Well I have two major things I want to share with you this week, Theology and the Olympics. It's been a rather happening place around here over the past week with having our Theology course and trying to get as much homework done as possible before we leave for the Olympics. We don't want to have to worry as much about school work because some of our shifts are pretty crazy and may, or may not, allow for as much sleep time as we would like. If you want to check out what my schedule is like click the link over there on the right -> You know, right there with the little 'Check this out!' sign, yeah that one. That's one example, but anyway before we delve too far into Olympic material I have a frustration to vent and want to get your thoughts.
So our course this week was Theology which is the study of God. It's derived from the Greek word 'Theos' meaning God and 'Logos' meaning speech. So the idea is that we talk about God. Which got me pretty excited. This was the one course that I had gotten really excited for because Theology is what we think about, well, when we talk about God. I must say I was quite interested during our first part of our lectures when we talked about Theology being the bridge between Scripture and culture. I quite agreed with that. However from there my attention span went down hill until our very last topic of the week. It just seemed that many of the issues we talked about (Calvinism and Arminianism, Young Earth and Old Earth, etc.) were almost non-essential to a good foundation in Christianity. Which frustrated me a lot. These issues were hot topics and we even watched a two hour debate on Calvinism vs. Arminianism. The only thing that I had trouble with was connecting a lot of these issues to real life. It seemed that only scholars and academics care about certain issues. However we did cover some good material at the end of the course dealing with sin and the nature of humanity that was very interesting. Anyway, now that I have vented a little I'd love to know what your thoughts on Theology are. Perhaps you can give me some incite as to the relevance of certain issues or maybe some experience that you have had with the subject. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
And now back over to Jimmy with Sports...... ha ha, no, not funny, oh well, I thought it was. I'm really stoked right now about going to the Olympics it's hard to believe that there is only 14 hours and 56 minutes until we leave to head on our way at O'Dark Hundred (6:15) tomorrow morning. Everyone is either packing, doing laundry, or trying to get some last minute research done to be ready in time. Actually I need to go check my laundry, just wait a sec..........Alright we're all good, now I can pack. In the comments part of my last blog post I started talking about what our role will be at the Olympics. Our position that we have is called host and we could be doing a number of things from guiding people to their seats, assisting at security check points, or yelling at people to move..... I mean directing people with a megaphone as to the direction of certain venues. (I hope that it was evident that part of that last sentence was a joke). The largest part of the job is talking with people, being kindly to them, and assisting in anyway we can. This is such an amazing opportunity to just be YELLING Jesus at people without using our voices. However when we do speak we want to be ready to tell them why we are serving (1 Peter 3:15-16). I would ask that you pray for us everyday from now until February 28 as it will only be by the working of the Holy Spirit that this ministry trip will bear fruit; we ourselves cannot ordain conversations and actions that will touch someone in their heart. Please pray.
Well, I do need to try and get some work done myself. I'm a little behind seeing as I was supposed to post this yesterday (Sorry Kristie). I also still need to pack and make sure I have everything, which I can now do since my laundry is done. So for now I will say see ya later, but I'll try and blog while I'm at the Olympics to give you an update, I do have a few days off.
This is Nick VanSnick signing off.
Love ya,
Nick
14hours and 38minutes till departure :)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Time Flies When You're Having Fun.....Or Doing School Work
Well I don't think that I have yet had a week where I was 'living for the weekend' but I think that this past week came pretty close. With a ton of homework and class for two days the week seemed to fly by.
I think that Friday was definitely my favorite day. I was able to have a ton of fun both academically and not-so-academically. I was able to interview Scott Bayley the Executive Director here at Qwanoes about his position. This of course was for my camp ministry course that we are working through. It was a very interesting talk because of the wealth of knowledge Scott has about his position. From the exciting interview about something fun, camp, I went into a great Youth Night where all of the Youth in the Cowichan Valley area came to Qwanoes for the evening. We weren't sure how many to expect but it ended up being around 220 Youth not including leaders that came out. It was a night filled with energy! We sang, played a huge night game outside, and then our Kaleo intern, Justin Lenney, spoke on seeing God's glory. Quite a different night than usual but one that was a lot of fun.
Another reason I was looking forward to the weekend was so that I would be able to get a chunk of the pre-course work done for Theology this week. So in the midst of all this reading that we had to do we decided to go on a little adventure and bake pie at Jim's house. So off we tread to Jim's house but when we got there, no one came to the door to greet us. Upon this interesting dilemma Mark and I decided to look in the back door, and well it was unlocked. So we thought that we would vacate Jim's house for the afternoon to do some studying. We also left him little notes all around his house so that he would know we love him.
To top the week off it was good to be back on the streets of Duncan praying and talking with the homeless. I saw my good friend Hoppy last night and was able to catch up with him. A point of praise now, Hoppy has been a lifetime drinker and has for the past 4 months been clean. It was great to hear that and see that he was doing well.
I want to end on a good note about today, Theology is not scary. I was amazed that all through today how many topics I have already learned about and talked about in different settings. Theology is just the study of God, and that's what I've been doing for about the past 6 years. So I was greatly gladdened by that.
Please continue to pray for us at Kaleo as we prepare to go to the Olympics and especially please pray everyday between February 10-28 as we will be right in the action during these days, almost quite literally at all hours of the day.
Love ya,
Nick VanSnick
I think that Friday was definitely my favorite day. I was able to have a ton of fun both academically and not-so-academically. I was able to interview Scott Bayley the Executive Director here at Qwanoes about his position. This of course was for my camp ministry course that we are working through. It was a very interesting talk because of the wealth of knowledge Scott has about his position. From the exciting interview about something fun, camp, I went into a great Youth Night where all of the Youth in the Cowichan Valley area came to Qwanoes for the evening. We weren't sure how many to expect but it ended up being around 220 Youth not including leaders that came out. It was a night filled with energy! We sang, played a huge night game outside, and then our Kaleo intern, Justin Lenney, spoke on seeing God's glory. Quite a different night than usual but one that was a lot of fun.
Another reason I was looking forward to the weekend was so that I would be able to get a chunk of the pre-course work done for Theology this week. So in the midst of all this reading that we had to do we decided to go on a little adventure and bake pie at Jim's house. So off we tread to Jim's house but when we got there, no one came to the door to greet us. Upon this interesting dilemma Mark and I decided to look in the back door, and well it was unlocked. So we thought that we would vacate Jim's house for the afternoon to do some studying. We also left him little notes all around his house so that he would know we love him.
To top the week off it was good to be back on the streets of Duncan praying and talking with the homeless. I saw my good friend Hoppy last night and was able to catch up with him. A point of praise now, Hoppy has been a lifetime drinker and has for the past 4 months been clean. It was great to hear that and see that he was doing well.
I want to end on a good note about today, Theology is not scary. I was amazed that all through today how many topics I have already learned about and talked about in different settings. Theology is just the study of God, and that's what I've been doing for about the past 6 years. So I was greatly gladdened by that.
Please continue to pray for us at Kaleo as we prepare to go to the Olympics and especially please pray everyday between February 10-28 as we will be right in the action during these days, almost quite literally at all hours of the day.
Love ya,
Nick VanSnick
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