College visit
I got back yesterday from taking Tim on a college visit. We were gone from Thursday very early in the morning until late afternoon yesterday.
My impressions of the college are favorable, although not overwhelmingly better than the local college. There are things I like about both, but it isn't my decision. Money will be a factor as well.
Impressions from the trip:
Goshen MCC sale had an elephant ride. The group of prospective students I was with had several who were very excited about riding an elephant and paid $7 to go in a tight circle twice, while being photographed by friends, and while squealing and laughing.
The MCC sale served very little ethnic German/Russian food, but did serve Mexican, Kenyan, Indian, and BBQ, as well as things like chocolate covered fruit kabobs, apple fritters and fruit smoothies. I ate Kenyan meat pies and a kind of bread flavored with cardamom, also from Kenya. Both were deep fried, which does go along with my at home feeling of an MCC sale. I also had a diet Pepsi. It was not from Kenya.
Airtran only serves Coke products, which meant no diet Pepsi or Dr. Pepper. I had to be content with Fresca, which tastes good but has no caffeine. When you haven't slept much, caffeine would be nice. The Atlanta airport had Starbucks, so I got some there.
By 10:30pm the day after only getting an hour of sleep the night before, your brain not only thinks slowly, it actually feels different. There is this sense that it's moving, accompanied by an inability to focus your eyes. That is the point where it is good to end the conversation, no matter how stimulating it is, and go to bed, and don't check email or facebook on the way.
When people offer themselves wholly to God, amazing things happen. They don't become perfect. They don't get all the answers, or even very many of the answers. But their willingness to share humbly both the ways they have stumbled and the questions they are asking inspires me. And inspires others. One woman shared in detail with me how as she prepared to be a speaker at a Women's conference, God told her to tell about a behavior she had struggled with that she was ashamed of. She had already overcome this behavior by becoming accountable to other Christians, but was not interested in sharing it widely to a large group of women she'd never met. She decided to follow that leading, even though it meant not sleeping or being able to eat because she was so afraid of what they would think of her. That step of becoming vulnerable to those women freed them to be able to confess the behaviors that they struggled with. They were able to stop hiding and to resolve to be accountable. Family members of those women contacted her in the following weeks thanking her for whatever it was she had said in that meeting because it had changed lives.
I haven't spent a lot of time hanging out with Tim when he is with his peer group. This weekend was probably the most time I've ever spent around Tim while he is with people his own age. I tried to give him space even though we were often in the same place or at the same events. There were times when I thought I might be crowding him, but mostly I was impressed at how often he included me in conversations. It felt good.
The kids sometimes would be sitting around tables waiting for the next activity. One would absentmindedly start tapping a pencil, and then another would tap a counter rhythm until most of them were focused, smiling, and tapping or stomping or slapping their legs or clapping.
My impressions of the college are favorable, although not overwhelmingly better than the local college. There are things I like about both, but it isn't my decision. Money will be a factor as well.
Impressions from the trip:
Goshen MCC sale had an elephant ride. The group of prospective students I was with had several who were very excited about riding an elephant and paid $7 to go in a tight circle twice, while being photographed by friends, and while squealing and laughing.
The MCC sale served very little ethnic German/Russian food, but did serve Mexican, Kenyan, Indian, and BBQ, as well as things like chocolate covered fruit kabobs, apple fritters and fruit smoothies. I ate Kenyan meat pies and a kind of bread flavored with cardamom, also from Kenya. Both were deep fried, which does go along with my at home feeling of an MCC sale. I also had a diet Pepsi. It was not from Kenya.
Airtran only serves Coke products, which meant no diet Pepsi or Dr. Pepper. I had to be content with Fresca, which tastes good but has no caffeine. When you haven't slept much, caffeine would be nice. The Atlanta airport had Starbucks, so I got some there.
By 10:30pm the day after only getting an hour of sleep the night before, your brain not only thinks slowly, it actually feels different. There is this sense that it's moving, accompanied by an inability to focus your eyes. That is the point where it is good to end the conversation, no matter how stimulating it is, and go to bed, and don't check email or facebook on the way.
When people offer themselves wholly to God, amazing things happen. They don't become perfect. They don't get all the answers, or even very many of the answers. But their willingness to share humbly both the ways they have stumbled and the questions they are asking inspires me. And inspires others. One woman shared in detail with me how as she prepared to be a speaker at a Women's conference, God told her to tell about a behavior she had struggled with that she was ashamed of. She had already overcome this behavior by becoming accountable to other Christians, but was not interested in sharing it widely to a large group of women she'd never met. She decided to follow that leading, even though it meant not sleeping or being able to eat because she was so afraid of what they would think of her. That step of becoming vulnerable to those women freed them to be able to confess the behaviors that they struggled with. They were able to stop hiding and to resolve to be accountable. Family members of those women contacted her in the following weeks thanking her for whatever it was she had said in that meeting because it had changed lives.
I haven't spent a lot of time hanging out with Tim when he is with his peer group. This weekend was probably the most time I've ever spent around Tim while he is with people his own age. I tried to give him space even though we were often in the same place or at the same events. There were times when I thought I might be crowding him, but mostly I was impressed at how often he included me in conversations. It felt good.
The kids sometimes would be sitting around tables waiting for the next activity. One would absentmindedly start tapping a pencil, and then another would tap a counter rhythm until most of them were focused, smiling, and tapping or stomping or slapping their legs or clapping.
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