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.