I send updates from school home every so often, and my mom forwards them to everyone on a list that I compiled before I left. That is what I'll be posting (so for some of you, this will be old news, but you can still comment on it!). If you have not been getting the updates and would like to, let me know and I will get you on the list. Here goes....

Feb. 1, 2006

Hello everyone!

Time for another update from room 3209 of Bradley tower on the Pensacola Christian College campus in Pensacola, Florida.  How are y'all?  You're doing well?  Glad to hear it!  ;)

Well, I had a wonderful Christmas break and saw SO many people.  It was so good to be back among my family, church family, and friends. 

On Friday, January 13, Kari and I flew out to North Carolina to visit the Brittingham's for a little over a week.  This visit was such a blessing, and I was able to grow even closer to the entire family.  God was moving.

On Sunday the 22, Kari flew back to CA while I flew to Pensacola.  My flight was delayed, and so I didn't get on campus till about 12:45 am....needless to say I slept in the next day.  :)  Registration was a breeze, praise the Lord, and I got all the classes I wanted, along with a wonderful schedule.  One of my roomates, Laura, has been moved to another room on our floor because they needed an APL (Assistant Prayer Leader) there.  So we miss her.  But it has been so good seeing all my friends from last semester. 

I've been getting lots of exercise recently....Rebecca and I started playing on my collegian's basketball team.....for some reason, people seem to think that if you're tall, that automatically makes you a good basketball player.  ahem...No.  Doesn't work that way.  ;)  But I'm learning. 

(I had never played an official game of basketball before I joined the team.....sure, I've played around on the court before, but never in an actual game...the same was true of a lot of the girls on the team, so we had a crash course in "Basketball 101" about thirty minutes before our first game....that should give you an idea of what was going on.  But we're improving!)

I also have a schedule where, much as I like my teachers and hours, I have to do a lot of rushing between classes.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a morning class on the fifth floor of the AC (Academic Center).....then I have just under ten minutes to get from my seat in history class to my chapel seat.  No big deal, right?  Right.  Between those two said seats are five flights of stairs, a walk (run?) form one side of campus to the other, then aproximately four stories worth of stairs from the lobby to the back of the Crowne Centre balcony.  I get enter the auditorium, then go down a 2 story flight of stairs to my seat in the third row of the balcony.  Getting out of my chapel seat and right back to the fifth floor of the AC for Spanish is a story entirely in itself....so I'll spare y'all.  ;)

Then I have to go to the fifth floor of the AC again later in the day for Child Growth and Development.  And guess what?  With all that running up and down countless flights of stairs, I do just fine.  However, I somehow managed to twist my ankle by merely stepping off a curb on my way to church today.  You'd think I'd know better....

I like all of my classes.  For my Spanish class I was able to get Mrs. Gwillim, who taught my Spanish class last semester.  She is an excellant teacher, and probably my favorite this semester.  :) 

February 2, 2006

Room 3209 is FREEZING.  As in Cold.  Not Hot.  Not even Warm.  But Freezing. 

My nose is running faster than a student who's late to class.

My throat feels like I've just come from cheering at an Eagle's basketball game.

Fortunately I only had two classes today, at first and second hour (eight and nine am) and chapel at ten.  Rebecca's been making sure I get enough rest and water and tea and blankets and Tender Loving Care.  :)

It also rained reeeeally hard this morning, with lots of thunder and lightning.  I am so thankful for the boots Grandma and Grandpa Appling bought me for Christmas (not to mention the wonderful jacket they bought me for my birthday), because now I go anywhere in the rain without my feet getting completely soaked! (that happened a lot last semester)  Now my feet stay warm and dry.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!  I love you both.  :) :) :) :)

I loved the teaching last night at the midweek service by Pastor Schettler....it was on belief in a six literal day creation.  *steps up on soapbox*  In short:

We believe that God made the world in six literal days because the Hebrew word used here in this passage for "day" literally means "one 24 hr period".  If God had meant that each "day" was millions and billions of years, there is another Hebrew term that He could have used just as easily.  God is not a God of confusion.  He wants us to understand His Word.  If He had meant millions of years, He would have used a term that would have communicated that to us.

Another place in the Bible where the same Hebrew word for "day" meaning "one 24 hour period" is used can be found in Exodus 20.  Verses 8-11 dictate the fourth commandment:  "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."  

Here, God is clearly comparing his 'work' in creating the world with the pattern after which He desires His people to live.  He set the example for us.  Why would God spend a few million or billion years creating the universe, then ask us to follow His example?  It would be impossible, beause we wouldn't even live through ONE million-year day, much less seven. 

One last thing.  Why do some try to say that it took God six "million-of-years days" to make the earth?  According to Scripture He is omnipotent; He could have done it with one thought, in the blink of an eye.  Why do some try to minimize His power?  Why do some believe that He came to earth, was born of a virgin, chose to confine His divine powers within the limitations of humanity, took the sins of the world upon Himself, died that horrible death on the cross of His own free will, and then bodily rose from the dead after lying dead in the tomb for three days, yet somehow can't bring themselves to believe that He is capable of creating the world in six days?  Something is inconsistant here. There is no reason in the world why we should believe that God made the world over a period of several billions of years except that we are compromising with the evolutional theory (notice the word "theory"--though according to standard scientific proceedure it should be a discarded theory since it goes directly against Newton's Second Law of Thermodynamics and there is far more evidence supporting the later than there is supporting the former....).

Some may ask, 'If God is capable of creating the world with one thought, why did He take six days to do it?"  Simply because, as Exodus 20:9-11 states, He was setting an example that we could follow.  Telling us to do all our work in the blink of an eye, then resting for a few millenia would be just as futile as telling us to work for several billion years before we could rest. 

*steps off soapbox*  Oh my, I didn't know I remembered so much of the message.  :)

February 3, 2006

About my different friends here (I'm sure some of you are curious about who I spend my time with):

Rachel--a sweet, sweet girl from Texas and Biology major.  She has curly light-brown hair which she always keeps pulled back in a ponytail, always has a big, warm hug ready for her friends, abosolutely loves reading, is very relaxed, and will talk to anyone who will listen.

Erica--she is a Commercial Writing major, and so of course loves to write and has a wonderful imagination....we get along quite well.  She's a very sweet girl; tall with long, beautiful red wavy hair.  We "just happen" to see each other a lot, and go to meals and Sunday School together.  She's from Washington, as in state. 

DJ (aka Dorothy Joy, but she prefers 'DJ')--she's in my prayer group, lives in the room next to mine, and is in my collegian (Alpha Theta Rho, aka the Rockets).  She's a Canadian Nursing major from Vancouver, British Columbia.  I spend a lot of time with her....we go to breakfast almost every morning, study together, go to church and Sunday School together with other people, walk to and from classes together, eat lunch together, go to the bookstore and look at all the beautiful stationary there that we can't buy because we're poor college students.  She's 5'3" (she just informed me of that today), has dark hair, and is part Filipino, part Hispanic, with a little Chinese.  Her outgoing personality is very unique, but she is very, very kind, sensitive, and considerate of others.  :)

Rebecca--my wonderful wonderful roomate who is an awesome companion in health, takes good care of me when I'm sick, and who I spend a lot of time with as well.  I think most of you have met her....we plan on requesting each other for roomates next year. 

And of course I spend time with my special friend Martin...he's doing well; he switched his major from Graphic Design to Broadcasting, which I think was a good decision.  We do things together like study, go to church, eat meals together.....he's taken me ice skating at the rink on campus a couple of times, and he never lets me pay.  :)  We're in three classes together--Bible, Speech lecture, and English lecture.  Our friendship is going well, trying to stay focused on the Lord.

Love you all!

~Veronica