine in Chicago left this message:
Nathan (6:10:05 PM): hey kayfrinters; you weren't involved in the "homosexuality is a sin" and the "repent or perish" nutjob rally at Kutztown, were you?
Nathan (6:15:30 PM): juuust wondering. Heard about it today. Also, yay for CJ being okay.
Nate! How'd you hear about this, eh?
We spoke to one of the group - a young lady, whose heart was truly concerned for the Allies individuals. She spoke her love and Christ's love for them; she sincerely did not want them to go to hell. So at least for her part, it was an act of love indeed, but it was carried out in an incredibly ineffective way.
Since it was the Day of Silence, the Allies would not talk back to the sign-carriers. Rather than shout at them and draw a cursing crowd, I'd have taken the opportunity to really talk to the Allies one-on-one. I've done a vow of silence day myself [for DUI victims] and let me tell you, it gives you a lot more time for listening. Because of this, I'd have pulled aside one or two of the Allies and said, "You know this Jesus guy... He doesn't want you to be damned, He really loves you. For serious." It would have been a great opportunity to share God's love with people who don't know who He is. But now their view of God or of Christians has been turned into one of hate because of the hurt they received from a harsh message given in an impersonal way.
The other half of the fundamentalist group was protesting abortion. I have no idea why they decided to protest abortion during this day. I realise that this group decided to protest homosexuality on a day recognising homosexual individuals who died from hate crimes, but why abortion as well? Strange... Anyway, people were offended that they chose the Day of Silence to protest homosexuality, but clearly that was an intentional decision. Perhaps because the fundamentalist group wanted to prevent people from going to hell, they chose a day that marked when people died? A lot of people believe this was not at all in good taste in consideration of Monday's events at Virginia Tech. It's a sensitive week for everyone.
Everyone gave their opinions on the almost-riot, whether they were there or not. I think if you just 'heard about it', you really don't need to speak on it. That just creates more rumours and distortions on what really happened.
Tonight concluded with a delicious dinner by Ed, a quick meeting with JB to debrief the week, a candlelight vigil service for the Tech victims, and a good long conversation with Ally on some good things. We both agree there needs to be more Christian male leadership, however, our campus is lacking Christian males! And then! We had an explosive time of prayer and fellowship and excitement in the chapel. Vanessa, Kathy, Missy, Elisa and I sang songs of praise to our God, we prayed over VTech and our campus for healing, and we just enjoyed being with each other. The presence of strong and beautiful women who are in love with Jesus is almost an overwhelming comfort. Elisa has such an on-fire heart for spreading the Good News that people can be saved, and we all agree that it must be done in a loving way on a personal level.
And it is so good to come in and be calm at the end of a day of insanity, and worship loudly or quietly and be still and know that He is God. [Psalm 46:10] Even through the storm, He'll carry us through to peace. I'd thought that colleges across the East Coast would turn to the Lord after the tragedy, but now that Kutztown has been "attacked" in a way [the devil putting a wall around students' hearts after today] it will take more time. However, as Elisa said, "every time Satan tries to shut a door, God opens it even more", and Brandon seems to believe that now that soil has been plowed [however treacherously], it's time to plant seeds.
"I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."
[Isaiah 46:4]
Monday after Geometry I entered the SUB and caught the news on the televisions and saw semicircles of students whose jaws dropped and whose phones immediately left their pockets and were used to contact VT loved ones and leave the message, "Yo man, I saw your school on the news... let me know if you're okay."
And I called CJ and I texted him, although the busy signal gave me hope that he was answering others' dozens of phone calls [but I still worried about him all day until I found out he was fine]. Stressful flippin' day. What was great was that we'd been carrying on a prayer vigil at the Christopher House [pre-planned], so we dedicated a lot of that time asking for strength, comfort, healing, and salvation. The Lord will bind up those broken hearts [Isaiah 61:1]
Yesterday Brandon and I drove out into the boondocks to Chaney's house. After visiting his home/property I see in him the persona of George Ohr. Maybe I will be the female version of this someday. We spent 5 hours throwing logs into this massive kiln [every 10 minutes] and watching the pyrometer move from 1000 to 1275. Go us. Re-stoking the fire every 10 minutes for 5 days straight is what causes a bit of hallucination from insomnia and aloneness and repetition.
Home Group included Levi's testimony and Jason's "12 Steps to Being a Successful Christian". Following Home Group was a Bible study that led to some big topics and decisions. 2 Peter 1, why-does-everyone-associate-Christianity-with-right-wing-politics-and-vice-versa?, and eventually to standing out on campus as Christians. It seems to me that the KU view of 'what Christians are' is [or was, up until today] that we are polite people who don't use curse words and won't go out to the bar with you on a Friday night. Pretty tame. Pretty lame. The discussion that ensued was about how we wanted to stand out, not for ourselves, but for Christ. We know that doing "little things" and having "good conversations" are baby steps in the right direction, but they are not enough. Conclusively we decided that we had to do something radical, which led to planning a tenative finals-week "giving" event that will really show Christ's love for people - real love, not literature. We want to be radically different and not absorbed into the culture of this generation [Romans 12:2]. We want to have an impact and show that the church [universal, catholic with a little 'c'] truly has a heart that reaches out to all.
Ironically, today was met with a near-riot situation, which made me feel very cool, sort of like student protests during the Vietnam War when people cared about things. Today was the "Day of Silence" for Allies [the campus gay/lesbian group] to show their stance against abuse against "gays". Individuals took a vow of silence - I suppose to indicate that someone else had lost their voice through a hate-crime related death. An anti-violence day, that's good.
A fundamentalist group [not student-led or even local] had decided to visit the campus at the same time. Their agenda was to spread the Gospel by claiming the sinfulness of homosexuality, letting the Allies know that they could be freed from it through Jesus. Truthful. Biblical. However, the signs that said "Jesus or Hell" were rather threatening. True, but ridiculously unloving and putting everyone's hearts and minds on the defence against the Gospel for sure. And of course, information was misconstrued as is was passed on through the rumour mill on campus. "Homosexuality is a sin" posters transformed by verbal passage into "God hates gays". Clearly not what the group was saying. However, if they're going to use signs and shouting into a crowd, the defensive screen in their ears will change what is being said, as will the "telephone" game that lets everyone hear exaggerated stories of what really happened.
Even more worrying about the tendency of rumours is that a friend of mine in Chicago left this message:
Nathan (6:10:05 PM): hey kayfrinters; you weren't involved in the "homosexuality is a sin" and the "repent or perish" nutjob rally at Kutztown, were you?
Nathan (6:15:30 PM): juuust wondering. Heard about it today. Also, yay for CJ being okay.
Nate! How'd you hear about this, eh?
We spoke to one of the group - a young lady, whose heart was truly concerned for the Allies individuals. She spoke her love and Christ's love for them; she sincerely did not want them to go to hell. So at least for her part, it was an act of love indeed, but it was carried out in an incredibly ineffective way.
Since it was the Day of Silence, the Allies would not talk back to the sign-carriers. Rather than shout at them and draw a cursing crowd, I'd have taken the opportunity to really talk to the Allies one-on-one. I've done a vow of silence day myself [for DUI victims] and let me tell you, it gives you a lot more time for listening. Because of this, I'd have pulled aside one or two of the Allies and said, "You know this Jesus guy... He doesn't want you to be damned, He really loves you. For serious." It would have been a great opportunity to share God's love with people who don't know who He is. But now their view of God or of Christians has been turned into one of hate because of the hurt they received from a harsh message given in an impersonal way.
The other half of the fundamentalist group was protesting abortion. I have no idea why they decided to protest abortion during this day. I realise that this group decided to protest homosexuality on a day recognising homosexual individuals who died from hate crimes, but why abortion as well? Strange... Anyway, people were offended that they chose the Day of Silence to protest homosexuality, but clearly that was an intentional decision. Perhaps because the fundamentalist group wanted to prevent people from going to hell, they chose a day that marked when people died? A lot of people believe this was not at all in good taste in consideration of Monday's events at Virginia Tech. It's a sensitive week for everyone.
Everyone gave their opinions on the almost-riot, whether they were there or not. I think if you just 'heard about it', you really don't need to speak on it. That just creates more rumours and distortions on what really happened.
Tonight concluded with a delicious dinner by Ed, a quick meeting with JB to debrief the week, a candlelight vigil service for the Tech victims, and a good long conversation with Ally on some good things. We both agree there needs to be more Christian male leadership, however, our campus is lacking Christian males! And then! We had an explosive time of prayer and fellowship and excitement in the chapel. Vanessa, Kathy, Missy, Elisa and I sang songs of praise to our God, we prayed over VTech and our campus for healing, and we just enjoyed being with each other. The presence of strong and beautiful women who are in love with Jesus is almost an overwhelming comfort. Elisa has such an on-fire heart for spreading the Good News that people can be saved, and we all agree that it must be done in a loving way on a personal level.
And it is so good to come in and be calm at the end of a day of insanity, and worship loudly or quietly and be still and know that He is God. [Psalm 46:10] Even through the storm, He'll carry us through to peace. I'd thought that colleges across the East Coast would turn to the Lord after the tragedy, but now that Kutztown has been "attacked" in a way [the devil putting a wall around students' hearts after today] it will take more time. However, as Elisa said, "every time Satan tries to shut a door, God opens it even more", and Brandon seems to believe that now that soil has been plowed [however treacherously], it's time to plant seeds.
"I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."
[Isaiah 46:4]