HI!

"Thus says the Lord, 'Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,' declares the Lord." Jer. 9:23-24

I was just reading Jeremiah (obviously). As I typed out those verses I just realized how Yahweh and hesed are right next to each other. Covenant-keeping God + lovingkindness! This is our God!
Also, as I typed that out I realized something. I went to Bible Fellowship Church this morning and was comparing it to what I'm used to and there is a tendency to in some ways to be prideful I guess? However, what have I that I did not receive? I ought to boast in the LORD, Yahweh, who blessed me by putting me in the church setting that I grew up in.

Another thing that is really neat is Psalm 50. It is a judgment psalm, but there is grace sandwiching the judgment section in the psalm! The opening verse has El, Elohim, and Yahweh are right next to each other and then the ending verses salvation is offered. Judgment and grace together. One commentator called said "The Judge becomes Savior."

ANYWAY...

So it's Sunday afternoon and I'm waiting to go to Warminster. Colleen and Jennifer (aka Cyprus) are coming with me. =D!!! Colleen and I were in the lounge talking for a long time last night and she comes from a pretty similar background as me (church and home life alike). She's used to an evening service, 45min-1hr preaching, etc. So I asked her if she wanted to come with me tonight and she said yes. Then I emailed Cyprus and asked her and she was thrilled. Her mom met Mrs Firth and Mrs Firth talked to me because she wanted me to meet her, but I had already met her! So Mrs Firth will be excited to meet Cyprus tonight. Apparently Cyprus has been disappointed at the spiritual fervor here on campus... so anyway! I'm excited they're coming.

I went to Bible Fellowship this morning because I had to attend an AWANA Sparks meeting and a KidSafe meeting. The KidSafe was mandatory for legal purposes since the AWANA ministry involves people outside of church. According to insurance, we all have to be KidSafe certified. Apparently there are many instances of child abuse within church ministries. How sad. There are so many cases because churches just trust a lot and don't do thorough background checks on their volunteers. Now we're thoroughly checked -- from criminal records to fingerprints to sexual abuse department or whatever it's called, etc. One out of 3 girls and one out of 4 boys will be abused by age 18. Sooo we had to go through everything and be aware of things we can and cannot do, etc.

Yesterday, Danae came over and hung out with Colleen and me. We got pizza (yay for Dominoe's PBU discount). She joined MuKappa Friday night as well. She made up a long story about how her parents are Korean but they adopted her and now they're missionaries to Kansas. Haha! It was a lot of fun. I borrowed a bunch of games from Chris, but we pretty much played Catchphrase the entire time (no surprise there). Catchphrase is really the MuKappa game! Benaiah and Philippe turned it into mime. It was hysterical! I have some amazing video clips. Danae mentioned how some of the people there were so different than she thought they were. It's because we MK's have a special bond and our true personality comes out when we're around each other. HAHA! There were some other people in the Eagle's Nest and we asked them to play Catchphrase with us and they looked really nervous and said "But we're not MK's!!!" That's funny cuz we had 3 non-MK's there who had "special connections." Another girl (Brittany) and we fed her and she said "Wow, you MK's know how to treat a person good." Funnyyyy.

Danae asked me if the Philippines was in Asia. I didn't think she was serious so I laughed at her... but she was serious. Oops. ;P

Back to Bible Fellowship. Mr Allen preached. It's weird... I felt like I was in class. But when I'm in class, I feel like I'm in church. However his sermon was something like a half hour long. His class is an hour and 15 mins. He preached on Hebrews 2:5ff and how Christ is better. Jon Kontz led worship because the regular worship leader was gone. I felt like I was in chapel. We didn't sing "Heart of Worship" today. Amazing, huh? We sang praise songs that I knew (actually I know a lot...) and actually do like because there's more to them than some song we sang in chapel the other week that seriously had 6 words to it and we repeated it like 10 times. Is "I Stand Amazed in the Presence" a hymn or a praise song?

Oh yeah, Esmerelda the Computer is back. The keyboard broke. Mr Kaceli said 97% chance that I won't be charged. We're waiting for the old keyboard to get to Toshiba. Toshiba!!! Sounds like a Japanese war-cry.

Hey! Wonders never cease as long as you never cease to wonder! I called people today on my phone!!!!! How amazing is that!!!!! I only cringed a few times and got flustered maybe 10 times but that's ok! Just kidding, I'm not THAT bad... I do cringe a lot when I'm on the phone and I do get really embarrassed. It's worse when someone's in the room and I make faces after everything I say because I get insecure and Jessi laughs at me.

Serina (suitemate) has to do this church study for her Nature and Purpose of the Local Church class and she has to visit these churches and define a healthy church. She went to this "church" called The Well and from the description, it's really... interesting... to say the least. They meet in a warehouse and they didn't have official preaching. It was like a huge congregational discussion on what they learned about the book of John. There was a band and they had some praise part... and it was the kind of atmosphere where you can get up and move around and there were couches in the back and stuff. SO I asked her if she wanted to come to Warminster tonight for a complete contrast. She has an Emmons chart to make so she's not coming but maybe another week.

I'm really rambling now. I didn't take a nap this afternoon (can you tell?) and I've been living on PB&J today. (Cafeteria hours on Sunday are a pain)

Random things I've found out about PBU after reading old stuff from PBU while working in Admissions:
* The BLC was just put up in 2002
* Ryrie was a president of PBU (no wonder they say "My hope is built on nothing less than Scofield's notes and Ryrie's text"!)
* Speaking in tongues is not permitted on campus.

Other random things I've learned over my PBU existence:
* Half the stuff that PBU is supposed to send out, they don't. And half the stuff I was supposed to receive, I didn't get. (E.g. "Congrats on passing the SAT!!!" card, birthday card, etc.)
* The school used to be a Catholic boys' school (or was it a monastery?). Hence the stained glass windows in Manor Hall.
* The section of the building that has all the schools of Ed, arts and sciences, etc. offices has showers in the girls' bathroom because it used to be a guys' dorm.
* I sleep in Langhorne and eat in Middletown.
* Langhorne was one of the stops for the Underground Railroad and it has one of the oldest Black communities in the nation. The "Show Way" blankets were draped over some of the porches of the stone houses to point the runaway slaves in the right direction.
* All roads lead to Street Rd... that or Hulmeville Ave. (I've gotten lost a lot but you'll eventually find Street Rd without trying too hard)
* Geese look realy funny when they stand on the iced over pond. I always imagine little thought bubbles above their heads that say "How come I can't float?!?"