the first half of 2nd semester

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

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...

Winter Retreat

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!