thirty-nine theses (27)
- Posted by under Life at Bethel
- Friday January 30th, 2009
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Strong Opinion #27:
This is one of the worst constructed sentences I’ve ever read (from A Secular Age by Charels Taylor).
“Thus among some peoples, agents fall into trance-like conditions which are understood as possession; among others (sometimes the same ones), powerful portentous dreams occur to certain people, among others, shamans feel themselves to have been transported to a higher world, with others again, surprising cures are effected in certain conditions; and so on.”
The rest of the paragragh doesn’t improve things.
With February approaching, and being a single lady, I’m wondering how many of us get frustrated with the 14th? It’s not bitterness; it’s just that for me, it’s not Valentine’s, it’s more like “Single Awareness Day,” just a huge elephant-in-the-room-type ‘holiday’ that says, “Hey, you’re not getting flowers or candy from a significant other…” And then I remember, even though I’m not getting those presents that make you sneeze with allergies or add 10 pounds, I’ve got some great friends here that are just like me. Shupe is even holding a chocolate fondue party for all the singles :)
You’re probably asking yourself what the purpose of this post is. Why am I writing about Single Awareness Day on a Bethel blog? I guess just to remind myself that even with all the couples on campus, I can be content in who I am because my identity rests in Christ, my ultimate groom.
Even talking to some single Bethel girls, it’s clear that Bethel is the place where people feel it’s the time in their life to find a mate because it’s a Christian school and there are people on fire for Christ you can marry. But I know that even with the stigma of Christian colleges, God is ultimately in control of our future. If he wants us married at 20, he’ll provide. If he wants us married at 45, he’ll provide. If he never calls us to get married, he is faithful and like it says in Isaiah 55, his ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. He’s got great things planned for those that are celebrating Valentine’s Day with that special person. But I know that for those of us who aren’t celebrating with a significant other this year, we can be confident that we can celebrate love every day when we have Christ, who loves us perfectly.
No matter what, I pray this V-Day finds you loving God first and putting him above the excitement of chocolate and roses or the disappointment of lack thereof. God’s faithful. He’s going to provide. Our identity lies in Him, which means we can trust Him with everything we are.
Tell someone you love them today. A distant family member. A hurting friend. Someone. Go out and cherish the loved ones in your life.
The plan:
Take a 12-hr coach bus down to Lagos. Coach bus or maybe taxi across to Benin. Stay a day and night in Cotonou, Benin. Take Coach bus to Ghana. Then spend 5-6 days along the coast at a couple inexpensive places. Finally, we’d fly back from Accra to Abuja and have a friend drive us back to Jos the following day. Pretty seemless plans, right?
WRONG!!
Pre-Departure
*When trying to book our flights, we discovered Nigeria’s infamy for online fraud…the websites wouldn’t accept our credit cards.
*A week before we were supposed to leave, our return flight was unexpectedly and inexplicably cancelled. Other flights from Accra to Abuja were nearly double the price so we thought we’d come back by land to Lagos, then take the direct flight from there to Jos.
*After receiving back our passports with the Ghana visas on Christmas Eve (less than 2 days before departure date), we discovered that Corinne’s was not in the mix. Thankfully, it had just been left in the copier machine at our friend’s work so he made an early morning delivery the next day. Merry Christmas!
ETD was 7am on Dec. 26th. Giddy with anticipation, all 8 of us get dropped off at the bus station @ 6:45…where we’d spend the next 4 hours WAITING for our bus to show up. They kept saying over the loud speaker, “Thank you for your patience thus far. The bus is coming…”
Waiting at the bus station...
Once arriving in Lagos, I sought about securing transportation for the rest of the trip to Ghana (couldn’t be done in Jos). Found out that the Ghana borders would be closed for the next 2 days. Consequently, no buses were leaving till then and those were already full.
Arranged for taxis to take us across the border to Cotonou at the price tag of a HUGE chunk of the cash we had on hand.
* One taxi breaks down 500 meters from the Benin border. Nigerian “immigration officers” harassed us every 10 meters for the last mile before the border. We got all kinds of threats and attempts to intimidate us but I knew at the end of the day that THEY couldn’t keep us from leaving the country. Basically, they were just looking for a little “happy Christmas” (= a few bucks). Seemed that anyone in possession of a large stick or board with nails on it were part of the border patrol and entitled to a dash. I’m considering using this tactic next time I need to raise funds.
Benin (and Togo) are French-speaking countries…and about 1.5 people in our group spoke fluent French.
* Needed to find the bus company to get tickets, departure time, etc. Dana, Matt and I spent 2.5 hours cruising the streets of Cotonou on a motorbike nearly in vain, until we came upon this obscure sign with ABC Transport in 10pt font. We did enjoy the beach for 1 day though…
140 km from Accra, Ghana, in a little village called Dabala, our reliable van makes some horrifying, wrenching, clutch-breaking noise, and then proceeds to leak coolant as we roll back. When our driver lifts the seat to look at the engine (it’s one of those Toyota vans with an engine under the front seat), he pops the radiator cap and causes Old Faithful to spew all over the front of the van.
At the Togo border, we got charged an extra 5,000 CFA for not speaking French…totally lame!!! We were all over the edge but not to worry an auntie who was riding in the front seat decided to buy a Dolly Parton cd at the border and the driver put it in cranked it up and as soon as we heard Jolene…Jooolleeene, we all looked at each other and wanted to jump out the windows!!
By some miracle, we’re able to get the van started again, and crawl all the way to Accra in 3rd gear, at a rate of 60kmph.
Against all, and I do mean, ALL odds, we made it Accra, Ghana. From there, things started to improve, but then again, how could they not?!? Here’s a sample of verses we quoted to each other throughout this leg of the trip:
The celebrating began as we crossed the border!!! INSANE
Streamlining across the Ghana border
Bus Stop
what a great border sign...
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” –Rom. 5:3-5
Thanks Rene for your entry…now back to me
After staying the night with a family in Accra we headed to our final destination…only 4 days later, hahaha! Big Milly’s Backyard! Ahhhh it even has a nice ring to it. We pulled up and we were in Rastafarian heaven, with tiki huts all over right on the beach, it was awesome!! We all stayed in one house together and enjoyed the beach and killer waves for a few days. They had great food that you preordered before dinner, and of course all kinds of tasty treats you could buy on the beach like a whole pineapple they would cut for you for only $1.
Yeah this was the sign to get to Big Milly
Our house at Big Milly
- Our house at Big Milly
A little ping pong action with our rasta friends!
Restaurant and entrance to beach!
Rene and I after playing soccer with the locals...we were dead!
Playing Settlers on our balcony...Looks like Matt is smokin a water bong...
fishing boats at Big Milly
New Years Day was crazy for some reason we will never know!
New Years Eve was kinda a rollercoaster of events…it started with the beach party including a massive buffett, live band and all that came with it. After eating, 5 of us decided to take a walk on the beach at about 11pm…after walking about a mile and taking silly pictures in the sand…we headed back to Big Milly’s…this is when things started to go down hill once again…a group of 4 guys came down from the side of the beach and took 2 of us down in attempts to get any valuables we might have on us…in a matter of seconds they got a camera and phone, cause that’s all we had and then after some fighting and yelling they ran and we sprinted all the way back. We were all in complete shock and a bit freaked out, but so thankful that no one was injured and we were safe. Of course this kinda killed the mood and so we went back to gather ourselves and talk and pray . At midnight we could hear the fireworks and celebrating so we decided to go back for a few moments to bring in the new year. Most of the group wanted to go back to the house and just relax and sleep but a few of us wanted to dance! So of course I would be in that group! I think I danced for 1 1/2 hours nonstop while sweating like a maniac because we were right near the ginormous bon fire! I guess its clear to see how I deal with trauma!
On our way into the slave castle
A good view of the slave castle
The church...how they could worship I cannot fathom
On top of the castle
local kids trying to get money from us by writing our name on a shell then giving it to us
I wonder what this guy did to get this position....
Elmina is a fishing village obviously
So let me move onto a lighter subject…liiiiiiiiiike swinging through the treetops of the rain forest on rope bridges! The next day we did a canopy tour and ummmm lets just say awesome and exhilarating! THe pictures dont do justice! You have to wonder how well they are maintained though, because that is something most countries here struggle with…hahaha! What a great way to go though…free falling through the jungle right into the arms of Jesus…I could handle that:)
swinging in the treetops was awwwwweeeesome!!!
Getting ready to fight if this monkey attacked!!!
Hans Botel...aka Crocodile Lagoon
Trying to touch the croc...until the lady yelled at me!!
So we then left for Accra and met back up with the Sonuis’s for another great meal and a place to sleep. Our flight left for Lagos the next day and how good it felt to be getting on a plane!!! Sooooo after night in Lagos and hoping another plane to Jos we finally made it back! I never thought it would feel so good to be back on the Plateau! So there you have it a small chapter of my Christmas break that I will never forget!!!
Bye Bye Ghana...heading to the airport...
Christmas dinner with my girls
Raglan, New Zealand
Raglan beach
Riding the zip line late at night
Sunset over the Tasman Sea
Now back at Laidlaw College, our “home”, we are back to the books! We are however looking forward to the 2nd of February when we’ll be taking a 4 day excursion to the Bay of Islands.
I am happy to say that over the weekend we were able to get away from Chinese characters for awhile. However I regret to inform you that while we were gone over the weekend, we all managed to pick up some extreme sun burn and burnt feet. I do realize that it is very cold back in the states and that I am most likely not going to get much sympathy for my sunburn. Over the weekend we went to Raglan which is a small little town that sits pretty close to a beach. The sand at this beach is black and is therefore extremely hot. On both Friday and Saturday, I managed to burn two layers of skin off of my feet. I know that sounds impossible but this sand is like walking on fire. You may be thinking “Oh wow Amanda, you have walked on fire?” Well the answer is no but I am sure walking on black sand would be very similar to walking on fire. On Satuday night we went a cliff that overlooked the ocean and watched the sunset.
The sunset over the ocean in Raglan
On Sunday, we headed to Rotorua which is where we attended the Parachute Festival. This festival is the largest Christian concert in New Zealand. It’s a four day concert with many different bands. Some big name Christian bands that were there included Kutless, David Crowder Band, and Casting Crowns. It was a pretty awesome concert and to top it off, a bunch of us got autographs from David Crowder Band. We actually ended up talking to the band for a bit because they were so excited that we were from America too (they are from Texas). They asked us what we were doing in NZ and also if we had tried any New Zealand food. The discussion about food led into a discussion about Chipotle which we all agreed that we missed terribly.
David Crowder Band
Well that is about it for now. We only have two more classes of Chinese class!!
A borrowed opinion:
#26 “Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” (F. Scott Fitzerald)
Right on, F. Scott!
Some meta-opinions:
22. I don’t have enough strong opinions to write thirty-nine interesting theses.
23. In my opinion, being opinionated is not a good thing.
24. Having a strong opinion about opinions qualifies one to be entertained, and not just angered, by the Opinion page of the daily newspaper.
25. Having an opinion about strong opinions about opinions approaches absurdism.
Well!! We are finally here in New Zealand. We were in Beijing, China for a few days but now we are in New Zealand until the end of February. There are 17 of us total in our group as well as Brent (the Pac Rim director) and Matt (our Ministry teacher). So far I think we are all adjusting well to the difference in lifestyle. A lot of things are backwards though.
- Temperature is kept in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit.
- People drive on the other side of the car (our passenger side)
- Cars drive on the other side of the road. Because of this, you have to make sure to look both ways CAREFULLY before crossing the street. (We hear this is how many tourists die…we are taking every necessary precaution.)
- All the cars are manual stick shifts whereas in “the states” we have the option of what kind of car we want to drive.
- Parking lots=car parks.
- Garbage=rubbish.
- All the prices on items are rounded meaning they do not use pennies or nickels.
- Tax is already included in the item you are buying, so the price you see is what you will pay.
- The water comes out of two faucets-one for hot and one for cold.
- There are no screens on any of the windows.
- The ozone layer is a big problem here. Every morning on the news there is a burn time given which tells you how long it will take to burn if you are outside (the other day it was 11 minutes!) SUNSCREEN is huge here!
- The basketball hoops at the college we are staying at have no backboard (this could just be a technicality with the basketball hoops at this particular place.)
- Distance is measured in kilometers instead of miles.
Well that’s it for now!! I have an overwhelming amount of Chinese characters waiting to be memorized!
The view of Auckland from the top of Mount Eden
Me with Auckland behind me
Typical procrastinating. This always gets me in a good mood. Enjoy!
The Office- Best Pranks on Dwight
Like the title said, get excited…’cause baby, I’m back!
Can you believe that it is 2009 already? Not only that, but it is the middle of January! The Bible is right when it says that our lives are like a mist. This is my second to last semester, since I will be graduating the end of December. It kind of makes me sad because I have loved college and the friends I have made! I guess if we were to look at it optimistically, since I’m plan on going to medical school, I’ll have a lot more time to enjoy it :)
Digressing, I will comment again on it being January. I would like it to be known that I absolutely LOVE the snow and the cold. I am definitely a four seasons girl (which I get from my Mom) and am enjoying every minute of this winter. Of course, I periodically need to be reminded of this when I have to walk to dinner in a windchill of -25 degrees farenheit, but nonetheless, it is lovely outside! The roads have not been too bad either, which is a blessing. My little Nelsen (aka, my car - a vw bug) doesn’t do too well in the snow. This year though, instead of snowing, melting, and then re-freezing, it has stayed cold the whole time. So instead of ice, there is snow on the roads, which is apparently providing better traction for the tires. Whatever the case, driving hasn’t been a nightmare like it was last winter.
Classes are going well so far. We will complete our first full week tomorrow. This was theoretically suppose to be an easy semester, but it definitely has not turned out that way. Between my normal load of classes and studying for the MCAT, I will be pretty busy. Which is nice, I suppose, in the sense that I will never be able to claim that I have nothing to do :) I am thankful for the professors at Bethel and how supportive they have been and willing to help. So far, two have made an effort to help me study for the MCAT this spring. One, I am doing an independent study with, along with another student, so that we can take a more in depth look at physiology. The other professor is meeting with us once a week for a couple of hours so that we can review physics. These are just a few examples of why I am blessed to go to a school like Bethel. I love knowing your professors on a personal basis, where they are not only willing, but they want to help you learn!
I shall finish with a list of my new year’s resolutions. (Please note, that some are serious and some…well, they are not so serious. Also, I created this list….right now…with not much thought…)
10. Learn to be more patient.
9. Walk on the ponds at Bethel (when they are frozen, of course).
8. Use all of my meal swipes each week.
7. Be intentional about studying for the MCAT (it’s going to have to be intentional, else it won’t happen consistently).
6. Learn to juggle.
5. Dunk.
4. Have better communication with those I don’t get to see too often.
3. Laugh. A lot.
2. Make my bed. Daily. (sorry, Mom, that you had to read this)
1. Become more like Christ.
Hi Everyone! I’m back from a pretty great vacation. Xmas was beautiful and tons of fun. Loved getting the chance to be home and spend time with friends and family. Definitely was blessed to get to go home and my roomate was able to come home with me so it was double fun. Here are a few pics of what we were up to during Xmas.
sunset
Christmas Lunch!
grapefruit
out to dinner
Christmas Turkey - yummmm
frying plantains
hiking
climbing the fortview from the top..somewhat
view from the top top :)
my mom and I
having lunch and catching up with friends
catching up
having a laugh
lovely ladies
Happy New Year mother
my secret santa
opening gifts
- revealing THE gift (part 1)
Studying Abroad in the Pacific Rim
After what seemed to be a never ending 13 hour flight to Beijing, China from Chicago, we took a deep sigh of relief. Of course the first thing we did was treat ourselves to a meal of real Chinese food!
After spending several days in Beijing sightseeing and getting oriented with the massive city, we headed to Auckland, New Zealand where we will be staying for the next 6 weeks. A couple nights into our stay we traveled to Mt. Eden to watch a typically beautiful New Zealand sunset.
Laura, Me, Amanda, and Amber enjoying the sunset from Mt. Eden.
A view of downtown Auckland at sunset.
Although it looks like it, it isn’t all fun and games. We have spent the last couple days really trying to tackle some of our studies in order to get ahead for the future! I should also add that every day has been sunny and 70 degrees, so try to not to be too envious!
A strong opinion in the form of a strong recommendation:
21. Do yourself a favor (on this frigid winter day) and re-read these five short stories:
1. “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver.
2. “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol. http://h42day.100megsfree5.com/texts/russia/gogol/nose.html
3. “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor.
4. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates. http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html
5. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=the+handsomest+drowned+man+int+he+world+full+text
More opinions:
18. The worst part of winter is the static electricity.
19. The best part of winter is a crackling fire in the fireplace.
20. The Color Purple is a much better film than novel.
17. Every student at Bethel should consider a second major in Humanities.
Another S.O.:
16. I agree with James; “peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”
A few more strong opinions:
11. The designated hitter rule allows for a few good beer league softball hitters to have a lucrative career in the American League. But the rule is not good for baseball.
12. Anyone considering a college major in education should give serious consideration to the “Transition to Teaching” option as an alternative means to licensure.
13. A grade for a course is little more than a letter on a piece of paper (or in a computer file somewhere) that no one will ever pay much attention to.
14. Wearing warm socks and comfortable shoes during our Northern Indiana winters is an important spiritual discipline.
15. The wiffleball bat and ball, dollar for dollar, is the greatest toy ever invented.
Hope everyone had a restful and wonderful break!
After today, I have completed my first two days of second semester and it’s clear that it is time to work again! I am up to my neck in not only the snow but the 17 hours I have this semester as well. As overwhelming as the work might appear, I must say I am excited for my Foundations of Education course. I am still an undecided frosh, but being interested in elementary education, I hope this class will help me further develop an understanding of what I want to do. It is also the only class that is not a general education course, so it is a bit more relevant to my interests, besides the amazing Old Testament class with Dr. Bob, and Spanish II since I want to learn the language.
Classes this semester include:
Foundations of Education; Old Testament; Speech; Spanish II; Logical and Critical Thinking; Sociology
I am also glad to be back in chapel. I missed the continuous fellowship and worship throughout the week, and it’s definitely a privilege to experience that again. And as much as I LOVED my home cooked meals, I did miss the Acorn, the Subway-like place in the bottom of Tuckey.
So, it’s good to be back. But a little scary too with all the new classes. I’ll let you know how it goes
Strong Opinions #8-10:
8. If you want comments and requests for elaboration on your blog series called “thirty-nine theses,” make your claims as pompously pithy as possible.
9. If Tim Tebow can’t be a quarterback in the NFL, the problem is with the NFL.
10. A book must be an ax for the frozen sea inside us. (Kafka)
Strong Opinion #7:
Professors should not pass out a hard copy of the syllabus the first day of class.
