So I went to the world’s largest mall today. It has a theme park and water park built inside. Dustin said it takes 8 minutes of straight walking to get from one end to the other, in one direction.
The theme park has a sweet roller coaster called the Mindbender. It is tones better than the Mindbender at Six Flags. Dustin and I rode it three times, the last time backwards.
I finally did it. I got a toque.
See, a lot of the guys in Explore took up crocheting. It started with Tanton, but spread rapidly. At one point almost all of the guys were doing it, including Levi and Nathan. However, now it is just Jason, Scott, and Tanton. Scott made me a sweet toque. It has ear muffs and everything.
This past week I have been involved in the butchering of 6 deer. I still have 9 fingers. It has been sweet. First I helped Tim Fodor (former director of Explore) and he taught me a lot. Tim likes to have good quality meat, and spends a considerable amount of time cleaning the meat. I got a lot of practice doing this. I also did things like cut steaks, cubed meat, and ground meat. I helped operate the grinder and package some meat.
Today I went over to Pam and Dwayne’s house and helped them with their three deer. This time I concentrated on skinning and cutting the meat off the dear itself. I did one complete deer myself, skinning, breaking the legs and head off, and cutting off the meat. It was really good experience. Hopefully I can put it into practice over Christmas break.
Oh, I also ate lunch at the Koop’s house. There were four students there and we all cut our own steak and grilled it. We also had some soup that Pam had made, and some bread that Shane (explore senior intern) had made. It was the best meal I have had in the past 3 months.
Last night I was a score keeper for the volleyball games. That was a neat experience. All the minor officials there were new and had never done it before, including the announcer. My job was fairly easy, just push a few buttons whenever a score was made. I also had to set the timer for timeouts and time between games. I will be doing this again tonight. Tanton, who is in Explore, plays on the guys team so I have someone to root for.
Today for Explore chapel we had to do an initiative. Dustin said I would like it. We were split into our teams. Red team was missing two people, so we only had Samantha, Josh, and I. We were told we had to support a heavy textbook 12 inches above a desk using only 5 sheets of white paper and about 2 meters of tape. We were given 20 minutes.
Red team made the only structure that worked. In fact, our tower held three textbooks without breaking. It only failed when we tried to put the projector box on as well.
This is a post just to to relieve my fingers from the itch to type. I don’t really have anything to say. That isn’t true. I do have stuff to say but it isn’t safe. There are internet literate people on campus and it wouldn’t be worth it.
Tomorrow is a half day. We then start our reading break. I am going to try something I have only tried once before. I failed last time. May there be a road.
Oh, I may just finish up the rafting trip video due to sheer boredom.
This was a sweet night. Three of us Explore guys made a mechanical bull for the Harvest Party on the 31st. We used slackline equipment and a barrel. Here is a photo of me:
I had the longest record for almost the whole night of 10 seconds. But then a former Explore student came and beat that with an impressive 15 seconds. No one else beat 6 seconds.
Ezra Chapter 1
Chapter 1 begins wit the Lord “stirring up the spirit” of the king of Persia, Cyrus. This is interesting because Cyrus was a heathen king of a heathen nation. So God has power over even those who do not regard Him. That God can do tis indicates that He has absolute power over all humans and human actions.
Thus brings up an interesting issue. If God does have the power to make people do stuff, and does have the power to stop people from doing things, then why doesn’t He always exercise this power? Are the times where He does step in times where man no longer has free will? I think of a situation where two people are playing chess. Suddenly God swoops down and invisibly moves some of the pieces around without the players realizing. Then the people continue playing almost as if nothing had happened. I say “almost” because obviously the game did change but the players don’t realize it.
To me it seems as if humans are puppets who have a mind of their own. God can at any time take over and control the scene or let the puppets run free.
When I look at the Old Testament, at least the parts I have read so far, I see God as being almost devious. Either that or He does not know and plan everything that is to come. If He knew what was going to happen, and had the power to change it (as we know He does) then why would He allow all the death and destruction that has occurred throughout history?
I guess I am saying that to know something is going to happen when you have the power to change or stop it is the same as planning the action.
Did God know mankind was going to sin?
God used the flood to cleanse the earth and start over, right? But it didn’t really work. The state of mankind after the flood was not really any better. So why did God even do it? It seems as if God failed in His attempt. If he knew that the Flood wasn’t going to work, why did He even bother? And why did He wait so long to send Jesus to the earth?
Actually this is not about last night. Last night was fun too, but maybe another time I will tell about that. This is about the train night.
So we got our bags, and then headed down to the bass pond to make a fire. This is one of those ponds formed when a river takes a shortcut and cuts off a meander. Oxbow lake is what they are called. We gather dead bushes as there isn’t much real firewood and build a fire. Joel got some nice photos of it. We sit there and talk around the fire and have a really nice time. This is when Jason has another idea.
“I wonder what would happen if I threw my lighter into the fire?” Joel and I enthusiastically encouraged him to do it. Finally he got over the fact that he would have to buy another lighter (college students are broke, remember) and tossed it in. We are backed up about 20 feet and waited. We waited more, and nothing seemed to be happening. Then everything happened. Jason’s lighter exploded and shot fireworks in a circle for about 15 feet. It was so cool to watch. Joel and I then decided to throw both our lighters in at the same time. My lighter was free, and really didn’t have much fluid left in it. Joel’s wasn’t new either. Still, the next two explosions were sweet. Joel even got a movie of it.
So, I am asking for donations for a new lighter. Maybe several of them. Thanks, you guys are great.
After that, we piled a ton of leaves on the fire and watched them blaze in glory. It was a sweet fire. Still the people didn’t come to the fire, which we all thought was odd. After the fire died down, we headed back up to make our camp inside a train car. We had seen one with the door half opened that looked like a perfect spot. When we got there, I shined my light inside and quickly scanned the entire car. It was clear. We climb in and make our bedding, get a few photos, carve our names in the side of the car, and then go to bed.
About two hours later. We are all awakened by a deafening noise and the violent shaking of the train car. We see lights scream by through the open doorway. The sounds of the other train just reverberated around the car. It was amazing. This happened three times throughout the night. We get up the next morning, pack up, and head back to camp. We are early for breakfast, which is my trademark.
This was probably the coolest night I have ever had. Rafting in the dark, sleeping in a train, being stalked by unseen people, incredible. The noises actually were probably just an animal. The voices we heard probably traveled across the river from camp. So there weren’t really any people over there besides us.
We got our Explore tshirts yesterday. They are pretty sweet. Sweeter than the Discover shirts.
