The Prodigal has returned! I just purchased internet service today and have been kinda catching up. I still can't be on long, 'cause I'm tying up the phone, but you'll hear from me every so often. Pretty much the highlight of the first two weeks was orientation week, and in order to tell you about that, I'm inserting a letter that I wrote to Samuel. (BTW, I'm going to write a little bit after it so stay tuned even if you've seen the letter before.)

To: The Missile? (where'd you get that?)
From: The Tree
Subject: Takeover is working as planned.

I am still a tiny bit sick.. I think my body is recovering, but very slowly. The cold moved to the chest and is dissipating now.
This weekend was really cool. Annie had called earlier in the week and told us that she was wanting to come down but didn't know exactly when. Well, Saturday morning she calls and said that she was ready to come down and was leaving around 2 or so. She made it in 2 and ahalf hours... We had dinner about 6 or so and talked all evening. Dave and Anne stayed up until 12 but I had needed to head to bed earlier. Then we all went to church at the school. (New Joy has moved into a school for awhile. Very nice to have room!) Pastor Tim talked about September 11th and had some really good things to say.

~~Much Later~~

~~Almost a week later in fact~~

~~Monday the 16th is the date if you wanted to know~~

~~Taking down a computer doesn't help the email writing business~~

Hey, I am now sitting in my dorm room, listening to Carman, and thinking that writing email when I don't have a dial tone doesn't work out very well for sending email. Oh well, at least you'll get this eventually.

I took down the computer on the 12th and packed all my stuff into my car. If it wasn't for the printer table, I'd have been able to fit everything into my car. Very cool. We left about 9 or so Friday morning and got to my Great-Uncle Ray's about 7 or 8. Took a long time 'cause we took the scenic route through MacKensie Pass. Curves galore. Think Keller grade and take Oklahoma's width of road and trees and stretch it out to 22 miles or so and you have that pass. Totally amazing scenery, though. Once I develop my pics and track down a scanner, I'll get them put up on the site.

We then went to the coast on Saturday. Walked around the rocky beaches and had fun looking at the tide pools and watching the waves. I really enjoyed that and I hope I get to go back there.

Sunday we went to a Foursquare in Springfield and enjoyed that service. It was a second service and looked to be about 200 people or so. The worship was good and the pastor's sermon was on shaping your child and he had several good points to make.

Then we went over to Eugene and had burgers at Burger King. *grins* I was wanting something light, 'cause my stomach was rather touchy and I didn't want to overload it, but we got burgers. It wasn't too bad, but I did have issues later on... And part of the problem was that I did have some nerves.

EBC then was graced with the presence of the Reagans and we move me into the dorms. Room 204 in the front. I have the top bunk and Kevin Irwin has the bottom. He didn't bring all that much stuff, being from phoenix, but I did! *grins* My mother prepared me well. So we got me all unpacked and settled in and headed down to the park for the send-off.

The Send Off was awesome! Good food, Tri tip and the trimmings! Then we has some introductions, the staff, ASB, and the freshmen introduced themselves. Then we worshiped and after that did a send off thing with our families. I don't think I've seen such pride or emotion in my father before. It was something else to see how God has used them to bring me to this point in my life.

~~Next day~~

~~It's been raining all day long~~

~~Cloudy skies~~

~~Hope I get used to it~~

Okay, so where was I? Oh Send-off... After the send-off, we walked around a little and Dad and I played a game of pool in the Student Center. They then went back to the W's and I got to sleep on my bunk for the first time.

Next day we had all the firsts... First worship service, first assembly, etc... Very interesting and very fun. The food is excellent and I think that if I don't watch it, I'll end up putting some pounds on. *grins* I like all the staff and faculty. They seem to be annointed of God for this task of preparing leaders.

I took my first test yesterday. It was an English Placement test and they wanted a 1 page essay on this article. Very annoying and I didn't do very well. So I'm probably going to be put into the English 101. I guess that would be fine, 'cause I'd be where I need to be...

Then today I had a Bible proficiency test. It was actually pretty easy... 'cept for the 'who's the father of some guy that I've never heard of in my whole life' type of questions... *laughs*

Next up is lunch and then we pretty much have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. This evening, our class advisor is having a small group of us over to his house. I am looking forward to this intensely, it'll be the first small group outing that I'll have done.


~~Evening~~

~~Well, night if you aren't a college student~~

~~9:46 to be precise~~

This is totally cool! Just met with my class advisor and the other students he's advising. We went to his house and did some activities (and ate food) that got us familiar with each other. There's some very cool people here.

What is interesting is that a good part of the students... and the faculty, play the guitar or do something worshipful. Being around these guys, who are actually quite good, has been reawakening my desire to learn guitar. I have wanted to learn to play for a long time, as I think I've mentioned to you. But I have never had the discipline to do any type of musical intrument. Well... Now that I'm in college, preparing myself for ministry and learning the skills of discipline (at least I hope so) I think I'll be able to sit myself down and practice. However, I think I shouldn't rush into this. It's a commitment and something that if I do do it, I want to do it the very best I can and stick to it. I want to glorify God with it. And if I start it and don't stay with it, I let God down. Obviously I don't want to do that. So in the next two weeks to a month I'm going to do some serious thinking and praying about learning the guitar and investing the time and money into that. Pray for me that I'll make the right decisions.

~~9 again~~

~~next day~~

~~this might turn into a blogger entry~~

Just got back from visiting a local church. It was one of the three Open Bible churches in eugene. I liked it. They had some worship and then the pastor started teaching for some sort of membership classes. Basically he's going over the basics. Tonight was about Salvation and the various aspects of it. Pretty good. I liked the pastor. Then we went over to the Youth Center and I got to talk with the youth pastor. Now that was majorly cool, 'cause of my calling. I got to see a little about how he viewed YM. (youth ministry)

So I'm going to be heading over to a camp tomorrow. They do this overnight retreat and apparently it is a highlight. I've been starting to talk to upperclassmen and seeing how things work around here and they say that Camp Lane is a very cool experience and that we'll like it. So I am looking forward to that.

Did registration today. I figured out my schedule and all the different classes I was taking. Very cool.

Here's a list of them:

Acts -- MTF -- Second period which is 8:30 to 9:20
Spiritual Formation -- M -- Third Period 9:30 to 10:20
CHapel -- T -- Third Period
Discipleship Groups -- W -- Third Period
Student Life and Ministry -- Th -- Third Period
Biology Lab -- F -- Third Period
Old Testament Survey -- MWF -- Fourth Period 10:30 to 11:20
Expository Writing -- TTh -- Extended Fourth Period 10:50 to 12:20
Bible Study Methods -- MWF -- Fifth Period 11:30 to 12:20
General Biology -- MWF -- Sixth Period 1 to 1:50

I was able to get my schedule so that I didn't have to do any thing at7:30 in the morning. That was a relief, 'cause of my contact and also because my brain takes 2 hours or so to wake up. *grins*

I'm taking 17 credit hours and 2 Independent Study hours. One is a Learning Skills Enhancement course and the other is Study Skills. The LSE is a course that works to help you expand your brain and develop better skills of retention and memorization. It sounds really cool. Study Skills is something I was really hoping that they would have, 'cause I'm not a good studier...

I've had an interesting day.

~~Wheeeee!~~

~~It's Friday night!~~

~~I'm not doing anything really~~

Well, we did the retreat! I was majorly touched last night and this morning. Last night we had a hour long worship service that God was in! Man, the Spirit was most definitely there. One of the faculty (I forget what department he's head of...) spoke. He talked about how this is a time for focus and how we may have messed up in the past, but God has forgiven us. That's History and we can forget about it. Instead, look forward to our destiny and to what God wants to do NOW. *whistles* that was a powerful teaching! He finished about 10:00, but the night was still young. It was now time for an activity that required trust.

They had us line up in single file and then blindfolded us! Dark and blindfolded they lead us all over the campground. We had to pay attention to the people in front and in back of us and also to listen to the student leaders 'cause they could see! They led us to an area and had us sit down. Then Mr. Smith led us in a 'burning' service. This was a time to take things that we wanted to give up to God and burn them in a symbolic gesture. Some people burned fear, some did a sin or something like that. It was tight! (New word in my vocabulary! *grins* Rad, cool, awesome, and.. tight.) That really enabled me to let go of some things.

We then played a game and watched some leaders get whipped cream in their faces! (that was the consequences for getting discovered) After that and eating s'mores, it was bed time at 1 o'clock! I had worn my contact for 18 hours! A record for me, I think. Normally, and perhaps wisely, my limit is 12 - 14 hours. So this was amazing for me to see that I didn't have too much problem with it.

This morning they got us up at 8 and we hung around for a half hour. Then we worshiped, shared, and basically let God work. After the majority of the morning, they did something really awesome! All the student leaders lined up in two rows. Then the freshmen filed between them and they prayed for us. Wow! Wow! That's really all I can say....

We then headed home and had the afternoon and evening free. So I'm free until Monday morning when the work starts.

So God is Good and I love Him so much!

It's time to close this letter and I'll be getting internet service soon so I'll be able to send it.

Signing off,

The Tree

~~This is going to be a blogger entry~~

~~Everything is included in this letter~~

It's really bedtime, 11:49pm, but I wanted to tell a little bit about classes. The book for BSM is awesome! I'm going to be enjoying Living by the Book and it's going to help me develop a desire for the word. The other classes are cool too... OT Survey is awesome! the Teacher also is a greek teacher and interjects stuff about greek and hebrew into his classes. We sange a song in Hebrew today...

My hardest class, because of the homework is the expository writing. I had a ton of reading and then writing. took me all evening to get it done and I finally got it done at 11. Man...

Anyways... God is moving and I love Him so much!