To be involved or not to be involved

Arriving on campus for the very first time can be very overwhelming. There are so many new people to meet, class schedules to figure out, papers to sign, things to unpack, and the list goes on. It seems that as soon as you get somewhat settled, advertisements for clubs and extracurricular activities are posted. The first reaction is to focus on getting used to university life before getting involved in anything extra. That was my reaction, and during my first semester, that philosophy worked great. I was able to focus on my school work, build friendships within my dorm, and get a decent amount of sleep. But once I got into the swing of things, I began to want to do more extracurricular activities. There were still lots of things to participate in; however, the events that I wanted to be involved in (ie. Campus Rep) were no longer available. I had missed the application date. Now, with only five weeks left of school, I look back on my first year and see all the things I loved and all the things I wish I had done differently. One regret is that I didn’t get as involved as I would have liked.

Being part of a club or participating in extracurricular activities is a great way to meet new people while finding your place in the Redeemer family. Activities such as intramurals and the outdoors club are perfect for students who want to remain active while enjoying some friendly competition with fellow students. Other clubs such as City Kidz and Kids Club allow you to be God’s hands and feet while working with inner city kids. The options are endless. So, take it from me, even though university may seem intimidating and overwhelming, don’t be afraid of trying out clubs and events. They will be times you will remember forever, and the friendships you make while participating will be some of the best you’ve ever had. So to answer the question, “To be involved or not to be involved?” Well, I think you already know – be involved. You won’t regret it.

My Touch Football Story Has Been Cut Tragically Short

Redeemer has indoor touch football intramurals. They're going on in the gym this March. When you have a body type like mine and you quit your highly physical job to study, keeping active is incredibly important, and if you're easily bored the way I am, sometimes the treadmill just doesn't do it for you. Competitive touch football can.

The league is known as the ReDeemA Rough Royals Indoor Touch Football League. Unfortunately that's not a typo, and the part of me that wants to eventually make a living with my writing is struggling not to lambast these people for spelling Redeemer like that, but I'm going to let it slide for the time being, because the games are fun and the jocks that run them are really nice. The word jock is a little bit antiquated, but entirely applicable in the case of one of the guys running these games, Josh Erikson. Josh is a jock, through and through. I almost never see him outside of the weight room, and I'm relatively certain that he's some sort of jock vampire and that if he ever does leave, he'll melt.

I've gotten along with Erikson and his jock friends the way I never did with the jocks in high school. I'm pretty sure it has at least something to do with the fact that I'm now dealing with grownups, but I think there's more to it than that. We make a big deal out of social mobility on this blog, and while I haven't had the on-campus familial experiences that Shailene has, I have noticed that Redeemer's student body doesn't demand that everybody belong to one and only one of those archetypal social groups the way my old high school did. This place doesn’t run on stereotypes, and so I don’t have to be a jock to enjoy touch football. And I do very much enjoy touch football. Or…I did.

The human foot is a delicate, beautiful creation of Our Lord. It has 26 bones in it. It also has 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles. I mention this because on Monday, I was at a Tae Kwon Do Club meeting doing some light sparring, when my delicate and beautiful creation of Our Lord collided with the rudimentary mass of unrelenting bone and cartilage that was my opponent’s elbow. As one might guess, it was not the elbow that came out of this encounter worse for the wear. I’m pretty sure at least one of those 26 bones in my foot is broken, and sadly, this may mean that my touch football career is over. It was fun while it lasted.

Join the Family

In today’s culture, many people have a hard time defining family. Traditionalists would say that a family consists of a husband, wife, and children. A more modern definition considers a family to be a group of people who live together and care for each other. Now, I’m not about to attempt to create the most accurate definition of a family, but I do want to share with you the family life at Redeemer. Perhaps one of the things you are looking forward the most about being at university is living on your own and being independent from the rest of your family. Well, I hate to break it to you, but when you join the Redeemer community, you agree to belong to the Redeemer family.

Now what do I mean by the “Redeemer family”? I mean a group of young adults who care about one another whether they know them or not. Perhaps some examples will help demonstrate what I am trying to say. First, I will tell you a story about my dorm. One night, one of my dormies, who had gone to work in the library, went missing. She had apparently left the library and told someone that she would be back in a few minutes, but it had been two hours since she had left and she had left all of her stuff in the library. As soon as we heard that our dorm sister was missing, we dropped what we were doing to go look for her. Even the people who were just visiting our dorm joined the search party. Eventually, we found her, talking to a friend in the art gallery. Although this story is slightly embarrassing on our part, it gives you a good idea of how willing Redeemer people are to drop everything when someone is in trouble (whether it be real trouble or not).

Another example of the Redeemer family occurred this weekend when we decided to go shopping. Unfortunately, it was raining so by the time we reached the bus stop we were soaked. When we got on the bus, we were greeted by other Redeemer students who were also going to the mall. As one of my friend’s was complaining about his wet socks, another Redeemer student on the bus handed him a dry pair of socks. Even though we didn’t really know those students, they were still willing to help us be more comfortable.

I don’t want you to think that the Redeemer family is so caring to the point of suffocation. Just know that when you need someone to talk to or someone to help you, you’ll always find a willing hand. There is a place for everyone in the Redeemer family, which is why this year’s slogan is “I belong”. I encourage you to find your place in the Redeemer family and experience what Christian fellowship among young adults can do for you.

Child of Adoption

I’m a child of adoption. I was adopted by my family a couple weeks after my birth in 1983. In 1983, unborn babies still had legal recognition of their Section 7 Charter Rights to life and security of the person. I don’t have enough information about the circumstances surrounding my birth to say whether I would or wouldn’t have been aborted had the procedure been legal, but I’m glad I’ve always lived in a country where I had the right to life, even when I was still being knit together in my mother’s womb. R. v. Morgentaler changed all that, but that didn’t happen until 1988. I have very vague memories of going with my parents to abortion protests when that case was being debated in the Supreme Court, so you could say I’m a child of this issue. This is my issue. I am pro-life.

I’m part of the Redeemer Pro-Life Club. We’re hosting a movie night at the Rec Centre on March 2 at 9:30 PM, where we’ll be showing Juno, an Oscar award winning drama about a unique teenage mother who makes the right decision about her unborn child. In the fall, the club organized Life Chain, an annual North-America wide event where pro-lifers gather in silence to pray for the nation and an end to abortion. I didn’t make it out to that one because I was standing in a Life Chain in front of McMaster Hospital, but I heard it was a success. In the future, we’ll be hosting another movie, this time a documentary called Blood Money, which explores some of the inconvenient facts behind the abortion industry. It’s a good club, we have productive meetings and I think we’re doing really well, because despite the fact that most Redeemer students are probably default pro-lifers, it’s important for all of us to be educated on the issue, and I think that’s something the Pro-Life Club does very well.

The timing of this post is not a coincidence. Recently, a couple of major newspapers have been covering an investigation into Redeemer’s policies surrounding academic freedom. Some of the comments on the editorial pages and web articles about this investigation highlight the concerns of some citizens that Redeemer is a sanctimonious bubble of indoctrination that suppresses dissenting thought. It isn’t, but that’s another article. What we are, however, is an institution that favours one side of this issue. We don’t have a pro-choice club. In the past, we’ve had openly pro-choice speakers such as Stephen Lewis come to the campus. We’ve had debates and dialogue about the issue, and will almost certainly continue to do so. The discussion unlikely to change the institution’s view on the issue or result in a pro-choice club being chartered here, but we're up front about that.

How does our policy stack up with those of other universities? Carleton University’s student association recently revoked the campus pro-life group's club status. Protesters there were arrested after attempts to set up a pro-life display on campus. The Universities of Calgary, Victoria and Guelph and McGill have all taken the similar measure of stripping their pro-life group of its charter. Also at McGill, a pro-life speaker named Jose Ruba was prevented from speaking by disruptive protestors who chanted, sang, and blocked the stage, finally resulting in the arrest of two demonstrators. All around this country, pro-life dissent is being forcibly silenced arguably because pro-choice groups aren't interested in having the same dialogue that we entertain here.

At Redeemer, nobody gets arrested or shouted off campus for having the wrong opinion. Maybe you could make the argument that we suppress pro-choice opinion. As a Christian institution, there’s a small extent to which we probably do, but we stand in stark contrast to some of Canada’s other institutions in one way: we’re honest about it. We're honest about who we are and what we believe, and we're not scared of a little Socratic dialogue.

Snow Day

On February 2, 2011, Redeemer experienced its first snow day for the 2010-2011 school year. Usually, the first thing that crosses a person’s mind when they hear about a university having a snow day is, “Why have a snow day when so many students live on campus?” It’s true. Most students could just bundle up and trudge through the knee-deep snow to get to their classes, but there are three other reasons for having a snow day: 1) many professors and staff members can’t get to the school 2) commuter students don’t want to drive on dangerous roads 3) snow days make every university student happy.

Some students enjoy snow days because it gives them time to work on essays, study for midterms, catch up on sleep, or postpone the test that was scheduled for that day. Other students love snow days because of all the free time. Me, I tend to fall into the “free-time” category. One of the first things my dorm mate and I did on that snow day was play in the snow. It was then that we learned that the area around our dorm has many snow drifts; some as deep as our thighs. Then we heard that some students had made a tunnel in one of the giant snow drifts. That tunnel was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m not one for small spaces, but crawling through a snow tunnel is definitely worth it. In fact, my friends and I were so inspired we decided to make our own tunnel. It didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped, but we had a great time trying to dig it. All in all, that snow day was a much needed break from school and a welcome distraction.

Good People To Work For

I have some news. There's opportunities to do a lot of fun things on this campus. You'll find many of them documented in this blog, and of course there's many more that we haven't yet written about. However, the dominating activity in the life of any responsible university student (and even most of the irresponsible ones) is attending class. Most university advisers will readily tell you that you're going to have to commit at least 40 hours a week to reading and homework if you hope to be successful in post secondary education. 40 hours is a full time job. That's why those extra-curricular activities we write about are referred to as such, because they're extras, indulged in by those of us whose job is to go to class, read books, and learn about the world. Why is choosing this institution for four years of full time work (that's what it is, it's your job) a good decision? Well, going on what I've experienced so far, our professors know their subjects through and through.

For example, the history department has Dr. Kevin Flatt, a younger instructor whose lecture style leaves room for discussion of some of the funnier points of history, like the revolutionary Protestant act of disobedience that would later become known as The Sausage Incident of 1522, or the life and times of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDrunkard. While keeping his lectures humorous and engaging, Flatt manages to provide information that fits into a meaningful modern context, bringing history to life and giving it relevance today.

Then there's Dr. Darren Brouwer, a chemistry professor. Science can be a delicate area for Christians to practice in. Lean too far one way, and you're likely to be ostracized by your fellow scientists, who as a community have adopted a decidedly secular worldview in their studies. Lean too far the other way, and you've adopted that view yourself. When I took chemistry with professor Brouwer, I watched him walk that fine line between those two extremes and produce the most honest presentations of scientific facts I could have hoped for.

There are more outstanding professors. I'll set aside some blog space, someday, to document the outstanding performances of professors Klassen, Boersema, Smid, Koyzis, and the rest. They've all done their part at providing me with a comprehensive, up to date educational experience. If this is my job, I couldn't ask for better bosses. I don't know why I'm here or what I'll be doing when I'm done. My professors can't teach me that, I have to get that from God. But maybe that's what my job actually is: learning what I need to know for whatever it is God has for me next. The professors here are the right people to teach me just that.

The Fourth Annual Faith and Social Justice Conference

This weekend was the Faith and Social Justice Conference, the fourth annual event hosted by Redeemer's Social Justice Team. The speaker I saw there, Greg Paul, gave a discussion about social justice, his history in inner city ministry, and offered some insights to those in attendance about what we're doing and how we can do better. There was a number of presenters and opportunity to learn about a wide variety of topics. I'm sure most of you know how a conference works, and since you've likely grasped that this conference was about faith and social justice, you probably have a pretty good idea of what transpired this past weekend. The conference was especially beneficial, I thought, because of its ability to be relevant to people who aren’t majoring in Missions or Social Work. I've worked in social justice positions in the past, and while I recognize the need for God's people to be the hands and feet of Jesus, I'm not entirely sure that I'm called to direct participation in that area of the Church's vast cultural mandate. Even so, attending the event was enriching and meaningful. It opened my eyes in a lot of ways, and I’d definitely recommend attending next year’s conference, even to those with little interest or experience in the area of social justice.

The Perfect Balance

When I first came to Redeemer, one of the things I was looking forward to the most was the socializing. I had been talking to my dorm over facebook for about a month, and I was so excited to meet them! Then my RA introduced us to dorm dinners. Having people over and showing off your cooking skills (or lack thereof) followed by group games is always a blast. Then there are the monthly activities such as Hot Spot, Coffee House, Church in the Box, and the Junction. These activities are a perfect opportunity to escape from homework and hang out with friends. Another part of Redeemer socialization is the times when you get to chill with friends and just do whatever. So far this year, I’ve gone skating on Redeemer’s outdoor ice rink, been to the movies, had girl nights with my dormies, and planned game nights with other dorms.

Usually these nights of socialization last until midnight or later. This can cause a problem when it comes to school work. Take last night for example. I went skating with girls from my dorm and one of our friends, and we didn’t get back until midnight. Then I realized that I needed to study for my French test, write this blog, and get some sleep. Who would’ve thought I’d end up in this position? At the beginning of the school year, I rarely left my dorm because I always had some “homework” that needed to be done. Now, I’m finding it hard to get back into the routine of school. Socializing is so much more fun than studying French vocab and sleeping.

So, how do you find the perfect balance between school and a social life? Basically, you need to figure out how long it takes you to do homework assignments, readings, and studying. Then you can plan your social life around that. When you start your planning, you need to take into account the seasons of the semester: midterms, papers, and exams. Usually the first month of each semester is pretty slack on large homework assignments and tests. This is the best time to do your socializing. Once the midterm and paper season hits in the second and third month, you need to make sure you have your priorities straight (ie. School before socializing). Then depending on your confidence in your courses and depending on your exam schedule, exam time can be a good time for socializing. I found that talking with friends was one of the best kinds of study breaks. (Just make sure you study enough to do well on your exams). The moral of the story is: socializing at Redeemer is great, but schoolwork is also very important. Each person’s balance between the two is different, and it takes time to make it perfect. But once you do, life will be a lot less stressful.

Together as One

In Chapel this week, Sister Mary Catherine shared a reflection on the practice of crossing the body with the sign of the cross. She shared how this shows dedication and is in itself a declaration of faith. This practice has immense historical significance as well, dating back quite a few centuries, and more. The main speaker this week was Dr. Payton, one of our own professors. The worship in this service connected well to Dr. Payton’s theme for the morning. The songs were chosen from many different denominations, to strengthen the message. The theme in his sermon was of unification, of the church as one body. He talked on the many splits in the church, how wrong they are. As he said “The spirit knows no schisms.” However, it is more, not that the splits in themselves are wrong, but the conflict between them is wrong. The world looks on as civil war in the Church continues. We should be able to serve the world together as one. We Christians are all unified in our faith, in our love for God and His people. Payton notes that most of time we focus on the 5% that is different between denominations of the Church, he suggests that we should rather look more at the 95% that we all share. The one Trinitarian God, the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God never wanted these schisms to occur, and I’m sure it tears his heart to see the conflict between his followers. Maybe we should all strive to serve the Lord in unison, in the spirit of love, the way it was intended.

Volleyball Intramurals

I’m responsible for posting about athletics here at the Redeemer Student Experience. When I was given this dubious honour, my first thought was, “hmm, I should probably join a team or something.” Sports that don’t involve a large number of high energy impacts between the participants have never been a strong suit of mine, especially when those sports involve fancy skills like “hand-eye coordination” and “agility.” Due to my overall lack of these qualities, varsity sports were probably not an option, but fortunately, Redeemer was there for me.

There’s an intramural volleyball league going on right now, with 20 teams and probably upwards of 150 participants. I’m on one of those teams, which we’ve affectionately named The Victoria Howards. This was mostly by accident. Our team captain, Victoria Howard, couldn’t think of a team name when she signed us up, and the powers that be just wrote her name in the team name field when she left that field blank. Our team came out in near unanimous support of the name, with the only exception being, ironically, Victoria Howard.

The intramural games have a very relaxed feel to them, there are people of both genders and all levels of ability that play, which is nice, because it generally means nobody gets too worked up and everybody’s able to have fun. It’s also free and open to everybody, and of course it comes with the standard Redeemer slogans of community building and Christian closeness and whatnot, which pop up in these articles a lot for a very good reason. I say they’re standard, which is true, but the community here isn’t something I take for granted.

If you play for the my team, there’s also the added benefit of lessons in Christian humility and losing gracefully, which we as a team learned during our first two games, having lost them 25-8 and 25-11. I don’t expect this to improve, because that aforementioned “hand-eye coordination” business isn’t something that we at the Victoria Howards have in large quantities. I’m going to stick with it though, because it’s exciting and fun, even if we aren’t that good. It’s all I can really do until Redeemer gets a men’s rugby team. There’s a women’s rugby team forming this spring, so I don’t feel unjustified in holding out hope. If my hopes are realized, I will join that team, participate in high energy impacts, and report back here immediately. Until then, go Victoria Howards!

Eat the Core

I once played a game at my youth group that involved eating an apple that was dangling from a string which was taped to the ceiling. The only trick was that we couldn’t use our hands to touch the apple. Then our youth pastor told us that if we ate the whole apple, including the core, our team would gain a 100 bonus points. At first I thought that eating the whole apple was disgusting. There was no way I was going to eat the core. However, when my turn came, I ate that apple, core and all.

You may be wondering why I told you this apple story. Well, I want to use the apple core to represent the core courses at Redeemer. When I was applying for university, I had this preconceived notion that I would only have to take courses in my area of study. But when I talked to the Redeemer reps, I realized that I would be taking many core courses in addition to my majors and minor.

What are core courses? Core courses are classes that are not in your area of study but are required for graduation. Some of the core courses include two history classes, two religion classes, two social sciences, two regular science classes, etc. The goal of these core courses is to give Redeemer students a well rounded education.

Now you may be thinking, ‘Why would I waste my time and money taking core courses when I know what I want to major in?’ I understand that core courses can be frustrating and annoying, but I find these courses to be worthwhile. I really enjoyed my HIS105 class and my ENG104 class. However, not all core courses are appealing. For me, the thought of taking sociology and psychology made me cringe. I’m not very good at analyzing the mind. But I’ll admit that although sociology class was not my favourite class, I did learn some very interesting things such as the fact that socialization differs from culture to culture, and how that affects the individual.

So, even though the idea of core courses may be annoying, remember that these courses allow you to dabble in each field of study without becoming a major or minor. Who knows, you may even end up switching your major because you enjoy a core course so much. If you’re still uncertain about whether or not this whole core course thing is a good idea, remember my apple story. At first the idea of eating the core sounds disgusting, but once you do it, you realize that the reward at the end is worth it.

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To Write a Song

This week in chapel we had the honour of hosting Dr. Stephen Garber, the director of Washington Institute to the auditorium. He spoke to us on the topic of Transcendence, Truth, and Translation. He played a clip of ‘Sigh No More’ by Mumford and Sons, which is a great song by the way. Truthfully, I can’t remember too much of what he said about these topics, probably should have wrote some notes. I know he also went on to play a clip of ‘You Found Me’ by The Fray. He talked about how he had lunch with Isaac Slade, the lead singer of the Fray. Dr. Garber told him this: To write a song that tells the truest of truths, but in a language that everyone can understand. This quote really struck me, in a world where truth is claimed as relevant, we are called to tell the ‘truest of truths’. Dr. Garber told another story; on an airplane ride, he was sitting beside a man, his name was Bill, I think. Bill was an attorney. Throughout this entire plane ride Bill talked to Dr. Garber, every now and then giving a reply. Bill talked about going to this resort he gets to go to because one of his clients is a gambler; he continues to talk about how the women are going to be great. He explains he practiced evolutionary-materialism. After a lot of talking, Dr. Garber asked him one question, “Are you happy?”. With this one question, Bill’s life was laid bare in front of him; he said simply “No, it never has been, I’ve always wanted to find a great woman who will love me.”

Back to the quote about song-writing; this struck me because, I’m a musician.(I think, maybe there is more to it). What this means is taking the truths that God has set out for us, and putting these complex, theological ideas, into song. Into words that everyone understands, probably one of the most difficult things to do, take God-breathed words and truth, and convey it to everyone. My dorm’s devotions this evening, coincidentally, was about music. My dorm mate Colten breached on the topic of Christian artists in music, how they make music to share the word of God. It could have not worked out more perfectly. So once more, the quote “Write a song that tells the truest of truths, but in a language that everyone can understand.”

Tae Kwon Do

Before I quit my job to come to Redeemer, I had lots of money. Well, not lots, but enough to afford a few luxuries, like expensive lessons in kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Now that I’m here, I can’t afford to do exciting stuff like that, and my Saturdays are better spent reading history books than going to martial arts tournaments anyway. I loved fighting, and I still do, but it’s a luxury I’ve chosen to forego for the sake of getting a respectable Christ-centered education.

The Redeemer Tae Kwon Do club was natural fit for me. I joined at the beginning of the fall semester, and by the time exams rolled around, I had earned my yellow belt, which I received in a belt ceremony during the exam period (pictured). Yellow doesn’t compare very well with some of the accolades I’ve earned in kickboxing or jiu-jitsu, but it’s a start, and I’ve certainly enjoyed learning and developed an appreciation for the art itself and the principles of Korean culture on which it’s founded.

The meetings are run by Master Hyung Im, an 8th degree black belt from Seoul , who also teaches at a Tae Kwon Do school in Caledonia . We start with a light cardio warm-up, followed by stretching, lessons on TKD technique, and finally some strength and conditioning exercises to end the class. There’s a wide variety of fitness levels and athletic ability among the participants, which could be a hindrance in other places, but because our club is free from the yelling and aggressiveness that often comes with martial arts, everybody’s able to work towards their own goals, whether that be greater fitness and flexibility, the ability to defend oneself, or simply the getting to the next belt level.


(Picture taken by Dustin Addink)

I’m planning to continue with the club until the end of the school year. I joined thinking it would be a lackluster substitute for BJJ and kickboxing, but it’s turned out to be a much richer experience than I had expected. My high kicks are looking a lot more graceful these days, too. The Redeemer Tae Kwon Do club meets in the Black Box on Mondays and Thursdays at 9:30 PM. Newcomers are always welcome.

Winter at Redeemer

Winter seems to be one of those months that everyone looks forward to, but once it actually arrives, everyone can’t wait for it to end. For me, one of the highlights of winter is snow. Unfortunately, where I come from, we don’t get a lot of snow. So, when I came to Hamilton, I was hoping for a winter wonderland. I soon learned that winter in Hamilton is very similar to winter in my hometown.

By December 12, we still had no snow while our neighbours in London were being bombarded by snowstorm after snowstorm. In fact, the worship leader at Church in the Box that night opened with the comment, “Welcome to Hamilton, the town without snow.” After we had a good laugh, we all sat back to listen to the speaker. I was moved by the thought that God is going to use me in my future career to further his kingdom. After the service, my dorm mate and I started to walk out of the building, when we realized it was snowing! God’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

Snowballs began to fly from my hands once I realized that the snow was packing snow. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one with the idea of a snowball fight. A few minutes later, screams and laughter could be heard throughout the entire campus. I, however, didn’t join in the snow war because exams started the next day, and I needed to study. (But I will say that an exciting snowball fight is a great way to prepare for exam.) As I watched warrior after warrior get hit with snowballs, I began thinking that Redeemer is probably one of the only universities where students have campus-wide snowball fights. Now as I walk to my classes, I enjoy seeing the white snow all around, and I’m grateful that Hamilton gets more snow than my hometown.