From one familiar to another

One thing about living here is that it forces more space into my life. I have to take time to walk to the bus stop, to sit on the bus, to buy groceries, to cook food, to wait for our slow kettle to boil water for tea… all things I didn’t have to do in Saskatoon. Space is good but it tends to foster a lot of thinking.

So during these spaces, I’ve been trying to sort out how to describe my state of mind in the last few days. I’m generally content, occasionally excited. I haven't cried at all yet. But I have felt a little... strange. Maybe my problem is that I flew. Sam and I once discussed airplane travel, how you jump so quickly from one bubble into another and don’t get the sense of distance. That’s what happened to me. I jumped from one familiar into another familiar, and it’s jarring, like skipping from one plot line to another. From a lake to an ocean.

It doesn’t feel like it did last time I arrived in Vancouver. Then, it was new, dazzling, something to get used to, something to feel my way into. Now, it feels too normal to live here, too easy to slip back into. It’s little things that haven't changed…like the fact that we still don’t have enough spoons. Our living room is still cold and my room is still hot. We still have the crazy patterned rug on the floor from whence nothing dropped shall ever return. One of our bathroom sinks is still plugged and drains slowly. The number 4 bus runs on the same schedule as before. My rock is still there, and the seal, the heron, the kingfisher, and other friends have already stopped by to welcome me back. Talking to Chris on the phone, with plenty of silences – that felt familiar too. My Regent friends, my Jacob’s Well friends… they’re here, and they don’t seem to have changed much. It feels like I’ve jumped back in time to last April, and this whole entire summer was just a brief dream I had one night.

Maybe that’s why I keep forcing this summer back into my mind. Forcing faces to appear, half-believing that person sitting in front of me on the bus might be Rachel, or Chris, or Robin, or Sophia or Lesya or Olya or Terice or Claire. Remembering them and praying for them. And I’ve been reminding myself that even though Vancouver feels familiar, I am not the same as I was in April. It was no dream - I have had experiences and conversations and developed relationships over the summer that have changed me and caused me to discover new things about myself, hopefully for the better. The old Vancouver will have to catch up to the new me. And I will have to keep learn that my identity is not tied to where I am but to whom I belong to. I will have to work to love people, near and far. It will be a difficult and sweet adventure.

Here is my paradox: can I really have two homes, Andrea? My soul is more tied to Saskatoon than ever and my soul is more at ease in Vancouver than ever. I knew I was missed and loved in Saskatoon, but now I return to find I was missed and loved in Vancouver, too. This brings me a melancholy combination of pain and joy no matter where I am. Each “glad to see you again” is counterbalanced by an “I wish you hadn’t left”. If one of you had the chance, you might tell me to stop living with one foot in each place. I don’t think I can help it.

My girls

Having covered the wedding, I will move backwards to summarize the rest of my summer for you – the camp part. What I feel about it is hard to express because it’s overpowering. Mostly the feeling is… fulfillment. Yes, there were difficult times along the way, especially in July. But I felt like we dealt with things very well as a staff, and I’m realizing how much I learned through these struggles. So despite those bumps, I would say this summer has been my best ever at camp.

Much of it is thanks to my girls. As I’ve written before, the largest chunk of my job this summer was meeting individually with each female staff member (usually there were 15-20 of them) for about an hour a week to discuss life, God, camp, worries, joys, or anything else that was on their minds, and also to pray together. I will never forget these hours I spent with them. Some meetings at the beginning of the summer were a little awkward, as we figured out what our relationship would look like and learned to trust each other. But by the end, I felt closer to some of them than I’ve been with people I’ve known for years. Never before has a job felt more like a gift – I looked forward to those meetings every day, and even praying for each of them became exciting as I understood them on a deeper level.

I have been given back more than I invested in these girls. They were so much FUN to be around – after a year being very mature (well, most of the time…) with people who were mostly older than me, it was so refreshing to be goofy and laugh about things that probably weren’t very funny with people who were younger than me. I enjoyed them; they were good for my soul. I felt comfortable and relaxed with myself when I was with them. They inspired me by their passion for God, and I loved being able to take pride in them. And they never held back their love for me – they always made me feel so wanted and appreciated. I am so sad to leave them. I know they need to find other people to mentor and listen to them, but I’m selfish and I want to keep on being that person. I still feel so warm inside when I think about them... man, I’m gushing. It must be late.

As a bonus gift from God, I’m now even more vocationally confused than when I started the summer. What does it mean that I got so much satisfaction from this kind of people-work-mentorship stuff? Was it just a fluke that I loved and worked well with all of them? Is this part of God’s plan for my life? How does that fit in with biology? Am I doing the right degree? Great thoughts to be thinking as I leave for Vancouver tomorrow to start school again.

This is what I was thinking at the end of camp… it is good, it is very good to be able to talk freely with people about what God is doing in their lives. I mean, with my job I was pretty much forced to talk to my girls about this. The whole set-up was designed to sidestep the small talk and jump into the good stuff. And for the girls who were there all summer, it got more and more natural to talk about God’s work in our lives – by the last couple of weeks they’d just dive right in without me even asking a question, and I absolutely loved it. But why can’t I do that away from camp, when it’s not my job? Why doesn’t it feel natural to talk about this stuff, even at Bible School, where spiritual conversations are supposed to feel normal? It still feels awkward. It feels like you’re trying to pry into someone’s life. But you know what – I’ve decided it’s worth it. I need to ask that question more often, no matter how awkward it feels. Because not only is it encouraging, it’s humbling to remember that God’s busy working on other people, not just you. And it helps you pray for them. So next time I see you, I hope we talk about what God’s been up to. If I don’t bring it up, you should.

Anyway, I feel the need to offer a tribute to the girls… especially the ones I met with more than once, who became my sisters. Here’s what they meant to me…

Claire showed me how to appreciate beautiful things like tea, candles, romance, and mannerisms, and was the best storyteller.

Tanya taught me about joy and unquestioning trust, and was a great little sister and roommate for the first two weeks.

Megan was willing to serve wherever we put her, always smiling and exemplifying humility, and loved the kids.

Lesya demonstrated every day that you can be beautiful in more ways than one, and not take yourself too seriously, and I love her.

Rimma made me want to dance and not care how I look, and also taught me the value of hugs.

Frankie impressed me with her strength of character and humble, self-giving service, and she always cared about how I was doing.

Keshia blossomed in Intermediates and gave herself in love for her cabin, I could see it written on her face, and it was a joy for me.

Jordan McGill showed maturity in the way she served, binding the younger staff together by her unconditional friendship, taking courageous leaps in her commitment to Christ.

Gen opened herself to me, honoring me by her trust, and impressed me by her perseverance and growth this summer.

Maja made me want to ask more questions, and her eagerness to do everything with as much enthusiasm as the campers was rewarded by deep relationships with them – a true cabin leader.

Lydia made me (even me!) want to express myself artistically and also challenged me with her love of and thoughts about the Bible.

Chantelle never hid anything from me; she made me feel wise because she sought out my advice, and I knew that no matter what she was dealing with, she was putting her campers first.

Sarah was so wonderfully and humbly herself, and blessed me with both her seriousness and sense of humour.

Danee was everything I hoped she’d be at camp, and more – I was inspired by her dreams and her purity, and the way she’d throw herself into things like dress-up meals, without caring how she looked.

Robyn H. made me feel needed, trusted, befriended, and even heroic, which is crazy because she’s so unique and hilarious and cool and real, and I felt that she was more of a gift to me than I to her.

Terice became a true friend this summer, listened to me, and affirmed me constantly; she had an incredible amount of passion for her campers, and it came out every time she prayed for them – God will continue to use her to speak to children.

Sophia has pretty much changed the way I see the world, inspiring me to write and be more spontaneous, and most of the time I wished our meandering conversations could have lasted three hours instead of one.

Olya is similar to me in many ways, she has light in her eyes and it’s hard not to smile when she speaks, and embarking together on the adventure of listening to God remains one of my favorite memories this summer.

And Rachel was my true sister, my best, the one who held me up and brought me down to earth, who made me want to burst with pride and made this summer perfect.

This is not to mention Shalisse, Kelli, Carley, Anna, Chrissy, Claressa, Kylie, Moraya, Chelsee and Vienna, who I saw less of but was no less proud of. And I can't forget Robin P. either, who I learned the most from and saw the most courage in. Girls, I'm not coming back next summer unless you're all there, and unless you all e-mail me this year...

Ok. Enough. Tomorrow, it's back to the Couv. Here I come again, Regent...

Something old, something new

A week ago to this minute, I was sitting in our van outside Grace Baptist Church with my sisters and Laura Lottes, all decked out to the nines, waiting for the signal to enter and walk down that aisle. We had just spent five hours preparing our hair and faces and the rest of ourselves, mostly relaxed and fun, until the tense last few minutes when we were rushing to finish, putting on our dresses and lacing up Sarah’s, pulling our bouquets out of their vases of water, brushing something shimmer-y on our arms. I thought about the days we’d just had together, filled with apple-decorating, way too many episodes of Gilmour Girls, Rachel and I putting the finishing touches (beginning touches?) on the song we’d written, tons of laughter and good food. Everything leading up to that moment at the doors of the church... yet for me, the moment didn’t feel climactic in a make-you-cry sort of way. It just felt like another step along the way, a good step, with a tangible intensity of meaning that skipped over sappy emotionality and landed somewhere in deep contentment.

I walked down that aisle and did not trip. The ceremony was one of the best kind, with just the right balance of light-heartedness and taking-it-seriously, simple and lovely. Sarah was the epitome of a bride, calm and joyful, relaxed and gorgeous; I was in awe. What a woman she’s become. At the reception, I told everyone that she’d taught me about moving through change gracefully. The wedding really was proof of this, because although I know our sisterly relationship has changed, I feel very little grief, very little desire to linger on what we’ve lost, and much more desire to embrace the wonderful now, to love this change, because it is above all a gain. I have a new brother. I have a sister who loves him and who has become more lovely because of him. I feel joyful and graceful.

The only thing I hated was having tons of people I knew and loved in one room, and not having any time to move past superficial conversation with any of them – it makes you a strange sort of tired. This is the reality of weddings, I suppose. Other than that, I really don’t see how anything could have gone better. I’m glad I still have the paint on my toenails to remind me of it. Nick and Sarah Hawkins, blessings upon you. I love you both and I see the love both of you have to give each other – may it overflow.

Check back soon… I have more to say and finally, the time to write it.

Long-awaited landmarks

Well, it’s August already. I have a week and a half left at camp. My sister gets married two weeks from today. I return to Vancouver in less than a month. Looking back, I may have learned just as much about leadership, service, and Christian community from practical experience up at camp as I did in the classrooms of Regent. I’ll have to write about my learnings sometime. I’m looking forward to being back at Regent, though. It’ll be refreshing to be in charge of only me again, and to see everyone.

I have many goals for this week. First of all, I need to learn how to walk in heels. I can’t. I discovered this today when I tried and then Rachel did an impression of how I looked. It was quite zombie-like. She then tried to teach me to use my hips, but I think I pulled a muscle. Another goal is to endure the week as a leader at camp without either leaving or cutting off appendages, like many other leaders have done in past weeks. My other goal is to not feel self-conscious as I play guitar on the worship team up at camp where Riley Armstrong, recording artist and excellent guitar player, will be present. Riley is our speaker at camp this week.

As promised, Rachel and I offer you our description of the landmarks on the way up to camp, a 2-hour trip we’ve now made forwards and backwards 12 times this summer. Witty comments will be inserted by Rachel in purple. We hope you find it enlightening, even if you’ve never made the trip. Maybe it will make you notice landmarks on your own well-traveled trails…or at least make you laugh.

1. The Coverall Factory. On the edge of Saskatoon, this marks the beginning of our trip. How ironic that our trip begins and ends with a coverall, wouldn’t you agree Beth? I would agree, yes, Rachel, thank you.

2. The Pioneer Grain Inland Terminal. Rachel says it’s not a landmark, but I think any grain silo with such a cool name deserves landmark status. Beth that isn’t a landmark.

3. The Warman Ferry sign. Again, Rachel disagrees, but I think it’s funny that we have ferries in Saskatchewan, especially after riding them in Vancouver. sigh

4. Neuanlage. This town has no services. No bathrooms in the entire town. Yeah, so don’t bother stopping there. Also note the wonderfully hard-to-pronounce Mennonite name. Others along the way include Gruenthal and Blumenthal.

5. Rumble Strip Test Section. They were trying to make the line in the middle of the road rumble when you drove over it. No word on whether it passed the test or not. Also not a landmark.

6. Hague. A town where you must slow to 80 km/h. Also a synonym for h-e-double-hockey-sticks among small-towners, as in, “What the Hague?”

7. Rosthern. This town has a Mennonite Museum and a Mennonite Youth Farm, where we assume they farm youth.

8. Secret Spy Posts. Some say these strange little orange tents scattered over the fields contain bees and honey, but we know better.

9. Duck Lake. As you can see from the sign, Duck Lake is home of one of the world’s largest outdoor art galleries. Which is incredible, because there’s so many of those. Glen Scrimshaw is severely over-rated.

10. Ducks. There’s always a lot of ducks near Duck Lake. Beth living things are not landmarks. Why not? Because they move. Fine. Whatever. Duck-hater.

11. Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine. We stop here every time we make the trip, and pray for at least two hours to the Lady of Lourdes. Good old lady of Lourdes. Who the hague is the Lady of Lourdes anyway?

12. Celtic Gallery and Highland Games. What do they display at the Celtic Gallery? Celts? What are Highland Games? And is Celtic pronounced with a soft or hard “c”? Maybe one day we will take the turn-off and solve all of these mysteries. I’ve heard they filmed A Knight’s Tale there.

13. Hubcap lane. For about a kilometer, each fencepost has a hubcap on it. Some bored farmer has been collecting for some time. He’s probably sitting there right now, by the side of the highway, just waiting for someone to lose their hubcap.

14. The Leaning Trees. Credit for this landmark goes to Sherri. See how they lean. Ok, I guess living things with roots can be considered landmarks.

15. Noah’s Ark Family Fun Park. One time, Rachel tried to turn off and find this fun park, and drove and drove and found nothing. Some sort of supernatural water-related disaster must have wiped it out… Yah, we found neither families nor fun.

16. Vintage Power Machines Museum. A bunch of old, rusting metal machines in one lot. Can you feel the power? No Beth, I can’t feel the power, because it’s NOT A LANDMARK!

17. Prince Albert ponds. I’ve never noticed these ponds right before the turn off to PA, but Rachel has. Let it be known that this is the only thing I think is a landmark that Beth doesn't. Here is where we turn left, and drive through (or more often, stop to get fast food in)…

18. Prince Albert, which has many of its own landmarks: the Galaxy theater, the McBarn (a McDonalds in a silo), the big hill, and the Sketchy 7-11. Oh the sketchy sev. Be careful you people of PA.

19. Smokey the Bear. A large bear with a moveable arm, set to point at “low”, “moderate”, “high” and “very high”, according to the level of risk of forest fires. Us camp staff are always checking it to see if we can have campfires.

20. The Craft Haven Unique Wedding Boutique. Because lots of people have the urge to get married as they drive along the highway to Christopher Lake. I know I do.

21. Tall Pine Bait. The large fish and fisherman statue on top of it is hard to miss.

22. Huge “Johnson’s” sign, lit up on someone’s lawn. This family is proud of their name. I think we need a big “Malena’s” sign on our lawn. I have a theory that Jack Johnson lives there. Rachel, that’s just silly. Hey I can dream!

23. Handson’s hill. On a hill, there’s a big red sign that has an outline of a hand and the word “son’s” on it. Hand-sons. Or, as Jordan pointed out a couple of weeks ago, it could be “Glove-sons”. Mmm Bop.

24. Northside, the town with the Jax Saloon.

25. The Left turn to Christopher Lake, where you’ll find Logan’s Grocery Store, Ed’s Chicken Inn, the Silver Bullet Bar, and not much else. One time Rachel and I parked at the post office and crossed the highway to go to Logan’s. Upon exiting Logan’s, Rachel lamented, “Aw, man… we left the car on the other side of town!” Haha I did say that. I’m freaking hilarious. Freaking magical. Yah, that too.

26. Sign to Tweedsmuir. We just like saying Tweedsmuir. This town doesn’t actually exist. No one could say the name of the town without laughing and so… they all moved away. Now it’s just a sign and a tumbleweed. Yup… one tumbleweed. We call him ol’ tumbleweedsmuir.

27. The Valley. Another one of Sherri’s landmarks – a lush green valley that looks like a scene right out of Ireland. Except for this year – it’s brown and dry. It’s taking a break, I guess.

28. The Turn of Death. A rather sharp turn for Saskatchewan roads. I don’t always remember to slow down, and I almost killed Rachel and Tall Jordan one time. I almost died for this landmark.

29. Ambrose, where you’ll find the closest store to camp. Unfortunately everything is really expensive, except for the ice cream. Callan called it HamGross. To learn more about Callan, visit http://rachelmalena.blogspot.com.

30. The culvert, where there’s some good fishing, if you can avoid the suckers.

31. The good old Quest sign, which is very professional-looking but small. Still, we never miss it. Yup small. unlike this blog.


The end. Chris, if you read this, I miss you already. Whatever you do, don't forget to find me a man in St. Vincent. It's the secondary mission on your missions trip.

in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

I don’t have a lot of time to write right now. I’d still like to do the camp trip landmarks post, but I think I’ll wait until I can write it with Rachel. Maybe next weekend.

I’m not going to pretend that things aren’t hard relationally right now, both at camp and at home. I feel confused and sad about a lot of things, and I wonder if I’m dealing with them in the right way. I’m learning (slowly) how to give things to God instead of letting them pile up on my back, but I tend to want to take them back from Him and worry about them again. Still, with all of this stuff going on, I’ve been given several beautiful moments, undeserved, like being asked for the first time to baptize someone! Yesterday I got to baptize Jordan McGillivray, one of our junior staff members, in the waters of Christopher Lake, and it was an awesome feeling of joy mixed with responsibility. Lucas got to baptize Cheesi, too. Here are some pictures Rachel took…

Amazing and messed up

Wow, it’s been almost a month. That’s the longest I’ve gone without blogging for quite some time. Sorry to all of my regular checkers. I’ve been up at camp, and our internet tower got struck by lightning two weeks ago, and we’ve been largely cut off from the outside world ever since.

MDT was definitely my favorite week of camp so far. I quickly fell in love with the fifty teens who participated. They had an infectious passion to learn about God and worship Him, and a great attitude, even when we woke them up early. Robin and I (with some help from friends like Rachel and Rob) did our best to think up interesting initiatives for them to accomplish as a team. We balanced each other out well. While Robin had no problem being hard on them and issuing group consequences for one person’s mistake (one of MDT’s trademarks), I struggled to follow through. As Robin so tactfully put it, I just may have the spiritual gift of mercy. But I learned a lot, and I saw God fulfill some dreams and ideas he gave me way back in February for this camp, including early morning services down at the beach, where our first words of the day were reserved for God. And when we spread them out across the lake for a day of solitude, no one got eaten by bears, which in itself is a success. I also celebrated my 23rd birthday, and Chris gave me the best gift ever: she spontaneously joined me up at camp for a few days! Here’s us canoeing together. (Notice that I’m doing all the work.)

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been easing into my “regular duties” for the summer. Each week I had the pleasure of spending an hour talking to, encouraging and praying for each of about twenty female staff. According to Lucas, who does the same with the male staff, our job title is “spiritual warfare”. Perhaps he’s not too far off. This job is the most spiritually and emotionally challenging of any I’ve had. I do feel a large responsibility to hold my girls up in prayer. The most difficult part has been leaving things in God’s hands instead of taking them back and letting them weigh me down. That, and balancing my time so that I do have enough time to pray and rest. I have felt warred against, distracted, guilty, self-conscious, and even neurotic at times. Thanks to those who have prayed for, listened to, and encouraged me. But it's not all problems; I’ve also had some great experiences with answered prayer – especially last week, when God provided a nurse two days before we needed one, after I had looked for one for a month and a half. And I get to share in my female staff’s joys, too – like when I visited Rimma’s cabin one night after all of her girls prayed to follow Christ. They were partying and dancing; it was awesome!

God’s been teaching me about people. People are beautiful letdowns. I sort of knew that already, but it’s hitting home lately. There are people I thought were blameless who have shown me their weaknesses and struggles, and there are people I didn’t have a lot of faith in who have impressed me to no end. Basically, I’m gaining a balanced perspective. We are all wonderfully amazing and messed up children of God. When I hear something disappointing about someone, I’m learning to balance it by reminding myself of all the good I’ve seen in them. And when I hear someone praised, I’m learning to guard against idolizing them by remembering that they struggle, too, whether it’s evident or not. It sounds simple, but it's been surprisingly profound for me, like learning to see people the way God does. Except not nearly as precisely.

This weekend has been pretty relaxing. Last night I got to hang out again with Chris, this time to celebrate her birthday. Today, I felt very guilty and very good. Guilty because I contributed to the demise of local businesses by shopping at Wal-Mart, destroyed the environment by idling in the Starbucks drive-thru, and destroyed my body by consuming one very tasty caramel frappucino. But I spent the rest of the day relaxing by writing encouragement notes and preparing gifts for people, which is very selfless, so maybe that makes up for it.

Coming up (hopefully next weekend) . . . a joint effort of Beth and Rachel: an exhaustive examination of the landmarks on the trip up to camp (which is well traveled by myself), in proper order, with commentary and pictures. Be sure to tune in! As a little taste, here’s a picture from one such trip.
So long, stay off the roads when I'm driving tomorrow, and happy birthday Chris!

ABI and art

Let me introduce you to some of the kids I had the privilege of getting to know this week at ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) camp…

George is a sweet kid who was homesick on the first day. He quickly warmed up to us, especially Rachel, and was the most smile-y of all the kids. Here he is with a pudding mustache.
Nikki has been coming to ABI camp for years. This year she took a huge step and shared her story with everyone at camp. When she was three, she was hit by a drunk driver while she was walking outside. Despite her challenges, she’s very positive and has a strong faith in God. Here, she’s dressed up for our Fairy Tale Banquet.
Jesse was quite a challenge at times – he has a rebellious exterior, but he’s a softie inside. He liked to push the limits, but he was loveable, as this picture shows.
Bradly is probably every staff member’s favorite kid. His brain injury causes him to speak very slowly, one word at a time. But he’s got a killer sense of humour and a wit that’s quicker than his mind can process – and the jokes seem even funnier because they come out slowly. "You're...going...down...Rachel!"
Here’s Dorion. He was a soft-spoken kid who was homesick one night. We read him Robert Munsch books to take his mind off of it. Then he went to bed, and we kept reading Robert Munsch books…
Finally, Kim. She probably faced the most physical challenges out of all the kids. She’s in a motorized wheelchair (she’s a much better driver than me), she can’t speak, and she has a worker who takes care of her 24-7. But like Bradly, she had a great sense of humour expressed without words, and a love and talent for art, and it was a joy to be around her. Here she is messing up Claire’s hair and loving it!
So ABI was awesome. In other news, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about art – music, movies, and books especially – and how Christians should interact with it. We’ve recently removed our rule at camp about only listening to “Christian” music and replaced it with a rule restricting any media with profanity, sexual content, or drug / alcohol glorification. I think this is a positive step, since the “Christian label” thing is so artificial, and (as is often mentioned at Regent) “Christian” shouldn’t really be used as an adjective anyway. All beauty is God’s beauty, and all truth is God’s truth.

I think the new content-based rule is good for camp, where we’re responsible for making choices on behalf of the children in our care, and must not go against their parent’s wishes for what they should see or hear. However, some people I’ve been talking to about this have made it clear that they think this “profanity, sex, drugs” criteria should be used as an automatic filter for everything Christians take in, no matter their age. In other words, we shouldn’t be listening to any music or watching or reading anything containing these things, in the interest of purity, so as not to defile our bodies, the Temples of the Holy Spirit.

But can taking in these things actually defile us? This is a question I haven’t really asked. I came across an interesting article online by someone named Matt Oquist. I’m not sure I agree with all of it, but it was definitely thought-provoking, especially where he discusses whether pondering or observing impurity can make us impure. He points out that we misinterpret Phil. 4:8 (whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, etc.) by using it to filter out the set of topics we shouldn’t think about. If something fails on one point, it is unfit for thought. Yet this really doesn’t make sense, because if we applied this to everything, we wouldn’t be able to think about many passages of Scripture, which describe people doing impure, unjust, dishonest things, and we wouldn’t be able to think about hell or sin as doctrines.

He also talks about what Jesus says in Mark 7, where he talks about being defiled not by what a person takes in from outside, but what comes from within a person. He says that this means we can’t be defiled by what we observe, but this doesn’t mean it won’t cause us to respond in a sinful way. Is this splitting hairs? Here’s In his words, "although the act of observing an evil thing never in itself makes a Christian impure, many things we can observe may cause subsequent evil things to come from within us. So it is never biblical to say "Christians shouldn’t think about topic X or observe topic Y", but it is biblical to realize that "I have a weakness, and to avoid sin I shouldn’t dwell on topic X at this point in my life".

While Oquist is careful to say that he’s not implying that observing sin is valuable, he thinks it can be permissible if there is another purpose. For example, Jesus hung out with the scum of society, and probably observed many sinful acts. This was permissible because of the more important issue at stake: establishing relationships with them.

I’d love to hear some feedback about this. I haven’t asked you for feedback for a while, so it’s high time. If you’d like to read the whole article, go to: http://www.css.taylor.edu/~moquist/ca.pdf .

Well, I have to wake up at 4:20 AM to drive my parents to the airport, so I should probably get a little sleep. Pray for staff training and MDT this week!