Redeemer All-Access | The Redeemer Student Experience

To be involved or not to be involved

2011-04-01T11:34:00.002-04:00

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

2011-03-17T09:53:00.001-04:00

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

2011-03-07T14:54:00.003-05:00

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

2011-02-17T10:51:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-14T14:17:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-04T13:15:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-28T16:16:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-24T09:56:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-20T15:57:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-20T15:37:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-17T10:35:00.002-05:00

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.

To Write a Song

2011-01-13T09:26:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-12T16:07:00.005-05:00

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

2011-01-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

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.

YIKES!! It’s December!

2010-12-02T16:59:00.001-05:00

All around the world people are preparing for Christmas and who knows what other kinds of holiday traditions. Decorations are going up and people are shopping for their friends and family. We’re so excited to see the looks on their faces when they open up the gifts, aren’t we? Yeah, for sure! But if you’re a student you’re also really stressed.

As soon as December comes around we’re scrambling to get essays done, study for exams, all the while not go insane. It’s a strange sensation really, to be excited for Christmas but to dread December. I wonder if Christmas will ever feel like it did when I was a child, and I didn’t have to worry about essays and exams.

As a child my greatest concern had nothing to do with school, but everything to do with what would have my name on it beneath the Christmas tree. I remember December being a time of snow ball fights and making angels in the snow. That and Christmas specials on TV at the neighbour’s house every night. But I guess that’s why they’re called memories right! Eventually this time of year will be different for us students. Will stress ever become a memory? Who knows?

Either way, I wish you all the best this December.

Under Milk Wood

2010-11-30T09:39:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday marked the last performance of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood here at Redeemer. Let me just say- Holy skills, Batman! I’m sure those who were fortunate enough to have the chance to see the show will agree with me. Let me take a few minutes to give each actor the recognition they deserve for such a fantastic show.

Let’s start with the two narrators, Emily Heide and Jesse Burke. Constantly onstage, these two pretty much blew my mind- not only did they narrate throughout the play, they both took on other roles as well. Personally, I have no idea how they were able to memorize all those crazily poetic lines, but somehow they did. Somehow.

Greg Beenen played six or so characters, among them a cussing dairy farmer, a dead guy, and a fellow who just so happened to have two wives... I especially enjoyed how he played the meddling postman, who along with his wife steams open everyone’s letters and reads them before delivery.

Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard, played by Sally Beresford, was a formidable and hilarious character. Her staunch cleanliness and rule over her two deceased husbands had the crowd chuckling. Sally played a few more characters, one of them being the long-suffering Mrs. Cherry Owen. Her transitions from putting on the appearance of a happy wife, to showing the sadness she was really feeling was done excellently.

Emily Groot did a fantastic job as each of her roles, one notable role being that of Lily Smalls. The scene where she ridicules herself in the mirror was hilarious! She played some of the sweetest characters in the play, and had the audience smiling throughout.

Jordan Guetter had a few really great roles; Mr. Waldo, making too much time with the ladies, Lord Cut-Glass, with his clocks, and Jack Black, the severely upright Bible thumper, to name a few. His song at the end of the play was fantastic, and just so happened to be stuck in my head for quite some time afterwards.

Some strong singing skills were demonstrated by Nathan Hicks, in the role of Reverend Eli Jenkins. His transition from playing a Reverend to the drunkard, Cherry Owen, was quite something. One could say that his tankard drinking skills were nearly as good as his singing!

Paige Louter was amazing in her many roles, with memorable characters like the icy Mrs. Pugh, the long-suffering Mrs. Organ-Morgan, dead Rosie Probert, and the little girl, Gwennie. Her song also remains stuck in my head...

The role of Polly Garter was pulled off by Jessica Marshall, who did an incredible job. She was able to completely change the mood of the scenes she was in. Her wistful song and defeated look had everyone empathising with her.

Pieter Schalk was an excellent tour guide, tailor, and potential murderer, to name a few. His depiction of the long-suffering Mr. Pugh, who dreams of poisoning his wife, was a definite favourite with the audience.

Steven Siemens had the audience dying with laughter for most of the show, which made his portrayal of the blind Captain Cat all the more impressive. His blank, staring eyes, and even the way he would return to his chair were spot on.

Jonathan Silverthorn was superb in all his roles. I was especially impressed with how he played Nogood Boyo- you wouldn’t think a strapping young lad with a beard could play a convincing little boy, but he pulled it off wonderfully.

Lauryn Vetro did a wonderful job as, among other things, Mrs. Dai Bread Two, a seductive gypsy. It must have been an intimidating role-but she pulled it off well. Her fortune telling scene was especially good.

Jessica Watson was hilarious as the waddling Mrs. Dai Bread one, and had the audience cracking up every time she walked across the stage. Her portrayal as the lonely Bessie Bighead was fantastic, you really felt sorry for her.

The cast and crew did an amazing job. Ray Louter’s directing, Chris Cuthill’s set (along with the hard work put in by Tyler VanHolst and the painting crew), Sam Frisk’s lighting design, the music provided by Aaron Craig...everything pulled together for one impressive show.

Christmas in November

2010-11-29T09:23:00.001-05:00

It’s the most wonderful time of the year because the Redeemer Christmas bug has officially bit my dorm. When my mom mentioned Christmas to me during the first month of school, I never gave it a second thought. Then November hit, and my dorm started talking about Christmas decorations. That’s when I realized – we didn’t have any! Fortunately, my mom was able to send a box of decorations, and my dorm mates could bring stuff from home. We also went out and bought some outdoor lights. One girl even brought a tree! Now, having decorations is great, but you’ve got to put them up. That’s where the community of the dorm comes in. The music is turned on and everyone works together to decorate. We laugh as we get tangled in lights and sprayed with fake snow; scream when the decorations fall down and sing along with the lyrics to the first Christmas songs.

When I was young, decorating for Christmas was the highlight of my year, and decorating for Christmas at Redeemer has made that time even more exciting and memorable. I remember how the outdoor Christmas lights always seemed to appear on our house roof. This year, I realized that someone actually has to put those lights up. Only problem is, no one in my dorm is tall enough to reach the eaves trough to put the lights on it. So I made the short trek to our “brother” dorm across the parking lot to ask for help. After half an hour, the lights were strung up. Then we plugged them in. And that’s when we realized that a section of the icicle lights wasn’t working. Have you ever heard the proverbial saying, “This is like looking for a needle in a hay stack”? Well, this time it was more like looking for a blown bulb in a section of Christmas lights. But eventually we found the missing bulb. We replaced it and went inside to enjoy the rest of the Christmas spirit. If Christmas is celebrated like this in November, I wonder what Christmas in December will look like. Guess I’ll find out in 3 days.

Couches

2010-11-18T16:51:00.002-05:00

I'm going to make the assumption, dear reader, that having read the title of this post, you're understandably skeptical of the the quality of the forthcoming article. “Couches?” I can hear you saying, “I came to this blog to read about 'The Redeemer Student Experience' and this guy is going to tell me about couches?” If you're asking that, you're asking the right questions. And the answer, my friend, is yes, I am going to tell you about couches.

Humber College doesn't have any couches. I have fond, positive memories about my time at that institution, and nothing I say here should be considered negative towards Humber, but they don't have any couches. Actually, I don't know for certain that this is still true, but when I went there in 2006, there were no couches. They have a pub and an arcade, but as far as I can remember, no couches. McMaster University, as far as I know, doesn't have any couches. I don't know this for a fact, but I used to work as a contractor there with relative frequency, and never did I see a single couch on that campus. (This was back in the days when I was an arborist. In retrospect it's entirely possible that Mac does have couches and concealed them from me so as to avoid having them dirtied up by some filthy tree worker.)

Redeemer has tons of couches. There's couches in the front commons, couches in the commuter lounge, outside the lecture halls, in the cafeteria, in the rec centre, in the lobby of the athletic centre, and the library. I'm probably forgetting a few. Suffice to say, Redeemer has a lot of couches.

I didn't really think about why there were couches when I first came here. They tend to be in otherwise empty areas, which I figured was probably why they were there: to fill space in otherwise empty sections of the school. I was probably wrong. As the weeks wore on, and I started going to class and studying and all that stuff you're supposed to do when you're a student, it kind of clicked. I found myself going to class early to hang out with my friends on the couches outside. Between classes I'd go to the commuter lounge and sit on the couch to study. I never actually end up studying, somebody always ends up joining me and we talk until it's time to go to class. If nobody I know comes, I usually end up meeting somebody new who's also sitting around pretending to try and study. That's one of the great things about Redeemer; it's small enough that nobody looks at you funny if you just sit down next to them and say hi. Redeemer's couches sometimes feature impromptu prayer meetings. Sometimes there's huge life advice discussions. Sometimes, usually in the minutes before a test, there's studying. With the possible exception of the Launch Olympics, I've probably met more people that I've ended up becoming friends with while sitting on Redeemer's couches than during any other situation in the school. Those couches provide a relaxed sense of socialization and community that's hard to duplicate.

So, to answer the previous question, yes, this is a post about couches. Yes, I'm comfortable with that. It's not that there's midterms this week and I've been busy studying, or that I simply just couldn't think of anything to write about. Those might be valid excuses if I felt like I needed to excuse spending 500 words talking about sitting on a couch, but I don't. I wanted to write about the couches because the interaction that happens on them is an important part of what makes the Redeemer experience different from other institutions. So, really, this post isn't about sitting on couches. It's about a rich, warm, welcoming community, one that materializes in places far from the dimly lit, sticky-floored pub of Humber College.

Dorm Life

2010-11-17T09:25:00.002-05:00

Living in a dorm with 7-8 other students can be slightly frightening. Thousands of questions fly through your head: Will you get along with your dorm mates and roommate?Can anyone in the dorm cook? What if I live with party animals!? These are perfectly reasonable questions, in fact, I asked myself these questions a million times, and I want to address these anxieties and make you excited to experience dorm life at Redeemer.

First, let's discuss the topic of dorm mates and roommates. Redeemer's Student Life department carefully reads through your dorm application forms in order to figure out who will make a good dorm. Some of the things you'll find in common with your dorm mates are hobbies, majors and minors, future career goals, etc. For example, everyone in my dorm is involved with music one way or another, and most of us want to become teachers. Also, if you know someone who is going to attend Redeemer, you can ask to be in that person's dorm or be their roommate. My cousin and I decided to be roommates once we found out that we were both coming to RUC.

Second, I want to say that the dorm setup at Redeemer is truly amazing. Redeemer is the only university that I know of that has town-house style dorm with 8 girls/guys living together. Because of this setup, you begin to feel like a family. You also get to cook your own meals. Now for some people that may not be a good thing. But usually there is at least one or two people in the dorm, aside from the RAs, who know how to cook. How do you choose who's cooking? Your RAs will choose cooking partners based on class schedules. (I cook with two other girls on Monday nights.) Dinner is a great time to chat with your dorm mates and catch up on each other's days. Sometimes, you even get to have dinner with another dorm during a Dorm Dinner.

Lastly, I want to talk about the social life of a dorm. Once you get to know people on campus you tend to have a lot of visitors, which is a good thing. Friends give you a break from all the studying and writing you've been doing. However, you need to be aware of the temptation to hang out with friends instead of writing that History essay that's due in two days. Also, bring ear plugs. My roomie and I tend to go to bed 2 hours before everyone else, which means there's always talking and laughing going on downstairs. Fortunately, the sound is muffled pretty good, but for those of you who are light sleepers, I advise bringing ear plugs. Also, your dorm mates will be pretty understanding if you ask them to tone it down a bit.

Yep, Redeemer dorm life is pretty awesome. It's one of the things that really made me want to go to Redeemer. Once again I say come and visit Redeemer but make sure you stay over night in a dorm or take a dorm tour. Trust me. You won't regret it.

French Worship

2010-11-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

This week’s chapel was in the form of the French Taizé style of worship. It is a very monastic and reverent form of singing. I personally enjoyed it; it really speaks to your soul, and also allows you to speak to God from your soul. The idea behind it is that we need to be still and know. Every now and then we need to slow down; at least I know that I have to. At times there can be a lot going on here at Redeemer, dedications to too many things can lead to an exhaustion physically, but more mentally. I know that I need to have a time where I can just be quiet and sit with God. I found this with the Taizé style of worship. Right in the middle of the service there was a time of silence. During this period of silence I sat as still as I possibly could, closed my eyes, and attempted to rid myself of all the distractions in my head. It was almost like I was meditating, my mind was stilled, my thoughts trained on God. It was a new experience for me, this Taizé worship. The music was great, the focus not on instruments, but on the voice. The words were repetitive, but not in a bad way. They got stuck in my head, and I couldn’t help but think about them. Being on the chapel team, I get a different angle on things, on the choice of music and how it connects to the message. The way this Taize style so closely connects to the idea of the worship is uncanny. The music relays the feeling that I really can’t express in words. I guess that’s how it can be with worship in any setting, but what can I do? This experience has broadened my view of worship, realizing that there are many, many different ways that people worship God. None of us can say that one is better than the other, because I’m pretty sure God doesn’t pick out his top five songs of the year. Anyways I’m running out of words, until next time, I’m Greg Hoekstra, stay handsome Redeemer.

Hardcore

2010-11-09T09:09:00.002-05:00

First year students, prospective students- This one is for you!

So, as you probably know, Redeemer has a little thing known as “core courses.” Queue the dramatic music, gnashing of teeth, and various other forms of protest. Ah, core courses. How we love them, how we dread them.

As an arts student, my greatest fear was the darkly looming Science courses on the horizon. Visions of high school labs and incorrect labelling of the periodic table filled my mind... Wait, did I read that right? I have to take TWO Science courses? TWO?! All I wanted to do was take my English and Theatre courses.

However, upon actually getting into my classes, I was pleasantly surprised. This core thing wasn’t half bad! All my courses were far more interesting than I had thought they would be, and I found myself applying things I had learned in one course to another. The greatest part? One of my Science cores turned out to be awesome. (I say one because I foolishly put off taking Biology, and will now be taking it in my third year. Bad idea. Take Biology as soon as you can! Don’t follow my bad example!) Computer Science-101, who would have guessed you would become one of my favourite courses? A hilarious Prof, useful knowledge, fun assignments... this Science thing ain’t so dreadful after all.

Now of course, this dread of core courses goes both ways. I know there are tons of students who loathe the idea of having to sit through a Music class, dance in a Theatre class, and think poems are the most terrible thing to ever have been created. Never fear, fellow students. While dancing in front of your peers may seem awful and completely inapplicable to your future, I promise you won’t regret it. (A fun story- I once fell over in the middle of a Theatre dance circle. Apparently everyone else thought it was some fancy new dance move I had developed. Excellent.)

Yes, core seems like a bummer. But if you go into it with an open mind, you never know what you’ll find. (Nice rhyming skills, eh? You’ll learn that in your English classes!) It makes sense to only want to take courses in your field, but in the end the broad spectrum of learning will only benefit you.

The Unwritten Rules of Redeemer

2010-11-08T14:23:00.003-05:00

You've probably think that you've heard all the reasons why you should come to Redeemer. Reasons like good student-faculty ratios, amazing dorm life, exciting off-campus studies. Now these are perfectly good reasons why people should choose Redeemer, but I think there's more to Redeemer than what you're told during a question-and-answer period.

What I'm talking about is the Redeemer atmosphere. When I first visited Redeemer, I remember feeling that there was something different, but I didn't exactly know what it was. Now, I know that this feeling has to do with student-to-student relationships. I see 1^st and 4^th year students mingling in the classrooms; guys and girls hanging out in the cafe; people excitedly chatting in the halls. I like to call this “The Buzz”. The buzz of the thriving Redeemer community.

And just like in every community there are understood rules. (Don't worry. These are all positive rules.) The first rule is “No Stealing”. For example during chapel, students leave their backpacks in the hall outside the auditorium. And after chapel their backpacks are still there with everything still inside. Another example is umbrellas. Umbrellas are a staple survival tool at Redeemer, but no one wants to carry a wet umbrella around the school, so people leave their umbrellas in the entrance way. And at the end of the day, those umbrellas are waiting for them.

The second rule has to do with “Dorm Dinners”. A dorm dinner means your dorm invites (or gets invited to) another dorm for dinner. The hosting dorm will cook the meal and the guest dorm will supply dessert and wash dishes. The tradition of a Dorm Diner is to play “The Name Game”. This game includes going around the circle and telling everyone your name, where you're from, your major and minor, and answering a random question. Some of the random questions I've had to answer are “What Disney character would you marry?” and “If you could be a road sign, what you be?” Dorm dinners are a great way to get to meet your fellow students and are just an all-around fun time.

The third rule is “Praying Before Each Class”. Professors begin each class with a prayer. I love the fact that God is integrated into every class, even classes like French and math. Another amazing thing about Redeemer has to do with the faith of the students. It is not uncommon to walk down the halls and hear someone talking about God, church doctrine, or worship. I love it that students at Redeemer are sincere in their walk with God.

There are so many other things I could say about why Redeemer is an amazing university, but the best way to experience Redeemer is to visit. I encourage any prospective students to come to a Campus Visit Day or book a private tour. I promise that once you experience the Redeemer buzz, you'll keep coming back for more.

Academia in a Different Light

2010-11-05T19:13:00.002-04:00

I began university coming straight out of a public high school. It was like coming to Canada from Mexico, the cultures are just so different. I'd come from an environment where the mention of God subjected you to ridicule from anyone and everyone. You became the easy target for atheist bullies. I became somewhat of a chicken so I avoided theological discussions at all costs.
It was no wonder I was in such shock when I arrived at Redeemer. Never before had I heard a teacher pray before a class started, nor had them randomly refer to a Bible verse in the middle of a class discussion. It just wasn't done! But now every class or lecture you went to, it was the norm and I loved it!
In the hallways during high school you could not go anywhere without people uttering fowl language. After a while you become desensitized to it and don't even notice it happen anymore. It shook me to the core to come to Redeemer and happen to eavesdrop on people praying together in the hall. Not to mention the time a friend came to me in the hall, pulled me to the side and asked if I could pray for her. I didn't think she meant right them and there! I said ok, thinking that was it but she waited. I almost panicked, what will people think? Nonetheless I didn't want to disappoint my friend and not do it, so I bowed my head and said a prayer for her. We both went on our way to continue the day, but that moment stayed with me. I realized that this too was a norm in this community.
In high school I had very few friends, we just had nothing in common. Another shock. At Redeemer you have something in common with nearly everyone, if not a Dutch background, its your faith and love for Jesus Christ. You can meet anyone for the first time and feel like you've known each other for decades just because of that connection. It's because of this connection that I was now less afraid to actually go out of my way to talk to someone. Also, people in high school were just mean, not so here. People care and aren't afraid to show it. You are never turned away from someone's lunch table like in high school. Instead people invite you to join them. It's incredible what happens when Christ is the foundation of academia.

Now that I'm in my second year at Redeemer, I have become accustomed to praying in classes and hallways, and having a worship service once a week with the school. I have become so accustomed to religious discussions that when I am in the public I sometimes forget that the people I encounter may not share my faith or understand it. I catch myself witnessing without intending to do so, it's awesome! I am so glad that coming to Redeemer has made me more bold in sharing my faith with others.

A Power-Failure Bringing Students Together

2010-11-04T19:55:00.003-04:00

As a commuter student, it’s easy to feel a little left out from time to time. It’s certainly not the fault of anybody within the institution, in fact Redeemer University College, in my view, takes exceptional steps to include commuters in activities. Hennie Schoon, through the University’s student life department, sets up commuter socials with free coffee on Wednesdays. Each commuter gets set up with a ‘buddy dorm.’, one specific residence on campus that we can go to anytime, where the introductions are all already made. It’s comforting to know that anytime I’m on campus and I feel like being utterly destroyed at any video game imaginable, I have a buddy dorm that I can go to where somebody will make that happen. In fact, if it’s any indication of how much Redeemer cares about its commuting students, I’m actually writing this in the Commuter Lounge. How many universities have a commuter lounge?

Still, though, there’s something about living on campus that can’t be duplicated. With the majority of students living on campus, there’s a tight knit community here that, while it’s been very accepting of me and my fellow commuters, I’m hesitant to believe I can ever truly be a part of. Dorm dinners, Bible studies, late night coffeehouses, games tournaments, on campus worship services and prayer meetings are all features of on-campus life. While I’m obviously not prohibited in any way from going to these things, they often take place at a time or place that are difficult for me to get to, or difficult for me to go to and then get home and be in bed by a reasonable hour. That, coupled with the fact that I’m just not around as much as an on-campus student would be, keeps me a little out of the loop. It’s not something that’s a problem, or something that’s anybody’s fault, it’s just a fact of life. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sometimes jealous of my on-campus friends.

Yesterday, however, my enchantment with on-campus living reached its highest point. I had left campus earlier that day and was returning for a meeting with my theatre group at around 7pm. I rolled into the parking lot to see literally hundreds of students in pajamas carrying bedding and pillows into the academic building. Upon investigation, I discovered that an underground power line near Luther Court had been severed by construction equipment and that many of the dorms were without power and that students were being evacuated to the main building for the night.

Most of the people I talked to were mildly unimpressed with the power failure. Before the cause of the outage was known, one group of students jokingly planned a holy war against the campus squirrel population, who were initially suspected of causing yet another power outage. Despite all the chaos, however, most students were excited to be involved in what they characterized as ‘a giant university slumber party.’ While staff scrambled to get pizza and gym mats and direct people to their assigned sleeping areas, students laughed and joked, enjoying each both others’ company and the hilarity of the situation. I don’t think I met one person who wasn’t at least moderately happy to be there, who didn’t appreciate the situation for the community building opportunity that it was.

Crews ended up restoring the power later in the evening, and nobody slept in the school, but the experience of being there with most of the student body last night showed me something: whether they know it or not, the kids on this campus really do love each other.

Maybe I’ll apply to live in residence next year.

LAUNCH Olympics at Redeemer

2010-10-31T17:56:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that two months ago I stepped onto Redeemer soil as a first-year university student. All I could think about was: How would I meet people? Who would be my friends? What would my profs be like? Will I get along with my dorm mates? As I opened the door to my dorm for the first time, I was greeted by a cheery smile and a warm, “Hello” from my RA, and all my worries disappeared.

That first week of university was all about adjusting; adjusting to my new-found freedom, friends, and home. To make our adjustment a little easier, Student Life planned LAUNCH which was a competition for the Cooper Cup (and of course bragging rights). Three dorms, including mine, made up the brown team. Throughout the week various activities were planned such as a Find- your-LAUNCH-leader scavenger hunt, a canned food drive, decade and swing dances, and orientation meetings. For each event, your team got a certain amount of points for every teammate who attended.

At the end of the week, we had the Olympics. It was one of the most exciting days of my university life. Everyone on my team dressed up in brown and covered themselves with warpaint. Other teams carried ginormous mascots like a stuffed gorilla. Then all the teams marched to where the Olympics would be held, all the while screaming and cheering for their team. The Olympic events consisted of the classic ankle balloon pop game; flour toss – where your team sits in a line and passes flour over your heads from the front to the back; the frozen t-shirt game; and a new and improved version of capture the flag. What followed next was what I'd been looking forward too all summer – the mud pit.

Let me explain the mud pit - pure awesomeness. Our team felt a special connection with the mud pit because we were brown and so is mud. When it came to be our turn to play tug-of-war in the pit, we decided to have compassion on the other team and let them drag us through the mud. Afterwards, there was a huge mud fight. As I looked around all I could see were walking piles of mud. Before we were allowed back into the dorm, we had to hose off. Despite our best efforts to eliminate all traces of mud, our clothes and shoes were worthless. I wonder if the garbage men noticed the sudden increase in garbage that week...

In conclusion, I'd like to say this to all present and future first-years: no matter how nervous you are about university remember that you're not the only one. Take a deep breath. Be yourself. And don't forget a pair of old sneakers for the mud pit!

Invisible Children

2010-10-27T13:54:00.008-04:00

On September 29, during Redeemer’s weekly chapel session, students and staff listened to a presentation by members of Invisible Children, a humanitarian group focused on ending the long running civil war in Uganda. Students learned that the war between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army had been going on for 23 years, leaving millions of people across four countries displaced and afraid. Further compounding the problem is the LRA’s practice of abducting children and training them as soldiers. It is estimated that since 1986, the group has forced an estimated 10,000 children to take up arms, often killing parents and schoolteachers during the abduction process.

Invisible Children was formed in 2003 in response to this long running war, aimed at raising awareness in the west of the war and its effects and at lobbying first world governments to take action against the LRA. In addition, they employ a Ugandan ground staff in that country that works to rebuild infrastructure damaged by war and improve Uganda’s education system with books, teachers, mentors, improved school facilities, and scholarships for Uganda’s future leaders.

Along with traveling to promote their cause and
asking for donations at various events, Invisible Children raises money through book drives conducted in partnership with Better World Books, a non-profit company that collects and sells books to raise money for various literacy based organizations including Invisible Children.

First year Redeemer student Nicole Shaver has organized a book drive here on campus. Better World Books has provided large green boxes, placed outside of the library, next to the book store, and by William’s, for students and faculty to drop books into. The boxes, shipping, and other book drive expenses are covered by Better World Books, so contributors can rest assured that all of the proceeds from the sale of their donated books will go directly to Invisible Children.

The drive has been initially successful thus far. Donations have been coming in slowly and are expected to pick up as the semester winds down. Students are being encouraged to bring in unwanted books for donation. Textbooks are best, but any book in decent condition will make a direct and measurable difference in the lives of children in Uganda.

Arts in October

2010-10-26T15:40:00.004-04:00

October already! The much anticipated and loved time of midterms and papers being heaped upon us is finally here. Never fear though, there are still plenty of fun and exciting things going on in the wonderful world of art here at Redeemer. Art gallery openings, music performances, plays, poetry readings and more are happening throughout the year.

Speaking of those poetry readings, if you haven’t come out to one yet- plan on it! This year we have already had two excellent poets in, Lorri Neilsen Glenn and Jeramy Dodds, as well as an appearance from Sam Martin, who read from his new book, This Ramshackle Tabernacle. There’s just something about hearing a writer read their own works, as well as having the opportunity to ask them questions afterwards. It’s a great experience. The next poet in is Ken Babstock, who will be reading on November 25^th. Mark it down in your calendar, be there or be square!

Another upcoming event to look forward to- The first art gallery opening of the year is right around the bend. “Clothed Like These: Images of Divine Affection” will be open from October 30 to November 26, so you will have plenty of time to check it out. For more art, check out the hallways around the art room. Student work is often on display, and is always worth spending some time on.

November 23 to 27 will be when the first play of the year is running. Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood, a play in which “an all-seeing narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of an imaginary small Welsh village,” (to quote our handy-dandy Redeemer website) promises to be an out of the ordinary experience. You won’t want to miss it. The actors are all playing multiple roles, which should prove to be pretty darn interesting.

As far as the music scene goes, the faculty artist concert is happening on the 5^th of November, and there are numerous student performances going on throughout the year- keep an eye on the Time Out to find out when and where they’re going down. In addition to the more curricular events, there’s also a ton of bands at Redeemer that are worth checking out. The Good Hunters, City of Snow, Dwelt in Silence...just to name a few. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming concerts to support our talented musicians!

Ah, the arts are alive and well here at jolly olde Redeemer! If you want to pencil in a few of these dates, learn a little more about them, or see what else is going on, check out the Arts & Culture Schedule for some more info. Anywhoo, that’s all for now. Until next time, over and out.

Poetry Reading - Jeremy Dodds

2010-10-25T15:47:00.002-04:00

I grabbed myself a cup of tea and joined a crowd of mostly English professors and students, as well as guests from the community. This is one thing that I love about Redeemer University; you have the opportunity to hear all sorts of poets come read.

Jeremy Dodds is probably the youngest poet I have heard at Redeemer, at 35 with one collection of poems (Crabwise to the Hounds[2008]), he has already won the 2006 Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award, the 2007 CBC Literary Award in Poetry, and the Trillium Book award for Poetry. I think that’s awesome! However this isn’t all there is to Jeremy Dodds, after all, he grew up in Orono Ontario, he studied in Iceland, knows their language, and he’s and archaeologist.

Dodds’ first poem of the night, Canada, reminded me of all those stereotypes that people make about Canada, with the beaver and everything. My favourite line in this poem that was inspired by Ginsberg’s America, was “Canada, I feel like another weather.” That actually made me chuckle. Sometimes it seems like Canada itself can’t decide what weather to be some days.

There were a couple of other great lines that came out during his reading that brought a chuckle from the crowd. One being “I’m worried about people who was their cars at night” Who does that anyway? Now the line that really made me laugh was from his poem Epileptic Acupuncture, “The Lake’s so clear you can see yourself to the door.” Seriously, people who know me, know the kind of jokes and lines I’d come up with. That one comes pretty close but obviously Dodds thought of it first.

After some time of reading, Dodds answered some questions from the crowd. I think there is an unspoken rule that the first thing you have to ask a poet is what inspired them. For Dodds his inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. “I steal mostly” he told us with a chuckle “Then I rewrite it to make it my own.” I guess that makes sense.

Someone from the crowd then asked Dadds about his writing process, I was a little thrown off at the passion he showed for editing his work. I never know there was so much that had to go into it. I don’t think I would have ever thought of recording myself reading a poem and then listening to it to see if there were flaws in the rhythm and the flow. It inspired me. I think I may actually try it.

If you are interested in reading more about Jeremy Dodds, there will be a more indepth interview between myself and Jeremy Dodds in Redeemer’s next edition of the Crown.

Weekends

2010-10-25T09:29:00.004-04:00

Weekends – what every university student lives for. Weekends can be two things: first, they are a time to study for midterms; second, they are a chance to relax and enjoy life. This weekend was a time for adventure.

A few weeks ago, Redeemer hosted a Club Showcase where you could go and check out all the different ways to get involved at Redeemer and in Hamilton. I signed up to volunteer with City Kidz, a Christian organization that works with children from downtown Hamilton. Hamilton is one of the poorest cities in Canada. City Kidz's goal is to change Hamilton from “The City of Poor” to “The City of Hope” by reaching the children of this area.

Now for the adventure part. In order to get to City Kidz I had to take the city bus. I have never been on a city bus before except when my grade 10 class went to Toronto on a trip, but then I had my teacher to tell me where to go. This time I was going alone. So, I mustered up all my courage, took a deep breath and asked one of my guy friends if he'd come with me. He agreed.

On Saturday morning, with my Google Map directions in hand, my friend and I left the campus. Google Maps had told me to walk 30 minutes to reach the first stop in order to catch our bus at 10:55am. We arrived at 10:30am. So we sat down on the curb and patiently waited for bus 34 to come pick us up.

Unbeknownst to us, some sewage trucks were working in the background, and the stench of sewage was creeping our way. It came in three waves – the third being the most deadly. After we were finally able to breathe fresh oxygen, I realized our bus didn't come until 11:15am. We waited for 45 minutes in the putrid smell of sewage. My friend was not impressed. Finally, we saw our bus, but then two Redeemer students got off that bus who said that they were waiting for bus 34 – just like us. Turns out we didn't actually have to walk to the bus stop – we could've gotten a ride with the bus that comes right from the campus. By now my friend was quite annoyed with me.

Fortunately, once we got on bus 34 everything went smoothly. At the end of the day, as we were walking back to Redeemer, we were flagged down by a Redeemer recruitment member. Thankfully, my friend is on the recruitment team so we were able to hitch a ride, sparing us the walk back to campus. There are two morals to this story; 1) Make sure you read your Google Map directions carefully and research all bus routes, 2) Don't let bus adventures scare you from becoming involved in the Hamilton community.

Interview with 2010/2011 Student Senate President

2010-07-27T08:53:00.004-04:00

Redeemer Blogger, Katelyn B. holds a phone interview with Joel Van Steenbergen, Honour Biology Major and Chemistry Minor, and President of Student Senate for the 2010/2011 school year. (Last year Katelyn was a First Year Senator and looks forward to serving under Joel this year as the VP of Finance. With both persons being Senators, this interview got a bit interesting at times. Read on to hear what all the hype’s about!)

Katelyn: Last year you were the Senate Clubs Coordinator. What did you learn from last year that will help you this year as President?
Joel: I’ve learned the value of coordinated community. In that everybody needs to know what’s going on in order for things to work smoothly, like what each persons' responsibilities entails. Once people have that they can not only do their position, they can grow in it and expand it.

K: What made you decide to run for President?
J: I had the capability to do the position and somebody needed to do it. I had a vision for how Student Senate could run and I went with that vision. I felt the need and responded to that need.

K: That’s a really good quote!
J: Thanks, I’m looking up quotes online as I’m talking to you.

K: Seriously?
J: No. *pause* Oh here’s one: “To be or not to be...”

K: Haha. Ok, you said that you had a vision for Senate...
J: Yeah, the vision I have isto ensure that Student Senate runs like clockwork. To have an organized government that shows students its function, what its purpose is, and hopefully makes students really aware of what goes behind the doors of the Student Senate office. I want students to know that their Senate is available, that we’re interested in them, not just in doing our jobs. I also plan on expanding horizons for myself: getting to know people that I didn’t know before. I want every person that attends Redeemer to know that Senate is for them. We want Student Senate be truly for the students – and that’s all the students, not just the ones we see on a daily basis. *pause... hiccups* haha. I’ve had the hiccups all day long because I ate my apple wrong.

K: This is 29th year of Redeemer is seeing a lot of firsts: new president Dr. Krygsman, new dean of students Karen Cornies, and your first time as president of Student Senate. What do you see your role is in integrating our new Redeemerite-admin into the Redeemer community?
J: Yup, that’s three changes right there. One’s normal; it’s natural to have a new Senate president every year, but a new president and dean will be a bit of a challenge. I need to get them familiar with the Senate government so that they can be the guide of all the student body. When this happens we can all work together as a team. I have already met the new president and I’m excited for this year because I know that together with the new dean we will all be able to work efficiently together to best serve the students.

K: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
J: Rock, ‘cause who doesn’t wanna rock?

K: Stick or Carrot?
J: Stick ... or carrot? [pause] You mean like a stick; like a piece of a tree, or a carrot; like an orange vegetable. [pause] I’ll go for the carrot.

K: *laughs* Clearly you’re not a poli-sci student.
J: Oh... Like would you rather lead a donkey with a stick or a carrot. Oh my goodness; you’re terrible!

K: And one last question: What room in Redeemer would you most like to be locked in overnight if it were possible?
J: Umm... it would probably be a room with a bed in it. And the only room that I know of with a bed it is the Kinesiology lab as it’s used for experiments, but I could probably sleep on it.
K: Any last words?
J: I am looking forward to this upcoming year. I think it’s gonna be a blast, with its challenges, but I’m looking forward to those too. I’m looking forward to my Senators – even if they ask questions about sticks and carrots... But yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Just praying that we’ll have a really good year!

My Life in Boxes

2010-06-11T14:23:00.000-04:00

For the last four years of my life it feels like I have always been on the move. From home to university and back every academic term, from university to my summer job at camp, and from home to Paris. Now I am on the move from residence to apartment in Paris and once again meticulously cramming my clothes and books into boxes. This move, though, is a rather happy one. My mom and my sister are visiting Paris for a week and so Iugging my suitcases across the city on the metro wasn’t such a dreary experience.

For me, this is the big finale here in Paris. I just finished moving out of my student residence and saying the bittersweet goodbyes to all the good friends I made along the way, including my two very funny Algerian roommates. They made me a nice French meal as their going-away present and I left them some good old Canadian maple syrup. After I made it to the new studio apartment I went to go pick up my mom and my sister from the airport. They we’re really excited to be in Paris for the first time and their excitement for Paris is definitely rubbing off on me. I feel a bit like I’m discovering the city again for the first time even though I’ve lived here already for about five months.

So far we have surprisingly seen a lot. On their first night here we visited the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, and the Seine at night. On their second day we took in the famous Notre-Dame cathedral, the classic université Sorbonne, the quiet Saint-Séverin, and the rustic bohemian bookshop Shakespeare & Company. It’s been a bonus to all of us to have each other here since my family treats me to food and I point out all of the best deals for them and steer them away from the tourist traps. Tomorrow we are going to visit my church and then take the afternoon on a boat tour of the Seine. Here’s to a week being nothing but a tourist after a full semester of having my nose in the books.

Passing Exams and Saying Goodbyes

2010-05-25T08:44:00.001-04:00

Exam week has arrived in Paris! It’s hard to believe our courses have already come to an end here, even those dreadfully long 2hr grammar courses have started to grow on me. Leaving is always a nostalgic thing: happy to welcome change but nobody really likes goodbyes. Luckily my professor gave out a list to the class of everyone’s name and email if they wished to share it, so keeping in contact with the friend’s I’ve made in class shouldn’t be too hard...thank you Facebook! This week, after my last final is passed on Tuesday, I am looking forward to welcoming my mom and my sister who are coming up to visit for six days. They are pretty excited to say the least. As their well-travelled tour guide of Paris, I’ve got a whole itinerary planned for them and I’ve even put in a “No Speaking English Day” for something different and to help them improve their French.

Yesterday, after an afternoon of wandering down the Champs-Élysées in the sun, we had our farewell day at the church. Since it was so sunny and mild out we had a little church picnic following the service in the park facing les Invalides. It was really nice and apparently very French. I am learning that as soon as the biting cold wind leaves the city Parisians are out of their apartments lounging on the grass and kicking around soccer balls late into the night. After sharing food together with everyone we gave a little speech in French thanking everyone in the church for being so welcoming and helpful to us Canadians. As the sun went down and the great dome church lit up, we all went home singing happily (the few songs we all knew in common). We’ll I better head off, since the girls are leaving very soon to go back (June 2) we’ve decided to do some last minute “sorties” in the city. This morning it’s Sainte-Chapelle and a walking history tour of Paris. Until next time!

United in Christ: Taizé’s Message of Trust, Love, and Reconciliation

2010-05-21T10:15:00.002-04:00

When I first arrived at Taizé I thought to myself, “Oh, this is it?” I walked up the dusty path into the community and found hoards of young people strewn out across the welcome area. I walked past the great Taizé bells and into the picnic tent with my newfound American friend, who happened to know the community like the back of his hand. As we past a group of teens laughing and spraying each other with the dish-washing hoses, we found a nice spot to sit and grabbed some extra food that was left over from lunch. One thing I got from being there already on the first day was how welcoming and accepting this community was to new pilgrims. I got a real sense of that as I went through the reception process with a young person from Germany named Jenni. Although she had only been in Taizé for a day, she happily showed where I would work, sleep, and participate in Bible studies. She seemed as though she knew so much and she had practiced at her job for weeks. But I knew that Jenni simply put her heart into this small job, because she loved people and she was responding to the trust she was given by the Brothers.

It’s just amazing to me how the Brothers have set up this community: it is completely trust-driven and run by the pilgrims who come to stay each week regardless of their age or background. I was given the task of cooking the dinner meal for about 1000 young people and leaders. Although I had very little experience or knowledge in the kitchen, I was given this job with a high degree of trust and confidence that I could do it well. Before I could say to the welcome team “well, you know I’ve never worked in a kitchen and what if I mess up?” they signed me up for the job. There was no room for doubting oneself here, just trust that God will equip pilgrim to step up to the task given. This principle of trust in young people is echoed throughout the community and in my opinion it is one of the reasons why young people continue to come back to this inconspicuous hill year after year. In a world where teenagers and college agers are suspect from the start, Taizé models a faith in young people that runs deep. The community’s former prior, Brother Roger once said, “I am willing to go to the ends of the Earth to shout my trust in young people.”

This sense of responsibility gives the pilgrims affirmation and confidence; to know that they are trusted, regardless of their previous mistakes or employment botches. For me, the work also gave a notion of contribution. I knew that if I didn’t do my job well that the community would not be able to eat each night, and so I saw how my job fit into the whole. During morning meals, when I wasn’t working, I got to sit and eat with everyone and share stories. One pilgrim I met along the way was Laura, an undergrad student from Berlin who had taken two weeks off from classes to re-think her life in the thick of it all. It was really interesting to me that she wasn’t at all worried about getting those notes or catching up for the exam, she simply knew she needed time to think, listen, and seek God...and so she took the risk. Many other young people come to Taizé for the same reason; it is a haven of peace and quiet that stands almost antithetical to the buzzing noise of the modern world. Dominique, another friend, was a Swiss youth leader at a Catholic church who brought with him two young teens to experience a week of uniqueness at Taizé. For Dominique, although he comes back every year with a handful of new youth, Taizé is a spring of rejuvenation and fresh air for him where he can listen attentively and without distraction to the truth God has to speak into his life.

Overall what I think stood out the most for me during my time at Taizé was the simple reality that I could peacefully and without a gulp in my throat have good, real fellowship and conversation with Christians from other traditions. At Taizé, the question of denomination usually comes secondary (if indeed it comes at all) to the reality of being followers of Christ. No marginalizations or separations were made based one’s Christian tradition and all the pilgrims worshipped together with the Brothers three times a day. We sang together in praise of the Lord and we prayed together for the peace and reconciliation of the world. It was a deep and very fulfilling experience for me and I gained a new hope for the future of the Church, one where the message of Christ’s uniting power comes first and division is left behind.

Redeemer Students Speak Up! Video #3

2010-05-12T11:50:00.002-04:00

Redeemer Students Speak Up! Video #2

2010-05-12T11:48:00.002-04:00

Redeemer Students Speak Up! Video #1

2010-05-12T11:43:00.007-04:00

A First Visit to the Community of Taizé

2010-05-06T13:43:00.001-04:00

I found myself back in my familiar class this morning after what had felt like a month off; unfortunately it was only two weeks. After my time with friends in Paris I hopped on a train (this time at the right station!) and headed south to the hilly region of Burgundy. There I joined some 800 or so young people and a brotherhood of monks for a week of prayer, worship, simplicity, and community life. Sounds unusual...maybe even a bit dull, right? I had the same first impressions when I first heard about this place. Tucked away in silence on a secluded hill in France, the community of Taizé is unassuming, and yet over the past 60 years it has become a magnet for young European Christians, many of whom make unbelievably long pilgrimages just to make it there every year. Since I feel so strongly about the uniqueness of this place and the experience I had there this past week, I have decided to write you two blogs on Taizé.

After train and bus travel through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen, I was dropped off on a dusty path outside of the Taizé grounds. The community itself is situated on a steep hill, overlooking pastures and tree-lined valleys below, so the initial view is incredible and stretches on for miles. Adjacent to the grounds of Taizé is the tiny medieval village of Taizé; from where the commune got its name. The village which has maybe five or six homes and an ancient church that dates back to the 10th century. The area has been marked by the arrival of the Taizé community’s founder: Brother Roger Shutz. In 1940, during the German occupation of France, Brother Roger purchased the land for the community and began to minister to the poor. Although he had very little, he would house Jewish refugees and feed them from a little plot of land he farmed. Soon, he was targeted for his work by the Gestapo and was forced to flee to Switzerland until things blew over. When the war had ended Roger moved back to the community in France and soon thereafter other Christian brothers began to join him and a fraternity of brothers was formed. Today, there are more than 120 Brothers of Taizé, many of them coming from different countries and Christian traditions.

Like the diversity represented by the brothers, the visiting pilgrims are among the most diverse groups of people in the world. When I was there, I met young people literally from all over the world. Off the top of my head, I can recall meeting Germans, Brits, French, Austrians, Spanish, Russians, Americans, Italians, and one other Canadian. The first person I met walking into Taizé was an American: Scott, a 27 year old medical school student from Texas who had been coming to Taizé every year since his teenage years. Scott told me that he had a deep love for the community of Taizé, but he couldn’t quite pin down what it was exactly that kept drawing him back. After a week there I would say that this is a common feeling among the pilgrims... there’s something very unique about this place called Taizé. Next blog I’ll update you on how the week unfolded for me and about Taizé’s message of reconciliation.

Reflections for 2009/2010 Continued

2010-04-26T08:44:00.000-04:00

I have struggled with what to write about in this final blog of the school year (if this is in fact, my last). I want to inspire, to share, and to communicate with you the many aspects of Redeemer that have made my past two years here an incredible experience, and have changed who I am and how differently I perceive the world now as compared to before I entered this place.

When I first came to Redeemer in September of 2008, I will admit that Redeemer was not #1 on my Schools to Attend list. However, since God has placed me here, I could not be more thankful. I have become a different person since stepping on Redeemer campus. I hope that what I am saying does not sound flashy, or made up, or fantasy-like, because that is definitely the case. Redeemer has thrown many challenges into my life, as well as into the lives of my friends and neighbours. There are challenges beyond every corner, as between classes, friends, activities and worship sessions, there is always something pushing you to do something better, to trust God more, to become a better person, and so on. It isn’t all fun and roses! But the outcome – it’s totally worth it.

I often take advantage of this. I forget that I am attending a school that is so rare, so different from all of the other public universities in Ontario and Canada. I forget that I have the chance to be a Christian in my classes and in the hallways. I forget that other places aren’t like this. And I forget that I’m privileged to be able to be here, to be given the chance to learn in an environment and school where students and faculty know my name and care about my well-being. And that’s something I shouldn’t forget. I am blessed. We are blessed.

If you feel that God is leading you to come to Redeemer next year, take it from someone who has tried to run the opposite way more than once – listen to Him. Redeemer has so much to offer you and will challenge you on multiple levels. Not only will you receive an education that is extraordinary (and I’m not just saying that – I love my courses), you will meet people and experience things that will change your life course and who you are as a person forever. Continue to pray about where God is leading you and what He has planned for you for next year. May you be blessed in your decision-making!

I’m hoping that I’ll see you around campus in September!

An Unplanned Extra Week in Paris

2010-04-23T09:17:00.002-04:00

Well, I do feel a bit lucky right now. As university students across Canada are as you are all busily preparing for exams or cramming in those last minute all-nighters, we have been blessed over here in France to have two weeks of vacation! I have learned that France’s educational system is particularly different from Canada’s in just that respect: time off. In France there are many more lengthy breaks for students, making it seem as though less time is spent in class. But in fact, the academic load of the semester is much heavier and the days are longer for university and lycée (high school) students. One of my roommates for example attends a lycée and he is in class from 9am to 4 or 5pm all week and he even has classes on Saturday. International students in my program at the Sorbonne are a bit more fortunate in terms of our time off, allowing for more time to explore.

This week, although starting off oddly, has been a very good week and God has surprised me with a lot. On Sunday morning, I woke up before the sun at 5:30am and headed out to the empty streets of Paris with a heavy pack strapped on my back. I hopped into a taxi and asked to be dropped off at the train station at the north end of the city. As I walked into the station I realized I was actually early for the time of my departure, so I parked myself down and munched on some breakfast for half an hour. As it neared the time when my train was supposed to leave, I started to get a little worried; I couldn’t find any indication of my train headed to Taizé! I rushed to the information desk and asked what was going on with my train. The lady at the desk uttered these words and my heart sank: “Désolé monsieur mais vous êtes à la mauvaise gare, il faut que vous alliez à Gare de Lyon pas Gare du Nord. ” Basically, I had missed the small print of the ticket and was waiting at the wrong train station! That was not the most encouraging of moments for me. Luckily I have two weeks off and was able to re-plan my trip for the next week (since Taizé’s only welcome day is Sunday).

So, admittedly, this week started off quite embarrassingly and unplanned, yet I have thoroughly enjoyed the extra leisure time in the city. So far, I have used it mostly to hang out with some of the good French friends that I have made in Paris (as well as one very funny Scot and an awesome Indonesian). I have also caught up on some reading, sent out some postcards back home, and visited some of those less known sites on my Paris bucket list (which is not small I assure you!). It’s been great so far and in retrospect I am actually glad it has happened this way. At least now I know for the next train I catch out of Paris to make it to the right train station! More updates will come next week, when I do end up making it to Taizé. But I’ve got to head out; tonight I’m hosting a dinner party in my residence! Ciao

2009/2010 Reflections

2010-04-20T09:48:00.001-04:00

Another year is coming to an end here at Redeemer University College. You can always tell, because the library is packed full with students studying for final exams, final preparations are being made for food plan money-spending and devotions during exams, and campus life is on fire, with the last Hot Spot, Coffee House and Church-in-the-Box taking place. It’s a good feeling – having accomplished one more year of school, and having matured to great lengths over the past year (at least for some students).

I thought I would take some time to reflect on what has happened this year at Redeemer. It’s amazing when you really think about it, because the year flies by so fast, and you forget the majority of the great things that happened. My dorm and I reflected on our dorm-life experience this past week by drawing pictures and writing words that came to mind of fun things that we had done over the year, memories that we had, and friends we had made. It was a great opportunity to remember all of the things people said that were absolutely hilarious, the memories behind the quotes on our quote board, and the memories we shared from the Olympics, from school activities and from our girls nights in and outside of the dorm.

I look back on this year and am reminded of Redeemer’s generosity. My friend Catriona and I began a club at Redeemer this year, thinking that it would be great if we could raise a couple hundred dollars to send to Invisible Children, an organization seeking to end the war between the LRA and Acholi people of Uganda. We had no idea that Redeemer would latch on to this cause, and contribute so much! We only ran two events this year, a book drive and a clothing drive and both were far more successful than we had ever thought possible. We are looking forward to next year, to coming up with new ideas and new ways of using Redeemer’s strengths to help others.

I also remember the aspects of Redeemer that are specific to this campus, like Church-in-a-Box, Wednesday chapels, the relationships between faculty and students, the students themselves, etc. I may sound biased, but I firmly believe that Redeemer is a place that every student should have the opportunity to experience. Not only do we reflect on what has happened this year, but we can take what we have learned and look forward to starting up again in September.

The Last Day of Classes

2010-04-19T16:27:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time (well not really “a” time because it was today) there was a young first year student. And what is this first year student doing on a beautiful sunny day like today? Well, we find her in bed. Opps, she has once slept in and her first class will be starting in 30 minutes. She had a late night last night; she was at Hot Spot last night, singing and worshiping God. And here she is, asleep in bed with the sun shining on her face as she dreams about summer.

But don’t worry. She won’t be in bed for long, because although she slept through her alarm, her roommate’s alarm will go off soon. *chirp, chirp* There it is, the bird call from her cell phone and our main character groggily crawls out of bed and into the shower. It’s the beginning of another day at Redeemer... but not just any day. Today is the Last Day of Classes for this school year. Her last day of being a first year. With that excitement to boost her energy level, she quickly eats a bowl of LIFE cereal and grabs her backpack – she’s off for her last class of the year.

A few minutes later we find our girl in line at William for her morning French Vanilla Latte. She talks with Gerta who’s making her drink about her exams and the beautiful weather, and wishes her nice day. Now she’s walking to class, a bit late, but there’s still time to talk to a couple of friends along the way.

10:00 and it’s time for microeconomics, her last class of the year (which I believe I have mentioned a couple of times, but hey, she’s pretty excited about this... she gets to hand in a paper that she’s been working on since the beginning of the semester. It’s a group project about the limitations of Fair trade and how all of that relates to economics. Pretty exciting stuff!) She sits down beside one of her best friends, opens her lap top and talks excitedly about how great it is to be almost done classes and exams, with summer just around the corner:

“It feels Sooo short compared to high school.”

“I know” she agrees.

“I handed in our project and this is my last class.”

“Yup, me too. All that’s left is exams...”

“and then summer!” they both said in unison and laughed.

Their prof finished off his last lecture on the last chapter in the text book (she couldn’t believe how many text books she actually read this year... looking back it was a whole lot for just four months, but at the time it didn’t seem like that much to read.) And then he gave a few pointers for the exam. The clock struck 10:50 and Freedom!

Well, kinda freedom. Freedom from classes sure, but now it is time for our first year to realize all of the studying she has to do to prepare for her first exam on Tuesday night. Time to start reading over those REL 101 notes and checking out the slides her prof posted on the internet site Moodle.

But the rest of this day won’t be just about studying. Seriously, it’s a nice day. And it’s the Last Day of Classes! And her dorm still hasn’t gotten back to her neighbouring dorm for a prank they did in February (not that she keep grudges ... they just haven’t forgotten). Yes there are still a lot of things that I have to do yet before my first year is over, just to make being a first year unforgettable.

Vacation Has Begun

2010-04-19T16:24:00.001-04:00

Vacation has begun! After working hard in grammar, history and phonetics courses for quite some time, I am happy to be welcomed by some time off. It’s really an exciting time to be in Paris: the sun is shining brightly, the students have all been let out for two weeks, and the streets are now buzzing with tourists. In our last grammar class our professor encouraged us to start the celebrations early, “sans doute il faut commencer la fête!” So, we were invited to bring desserts and drinks on Friday and hang out for the last half of the class. I can’t think of a better way to start a weekend.

Later on that day I hung out with friends from the young adults group at church and we went up the Tour Montparnasse in the south of Paris. Standing some 210m about the streets of Paris, the Tour Montparnasse is the tallest building in France and one of the tallest in Europe. Going up the elevator was quite an experience in itself—59 floors took maybe 2minutes in total! It was incredibly fast and the view we got when got to the top was just amazing...it would have been well worth a wait if there was one. Since its construction in 1972 the tower has also played host to a number of odd happenings, including a dangerous feat by an urban climber in 1995. French adventurist Alain "Spiderman" Robert scaled the building’s exterior glass and steel wall using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices. He managed to make it to the top, even though he reputedly almost fell halfway up. Here’s his website if you want to see his website to witness some amazing pictures of him in action: www.alainrobert.com.

Next week I will be spending a week away from the city and its skyscrapers. I have decided to spend some time in quiet reflection and prayer at a place called Taizé. It is an ecumenical monastic community founded just after World War II by a Protestant Swiss pastor named Brother Roger. Today, there are dozens of brothers who have made the community their home and each year thousands of young people flock to Taizé for a journey of prayer, worship, fellowship, and reconciliation. If you are a young Christian in Europe you have most likely heard of Taizé and you have most like gone or are going to the place. In the spring and summer there are hundreds of tents that line the fields and the church is filled with young seekers. I am really excited to make this pilgrimage and to see what God has in store for me, I have great expectations for what He may show me!

A Few More Weeks Left!

2010-04-15T09:53:00.003-04:00

Amidst all the paper writing, late night library cramming and exam prep, free time becomes a rare luxury. None the less, there are always a few signs of people enjoying themselves around the Redeemer campus. Radios are playing, baseballs are being tossed, a guitar or two is being strummed, people are lounging around on blankets outside. I saw someone barbecuing the other day. Summer is tantalizingly close! If there is ever a time when I miss living on campus, it’s when spring time rolls around. It’s kind of a shame that dorm dwellers can only bask in the greatness of this warm weather for a few short weeks.

Seeing as it is nearing the end of the year and all, I’d like to take a moment and write something for any of the future first year students who will be attending Redeemer next fall. So here it is – a few (hopefully helpful) tips for your first year at Redeemer:

· Go to coffee house – the sense of community that this weekly event builds is fabulous! By third year (when you live off campus) attending coffee house can become almost impossible (due to the location, or school work) so take advantage of it while you are on campus.

· Go to CITB – Nobody can force you into loving the worship style (in fact for some, it may not be their cup of tea) but I truly think that everyone can take away something from CITB, even if it is just the guest speaker/message, a certain song that is pertinent to your walk with God, or a word of prayer.

· Go to the writing Centre. (ok, ok, so I do kinda work there -- shameless plug I know), but we don’t just edit your grammar mistakes. We care about your ideas, the structure of your essay and we want to help you express yourself with clarity and confidence on paper!

· Go to chapel -- Nine out ten times I walk away with the “that was just what I needed to get myself through the week” feeling.

· Go to art gallery openings! Also, check out Redeemer’s theatre productions. You will not be disappointed!

· Get involved in the city of Hamilton -- Check out the Freeway Cafe, the Art Crawl on James Street North or the various multicultural restaurants hiding in the city. Thai Memory makes wonderful Thai food. You should try it!

· Consider joining Kids Club or Living Rock. These are good ways to meet people and get out of suburbia. There is such a need for student involvement in the city of Hamilton.

· Stay up till 4 in the morning for no reason at all. You are in your first year and can get away with stuff like that. Enjoy it while you can!

Last Week of Classes

2010-04-14T11:57:00.001-04:00

This year is wrapping up, only this week left of classes and then two weeks of exams. It’s been such a great year and as I look back at my first day moving in, I never would have thought it would have been like this! I’ve made lots of new friends; as you live with people right off the bat you meet new people and that has been another great experience for me. I definitely wish that I had been more involved but then I think about how little free time I had so I guess you do what you can.

I’m looking forward to next year and I’ve been hearing about construction plans for the summer so things may look a bit different around here, but I’m sure it will be for the better. When they renovated the cafeteria it improved a lot! Living off-campus will be quite different for the next year, although I will miss on-campus for many reasons, mainly the social aspect and also ease for school projects and getting notes. It’s really amazing that two years have passed for me already at Redeemer, I don’t have a single regret about my choice to come here. I know when I applied I didn’t care too much about the academic part of Redeemer but more about making friends, living arrangements and those things- but they all come together to make Redeemer what it is!

As exams approach, I’ll be getting ready by staying here for the weekend instead of my usual trip home. I would like to get my notes in order for me to review them easily. Church in the Box is this Sunday so tonight I’m meeting with the CEW team to discuss our possible skit- we even borrowed costumes from the Theatre department.

I’m still waiting to hear about that summer job, and I know I’m not the only one leaving it this late… but that is life, we need to trust that God will provide. I’m really thankful for the recent devotions my dorm has had, we’ve really been able to look at scripture and have ‘real’ conversations about our struggles in our journeys and also what the everyday Bible stories mean to us. We read the controversial book, The Shack, first semester and that provided me with a lot of growth so now as the summer comes I will hopefully become closer instead of more distant with God. Pretty much I just can’t wait for the summer, no exams, homework or school but I guess I’ll be ready to come back next year if I must to finish my degree and of course to reunite with friends again!

Bursting with Excitement

2010-04-13T08:51:00.008-04:00

Only three weeks of school, four days of class, a couple presentations and papers and for most, four or five exams left. It must be the end of the year!

Redeemer has been bursting with excitement for the past couple of days. Final events are taking place, committee activities are coming to an end, faculty are trying to squeeze everything that they need to cover into the last few classes, and students are cramming to get everything accomplished on time. And yet, despite the busyness of the last couple weeks of the semester, coffee house on Thursday night was a real hit. There were a lot of funny comedy acts, some really talented singing acts, and some dancing and other fun skits. Not to mention, the Commons area was full!

The last few weeks of school are always exciting – students feel as though they have accomplished much over the year, and are excited for what the summer holds. The weather has been beautiful, and students have been making use of their porches, barbeques and access to campus and athletic equipment, including the tennis and basketball courts. The excitement and hope for the near future is clear!

I even encountered some people playing guitar or ukulele or some stringed instrument outside at around 11:30 at night, one night this week. While this may surprise you, once you have encountered Redeemer for a couple of months, nothing surprises you anymore. Students are free to express themselves in many ways, and believe me, they sure do! This is evident in the classroom, around campus, at all hours of the day and night, and whenever you find the time to really look around!

I also experienced a whole section of the school this week that I never even knew existed. A friend and I do devotions 3-4 times a week together at around 11:00 at night, and one night, she suggested that we go to a prayer room at the school. Little did I know, we actually have rooms at the school just for praying! I was absolutely amazed and am certain that I will making use of those rooms more often for the remaining three weeks of the year, and of course in my next couple of years at Redeemer.

Time to get back to those presentations and papers – only three weeks to go! Keep plugging away at it!

Spring, Exams, Housing and Time-out

2010-04-09T09:13:00.005-04:00

This weekend was such a great one, the weather was gorgeous and we had Friday and Monday off school, which made for a great long weekend! Everyone came back hopefully feeling refreshed and ready to finish the last stretch of the school year! I know I am looking forward to be finished exams and homework 24/7 but at the same time I will definitely miss the social stuff here and being so busy that time never seems to drag on. I will be finishing up most of my assignments and a final midterm this week and hopefully next week I can begin my exam reviews as I have three exams in a five day span, which really isn’t too bad but you always want to be more prepared than less.

Exams get some people really stressed out but I believe that if you take the time to exercise, eat right and study in shorter increments that studying becomes much less stressful and more effective. I’m sure everyone has an exam routine that works for them. It’s kind of crazy that we still have classes right now while lots of other universities are beginning exams, from what I understand though they have a longer exam time than we have so their exams are more spread out. I don’t mind still being in school, I’m sure it all works out to about the same in-class hours.

Anyways, I was very happy to see as I was bringing in my stuff from the long-weekend that our tennis courts are now up! I’m hoping to get a few games in this week, if only the weather would co-operate. I know a lot of people who have tons of essays right now, but I really only have a midterm and one-page French essay due this week. That’s why I’ve decided to do this Brown Rice cleanse that I did with a door-mate last year. It’s really cool because you can eat as much as you like and it’s only for a short period of time (5-10 days). Basically it’s anything with brown rice, vegetables and fruit, no salt, sugar, dairy or meat. We had fun coming up with random meals last year so this time I have a few more ideas.

Tomorrow I’m going to a birthday party for my friend; he is a transfer student and a commuter so it’s good to see him connecting with a bunch of people here. I can only imagine that it’s a bit more difficult for commuters to get connected, as it is very easy when you live on campus and events are always going on. I hope that next year when I live off-campus I stay involved in the Redeemer community just as much as I am now.

Speaking of off-campus housing, I just sent in my notice to Time-out (our school newsletter) about summer housing. There’s a ton of ads about housing in Timeout right now, so it’s a great resource for that type of thing as well as lost/found items and finding drives home. Time-out also posts class-cancellations and activities going on. A great way to stay connected with what is going on. After all it’s delivered to your front porch every morning! On April fool’s they did a mock-Time out which was really funny, the ads they made up were hilarious because they were similar ideas with an outrageous twist. I’d definitely say it was the best April fool’s this year.

Easter in Paris

2010-04-09T09:07:00.002-04:00

This is the first time I’ve spent Easter outside of Canada and it was definitely an interesting experience. Earlier in the week I had heard of a massive gathering of Christians in Paris on the morning of Easter Sunday and so I planned to get myself out of bed and attend the early service. When I got to “la Défense”, the large open area where the assembly was being held, I was amazed at the amount of people that had come out to hear the message of Christ’s Resurrection. There, under cloudy skies and drizzling rain of Paris at 7:30 in the morning was a crowd of around 6,000 believers. They had come from all sorts of backgrounds and faith traditions; on the stage in front of the crowd stood representative pastors, priests, and laymen from just about every major Christian denomination.

Each took a turn to lead a certain part of the service: from songs, to creeds, to Scripture passages. And each leader wore their respective formal wear for the event, making for a very interesting and colourful stage presence. It was the most ecumenical of ecumenical events that I have ever attended and it gave me great encouragement to see so many Christians of diverging traditions come together to worship the Saviour. The event was simply called “Pâques 2010: Christ est ressuscité ” and it was a celebration in light of the rare occurrence when Easter falls on the same date for Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches.

On Easter Monday I eagerly stood in a long line of young men, all waiting to see the newest action film to hit the scene in Paris: “Le Choc des Titans”. I met up with some friends I met through church and after two hours we entered the giant opera theatre where the movie would be playing. For only 10 Euro we got a centre-balcony seat, right in the middle of the biggest big-screen I’ve ever seen (these ones largely out-do our normal Silvercity or Famous Players screens). When the movie started I was a bit surprised, I had mentally readied myself to follow a French film...but this was in English! I have to admit I was slightly relieved that I could pay more attention to the plot and less to the language. But it turns out there wasn’t much of a plot to follow after all, just action.

The movie itself was not bad and I really enjoyed spending an evening out with friends, away from being cooped up trying to heal my swollen ankle. Luckily that is on the mend and I hope that by the next time I post an update for you guys I will be a walking man!

Graduating as Losers – Closing Convocation

2010-04-08T14:26:00.008-04:00

Goodbyes are always hard to say, which was once again proven in Wednesday’s Closing Convocation. It was held in the auditorium during the regular Chapel period. Dr. Zietsma spoke about graduating as losers, which sounds kind of backwards because we usually think about coming to university to gain an education that will help us succeed in life. So why on earth would an inspiring message encourage us to be losers?

Dr. Zietsma based his message off of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I might gain Christ” (3:7-8, NIV). Whatever knowledge we gain through our university education is not for our own personal profit, but a loss for the sake of Christ. The more educated we are the more equipped we are to serve God. At the end of our studies, we are now called to be servant leaders in the world, in our various vocations, living for Jesus. The world may perceive us as losers – look at Paul, once Saul a high standing official now a lowly tent maker just barely making enough to live off of. The world may have called him a loser. But God has called us to be his servants and we have a greater mission that the world doesn’t understand. Through our self sacrifice for Christ’s sake, we gain much more for Christ.

But the greatest thing we can ever know is Jesus Christ. This is why our Christian education is so important – through all of our studies, regardless of our vocations, Christ is the centre. We critically analyse everything through the eyes of faith and constantly grow in learning more about him. It’s an exciting journey that will continue after we graduate from university.

The message at the Closing Convocation was mainly for the fourth and fifth years who are leaving Redeemer to either go into further education, or put their education in practise. However, the message was also inspiring for me, a first year. It encouraged me to continue studying and working hard on my papers and studying for exams, because whatever knowledge I gain now will equip me to help others in the future.

It is sad saying goodbye to the fourth years that I, at first feared because they were older and taller than me, but grew to love because they are role models of all Redeemer students can be. They have left a huge impact on our school from the classroom, to sports teams, to senate, to clubs and activities. They will surely be missed here at Redeemer, but I am confident that they will continue their servant leadership as they move on to studying, living, and working in the “real” world. I am proud of our graduating class, proud to respect them, proud of what they’ve done and what they will do, proud to call them my friends.

Furthermore, we are saying goodbye to some well loved a respected faculty and staff here at Redeemer. Dean Schat, President Cooper, and the Book Store Manager, Alice Wolters. All three are dedicated and respected members of the Redeemer community who have made a large impact on Redeemerites’ lives. Whether it was Presidents Cooper’s cheerful whistling and smile as he walked down the hallway; or Dean Schat’s constantly available support with any student life issue; or Alice Wolters’ helpful advice when buy textbooks, these people exemplified the love of Christ in their vocations. Through their daily example to us, we can learn how go on to be Christ’s servant in the world. Thank you President Cooper, Dean Schat, Alice Wolters, and graduating class for all you have done for the Redeemer community and may God Bless you in your future.

Easter Reflections

2010-04-06T08:58:00.004-04:00

Another short week here at Redeemer! Many are gone home to celebrate the Easter weekend with their families and friends, and many will be attending services at church in memory of Christ’s sacrifice for us. And of course, many will be returning on Monday for the last two weeks of classes and final two weeks of exams.

This week was filled with thoughts, feelings, and chats about the Easter story and about the implications that it has for our lives. In my dorm devotions this week, we read through the last part of the Gospel of John, from Jesus’ prayers for himself, his disciples and all believers up until his death and resurrection. While reading the Bible sometimes feels repetitive, redundant and all those things, this re-reading of the Easter story really impacted my dorm. Even though we have heard the story so many times, it seems as though each time you read it, you learn something new or you make connections that you have never made before. It made me really appreciate not only the story itself and the tremendous sacrifice Christ made on that cross, but also the opportunity to read it with the girls in my dorm. Having friends, dorm-mates and loved ones is especially necessary at times like this. Even though things are busy and people are frustrated with school work and the coming end of the semester, to be able to sit down with those around you and talk about the love of God is absolutely incredible. I feel so blessed to be in a place where I can talk about these sorts of things with people that I know are wrestling with them as well. This opportunity for a break in the midst of a chaotic couple of weeks is also a true blessing.

I also had a few good chats with some friends this week. I am so thankful for the friends that I have made at Redeemer. While personalities may not always “click” right away, you can be sure that the one thing holding people together is their faith in Christ. You know that there is always that underlying similarity between people. Friendships are based on laughter, similarities and differences, those you come into contact with frequently and so on. But they are also mechanisms by which to get to know others, to come to appreciate the gifts that God has given other people and to allow for deep (and necessary) conversations to take place.

Through the Easter chapel held this week, our dorm devotions, random chats with friends, and the Easter decorations strung throughout campus, I feel as though this is the first year in which I have actually begun to understand the importance and significance of the death and resurrection of Christ. And I have never been more thankful! May each of you feel blessed and encouraged this Easter, and take time to reflect on the amazing gift we have been given.

I got a feeling that it’s going to be a good Good Friday!

2010-04-01T13:31:00.002-04:00

They say that one of the tell-tale signs of spring is seeing the first robin. Well, around Redeemer there are other signs that point to the dawning of a new season. Things like:

The sun setting later in the day, and students still wondering when they will catch up on sleep from the hour they lost from the time change. Not because of late night talks with roommates or secret summer excursions, but because of papers and assignments that are suddenly due. I mean, we were assigned the paper at the beginning of the year, but it wasn’t due until April, so why start right away? Well... yesterday was April 1, and it was no April Fools’ joke that those long-term assignments are suddenly due within the week. Maybe it’s time we started doing some research. It’s a great thing the library is open until midnight.

On a lighter note, the weather is a lot more welcoming than say a month ago. We’ve been teased with hints of Spring, only to be plunged back into freezing cold temperatures, but this time I’m optimistic that the warm weather is here to stay. The grass is turning green; we’re eating our dorm dinners outside in our back yard; the guitars are out for late night sing-a-longs; football and soccer games between classes; flip-fops; and flowers. The HANDS Mission team sold Gerber Daisies as a fund raiser for their Missions trip to Nicaragua. They were distributed yesterday, spreading some Spring cheer all over the school. You can see the grass turning green and the flower sprouting through the ground. It’s times like this when we realize how blessed we are to live on such a beautiful campus.

The business of the students are blooming too as we get to see productions like Rookery Nook. I know many people were heavily involved in the acting, set building, and stage managing of the play. I know how much work and dedication everyone put into this play, and I am amazed and proud of how amazing their production was. Redeemer truly produces quality results in whatever we dedicate our time and heart to; this theatre production is just another example of how talented our school is.

Spring is here and so are the deadlines for our assignments. On top of this are the nervous anticipation of upcoming exams, and the stress of finding summer jobs, and just being busy and tired. It’s really nice to have a long weekend. Today is Good Friday – a time to reflect on God’s amazing love as he graciously gave us life. Through this weekend may we all truly worship God and thank him and praise him for all he has given the world. God is so good! Through this weekend we can reflect on the biggest event in all of history – Jesus’ death and resurrection concurring death, sin, and Hell. Our God reigns and he gives us purpose. Through this reflection may we spring forward into our studies and dig into His truths; God is in all things and may we write essays for his glory as he prepares us for our callings.

The Balance Between Being a Student and a Tourist

2010-04-01T13:28:00.001-04:00

It may sound corny but one of the highlights this week for me has been getting letters from friends back at Redeemer. The simple process of opening envelopes and reading encouraging notes sent across the ocean really is a great feeling and it shows how lucky I am to have such good friends. Now I just have to find the time to write back some equally long and humourous letters! Looking back over this week I realized it wasn’t one of the more “touristy” ones that I’ve experienced. Instead, I found myself quite occupied with more pressing, but less interesting activities. I finished applications for summer work, polished off a five-page essay for grammar class, and applied through Redeemer’s Financial Aid Department for the 2010 Application for Scholarships & Bursaries.

On Friday night I was able to get out and enjoy an evening with a handful of young adults from my church. We attended a play called “Marc L’Expérience” (the Mark Experience). It was an amazing show put on by a number of local Parisian university students who are all members of Christian groups on their respective campuses. Without costumes, music, lighting, or even a stage, they delivered an incredible rendition of the entire book of Mark. The text really came alive that night and in the audience we got a greater sense of how the words on the page might have been lived out. Afterwards, in discussion with some friends, I came to realize how much of the depth of the Gospels we may actually miss out on because of the fact that there are not normally read or acted aloud. Speaking the truths orally, in the way in which they were originally conveyed, seems to bring them to life in a sense, really demonstrating the power of spoken word. I was happy to have experienced that evening and I was actually proud that these students sacrificed so much of their time to practice and memorize the entire book of Mark.

Saturday, I went with two of the other Redeemer students on the same study program to visit the Centre Pompidou. The Centre Pompidou is the nucleus of contemporary and avant-garde art in Paris. The building, which houses works as diverse as Picasso’s cubist paintings to documentaries by modern filmmakers, was built to appear inside out. The enormous walls outside are surrounded by pipes, elevators, water ducts, and scaffolding while the inside features clean, polished stone. The museum is practically too large to explore in one visit. There is an adjacent library, a video area, children’s workshops, computer lounges, cafés, and a performance centre for dance and theatre. We quickly reasoned that the bulk of the centre would be better to discover when we had a full day at our feet. Heading out in the quarter known as “Les Halles” we strolled through markets, shops and local food outlets. Emile Zola described the area as “the belly of Paris” for a reason: he was referring to the meat, vegetable, and fruit stands that have been thriving in this quarter since the 12^th century. We stopped at a café, explored a smaller but less cumbersome photography museum and went our separate ways for the evening. It seems like I’ve seen so much in Paris so far, yet every time I take one of these little detours I get taken aback by interesting places like these.

Time Flies

2010-03-31T11:59:00.003-04:00

I guess being a student these days isn’t too exciting, lots of assignments and lots of papers but with a four-day long weekend ahead, that’s something exciting! Today, in terms of school, I had a lighting design workshop in my theatre 103 class. I was also watching a clip in philosophy which was fairly controversial, in it we examined the body language of each person in the discussion in terms of the multi-modal argument theory. It was interesting to watch them pretend to be enjoying each others’ company yet really dislike the other. After class I met with a few friends from math class to finish up our assignment due tomorrow- it has been a tricky one but with the help of wolphramalpha and our professor I think we’ll do okay!

This is a great week for me to catch up with friends, well at least after I hand in most of my assignments tomorrow. I’ll be catching up with a girl I lived with first year for coffee tomorrow and a shopping trip with my roomie. I’m hoping this weather will keep up so we can enjoy the outdoors tomorrow! I am also sending in my application for scholarships and bursaries tomorrow; they’re open to all Redeemer students and there is a fairly large list.

With Easter just ahead I can’t believe how time has flown this semester. Trust me, any first year would tell you it feels like they’ve just started second semester. Even as a second year I have no idea where the past months have gone. I guess you just get so busy that you lose track of time. Anyway, along with the mad rush of finishing up papers, assignments and class, there is also the rush to find jobs before we finish exams. I’ve been searching for a month now. My dorm mates have been very encouraging, offering to pray for me at devotions tomorrow. We do devotions every Wednesday night. It can be a great time for the dorm to connect spiritually.

I just found out my class schedule for next year, unfortunately I have yet another 8am class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday- those are the killers. Other than that, though, its not too bad, one night class (which you learn to hate or love) and the rest of my classes are fairly bunched together which will be easier as a commuter. I guess I have the commuter socials and commuter lounge to look forward to next year: free food, who can complain?

I was able to watch the recent play Rookery Nook, put on by Redeemer. It was a terrific show! I was an usher for the show, which is a great way to be able to see it free! Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing more plays, the one coming up I believe is Betrayal.

Routines

2010-03-31T10:38:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday I attended my first English learning community event of the semester. I have not been able to make it to very many of them, which is really quite a shame, because they can be pretty fun! This time, Redeemer's English faculty hosted a poetry reading by Tom Wayman, a Canadian poet and University professor who writes a lot about life in the work force. Wayman was a very sincere, friendly and honest speaker. His poems about monotonous factory jobs and the drudgery of a 9 - 5 work day were very clever and most importantly, very relate-able (especially since I, like many others, have suffered through some pretty boring Summer jobs).

Speaking of summer jobs -- the school year is coming to a close very soon (only a month left!) and the prospect of finding steady work is weighing on the minds of many students. I think everyone will be ready for a change of pace, but there are parts of the Redeemer student lifestyle that I'm really going to miss! I have enjoyed a lot of my classes this semester and just being able to socialize with my friends at intervals during the day for coffee and lunch dates has been a real treat. Those chairs by the mini Williams Coffee Pub have served me well. It has been an exciting and challenging year for me, and I can only hope that next year is as good.

And now, I will leave you with the first verse of a poem by Tom Wayman. Check out his website if you want to read the rest.

Hopefully his poem makes getting up tomorrow a little bit easier!

Routines
by Tom Wayman
Did I Miss Anything? Selected Poems 1973-1993. Madeira Park, B.C. : Harbour Pub., c1993.

After a while the body doesn't want to work.
When the alarm clock rings in the morning
the body refuses to get up. "You go to work if you're so keen,"
it says. "Me, I'm going back to sleep."
I have to nudge it in the ribs to get it out of bed.
If I had my way I'd just leave you here, I tell it
as it stands blinking. But I need you to carry your end of
the load.

Opportunities, Opportunities, Opportunities

2010-03-30T10:35:00.003-04:00

This week was a short one for me. I only have class until Thursday, so I ended up going home Thursday afternoon for a long weekend. I guess I am one of those privileged people to live close enough to Redeemer that I can go home often to see my family. But don’t get me wrong – weekends at Redeemer are sweet!

Anyways, this week was short but busy. I had a test and presentation on Tuesday, both of which went fairly well I would say. Dinners were good this week – hamburgers (to celebrate the great weather we’ve been having), fettuccine alfredo (to get away from those Dutch meals for a night), and pizza casserole (just interesting!). Dinners are always a treat at Redeemer – it’s like going out for dinner every night. You never know what you’re going to have and you can be sure that it is something new and interesting most of the time. I am lucky to be a girl – I hear those boys’ dorms don’t eat as well as we do! They’re lucky that dorm dinners have been invented at Redeemer. These happen when a dorm invites another dorm over for dinner. However, there is a catch! The dorm that does the inviting is responsible for making dinner, while the dorm that is invited prepares the dessert and does the dishes after the meal is finished. Maybe I’m just prejudiced, but I think this invention came about so that the boys’ dorms could eat some good meals now and then.

This week was also fun because I started a new group project with some girls that I don’t really know. Everyone is excited about the project because it’s something we’re all interested in – Autism. I, as well as another girl in my group have worked with autistic children before and are very passionate about the subject. The other two are just as pumped as we are, even having never experienced it before! I have a feeling this is going to be a fun project to work on, which is definitely needed at this time of the school year. It’s nice to meet some new people as well.

You’d think that because Redeemer doesn’t have a mass amount of people like other universities do, that you would know everyone walking down the hallways. This is definitely not the case! I find myself meeting new people all the time and it’s more fun as I progress through my years at Redeemer, because I am getting to know more and more people in my own program. It’s unique, I think, because you continue to meet new people and you continue to learn that everyone has something different to offer. Everyone has something that they struggle with, something that they’re good at, or something that they’re trying to learn themselves. This provides an opportunity to reach out, help, learn, teach, and make friends that may last a lifetime.

Three Thrilling Things I did this week

2010-03-26T10:19:00.005-04:00

Wow! This past week was a real busy one for me. I’m just looking at my calendar and wondering how I was ever able to fit in all of that in just 7 days. There was a lot of homework, club meetings, and coffee dates with friends, but I’m going to tell you about the three exciting events that I was able to be a part of.

First was coffee house on Thursday night. It was hilarious and probably my favourite coffee house of the year. Matt and Travis were the hosts and told some funny jokes in between acts. The acts showcased a wide range of Redeemer’s talents from Jordon’s impacting and powerful song about his brother, to Tyler’s sarcastically entertaining song about a man’s life. Other than songs there was an impromptu skit crew where they did a scene and from the audience suggested how to tweak it to make it better. Peter led a stand up comedy act that tickled our funny bone. But my highlight of the evening was some forth years, Brent and Matt, giving us younglings some of their wisdom in the skit called, “the Couch Move.” For those of you who are unfamiliar of this manoeuvre, it is the skill of sitting beside a girl that you like on a couch. This perfectly leads into the next event that I attended, the annual spring banquet.

Although this evening was far from sitting on the couch with a girl you like, there was still an informative skit on how to properly slow dance with the girl you like – on opposite sides of the room. The dance was called Soirée du Soleil and themed like cirque du soleil with colourful decorations and acrobats for entertainment. We played a huge game of rock paper scissors, where the rep from my table lost to President Cooper! We danced to our hearts content and then got to show off our style in the large dance-off, congrats to Julia for winning! All in all that night was a blast!!!

The next day was Saturday, but not your typical Saturday, this day was the Cross Culture outreach even. Cross Culture is a gathering of youth groups from across Hamilton and Redeemerites volunteering together at different inner city Hamilton sites. Some of these include: renovation of Philpot church, and helping at a shelter for people suffering with mental illness. My group went to SISO the Globe, which is an organization sponsored by the government of Canada for immigrant and refugee youth to come and get help on school work and transition into Canadian culture. It was a really exciting place to work, even though our job wasn’t very glamorous. We cleaned out a storage closet and helped them prepare for a volunteer appreciation dinner. All the employees and youth that were very thankful for our work and were excited to talk with us. We had such a great time at Cross Culture learning how worship and service are connected. Everything we do is a spiritual act of worship, including our volunteering.

This weekend was really busy, but it was great to attend school events with the Redeemer community and to get to then volunteer in the Hamilton community.

My Days Start with Chocolate Cereal

2010-03-26T08:45:00.005-04:00

Bonjour les amis! It’s been another great week in Paris! I’m happy to say that I am almost fully accustomed to the rhythms of Parisian life, and even without the use of one leg. My day typically involves waking up around 7:30am or so (that’s about 1:30 in the morning for you!) and eating a big breakfast of chocolate cereal. It has become my staple food here; very common, very good, and very full of caffeine-rich dark chocolate. After my breakfast, I usually rush off to catch a bus just down the street. Although I live in the far western corner of the city, the bus that I take actually goes direct from my road all the way to the Panthéon, which is right next to my classes.

Every morning I take two hours of grammar class with the most diverse group of young people I’ve ever encountered. In my small class alone there are students from Turkey, Austria, China, Brazil, Norway, U.S.A., Spain, Korea, Germany, Greece, Columbia, and of course Canada:). It’s been such an experience to interact with these people and to learn more about their respective cultures. And the interesting part is that amongst all the variation in language and culture, the unifying factor between us all is...French! The simple fact that we have all come to improve our French makes it easy to meet and speak to people that I may not otherwise have had had the chance to meet because of language barriers.

After grammar class ends at noon I head out into the busy streets of Paris to grab lunch at one of the nearby boulangeries or patisseries. Sandwiches and baguettes are both cheap and practical. You can easily purchase a fresh, full-sized baguette for under a Euro ($1.50). In Paris, and especially in the student quarter, a lot of people eat their lunch “à emporter”: meaning that they eat it either walking or sitting on a nice park bench near a fountain. Luckily I have both those options available to me and I don’t always have to rush. Depending on which week it is, after grammar class I will either find myself in a phonetics lab speaking French with a professor or in the International Student Library finishing that day’s homework.

Three days a week I also attend conferences or lectures that are held in one big hall; usually with more than 200 other international students. The three that I chose are: French Art, the History of Paris, and “la Sorbonne dans la ville”. In my opinion, the greatest advantage to studying in Paris has been being able to see the art, architecture, and museums that we hear about in our classes. Just this week, while studying the works of Eugène Delacroix with a friend, I was able to actually go to the Louvre and see his most famous paintings in the original. What struck me, even more than the detail and the vivid colours of Delacroix’s work, was the overwhelming size and scope of each of the paintings. Many of this 19^th century artist’s masterpieces covered entire walls bigger than the glass front of the Peter Turkstra Library. Seeing this sort of thing in person is an amazing experience and I hope to able to return to Louvre in the near future. It is the sort of place where you could spend days exploring at length and still have things to see. A bientôt!

A Rainy Day

2010-03-24T08:54:00.003-04:00

Today was just another rainy day at Redeemer, but I happened to have a midterm which I finished fairly quickly and my only other class was cancelled today! (what are the chances!?) It was really nice because I have lots of homework but also because a lot of the girls in my dorm were also at the dorm today so we got a chance to hang out. I had my hair braided, we had neighbours come over and hang out and we talked about whether we would prefer burial or cremation- yes random I know! It ended up that I am the only one who would like to be cremated… don’t worry it was a very funny conversation which left us all laughing and not doing any homework!

The year is wrapping up with only 3 more weeks left of class and 2 weeks of exams. Everyone is getting pretty excited for the summer ahead although the search for summer jobs is becoming stressful. Tonight there is an undefined worship service; It happens about once every few months and it’s an opportunity for those who worship God in a different way to share that with the student body. At the last one there was a prayer labyrinth, paint and walls covered with paper all the while having people come up and share their worship through dance, pictures, song, etc. I am very disappointed that I will be missing it because of work but I’m sure it will be a blast- it always has a great turnout.

I cannot wait for the tennis nets to go up on the courts outside; playing tennis is one of my favourite activities to do on campus and with a bit of sun and those tennis nets I will hopefully be out there soon. There is actually quite a few tennis players at Redeemer; last year we tried to have a tournament, but it was too close to final exams. I guess we should have the tournament in the fall if we’d like to get a good amount of people out there!

I just signed up to usher for the upcoming play “Rookery Nook.” I’m taking my art core, which is Theatre 103, and it requires that we get involved in the play in some way so I’m ushering and I’ll get to watch the show for free as well. I remember last year’s play, "The Fiddler on the Roof," was absolutely amazing so I’m looking forward to this one as well. Tickets to these productions are also a great gift idea for family (and they aren’t expensive).

A Visit to the AGO

2010-03-23T16:56:00.003-04:00

Last Wednesday my Art History class had the pleasure of taking a visit to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). Believe it or not, this was only the second time in my life (I think) that I have been to the AGO. I would recommend this destination to anyone and everyone who has some sort of interest in the visual arts or in History. (I didn’t manage to see the King Tut exhibit, but I hear it is quite something!) The AGO is home to 79,000 works of art -- spanning from 100 A.D. to the present. Some of the most treasured European masterpieces cover the walls of this building, including Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.

The AGO also has a solid collection of modern art. While most of us are immediately impressed by the meticulous brushwork, hyper realism, and incredible detail of many classical paintings, we are sometimes unsure of how to approach the more modern, experimental pieces. I think this is my favourite part about the AGO (and most art galleries).

In one room you will find a Claude Monet or Rembrandt, and in the other, a conceptual piece, made up of a pile of rocks and Cheezies. That’s right, rocks and Cheezies! While it might be tempting for some to simply view the more bizarre, conceptual pieces as nonsensical or pretentious, we must remember that many of these modern works are not designed to simply shock or confuse us. The artist is usually setting out to do much more. A lot of the time, the artist is asking the viewer to consider the rigorous process that went into making the sculpture or the painting, or pushing us to consider what the piece is saying about the culture we live in and the society that we conform to or resist. One example of this was the pile of rocks and Cheezies.

I later learned that this sculpture was commenting on the way our modern society tries to hide or cover up the way we have abused the natural world and turned it into a consumerist urban jungle without a solid foundation. The pile of rocks could not conceal the bright orange Cheezies peeking through, suggesting that we can’t cover up what the way have abused, polluted and commercialized our environment. You don’t have to love modern art, but I do think everyone should take a few minutes (if given the chance) to at least think about what the more peculiar pieces are trying to say.The Cheezie sculpture was a great example of this. Some definite food for thought to be found! And now I’m hungry for Cheezies...not sure if that was what the artist intended.

In conclusion: take advantage of field trips like these! You get to ride a yellow school bus and everything! Also, the price is often affordable, and the experience will likely be well worth every penny!

Redeemer: Need I Say More?

2010-03-22T10:56:00.002-04:00

Flip flops and tank tops, basketballs and volleyballs, the bright sun shining, laughter and smiles, rollerblading and biking, running and walking, sun-tanning, and of course, a few classes here and there. These are just a few of the activities that I have seen occurring numerous times over the past week on Redeemer campus.

Once spring hits, you can be sure that more on-campus students will be outside than inside. The beautiful weather this week really provided a good break in the midst of a crazy semester. Only one month of classes to go! Feelings of pressure to do well in classes and tensions regarding summer jobs are high, and in some cases, the emotional rollercoaster has reached top speed. Of course, it is times like these that God uses to open up the door for new experiences, for pressures to be relieved, and for tensions to be calmed. For me, and for a lot of other people I’m sure, the bright and shining sun this week provided both intense relaxation and an opportunity to revel in God’s wonder and majesty in the middle of a hectic day, week, and month.

I also attended Coffee House this Thursday night. Whenever I attend one of these, I am amazed at the different acts that Redeemer students perform. A little Avril Lavigne, a skit regarding Campus Visit Days at Redeemer, some comedy here and there, a video competition, and of course, some more comedy. What also struck me this time was the openness of one particular student. One student shared a song that he had written for his older brother who passed away suddenly in December. His song spoke of hope, renewal, and truth. As he sang, tears were flowing freely from many people’s eyes, and hearts were being opened to the power of God. One student, who has experienced heart-wrenching pain at the loss of his brother, has taken all that he has learned and used it to bless his fellow students.

That is what is so unique about both Coffee House and Redeemer in general. We have so much opportunity here. We have so much freedom to share our experiences, to talk with others about hard situations we are facing or burdens we are carrying. We have been blessed in that our community has grown closer and closer over the years, and I am positive that God’s love is evident in our school, on our campus, and in the hearts of the students, staff and faculty that attend or work at Redeemer. There is no doubt in my mind that Redeemer is a powerful place and that God truly is at work here.

Friends at Redeemer

2010-03-19T13:43:00.003-04:00

Last night my friends and I went to Kelsey’s to celebrate my 20th birthday. It was so much fun to have a bunch of girls together and to catch up with everyone. I’m pretty sure that at one point we were all talking at once and were getting fairly loud! Almost everyone goes to Meadowlands to get off-campus, so Kelsey’s wasn’t exactly original, but it’s close and cheaper than other places- as students we always appreciate that!

Some ladies were over at our dorm last night; they were here for one of the campus visit days where you stay overnight to get the real experience. They were checking out our house and I had a chance to chat with them. I just remember when I visited Redeemer for the first time: I thought it was the smallest school considering my high school was bigger and I remember being surprised at how many guys there were. But my favourite part was how friendly people were; especially compared to the high school I was at where girls glared at you as you walked down the hallways. I find when I walk down the halls at Redeemer that it is just a different atmosphere, a more inviting one where people are more likely to smile.

Now, I would say my favourite part about Redeemer is the friends that I’ve made. I’ve never been able to talk about God so easily with friends; He just pops into our conversations. We are all in a different place in our walk with God so it’s such a great support system. Devotions are a great time for us to get together and talk about God, but it is in the moments when we are just hanging out that we have the best discussions about our faith and convictions.

As for homework, I told the girls visiting for the campus visit day that it can build up quickly and is different compared to high school, although not everyone’s marks go down and not everyone freaks out during the first midterm season. Speaking of midterms, I have another math midterm this Friday which I’ve started studying for; a lot of the content is on the study of primes and also counting techniques (This is a course that computer science students also take). I will be picking courses for next year in the upcoming week. I’m almost done my core courses and I’m very excited to be taking my first education course in the fall! Only about 6 weeks to go until school is done, everyone is counting down since the weather outside reminds us of the long summer ahead!

Great is Thy Faithfulness

2010-03-18T14:56:00.005-04:00

This morning in my devotions, I was reading from Joshua 24 – when Joshua, as a final act of his leadership of the Israelites, renews God’s covenant with them and reminds them of God’s faithfulness in the past. This kind of reminds me of what happened in Chapel this past week.

President Cooper gave a testimony of God’s faithfulness to Redeemer University College during his time as our president. As a first year who didn’t know much about Redeemer’s history I was amazed to hear of how God’s hand has guided this school right from its founding in 1982, to its breakthrough in 1998, to now. Actually the “breakthrough” story was really inspiring to me. Prior to 1998, Redeemer was only able to offer a Bachelor degree of Christian Studies. We had the program in place for the Bachelor of Arts and Science, but it was not recognized. So one day, Pres. Cooper went to a meeting ready to fight for our right to offer these degrees. But when he got there, he found that no one was opposed as all knew Redeemer alumni and knew that they were just as good as any other undergraduates. It’s like God went before us and already won the battle for us. Pres. Cooper is quoted in The Crown on this topic saying, “That really was the moment in Redeemer’s development when it felt like the heavens opened and God smiled on us. If you know the inner workings of how that came to be, then you know how God’s fingerprints were all over that.”

I know many students are sad to see Pres. Cooper leave after so many years of great service to our school and being our leader through so much growth. Since that 1998 breakthrough, our school has more than doubled and has expanded to include 52 denominations – not just Dutch CRC kids. (lol) But as we look at the past and reflect on how God has lead us through so much, we also look to the future and realize that God will continue to guide us through our next president Dr. Krygsman.

Dr. Krygsman also gave a testimony at chapel about how he was called to be our new president and shared with us a bible verse. In Philippians 3 we are encouraged to run the race, pressing on towards the goal to win the price for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. I know that God will continue to cultivate growth in Redeemer through Dr. Krygsman and I am excited to be a witness to that in my next couple of years here. We concluded our chapel with singing Great is Thy Faithfulness. God will continue to be faithful to us and we are blessed to be witnesses and recipients of his great faithfulness!

I am also excited because of the Campus Visit Days that have been happening this week as all high school students are off on March Break. These prospective students are the future of Redeemer and are currently just getting a glimpse of Redeemer’s wonderful community and education, but just wait until next year. Then they will be fully immersed in the great riches of a Christian education that is more than just studying but a better understanding of our life as God’s servants. It’s amazing!

I can also look back on my year at Redeemer – last year this time I was just another student getting lost in the halls on a Campus Visit Day. And I can see God’s faithfulness to me as he led me through the application process, finishing Gr. 12 exams, paying for university, finding me an awesome dorm, and making me grow so much spiritually and academically. God is so great and everyone here at Redeemer has their own testimony to God’s faithfulness. It is my hope that all the prospective students this week will get to become a part of Redeemer’s testimony to God’s faithfulness.

2010-03-18T14:52:00.005-04:00

Wow! This has been quite an eventful few weeks in Paris. Classes are fully underway at the Cours de civilisation française and that started to create a rather dependable routine for me, that is until something came along to jostle that consistency.

This past weekend I was invited to go on a trip to Disneyland Paris with my student residence here in France, and in the process of trying to catch a train I was late for... I ran a little too fast and jumped a few too many steps. Luckily, the fall didn’t result in a broken ankle but I will be relegated to walking with crutches for the next few weeks. The irony of it all is that Paris is a city renowned for walking and cycling as the primary modes of transit. This is both an ironic and humbling experience for me. I know God has many lessons for His people on the other end of such self-inflicted accidents. The great part of the day was that, in the end, I was still able to see most of Disneyland Paris (although mostly by sitting down) and to really enjoy another different experience.

France so far has been anything but predictable. My time could be well described with these words: incredibly exciting and incredibly diverse. The weekend before Disneyland I had a chance to get to know better some of the young adults from our church “L’Église Évangélique Baptiste de Paris-centre” or as most people call it “Rue de Sèvres.” The people at this church have been incredibly inviting and have extended so much grace to us visiting Canadians. It is really exciting to see a group of Christians in this country who are so involved in loving and welcoming new people.

Our outing with some of the young adults a few weeks back was hiking and rock climbing in an area just outside of Paris called Fontainebleau. It is a beautiful spot that really takes you out of the noise and the business of the city and brings you to a place that could easily be mistaken for Northern Ontario. The landscape was gorgeous and the rocks were climb-able! We spent our day climbing, hiking, talking and eating packed lunches and snacks all outside under the warm sun. It was a great day to remember and I can’t wait to do it again!

I’m having the other Redeemer students over for dinner tonight at my residence so I better go start making dinner. It’s tacos tonight!

Value Village : A Successful Event for a Worthy Cause

2010-03-16T09:59:00.004-04:00

Well, it’s been an eventful couple of days at here at Redeemer University College. Last Thursday I had the pleasure of perusing the Value Village Rummage sale that took place in the school’s board room. Many students may have noticed the posters advertising the event or spotted the friendly reminders in the Time Out a few weeks prior to the rummage sale. I must say, I was quite impressed by the amount of goods that were up for grabs. T-shirts, sweaters, jeans, belts, bags, dresses, shoes, scarves! And all of this for under five dollars. What a steal!

I myself came away with a yellow garden -- a purchase that I was quite delighted with. I wore it the next day and felt a bit strange when I realized that I probably passed the cardigan’s former owner at least once in the hallway. At first I was a bit hesitant about wearing it for that very reason, which is ridiculous really – especially since the old owner donated that garment in hopes of selling it to another student. Well old owner I have one word for you: thanks! I now have a bright springy addition to my otherwise very wintry wardrobe. But enough about me and more about the cause.

All of the Value Village proceeds went to an organization called Invisible Children. By all means, I would encourage everybody to look into this organization. The work they do is incredible! In short, Invisible Children is a grassroots movement that aims to spread awareness about the war affected youth in Northern Uganda. It also seeks to raise money, to rebuild war-torn schools and to provide scholarships to African youth. Most importantly, it is a movement that strives to stop the conflict in Uganda and end the abduction of children for use as child soldiers. The Value Village Sale was a concrete and practical way to support the efforts of this campaign. I was really impressed by the initiative that the organizers (Catriona L. McHardy an Candace Lagerwerf) took to help the cause. For anyone else who was involved – thank you for the time and energy that you put in!

Well I’m off to start a few English papers. As third year nears completion, the ominous tidal wave of big assignments come rolling in. I have a feeling that many of my future blog entries will include my growing disbelief in how fast time flies! For now, I think I’ll make a conscious effort to enjoy all of the little things that come with being a third year student! Bye for now!

Another ‘Job Well Done’ for Redeemer

2010-03-15T14:09:00.004-04:00

When it comes to the act of giving, Redeemer doesn’t only meet expectations, it surpasses them.

This past week, from March 8 – 12, Redeemer students, staff and faculty took part in a clothing drive. Participants were asked to bring in clothes (old clothes or clothes that they no longer wore, but were still in good condition) from Monday – Wednesday, and to come and purchase new clothes for their wardrobe on Thursday – Friday. This endeavor was referred to as Value Village: Redeemer Style, and far surpassed any expectations that were made before the week began.

After two days of an intense search for the “good stuff”, Redeemer raised exactly $500.00 through the sale to be sent to Invisible Children, and are sending more than half of the clothes received by donation to a local charity in Hamilton (yet to be decided). Well done, Redeemer! You can be proud of your efforts and contributions!

This aspect of Redeemer is one that cannot be overlooked. I have come to understand that Redeemer’s capacity to “give back” goes beyond anything that I have ever experienced. Over the last year, functions and events have been held to raise money and resources for those in the world that are desperately in need. There have been book-drives, spaghetti dinners, concerts, clothing drives, and many more events. Redeemer has proven to be exceptionally generous, always willing to lend a hand and to step up to the plate when there is a need. When I consider the Haitian earthquake that occurred back in January, I am amazed at Redeemer’s efforts to get involved. Within days, we had a plan of action. There were functions planned, discussions regarding the devastating event, prayer circles set up, and plans to hold events to raise funds necessary for the rebuilding of Haiti. I am in awe by Redeemer’s willingness to help and to give back, after we have been so richly blessed.

Redeemer may not be extremely large, but we have the hearts to make incredible change in the world. And I think that Redeemer is doing just that – we are not hiding within its walls, but we are stepping out, stepping up to the plate, and stepping up in ways that seem impossible for a school our size. We can be proud of the school that Redeemer is and thank God for all He has blessed us with, so that we might be able to give back. Whether a part of Redeemer’s Social Justice Team, or simply by tossing an old book, shirt, or five dollar bill in a basket, Redeemer students, staff and faculty have and will continue in their efforts to show Christ’s love in a hurting world.

To this I say, well done, Redeemer. You continue to amaze me!

Dollarama Sunglasses

2010-03-11T13:33:00.007-05:00

There is an interesting side effect that comes with being a university student: not only do you learn new things, but you learn new ways to think.

Every discipline that you specialize in shapes how you view the world. For example, I’m in microeconomics this semester – learning about demand and supply, efficiency, productivity, and stuff like that – and now I can’t view anything without putting on the glasses of economics and viewing the world through these lenses. We watched a youtube clip of “How it’s Made” in class and not only saw how a skateboard was made, but also how productive the assembly line was by combining technology with human labour. So maybe economics isn’t your thing, but I know my friends who are psychology majors analyse every situation through a psych-lens. Or another friend of mine who is a bio major told me that he couldn’t watch Avator without his mind racing through all the biology in it, while I saw it with a business mindset. It’s just sooo cool to be able to look at the world in a different light.

And the great thing about Redeemer is that it’s a liberal arts school, so we have the opportunity to try on different lenses from different disciplines of the core courses – biology, history, theatre, physical education, etc. – to get a taste of what the world is like when we see it through that mindset. University really opens your eyes up to the world around you.

But Redeemer takes it one step further. If you take just one class at Redeemer, you’ll hear this one buzzword: “worldview.” It’s kind of like those big goofy Dollarama sunglasses that you can put on where the lenses are bigger than your face. These glasses are so great because you can put them on overtop of any corrective-lens glasses that you may already wear and still look stylin’! But in all seriousness, Redeemer gives you a perspective of the world like these Dollarama sunglasses; Redeemer shows every class through the lens of faith. Christianity is our worldview because God made us and all of creation and everywhere we look – whether it’s business class, science, art, whatever discipline you’re studying – we can see God. It’s so great because we all get to wear these big Christian worldview glasses and be unified in the sense that we all see God everywhere, even though we also look through our respective discipline lenses. God is the one we worship and learn about, and the one you unites us all together in our communal effort to develop the world to enable others to honour Him.

God is just so cool! And because I came here, and because of how my classes are taught through this worldview, I can now see the world from this perspective. Everywhere I look on campus I can see God at work. It is in obvious things like Wednesday Chapel where we can all come together to get our Dollarstore glasses polished and worship God as a community of believers. Or in coffee house where we showcase our God-given talents and exercise our ability to make others laugh. Or even in more hidden ways, like Student Senate (as general senator position elections were held this week) where we work as one body with the like-mind of serving the student body through the love that God gives us to love our neighbour. God is everywhere; we just need to open our eyes to see it.

A Month in Paris

2010-03-11T13:07:00.005-05:00

To most Canadians, the thought of living in Paris seems fanciful and extraordinary. Narrow cobblestone roads, high heels and scarves, and restaurants serving luxurious meals. This is Paris right? Well, so far, over the month that I have been here in Paris it’s been that, but it’s also been much more. As part of one of Redeemer’s semester abroad programs (“Redeemer in France”) I have been privileged to be able to visit one of the most remarkable cities in the world. Paris offers so much to see and the other three students on the program here can attest to the fact that after more than a month of sight-seeing and travelling in between classes, we still haven’t been able to see it all...or the half of it for that matter! Our program, known as “Les cours de civilisation française”, runs from February to May with a normal course load of classes ranging from Art History to French Phonetics.

During the first and second weeks we have been here, the four of us Redeemer students visited the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, the Jardin des Tuilleries, etc. etc. Having our French professor Dr. Rusthoven around for the first week was really a blessing, since she knows her way around the city quite well. Apparently she has been organizing the Redeemer in France program for 19 yrs now.

Here in Paris, we've also been connected with a great local church called Rue de Sèvres (Baptist evangelical) named simply after the street it’s on. It's a really amazing place, the people there have been the most welcoming to us out of anyone yet that I've met here in Paris. They've really taken us in with open arms. It's a small community by numerical standards back home; there are maybe 150 people or so in the parish. But in France most Protestant or evangelical church communities are very small. In fact Rue de Sèvres is one of the bigger ones in Paris! On Tuesdays I usually go to their young adult’s night and on Sundays they have two worship services that are great as well. I've already made quite a few friends in the church and some outside of it as well! Paris has been great so far, and classes are zipping by. It’s true, the students who went last year told us before we left to enjoy our time in Paris because it will go by fast! Now, off to do just that...

Burgers & Nachos

2010-03-10T08:36:00.008-05:00

Today was actually the most beautiful day of the year yet! It was so nice to be outside. It was great to see everyone getting out their lawn chairs and sitting on their porches, either to socialize or read in the sun. I was able to enjoy the weather especially today because my friend and I were going door-to-door letting people know about the clothing drive for Invisible Children that’s going on this week. Everyone seems so supportive of things like that and its great to see the support of Redeemer to so many important things. Last year I remember someone shaving their head to raise money for War Child. When people take initiative around here they are definitely backed by the Redeemer community!

So my cooking partner and I are planning to make burgers and nachos for dinner this week to celebrate the great weather, and also just because we are craving burgers and nachos. We shop at the Market on Thursday nights for a dorm of 5 and this week our budget is a little bit tighter so hopefully we can get everything we need. This past month we were a little extravagant in our spending so this month we’re getting back on budget. It’s a great way to prepare for living off campus next year!

I’m living in Augustine Hall right now and there is a new dorm idea that Student Life has tried out. Instead of having an HA live with us (since I’m in second year) we have two “floor HAs.” I’m really enjoying it because our dorm is more responsible for things that go on in our dorm but we still have someone there to get advice and help from if we need it. We also have floor parties and activities to bring all 4 dorms together, last time we watched a movie and had cheesecake! Everyone says Augustine Hall is more secluded but I don’t think that’s true anymore.

Tonight I’m working at I.T. Help Desk. It’s a place in the library where people come if they have technical questions about the internet, their lap top or printing something off in the labs. It’s nice because after 8pm, its pretty quiet in the library and I get a chance to work on some homework- and there is always lots of that to do!

The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

2010-03-05T12:26:00.004-05:00

The weather at Redeemer has been so beautiful this week! Someone just long-boarded by my dorm on the way to class; my neighbours were out on the porch singing worship songs and playing their guitars last night. I even saw people wearing shorts outside! (And we still have some snow on the ground.) It’s just so nice to open your windows and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

This weather reminds me of the Switchfoot song “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine,” because of how much we’re enjoying this lovely weather. Just last week, it was snowing and gray. Classes were cancelled one night because of bad weather, and I know some of my commuter friends missed classes because it took twice as long to drive into school. Like it was no one’s fault, it’s just because of the weather. Then there were midterms, tests, assignments, etc – just a lot of stuff that needed to be done all in one week. Like don’t get me wrong: I love the snow (snowball fights, catching snowflakes, snow forts and stuff...) It’s so cool. And I love school. I actually like learning new things and getting to write reports and midterms were you get to show your Prof all that you’ve learned from them. But the whole mid-term time frame just gets people stressed out and almost dragging through the week.

But with this sun... we’re refreshed, rejuvenated, energized, and ready to a) have fun – because these are the best years of our lives! – and b) dig into our classes with a new energy and a new light. The great thing about both of these last two weeks is that neither of them was bad-- the snowy shadow of last week, or this weeks’ bright sunshine. Neither was bad, just because one was so challenging, I really appreciated this week all the more.

Haha... My Resident Assistant (RA) is vacuuming with our dorm’s vacuum cleaner named Henry right now. She decided to do a bit extra for her chore and is cleaning our rooms too! My RAs are amazing people! When we asked why she said, “I just love the sunshine! It makes everything all the more chipper.” If sunshine gets my room cleaned without me having to do anything, then it can shine from now ‘til the end of April!

“It’s just that time of the year…”

2010-03-03T10:10:00.007-05:00

It’s just that time of the year… what a phrase, I found myself saying it several times today and can see myself saying it throughout the rest of the semester. Between the demands of school, friends and family its tough to be a university student but I know the pay off and I’m very lucky to be a student at Redeemer. I’m looking at my agenda and this will be a busy week, between my work to prep for the clothing drive, my midterm on Friday and the readings between that, not to mention our dorm social on Wednesday night!

Today I found myself not completely there in class, not to say that Aristotle and the play The Wild Duck aren’t interesting, its just that my mind is more concerned with other things. Tomorrow my dorm will be going out for some much-needed dorm bonding, we’ve all been so busy so we decided to get off campus and chat about anything but school. Then my friend and I have this clothing drive we are planning to take place next week, it’s a lot of prep work; today at Student Life Micah helped us make 800 business cards to put in everyone’s mailbox on Thursday. We’re doing the clothing drive as a fundraiser for an organization called Invisible Children. A few months ago we had a book drive and it was pretty crazy.

I have a CEW team meeting tonight, which is part of Redeemer’s once-a-month church service called Church in the Box (CITB). We do the “random” aspect of the service: dancing, skits, visual art, etc. Tonight we should be pulling together our part of the service, I shouldn’t say what it is though, most people like the surprise element. It’ll be great though!

Tonight I plan to start studying for that lovely calculus midterm on Friday, your first test with a professor is always difficult because you’re not sure how they go about testing. At least after one test with a professor you know what to expect, so for this one I plan on knowing everything- we’ll see if that actually happens. It’s kind of like how I was going to get all my French homework done this afternoon but instead spent my time talking with my roommate. I will head to the library tonight to make sure I don’t get distracted.

Afternoon Fun

2009-03-17T10:40:00.003-04:00

What a great weekend here at Redeemer! The weather was beautiful and it was so nice and relaxing. Right now is the period of the semester when people really start to do papers and get their homework done, but on Sunday afternoon, not too many people were doing homework. It was a gorgeous afternoon, it was way to hard to stay inside and get things done.

The afternoon had some sweet events going on. The first was Kid's Club Day. All the kids from Kids Club on Tuesday and Thursday (separate groups) came to Redeemer for the afternoon. There were about 30 of them from down the mountain in Hamilton. They came here all on a bus and when they got here they headed to the rec centre for some games and for a hot dog lunch. After lunch they headed out to a couple dorms in smaller groups and did some Easter egg hunting! From there they headed to the gym to see a sweet presentation by a Mad Scientist. He taught them how to make slime (uh oh for us leaders) and showed them lots of cool things about science. Then they played games in the gym until it was time to go home, the afternoon lasted about 4 hours.

Another thing that happened Sunday afternoon was some pick up soccer behind Augustine Hall. It was a little muddy but that made it all the better. We had around 40 people come out to hang out and have fun. We played soccer and listened to some live music from some on campus musicians jamming outside in the sun. It was tons of fun! All over campus people were outside in shorts and t-shirts playing games, soaking up the sun, and hanging out.. what a good Sunday afternoon before a great Church in the Box that evening!

And the Year Winds Down.....

2009-03-12T10:09:00.005-04:00

Well, the Redeemer banquet has come and gone (in fact, there are pictures all over facebook to prove it). I really enjoyed myself - it's always fun to get the community together for a delicious meal followed by some dancing and mingling. The banquet also gives the girls an excuse to dress up and buy a cute dress, so really it's just a win-win situation all around. The banquet hall was gorgeously decorated, and the annual dance off competition was, as to be expected, highly impressive. After watching two students perfect the art of swing dancing, I was quite inspired to learn some new moves myself - unfortunately my coordination is lacking in that department. We were also treated to some break dancing, which was also extremely impressive. It was so much fun to celebrate the hidden talent of Redeemer students.

For me, the banquet sort of marks the beginning of that "end of the year" feeling. Suddenly, exams don't seem like a foggy, far away idea - and those huge papers no longer loom distantly in the horizon. Yes, it is a little scary. However, I know that stressing about it won't help the situation either, so I'll try to remain positive. It's hard to imagine that as a third year student next year, I will no longer be living on campus. I am super excited to live in a house with some of my best friends in Ancaster- however, I will miss campus life a little bit. Truth be told, it has been quite fabulous. A few of the perks include: dorm dinners, communal, sitting outside in the sun with our neighbors, being able to stroll over to Williams whenever I feel like it and movie nights at Augustine Hall. Oh, I almost forgot, being able to take naps between classes is also an added bonus of dorm life - something that often helps me get through the day...hehe.

To end, I think I will list a few goals for next year: getting involved in the city of Hamilton, writing for the school newspaper, balancing homework with an on campus job and participating in class discussions. I guess I could strive to meet these goals right now, why wait for third year right?

Well, I guess that's all for now guys. Thanks for reading!

Guys Night

2009-03-03T01:05:00.008-05:00

This past weekend was sweet! On Friday night I headed out to the theaters close to Redeemer with some guys and saw a movie, and then after that around 12am a brand new event started in the Rec Centre: Manfest.

I know the name sounds weird but the event was far from it. The purpose of it was to build community amongst the guys here on campus and to just have a lot of fun hanging out and playing all sorts of games. The night went like this, from about 12 -43o ish in the morning we hung out in the Rec Centre (a building Redeemer has for sweet events and hanging out) and had pizza and pop and snacks and played games. We had three on three soccer tournaments in the upstairs with a small ball so nothing would get broken, and 8 person Halo 3 games, mario kart, pool, board games, and music! It was a lot of fun just getting the chance to hang out with guys and play games and such. Definitely a memorable event and I will definitely be going again next year!

the first half of 2nd semester

2009-02-12T21:39:00.008-05:00

Hello fellow Redeemer readers and students!

I find it hard to believe that it's February already! Second semester is just flying by. I wrote my last midterm today, and it feels really nice to know that I have a week ahead of me to just relax and catch up with family and friends. So, in light of that, it seems only fitting to take a moment and reflect on the highlights of the past two months. The start of the 2009 winter term was excellent. I found the Crossroads conference really interesting, and it left me with a lot of new ideas to chew on. I think it was a good way to set the wheels of my brain in motion. I am not a philosophy major, but I think it can be a really engaging subject. I was really impressed by the variety of speakers that Redeemer hosted. A personal highlight for me was Calvin Seerveld's lecture about art and its role in our culture. I can only hope to absorb some of his wisdom, and apply it to whatever creative assignments that might come my way.

The Social Justice Conference was a worthwhile event too. I would highly recommend it! Some of the information was difficult to digest, and we all came back to the dorm with a lot to think about and mull over. The seminars addressed HUGE issues like poverty, slavery and the aids crisis. While it is easy to feel overwhelmed, helpless and guilty when we are presented with such difficult material, we must work hard to take what we've learned and apply it to our daily lives. It encouraged me to open my eyes and become more aware of the suffering that happens around me.

February has proven to be a pretty exciting month too. Redeemer's Fiddler on the Roof was fantastic. Wow, what an amazing performance! the singing, the choreography, the acting -- all of it was splendid! I was completely blown away. Professor Loney is quite an actor and the rest of the cast was fabulous too.

All in all, it's been a busy but enjoyable few weeks. I hope everyone has a wonderful and rest-filled reading break!

zoom zoom

2009-02-12T00:15:00.002-05:00

Tonight was a fun night. It was the last home volleyball game of the regular season and our men's team did very well and beat Humber in 4 sets - it was a pretty amazing game. I love Wednesday's in general though. Somehow I managed to get a really good schedule this semester, and all my regular classes are done by Wednesday afternoon. Tomorrow, I have my internship and then my reading break starts.

The last few weeks have been crazy, not just for me I think. January is always booked solid with events, conferences, and social activity and, if you are not mindful of it, mid-terms and other schoolwork sneaks up on you. Luckily things have been going quite well this semester nonetheless, and, even though I have had a very busy January, I really have been able to enjoy it.

Reading break should be a lot of fun. First, I get to visit some of my family and then most of next week will hopefully be spent snowboarding in Quebec! A bunch of my friends are heading to Mexico, Mississippi, or downtown Hamilton for mission trips and secretly that also sounds like a very great idea. But, I think I am not in a place to complain.

It is ridiculous how quickly this semester has gone, I can't believe it is the middle of the term. Before I know it I will be graduating...

Eventful Moments on Redeemer Campus

2009-02-10T22:28:00.001-05:00

As we continue through our “new” semester, new activities keep popping up all around us. This week our school features the traditional “Angels and Mortals”. This is where anyone in the school, professors, staff members and students have a name or a mortal. During the week, you get to bless your mortal with cool things like letters, cards, candy, serenading or anything else you can think of.In return, you are blessed with the exact same things from your person (your angel).Once again, I am amazed at the school spirit and hope that this will be able to continue for many years to come.

As this week winds down and midterms start coming to a close; other exciting things are coming into arms reach. Reading break starts this Friday and with that comes the start of various mission trips to Hamilton, Mexico, and Mississippi. I am sure there are going to be a lot of exciting stories floating around campus in a couple weeks when everyone returns from their adventures.

february comes already.

2009-02-05T13:51:00.004-05:00

Everyone thinks that when they get to the new semester everything is going to be less chaotic; less homework to do and more time to hang out and see people after the Christmas break. You think you have all the time in the world, professors won't actually give you an assignment the first week, but then the second semester begins, reality hits, and chaos returns; all of a sudden you have assignment after assignment and time seems to disappear. Now it is February, midterms are starting and everyone seems to retreat to the library as some sort of shelter, anticipating the upcoming "reading" week that February brings.

But, let's face it, it's not always just homework and assignments, we do find different ways to entertain ourselves. Every Friday night, my friends and I make our way out to the hockey game to support the Redeemer Royals. Hardcore fans, such as ourselves, stop by Timmy H on the way and bring mountains of blankets to warm ourselves as we cheer on the team. (just so you know, they won 5-3 this past week...)

Now, as this week seems to be ending, we look forward to the weekend as it will be filled with sleep, socializing, a little homework, and the most exciting part of the month and the weekend, in my opinion, Church in the Box.

Winter Retreat

2009-02-02T18:46:00.006-05:00

Wow! What a great weekend! This past weekend an event was put on by the SASC crew (a part of student senate involved in the spiritual lives of the students at Redeemer) called the Winter Retreat. The Winter Retreat is put on once a year and is one of two annual retreats put on by SASC. This year the Retreat was held at a camp in Guelph and about 80 students were there.

We left on Friday night around 5:30 in two buses and when we arrived and had all our stuff in our cabins we had the first worship session. A band from Redeemer called Alpha Praise played several songs and then we had a Redeemer Alumni named Steven speak to us about Community and about Paul's Epistles. He asked us to think about what we think Paul would write to Redeemer if he were writing a letter to Redeemer. It was sweet meeting with small groups and discussing that. After the talk and small groups and some more praise and worship we just played games until late in the morning. Friday night was definitely a sweet night.

Saturday morning came and we pulled ourselves out of bed to get some breakfast (there were some sweet muffins to look forward to but they decided to save them for Sunday but we didn't know that until we got to breakfast). After breakfast we had Praise and Worship time again and then another Redeemer Alumni talked to us. His talk was about Fears and Worries and not letting them getting in the way of our Relationship with God. He encouraged us to go to people and to open up with our fears and our worries and with things that we are struggling with. He also said to not ever think that we are all alone. There are always people there to help if we ask for it and God is ALWAYS there! After small groups we had lunch and then after lunch we played games in the snow all afternoon.

On Saturday night we had another session and this one was also done by a Redeemer Alumni and he talked about having faith in God, and to not doubt who he is. He also talked about maintaining excitement in our faith, to read the bible in the excited manner that Children always do, believing the stories that we read and being excited about how they happen. After that we had small groups and such again and then games until the wee hours of the morning .. just having tons of fun and lots of good conversation with others.

Sunday morning we had a different kind of session, there was no speaker but instead we split up into girls and guys and had our own separate discussions. As guys we talked about leadership and how we can be Christian leaders in many different situations, and also how we can promote leadership among our girl friends. All in all it was an amazing weekend! There is so much more than this!

Crossroads (not the movie with Britney Spears, but the conference)

2009-01-13T19:24:00.004-05:00

Well, normally the start of second semester is a time to adjust, get ready to get back into the swing of things. Well, it seems like things were a bit different this semester, and somewhat surprisingly it is already the middle of the second week of school. One strange fact is that this is my last semester at Redeemer, it is weird knowing that these classes are the last ones I will be taking at Redeemer, yet it is neat how this time has almost come to a completion.

Outside of phenomenal classes (and I am not just saying that) this first week was marked by many lectures and opportunities to learn from really wise people. Redeemer had the privilege to host a conference called Living at the Crossroads. This conference, quite simply put, asked questions on how we as Christians are to live out our faith within our callings. Whether that is a student who is majoring in Psychology or a business man running their own business: what does God call us to do. Time and time again, one idea was kind of given as a reminder - the idea that Christ has something to say about all that we do. We can't ignore him within our work or study, in fact, we ought to work from a Christian viewpoint. The conference was really encouraging for me as it kind of encouraged me to think critically again about some of the things I have been studying, it was very refreshing.

Besides the conference, this weekend was also marked by a Church in the Box service, Mike Goheen, a former Redeemer prof., spoke and he really encouraged us as community to live out our faith to the fullest, not just when it is easy.

All in all the winter semester has come and is in full swing. Lots of snow! We went out for dinner as a dorm. This week starts a week of 24/7 prayer and so many events are still to come. January is always an exciting time to be at school.

Schools Back!

2009-01-11T21:21:00.004-05:00

Wow! This first week back to school has been great so far! Second semester is off to a roaring start. Some things that I am up to this semester are: Varsity Indoor Soccer, Thursday night Soccer, Church in the Box prayer group, Kid's Club program on Tuesdays, snowboarding (in the orchard behind the school), and getting to know more people and getting to know friends even better!

I am really excited for what this semester will bring. Redeemer has a lot of stuff that you can get involved in. There are many extra-curricular activities that anyone can get involved in. Coming up there is a Volunteer Social where people can come and check out the programs that people from Redeemer are involved in here around the school and also in the Ancaster and Hamilton communities.

As for sports this semester there is still men and women's volleyball, men and women's basketball, and men and women's indoor soccer. There are also other non-varsity sports like the Thursday night soccer league that people from Redeemer can play in just for fun, and extramurals like badminton, where people can just play badminton and then go to tournaments to compete against other schools. And don't forget intramurals! Mattball is just finishing and I think that volleyball might be next!

There is definitely a lot of stuff to look forward to this semester at Redeemer, I hope that it's a lot of fun!

exam week

2008-12-16T11:37:00.004-05:00

I am one of the first people to say that I enjoy exam week. Unlike the rest of the semester, things are made pretty simple. You have exams - 4, 5, or 6 of them - and they are slotted at certain times over an almost 2-week period. Outside of exams there is nothing to worry about. Of course, a lot of your time goes into preparing for the exams by making study sheets, studying, group study sessions, etc. However, to do proper studying you need proper breaks, so it is also a time to catch up on dorm life, friends you haven't spoken with in a while, and some squash (in my case at least).

Slowly and surely my dorm is becoming very quiet. Most of my guys have gone home already and the last few will be gone by tomorrow (including myself). It is exciting to have a little break, see family, enjoy some food, catch up on some reading. It is good to have a break, before I realize it, next semester will be here and that will be my last one, so it will be good to be well rested by the time January rolls around.

I am looking forward to January as there are some exciting events that are to happen, and there is always just a great atmosphere at the start of second semester. Until then.

PS: Midnight breakfast was splendid. several hundred people eating as much breakfast as they want. It was great. Our president Dr. Cooper(as well as other staff and faculty) looked styling in his Pajamas and slippers as he was serving us breakfast, good times all around.

Full Swing Ahead!

2008-12-10T14:07:00.002-05:00

We have almost reached the end of the first week of exams. What a relief! Some people are done, some haven’t started, and others are just floating through. The end of next week also means the start of Christmas vacation and the end of the first semester, boy am I excited.

Last week Sunday, the pro life group held an event that allowed over 100 students, and members of local churches to participate in a silent protest against abortion. With the snow blowing in our faces and the temperature in the negatives, we stood holding signs that told the people who passed by our message. Some people agreed with us and honked their horns, some people, well we can’t really say what they did to us, and others simply just saw everyone sharing the same message to choose life not abortion.

Time is ticking and my exam is getting closer, perhaps it’s time to stop procrastinating and begin studying.

'Tis the Season

2008-12-01T18:08:00.006-05:00

It is difficult balancing emotions at this time of year. Christmas is just around the corner and the thought of fellowship, food, and family gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling. Suddenly, it becomes hard to concentrate on the umpteen papers and exams that will soon reach their due dates. We thought we grew out of our snow pants and rubber boots; well, maybe we have- but we will find a way to squeeze our way back into them.

Maybe it is all in God's plan to schedule exams amidst this exciting time of year. That soft snow falling outside creates just enough happiness for us to get through one more page of writing. God brings us the added joy during a time that proves to be a bit stressful and a bit more busy.

Let's celebrate the life that came to earth to redeem the world!

City and Hope

2008-12-01T15:14:00.004-05:00

This week has been splendid. Busy, but splendid. On the weekend I decided to take a bit of a break from writing papers and it was quite relaxing. On Saturday I explored Hamilton a bit. Most of the places I had been before, but it was really refreshing to go to the Farmer's Market and have a sweet view of the city from the Dundas Peak. It is really important to take a break from school on a regular basis.

This week will be busy. It is weird that the busiest week of school (this week) is also the first week of advent. I actually find it really encouraging that we can be hopeful about Christ's coming and Christmas. Another thing to look forward to this week is the Messiah concert at McNab St. Presbyterian Church. A bunch of my friends are in the choir or alumni choir, and I am just pumped to go.

Next week exams. It is probably my favourite time of the semester. Perhaps I will write about that some other time...

Undefined

2008-11-28T12:07:00.008-05:00

Last night, students gathered in the cafeteria to show how they worship God. It was a rather moving event I must say. Some people sang songs that they wrote, some led worship time and others showed their worship through their art work. As each person took their turn sharing their talents, three students let God work through them to create a painting. At the end of the night, they were able to share their paintings with those who attended. In between acts, short thought-provoking videos were shown. Students shared their writing talents and their reflections about their walk with God. One of the more unique ideas that was shared, was a slide shown put together of all Redeemer students pictures of God’s creation. Boy we have some talented photographers here! This night was very spiritual and God was definitely present.

Whether its listening to your heart for PED 118, studying for the surface anatomy test, or putting the last thoughts into the papers for the classes, the time semester is quickly ending, I am thankful that there are times the student body can come together to share their experiences and their love for God with each other.

Papers, Mario Kart & serving God

2008-11-27T10:21:00.007-05:00

This week here at Redeemer has been a busy week for all. Many are trying to get papers done, studying for quizzes, and doing big projects. I finished my History and my English paper this week, thanks to the Writing Centre for editing my papers. The Writing Centre here is a real blessing. It is a place where students can go to get help on assignments and to learn how to properly write papers in the proper format (formats like MLA, Chicago Style, etc.) and to get papers edited.

In my dorm this week we have had two significant events. This past Tuesday, November 25, we celebrated Dorm Christmas. We had decided as a dorm to celebrate Christmas a full month early because we won't be here on the actual Christmas day. We did a secret santa gift exchange, each guy spending 10-15 dollars on their person, just something fun and it was a bonding time. We had a sweet dinner and then when 10:30 came around we had the other significant event. Mario Kart Tournament. It can't get any better. We had an awesome time playing an organized tournament with our dorm with the winner signing the T-shirt that my RA's RA had in first year. This tournament a 1st year student took the win. It was sweet!

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to organize dorm devotions. I did devotions on the topic of 'Serving'. I have found lately that I would love to be more involved in the community at Redeemer and in Ancaster and Hamilton. According to God, we have no excuse not to follow the call of serving. So right now, I am praying and waiting for God to show me where I am to serve. I know that I can make a difference in this community with God on my side!

Snow is good for dorm life

2008-11-24T16:07:00.005-05:00

So, it was turning out to be a pretty good day. Wednesday's are always pretty good, busy, but good. Chapel was really good, as we tried to take a look at how technology can sometimes take away from us being actually focused on God. It can take away from us being able to hear God speak amidst all the noise, alerts, and constant communication.

In the evening there were varsity volleyball games, the atmosphere was amazing! Unfortunately we dropped the game in the fifth set to Mohawk. Having three of the guys in my dorm on the volleyball team, you can't expect post-volleyball game to be the best time. Well it was.

First we had devotions and we expanded further on the idea of noise in our lives, we decided to have a noise free hour every night in our dorm, a time where we can still do whatever, but we would try to eliminate technology use. It has been encouraging so far. After devotions and clean-up we opened our back door and people threw snowballs inside. We felt the challenge and responded. We ended up playing red rover and having a snow ball fight for the next hour and a bit, we came back inside warmed up and headed to bed. It was a pretty good post-volleyball night.

The Music and Christmas in Us

2008-11-19T23:44:00.005-05:00

As the year continues to press on and we get closer to wrapping up the first semester, I am once again amazed at how fast the time is moving. So much has been happening this past little while! We just had another successful year of Battle of the Bands this past Friday and Saturday, where bands from local high schools, students from this school, and outside bands come to play and compete against each other. With a massive turn out of students and fellow fans, as well as loud music and tons of excitement, these two nights were an awesome place to be at.

Also:

The Christmas lights are going up on the dorms which bring a lot of joy for many students as we anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth.
The planning for mission trips to Mexico, Hamilton, and Mississippi that occur during reading break are starting to take shape.
Other events like Deedz and the Toronto Mission trip continue to serve the communities that we live in.

Chapel

2008-11-19T20:22:00.008-05:00

This week is technology awareness week here at Redeemer. The goal of this week is to show people the role that technology is playing in our lives and the time that it takes out of our day. Technology is useful for many things but often times I find myself wasting time with it when I'm on Facebook, MSN, checking my email, watching movies, etc. There are many times when I think about my day and realize how much I could have gotten done if I was being more constructive with my time.

Today in Chapel (a weekly occurrence on Wednesday from 11am-12pm) Syd Hielema spoke about 'Making Space for God'. He gave examples of his life and how technology has taken up a lot of his time, and is stealing a lot of time from God. He told us that we have to make room for God's word in our daily lives so that God can dwell richly within us. Often times that space is occupied by other things than God, for example: Technology.

I have made the commitment to give up Facebook for the week and to limit my MSN/email time. I usually spend way to much time on Facebook, but this week at Redeemer I was presented with a challenge which will bring me closer to God (and will also let me have some time to actually do my homework!).

Varsity Athlete Up for Auction!

2008-11-17T18:38:00.006-05:00

Last Friday was Hobbies for Hilltop! Hobbies for Hilltop is an auction that we hold in the front foyer once a year. I am a member of SASC, the committee that organizes the event. SASC is an acronym for Spiritual Activities and Services Committee on Student Senate. As a rule, nobody knows what the letters SASC stand for, and if they do, they inevitably forget. Anyways, quite an entertaining auction this was- varsity men selling dates, crafters auctioning off dozens of paper roses, and culinary geniuses offering their experience in the kitchen to name a few. The list of creative auction items was 42 acts long. In the end, the school body raised almost $5,000 dollars. This money will be put to great use at the University of Mkar (otherwise known as Hilltop University) in Africa- our sister university. It is always moving for me to go to things like this because it makes me realize, along with many other students, that despite the fact that we consider ourselves poor college students, we know that God has blessed us with way more than enough, and we need to share His rich blessings with our brothers and sisters around the world.

Food Drive

2008-11-17T18:37:00.008-05:00

Walking up and down the streets of Meadowlands, going house to house, collecting canned food, in the pouring rain. Depends on the way you look at it, but from most people’s perspectives, this may not seem to be the way they want to spend their Friday evening. But as a couple of my roommates happen to be a part of SASC – Spiritual Activities and Services Committee, this is how I spent my Friday evening on November 7.

SASC organized this opportunity for students of Redeemer to go out to the many houses in Meadowlands, directly behind Redeemer campus, and pick up canned goods for a food drive. All of the canned food was brought to our dorm, which was then shipped off to Mission Services, an organization here in Hamilton. It was amazing to see the community become so involved in one common goal, and be so generous in their offerings to this organization. Many people were prepared for us to come, and had bags of canned goods ready when we arrived, this was an incredible experience to be a part of.

Life and CITB

2008-11-17T10:12:00.010-05:00

It's the final stretch for the fall term, this means a couple of things. 1. There is a switch from mid-terms and presentations to papers. 2. Snow is coming soon, in fact it was snowing just yesterday. 3. During exam week there will be midnight breakfast! - about half the student population comes out to have breakfast just before midnight, our profs serve us breakfast and it is probably one of my favourite events of the year.

Yesterday was this year's third Church in the Box (CITB). I have been involved with CITB since I was in my first year. Being in my fourth year right now means there have been lots of services in that time. CITB is a monthly worship service that happens at Redeemer, about 800 people come out from the Redeemer community and the surrounding area to spend an evening in worship. This year we are dealing with the theme "Life Transformed" - to expand on that: looking at how God transforms our lives today. Yesterday Matt Pamplin shared with us about how God transforms our character - how we can be heroes. He looked at how David (as in King David) was used by God, even though he had to wait 20 years before he could be King.

Other things that have happened in the last weeks, we got an honourable mention for dorm clean-up. Maybe next semester we will win. This coming week promises to be good busy. This Wednesday there is the big volleyball game against Mohawk College. Our gym promises to be a crazy place. I am an Resident Advisor (RA) this year and three of my boys are on the volleyball team, which makes me extra excited. Besides that I get to live in a dorm with 7 other guys - it's a pretty good experience.