camp feeling

So it turns out finding time to blog is kind of hard. And each time I come to write something I don’t know where to start, so much happens every day here.

I’ve been here just over a week. It feels like I’ve been here about 5. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, time by no means has dragged, but I’m feeling settled, I’m getting a routine, and I’m getting to know the people here. But it’s still got that camp feeling to it a little bit, like I’ll be going home in a few days. But in reality those few days are actually a few months. That said I’m glad they are months as opposed to days, I love it here.

I’m currently sat in my room typing this. As I look out my window onto the back of the school I can see people playing football, I can see people playing volleyball, and I can hear a community. I’ve found it amazing how a group of over 100 people can come together with a mutual love for Jesus and just instantly get on. You don’t get that with other groups of people. We have a developing little community here, and I get the sense that if you give us a few more weeks and we will have some great friendships developing between people.

Our timetable seems slightly intense. We have 3 lectures in the morning, and then 2 in the evening after supper. There are some days which have exceptions, for example on Monday mornings we have a small group instead of one of the lectures, and Friday night is always free. But generally that’s what happens. We have quite a few papers to get written and handed in. I’ve already done 3 this week; my testimony, a purpose paper (basically explaining how it came to be that I am here what I want to get out of this next 6 months) and also a spiritual life survey, which asked us a few questions on our relationship with God at the moment, what we are struggling with etc etc. The last one Peter said we could hand in anonymously, and he wanted us to be brutally honest. So I was. It was actually really challenging to write, being truly honest with myself and then typing it out for someone to read.

Alongside the lectures we have 4 books to read and write reports on during the terms, learn the books of the bible in order, learn two memory verses a week, do a bible study project, read the whole Old Testament and write papers on different sections of the Old Testament once we have read them...I know right, it’s a good job we have a decent amount of free time.

I get the feeling that Bible School is a lot like other things, you get out of it what you put in. I read a couple of chapters of one of assigned books today after church. It talks about how you don’t just become a Christian and then immediately have a great relationship with God. And reading you bible all the time and studying it hard can’t create that either. Tozer in his book puts it like this, ‘The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in read danger of losing God amid His Word’.

Moses knew God, but he prayed in Exodus 33:13 ‘Now therefore I pray, it I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight’. David wrote many psalms that sign of how he seeks to know the Lord more and more, and psalms of how he rejoices God speaks to him and reminds him of His awesomeness. Paul writes in Philippians 3:10 ‘...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection’.

There is so much going on here, so many things to do, people to talk to, places to visit...but I don’t want to be too distracted from the real reason I’m here. I don’t want to become complacent with where I am, but continue to seek Him.