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Buenas Dias!
(that's Spanish -- the language I am still working hard on learning...espanol es muy dificil.)

I think this time I am going to begin with the most recent events and work my way backwards through time. That said, I hope you will forgive the diminishing factual integrity as the blog goes on... in other words, I have a hard time remembering all that's gone on in a week, but I'll try my best to keep you all in the loop.

I'll start with this morning. Church, as usual, was excellent, but probably better than ever. I really like this pastor (Wayde Wilson is his name). The focus of the service was on the Holy Spirit, and though I feel as if I have heard many-a-sermon on the Holy Spirit, this one was probably the most enlightening. I was really eager to hear what he had to say, seeing as this church (Christian Life Assembly) essentially has its roots in the Pentacostal denomination. I half-expected a passionate and emotional appeal to all of us to burst from our pews and fill the sanctuary with cries of praise in a hundred unknown tongues. His focus for the message, however, was a Biblical look at the gifts of the Spirit.

Acknowledging that gifts of healing, prophecy, and tongues are controversial subjects, he said up front that anyone who reads 1 Corinthians 12 cannot accept gifts of knowledge or faith as valid and reject tongues and prophesying -- they are all listed together. That said, however, he spent much of the sermon focusing on the importance of discernment, including instances where he has had to awkwardly confront people to say they are not really hearing from God so much as themselves. He also spent a while stressing the importance of what Paul claims to be "orderly worship" in 1 Corinthians 14. Speaking in tongues is a gift, the Bible says, that should only be used to instruct or encourage the Church.

Anyways, I could go on for a while talking about all of that, but I will say that when he closed the service with an opportunity for all of us to just call out on our own to have the Spirit fill us, I felt a much clearer understanding of what we were really asking for -- not to be filled so we could become the resident religious radical on campus that people could seek out to find healing, but to be simply open to the Lord working through us in any and every way, whether that be a momentary glimpse of holy wisdom, or an encouraging word from the Spirit to a friend.

Alright, now I think I will juggle time a little here and jump back to Friday and let the tape roll forward. I had a big Psychology test on Friday that I think I did pretty well on, but we'll see. Weekends are peculiar around here. Come Friday, the place is alive with excitement and energy as people are all around making plans and just taking it easy, but come Friday night, the busy-bodies and chatty Cathy's are all gone. Normally there are a lot of people around still, but the crowds seem somewhat elusive. Usually, that's fine by me; there's just that much more for my friends and I to busy ourselves with. This weekend, however, a bunch of my closer friends all left on Friday for home or tournaments (including Austin). But that wasn't really a big deal, except my entire floor went camping on Friday night, but I couldn't go. So that forced me to call up some acquaintances and make them... better acquaintances.

The reason I couldn't go camping was because of our much-anticipated swim meet on Saturday. I slept 10 hours (happy, mom?) on Friday night to be well rested for our meet against Elizabethtown. Long story short, it was a fun day, everybody swam really well even though the pool was pretty crummy, and we came out on top!! That's right, first win in Messiah Swimming history, brought to you by our little inaugural, motley crew of a team. Go Messiah! (Oh and that reminds me, visit www.gomessiah.com for results.) I cut 5 seconds on my 200 freestyle and 1.5 seconds on my 100 freestyle!

Saturday night I returned to campus ready to party. A bunch of guys on the floor, however, had left for the new James Bond movie, so I called up one of my friends (Brian) to see what he was up to and guess where he was going? James Bond! Thinking quickly, I snagged a seat in the car and had a great night with Brian, his girlfriend, and my other friend Chris. We got pretty lost and ended up at WalMart at 1 AM, but I'm always up for a good adventure! The movie, if you haven't seen it, was only decent in my books. It was James Bond, so obviously it was entertaining, but I just thought the plot was sort of weak.

Hmm.. where to next? How about just an overall summary of Monday through Thursday... sound good? Overall, this week was pretty uneventful. Lots of swimming, a pretty decent amount of work, a decent amount of sleep, copious amounts of food to supplement all the swimming, and... hmm.. let's see. OH! I got one.

Monday night I went to an alternate chapel Honors Congress event thingamajig with Dr. Christine Rosen. Who is she, you might be wondering? Well, basically she is just this really smart lady who writes a lot of books and does a lot of speaking about one of the most controversial (and yet largely ignored) issues in modern society -- eugenics. Eugenics, and I can thank my English teacher, Mr. Collins, for my knowledge of this, is the study of improving human genes. The discussion covered everything from 'designer babies' to abortion. I left that talk fearful of the future of our society, but glad that I was equipped with new knowledge.

For those who might be wondering what all the kafuffle is about, pretty much all I can say is that almost all doctors now expect that if a fetus tests positive for any genetic disorder (i.e. Tay-Sachs, Downs), the mother will abort it for the "sake of society." It has gotten to the point, however, where we can test for genetic 'defects' in a baby that might lead to them developing colon cancer in their late 50s. Should the mother be held responsible for bringing a person into the world that could potentially suffer later in life, or should we just kill any infant that could ever suffer or not fully contribute to society? Those are the terrible questions people are asking these days. And there are other issues that seem much more trivial, but are problematic on other levels. For instance, a woman wanting a child can now go to any sperm bank and practically 'design her baby' -- gender, eye colour, physical attributes -- and the methods are getting more accurate every year.

So, enough of all this depressing stuff. I am very excited for Thanksgiving Break. Work has been picking up a lot and it just feels like the break will be very much deserved. BUT, it's been good times as usual. I'm excited for another week. I have a big Psych. assignment due that is based on an interview I have to conduct, a persuasive speech to prepare for Communications (about eugenics), and a paper due for my Amish seminar. We have another meet coming up this Saturday, and even though I don't think we'll be as successful as a team, I'm looking forward to shaving some more time off my personal records.

So I think that's all for now. I guess this has been a little more brief than my previous entries, but I've got a bunch to do this afternoon. The Men's Swim Team meets every Sunday night for devotions and it's my turn to share my testimony. So that'll be fun. I'm also growing a massive beard. Well.. it's not really massive, but I do think it's longer than it's ever been. Why? No-Shave-November, that's why.

Alright, once again I love you all. Feel free to contact me if you want any additional info or just want to talk!

J.m.B

p.s. I think you'll find a few errors in this one, Mom.