I'm finally back. These past few days have been crazy busy. I am hoping to rest up tomorrow before it starts all over again. So, the first week of class was really awesome. Class is about 3 hours long, but it flies by. Dr. Leland incorporates a lot of video, music, and stories into his lectures. He also forces us to talk during class, which I am thankful for...well most of the time. Friday's lecture was really intense. He asked us three questions 1) Why be a Christian 2) How do you know that God exists? and 3) How do you know the Bible is actually true? ...you know, just a couple of small, practical questions...ha! Mind you, they were not rhetorical questions. He definitely wanted us to respond played the role of an unbelieving skeptic. The discussion went a little something like this:

Leland: How do you know that God exists?

Student:Because of general revelation (he reveals himself through the natural order of the universe). You can't look at the universe or even tiny electrons without recognizing that there must have been Designer.

L: How can you assume that? I believe in natural order, but how do you really know that Someone designed it?

S: Well, through specific revelation (God told us so in the Bible).

L: Well, how do you really know that the Bible is true?

S: Because God doesn't lie

L: How do you know that the people that wrote it didn't lie?

S: uh....

With enough time, I'm sure most of us could research these answers and respond.  But as he asked these questions in class, I kept thinking "uhh... that is a really good question. I hope he doesn't ask me to answer him."  These questions aren't anything out of the ordinary. Until Friday, I had never been in a situation where I was forced to give a reason for these beliefs I revolve my life around. I felt pretty ashamed to be honest. The Bible tells us to be prepared to give an answer to people who ask what we believe...and most of the time they don't want a "Bible" answer. If what we believe is really true, then we should also be able to give them an answer that uses logic, reasoning, and science. Unfortunately, he did not give us all of the answers to these questions by the end of class. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, he will let us in on the answers to these hard questions. But, I wouldn't be surprised if he made us figure a lot of them out on our own, though. 

On a more lighthearted note, we went on a night hike on Thursday. The staff has scheduled several of them throughout the semester. All of the pictures are from that night. Sorry about the weird spacing..

Today, we went white water rapid rafting. Sweet wetsuits were involved and it was super cold. Also, really fun! I am so ready for some rest tomorrow. 

Lastly, it is official: June 19, 2010 is the big day!! The ceremony and venue sites have deposits on them. Such a relief! More details to come:)