So I was thinking..

Profit & Faith?

2011-11-18T19:18:00.001-05:00

What does it mean to work for a business that exists to be profitable AND is owned by persons who claim Christianity?

A missionary of several decades calls a local business to get information on having some products shipped to him across the country (as he is back in the USA for a bit). Shipping products across the country is expensive for customers and is very profitable for the company. After speaking with the customer service personnel who loves Jesus too the missionary learns some about the employee and prays for the employee during their conversation. This phone call comes to a close with the employee having the information he needs to look into the next step of shipping for the customer. Excited about this phone call the employee shares it with a coworker or two. It is obvious that the phone call encouraged, and fueled the fire in the employee's vigor for Christ. The employee proceeds to relay the phone call that enlightened him to his employer who responds with a quote about like this "Just make sure you charge him a lot, I don't see a red cross on your back."

True Story.

Will you Marry Me?

2011-01-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Time: 3:00pm

Today was the Detweiler (Nathaniel's mother's) side of the family Christmas, and Nathaniel's immediate side of the family Christmas. Sharon had a few presents she needed to wrap and asked that Anna, Nathaniel, and I disappear. I was going to play piano where I was out of the room and thus out of sight of Sharon's work when Nathaniel asked if I would like to go for a walk. At this I was quite surprised because it is usally me asking if he would like to go on a walk and often being declined.

I responded with a "Really?" and after him confirming quickly got up to get on shoes, my coat, and mittens to keep warm before he could change his mind.

We walked down his parent's drive and up a tractor path towards a woods. We had not gotten any lasting snow yet, but there was plenty of iced puddles to jump onto and crush. I even managed to scrape up enough snow to attempt the first snowball throw of the year; I stress the repeat because as soon as the flakes left my mitten the loosened into a snow dust cloud.

Upon reaching the edge of the woods we discovered a smooth 12' frozen puddle which provided us with a perfect place to skate around on our shoes and enjoy the outdoors. After I plummeting to the ground after a miscalculated slide I quickly got up and ran down the path a bit more and hid behind a sapling to prove to Nathaniel that I was just fine. Playing along Nathaniel pretended to search hard for me before approaching my simple hiding place and catching me in a hug before I could escape.

Nathaniel proceeded to tell me that I was going to be mad at him and after my inquary as to why in the world I would be he went on to explain that he had purchased a gift for me even though he and I had agreed to spend a day in Lancaster together instead of buying gifts for one another. After genuinely reassuring him that I was not going to loath him for doing something kind and thoughtful I began to turn toward back up the path towards his house where I presumed the gift was in order to assure him that I was ready to go retrieve the gift from the house and show him my joy in place of where he seemed to think I'd show frustration. Nathaniel stopped me and asked where I was going. I passed him a confused look and replied that I wanted to go and get the the gift at the house. When he told me he had the gift with him I smiled, enjoying every moment of this adventure.

I did not expect his next step to be down on one knee, nor for his hands to hold up the beautiful ring he had picked out himself just for me. "Will you marry me?" He asked with a smile on his handsome face. Astonished and surprised I replied "NO WAY! YES!" as we burst with smiles, laughter, and pure joy.

Filled with excitement and thankfulness to God for one-another, we heading back to his parents house laughing and talking ready to share our joy with those inside.

Oui, I agree with the Frenchman

2010-12-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

"He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself."
~French Essayist Michel de Montaigne

Thank you Michel de Montaigne

Always learning

2010-09-16T16:53:00.000-04:00

Why hello,
I suppose it is time for an update. As of Friday last week I am now employed at a local food distribution warehouse. My position is called customer service; it is a mixture of receptionist/secretary. I am at the front window and call to the warehouse for orders and such when customers come. I also take orders, update prices, do shortage reports, prep special orders, and other receptionist secretary type things. I really do enjoy it so far and have learned a bunch about how to use the computer system there, which by the way is going to updated into a new computer system sometime in the near future so I will have to learn how to run the computer all over again. :) I do not think the switch over will be too rough, I actually am assuming that it will help everything work even better.

My parents came out to visit labor day weekend which was awesome! I got to show them around where I live and all of Nathaniel's grandparents got to meet them. It was great hanging out with them, taking them to church, and just chit-chatting. The 4 days together went by too quickly.

At the end of the month I am getting a roommate/basement-mate from Ohio. She is moving here for much of the same reason I did, which is uber cool! While I do not know her, she is from the camp area where I spent 2 summers working and many summers as a camper. It'll be fun to make a new friend.

An update especially for The Amazing Danae King

2010-06-27T12:36:00.001-04:00

This goes out to Danae King's request that I keep my blog updated. Sorry, I'm not as good at keeping it up like you.

I've been at my new place for about a month now and am truly enjoying the southeastern part of Pennsylvania! My living arrangements are amazing and I enjoy hearing the footsteps and cheers of the kids upstairs. A few weeks ago I awoke to the sound of my electric piano playing and opened my door to find one of the boys who had snuck downstairs playing a "melody" on the piano. A different day I came home late in the evening to find my bag of runts on the back of the toilet...not the most ideal place, but I sure did get a good laugh.

I'm spending my working time at R & J Farm Market where I weed, pick tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, earlier in the season strawberrys, plant fields of pumpkins (with this awesome contraption that is pulled by a tractor, I wouldn't be able to explain it if i tried, but basically I sit on this thing as we go up and down the rows). I'm also in the store at times or out at the wagon. My farmers tan is looking great and rarely do I leave work without a several great laughs.

My next door neighbors have a pool that I am free to use whenever I wish, that has been a great way to cool off after a day in the sun. I also have discovered how wonderful and relaxing swim by oneself can be!

The Martin's have me over for dinner almost every evening so I get wonderful food and many laughs with them! After dinner Nathaniel and I hang out, play games, read, and have oodles of hysterically fun times.

Thursday Nathaniel took me to my first MLB game! This was so much fun and I am super excited to go to more games! Of course it was a Phillies game which made it really exciting to see the players that I've watched on TV for the last season and a half in real life. The game was at home VS Cincinnati and was a 1:00 game. It was uber hot with very few clouds to cool us off. Well, up until the 8th inning that was true. At the 8th inning a big storm cloud billowed in and we were all told to take cover under the stands. Everyone became a little more than damp because of the wind blowing the rain. We even witnessed a tent being blown down to our level from a deck up. Looking out across Citizens Bank Park we could not even see the other side, instead while billows of rain blew all around while the grounds crew stood on the field trying to keep it as covered as possible. When the rain died down a bit we left since the game was already 12:2 we knew it as a win and it was safe to leave even. After a 1.5 hour delay the game was started up again and we listened to the rest on the car radio while wrestling with Philadelphia traffic.

Nathaniel, his family, and most of the young adults from church have headed to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for a week to help with repairs and such around camp. The few of us who remain are having a great time getting together even if so many of our ranks are missing.

Danae King is amazing and I hope that this update exceeds her expectations. Missing Camp Luz and hoping all is shaken up and on fire for God.

~Brooke

Graduation and moving

2010-06-08T14:12:00.002-04:00

Graduation was May 9. My parents, Nathaniel, and Nicole all came for my graduation. It was a good time seeing them and spending a few more nights with my Hesston friends. Strange to think that my late night Drubers and Newels runs are finished and that my friends are no longer at the college we all met at and reeked havoc on with our movie marathons, weekend trip to lake Wilson, and roof climbing, and numerous other adventures.

On the way back from Kansas we stopped in Iowa for a day to see family. It was wonderful to spend some time with them laughing and carrying on like we always do. Shannon has had her baby since then so now Scotty and her have a young baby girl named Nicole Lilly to care for. I wonder when I will get to meet her?

I spent a few weeks at home and then moved out here to Telford, PA. I enjoy that I am within walking distance from church and am hoping for many good weathered Sunday mornings so that I will indeed partake in a walk. I'm living in the basement of a family from church and babysitting once a week for them. While I haven't gotten to babysit just yet, I am quite excited to get started. There are three children 2 boys Bryce, Brandt, and one girl names Brooklyn (of whose name I must say is quite wonderful).

For the summer I'm working at a produce farm in the store, the wagon, and picking. My employers are great people to work for and I often wont go home without a nice laugh or two.

Nathaniel and I are both happy to no longer be living 1,188 miles apart. Being able to see each other and spend time together each day has been well enjoyed by both of us. He has another church softball game this evening that I am looking forward to watching, maybe one of these games it'll be cold enough for me to take my snuggy he got me as a gag gift at Christmas.

I really ought to stop procrastinating from cleaning up my place,besides not much else to say right now. I'm just glad to be moved out here and am working on adjusting to new surroundings and roads.

Oregon

2010-03-27T00:36:00.001-04:00

Bel Canto arrived back on campus late last evening (March 1) after our tour in Oregon. That state is B-E-A-utiful! Right now the trees are blossoming revealing there breathtaking light pinks and whites, the grass is a vibrant green, the mountains were snowy, and the Pacific was obviously right there too!

We left Wednesday evening performed three 2-a-day concerts and took Saturday off to sightsee along the coast and eat a Mo's (a famous restaurant out there with yummy seafood). Getting to sing in all of these different churches/schools was an awesome experience. Tiring, yet quite rewarding.

My hosts were great! The first night we arrived at our hotel around 12 (3am back at college) and being tired from all the flying were eager for beds. The man inside took 10 minutes to come to the door and another 20 minutes to hand out the keys that were ready for us. The 8:00 meeting that Thurday morning came too early for us all. The rest of the evenings we were with hosts.

Tuesday March 23 was Hesston's music department concert. This marked the end of Bel as it is time for European Chorale to meet. Since I am not going to Europe this summer, I am done. Well, mostly done, Monday and Tueday we will have our last 2 recording sessions for our CD and somtime in April Bel will go to Bethel College for perform for one of their Chapels. I miss meeting everyday and singing with this group, it has been an awesome experience, and being able to hear my own voices growth throughout this semester has been a wonderfully encouraging thing for me.

Amen [Let it Be So]

2010-01-24T22:51:00.000-05:00

My Lord my Savior my God

Save me from my ways

Convict me when I need convicted

Let me know what it means to know You

Let me follow in your footsteps

Keep me from straying

Teach me your ways

Save me from my numbness

Convict me with the Holy Spirit

Frustrate me until I change

For you are the only thing that should matter

Why do I doubt You?

Why do I not continuously praise You

Let me change

Let me live in your way

May my actions reflect You and only You

May people see You when they see me and not evil within me

May perverse things not come out of me

May Your Glory be revealed in my every step

Where would I be without you

I’ve had glimpses of that way and God I don’t want that

Charge me anew

Let me glorify you

May I not become so comfortable with my falseness that I accept my perverse ways as how I am designed to be

God afflict me until I understand

Frustrate me until I grasp my mistakes

Charge me until I meet Your request

Challenge me to uphold Your truth

Surround me with accountability even when it hurts

Lord show me You

Hesston Mennonite Sermons

2010-01-23T22:30:00.000-05:00

Back in December the campus pastor here asked me if I was interested in helping with some sermons at Hesston Mennonite after Christmas up to Lent. I agreed and my what a time it has been; we are studying Genesis. 5 of us (the lead pastor, 2 church members, and 2 Hesston College Students) are helping with this and are having such engaging conversation and study. 2-3 people meet each week discuss ask questions and meet again Sunday morning with a final rough outline for the sermon. The congregation has been responding each week with e-mails and verbal questions and comments about our discussions. We are not pretending to have the answers to everything, but our discussions seem to be prompting discussion within the congregation. Tomorrow I will be helping with the fall story, from our discussions we have to much to continue asking and discussing, it'll be interesting and exciting to see where we go and what makes it into the outline and out to the congregation.

Soprano Surprise

2009-12-14T11:45:00.001-05:00

I made Bel Canto! For those of you who do not know what Bel is I should say that it is the choir at Hesston that one has to audition to get into.

It happened pretty quickly; Thursday night I checked my e-mail around midnight and read an e-mail that said there was going to be 1 or 2 openings in Bel this coming semester and that auditions were Friday between 11:30 and 12. I figured I did not have much to lose auditioned. Around 4:20 that day 10 minutes before I was leaving for work Anna congratulated me. I asked her for what and she said that I made Bel and should check my e-mail.

This is a big deal for me because I have never really thought that I had a singing voice. I had a good friend tell me when I was young that I could not sing. College here in Hesston is that first time that I sang in a chorale. I am happily surprised that I made it into this 20 member group that one has to audition for!

This opportunity is exciting and I am very much looking forward to my time in the group.

Thanksgiving weekend at Hesston

2009-12-14T11:44:00.002-05:00

I am grateful that I was able to see both Nathaniel and my parents during this weekend. Nathaniel drove out here which is 25 hour drive when 3 hours are added for sleeping time. He got here Tuesday evening while I was at work. My parents arrived Thursday afternoon they had gone to see Caleb and the other Gugel's in Iowa before they came down.

As seems to be a pattern we played lots of Apple's to Apples. Bill sent out some of his smoked pork with Nathaniel and we enjoyed that with the cookies sent out for me with my parents. The 4 of us went to see my cousin Mark on Friday in Hutch, we went out to Chili's and then back to the VS house he lives to continue talking and catching up for a while. After the fun there we headed to see "The Blind Side" which was a great movie that all four of us enjoyed.

Now I am turning back to my school work for 2 more weeks, a few days of exams, and then Christmas break!

the lie of fairytales

2009-12-14T11:43:00.005-05:00

I just read my Bluffton roommates facebook status, and this is what she had to say.

"All the fairytales tell a lie; they say that everything has to happen perfectly to get us to our happy ending."

Thank you Rachel, I think it is worth pondering

Silent Retreat

2009-10-29T14:20:00.001-04:00

As a wonderful story from my experience at a Silent Retreat:

I went on a silent retreat this past Saturday for my class Faith and Discipleship. I spent the morning focusing on just being in to moment,praying for others, and for organizations/conflicts around me. After lunch I decided to walk the trails; it was during this time that I prayed about my future. I talked with God about how I felt that I was seeking and he was not responding and that i did not understand. I was lead to re-ask myself what God wants me/Christ-followers to do.

I had just read Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne over fall break. While reading the book I was pleased to find that what Shane talks about is what is inside of me that I lacked the vocabulary to vocalize.

Thinking of that book, Jesus' example, and my own believes I realized that simple radical truth: God desires for me (for Christ-followers) to love (radically love, something so many Christian's do not do). God wants me to love a love that gets not just my hands dirty, but my life dirty. If we love someone then we get involved in their lives and help them (which can "mess up" our own comfortable lives). God reminded (okay, had to reveal to the silly narrow minded me) that I do not need an organization to do live out the Radical Love that Jesus lived out.

I felt once again re-affirmed in my plans to move to Pennsylvania. I do not know if i will end up with an organization or not, God may in fact lead me to an organization; however, I am very open to the possibility of being a full time lover without an organization. I could very well work at a "regular" job (like transfer to an applebee's out there) and love.

This may sounds silly; however, to me it helped me move from just having the internal understanding of love to grasping the radical external lifestyle of real love.

My Thoughts on the book: Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

2009-10-27T17:50:00.002-04:00

Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne was written to push people to live a life the reflected Jesus’ life of living with and amongst the poor and outcasts. Irresistible revolution does just this when Shane Claiborne destroys the comfortable Christianity that the American church created and un-remodels Christian living taking it back to its simple and true form of love. Jesus calls us to love and to love those around us; Shane Claiborne wonders how people can follow Jesus from the comfort of their middle and upper-class lives while letting the poor go hungry on the streets. Jesus, Shane Claiborne points out, does not want his disciples to be so detached from the homeless on the streets that they send them a monetary donation everyone once in a while to ease their conscience. If disciples of God are to follow Jesus’ life and teachings then they had better do just what Jesus did; build relationships with those on the fringes of society. How can a Christian say that they love someone if that Christian has no relationship or connection to that someone?

In Irresistible Revolution Shane Claiborne mentions that wealthy people ask him what they can do to help, usually meaning “where can we send the money?” In response Shane Claiborne often replies that they can come down to The Simple Way, where he lives, and spend some time building relationships with the kids and families on the block. The challenge is that if everyone who claimed to follow Jesus would really follow Jesus and get the know those around them who are in need the needs would be able to be met and people would cease to be marginalized.

At one point Shane Claiborne and a friend wanted to contact Mother Theresa to see if they could join her in India. After many tries they got her number; he asked if they could come and told her when and how long they wanted to be there for. Mother Theresa told them to come on out; when Shane Claiborne began to ask about the travel details and where they would stay Mother Theresa told him that if he wanted to come and serve God’s people then he should just come and let God take care of the details. That is the kind of lifestyle Christ-followers all are suppose to live; people are suppose to love God’s people even the details clear. Following God gets dirty; when people start to really love those around them they get involved in their situations and suddenly the easy life has intertwined with their friend’s reality. The clean cut separation between another’s problems and their own life becomes fuzzy as they work more and more to help their friends. This is what Jesus did, Shane reminds us; Jesus spent his time with tax collectors, prostitutes, and outcasts showing them God by loving them. Jesus got involved in their lives blurring the social boundaries that existed.

My understanding of God’s desire for us to love was driven home during the silent retreat I attended on Saturday. During the nine hours of silence I spent some time praying about my life after graduation in May. I have been searching out youth organizations in South Eastern Pennsylvania to get involved with and have not been having the best of luck finding them. I asked God what He really wanted me to do and re-asked what I was essentially called to do; it was then that I remembered Shane Claiborne’s book and how I when I had read the book I felt like he was putting into words the truths I did not know how to vocalize. I remembered that God wants me to love, racially love, first and foremost. I do not need an organization to love God; I can radically love God by honestly loving those around me wherever I go.

Fall Break

2009-10-23T12:18:00.008-04:00

Fall break was wonderful and as expect went by much too quickly for my liking. The flights went well and I was occupied reading Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Since Shane lives in Philadelphia the book included many organizations and such in the area. This offered me encouragement as I feel that I am exhausting all of the routes and connections I have to the area. Who knows; I am trusting God and seeking with him.

Nathaniel and I watched the Phillies games with his cousins and I must say I am hooked! When i was back on campus Wednesday I was sad that I was not going to be able to watch the game that night; then Marlene whom I babysit for on Thursdays and I started talking in the cafeteria (where she works) and she invited me to watch the game there! I am psyched for the World Series!

Bill smoked some ribs and pulled pork while I was there so that I could see that his was the best He wanted to prove to me that CityQ's bbq could not compare; he was correct. Originally he was going to smoke for the community fesitval; however, the weather canceled that event so he smoked just for me. Bill made sure that everyone knew that they had to thank me for the smoked pulled pork by saying that if I had not been there he would not have made any. (Which would have been sad, it was a great addition to the Sunday evening Phillies game with the franconia young adults).

On Monday I met with the Franconia Conference Youth Pastor Marlene. She gave me tour of the C-Dock School grounds and we talked about what I might like to do in her area after graduation. It was enjoyable to see the grounds and nice to put a face with the name. She did not have any specific ideas for me, but gave me some things she'd thought of and told me that she would keep me in mind.

Nathaniel took me out putt-putting (or mini-golfing as they do not call it putt-putt) and then to dinner Monday. He is amazing, we were both had more fun than most people could have put-putting. After he won the game (which was no surprise, he'd beaten me bowling both times we went out with his friends that weekend; he did give me some tips to improve me game), we went to eat some tasty, tasty food. After we were both stuffed, we went back to his house put on some Phillies gear and went to watch the game!

I had an amazing fall break, which as expected went by too quickly. Before I knew it Nathaniel's mom was driving me back to the airport and I was coming back to college, still I am grateful for the time Nathaniel and I were able to spend together.

Busy and looking forward to fall break!

2009-10-11T20:07:00.003-04:00

Since I'm so busy reading these books for classes I do not really have the spare time I used to for the luxury of blogging. Even right now as I am sitting here I am thinking about things I should do as an RA in preparation for our pick-a-date mod meeting tonight; I need to drop the hot-coco, apples to apples, and the other games off at my mod parents so they they are there when people return with their desserts from out Dessert search (4 people, 2 date sets, are going out with a limit of $10 and 1 hour to see which group can come back with the best dessert and then well play games).

This past week I cross-trained at Applebee's from a hostess to a server. I did a little math in my head on my way back to Hesston on Saturday after getting off my shift and realized that I worked over 40 hours at Applebee's this week. I am quite glad that I do not work a full time job with my 17 (plus my auditing of chorale which makes it 18) credit hours; i'd never have a moment to spare between homework, applebee's, and my other responsibilities as an RA. No worries, I'll be back to a normal part-time position at Applebee's now that my training is done. Applebee's is getting new menus on the 19th, which ought to be fun to try to implement so soon after my training. Although, I am looking forward to several of the new items; I just hope that it does not completely confuse me since I am so new to this position and will never get to be a server with the menu i trained under.

On an extremely happy note that I happened during Hesston's Centennial celebration weekend the last weekend in September. My parent's came out for their 30 year class reunion and when I was heading outside to greet them I saw a third person walking beside them, whom I first thought was a random person who just happened to be on the sidewalk, but suddenly realized was Nathaniel! This was the most wonderful surprise I could ask for; Nathaniel's home is 24 hours from Hesston. He had contacted my parents and set it up so that he would drive to Ohio and then car-pool out here with them. I was completely ecstatic! It was dinner time and where I was meeting my parents was just outside the cafeteria, so everyone eating got to see Nathaniel surprise me. I had quite a few people on campus tell me they quite enjoyed watching us, especially the girls in my mod with whom 5 minutes prior I had a conversation with about how long it would be until I got to see him. The weekend flew by (with not much sleep), and while I was gone to a chorale rehearsal my parent's and their college friends Brian and Judy TP'd my room and short-sheeted my bed. I love them, who can say that they were pranked by their parents and their parents college friends? Also, Penn State and Iowa played that weekend; as I am sure most of you know Iowa won! Even though I had to miss 3/4 of the game because of music gala the chorale sang in, I enjoyed having Nathaniel around so that I could tease him a bit.

The weekend went by too quickly and soon my parents and Nathaniel were heading to Iowa Poor Nathaniel had to meet my brother and most of the Gugel's without me. He survived, I think they went easy on him. I will say though, that saying goodbye this time was much easier than it'd been in May and then in August when we knew we wouldn't see each other for several months because it was only 3 weeks between then and fall break. Now fall break is only 3 days away! Wednesday after classes I am flying to the Philadelphia airport where Nathaniel will pick me up; I am very much looking forward to a break from classes and a week with Nathaniel and his family.

My Thoughts on the Book: Hurt by Chap Clark

2009-09-08T17:29:00.002-04:00

Chap Clark shares his observations from submerging himself in the youth culture and talking to youth. To sum it up the book tells how society is forcing youth to create their own culture or "the world beneath" because culture separates them from the adults abandoning then and forcing them to create their own rules for survival. The result is a lack of trust between the youth and the adults because adults do not seem to take the time to really care about the youth.

There are chapters dealing with different areas in "the world beneath" including peers, school, family, sports, sex, busyness and stress, ethics and morality, and the party scene. Each chapter Chap Clark shares about what students told him and what he was able to observe during his research.

Good book to enlighten adults about youth culture

Hesston round 2

2009-08-16T22:48:00.003-04:00

Well, summer's practiacally over. I'm out in Kansas again doing RA training before classes start. It is nice to be settled into a room that I know will be mine for the next 9 months.

I got to be home this year for my birthday! This hasn't happened since I was 15 so it was wonderful. I had a tractor cake that was Hawkeye colored; it was pretty much amazing. Also my parents, Jessica and Jeremy, and my grandma were all there; basically I got to be around my amazing family just like old times ('sept my brothers).

I got home August 1 and stayed there for 11 days chilling with my parents, having a bonfire, hanging with Ohio friends, and staining the deck. Great times.

I really am glad that i was able to spend this summer living in Iowa. Volunteering at Elements was a great experience as was watching all the children during the week. I'm going to miss the kids as I know that I will most likely not make it to Iowa near as much as I used to growing up.
Lisa told me that Tray was asking when I was going to watch them again; oh the innocence of 3 year olds. It made me smile and yet be sad all at the same time.

my thoughts on the book: Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli

2009-06-27T15:03:00.004-04:00

Messy Spirituality

by: Michael Yaconelli

After reading this book for the 2nd time this summer I think I'm ready to write something about it. I needed to read it again to remind myself of some things. It seems that too often the church has boiled spirituality growth down to a recipe and if you follow the recipe you will get delicious spiritual growth...one problem with that theory; God us not an oven and is not limited to a recipe. So often it seems people claim that those who believe in God never have doubts or struggle; that their spiritual growth is a steady incline. Messy Spirituality reminds us that Spirituality is so much more complicated than an escalator going up. Spirituality has periods of "resting, listening, waiting, starting, returning, savoring, celebrating, dancing, learning, [and] growing" (pg 130). These times make the "graph" of our spiritual life's filled with highs, low, and a steady line that neither goes up nor down. Michael Yaconelli writes about some of the most spiritual people he knows not fitting the norm of what the church calls spiritual; their lives are messy, just like mine, some people use "colorful language", some deal with alcoholism, and some have had divorces that have made the church reject them. Messy Spirituality reminds us that we do not have to have it all together to be acceptable to God; God uses those of us with messy lives to do his work just the same. I do recommend this book to those looking to be reminded that they do not have to have look like the recipe perfect christian with their lives all together to be loved by God or spiritual.

My thoughts on the book: A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee

2009-06-24T20:44:00.005-04:00

A New Kinds of Youth Ministry

by: Chris Folmsbee

I do recommend this book to those searching for a way to direct youth ministry towards something that seems to reach students. Instead of the traditional "make a lot of events that attract youth and hope they apply the theology to their lives" discipleship Chris Folmsbee encourages a ministry that guides youth into a relationship where they live their daily lives (not just Church days) as disciples of Christ. A New Kind of Youth Ministry acknowledges that change is not easy and that many people in the church like the traditional event based youth ministry model because it is easy to see the results (X number of kids showed up etc) even if those results do not reveal the true health of the youth's spiritual life. Chris Folmsbee encourages those in youth ministry to "reculture" their way of "doing" youth ministry so that the youth do not "graduate from Christ when they graduate from school." Instead let them graduate with a spiritual life they are already practicing and living out. A New Kind of Youth Ministry is a great read that has challenged me to pursue a youth ministry that walks with the youth engaging them and challenging them to live out Christ now and not being afraid of making mistakes along the way. Chris Folmsbee urges and guides those in youth ministry to have a plan for change, engage their volunteers, and have mentors to help and guide them along the way. The book is clear with examples and models to help those in youth ministry apply the concepts introduced into their own youth ministry. The book makes enables to reader to apply what he/she reads because the "how to" is reachable.

It has certainly encouraged me to pray, talk to mentors, and think about what God may have in store for me after I graduate from College next May. I feel less overwhelmed with possibilities (and sometimes the feeling of there not really being any options) and more directed. Certain areas of youth ministry have always stuck out to me and I have often felt helpless in knowing how to get from point A (college) to point B (a place I can best serve God and others). The book challenges those in youth ministry to make a plan of change (because without a plan it is likely no change will happen), and because the "how tos" are included I could apply these plans of change to my discerning, pulling out, and narrowing down where I can best serve God and others after graduation.

My thougths on the book: Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields

2009-06-24T18:36:00.005-04:00

Your First two Years in Youth Ministry: A personal and Practical guide to starting Right

by Doug Fields

This book provides helpful input for youth ministers who are looking for advice in specific areas. Each chapter focuses on helping the Youth Minister deal with or develop certain areas of his/her ministry. While I am sure this book would come in handy if I was stressed, discouraged, or seeking to better a certain area of my ministry reading it for a college class made the advice sound good but I had no forum to put the advice to use. I can see myself keeping this book on my shelf as a handbook for dealing with the areas it addresses (Listed in my words below), but I cannot see myself reading through the book as a whole again. Like a manual, generally I look at a manual when I need assistance in a certain area or wish to know how to do certain things differently. I rarely read a manual all the way through; instead I open up to the chapter that best suits my needs. I believe that if this book is used in a similar way one may find encouragement/assistance/ideas that he/she can adapt to his/her ministry.

Chapter 1: discovering my role at the beginning
Chapter 2: Discouragement
Chapter 3: Keeping myself Spiritually Healthy
Chapter 4: Students like relationship most
Chapter 5: Working with parents
Chapter 6: Difficult people
Chapter 7: advice for working with/finding leaders
Chapter 8: Help from team leaders
Chapter 9: student leaders
Chapter 10: evaluating programs
Chapter 11: making changes
Chapter 12:job descriptions

An Iowan for the summer!

2009-06-12T21:47:00.003-04:00

Welcome to Iowa! So for those of you who missed the boat I am living in Iowa this summer with my uncles Duane, aunt Karen, and cousin Aleigha! On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I babysit my cousin Jeremy's 3 children and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I babysit my cousin Natasha's 3 children. Once I week I volunteer at the youth center "Elements" in town. It is great!

I'm here until August 1st. I will head home then and be home for my whole birthday for the first time since I turned 15! I am excited and will enjoy spending 2 weeks at home before I head back out to Hesston for my last year of college.

I've come to realize that I do not know how regularly I will be able to get to Iowa after I graduate nest year. Growing up we came out 2 weeks a year or more and I know that after I graduate and continue on I may not be able to come out here near as often. Which is so sad, all my vacations growing up were here with my Gugel family. I am grateful for the chance to spend this summer here with my family.

Wednesday night I went out for a motorcycle ride with my cousin Shannon, her husband, and their friend. After cruising around for several hours we headed back. It was probably around 11pm when a deer ran out in front of Scotty and Shannon's bike. They hit the young buck and crashed. We were following them on our bike and stopped. Thankfully they are okay. Scotty fractured at least 1 rib and broke a finger, both Shannon and Scotty have plenty of road rash. They were wearing helmets, Scotty had a leather jacket on and Shannon was wearing four shirts. The accident could have been so much worse, the ditch was deep, it could have happened when they were alone, we could have collided into them with out motorcycle if we'd been to close, the bike could flipped. Thank you God.

There once was a car

2009-05-07T21:41:00.002-04:00

So my car is at it again. My car broke down on my way back from Hesston on Sunday. Hershy, Nathaniel, and I had gotten to Kansas City and had to detour onto 435 because of construction on 35. Then my car was smelling a bit funny so ipulled into a parking lot to check it out. I thought perhaps it needed more oil (it had been leaking some). Well, it died. I man stopped, showed us where a parts store was, and jumped the car. We made it a mile from the store and my car died again. By this time Amanda, a girl from college who was heading to Iowa and not far behind us on the road, had stopped and her and her family were trying to help. We couldn't jump the car, and ended up having to have it towed.

So close to having the engine diagnosed for free at the parts palce, but NOOOOOOOOOOO it was towed to a Honda dealership where it cost $97 for them to tell me my alternator died and killed my battery on its way out. Which I had already assumed was the problem. They wanted to change $580 to do that less than an hour job. The alternator was still under warenty because i had to put a new one in last semseter when it died on my way home from Bluffton. So my parents picked up the alternator and drove 11 hours on monday to Kansas City where my car sat in a Honda dealership parking lot and we sat 7 minutes from the dealership at Ashley's cousin's house . (We were all very happy that we had remembered that she was staying there for the week. and had 3 extra beds. We slept well, went for a walk, played basketball, made and grilled hambergers...had fun).

Long story short, my parenst got here at 1:00am, fixed the car and we headed out at 2am. Hershy and I drove all night and we stopped for breakfast in Iowa at 10:00. My grandparents met up with us for breakfast and we continued on to ohio. We got back about 6:15pm. Long trip, and because this was the 2nd time in less than a month that my car broke down. I De-named it and it is not l alowed to go on long trips. It still has a few things that need fixed up and I think that 2 adventures in less than a month caused by the car is quite enough.

Broken Clutches and Cheap Motels (The Perry Oklahoma Experience)

2009-04-15T23:05:00.008-04:00

Kyle, one of my mega-cool cousins who lives in Houston Texas, told me that I should go and visit him sometime while I was at Hesston because it is much close to him than Ohio. So I took him up on this offer over Easter break. The drive is still a good 10 hour drive so I invited Nathaniel to come along (Kyle was excited to be the first in our Gugel generation to meet Nathaniel). We headed out Thursday afternoon and made it 2-2.5 hours south of here and had to exit off of I-35 because of the fires in Oklahoma. We stopped at the gas station to figure out new directions and then continued on down the highway that was now trying to contain all of I-35 traffic. We shifted into 3rd gear to discover that the car would not speed up anymore, it acted as if someone was revving the engine while it was in neutral. We pulled off onto the shoulder, waited a bit and tried again. A pick-up truck slowed to let us in; however, we could not get past 2nd gear so we pulled back off to try to figure this out.

The truck pulled in front of us and a car pulled in behind us. Soon a police officer came to the door and said "were you a part of the accident?" We were uber confused and replied that we were just having car problems. Turns out that the truck that was trying to let us into traffic was rear-ended by the car right behind him. His truck was okay, but the car hit the hitch and was going to need a new radiator.

So the tow truck came and picked up Raoul (my car), the man said he was going to take it to Jesse's auto and called Jesse to see if he was still at the shop. Jesse was not, he was at his parents house making sure that their house did not catch on fire.

This is when we found out the car would not even be looked at until the next day (Good Friday), so the tow truck man said he'd drop us off at the Super8 so we could get a room for the night. Needless to say, Nathaniel and I were a bit unsure as to what to do, we were not to keen on the idea of getting a room together. So we call Stefan and tell him the predicament and he says that he will get a car and bring another person down so that we will have a group of people to stay in the room and it wont be just Nathaniel and I.

So we get a 2 bed room and take our stuff there. As I was talking to the receptionist my mom calls my phone, without thinking I hand it to Nathaniel to answer. She knew we were having car problems and was looking for an update; poor Nathaniel had to tell my mom that a few other people were coming and we were getting a motel room. I felt bad after I realized what conversation he was having with my mom....how would you feel if you had to tell your girlfriend's mom that you and your girlfriend were getting a motel room?

Nathaniel and I put our stuff down and after I studied for Heils for a bit and he watched TV we walked to the Braum's next door for some food. By this time we have updated both of our parents and are waiting to hear from Stefan about the car, he isn't having much luck. We find out about 7:00pm that he cannot get a car. So Nathaniel and I are trapped in Perry, Oklahoma in a motel.

Both of us decided that after this weekend we would be able to withstand any and every awkward situation that arose. I mean, both of us had "getting a motel room with my girlfriend/boyfriend" on our list of things never to do. I studied my Heils at a table while he chilled with the TV.

When our parents found out it was just us; they understood. We were both relieved, we were not sure how our parents would respond, but they knew that there was not much else we could do. Rooms are expensive. It was awesome to see how much our parents trusted us. We both decided we have amazing parents who raised us extremely well.

The next morning Jesse's auto called letting me know that it was my clutch, they gave me an estimate and said that they had ordered the clutch and that the clutch would be in that afternoon. After talking to my dad and Kevin, who is my parents' friend from college who keeps an eye on me out here and makes sure my car works, they decided the price was as good as i'd get and I called Jesse's back and okayed them to work on the car. That is when I was informed of the possibility that my car would not be fixed until Monday.

We had to be out of the Hotel before 11:30am, the manager knew about our situation and allowed us to keep our stuff there for the day. We walked way out of the way to get in town only to discover that Perry does not have much in town. We ate lunch at a small pizza-hut and checked out what we decided was the smallest Walmart in the known universe. By the time we walked back to Braums (a little after 4) we decided that we had walked about 7 miles and were ready to find out what was going on. Round-about 5 we found out that the car was done. Let me simply say that we were quite overjoyed by this news.

We decided to continue on down to Houston, because at this point returning to campus would be quite a boring way to finish out Easter weekend. We made it to Houston around 1:30am and spend Saturday chilling with Kyle at Market Street, Schlotzsky's Deli, and the movie theater. He also made us YUMMY TACOS for dinner.

Sunday we got up for church, which was sweet. We went to Woodsedge Community Church and it had a lot of technology including lights and audios, but unlike the other churches I have been to with this equipment that church used these resources to enhance the worship time instead of be the center of attention during the worship. The sermon was not the typical Easter sermon; the pastor used the story of Paul on the road to Damascus and his conversion from Acts 9 explain how Christ rescued Paul as he rescued us by his death on the cross. It was refreshing and a good start to the Easter Day.

Kyle took us out for lunch to a local Mongolian Grill. Neither Nathaniel nor I had eaten at a Mongolian grill before and it was good fun and rather tasty. We decided that we are going to have to find one a little closer and go sometime.

We headed back at 12:13pm for a mostly uneventful trip filled with me studying for Heils and Nathaniel being like "your wipers suck, I cannot see." We tried fix that problem with the windshield wipers in my trunk....but that was an epic fail. 1st off I put them on the wrong side and second off the one started to fall off as we were going down the interstate. After we fixed them we discovered that they were probably more crappy then the other wipers....oh well we made it back safely. With full tummies thanks to Nathaniel who bought us dinner at The Cracker Barrel. Thanks Nathaniel, you are amazing. But Brooke is more amazing...discussion over.

oh dear, I think I'd better end this before Nathaniel accuses me of continuing the conversation that is apparently over. SO END OF STORY! GOOD BYE!

P.S. I said my Heils (which for those of you who don't know is the Bible story from creation to now told with a timeline you draw in 5 minutes before you begin) and I am happy because I did well.

Psalm 13: Brooke Gugel Version

2009-03-17T21:59:00.003-04:00

Please read Psalm 13 before you read my version. If you don't have a bible in front of you google it! It is an awesome psalm. We used it tonight in Youth Ministry Seminar 1! I re-wrote it in a way I have never done...it has a little attitude, let me know your thoughts please.

Psalm 13

Hey God!? You up there?
Remember me here on earth?
Would you mind droppin' me a line
I haven't heard from you in a while?

Life has been miserable
It doesn't make sense
People here are jerks
My problems keep punching me in the face

Hey God!? Wont you listen to me?
I want to be happy again
I'm tired of being beaten down
Culture's about to declare victory over me
It has begun a beer bash to celebrate my defeat

But God. I know you've got this
you're taken care of me
So I think I'll throw my own party
one to glorify You

Spring Break!

2009-03-15T23:44:00.003-04:00

Guess who I saw during spring break?

That is right, the most amazing Nicole EVER! meaning my best friends whom i missed so much! Obviously if I saw her that means I traveled home over Spring Break.

Last Friday I traveled with 3 other girls to Iowa (8 hours) and spent the night with my Gugel family (meaning a Gugel aunt and Uncle). I felt hunky-dory until I got out of my car at midnight-thirty and walked in the house. I quickly felt lightheaded, hot/cold, and my eyes were burning. Needless to say I was running a pretty good fever. This ruined my plans to have lunch with my grandma and grandpa Gugel the next day. boo, I did however venture to String Town to pick up some more dried fruit and inexpensive groceries. After lunch I traveled home (6.5 hours) by myself. It was not too horrible I took my ibuprofen every 4 hours and my mom called a few times and Nathaniel called twice to make sure I was feeling well enough to keep driving.

I spent the next 2-3 days running a fever and not having enough energy to do anything. Saturday after I got home I went to bed (10ish) I did not get up until 1pm the next day (do factor in the fact that I lost 2 hours of sleep, 1 due to the time zone change and the other due to daylight savings). Still, I gathered enough energy to take a shower and I was wiped so I chilled on the couch until 8:30 and I went to bed again.

When I was finally feeling somewhat better I went sh oping with my mom and grandma to purchase clothes for my new Applebee's job. Woot woot, it was a lot of tun and reminded me of old times when my mom, grandma, and I would shop on the days I did not have kindergarten (actually, the 3 of us often shop together, we just had our beginnings back then).

Later that day (Tuesday) I headed to Bluffton and got to spend about 24 hours catching up with my friends and updating them on life as they updated me on life. Good Times, sadly that portion went WAY to fast and I felt pretty thinly spread about. I did not even get to see several of my friends; I suppose that is the way life goes.
Wednesday after I left Bluffton I headed to Church where I observed the JYF (Junior Youth Fellowship) in their evening activities and then visited with the MYF (Mennonite Youth Fellowship) youth sponsors and my youth pastor for just a bit. Joshua and I went out for Pizza to catch up and have a few laughs and I headed home.

Thursday I did a bit of laundry, and prepared a bit of food for dinner. My wonderful sister and brother-in-law came over to eat. We played Mouse trap after the food and I think it is important to note that I WON! I think it had something to do with the fact that my game piece was a frog and everyone else was playing with mice; the name of the game is mouse trap NOT frog trap. : D

Friday I went with my grandma to her eye doctors appointment (she had cataract surgery the day before) and she got a great report. We then had a few hours to waste before my dentist appointment so we went to the mall to see if they had a Deb's so that I could purchase my dress for Jessica's wedding (they did not). We ended up sitting and watching people for 45 minutes or so; we actually had a lot of fun doing this. Commenting on the different people and who we thought was seriously into the shopping and who had come to the mall just to walk laps to get their exercise. THE DENTIST WAS WAY COOL! Probably because I am done with my invisiline now and he gave me the a-okay to wear my retainers only at night. YEAY!

Of course Nicole came home for the weekend and her, my parents, and I went to Nicole and My's favorite restaurant City Q Barbecue! With there amazing kettle brewed sweet tea! Nicole and I were completely happy!

Saturday I left home at 8 and picked up 2 girls in Lagrange Indiana and finished driving to Kalona, Iowa. I spent an hour with my grandma and grandpa before they went to IMS (Iowa Mennontie School) for a fundraising dinner. My cousins met at my aunt and uncles house to Pizza and good times. It was awesome to catch up with them and entertaining to have them pester me with questions about Nathaniel. Never the less, the night ended and I picked up 4 other girls Sunday morning for our drive back to Hesston, Kansas. My trunk was packed so ridiculously full; i actually jumped up and pushed down on the trunk to make sure that is was latched. The 3 girls in the back seat had a suitcase and some other small bags of theirs to hold for the trip. Needless to say, it was a cramped ride.

We made it and it was an adventure! All in all a memorably fun Spring Break to the not-so-Springy-in-fact-kind-of-chilly Ohio (yeah flooding in Ottawa that made me have to make up my own route to Bluffton). Good to be home on campus!

P.S. Over break/on the car ride today I was able to finally read Blue Like Jazz I will have to post my thoughts about the book soon.

Preping for Spring Break

2009-03-01T22:04:00.002-05:00

I really do not have much to say, just wanted to drop a note to all of yall who are amazing (aka, all of you).

Ashley, Nathaniel, and I went shopping the say after valentine's day for all of the amazing sales. I bought a big sot ladybug stuffed animal Nathaniel names Eh Steve who has become a great addition to my dorm room. Before we shopped we stopped at family video to drop off a rental and to our luck A little ceasers pizza was next door and the man was out on the streets getting people to stop in. Of course Ashley and I could not resist getting picture with him!

I have also dyed my hair since we have last spoken. It was Cinnaberry; however, the color did not change my hair to the drastic red color Natale and Ashley had hoped when they picked the color for me. That is okay, it was still loads of fun (and there is only a tint left in my hair).

Yesterday I went to applebees for orientation. I have been hired as a hostess and have to joy of spending this next week from 4-5:30 everyday book training for the job. Originally I was going to have to come back from spring break early to have my orientation; however, my supervisor called Thursday and asked me to come in Saturday for training. Works for me! Now instead of coming back from spring break 2 days early my vehical jsut needs to leave a few hours later than planed before!

Speaking of spring break. This Friday I am heading to Iowa and spending the night with my wonderful family, Saturday I will hang out with them for a while before I continue home. Ashley is caravaning home with me and then leaving her car at home. There are 7 of us girls heading home for spring break together and on the way back my honda civic will be carrying 5 girls! For 8 of the 14 hours it will be just 4 of us because we are picking up (and dropping off) the other girl in Iowa. So fun! I am also done with my Invisiline Saturday so on Monday I head to the dentist to have my final horrah! Honestly, the dentist appointment is the reason I HAD to go home over spring break; seeing my family is just the icing on the cake. Oh, and seeing you Bluffton people! I am hoping to spend a day or two with yall! by the by, do yall think you could possible warm up Ohio for me? I am getting used to the warm weather of Kansas (okay, so maybe not this weekend because the weather has been below freezing the whole time, but before that and for the rest of this week it is/has been wonderfully warm).

I know this post has no point to it and i would like to make one; however, I just can't focus anymore too many jumpy thoughts...look a butterfly. haha.

OH WAIT! before i go, i want yall to know that I have finished my second biblical inductive! This time it was over Joshua 7. Very interesting and educational, yet I am glad to have the time consuming inductive complete. Now to work on the Heilsgeschichte; the entire bible story memorized. I will recited it to one of my professors in approximately 45minutes.

Hey there Hesston

2009-02-06T16:09:00.003-05:00

Hesston has been amazing! I have a class called biblical literature and I have to write 2 inductive for it; I over 20 hours working on the first inductive... too much time in the library, ew. Still, i am learned so much about Judges 9 and Abimelech. I have not gotten my grade yet on that inductive; however, I received the passage for my individual inductive today Joshua 7! Ding ding ding, round 2!

Other than that my youth ministry classes are amazing, and I really believe that the direction I am heading in pleasing to God! In youth ministry seminar last Thursday I was in charge of devotions; I had met with Michele earlier that week to discuss what that job entailed and also to share about my "dreams" for the future. One of the ways that i had the other youth Min's interact was to give them each play-doh to form while we were discussing Psalm 138. That went over well, and was great fun to play with!

The night I purchased the play-doh (which now reads Clearance-doh thanks to Nathaniel and the stickers) Garrett, Nathaniel, and I played with it for an hour and a half in the Larks nest and Kendra Horst joined us to help us make the sweet frog shown on the box.

the amazing group made play-doh frog

Nathaniel with his Jason mask

As for things being out of the ordinary...well, I do a lot more random things here. There is the yummy doughnut shop called Druber's in Newton which does not open until midnight. My friends and I hit that place up quite a bit. I mean who wouldn't want fresh peanut butter, maple, pine cone, squid, octopus, long johns, cream filled, or muffins! YUM! Then there is Newels; a truck stop in Newton with yummy yummy cheese fries (that are deathly greasy) and a small is a plate full and smothered in cheese. More grease than i can handle, so i often share a plate. I have heard that their milkshakes, and biscuits and gravy are tasty as well; I have not tried those yet..hmm maybe I'll take a group of people there tonight. Newels is definitely a place that would be really weird in the daylight, or early evening. Movies are a frequent happening most nights, somewhere between 11 and 1 a movie is started with my friends down in the pit (the basement of Erb), or KC lounge (which is the place I prefer because even though it is a farther walk from my dorm it was much much cleaner).Last weekend i went thrift store shopping in Newton. There was a huge sale at the et cetra shop, $1 for a paper bag filled with everything we could fit! Some my friends and I bought the most hideous outfits we could and have plans to wear them out sometime.

Ashley at walmart

Last Friday I went to Applebee's to ask if they were hiring and get an application. I ended up have the first 2/3 of my interview done right then! This Thursday I had my last interview and was hired as a hostess! Unfortunately I do not start until March 14 because they are in the middle of orientation right now and will not have the next training session until March. This means I have to come back from my spring break 2 days early because of the orientation 9am-11am on Saturday. That week I will have "class" from 3:45ish-5:30ish and will also have to follow another host for 5 shifts to learn what to do; it'll be busy. Still, I am quite excited!

Not sure what else to fill you in on, OH wait! Maybe yall would be interesting in knowing that today the weather is gorgeous! by that I mean the high is 71outside and I love it! It has snowed 2 times since i have been here, barely if even an inch both times and the snow was completely melted within 2 days! This is such a fun and warm winter! Kansas weather is very bi-polar; I remember one day when I was looking working on my inductive I looked out the windows and saw that it was completly sunny, 20 minutes later is was overcast, and in another 20 minutes it was completely sunny again! No joke! That happens all the time here (because of the wind), how fun! It is like the sky is ADD and keeps forgetting what it was going to be!

on that sunny note I will leave it all my warm thoughts to keep you warm! hugs to yall!
God Bless

The book "UnChristian"

2009-01-02T18:10:00.007-05:00

I just finished reading the book "UnChristian" by David Kinnaman, a researcher for and the presidant of The Barna Group. This nonfiction book takes a raw look at what people who do not practice the Christian faith think of the people who call themselves Christians. Their findings from 3 years of statistic and interview research reveal that most people who do not practice the Christian faith believe that Christians are very UnChristian. Words like Judgemental, too political, and Hypocritical describe the Christan's. While the book seems to be written for the generation above me (who may not be as aware of these and other perceptions), I was intrigued by the evidence and challenged even further to be a genuine Christian. Good book, I do recommend "UnChrisitan."

Finding the Good Life

2008-12-21T14:26:00.005-05:00

“This is the good life I've lost everything I could ever want and ever dream of…” (Stuart 4). Audio Adrenaline, a Christian rock band, believes that the good life is losing everything a person could desire; Aristotle and Kant have alternate opinions as to what constitutes as a good life. Aristotle believes that virtues, especially the highest virtue of reason, and the end goal lead one to the good life. Living in a way that would make cooperation and harmony possible if all man kind lived the same way is Kant’s idea of a good life. It is under my personal contemplation that I wonder if the good life is actually a compilation of Audio Adrenaline, Aristotle, and Kant’s visions.

“Happiness, therefore, does not lie in amusement; it would, indeed, be strange if the end were amusement, and one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one’s life in order to amuse oneself.” (Aristotle 1). Aristotle is stating that entertainment is not happiness, or the good life, if it were one would always take the easy way out of situations in order to reach a situation that would entertain him or her sooner. Any person can give in to his or her bodily pleasures, yet he or she will not find the good life and happiness within these pleasure “For happiness does not lie in such occupations, but, as we have said before, in virtuous activities” (Aristotle 1). He take virtues a step farther when he writes “That which is proper to each thing is by nature best and most pleasant for each thing; for man, therefore, the life according to reason is best and pleasantest, since reason more that anything else is man. This life there for is also the happiest” (Aristotle 1). Aristotle is saying that reason, or studying and contemplation, is the most desirable virtue; reason leads all rational people to the good life. Contemplation will lead a person to focus on the bigger picture, or the goal of his or her life, thus the person will see that happiness is not found in amusement but in the end goal. When a person comprehends that the good life is much more than the moment by moment experience he or she will be willing to take the harder road with hardships and suffering in order to reach the most desirable end. For he or she is acting with the highest virtue Aristotle believes there is, the virtue of reason.

“If everyone in the world would just live by X, Y, and Z everyone would live the good life.” This thought process could be said to reflect Kant’s Categorical Imperative which is “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law (Hauerwas 30). Kant is stating that if a person believes something should be followed by everyone he or she must follow that rule himself or herself. For example, if Bill believes that everyone would be closer to the good life if he or she assists the elderly in crossing the street, then he must help the elderly cross the street himself. Likewise is Jane believes that everyone would be happier if visited with his or her parents at least once a week, she must visit with her own parents at least once a week. While these may be petty examples they display Kant’s belief; a person’s actions should reflect what he or she believes is the way everyone should act. Kant believes that if all people lived ethically all people would live the good life because “ethics has characteristics that make cooperation possible between people with different “beliefs” or “backgrounds” (Hauerwas 30).

Combine Aristotle’s theory that virtues and reason lead to the good life with Kant’s theory that a person must live the way he or she believes others should live and my opinion will emerge. A person should live in accordance to the good and just virtues he or she believes all people should posses. Like Aristotle’s theory, not everything can be considered a virtue. A person obtains virtues by interacting with the right people in the right way and then practicing what he or she learns. Not all activities are virtuous, lying, for example, is not virtuous because it does not lead to happiness as its final end for human action as Aristotle states that the good life does. If one takes these virtues and applies them to Kant’s idea that one must act how he or she desires other to act and I believe the good life is even closer. If a person has virtuous but does not live in accordance to those virtues, what good are the virtues? Still, if a person practices his or her virtues in everyday life he or she will be closer to living the good life. It is my belief that one is not capable of living such a virtuous life without a reason. This reason, like Aristotle, is one that leads to happiness as the complete end of human action; a belief in God and God’s son Jesus leads one to desire a virtuous life. A virtuous life, which is a life lived in accordance to God’s desire, God’s desires are recorded in the bible and through Godly revelations, will end as it reads in John 3: 15-16 “That whoever believes in him [the Son of Man] may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Audio Adrenaline says it this way in their song Good Life, “This is the good life, I've lost everything I could ever want and ever dream of. This is the good life I found everything I could ever need here in Your arms.” All that a person could desire outside of a virtuous life does not lead to happiness; instead the good life is found when one lives a virtuous life in accordance to God.

The good life, it is what most people desire, but how does one obtain the good life? Live a virtuous life of reason, focused on the final end of human action according to Aristotle. Kant believes that one should let his or her actions reveal the way that all people should live. Compile the two approaches to the good life adding the most important ingredient, God, and my approach is found. A person should live the virtuous life that God desires and allow his or her actions reveal the good life for all who desire the good life to witness and follow.

Bibliography
Aristotle. "From Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Ten." Anabaptist Convictions after Marpeck. 26 Nov. 2008 .
Bechtel, Trevor. “Christian Ethics”. Bluffton, OH. November 2008.
Hauerwas, Stanley & Wells, Samuel. “Why Christian Ethics Was Invented”. The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 28-38.
Pinckaers, Servais. “Excerpts from the Nichomachean Ethics”. Sources of Christian Ethics. Washington: Catholic University of America, 1995. 106-109.
Stuart, Mark. "Good Life." By Mark Stuart, Will McGinniss, Bob Herdman and Charlie Peacock. Rec. 1999. By Audio Adrenaline. Underdog. Rec. 1999. ForeFront Records, 1999.
The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocryphal/Deutercanonical Books. Ed. Wayne A. Meeks. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

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Writen for Biblical World View: Ethics: Professor Trevor Bechtel

The Good Life: Community

2008-12-21T14:25:00.005-05:00

People strive in countless ways to achieve what seems to them to be the ideal good life. Some strive after cash and riches, others strive to become famous, and still others drowned themselves in drugs and sex. Overall these people have the same concept of what the good life is; they all believe that the good life is achieved when they feel fulfilled. Personally, I have never known a person to find fulfillment in cash, cures, sex, or drugs; after one accomplishment has been fulfilled the person is left longing for something more. I pose that fulfillment can be found through relationships. First and foremost a relationship with God will teach a person how to have positive and healthy relationships with other people.

“There is always someone you can count on, and there are a million special moments that can chase the shadows from your face in an instant and will cost you nothing but a few spare minutes” (Greive, 40). A relationship with God teaches one to be content with the blessings that one has been given. Having a constant presence one can rely on and confide in gives a person a sense of community and belonging. One way God fills this need is by having people interact and create community with each other. When a community is built people trust each other, depend on each other, and assist each other with all of their needs, both emotional and physical. The community is build on trust, which we learn by following God’s teachings, and each member of the community supports the others causing each member to be essential. When each person is essential the good life is not a goal or point, it is a way of life.

A community builds precious moments that make each member feel needed and loved. The community is trustworthy and dependable; all it takes is time to build relationships. The good life is a way of life built on God, interdependence, and community, not wealth, fame, sex, or drugs.

Bibliography
Greive, Bradley T. Tomorrow: Adventures in an Uncerain World. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel. 40-41.

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Writen for Biblical World View: Ethics: Professor Trevor Bechtel

Who Art in Heaven

2008-12-21T14:22:00.006-05:00

“Who art in Heaven,” take another look; it is deeper than it first appears. It is the second phrase of The Lord’s Prayer found in both Matthew 6:9-13, and Luke 11: 1-4. Still, the line lends itself to deeper truths than just ‘God is in heaven.’ What does it mean that God is in heaven? If God is in heaven, how can he be on earth? Is God contradicting Godself? Heaven is not like earth because God created heaven separate from the universe. God is transcendent making God always present. God may seem to contradict Godself, but God is truth and can be both words that create an antonym. God is outside of God's creation making God outside of creation's boundaries.

Heaven, where is it, what is it, and how do I get there? Genesis 1:1 reads “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth,” so heaven is separate from earth. The bible mentions numerous times in history when The Lord, or angels, choose to make themselves known to those on earth through a voice, vision, dream, or another phenomenon (Genesis 22:11, 15; Exodus 20:22; Deuteronomy 4:36; Matthew 3:16; Luke 2:15). Heaven is usually thought of as above earth, and as the place where God and the place where Christians’ will live an eternal life (The Miller, 248). John 14:6 reads “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Since this is true, and God lives in heaven, the way to heaven is to believe the Jesus is the Son of God and to follow his teachings.

Since God created the heavens and the earth and God is omnipotent; God is in heaven and earth. God is transcendent by living in heaven yet watching over earth and providing for it. Although we may not understand how this works, it is okay because we recognize that many of God’s works are beyond our comprehension. “Let him be content to say ‘What is this?’ (Exodus 16:15) So too let him rejoice and delight in finding you who are beyond discovery rather than fail to find you by supposing you to be discoverable.” (Saint Augustine, 8). God is far beyond any human comprehension; God is not a thing because God created all things. God is unlimited therefore God is transcendent.

God is transcendent not only in relationship to place, but also in action. Clashing words that are antonyms seem to fit well together when God is described. Take for instance Saint Augustine’s words “deeply hidden, yet intimately present…immutable yet changing all things.” (Saint Augustine 4). God never leaves us and is always present with us, yet the closer we are to God, the less we feel we know about God, and the more we desire to be in God’s presence (Hebrews 13:5). God changes the things God made, still God remains constant and unchanging. Hebrews 13:6 reads that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever,” while creation may change the designer does not.

God is beyond the limits of God’s creation. Heaven and earth are separate creations; therefore, God is sovereign of both places. God is transcendent and capable of doing all that God desires without changing Godself. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus meant for his disciples to learn to know God at a deeper level than first glance allows. Jesus desired his disciples to know more than God’s location when he said “who art in heaven,” so to Jesus meant more than surface level glance allows one to see in each line of The Lord’s prayer.

Bibliography
The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocryphal/Deutercanonical Books. Ed. Wayne A. Meeks. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
Hauerwas, Stanley andWilliam H. Willlimon. Lord, Teach us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life. Nashville: Abingdon Press 1996.
Lash, Nicholas. Believing Three Ways in One God: A Reading of the Apostles’ Creed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.
Miller, Madeleine S., and J. L. Miller. The New Harper's Bible Dictionary. Eighth ed. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1973. 248-49.
Saint Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

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Writen for Biblical World View: Theology: Professor Alex Sider

Lex Orandi Lex Credendi

2008-12-21T14:14:00.005-05:00

The Latin phrase Lex Orandi Lex Credendi directly translates to mean law is prayer law is belief. In other words, we pray what we believe. If a person believes that one must die in battle to enter heaven he or she will pray that he or she dies in battle. Likewise if a person believes that their god is a protector he or she will pray for their god’s protection. While a child’s, or a person young in faith, prayers may start out basic and recited, the concepts behind the basic prayers are learned. Alex Sider pointed out that often times as a person matures in his or her faith the concepts stay a part of his or her prayers, even though he or she may or may not recite the same prayers he or she recited as a child or as a person young in his or her faith.

Prayer is a work of Christ, and as “Martin Luther said wherever the work of Christ occurs, demons move into action…” (Hauerwas and Willimon 14). This may be one reason basic ritualistic prayers, such as the prayer of blessing over food that many are taught known as “God is great and God is good,” may be taught is so that a person has prayers to rely on while the demons move. While young in faith a person may not have enough background to know what else to say besides a previously learned prayer. If the person is able to remember “God is great, God is good,” he or she can hold onto that concept. Later in that prayer the line is “by His hands we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread,” the concept here is that God is a provider who will supply the peoples’ needs. Some religions teach the people to pray other more “personalized” prayers, still the basic concepts can often be pulled out of the prayers. If a person prays a prayer of thanksgiving for his or her new job, car, family member, or peace of mind, that person believes that God cares about his or her situations in life such as the person’s new job, car, family member, or peace of mind. If a person prays a prayer in frustration asking God to help him or her overcome an obstacle that is before him or her in life, this person believes that God is a god who will bring justice into his or her life, and that God is a god who guides his or her footsteps in life helping him or her make the correct choices.

Most prayers I hear begin with a call out to God in some form and end with “amen.” What does this mean? First the call out to God can also be considered as an introduction to who we are calling out to. If a person begins a prayer with “Father” he or she believes that God is like a heavenly father who cares, listens, and protects. “Dear Jesus” is an introduction that suggests that the person believes that Jesus is the son of God, and now dwells with God in heaven, or as part of the trinity. When a person begins a prayer by simply saying “God,” he or she is recognizing that God is higher and holds authority and deservers respect. When a prayer is ended the word most often used is “amen.” I was taught by my parents that amen means “Let it be,” or “and so it is.” Thus by ending a prayer with amen a person is handing their prayer to God almost as a sacrifice, as a way of saying “take this prayer.”

We pray what we believe. When taught to pray a person learns concepts that stick with him or her, as he or she matures in his or her faith. The difference may lie in the exact words spoken, some may retain the exact prayers taught, while others may form individualized prayers. Still, the concepts of the beginning prayers will remain. As a person begins a prayer he or she addresses the party with whom he or she is praying to as a way of recognizing and honoring the party. At the end of a prayer a person offers the prayer as a sacrifice saying “amen,” offering the prayer that he or she just spoke as a sacrifice to his or her god. The Latin phrase holds true “Lex Orandi Lex Credendi, the prayers spoken give voice to the beliefs held within the soul.

Bibliography
Hauerwas, Stanley and William H. Willimon. Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. Pages 13-33.
Lash, Nicholas. Believing Three Ways in One God: A Reading of the Apostles’ Creed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993. Pages 42-49.
Saint Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press, 1991. Pages 3-23.
The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocryphal/Deutercanonical Books. Ed. Wayne A. Meeks. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

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Writen for Biblical World View: Theology: Professor Alex Sider

Created to be pumped for Jesus

2008-12-21T00:55:00.004-05:00

this convo was edited for clarity
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…

11:37pmBrooke
by the way you're talking, it had to be a God feeling you're having you're pumped for Jesus!

11:38pmJonathon
I'm pretty sure we were created to be pumped for Jesus a lot more often than we tend to be

11:39pmBrooke
oh my, you have just hit a train of thought i've been riding for a while now

11:39pmJonathon
ooo

11:40pmJonathon
Like, even when we are focusing on something that isn't Jesus (like for example, talking to a friend, working on some mundane project, anything), we still should have this underlying intensity in our soul... it is called joy And I think that is the difference between joy and happiness, Jesus is at the center of Joy, happiness is on the outside of anything it accompanies and Joy is at the center of us (is supposed to be anyways)

11:42pmBrooke
(different angle then what i was thinking, but i enjoy this take)

11:42pmJonathon
what is your angle?

11:42pmBrooke
i have a slightly different definition of joy and happiness
no no, let's talk about yours first!!!!

11:43pmJonathon
I probably do too, but I am tired and typing fast lol
but what I said has something to do with my definitions

11:43pmBrooke
i like it!to me joy is something that come from the Holy Spirit and because of this we can be filled with joy even when our emotions do not reflect joy emotions or life situations*for example I may be having a bad day and feel blue; however, I still can be filled with the joy of Christ

11:46pmJonathon
I agree, actually, that fits very much with my train of thought, Holy Spirit/Jesus (God basically, but if we get down to it I suppose we could define it by specific parts of God's trinity) and your example is sorta what I'm thinking when I talk about Jesus Intensity underlying everything (including the bad times)well... it sounds like it fits my train of thought anyways

11:47pmBrooke
however happiness is just the emotion, it can be a part of joy; however it can never fully exist outside of the presence of joy.

11:47pmJonathon
hmm, interesting

11:48pmBrooke
so down and out Joy can exists without happiness, yet happiness cannot fully exists without joy

11:48pmJonathon
what about unholy happiness?for example, happiness because someone else got hurt (emotionally or physically)it seems there has to be a term for that sick and twisted feeling that people get from sin

11:50pmBrooke
this is true, but this is not a feeling of true happiness it fades

11:50pmJonathon
ah, the word true

11:50pmBrooke
right
…

11:52pmJonathon
does only true happiness come with joy or does both happiness and true happiness come with joy according to your definitions?

11:54pmBrooke
i'd say both can be experienced with or without joy...but i suppose i'd have to think on that...try this situation…

11:55pmBrooke
you receive a toy that you really wanted for Christmas whether you have joy or not you will still be happy
…

11:55pmBrooke
but since happiness is just an emotion it will fade in time

11:55pmJonathon
right.
…

11:56pmJonathon
and joy doesn't fade (or isn't meant to anyways, it could if fade by not being connected to God)
...

11:57pmBrooke
right, that is what I am thinking happiness = and emotion, and emotions come and go
joy= something much deeper than an emotion

11:58pmJonathon
oh yes, I think our slightly different angles revolve around the question "Does happiness always stem from joy?"but then again, what if we had different angles concerning our angles? (ooo... that is complicated)

12:00amBrooke
and good, i love hearing all different angles. they help me develop/alter/or abandon my own angles

12:00amJonathon
same here!they make me figure out what I really think

12:01amBrooke
mmhmm! so, how would you answer the ? "Does happiness always stem from joy?"

12:01amJonathon
I would say it doesn't, but happiness as God would have it felt always stems from joy emotions, like everything else in this world, are corrupted by sin in a perfect world, happiness would always connect to joy somehow that would be "true" happiness (to borrow the term)

12:03amBrooke
(borrowing terms makes it easier to follow)

12:03amJonathon
emotions can be felt in ways and in situations which aren't natural according to God's plan for how everything (creation) works

12:04amBrooke
JONATHAN YOU ARE AMAZING!this is what i was trying to say, but couldn't figure out how to say it....

12:04amJonathon
(conversations are awesome!)

12:04amBrooke
our views on this are the same you simply worded it better, thanks

12:04amJonathon
I had a funny feeling they were
welcome :):)

12:05amBrooke
yeah Jesus!
…

12:13amBrooke
oh going way back to how the convo got started

12:13amJonathon
lol
way way back

12:14amBrooke
when you said "I'm pretty sure we were created to be pumped for Jesus a lot more often than we tend to be"

…

12:14amBrooke
i started thinking about skin deep commitment
…
and about how so many people are half baked Christians (Lukewarm like it reads in Revelations)
i like to think that it is simply because people do not realize that they do not understand
..but I do not know

…

12:17amJonathon
yeah, I see what you're saying
(I think)

12:20amJonathon
to make a statement that might take the thought on a slightly different path, I think the more a person understands Jesus, the more committed they want to be, and the more committed a person is, the more they understand Jesus
(it is co-dependent)
ooo!!!!!!!

12:20amBrooke
i believe this to be true as well

12:21amJonathon
I've been thinking about how people come to understand Jesus and want Jesus more, specifically about the role of others in the "growee
“growee's" life
life/process anyways
now, this is kinda simple, but it is easy to just think of it and say "duh, yeah of course" and then not change
anyways

12:23amBrooke
i agree, if those with a "deeper" understanding would do all that they could to help others understand more
..then more would grow

12:24amJonathon
example. When people are exposed to understanding Jesus lived out in another persons life, that life being shared with the "growee", it is like getting a little taste of what could be had
basically, I'm just getting fired up about the whole idea of mentoring others through just having a close relationship
(lol, I get fired up about the simplest things)

12:25amBrooke
i agree, which leads me to something i strongly believe the church has lost
community

12:25amJonathon
YES!
And, there lies a whole other conversation lol

…

What is wrong with the church?

2008-12-10T23:40:00.002-05:00

My friend Jonathan Hersberger posted this note on his facebook and I asked if I could repost it here.

"So what is wrong with the church when it looks no different then the rest of the world? What happened to this radical new kind of kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim? I see so many people proclaim to be Christians, and somehow their life appears to be no different than any one elses'. They still get drunk on the weekends. They still sleep around. They still make jokes that alienate homosexuals, people from different races, and mentally disabled people.

When are we going to wake up and see how much we are damaging the body of Christ?

Why is it that people who are Christians can still drive gas-guzzling cars, waste the world's resources, and spend millions on expensive little gadgets....when they are children who are starving? How can we treat this beautiful Earth God has given us so poorly? How can we keep living so freaking comfortably when beautiful children of God are dying? How can we keep separating ourselves from what is really going on in the world?

How is it that I am typing this from my 5 month old Macbook, sitting in my dorm room which I am paying thousands of dollars to live in to go to my Christian college? Thousands of dollars that could have been used to do so many different things?

Jesus did not live a "normal," socially-acceptable, comfortable, middle-class life! So when are we going to get up and follow his freaking example? We are called to be different....but we are not.

Sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes. Believe me...I'm stepping on my own as well. It's something that needs to be said though..."

COMMENTS:

Brooke Gugel wrote at 2:00am on December 7th, 2008
Thank you so much. I've been contemplating this very thing all semester and am so glad someone else seems to be caring. I'm sick of this, which is one reason i'm only going to collegefor 2 years-- but i digress not the forum,-- why do so many people claim to havea relationship with God and then slam the Truth. This note has refreshed me and given me hope. Thank you for standing up and stepping on toes. Christianity isn't about being comfortable with life as it is. Remember this note and do your best to make your actions line up with your statements. I will do the same.

Shannon Nichole Neuenschwander (Central Christian Schools) wrote at 8:13am on December 7th, 2008
Jon, you're SO right... and i've been thinking a lot about this lately, too... it especially hit me when everyone in English was arguing about how movies should be rated... some of them were actually angry... and it made me feel so dumb and stupid for caring so much about something that doesn't matter, when there are so many other things in the world that need our attention!! anyways... thanks for this... i guess i don't exactally know what to do about it yet... but i'll be thinking about it...

Kayla Byler (Pickerington North) wrote at 9:05am on December 7th, 2008
amen!

Ellie Martin (Central Christian Schools) wrote at 9:33am on December 7th, 2008
stepping on toes is what Jesus did most His life. But He did it because He loved people that were lost. Even though we proclaim that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; that we have salvation thought Jesus Christ; that we are "giving it all for the Lord" .. we can still be so lost. That is why God's mercies are new every morning! Hallelujah! That is why there is forgiveness. That is why He MUST have unconditional Love.These are not justification. This is GRACE.You are so right, Jon. Praise the Lord for such a cry for holiness! I pray that we begin to live a Born-again Life, living by the Son, abandoned to HIM who deserves all the Glory and Praise and Honor of our lives! He is High and Lifted Up! He shall be glorified!Thanks for stepping on my toes too, my friend :) Lets not just say "ouch" and forget about it. Lets be a generation that turns hearts to the Lord; that lives a life that reflects the realization of what redemption of sin really means! Lets live in FREEDOM to Praise Him :D

Danae King (Bluffton) wrote at 10:49am on December 7th, 2008
mmm, yes. This is something I've been wrestling with a lot ever since I got to Bluffton 3 and a half years ago. Everybody here is a "Christian," but I see very little that convinces me as such. It becomes so easy to blend in, then, that I get frustrated at myself for doing so! And being a "Mennonite" school with a large Catholic population, religious life activities often tend to embrace one group and alienate the other. And any time I see any of it happening, I can't help but thinking that this is not what Jesus had in mind.

Matthew Ryan Lehman (Hesston) wrote at 1:09pm on December 7th, 2008
Not to step on any toes, or anything...actually, I am going to deliberately step on some toes here, but why is it that there are so many notes on Facebook like this, and yet...nothing has changed?

Aislinn Joy Dunster (Central Christian Schools) wrote at 1:33pm on December 7th, 2008
i agree. it's actually part of why i'm taking time off of school for the rest of the year. i feel like i need to give back somehow whether it's helping god's animals, his people, or his earth. a lot of this i have learned through my parents about how important it is to recycle, give at least 10% of earnings to charity, share our home with whoever needs a bed or a meal, and most importantly accepting people. i think the most valuable lesson i have learned from my parents is to accept people whether they are straight, homosexual, purple, brown, white, short, fat, tall, or skinny. jon- it also frustrates me a lot on the whole aspect of how some christians think they can decide who gets into heaven or not. i believe that my homosexual and athiest friends as just as awesome people if not MORE awesome than some of my "christian" friends. that is why i hesitate to call myself a christian sometimes, i don't know what i am, i believe in something, but i don't know what it is, and right now i am perfectly happy knowing that i don't have to define my god, i just live by what i know it means to be a good person.

Danae King (Bluffton) wrote at 2:11pm on December 7th, 2008
Good question, Matt!

Jonathon McKenna (Akron, OH) wrote at 2:45pm on December 7th, 2008
"How is it that I am typing this from my 5 month old Macbook, sitting in my dorm room which I am paying thousands of dollars to live in to go to my Christian college? Thousands of dollars that could have been used to do so many different things"My recent thoughts over the past few days can really identify with this quote... the thing is, I'm even planning on saving up for a mac computer package more expensive than just a macbook... My personal passion is children/youth. I want to give my living life to them so bad!The church across the stree from the college I attend is going to be purchasing new carpet... CARPET!!! What difference does a carpet make to growing in Christ? My dream is to work in a church with cement floors!

Brooke Gugel wrote at 3:02pm on December 7th, 2008
Matt, i say it's because we're just finding our voices and searching for other people to help make our cry louder and heard. The change is happening to us as individuals and we're all trying to find the others who share out passion. Facebook is a place to do that...still don't let our voices be quieted or limited to facebook. Let God speak through our actions and let us be amazed at what God is forming. For God's work on this is just beginning

Deb Horst wrote at 3:56pm on December 7th, 2008
Ya'll need to read Shane Claiborne and Brian McClaren. They'll get you fired up. I agree with you Jon, and I am trying to figure out what it means for me, so don't think it is just your age group! I want to light fires under the butts of my own age group!!!

Matthew Ryan Lehman (Hesston) wrote at 5:25pm on December 7th, 2008
I don't know, Brooke...people have been crying out against this for thousands of years, starting all the way back with Jesus. I just feel like God's work on this can't be just beginning...as cynical as this may sound, I almost feel like I/we am/are stuck in cycle of not being able to break away from our worldly views. It seems like Facebook is just another vehicle for people to say "oh...there's a problem. Well, now that the problem has been spotted, we're good to go, moving on". I may be going too far here, but are any of us really going to sell our five-month old macbooks and not attend our thousand-dollar Mennonite colleges after reading this note? I know I am not going to. Part of the reason for that is I believe God is calling me to go to my Mennonite college, but all the same. Saying we have cancer is no replacement for chemotherapy.

David Lioi wrote at 5:33pm on December 7th, 2008
Perhaps we can look at this by comparing our possessions, college, cars, middle class upbringing etc. to our abilities also granted by God. Perhaps it is not that we should be appalled that we have abilities or possessions but that we should be concerned with how we use them. For example if I have an ability and I use it only for selfish reasons then it would be better if I didn't have it at all. However, if I use it for unselfish purposes then it has does have constructive meaning. The same goes for our possessions and all these things we have been granted. This laptop I am using now allows me to access so many resources and do so many things that I would have been unable to do otherwise, just as my right hand allows me do so many things I would have been unable to do before. I am not defending materialism, it is one of the things I most dislike about Western culture for numerous reasons. I just want to point out that while we often find ourselves disgusted with the way things are we must not forget to rejoice when God blesses.

Jonathon McKenna (Akron, OH) wrote at 6:14pm on December 7th, 2008
good point David Lioi, Matt, you are right. People have been crying out for many years and the problem still exists. "There will always be poor with you" (Jesus, Matthew 26:11). I'm not trying to change the world... I'm trying to change the world for those to whom God will call me. Helping one person is huge! HUGE! Helping two, three, four? I think lots of people don't think about the amazingly great value of changing the world for just one person.

Brooke Gugel wrote at 8:01pm on December 7th, 2008
tuche' Matt, God's work on this has been going on for a long time, people have been crying out for a long time. Maybe the financially poor have much to teach the rich,"In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Mark 10:25look at Mt 26:6-13; it is the story of the finianically woman who poors expensive purfume on Jesus. The disciples thought this was wrong, she should have sold it to help the finanically poor. Jesus says that what she did was just. Why? She used what she had to honor God in the way she was compelled, or called.Not to justify our laptops/expensive purfume or other material things, but having them is not what is wrong (unless a person goes against his or her contious to purchase this obect, if the Spirit is telling one not to, he or she should not. if he or she does, the posesstion will never be enjoyed), it is how we utilize these things. For example, some peoples vocations require 4+ college for them to perform. This takes a lot of money, yet the studies/degrees are required. Paul took somewhere between 3-14 years to prepare for his missional journey.on a slightly different, yet applicable note. I recently went to the National Youth Workers convention in Pittsburgh, PA; while there a speaker (I am unable to find her name right now, but I will look for it when I return home) shared about the history of the Church. She showed how every 500 years the chuch goes through a reform, and we are in that reform right now! What an exciting time to be alive! We have a huge change to awaken church.We have the chance to reveal to people what being a Christian reall means. our society has made Christianity a Sunday morning thing (rather we've made Christianity an UnChristian lifestyle), but God is not just a Sunday god. If we want to show people what being a Christian means we must live the lifestyle. Following the bible, being good stuards of our money and actions.

Brooke Gugel wrote at 8:10pm on December 7th, 2008
The woman who spoke was Phillis Tickle

Matthew Ryan Lehman (Hesston) wrote at 8:12pm on December 7th, 2008
okay, on a totally not serious note, I really wish I could change my last name to 'tickle'

David Lioi wrote at 8:16pm on December 7th, 2008
ooh, ooh! if anybody has roughly five minutes of free time go google "the weight of glory" by c. s. lewis and read the first page or so. It's almost exactly what we are talking about.

Aislinn Joy Dunster (Central Christian Schools) wroteat 8:21pm on December 7th, 2008
i agree with matt. i would really like to change my last name to tickle.

Joy Mo (Mckinley Senior High School) wrote at 8:31pm on December 7th, 2008
Yes, Jonathon. Yes, Ellie Martin.

Glen King (Akron, OH) wrote at 9:31pm on December 7th, 2008
You go Kids!!!! You guys are a breath fresh air. What an awesome next generation. to those of you that know me...I love you guys!!

Austin D. Miller (Bangladesh) wrote at 12:27am on December 8th, 2008
I live in a developing country, see the poor every day and am actually trying to live my life trying to address that poverty. One "trap" I fall into is labeling "the poor" as "the poor" which I think dehumanizes them as individuals in my mind and is a barrier to relationship. I think one thing that a follower of Christ who is from a materially affluent society can reflect on is their poverty in other areas of life and learn some lessons from those who are less materially affluent. Materialism is just as deadly of a disease for those living in material poverty as it is for us. It is a belief that there is not much more to this world than what I can experience...it kills faith...belief in the invisible and the impossible. Being a Christian materialist is an oxymoron. The materially poor on the other hand can celebrate the riches that they do have. The wealth of interdependent relationships, sacrificial hospitality and the list goes on. Do I "feel" closer to God because I am "helping" "the poor"? No. Feelings come and go. I am learning a lot however from the friendships I have with people who are less materially affluent than me. I am trying not to categorize them. My thoughts of late have been heavily influenced by the writings and life of Henry Nouwen. This conversation is great and I believe not in vain if for even one person it is the catalyst for some small change. Thank you for your thoughts one and all.

Brooke Gugel wrote at 3:03pm on December 8th, 2008
" Materialism is just as deadly of a disease for those living in material poverty as it is for us. " Thanks Austin, I completely agree that materiaalism is a deadly disease and you bring up a good point. Ido have a question, for the sake of this discussion which encircles those with a lot of material wealth versus those without that barrier, how should one address this situation without noting a difference between the two?

Philip de Oliveira (Mckinley Senior High School) wrote at 4:02pm on December 8th, 2008
Let's be fair, God is not against comfort and wealth. Throwing out all you have is not only poor stewardship, but it won't make you any more holy as a result. You made very good, if not very widely accepted points. Try to be sure you don't go to extremes, as these counter-culture epiphanies often justify their presence by going overboard.

Jonathon McKenna (Akron, OH) wrote at 4:44pm on December 8th, 2008
"Throwing out all you have is not only poor stewardship, but it won't make you any more holy as a result." Of course nobody is suggesting giving up everything, just everything we don't need. Anything more than what we need is a waste to have. Throwing out all that you don't need, not for the sake of throwing it out, but for the sake of giving something to those who's needs are not met, that is the best sort of material stewardship there is!

Austin D. Miller (Bangladesh) wrote at 8:51pm on December 8th, 2008
In response to Brooke's "how should one address this situation without noting a difference between the two?" I think the difference should be noted in the same way that we note differences in gender. Honor and respect are central. On the wealthy side we have the challenge not to be condescending to those with less education, less "style"... On the flip side, we need to honor those with less and what they have to offer us. In my context it means not refusing a cup of tea or food offered me (whether or not it might give me diarrhea). It may mean kissing "my" rigid schedule goodbye. Living among the poor, I realize the stark power I have in the form of buying power and influence. I cannot take that power for granted or shrug it off. Power is a burden for those following Christ. The more power we have the more we have to surrender it to "THE Power" and use it in His Kingdom.In reply to Philip, "Try to be sure you don't go to extremes, as these counter-culture epiphanies often justify their presence by going overboard." I would disagree. Most of my heroes went to extremes and way overboard not just in what they said in their equivalent of Facebook but in their lifestyle. From Gandhi, to MLK to Mother Teresa, brother Shane, Schindler, even Jesus (ha!). Most of these people probably wouldn't like to see their name on a list like this so I'll stop, but I think you get the picture. I believe we should live in a way that is radical to our culture but normal in the Kingdom. When we pray (if we pray) Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, what vision do we receive? How do we enter into that. We need to use our imagination. We need prophets, singers, poets and artists to stimulate that imagination, to imagine for us the possibilities of the Kingdom. As an artist myself I too often find that I am promoting myself for reasons that are far from the kingdom. I am struggling to find what using my creativity and imagination in the kingdom will look like. I stumble a lot.

Austin D. Miller (Bangladesh) wrote at 8:53pm on December 8th, 2008
Finally in response to Mr. McKenna, I would like to add that a discussion about contentment is a necessary addition to this conversation. It gives you peace from the unhealthy striving for things. It gives you restraint when you are thinking of creating yet another wishlist on Amazon ( guilty ;-( ), when you are browsing Ebay... It also frees us to be generous with what we have, to hold onto the material very lightly. Thoughts on contentment anyone?

Brooke Gugel wrote at 4:48pm yesterday
I understand, thanks for the answer Austin.As for my thoughts on contentment, i've writen several papers this semsester on 'the good life'. as a quick quick recap: In my Biblical World View Class we discussed Aristotle's view of the good life. Aristotle did not believe that happiness was in amusement, in this discussion amusement is the material stuff, rather to Aristotle Happines is found in the 'final end of human action.' Our materialistic stuff will not give us complete happiness (or contentment) we will stive for more and more stuff which causes us to stress more and more; however, if we strive to follow God we will find contentment in what we posses (and in a materialistic society we may come to desire less of what we own) because we believe God is our provider (Matthew 6:33). If we search for God, God will guide us, and the more we search for God we will learn to swtich our focus from ourselves to other, this seeing others needs as more important than our own ( look at Matthew 22:36-40). If we love our neighbors, we will care for our neighbor, and if everyone cares for everyone else...everyones need will be met. if that summery does justice, and makes sense. I will be posting my papers from this semester on my blog http://beinggugel.blogspot.com/ if anyone is interesting in reading more keep looking I will begin putting them up next week. Oh, I also wanted to copy this conversation onto the blog so that more people can see what we are discussing, if anyone wishes for me to not place his or her contribution to the discussion on the websightt please let me know by tomorrow.

Jonathon McKenna (Akron, OH) wrote at 8:10pm yesterday
Contentment is most definately the answer (or part of it anyways)! That is right in line with what I was thinking.

Brooke Gugel wrote at 8:53pm yesterday
On the note of contentment, 1 Timothy 6: 6-8"Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content."contentment is wealth because when we are content we are happy with what we have and desire no more....materially at least. Spiritually I feel we should always strive to see God more.

It's true

2008-11-09T13:24:00.004-05:00

The rumor is true, next semester I will be at Hesston College in Kansas. Please do not miss understand, Bluffton University is a wonderful University. In a nut shell, I am transferring because I can get my associates degree at Hesston (Bluffton does not offer an associates degree program).

Why would I want to have my associates degree and not my bachelors? Well, I do not expect everyone to understand, but this is the real reason. My major is Youth Ministries; however, I do not believe that I will be in a paid position in this area. It does not mean that I believe that people who are paid youth ministers or paid by youth organisations are wrong or any such thing; I simply do not believe that is the path I am to travel down. I believe that I can do what I feel called to do with my two year associates degree just as easily as I could with a four year bachelors degree. Since I probably will not be making money in the field of youth ministry it is hard to justify spending four years in college and accumulating a lot of debt when I can finish in two years. I will then have half of the debt.

What I feel called to do right now is to work in a youth center. I will work as a waitress, secretary, or whatever I have to work as to live; however, my joy will be serving others when I am not working. Since I will have half of the debt it will be easier to serve because I wont be held back by all of the debt.

My friends here at Bluffton are sad to see me go, yet they all have listened ant talked with me about it and agree that transferring out to Hesston is the right thing to do. They have helped me a lot, discussing both sides of the issue with me and agreeing that I am not dumb for not desiring to make money in my major. My family, friends, mom, and dad have also listened and discussed my transfer with me. While not everybody thinks that going to college with a major that I do not want to make money in is the smartest thing (there really is not anything else I can even imagine majoring in), most have encouraged me and supported me agreeing that life is so much more than money.

In just a few days more than i month I will pack up and leave Bluffton with only a very small chance of ever returning as a student (only about a 7% chance). In January I will head out to Kansas to make new friends, learn the rhythm of a new campus, and start classes.

Many of you will remember the time I spent praying over Bluffton and making sure that this is the place I was suppose to come; let me add that I still believe with all of my heart that I was suppose to be here for this semester. Why? I am not completely sure right now, and may never know; maybe I was suppose to take a certain class, have a certain conversation, talk to a certain professor, meet the amazing friends that I have here, have some certain adventure or something else...maybe I'll know someday, but maybe not. Either way, I am so glad that I am here at Bluffton for this semester.

God revealing Godself

2008-10-23T15:15:00.004-04:00

Forcing God to fit inside my understanding of God is something I avoid. Instead I strive to see and hear God in new ways. God generally reveals Godself in two ways, through general revelation and through special revelation. General revelation is how God communicates to everyone, even if he or she does not have a personal relationship with God (Keeler, 1). Special revelation is more personal and enabled when a person has an intimate relationship with God (Keeler, 4). Randy Keeler categorized special revelations into seven groups which include a phenomenon plus a voice (Exodus 3:3-6), a supernatural messenger (Hebrews 13:2), dreams and visions (Acts 16:9), audible voice (1 Samuel 3), the human voice (1 Corinthians 2:1-5), the human spirit (Romans 12:1-2), and through the scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Experiencing God directly through special revelation does not make a person any better than someone who does not experience God through special revelation; in truth, one should be aware that he or she may not have correctly heard from God. In my walk with Christ, I have encountered special revelation through the human spirit, through scriptures, and through the human voice.

“God desires to speak to us; we just have to be listening.” (Keeler, 3). How true these words ring, especially when I recall about a year ago in the winter of 2007 when I was experiencing difficult times. Unhappy with life and desiring change I called out to God in desperation knowing that God was the only solution. I spent a lot of time reading the bible and praying by myself. I was weary and continuously cried out to God for help repeating the words “God, I trust you,” because I knew that God was on my side. I sat in God’s lap burying my face in his arms clinging to God for strength. Then a still small voice came, bringing peace and calm to my weary soul. Though the still small voice did not speak, the silence carried the answer. Peace, calm, trust, somehow I understood that it would be okay. Romans 12:2 reads “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –his good, pleasing and perfect will.” It was at that time that my mind was renewed by God; it was then that I began to understand that God’s will for me was to rest in God’s lap and allow his peace and love to cover me.

It was only a few days after this while I was reading the bible that I came across Psalm 138. In this Psalm David is worshiping God and praising God for being God and helping him through the hard times. It seemed as if I had written the Psalm myself. Verse 3 reads “When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.” After I had collapsed into God’s love, God began to revive my soul and fill me with God’s joy. Psalm 138 spoke to me by putting into words all of the things I did not know how to say to God, but had desired to sing to God since God had restored my soul. For me it was true that, “Though I walk through the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.” (Psalm 138:7). All of my difficulties had not magically disappeared; however, the burden of my difficulties had been lifted from my shoulders. I knew that harder difficulties were only a few steps in front of me, yet God was leading the way making the challenges easier to bear.

My eldest brother Shaun passed away in a car accident on September 11, 1998. He was only sixteen years old and on his drive home from school he lost control of his car and it crashed into a tree. This year marked his ten year death anniversary, and I was stuck at college far away from the love and comfort of my family and friends who knew Shaun. As soon as I awoke on Thursday I carried grief and loneliness, people at college did not know that I had a brother who died, and if I told people most of them would undoubtedly step awkwardly back whisper an apology and change the subject. None of which would help. I slowly started to prepare for chapel and thought about going back to bed and hiding the entire day when my phone rang. It was my high school youth pastor calling to see how I was doing; she had remembered and wanted to let me know that she was praying for me and my family. God used her to reveal God’s love to me. After lunch I was feeling alone again when I mentioned to Laurin Waidelich that it was the anniversary of my brother’s death, again God’s love was revealed to me because Laurin did not back away awkwardly; instead she reached out to comfort me and wanted to hear more. Throughout the day whenever I felt alone and unloved God sent a message of love through a different person. The human voice is used when God uses humans to reveal God’s truth to one another (Keeler, 8). When I laid down that evening I expected to feel sad and reflect back on a day of sorrow; however, as I looked back I could only see love and comfort flowing from God’s people lifting me, a sad child of God, while I grieved the loss of my big brother Shaun.

Special revelations may not always miraculously solve problems or clear a path; however, they do provide support from God that enables people to continue on through struggles, or towards hard times. Moses had a speech impediment, and God told him through the phenomena of a burning bush plus a voice that he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Obviously not a special revelation that solved any problems for Moses; in fact, this special revelation carried Moses on a long and hard journey. Moses did not make this challenging journey alone; God went with him and led the way. When I was comforted with the peace of the still small voice my hardships did not disappear; in fact, they continued on for several months, yet I was enabled to endure the hardships and be joyful because God was with me. Scriptures enabled me to worship my Lord more fully by putting into words the song that was within my soul. My community of faith comforted me and lifted me up because they took the time to sit with me in my grief and allow God to love me through them. “We live by faith, not by sight,” 2 Corinthians 5:7, in faith we trust God which in turn enables God to reveal Godself to us through special revelations.

Bibliography
Keeler, Randy. Jenzabar handout ministry unit session 1. How Does God Call us? 20 September 2008.
NIV Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation. 2005.

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Writen for Biblical World View: Practical Ministry: Professor Randy Keeler

maybe i shouldn't go home

2008-10-06T15:33:00.003-04:00

Last Wednesday evening just after 7 I got into my wonderful '91 Honda Civic to head home for a dentist appointment I had on Thursday morning. I had not been home since I came down to Bluffton and was looking forward to being home in an hour and a half.

Five hours later I arrive at home.

I was turning onto 108 when my car started acting strange. MY lights dimmed, my radio turned off, and my RPMs were bouncing all around. Soon it returned to normal and I went through the town of Miller City. Of course when I re-enter the country my car starts acting up again. so I called my mom who was at church working with the Junior Highers (yes my mom, why? because my dad was on a mission trip in Mexico) and explained to her what was going on, she told me to call Caleb (my brother) in Fort Wayne.

While I was on the phone with Caleb my cars RPMs read 0, my lights dimmed more and more, and my radio quit again. In other words, my car died. I tried to pull off the road, but the ditch was steep, i tried to turn on my hazard lights, but they didn't work. On top of this, my phone is dieing, and i am in the middle of the country with no lights around.

The car that was a distance behind me slows down and pulls of the road in front of me. An older gentleman got out of the car and helped me get it off the road more. At this time another car stops behind me and two farm guys get out who luckily new the owners of the farm across the street. They helped me push the car into an old farm drive way and the older gentleman who stopped first offered to take me as far a Napoleon.

So, I got into the car with this stranger. Since my phone was dieing I used his cellphone to call my mom and let her know where i was exactly and that I'd meet her at the Napoleon Walmart (about 1/2 hour drive from where i was). I turned off my phone so save the battery in case I'd need it again and let Caleb know what was going on. He was not happy.

Harry B was the mans name and for the next half-hour we got to know each other. He was born in Germany (hence why I cant remember how to pronounce his last name let alone spell it), he was in Vietnam for a while, lived in Holgate for 6 years (a little town that we passed through on the way to Napoleon), and now lives in Napoleon. We talked about his daughters, my siblings, politics, the economy, the radio and how the new is so slanted, and all kinds of little things.

I called my mom when we arrived at Walmart, but she wasn't there yet so I told harry that I'd walk around Walmart until she got there, thanked him and got out of the car.

When my mom got there she informed me that Nate and Paul Andre offered to drive out, load my car on their trailer and take drop it off in my grandma's shop. So we waited for them to arrive and headed back to my car.

On the way Nate got a phone call, he had previously arranged for my youth pastor Wendell to drive his truck into Archbold and drop the keys in a drop box at a shop. So Wendell drove a truck to the shop and left it there.

Meanwhile another man named Doug back at church is wondering who stole his truck out of the parking lot. Wendell called Doug's house because he had a question about the Internet, since nobody was home he left a message that said "hey Doug, give me a call." Back at church the police are about ready to be called since nobody is claiming the stolen truck as a prank ( I am still unaware of whether the police were called or not). Somehow Wendel and Doug got ahold of each other and the mystery was solved. Now Nate and Doug had to get the right trucks in the right places.

ON our end of the phone the conversation is finished and we're almost to my car. Once we found it and got it loaded we head back into Napoleon first (so we could my moms car) and then to my grandma's shop north of Wauseon. By the time I finally arrive home it is almost midnight, and I am tired, and hungry (I didn't eat supper on campus. I work until 7 and decided to just wait another 1.5 hours until i was home so that I could have so tasty home cooked left overs).

My mom and I, being the wonderful mechanics we are, diagnosed the car as having an alternator problem. I did the stuff I had to do around home, picked up some clothes for Christy, my cousin, and my roommate and drove my dad's Caviler back to Bluffton.

Some trip home. I was expecting a nice stress free 1.5 hour trip and a nice relaxing time; instead I had a nerve racking, hitch hiking, 5 hour trip home. Thank goodness for my church family for helping me get my car home, and praying for me as soon as they learned that I was riding in a car with a stranger and having a stressful night. Still, looking back, it was a great adventure and I'd so do it again!

10 years gone. 10 years loved strong.

2008-09-15T20:18:00.003-04:00

As many of you know this past Thursday, September 11, was the anniversary of my brother Shaun's death. It had been ten years, hard to believe I've lived that long without him. One scraggly looking tree took my big brother, that's crap. Especially considering that dumb tree came down a few years later in a storm. The tree took a hit from a chevette, but not a storm...

Anyway, I'm down here at Bluffton away from everyone who knew my brother, and anyone who'd supported and comforted in past years on this day --or any time I needed a friend to bear my heavy heart with me. I went to bed Wednesday dreading the next morning and rethinking through my memories of Shaun, and reliving the day he died.
Thursday morning arrived way to soon accompanied immediately by loneliness and dread. I dragged myself out of bed so that I could get ready for Chapel. As I got ready I again relived the last day, thinking about how pleasant and trouble free my life had been 10 years ago at this time. Sitting in my third grade class listening to Mrs. Markley and loving life. If only life could be frozen in time to protect my Innocent naive look at the world which was about to cave in.
10 minutes before I had to drag myself to chapel my cellphone rang. I answered it to hear the love of God coming from my high school youth pastor Melanie Nofziger. She remembered what the day held for me and my family and called to let me know that she was thinking and praying for me and my family. I was taken aback by how amazing God was, I was debating whether or not to leave my dorm for chapel because I didn't want to face a bunch of happy people who didn't know and therefore wouldn't notice or care. I knew it would come across to me this way even though it isn't true they were all simply unaware. Still, it wouldn't make the day anymore bearable to see them. Then God steps in to remind me that I'm not alone, that people love an care. Melanie's call gave me to boost I needed to leave my dorm and head to Chapel.
On the way back from lunch I opened up to Laurin and she was there for me. She lovingly wanted to share my pain and even asked to hear the story of his death. This was the second time I got to see God's love. Just by listening Laurin helped me feel not alone, she was willing to climb into my sadness and just be.
I called my parents and talked to them for a little bit in the afternoon, it was good to talk to family and support them as they supported me.
I was headed to work feeling alone again when Jamie Hill, a girl from high school, texted me at 5:11 to let me know that she was praying for me. I was amazed that a girl who hadn't seen me in months cared enough to drop a note, another God moment.
That night I was still feeling low so I went into Findley to spend some time with my best friend Nicole. Over a fruitista from Taco Bell we caught up and listened to each other. Just being together again we helped each other... no magical cure of happiness, but just listening to each other and supporting each other helped to tare down the walls of loneliness.

Thank God for never leaving me, and for constantly announcing his love for me all day. Each time I hit the bottom he sent love and comfort through unexpected friends. Thank you to each and every person who remembered. The prayers, calls, and notes are much appreciated and felt.

Welcome yo

2008-08-29T18:49:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday! I've been at Bluffton for a week now and it's good. Rachel had already been here for a week since she is mega cool and runs Cross Country. Way to be Rachel!
The girls on my floor are loads of fun and filled with giggles. The floor did a little photo scavenger hunt that has produced some entertaining photos. Laurin and Rachel also got some good surprise shots of me talking on the phone and trying to "de-spot" my comforter.

Classes are going great, I really don't have much to say about them at this point...sorry. I've been working in Centennial as a housekeeper. Shannon and I clean the classrooms on the first floor before we split off. She then heads to the top of the stairs to sweep and then she cleans the ground floor bathrooms. I head to the first floor bathrooms and doors (boo finger prints).

Laurin's brother Caleb went to Hesston and roomed with my brother Caleb; go figure that she and I would end up on the same floor at Bluffton and being good friends.

Last night Rachel, Laurin, and I decided that we should head out to the Findlay Walmart to get some stuff. Since we were headed into Findlay I called Nicole and Laurin called her buddy Katie. While Laurin was on the phone with Katie and I was the phone with Nicole we got the two of them to meet up with each other some place on the Findlay campus at 8:45, so that Katie could drive the two of them to the Walmart we were meeting at. Back on our end we figured out dirrections to the Walmart (and double checked to make sure we were all headed to the same store). On the drive Rachel took the remote and searched for any radio station that would come in (I'd left all of my CDs in the dorm) we programed all of them into my radio...a few of them were okay. Most importantly the radio station search entertained us.

Walmart was good fun, but it was more fun to stop at the Findlay campus to see out friends dorms, and a tiny bit of the campus. We all enjoyed our short catch up time and then we parted for Bluffton....good times.

So maybe that all sounded lame...and if you weren't with us that is just fine. I don't think any of us care what you think, but if you'd been there you would understand.

Blessings yo, and have a happy Friday night

Real Like Bob

2008-07-27T13:09:00.003-04:00

Last weekend Hershy, Nick, and I went to Mugswigs in Canton for some amazing coffee. They'd been talking about it since staff training and we finally found the time to go. David, and I had gone to Nick's house before hand to climb the silo and watch the sunset; however, the clouds didn't cooperate and so the sunset was blocked from our view. So after watching a plane land, we went to the airport and checked out some mega cool planes. David wasn't up for coffee so we dropped in off at camp and met up with Hershy at Mugswigs around 10:30pm. The place was packed so we all went and played with the giant marble ball thing in Canton and then got our coffee. Since the place was still full, we took our drinks to go and wondered around Canton. We ended up in a random green patch with picnic tables so we sat down. Twenty minutes later a39 year old man walked up to us and sat down at the table. Over the next two hours we talked to this man about politics, drugs and his experiences with them, sex, his job, and all kinds of things going on in his life and Canton. Before he left I asked him if we could pray with him. He looked quite surprised and said that he didn't know that we were that type of people and how he was so sorry that he'd been cussing so much, etc. We reassured him that we were not the least bit upset and after 10 more minutes of random conversations Bob brought back up the prayer and we all held hands and prayed. After we said "Amen," Bob looked at me and said "I'm going to give you a hug. Do you know why?" I replayed that I didn't and he he said "Do you know why? I'll tell you after I give you a hug. I'll give you a hug first." So he gave me a hug and said "Do you know why I gave you that hug? I gave you the hug because you are the only woman who has every really listened to what I said." In my prayer I had repeated some of the things which he had told us and it proved to Bob that I was listening and actually cared. He picked at a Coach key chain that somebody had left on the picnic table and handed it to me saying that I was like a coach to him because I listened to him. All we did was welcome Bob's conversation and listen instead of pushing him away because he was a homeless stranger, and through us God was able to reveal His love to Bob.

I got back to camp at 4am and was stilled pumped about our time with Bob. What happened that night is something that I have wanted to do for a long time and would love to do for the rest of my life. I want to sit and be with people, on their level. To many people sit in their comfortable homes on their comfortable couches, not giving a rip about the people outside their door or in the streets. If they even see the people that brush right past them and ignore them. Excuse me, but we all deserve to be respected and listened to. Stop looking down on people who don't have all of the luxury's you have and look them in the eyes and get to know their hearts. Everybody is hurting in this world, the least we can do is share God's love while we walk with each other down path of life. Besides who wants to spend life walking down a road alone?

Please remember Bob in your prayers as he doesn't yet know Jesus.

God Bless,
Brooke Gugel

First Day of Summer?

2008-06-20T20:10:00.003-04:00

oh my, life since graduation...wow
So I chilled at at my Wauseon home for a week, had my last piano recital with Mrs. Bruce on Sunday and headed for Camp Luz as soon as that was over.
For the first week I trained with Everett and Heidi for Outpost camp (Tim is doing outpost as well, but he was still doing school stuff...sad day)! On Wednesday of that week the three of us were joined by some other uber cool people and trained on the Ropes Course --Complete with a test from Mandrew-- Everett also got us all certified in Basic First Aid and CPR from the red cross. Woot Woot! Gotta love them there classes.
So when I graduated I was uber excited to be done with schooling and tests for a while...so much for that idea. Add Mandrew's test to all of the Red Cross tests and you come up with 5 tests in one week of summer. But it's all good, many memories compliment the week.
Most everybody else came out for regular staff training June 9. Talk about being mega excited! really missed my camp family and enjoyed the reunion and the time spent getting to know the first year staff.
I had hoped to head off to camp and leave the rest of my thoughts behind me, but God had other plans. My last Wednesday night spent with my youth group was a big thing the pulled me down. Some people came in to pray over and prophesies for us. Most of what they said settled with me, but there was one comment that slid into the mix about my college major that shook me up. God and I spent a lot of time discussing my college choice and major. So that with several other things made my time rough, but good. God has been stretching, bending, breaking, and re-shaping every part of me. With His craftsmanship, this current restoration will be amazing to look back upon in hindsight.

I was planning on leaving staff training Friday evening to be ready to leave with my youth group Saturday at 7:30AM; however, that did not happen. My mother told be to head back to camp and wait out a bad storm that i was going to have to drive in from Wooster to Norwalk (Wauseon had awful storms that whole week, some with 100mph winds. She didn't want me to be caught up in a similar storm). So I made a u-turn and headed back for camp. washed my laundry, packed a lunch, and all that jazz. --Side note, thank you to whoever folded my laundry, that meant a lot to me, and lifted my spirits.--So I left Saturday morning at 4:15am after 2 hours of sleep for a 3 hour drive that ended in the Church parking lot. I stopped for coffee, but nobody would come to the counter to take my order so I got back in my car and used good-ol' water to keep me awake. My wonderful parents came to the church to say say hello and goodbye and off I went with my youth group to Reading, PA.
We spent the week at New Hope Community Center, a church that is being refurbished. I will admit, i did not want to leave camp and go. Hindsight, even though the week was quite unorganized, God worked. We did a little work in the church, cleaned a park and some streets, and enjoyed some street ministry, but what I loved the most was just being out in the city with the people! A group of us went out to find ice cream and after asking several people for directions found the place only to discover that the store clerks only spoke Spanish, (which didn't surprise us, we lived in a Spanish-speaking area, and were the minority) God placed one man who spoke a tiny bit of English in the store and he translated for us. I asked him which flavor was best and he recommended the coconut...it was quite tasty! The ice cream was tasty and only $1, so several of us happily found our way back to the store for more ice cream. Our translator was there again and this time I had some cheesecake, and then a short conversation with my new friend!
God placed Melanie, my youth pastor, all around me that week and enabled her to help me process and let go of the prophetic words that were weighing heavily on my spirit. One tid-bit of wisdom that helped a great deal was "if it doesn't settle with your spirit; it isn't from God." She reminded me to test the words against the scriptures, and then my own heart. Thursday evening Ralf, the local youth pastor, shared with several other men, and a woman, adding their wisdom. At the end they had some prophetic time as well. I sat in my seat most of the time just watching and not wanting to go forward and be hurt again. I was praying to God telling Him that I did not desire to spend 3+ weeks working on clean up again. My filter of truth was in place and I just sat back praying and watching. Tessa approached me and said she was sent to comfort me. I wasn't going to stand by myself and take another hit from something that was/is suppose to be of God. Tessa and a few others offered to stand with me, and they did. The words spoken settled with my soul, as I carefully fed them through the filter God and I set up. God is good.
We woke early this morning and headed home, after 10 hours in a Van, with a 2-year old that was running a fever (God, please bring peace to Becca) we were back in Wauseon.
This weekend has sleep, laundry, graduation parties, and Libbey's benefit before I head off to Camp Luz again!
God Bless, and happy first official day of summer!

'08 Graduation

2008-05-29T14:37:00.001-04:00

Guess who finally graduated!! Woot Woot! Nicole and I carpooled in my amazing '91 civic with some amazing music pounding out of my system. We found that the song "Whatcha gonna do with it" by Family Force 5 sounds mega amazing coming out of my speakers; it sounds almost like it was created for my car. ;-)

Saturday night I was running a fever and felt like crap, the later it got, the worse I felt. I went to bed praying that God would help me make it through the graduation ceremony and my my party. In the morning I still did not feel to hot, but I couldn't skip church because I was being commissioned for Camp Luz. I got up, took some medicine and got ready for church. I had a headache most of the day, but I was at least better enough to smile and pretend to be healthy! Nicole showed up to my party with 9 herbal pills she got from her mom that were suppose to help me get better. I definitely felt like a giant pill popper when I took them, but they did seem to help! Ya herbs!

My family and I estimate that over 200 people came to my grandma's for my party. I felt loved and honored. I am also quite thankful to my Iowa cousins Lisa and Tasha who served that tasty soup and delicious ice cream roll. Thanks ladies!

Ethan showed up in his promised yellow shorts that had believe written on the butt. They were mega amazing! After he, Jeni, Nicole and I saw Juno Ethan told us that he had shorts like the runners, which had made me burst out in laughter every time they came on the screen, and he promised to wear them to my party! I think what made them even better were is tall argyle socks. hehe, way to be Ethan!

Senior Prom

2008-05-13T21:49:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so prom was May 3, it was super amazing!
I took Rachel (my fall roomate)! Nicole took Taylor, who fit into our group like beef on a cattle farm! The four of us went to the Barn resturant to eat before hand and had plenty of people staring and complimenting. One lady actually came up to our table and asked Taylor how he managed to get 3 ladies to dress up for him....I'm not gonna lie, we all thought it was a bit awkward, especially since none of us actually understood what she said for about 30 seconds. Rachel hid my purse while i was in the restroom..darn woman, what kind of date is she ;-) just kidding, I am SO GLAD SHE came with me! haha, her off the wall stuff real cracked us all up. For example, While we were eating Rachel stops and stairs at the wall, which is covered with antique tools, and after a bit declares "I have a random question.." Taylor and I looked at the wall, then at eachother wondering what kind of question she had. Then she stated "Why did we choose to eat at the Barn instead of some place closer?" Haha, well, maybe you had to be there Taylor and I were quite confused for a second. Then I realized what was goign on and pointed out that if we wanted to eat at a place between our house and prom we'd have to eat at the Country Dip, which is a small ice cream shop with picnic tables.
Prom was at the Valleywood Country Club in Swanton. A very nice place, except someone felt compelled to make sure that there were enough chairs around tables so that everybody could sit down at the same time. Which was silly because, well, we did not eat at prom therefore the table and chairs were basically irrelavent. Wait, they did hold our party favor gift bags (which could have jsut as easily been put somwhere else). This year one person at every table received a garder in their gift bag, if you look at the picture with Josh you can see he was the lucky winner at his table. I really thought it was a weird thing to give out a prom....but whatever. : ) Our DJ was great! While he did play a lot of rap songs; however, he was the most diverse DJ I have heard at an Evergreen dance. He played some rock, country, and of corse Techno! Nicole, Taylor, Rachel, and I squeezed onto the super small dance floor (which was made bigger after the first song because several people decided to push some of the tables away from the floor) and partied all night! The small dance floor filled with thousands of crazy dance moves that made the place crazy hot! Every 4-5 songs we would squeeze our way off the floor and head for the porch to get some cool and refreshing air. Man, I do not think I have ever danced that much, or that crazy, before! None of us are fans of the grose "all over eachother" dancing, so we started our own crew, and dropped our own moves with the rythm! Haha, we all busted some great moves!
Rachel had to get to work at Subway by 11 the next day, so she and I got up for 1st service which starts at 9:00am. That was brutle! After prom we all headed to the high school for afterprom (imagine that). After doing their inflatable obsitcle corse, money machine, and a few otehr games we headed to the media center and played Would You Rather for.....a long time. By 2:30am none of us had enough energy (all that dancing) to remember our first option so each card had to be read 3-4 times before we all could make a choice. I became slap happy and was unable to stop laughing for more that 45seconds. We tried to play Battle of the Sexes, but none of us wanted to read the dirrections. Whatever we did kinda worked because we had a grand time. A few other people dropped in to find out what the excitiment was (there was a hypnotist in the gym and 2 other people were not interested, so they joined us and had WAY MORE FUN), still the boys were unable to tell the girls what a colender was...According to the guys a colender is some article of clothing/accessory that girls wear. After Afterprom was over (at 3:30am), we went got into Taylor's spiffy BMW (okay, so he borrowed the car) only to discover that the battery was dead! We did not leave the lights on, or do anything that would cause the battery to die, Taylor was later informed that the car jsut didnt have a godo battery (Hey, thanks for the heads up)! I got our of the car and headed back into the school to find someone with jumper cables who could jump us (it may have had cables in it, but none of us knew where). Bethal jumped us and we got back home somtiem after 4...morning came too soon! But it was an awosome sermen my Ron about the simplicity of being saved, seriously it was good. Sunday I got home picked up a blanket and went for a walk., my destination was my favorite place and a good nap! Haha, what I wanted--and needed--to sleep, buti could NOT waste the beautiful day God made, so I enjoyed them both! I only slept an hour though, i was awakened by a cold that my date gave me (thanks rachel)! Haha, i should have known better than to take a sip of her mountainDew when she said that it tasted a little weird....oh well, I am pretty much over the cold now. Basically, prom was great, and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!

I don't want to say farewell to dance

2008-04-23T20:53:00.005-04:00

Well, I could be working on my psych or spanish project, and probably should be, but I don't want to sooooo, that can all wait until later. I am going to enjoy myself for a little bit. : D For the books seniorites is getting the best of me. I am quite looking forward to my last day of school which is now 18 days away. Graduation follows on May 25, yeay!

Yesterday we had a track meet at Patrick Henery against both PH and Liberty Center. The girls took first (boo-ya)! Personally I did pretty well. I took 4th in my open 100 heat (which really isn't much because it was the slower heat) but I did run faster, 15.3, which made me happy, because at the last meet I got my worst 100 time, 16.1 ...boo! Yesterday was also my first time running the open 400 (I've been signed up to run it, but I have had to leave the meets early for various, yet important reasons). I took 1st place in my heat with a time of 74! That made me quite happy, I had only ran 1 400 in a race setting, and that was at a practice a couple of weeks ago, so I did well. Pole Vaulting is fun, but I have not taken it to a meet yet. None of us are ready to compete except Devin who pole vaulted at his old school several years back. He has helped us out a bunch, especially since this is Evergreen's first year pole vaulting and the coaches have newbees too. I also have some glitches that I need to fix, but none of us are quite sure what I am doing wrong. Oh well, it's still fun.

This Friday and Saturday Jessica and I are dancing at Waldren High School in our last dance recital ever. I love to dance and have done acrobatics for the past 14 years of my life, so I have mixed feelings about this recital. Performing on the stage is thrilling and great fun, but once Saturday's show is over who knows when I will dance on a stage again. I am hoping to find a studio in Findley or Lima; however, that is not quite as simple as it sounds. Many studios only have little kid classes, and I am not to hip on the idea of starting ballet over at square one. Not only is my ballet and acrobatics over, but my church dance is done meeting for the year. The other 2 senior girls and I (as well as 2 senior guys who were game to join us dancers) are going to dance May 19 for senior commissioning to the song Pure Flow by SuperChick. I am not completely finished dancing yet; in fact, tonight a swing dance class started at the FCHC rehab center in wauseon. My buddy Josh Schafer and I have been wanting to go swing dancing since 10th grade and have finally found a place that fits our schedules and wallets! It'll be fun, Josh is like a brother to me and who knows when we will be able to hang out again.

rock music

2008-04-02T23:01:00.002-04:00

I finished reading Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock by Andrew Beaujon a few weeks back, yet I haven’t had a chance to write down just a smidgen of my ponderings. The man has some good points about how mediocrity is accepted in the Christian music industry, still he does point out that is has come a long way from its beginnings. In the midst of writing about the countless awful bands he saw and listend too, a few good bands he came across, and numerous interviews he had with bands, labels, and other big wigs, Beaujon opened my eyes to quite a bit. For instance a few years back I read a short note from the editor of CCM in which he was responding to readers questions on why Swtichfoot had not been placed on the cover yet for their new CD. He wrote that the band (or its manager, either way) had kindly asked not to be put on the cover; he then went on to state that he understood and respected their decision not to be put on the cover of a Christian magazine. Me? I didn’t get it, and at the time I remember losing a lot of respect for the band, viewing their decision as one made because they were too greedy or good for the front of a Christian magazine. After reading the book I now can look back and kick myself for being so narrow-minded. Switchfoot, as I am sure you all know, is played on mainstream and Christian markets. The band has great music and lyrics, if they would have agreed to have their picture on the front of the magazine sales on the mainstream market could plummet. People would view the band as a Christian Band souly playing music in order convert its audience, instead of viewing the group as Christians in a band. So what’s the problem? The band isn’t denouncing God and writing songs about pimps and hoes or cussing and hating, they are simply getting their “positive” lyrics and rock music to a larger audience. If you still don’t get it, I can talk to ya later; however, you are entitled to your own opinion.
Maybe to others it will seem that the book only made me more critical and opinionated towards Christian music, and more open to bands that ruffle feathers for not following a norm, but even if that is the case what is the problem? If the band is good, give them a chance. Don’t knock ‘em down for playing on certain venues or not doing something the way so many mediocre bands do, they probably are making a bigger impact on society rocking the way they do.

Spring Break

2008-03-22T17:17:00.001-04:00

A week without school and I am uber excited. Basically anyone you ask will tell you how much I want out of school. I believe that what I have is worse than senoritas. In all honesty I barely made it through Thursday (my last day before spring break); in fact, I almost lost it during band, thankfully Eric was there to give me hug and help me trudge through the last few hours. Now it is spring break! Woohoo! Today Doc and I went thrift store shopping for the musical. I got some hideous stuff for the show, it is going to be great! Everybody should come! Despite all of the hours missed because of the weather, the show is doing great. We may be a little bit behind, but the show is running smoother than we expected it to be with all the missed time. Later this week my parents and I are headed for Iowa! That will be fun. It is always a good time in Iowa, and it will be good to see my Gugel family again. At Christmas we took some family pictures since almost everyone was there and we do not know if we will have another Christmas with everybody. The picture is amazing, it pretty much portrays what most of the time the family spends together looks like. My cousins razzing on each other and all of us teasing our parents --especially our dads-- about getting old and acting like grandpa. Oh, good times!

keep the pace

2008-03-08T15:59:00.004-05:00

School is still the same-old; but outside of the academics life is moving. I truly fancy being on the go with exciting things to do; it makes me smile!

Track conditioning started two weeks ago and I am so glad I am running! It has to be one of the best decisions--if not the best decision-- I have made all school year! It took me no time at all to get in shape, and I never got sore! Earlier this week we took a trip to Cedar Point. Some of the other runners made the trip sound like it was going to be quite rough, but it was really not bad at all. Let me clarify; Cedar Point is a drill. We ride to the park (roughly a 10 min run) before Steel (coach) shouts out one of three "rides," butt-kickers, knees-to-chest, or majorette (jumping and touching toes) which we do until he says run (intense, each ride is at least 30 seconds, which may not sound like a lot, but it is). We run for 5 (or more) minutes before he shouts out the next "ride." We did all of the rides twice and then "rode" back to school. Soon I will have a chance to Pole Vault.

Musical rehearsals are picking up, well trying to, the weather has caused several cancellations resulting in us having 17.5 hours of musical practice canceled! The cast is going to have to really focus and listen to be ready curtains on April 4 and 5. It's crunch time, but we'll be able to bring everything together into a great show. After all it is My Favorite Year. ;-)

remembering, macaroni-and-cheese

2008-02-23T15:04:00.003-05:00

A year ago today I had macaroni-and-cheese for lunch.

Isn't it strange the things we remember looking back? Homemade macaroni-and-cheese a seemingly meaningless detail to remember especially a year later, but I remember a whole lot more starting at that hour (11am) than just what I ate.

Go back 5 days to Sunday. My mom and dad saw my grandpa and grandma at Arby's (it was Arby's Sunday 10% went to our youth group) and ate with them. My grandpa (Charlie) was not able to finish his sandwich, which if you knew him was a strange thing. As soon as we were finished eating I headed for Wauseon High School for my All County Band concert. After the concert I went to find my parents and grandparents in the auditorium; it was then that I was informed that grandma and grandpa were not there because grandma had taken grandpa to the hospital.

By Wednesday the doctors had finally decided that he had pneumonia. Jessica and I took sandwich's, grapes, and drinks to the hospital to eat supper with grandma and visit grandpa. I remember making sure I had my smile on when I left because grandpa always commented on my smile and demeanour. --We had this routine grandpa would always ask "How are you doing BrookE?" (he is one of the very few people I allow to call me BrookE), and I would respond "Good." To which grandpa would say "Good, good, you are always good BrookE," or something in that respect. --

Thursday the Doctors announced that they thought the worst was over.

Friday morning my uncle visited grandpa and just after he left my grandma went came into the room. "Did you see Ed in the hall?" he asked, to which my grandma replied that she had not, "You must have just missed him," he said. He took another drink of orange juice and laid down. From then on things got worse and he was gone by 11:30 that morning.

I was sitting at my normal lunch table in my normal spot --inside table in front of the doors to the outdoor senior eating area-- just about ready to bite into my reheated macaroni-and-cheese when the school Secretary, Mrs. Turner, came into the lunch room. I saw her and knew immediately that she was looking for me. She said, "your mother is signing you out." I knew what this meant, but how could it be? The last news I had received said that the worst was over and he was getting better. Scatterbrained and trying to keep composure I fumbled to pick up my dishes as Jeni and others at the table asked "what's wrong" I looked at Nicole and said "my grandpa." As they tried to reassure me I clumsy and in a daze held back tears and crossed the cafeteria, which seemed to have lengthened considerably, after being clear of half the student body--they would have had a hay-day seeing me hysterical leaving the cafeteria, I can only imagine the rumors that would have begun, but I digress-- (and seeing my mom outside of the office) I could hold back no longer.

The "normal" immediate response to grief hit I remember crying out in anguish to my mom "NO! NO, NO, NO. . . they said he was doing better. . .it's not fair." She never had to tell me what happened. I knew.

On the 1/2 ride to the hospital mom told me what had happened in detail. He didn't suffer long (thank God), and grandma later told me that he did not have the dreaded 'death rattle' the often accompanies pneumonia (like her second husband, Glen, had when he passed on, she said).

He was still in the room. Grandma wished me to go and say my goodbye. I gave him one more hug and kiss on the cheek whispered by I love you and goodbye and took my place beside my grandma. I could tell it meant a lot to her to see me do this, but I never once saw her cry. So strong in front of all of us who'd gathered there.

The viewing and funeral passed, all eight of my grandma's kids were there with their spouses. We told grandma about our previous plans to have a surprise 80th birthday party for her, as a surprise was the last thing needed.

Grandma wanted the grandchildren to take a flower from the floral arrangement on top of his casket. A red rose, there was no question. He made that flower special to me. Numerous occasions come to mind when I think of red-roses at grandma's house. I remember one time arriving at grandma's house with her and seeing a note on the inside door letting her know her that he had purchased roses for her and they were in the basement fridge. The smile on her face; she knew he loved her.

How do we keep going after experiencing a death? A year has passed since grandpa's passing and it has been over 9 years since my brother Shaun's death. How do we keep going? God carried us.

A year ago today I had homemade macaroni-and-cheese for lunch.

Baby X + websight

2008-02-14T20:04:00.005-05:00

Set up: In psych we often have seminars over various topics with related readings. Our latest seminar was over a simulation of an experiment entitled "baby X." I searched the article title and found a websight with the reading and I would truly like to here your views. http://www.gendercentre.org.au/22article4.htm

The opening question:
How do you think it would be to be raised as a baby X?
A. Befuddling B. Rewarding C. Phenomenal

My response:
Since I HAD to choose one of the three I chose Befuddling. Nobody else seemed willing to open so I brought in my "extreme" view. Befuddling seemed to be the most negative and so that it the view I chose. My own words are more negative it would be crappy to be raised as baby X. I do understand that the researchers are trying to get away from societies unwritten laws that push girls towards dolls and boys towards trucks. But this is a little bit too much. If boys and girls acted the same (girls more like boys and boys more like girls) then where would the fun be? Everybody would act the same. Difference is a good thing in life; it is what makes girls girls, and boys boys. Difference is what makes me me and not somebody else. Girls think differently than boys, boys think differently than girls. God designed us differently. Girls have estrogen boys have testosterone. Not all girls are powder puffs and not all guys are the hulk. In real life each person defies society’s rules in his or her own way. Everybody hold his or her place securely somewhere in-between he or she holds his or he own "shade of gray." God designed us differently it even says so in Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

This child was made fun of by its peers; it was not accepted by the boys or the girls. It went home crying and was comforted by his dad and cheered up by his mom. This can only happen for so long, the child's parents will not always be able to ease the child's pain. Sure the kindergarteners soon accepted X, yet the issue does not end their. Every time X meets a person or a group of people it has to face rejection. Where can the child go to the restroom in public places? Face the facts; it is a boy or a girl. If the child does not follow all of the "boy/girl" rules that is great, but let it belong. Let it have an identity.

Thanks to my mom

2008-02-09T10:30:00.001-05:00

To my beautiful mother, thank you

For calling me the Queen

For cooking fabulous meals

For shopping with me

For letting God change your mind and let me go to Zambia

For spanking me when I was younger

For loving me unconditionally

For helping me sixth grade year when Nicole and I had problems

For letting God do what he wants with me

For praying with me that night after Shaun’s funeral

For having me end every evening when I was younger by sitting on your lap and saying "I had a good day today I..." It taught me to be optimistic and find the good in everyday.

For making me do chores

For doing all of the cleaning this morning (nice surprise)

For listening to me when I wanted to talk and not prying when I do not want to talk

For giving me hugs

For supporting me in dance

For supporting me in music

For supporting me in the musical

For driving me all around for this stuff before I could drive

For paying for my dance and piano lessons

For encouraging me to do well in school

For encouraging me to follow and trust God

For allowing me to spend that past two summers (and this coming summer) where God calls me

For NOT buying the useless stuff I begged for when I was younger

For helping and encouraging me do both the musical and Pole-Vault this year

For doing your best to put up with me as a teenager

For allowing me to grow up

For allowing me to go out and experience my own life

For making me clean my room when I was younger

For being such a good mom

...and oh so much more

Thanks to my dad

2008-02-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

To my wonderful dad, thank you:

For displaying your faith in God to me all throughout my life

For joking around with me

For picking me up when I needed you most

For setting rules that I do not always agree with, but you know are right

For sticking to the rules even after I beg you to change

For working so hard to provide for my needs

For NOT giving me a lot of the things I wanted but did not need

For encouraging me to do well in school

For encouraging me to be the best me I can be in life

For reading your bible and doing your devotions every weekday morningat the breakfast table.

For loving me

For respecting me

For doing so many small projects just to make me happy

For giving me hugs

For scrapeing my windshield when you feel extra nice

For comming to all of my dance recitals

For comming to all of my paino recitals

For paying for my piano and dance lessons

For goinge the extra mile and comming to my musical dress rehersals since you could not make it to the show

For sticking up for me

For teaching me to drive stick

For laughing with me

For letting me climb into bed with you and mom during a storm or when I had a bad dream.

For getting me a guitar

For making me do chores

For teaching me to be tough

For helping me through my struggle of learning to read

For being such a good dad

...and oh so much more. I love you dad.

Keeping intouch with the little me.

2008-02-03T17:55:00.000-05:00

Meet Shank! Nicole and I created her today after we were done sledding. Her name was going to be Hank, but we wanted to make a girl snowman so her name was adapted to fit. Many people gave us funny looks as they drove by. Psh, what is wrong with two senior girls creating a snowman by a stop sign? Don't judge us...hehehe, go ahead and judge we don't care.

Before creating Shank we went to the best God made sledding hill in the county and had a blast. Neither of us have good aim, but plenty of snowballs were thrown! We soon decided a ramp was needed and set off to the little woods to find wood for it. After a lot of little pieces of wood, we decided to knock down a hollowed out tree and use it for a ramp. Rip Wannahunk (named after the little hill the hollowed tree was growing on. We decided it was the burial place of a Chief Wannahunk of the local tribe) is the best ramp ever! We got nice air, and great landings.

Alright, that is enough random babblings. Long story short, Nicole and I had a blast in the snow today...but we both wonder how we were able to keep going when we were younger. We are not as young as we used to be.

Scholarship Contest

2008-01-27T09:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I came down here to participate in a full tuition scholarship (all 4 years). 1 packet of literature, 1 lecture, and 1 essay later I still have full confidence that God's will has been done. If I receive the scholarship (2 are given) it is because God wanted me to get it; if not the scholarship will go to somebody who needs it more than I do.

Honestly I am kinda torn between the two sides. If I get the scholarship sweet deal, but then my next four years are planned out. Me living on campus at Bluffton (you have to live on campus to keep the scholarship). I do not know currently whether i wish to attend college for 4 years or go for a few years and move on with my life (I do not believe that I need to know what is going to happen for the next four years of my life right now). I do believe that if i receive the scholarship that is God's way of telling me I am staying at Bluffton for the next four years and graduating.

After I completed the scholarship portion of my weekend I spent some quality time with guitar hero and Kyle. It was loads of fun. I have only played guitar hero maybe three times in my life, including yesterday. I really like it; however, when I went to sleep I definitely had one by Matallica stuck in my head. It's all good, it was an interesting song to fall asleep to. I also tried to solve a Rubik's cube...HA, it was not successful. Kyle is super-pro at it and tried to help me, but even that didn't work. I will get it one day; i am determined.

I came back to Danae's room and we watched a Lifehouse concert on TV. Needless to say we both want to go buy their new CD now. Don't think we were lazy and sat in-front of the TV all evening. We had fun filled conversations filled with laughter and danced to soulja boy a couple of times. Hehe good times.

I was super excited about sleeping in today, but my darn self woke up before 9 and would not go back to sleep. So I gave up took a shower and wrote this blog.

God Bless

God's got it

2008-01-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

I know many are concerned for me because of my last post. Still, don't fret too much, I'm fine and it'll be okay, God has me, and because of this, I am not in the least afraid.
Sunday night I did some dancing in my room that would have been pretty...well ridiculous looking. It was amazing, God and I had a good time. And I am sure glad nobody else could see me..for so many reasons. It has been a while since I danced by myself in my room (as opposed to a group setting where we are learning/creating a dance). It was good fun and raw worship, no rules to follow, because nobody would judge me...well except God, but He is different.
I read a psalm this evening, Psalm 138 to be exact. It is encouragement. David is calling out to God in thanksgiving; thanking God for not just giving him strength but being his strength. It may not hold the meaning for you that it holds for me right now. But maybe it will help you understand; I could have written this psalm, I realy feel like I did.

1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
before the "gods" I will sing your praise.

2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and will praise your name
for your love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.

3 When I called, you answered me;
you made me bold and stouthearted.

4 May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth.

5 May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
for the glory of the LORD is great.

6 Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,
but the proud he knows from afar.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,
with your right hand you save me.

8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.

In the Stillness, I sit and wait

2008-01-18T17:19:00.000-05:00

I don't know what I am about to type. I really don't know what is going on inside me right now. I feel as if i am being torn apart, not physically though... I keep crying out as if i am in anguish, but that word seems like too much for me. My eyes are tear filled, I am not completely sure why. I want to run away from myself, not my life, my self, so i know that running away will do me no good.
I feel like I am starving my being. So i keep digging into God, crying out for him to fill this void of...loneliness? I have been reading my bible, praying, singing, dancing, crying, looking to God for the answer...but I am getting nothing. I can feel him holding me, and telling me it will be okay...but He is not filling in the missing piece. I have responded countless times with "God, I trust you. God, I know that you are in control." I repeat those words over and over again. I open my bible looking for words to comfort me, fill me in so to speak, but I keep hearing the same thing...silence. My bible reading is silent, I have prayed for God to reveal himself to me in his word; however, when I leave the table after reading...I can scarcely recall what i have just read. No passages jumping out at me, no "Aha" moments where God lets me know whats going on...just silence.
I am holding on to God so tight; I am to petrified to let go. The best way I can explain it is to try to explain this picture in my head. Picture this: complete and utter darkness, a rich, deep darkness in a room...no, there is no light in here. Me curled up on God's lap. What God sees I am not sure, but I know that he does not see the darkness that engulfs me...he can see something more...something bigger. So i cling to him tighter crying "God, I trust you." Somehow even though i feel panicked, i also feel completely calm like a still, glass, ocean, i feel peace. I don't get it...but I am also okay with that, because i understand that God does get it. He is in control. Me, ha, I am just confused.

I am waiting, patiently, waiting. God has me in his arms, he isn't letting go, and neither am I.

Junior High Retreat

2008-01-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

Oh Camp Luz, it was good to go back. Donna and I were cooks in the Kitchen for the weekend. My hands quickly became dried, painfully so, from constantly being damp and washed. But it is okay, they are getting better.
Saturday was a long and tiring day (which I enjoyed fully). The Dishwasher broke, the bleach line, so we (Jenny, Donna, and I) began to wash the dishes by hand. What fun, the repairman did come quickly to repair the problem...yeah God. We finished the dishes just in time for the health inspector to come, yeah God, we got a spotless report! The bleach line broke again, yeah God, we were able to fix it ourselves. Rochell, Donna, and I sat down 5 times all day (from 7am-11pm), for meals, to fold laundry, and one 20 minute break. After we finished up in the Kitchen Donna, Emily (on Video/dishwasher), and I were guards for the night game! Good times, we (Emily traveled with me for part of the game)had spiritual applications each time we caught a group.
Donna, Emily, and I stayed up late that night watching the clock do cool things like 2:34:56 (we had been watching the clock all day for the fun filled celebration that came with each sequence of numbers) enjoying a shot of Kiwi-Strawberry Juice base (that is powerful and tasty stuff), and the delicious cookie-bars...mmmm. Donna and Emily talked about Déjà vu, and were quite surprised to learn that I had never had a Déjà vu moment before, apparently most people have them. Oh well, I must be weird.

Oh, I almost forgot. Emily got a swirly! It was good fun, and in a very clean toilet (thanks to Donna).

2008 The year I graduate

2008-01-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

So this wont be long, I should pack. Just a quick update. I started the last chapter of the the past 13 years of my life. Haha, the last semester of my Senior year! I graduate May 25, come to my fiesta!

I am taking Psychology first block, band second, I am a student aid third block in the media center (aka library), 4th block Spanish III.

I am excited about Psychology; the study of the mind is really interesting to me. So far, so good....haha but then again it has only been four days. In band we are sight reading a lot of music for contest, I love it! Sight reading is so much fun, a new challenge with each piece of music! My aiding job in the library is...not much of a job. I study, fill out scholarships, and search the Internet (today I occupied my time by memorizing my Spanish speech and reading about a political candidate online, woohoo). Spanish III will be rough, I have not had a Spanish class for over a year, and I do not remember very much...at all. Today I gave a speech in Spanish introducing myself with 11 items that "represented" me.

I have been running for track. My school is offering PoleVaulting for the first time this year, and I have always thought that it sounded like fun, so i am going to go for it! It is probably the only time I will ever get a chance to launch myself in the air! so I am excited... I just have to get in shape now. boo

Sadly, I am not sure I can do both track and the musical..so i may have to drop the musical....and give up parts (Daisy, a dancer, and a clown).

On a better note, I AM GOING TO CAMP THIS WEEKEND! I am cooking for the Junior Highers. I am excited to go back to camp, I miss camp.

Nicole's Chemistry Quotes

2008-01-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

Quotes of Wisdom from Nicole, during Chemistry class last year.

~ “All of life is done.”
1/25/07
-She was misunderstood Mr. Dymond who had said “All’s I’ve done.”

~ “As lame as your foot”
1/25/07
-I heard, “Where is your foot?”

~ “Trees are terrific”
2/2/07
-She was singing an arbor day song.

~ “Look, I could have a beard!”
3/1/07
-While holding her hair in front of her face.

~ “Arbor day starts with and H.”
3/12/07
-while reading her previous quotes.

~ “My face says things to you Brooke.”
3/12/07

~ Use Recyclable food”
3/16/07
- A way to save energy.

~ “You’re chicken for that?”
4/10/07
- Misunderstood me who said “I’m checking for that.”

~ “You need to be quiet because I’m old.”
4/11/07

~ “I almost talk like a Native American.”
4/11/07

~ “Isn’t it [Magnesium] in bananas?”
4/11/07

Christmas Break

2007-12-30T22:24:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you, and am so blessed to have an amazing mom like you.

Christmas Break has been awesome. I am done working until February;the perfume place is closed, my Bosses are doing inventory in the Bahamas, and Nicole is taking over me job on the farm. For the most part I am excited, yet I am very aware that no work means no income, which means no gas money. I think I saved plenty of money this semester to make it through January and have fun with my friends...ask me again late in January. ;-)

My parents and my brother went to Iowa 25-28, it was loads of fun! Kyle (my cousin, who wrote a note telling me that he is the 1st Kyle) was up from Texas so it was nice to see him again. He and Caleb cracked quite a few good jokes and had us all crying with laughter. Shannon cut my hair for me at the Salon where she works and it looks great! My little cousin Aleigha (who is now 9) hung out with me non-stop! She gave up her bed for me and slept in a sleeping bag on the floor (thanks girlfriend, you are cool). We played Apples to Apples at Ryan and Tasha's I learned quite a few different things during that night. Did you know that it is a was not a good year for cashews? Ryan thinks so, the cashews in Tasha's chex-mix just where not to up to par in his opinion. Friday it snowed about 6" looked nice, but made the gravel roads more slick, luckily the roads were cleared enough for us to head home at 8.

We got home at 3 and I slept til noon (man, that was awesome). Made it up to my Grandma Pat's at 1. There were 46 of us up there (and that is not near all us), still it was great fun. I won a Euchre game, and played several rounds of fast-scrabble. Rocked John and Jamie's baby, Braelyn, to sleep. There were a lot of babies and young children there so many of my cousins are having kids, it is just craziness. 2 of my cousins and I went to see the second National Treasure, The Secret Book, I was pleasantly to surprised. It was a fairly good movie the 3 of us agreed that it was worth the price of the movie ticket.

My parents and I took down my grandma's Christmas decorations today with the help of my Aunt and Uncle Gary. We then played fast-scrabble and ate left overs (including a cake) to celebrate my mothers birthday!

The only plans I have left for Christmas break are to take down our Christmas Decorations tomorrow, go to an awesome concert tomorrow, and work on the song I wrote. Which I will do Wednesday, Eric is going to meet with me at the Church at 4:30 to help me write the guitar part, I have it in my head, but am not the good at guitar. I am excited to work on the song! I have no idea if anything will ever come of it, but it came to me one evening and want to finish getting it written down. Maybe we will play it at MYF (youth group) some evening! That would be cool. I will see what God does with it, he brought the song to me, I am trying to do my part by getting it down.

Christmas Carol Pondering

2007-12-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

Most people are familiar with the Christmas Carol "The Twelve Day's of Christmas;" the question I pose is this: Do you add the gifts each day so that by the end of the song is this person stuck with have 12 partridges in pear trees, 22 turtle doves... 40 maids a milking...?

It it in my opinion that the singer does own all of these presents. In Math the word "and" implies addition; in the carol the word "and" is used to join all of the gifts each day. Conclusion this person has a lot of stuff by the end of the twelve days. Poor guy (Yes, I do know that the gifts are all hidden religious symbols.)

What is your take on the song? Does this guy have a heap of rings and hens by the end of the carol, or does he only have the obvious number stated?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 True Love refers to God

2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments

3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues

4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists

5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation

7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments

8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes

9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments

11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles

12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
(according to http://www.carols.org.uk/the_twelve_days_of_christmas.htm)

Creepy story for english

2007-12-13T20:49:00.001-05:00

1 December 2007

Christmas break is still nineteen days away, and I entered yet another boring week at Evergreen. I do not know if I am capable of make it that much longer. Every day school is the same thing over and over again. My repetitive schedule goes something like this: I wake up, get ready for school, drive twenty minutes to Evergreen, sit in an English class, go to band, sit in a speech class (which is basically another English class), and finally drive home. My life is becoming too monotonous.
My weekly highlight, I hope that I have not kept you, my loyal readers, in suspense for too long. Especially since this weeks highlight is not extraordinarily thrilling. I went to the eye doctor hoping that he could do something about my new glasses (they have been throwing off my depth perception). This was a waste of my time because he simply said, “Just wait until Tuesday and see if they get better.” I waited this long to come in hoping the glasses would get better and he told me to wait longer! Anyways, I got back into my car and waved to an old man who was walking his two dogs; he motioned for me to wait a minute because he had something to say to me. I cautiously rolled down my window and he told me that I have a look-alike in Arkansas. She is his cousin, and he thought it was important for me to know. I chuckled and told him I thought that it was kind of cool to learn that I had a double. He laughed and said something about how he met his double outside of a factory. “You probably think I am a weirdo,” he said just before shaking my hand. He told me that I could hit him for being mean and bothering me. I simply told him I that I did not think that he was being mean and that I would not hit him. The man laughed again, jokingly hit my shoulder, told me to have a nice day, and continued to walk his dogs.
This was an awfully strange encounter to be sure; nevertheless, it was the most interesting part of my week.

Once again,
Brooke

~ ~ ~

8 December 2007

Once again, there is nothing new or exciting at Evergreen. I still have the same classes day after day: two English associated classes and one music class. Luckily, there are only twelve days until Christmas break. I might be able to make it without dying of boredom.
Again, my weekly highlight is not that exciting. In Honors English we are studying three horror stories. In each story there are characters that have a double of some sort, or two characters that are complete opposites. This is called the doppelganger. Last week I met a man who said he knew my double! He knows my doppelganger! I am not superstitious; however, there are not many good things to say about having a doppelganger. Most of what I have read about doppelgangers reads that when the two look-alikes meet, they perish. Since I do not plan on going to Arkansas and meeting my double, I think that I will survive. Besides that, to be a true doppelganger her personality must be the complete opposite of mine. That is extremely unlikely and like I said before, I am not superstitious.

Once again,
Brooke

~ ~ ~

15 December 2007

Three projects were due this week in Honors English, and I have one more project due on Tuesday. It is a challenge to balance high school, family, a boyfriend, friends, church, two evenings of dance, two part time jobs, and the normal stress of a teenager, without losing sight of the sun. It is hard work. Most adults forget how much crud teenagers deal with.
To top of my full week, my weekly highlight is more like an uncontrollable bonfire of coincidence. I saw the strange old man outside the post office in Morenci, Michigan! He saw me walk out of the post office and stopped me to say that his cousin, my look-alike, is coming to town this Thursday! He thinks that she and I should have lunch. I am curious to see if this woman, whose name I still do not know, and I really are look-alikes. I told the man I would meet her at the Pizza Box at 6:30 Friday evening.
I can’t wait; I really think that it will be fun to meet this lady.

Once again,
Brooke

~ ~ ~

22 December 2007

Man, this was an engaging week! Christmas break is here and booming; no more exams, no more double-dipping in the English department. Upon returning from break, January 7, it will be a new semester of school, which means all new classes!
I met her! I met my look-a-like! She never gave me her name, yet her name was not what I wanted to know; her face is what I wanted to see. Believe it or not, she did seem to be a mirror image of myself. However, her demeanor was quite different from my warm-hearted manner. It may sound like a child’s phantom to you, my readers, yet ever sine I met her I have had this uncanny sense that I am not alone; I feel like everywhere I go, someone is watching me. I have probably just been reading too much on the doppelgangers; it is said that after meeting, the two look-alikes perish. I am not superstitious, but the proverb still sits in my mind and plays tricks in my head. Redundancy seems to be a lead in my updates; nevertheless, it puts my mind at ease to repeat that I am not superstitious and this feeling is surely just a phantom of my mind.

Once again,
Brooke

~ ~ ~

29 December 2007

I have nothing new to share, just my “highlight.”
I feel that I should stop calling this section of my updates the highlight, because they all seem to revolve around this strange man and my twin-like shadow. It was violently storming last night as I laid down to rest in my soft and comforting bed. But I distinctly remember hearing my closet door slowly creek open. Shortly thereafter a strange, and still familiar, shadow crept across my room and exploited my open door. Exactly four minutes later, a truck door slammed shut, groaned to a bitter start, and rapidly growled its way through the brisk and stormy night. What if someone really is following me? This is all just a fabrication that my mind created, right? Doppelgangers are not real, there is no curse that comes when a person meets somebody else who looks just like her, I hope.
That is all for this week. I am letting my mind dwell too long in this place. I just need to forget her. I need to forget how much she looked like me with her thick, dark, curly locks of hair that hid her heart shaped face and devious brown eyes. Don’t misunderstand me, it was fun to meet someone that looked like me, but it was strange to “look in the mirror” and see someone whose presence chilled my very soul.

Once again,
Brooke

~ ~ ~

1 January 2008

Here I write
On one late night
More on my life
Eerily I create strife

Never again shall you read
One week, one great deed
Massacre in the street
Only one was brutally beat
Roam free I, roam peacefully
Entertain fate carefully

Doomed to die
Eye to eye
Atoning death
Took her breath
Hurry, too late, Brooke has marked her fate
~Rebeccah

Romanticist essay/presentation

2007-12-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

Brooke Gugel 3,2
Mrs. Sohnly
Honors Language 12
8 December 2007

Instead of viewing the world with austere guidelines, romantics viewed the world with unlocked hearts and unchained minds. The Romantic age changed the way in which the world was viewed. “View the world with an open mind,” a bold statement that Romantics would collectively agree with. Views from the Romantic Age continue to elicit themselves into modern society. The Beatles, a popular rock band of the twentieth-century, wrote a song entitled “All You Need is Love.” This song illustrates the modern day effects of the Romantic Movement.
A viewpoint implying that “with love everything is possible” is a Romantic idea. Not all Romantic literature thrives on the theme of love; however, this particular song, inscribed by The Beatles, does articulate the power of love. When The Beatles sing “All You Need is Love,” they are mirroring Alphonse’s open-minded prediction that tribulations can be solved purely by love. In Mary Shelley’s romantic novel Frankenstein Alphonse, Victor Frankenstein’s father believes that if his son marries Elizabeth, his troubles will disappear because the two love one another. Throughout The Beatles’ song, a sense of encouragement for the average man is depicted. One line of the song states, “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done” This vocalization is meant to encourage every man, especially the middle-class man, to do his best because nothing is impossible. Giving common man the supreme attention was not only something The Beatles did, but it was also something that Romantic writers often did. Romantic writers wrote for the common people using familiar language. They wanted ordinary people to be able to feel and understand their writings.
Writers during the Romantic Age believed that it was time to elucidate literature for all classes of society. With free minds and unbolted hearts, writers tailored the literary world from its limiting concrete structure to a vast and boundless ocean. In modern day the effects of the Romantic Age can still be seen. The Beatles song, “All You Need is Love,” is just one of the many zealous examples of modern romantic works. It holds true to multiple romantic characteristics, not only does the song portray an optimistic and open-minded view on the positive effects of love, but it also conveys a sense of importance to the middle-class by directing the song to the middle-class audience. With the new outlook on literature writing, Romantic authors modified the way modern artists portray the surrounding world.

Concept of Evil

2007-12-11T18:53:00.002-05:00

Abominable, loathsome thoughts squeeze and ooze about the soul when given a chance to fester. Evil contrives its way to the forefront of the mind and gleefully encourages strange notions. These sinister thoughts contort the peace of mind and destroy good foundations. Nothing is reputable about evil; it has a sordid demeanor about it which odiously causes the ruin of its beholder. Frankenstein, Henry Jekyll, and Macbeth fondle sinister ideas that eventually cause their own abhorrent ruin.
The creators of these poignant characters have their own ideas about evil. They reveal these ideas by using these insidiously loathsome characters. Mary Shelley believed that science should not try to take part in creating living things; she exposes this idea by causing Frankenstein to be ruined after creating an ugly creature. Robert Louis Stevenson enlightens his readers with his belief that everybody has an evil side by causing Dr. Jekyll to be taken over by his evil-nemesis, Mr. Hyde. Macbeth became parched for power and murdered his king, which in turn made him king. Shakespeare could distinguish that loathsome acts, such as Macbeth’s murderous acts, were caused by over-ambition. The authors wove their personal definitions of evil into their novels.
Victor Frankenstein grew in knowledge and learned the secret of life. He decided to use his knowledge to create a being of his own; however, this being was so hideous that not even Frankenstein could love him. Unable to find love or friendship the monster unleashed his insensate anger on Frankenstein, and disconsolately murdered Frankenstein’s family and friends. Victor Frankenstein’s greed for fame and fortune backfired causing him his family, friends, and peace of mind. “From the tortures of my own heart…This also was my doing.” (Frankenstein, 60) he proclaimed early on, realizing that his evil desires had caused him his own misery.
Dr. Jekyll let the ideas of a duel life fester in his mind. These ideas became reality after his potion was complete; he could live his life in two separate bodies. Dr. Jekyll would be considered decorous and venerated by all, while his inscrutable form, Mr. Hyde, could fulfill Dr. Jekyll’s sordid yearnings of sinister behavior. It seemed ideal; Dr. Jekyll could be abhorred by everyone with no chance of ruining his own reputation. This seemed ideal to many Victorian gentlemen, “But it was a fact of life that this moral code [of faultless conduct] was often breached…” men would often take on forged names and live a wild life with no consequences (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1). The problem lies in the certainty that Mr. Hyde became emulously powerful and threatens Dr. Jekyll’s chance at a worry-free lifestyle. Overcome by the evil that he originally nourished, Dr. Jekyll commits suicide.
Initially Macbeth is loyal and true to his king, intrepidly fighting abominable enemies who threatened his king. Yet during his journey towards home after a hard-fought battle, three witches plant a seed of sinister thoughts. To make the fate that the witches proposed come true, Macbeth coquetry takes fate into his own hands and murders the king. His immoral deed opens the door to additional evil dealings of treachery and murder. After having Banquo murdered, Macbeth’s conscience acquires the best of him. He begins to imagine the ghost of Banquo to be haunting him, “Prithe, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you…” (Macbeth, 288). These words spoken by Macbeth prove his evil action. He knows how abhorrent his actions are, and that they are driving him mad by causing him to see phantoms.
The character that is the most sinister and abhorrent is Victor Frankenstein. He creates a beast more powerful than himself, and unleashes the beast into the world. He does not befriend the creature, teach the creature to speak, or show the creature how to survive. Victor abandons the creature which provokes the creature to perform sordid and inordinately sinister acts against Victor. When Victor’s beloved friend, Justine, is incarcerated for the murder of Victor’s young brother, Victor does not proclaim his monster to be the true murderer, even though he knows that it is a correct accusation against the monster. He does not proclaim the truth because he is fearful of the people’s reaction to him; he selfishly places his own social status above his dear friend’s life. These loathsome acts prove Victor Frankenstein to be the most sinister character.
When given a chance, evil will wind its way through the soul and captivate the mind. It will destroy good intentions and ruin tranquility and well-established thoughts. It is in all people, yet not everybody allows it to fester and cultivate. Mary Shelley employed Frankenstein to prove the evil wills of science. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to warn people against allowing evil to fester. Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, warned people of over ambition. Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, and Macbeth allowed sinister thoughts to sprout and grow. In each case this lead to udder and absolute destruction.

Update

2007-12-08T22:03:00.000-05:00

Time for a quick update on my currently stressful life. Christmas break is approaching (at a painfully slow rate in my opinion) which has caused my Honors English teacher to go overboard on essays and projects. She gave my class an essay on the concept of evil, and a Horror story writing assignment. The Concept of Evil paper was simple enough to write, yet Horror Stories are not my forte so that was harder to write (and really is a bad story in my opinion) I based it off of a short innocent encounter I had with an older gentleman while in Michigan; it is lame (in my opinion, which as the author is a credible source). Later that week she gave out two more projects a short essay and presentation in which I must take a modern media and compare it to Romantic literature (I chose The Beatles, "All you Need is Love"). For the last project I have to research the Victorian Age and discover how they would decorate a Christmas tree and then decorate one myself, I also must create a Victorian-Christmas card, and a Victorian Christmas stocking. The three essays are due this week (I may post them if you would be interested in reading my super exciting essays and my terrible horror story). The Victorian Christmas thing is due December 18. On top of that I have Christmas parades for band (and a band concert on the 16th), Speeches to prepare and deliver and then a life outside of school (work, dance, church, and friends...well I really do not have time for them anymore as much as I wish I did). If all goes well on these projects I will boost my grade back up to an A and not have to take the final exam...oh please, please, please I really haven't been listening to the Romantic Poetry we are reading in class (I can't concentrate I have too much on my plate) and do not want to have to study and learn it for the exam. On a brighter note Christmas break begins on the 21 (the 20th if I can get an A), and when I go back to school January 7th I will have all new classes waiting for me (woohoo for block scheduling!).

MUSICAL REHEARSALS WILL BEGIN IN JANUARY! The results came in of Friday, I am finally a dancer! I guess I am also a clown who will kidnap some guy or something like that. The musical is My Favorite Year, it is a lesser-known Broadway musical comedy. So everyone who is anyone should come to it on April 4 or April 5...mark your calenders! hehehe

I finally got my pictures from Kellie; she did a very nice job. I don't have any of the pictures that she took on the stairs, they must not have turned out...bummer. It is all good; I have some awesome pictures with a grande piano, and amazing pictures at Camp Luz. The only thing left that I think might be fun are some pictures in the snow!

Okay, enough updating, just thinking about school tires me out...I am going to bed.

Oh Thumbelina

2007-11-28T14:56:00.000-05:00

Thumbelina awoke one day
She decided to go out and play
Summer was here and about
Thumbelina indeed wanted out
Through the garden she did go
Enjoying the sights to and fro
Entering the rows of cucumbers and melons
She had no idea she was near some felons
Sitting on top of a nice cucumber
A baseball game she decided to ponder
Across the street her friends played hard
No idea she’d soon be charred
Never again to romp outside
Her physique had never been so tried
Hit was the ball, hit high and far
Coming close to a passing car
Crashing against Thumbelina’s heart
Launching her from her sitting part
Landing near with a sudden thud
Taking a hit from her big bad bud

picture: copywright 2005 S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Merry Christmas

2007-11-26T20:48:00.000-05:00

Let me start out with an apology to my mother. I have always enjoyed Christmas with my family, and am very thankful for all of the gifts that I have received. We always read the Christmas story before opening presents. Thank you, it helps remind me every year what Christmas truly is about, and why people celebrate it on such a large scale. I hope that you will come to forgive me, and understand what I am trying to say. I am not trying to hurt you or Christmas, I am just trying to step back, and remind people about the true meaning of Christmas. I love you mom, you are very special to me, and I am very lucky to have such a compassionate mother.

What I am disgusted with is the commercialized business that Christmas has become. It has become a distraction from the true celebration. Trees and commercials appear near the end of October. This caused me to become weary before the holiday season began. It may sounds selfish, but I wanted to enjoy autumn and the beauty of the trees that God created. I wanted to spend time thanking God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon me this year, I am so unworthy of these blessings. I enjoy seeing lights, and hearing some Christmas music, after Thanksgiving, because it displays joy and celebration. I fear that we too often forget why we are hanging lights and singing Christmas songs and only do so for the sake of saying we did, or to impress our friends and neighbors...we forget the bliss and wonder of the season, the genuine Christmas spirit.

While I believe a gift is a great way to show someone that you care, I do not believe that so much money needs to be spent to display this feeling. A simple hug or a short note of encouragement can often be more heartfelt than a new shirt or DVD. I enjoy the phrase
"the best gifts often come in small packages," how true. To put it in my own words, which I hope will shine light on my feelings, The best gifts are not always the most expensive, but they are always the gifts that hold the most heart. One of the best gifts to give and receive is time. Whether it be physically spending time with someone or taking time to select the right gift, it causes a gift to hold more love and essence.

the tip of the iceberg

2007-11-25T22:02:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was so much fun, I went to Columbiana to hang out with Kyle, his family, and friends. It was great, now really tired and ready for a nap...oh wait, I have school tomorrow, so much for that idea ;-) Thanks for making it such a great thanksgiving!

Now all people can see is christmas-- yes, in my opinion christmas with a lower case C-- the "buy me now" season. I am sick of it! I had expected to feel slightly less into the season last year since it was the first Christmas after my summer in Zambia; I did think it was overdone, but not as much I do this year. Last year I really did not want a gifts but i still gave my mom gift idea's when she asked and I was very excited for christmas; I really got into the season. I wanted to go and cut the tree the day after thanksgiving, I enjoyed the lights, the decorations, the shopping, the music.....but this year it all seems so lame...so meaningless...so mundane.

It seems to me that very few people celebrate Christmas, most are too wrapped up and busy with the season to realize that christmas isn't about the decorations, the lights, the shopping, or the christmas trees; they forget the Christmas is about the magnificent and glorious birth of Jesus.

... much more later

results are in

2007-11-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

DRUM ROLE PLEASE.....

April test composite score: 21

OCTOBER TEST COMPOSITE SCORE: 26!!!!!

(I needed a 23 for the scholarship)

Thank you so much for all of the prayers! They were definitely answered loud and clear. In case you are unaware, raising your composite score 5 points is unusual. Not only does the 26 qualify me for the scholarship equalization program, but it also puts me in a higher bracket of financial aid as well. Praise God, It looks like I am going to Bluffton Next year!

To celebrate, eat ice cream tonight! (and tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and ....well you get the point).

Thanks again!

The Break down:

April English: 22
October English: 27

April Math: 21
October Math: 23

April Reading: 20
October reading: 28

April Science: 21
October Science: 24

Praise God,
Brooke Gugel

The Buffalo Week

2007-11-13T17:12:00.000-05:00

Maybe I should explain why I call my past week a buffalo week before I go into the actual details. Thursday morning I was at school for FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) bright and early, 7:00. Somebody asked me how my week was going and I replied by saying that it had been an eventful week. Mr. Blanchong, the teacher who oversees FCA, overheard and thought that I said my week had been buffalo. It was humorous at the time, and I think it describes the week very well. I will probably use it again in the future.

Saturday (11/3/07)
I went to the Circle K in downtown Wauseon to get gasoline after I finished working at Perfumes and More. I pulled up to pump one and could only see a diesel pump, so instead of pulling to a different pump I went to Newcomes, a marathon gas station, when I pulled in at Newcomes I realised that I had taken my gas cap off at Circle K (I am now uptown). So I got my gas and retraced my steps (I even went into Circle K to see if anybody had taken it inside)...no luck, my gas cap was gone. But I did see my friend Rebeca getting gas the the "diesel" pump, i was confused because she drove a car...definitely not made for diesel. Then i realised that on the other side the the "diesel" pump was a hose for unleaded (etc). Yep, I am a genius. One that cannot look on the left side of a pump to see the other hose.

Luckily we have a honda accord that nobody uses sitting at home, the gas cap fits nicely on my beautiful Honda Civic.

Sunday (11/4/07)
I drove my mothers car to church. After Church I carpooled with Nicole to a Chinese restaurant (mmm), school for a band concert, and back home to my house. That evening I went up to my grandmas to clean the gutters on the shop. I did not have my keys, but simply assumed that they had fallen onto my bed when I picked up my purse, no big deal.

Monday (11/5/07)
The next morning I am ready to leave for school, but I cannot find my keys. Oh well, I will find them after school; I take my dad's keys. I head out to my car and try to start it...the battery is completely dead. OH SNAP. --I still am not sure why it was dead, nothing was left on.-- My mom and I try to jump my car...it is hooked up for 10 minutes and not getting any better. So I take my moms car and leave for school. Of course I get a tardy, no big deal. After school I try in vein to find my car keys at home...

Tuesday (11/6/07)
I ask My. Lyons, the super amazing band director, if anybody has turned in keys..of course not.
I leave for work early so that I can stop at Church and look for my car keys. I gave up and started to play piano...next thing I know I have to be at work in five minutes. OH SNAP, i ran to my car, went above 10 miles an hour in the church parking lot, hit the lights just right, pulled into a parking spot, speedily waled to work, and made it right on time. whew, that was close.

Wednesday (11/7/07)
I am really getting annoyed with my dad's keys. They are very temperamental, and only work a certain way (as his a a copy, I have the original). To get into my car I have to unlock the passengers door (after trying to unlock the drivers door, because I forget every time), reach across and unlock the drivers door) Once in the drivers seat I have to work with the keys to make them start my car. After finishing work on the farm I look for my keys in Nicole's Jetta...no luck.
Wednesday's I have worship dance at church, I share my buffalo week, and ask that they pray that I find my keys (yes, it is petty, and I admitted that to the dancers, but it is kind-of a scary thing to lose your keys).
After dance I drove to another church for We Will Worship-- a bunch of local youth groups to come together purely for worship. --It was really cool, and I could feel God's presence all around us, even though I only knew one song (that isn't what is important). I headed back to the Church to drop off a few girls, and meet with the MYFers (youth group people) who were going to run Kids Connections Sunday morning for me (we decided show a clip from VeggieTales Joshua and the Big Wall). Luckily somebody else noticed that I left my lights on and turned them off for me..close call, good thing I have jumper cables in my trunk, I almost needed them...again.
**Thanks God for having a sponsor turn off my lights, I don't think I could have handled a buffalo that was much bigger than what I already had, and you knew that. Though it may seem small to other people, I know that you used the sponsor and my lights to remind me that you loved me and had control of my life.**
My dad calls me and tells me that he stopped at the Chinese restaurant, where Nicole and I had eaten on Sunday, and asked about me keys...no luck.

It was time to frantically search my house, again.

God helped me find them. woohoo!!!

Here is where they hid (my room). My keys were caught and wrapped around (so you could not see them hanging down) On the right side, where the frame makes and X. If you were looking for my keys, you would not be able to see them in this shot. To find my keys you would have to be stating right above the chair. At every other angle the keys are hidden.

I will admit it, I was overjoyed. I jumped up and down, laughed, did a little dance, and yelled " I FOUND MY KEYS, I FOUND THEM," roughly 20 times and then called my friend Doc to share the good news... She was not quite as excited as I was ;-)

That pretty much wraps up the excitement; I have no doubt that God helped me all throughout my buffalo week. If you disagree with me oh well, I believe that God helps in small ways as well as in the big ways.

Remember to thank God for the small moments of relief and encouragement when your next Buffalo week comes to steal your peace.

Grand Piano

2007-11-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

In case you could not tell, I got some pictures taken with a grand piano today (thank you to my photographer, aka my mom). It was fun, many did not turn out as well as we had hoped, but that is okay. Here are my (and my moms) favorites. Sorry they may be they are hard to see (click on it to see full size, it'll help a bit...mom). I really really REALLY like all of the pics with me on top of the beautiful grand piano, so they will be hard to narrow down. The right top and middle are possible year book pics (my mom likes one I like the other, go figure). I am hoping that Kellie sends me the pictures she took this summer soon (like within a couple of days) so that I have a better option for the year book (and pick out the other pics), who knows if that will happen. Oh well, no big.

um... that is it so smile :)

The Sunsets on the ACT bathroom

2007-10-29T22:15:00.000-04:00

Did anybody else see the Sunset last Tuesday (10/23/07)? It was amazing, I love God so much! Sunsets have got to be one of the main ways that I feel/see God's love. I guess it could be said that sunsets/sunrises are God's way of showing me how much he loves me! Man last Tuesday God was really trying to get His point across! I was awed by the sunset's glory and power. Every couple of minutes it would be a different color that illuminated the hemisphere! When the sun set farther, the crimson glow was so rich and dark, i have never seen such a sight (and I saw African sunsets).

Okay, okay, sorry, I will stop talking about the sunset (but it was raw and amazing)! Saturday was ACT day, I really do not know how I did, but i DO KNOW that GOD'S will was done and I have nothing to worry about. I will let ya all know my score in a few weeks, when I know. A side note that I do not recall telling anybody, but is applicable food for thought, The first time I took the ACT's I prayed that God would help me receive the score that would get me into the college he wanted me to go to. The 21 ruled out the University of Iowa, the college I really wanted to attend not only for their performing arts major (dancing) but also for their football team GO HAWKEYES, yet the 21 was score that helped get me into Bluffton University (a college that I was not even considering at that time). hmmm, funny how God works sometimes and we don't even realize it until we stop and take time to look back and reflect.

I painted my bathroom today! No more light blue paint with stick on fishey's. It is now purple with a light purple ceiling! Actually I think the color is Mikaela or something like that, whatever, I like it. I am not a fan of trimming, yuck, but I did not do too bad of a job. Tomorrow I will get a better look at how i did when their is light.

I think that was all i had to update....maybe not....even-so it is all that I remember right now. Sorry, about the randomness of this blog, just look at it as a nice variety. Where else will you read about Sunsets, ACTs, and Painting Bathrooms?

Smile Jesus loves you so very much,
~Brooke Anne Gugel

"Follow Me"

2007-10-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

I am calling out for the power of prayer. This past summer (summer of 07) I worked at Camp Luz in Kidron, Ohio (3 hours from home). It was during this summer that i felt God calling me to major in Youth Ministry at Bluffton University. I have since applied and been accepted into Bluffton University. Here is the clincher, I need to receive a 23 on the ACT's this Saturday (October 27 8am-noon) to financially afford Bluffton (I received a 21 in April, the first time I took the ACT-a 36is a perfect score). Bluffton (a private Christian University) has a Scholarship equalization program that will give me $11,360 per year (for the 4 years of college), this scholarship makes Bluffton cost the same amount of money that the average state-funded university costs. I qualify for this scholarship in every way except for the ACT score (I am not a very good test taker even though I am a good student in High School). I have been praying a lot, if this is truly where God is calling me to go (as I believe it is), and what God is calling me to do,(as I believe it is) I have full faith that HE will help me receive AT LEAST a 23 (I am not going to put limits on God). Your prayers would be most appreciated throughout this week, and Saturday morning.

This ACT test is also my fleece. It is my final confirmation for college (as I have already had other signs) or my sign to take a huge step back and re-evaluate what God is calling me to do (if the 23 is not received). I know that I cannot receive a 23 without God's divine intervention.

God is in control. I have put all of my faith in him. Today Windell Nofziger (my youth pastor) gave the sermon (wanna hear it? mp3). It was entitled "Follow me" it gave six points of what it means to follow Jesus (not all of the ways); his sermon spoke right to me and encouraged me in my way (especially this week) it encouraged me-- let me know that I am doing the right thing.
1) We TRUST Jesus. "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5
-- Hey, I am trusting God fully, and I know that my own understanding will not get me far enough on the ACT's.

2) We don't KNOW all the DETAILS ahead of time.
-- Nope, it is true I don't, but I trust God, and Follow him anyways. He knows best --not me!

3) We will do things that are BEYOND our own ABILITIES. "A God-sized assignment is one that you cannot do on your own. If God doesn't help you, you will fail." - Henry Blackaby
-- Timed tests --like the ACT's-- are not my forte, I WILL FAIL WITHOUT GOD'S HELP.

4) It will require FAITH. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 11:6
--ain't that the truth, i want to please God and I feel that Youth Ministry is where He wants me, so I am stepping out in faith with the ACT. But I also trust that if God doesn't help me receive the 23, he will still be helping me, and be with me, during the test. --he doesn't leave or forsake us, ya know, it says so all over the bible: Deuteronomy 31:6,Deuteronomy 31:8, Joshua 1:5, 1 Kings 8:57-- and so if he doesn't help me receive at least a 23 He will show me what he wants me to do and where he wants me to go, re-direct me in a different way down a different path, or the same path just a different route that i can't see.

5) Jesus will be our MODEL. The wrong question "what can I do for God?" a better question: "God, where can i join you in your work?" It says in John 5:17, 19-20 "Jesus said to them, 'My father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working. I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.'"
-- I really desire to fit into God's will, and that is one reason for ACT fleece. If I am right on track with God's plan, he will provide at least a 23 on the ACT's (or the money some other way, that I cannot see), if I am not seeing God's will, He will not help me achieve at least a 23 on the ACT's. I believe that Youth Ministry is where God wants me to join him in his work, I truly enjoy working with teenagers!

6) Following Jesus means we will respond, "Yes, Lord." Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what say?" Wendell says " If we say 'No, Lord, I can't possibly do that' then you're saying much more about what you believe about God than what you believe about yourself!"

--I am trying to do what God says, but I know that I cannot do it on my own. I cannot achieve a 23, but God can work through me and achieve so much more than a 23.

I think i mentioned is above but just in case the sermon notes were taken from Wendell Nofziger's super sweet sermon, that pushed me to sacrifice the ACT's even further, with even more faith, and hope. Romans 5: 3b-5 says "...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us..." --I may not be suffering, but I am sacrificing pushing, stretching, and growing in faith.

His sermon is not the only place I got this message today, The VeggieTales my mom wanted to watch (Mo and the Big Exit) is a take from Moses and his faith in God to deliver the people--Moses could not deliver them by himself. In the Sunday School class that I taught today (by the by, that went very well, but that could be another blog) we discussed Leah and how she trusted God to fill her need to be loved, Jacob, her husband, did not fill this need, it says in Genesis 29:31 "...the Lord saw that Leah was not loved..." Leah was blessed with four sons and she gave God the glory for this, she loved and worshiped God "...Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too..." (Genesis 29:33b), she is referring to the birth of Simeon, her second son. Leah could not be happy, loved, without God--without faith and dependancy on God, life just seems impossible.

God is simply wanting me to experience some divine intervention! hey, I am game for that, sounds like a roller-coaster that has not chance of making me second guess the decision, no long lasting consequences; in the end God wins! woo-hoo! I say after this ACT/finance thing-a-ma-jig their will be an Ice-cream party to celebrate how great God is....no matter what the outcome!

okay, I am done, I hope that is all makes sense to you, it does to me, but i wrote it...

Faithfully striving to follow God and do HIS will
-Brooke

Homecoming

2007-10-14T19:31:00.000-04:00

Homecoming was last night, the theme was the Wizard of Oz', it was Loads o' fun!
I took three gorgeous girls (Nicole, Jamie, and Sarah) in my amazing Honda civic (stick shift, of course) to Applebee's. After we ate we went to Meijer's because Jamie's camera needed AA batteries. I bought my dates a bouquet of daisy, they each picked a color from the bouquet and were thrilled! (I had yellow left over, which was perfect because my mom loves, daisies! Hope you like your flowers mom!)

We still had a whole bunch of time left and so Sarah suggested that we go and meet her aunt and uncle, who lived nearby, her aunt and cousin were super psyched and took a crumb load of pictures and promised to text me the score of the Indians game so that I would not be uniformed.

We got to homecoming around 8:30, which in my opinion was perfect timing (if you get there when homecoming dance starts, nobody is there and it is lame until more people arrive). Most of the music was rap (sad day, most of us cannot dance to rap, but that doesn't stop us), but they did play some good tunes.

Evan had a glass of water of the dance floor (not quite sure why, oh well) and Samantha smacked it and knocked it all over. I got pretty wet, and I wasn't even dancing in their group. Evan apologized and explained what happened, but Sam just kinda walked away. I am not sure if she did it on purpose or not, but oh well, I got over it and dried while dancing with my buddies!

Dance ended at 11pm; Jamie's mom picked up her and Sarah, so Nicole and I headed homeword jamming to Family Force Five! We decided that Family Force Five would be sweet to dance to at homecoming, and would promote more pg rated dancing! (Nicole and I are not fans of the whole "sex with clothes on" dancing style that is "in")

Comfort Zone alert

2007-10-08T21:27:00.000-04:00

I spent most of this past weekend writing a persuasive speech entitled "Beautiful Body" (posted yesterday) it deals with the media and how it's double message of eating a butt-load of food and being really-super thin is bogus and we should be happy with our healthy bodies just the way they are. It was really interesting to research; I learned a great deal about eating disorders and also gathered a lot of stats that were shocking and some depressing.

Life, outside of my speech, has really picked up। I am singing up front with the MYF band on Wednesday evenings. This is WAY outside of my comfort zone as I have never thought that I had a good singing voice, sure I have been in musicals, but only as nameless characters with NO big singing parts ( only nice a sized chorale and the whole cast). But the youth group girls all agreed that our band of guys needed female singers to help lead worship and silly me told my friend that is she went up there I would sing with her…after MYF she was pulled up on stage and she forced me to fulfill my promise. I am looking at it now as need to step outside of my comfort zone to keep from getting too comfy in life.

SaturdayI received a phone call asking me to head Kid Connection for the 3rd-8th graders (A huge age gap in my opinion) in November at my church. Basically The Sunday school classes gather in one room and have their bible story presented to them in drama, or some other interesting manner. The high school Sunday class was asked to take over November and my peers all told Deb that she should call me. It is a big task, and I do not have the information yet, I should get it Wednesday at MYF.

I was asked Sunday to teach my Sunday school class in a few weeks, the twist, I am the youngest in this class by far (next person is 35ish and then probably 75 and up) and I have only been attending the Sunday school class for a few weeks, they are all very excited to have me teach their class, and I am thinking what do I have to teach these people? They have been through so much more than I have...

I also was asked by the leader of SADD to talk at our school assembly Wednesday about something to do with a banner that people can write the names of people who have died in car accidents on, but I do not know exactly what he wants me to say… my story?? Hmmm….I’ll have to let you know later what I am wanted to do I guess.

All of this has come to me within a few weeks….I am not sure what to think of it. Singing in the youth group band, leadership roles in the church and public speaking in front of my high school, they are all new things for me… is this God working? Or am I just being stupid by saying yes and agreeing to go through with these new events?
Hey, I am just a kid trying to figure life out…maybe I am wrong, but I suppose that I will learn from my mistakes if I am……….

Beautiful Body

2007-10-07T21:03:00.001-04:00

Eat, eat, eat and be extremely thin; this hypocritical message is flaunted by the media. We should ignore this contradicting message that is destroying so many lives and be happy with our own body image. The extremely thin look that is plastered all over the media is causing discontentment with body image in millions of Americans with some cases becoming so great that they lead to eating disorders. It is important to eat three balanced meals a day, with a few light healthy snacks to keep the body healthy and strong.Tall and thin has not always been the “in” image. In the middle ages large people were accepted and looked up to as their great size was a sign of wealth, they could afford a lot of food. But as time went on this view changed steel corsets were used in the seventeenth century to keep women’s bodies small and thin. As newspapers and magazines become increasingly popular and people moved into cities and towns, the thin image was pushed as the attractive and acceptable body.Since this time the Western media has taken the tall and thin image and ran with it. Television and magazines are covered with tall, very thin oval faces. According to Eating Disorders, a recent book by Ruth Bjorklund, the average female model is 5 foot 11 inches tall with a weight less than 120 pounds. For someone who is that tall 120 pounds is underweight and unhealthy they should weigh at least fifteen pounds more. It also sends the negative message “you are not good enough” to the average american woman who is only 5’4” and who weighs 140 pounds, a healthy weight. Still magazines covers are coated with new, amazing, and fast acting weight loss programs. By age 13 fifty-three percent of american girls are dissatisfied with their bodies, this percentage increases to seventy-eight percent when American girls reach the age of seventeen. Most men in the media are tall, extremely strong, and overly muscular; this is not reality as the majority of men do not have this body type.Half of the commercials aimed towards males involve men being aggressive, according to media family, while half of the commercials geared towards females involve being physically attractive. The average child views ten-thousand food commercials per-year, yet only two percent of these commercials encourage fruits, vegetables, or beans. In one year Pepsi spends 2.1 billion dollars on advertising, says the department of Washington, and McDonald’s spends 1.2 billion dollars on advertising. No wonder people are torn between being super thin or buff and eating a lot of unhealthy food.Healthy eating is essential to a person as it is a source of energy and health. Ruth Bjorklund’s book, Eating Disorders, reminds us that nutritious foods help our bodies fight disease, grow, make energy, think clearly, and balance moods. On average the teenage girl needs 2,000 calories a day and the teenage boy needs between 2,500 and 3,000 calories a day. The number of calories needed is higher for those who exercise more than half and hour a day (mypyramid.gov). Remember portions are important; the body needs protein to build and mend muscle, vitamins to stay healthy, carbohydrates to fuel the body, and fats to keep the skin moist.The struggle to fit into the media’s depiction of “normal” and “attractive” has caused millions to turn to eating disorders for help. One million males and seven million females in the United Sates have an eating disorder; sadly an additional fifteen percent of the population has unhealthy eating habits according to Bjorklund. Anorexia Nervosa means the loss of appetite because of nervousness; even though, those with anorexia actually ignore their appetites rather than lose their appetites. People with anorexia are terrified to gain weight and so they do not eat, or they eat extremely little. It is important to remember that during puberty, a time when most eating disorders form, it is common and healthy to gain around forty pounds (Eating Disorders). Bulimia Nervosa is the eating disorder in which a person overeats a lot and then purges, commonly by vomiting, using laxatives, or diet pills, to rid their bodies of the food. This eating disorder is not usually a successful weight loss as more food is consumed than it is possible to purge. Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, along with other eating disorders such as anorexia athletia, night eating disorder, Binge- Eating disorder, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and Pica are all extremely dangerous and have caused the death of many people. Karen Carpenter was a famous pop star of the eighties; she died after eight years of being secretly anorexic. She is quoted in Eating Disorders, “It was just a few innocent comments about my weight and body that stung like a bee.” Negative comments geared toward the physical body is only one of the many reasons people turn to eating disorders other reasons include low self-esteem, lack of support, trauma, relationship stress, and the want to “fit in” and be popular; there are other ways to cope with these issues such as talking to a trusted and caring adult who can provide guidance and support.Now is the time to take a stand against the two-faced message that is ruining so many lives and find satisfaction in the attractive healthy body. The media may send out a message calling people to eat large amounts of food and still be super-thin; however, this message is unrealistic and misguiding. Millions have become so dissatisfied with their body image that they have turned to eating disorders to fit into the idealistic world created by the media. There is a better solution, eat healthy, and be content with the beautiful, strong, and healthy body you already have.

THE SUPER AMAZING AND EXCITING WORKS CITED!

2007-10-06T21:39:00.001-04:00

Works Cited

Bjorklund, Ruth. Eating Disorders. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2006.
“Media Wise.” National Institute on Media and the Family. 6 Sept 2002. 6 Oct, 2006. .
“National Eating Disorders Association.” National Eating Disorders Association. 2002. 6 Oct 2007. .
“Teen Health and the Media.” Body image and Nutrition. 6 October 2007. .
“United Sates Deparment of Agriculture.” “mypyramid.gov.” 6 Oct, 2007 .
“Weight-control Information Network.” Weight-Control Information Network. 2004. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. 6 Oct 2007 .

Media...ugh

2007-09-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

Today my friend was having a “fat day,” she told me that everything she tried to put on that morning made her look fat. I reassured her that she was beautiful and not anywhere near being fat (both of which are extremely true). I also reminded her that she weighed less than me (which is also true).

I am sick of this! Girls, who should not be, are thinking that they weight too much and are fat (which makes them fell ugly and undesirable in the least). Whether we (the female population) will admit it or not, we have been ‘brainwashed” into thinking that we are not skinny enough or pretty enough. The media is in large the cause of this mass dilemma that has so many girls turning to anorexia, bulimia, or another eating disorder, so that they can lose weight (that they do not need to lose). Models, TV/Movie stars, Barbie, and Cartoons (just to name a few) are all skinny and “perfect” OR (if they are not skinny and “perfect”) are made fun of for their weight and often portrayed to have few friends (or no friends) that love them.

Seeing this over and over has changed the way we (as females) think about ourselves. The major problem is that no matter how little we weigh, it is never little enough!

…I’ll probably add more later, sorry about the abrupt ending, I just can’t go on right now I am too frustrated.

HEY+ I will be delivering a persuasive speech on this subject sometime next week- I will post the mandatory manuscript when it is complete (or at least in existence)