The Shadow Goes

My goodness! A real update?!

Yes readers, browsers, or onlookers, I have two weeks of things to tell about and yet not enough time to do it in. My memory fails me and the events of the past few days recede into the depths of subconsciousness. School overwhelms me, bringing me down into the monotony of daily life, unless you think that double integrals are exciting, as I did when we finally got to them!

Let's see, I'll start off with Friday, nearly two weeks ago. JP and Kacy, Jon, Jonathan, and myself went to the International Coffee House in the evening. We played a little bit of ping-pong and hung around playing with the kids. Jon was frantically trying to get a little girl to say "pen" but all she could manage was "boo." Jonathan chimed in and the two of them were hammering away on her while I worked on my Statics problems. The manager's wife spoke about a book she gives to everyone about Christians in China, something about believing in God and having visions of the gospel before it was preached, and miracles being worked (if I'm not mistaken). I raised my mental eyebrows. I don't deny that such things are possible, yet I'm always skeptical when other people claim them. God ordinariliy uses ordinary means, but that doesn't mean He has to.

Sunday, I'll insert a piece of an e-mail I sent regarding my experience at the Assisted Living center. I volunteered to go and read to the elderly people on Sunday afternoons:

First, when I showed up, the caretakers had no idea why I was there. Apparently the lady who is on duty as manager during the week, didn't let the weekend staff know what was going on (though she said she did). Actually, one lady did know but she thought I was coming between 2 and 4. So they said they would round a few of the residents up for me, herding them into the front area. In the meantime I spoke with a gentleman who said that his commanding officer lived to be a hundred and five and told me of his exploits under him (who in turn was under General MacArthur) in the 11th Airborne. He asked what major I was and when I told him said that he, if he had it to do all over again, would major in hypnotism! That way he could make all these politicians do what he wanted (he absolutely hated Bush). He said that those Arabs out there were just desert rats and you know what we should have done with them? We should have drowned them by busting their dam. That's what we should have done. He said that Jesus "washed his hands of them" and so should we. I said that I believed God had not forsaken the Jews but he wasn't listening to me, he just carried on. He also told me that all of this money that Kennedy wasted on space was a horrible idea, that we already know from the Bible that there isn't any life out there, and did I know where in the Bible it said not to mess with the stars? I said no and he told me that there were ten kings of Judah and had I heard of Jehoshaphat? I said yes and he told me that God told Jehoshaphat not to preoccupy himself with the stars but Jehoshaphat didn't listen so God made him jump around until he died, though we don't know how long he was jumping, see. I was completely bewildered, yet he was serious. I wondered where in the world he had read that story. My father, when he heard it, laughed something about "jumpin' Jehoshaphat" and it makes me wonder whether or not this man was making up a fantasy based upon that expression, or if it really was some tradition somewhere! He didn't have Alzheimer's or anything like that, he was pretty sharp, but very obviously misinformed. I politely said I had no recollection of that. He also asked me if I was a reverend, seeing my Bible and such.

So I started reading and Jon and Jonathan showed up. I read three chapters in Genesis and pretty soon there were nine people gathered around. I tried to read loud and clear but at first there was a lot of interruptions going on, they were testing the intercom system (which would beep and say "one, two, three" every five seconds for several minutes, and people coming in (at which one of the ladies would very noisily hush). I was surprised though, they were extremely attentive. There were a couple of ladies that pretty much were wheeled in and sleep all day long but no one else fell asleep and they just watched me. After finishing Genesis 1-3 I moved on to Pilgrim's Progress (much to the delight of one of the ladies, who seemed to know the story quite well) and tried to be animated as I went through it. Raising the eyebrows and making gestures toward "yonder wicket gate" and pointing to the burden upon the back. I think the voices helped too. I read to the part where Christian turns to go toward the mount Sinai. After that, I finished up by reading the first three chapters in Matthew, and then it was time to go. A couple of the ladies told me I read very well and told me thank you very, very much. I was asked by them to come back and I certainly plan to next week. There was an older gentleman who said something like "God bless you, thank you" to me and about five of them wanted to shake my hand as I went out. I was very excited at the response. They clearly liked it very much, and I hope it was for the message. I also hope there was some discussion amongst themselves afterward as to what we read. Unfortunately I can't really give a commentary, though I did make mention that the "book" that Christian refers to is the Bible.

So the older people seemed to think it was wonderful to have Scripture read, and I know I enjoyed it (though I was thirsty afterward from having read so loudly). There was an older lady that kept wheeling herself back and forth in the hallway and would shout from time to time "I can hear you!" And another lady that would always be saying "SHHH! Be quiet Mildred" When Mildred was just moving around and it was this lady who was making a loud disturbance :) They are sweet old ladies though. I feel sad seeing some of them though. One was wheeling herself around (very slowly) and said she was looking for the exit and wanted to find her daughter. I asked what her daughter's name was and she said she couldn't remember. I just wish there was something I could do to help.

Monday I visited my family during my Fall break. It seemed amazing to me that Fall break came up so quickly! I wasn't prepared for it, unlike a host of my fellow classmates. I enjoyed the time down south however, and spent a little time getting my voting out of the way, finishing up a scholarship application, and playing Mario Kart and Animal Crossing with 4 siblings at a time! I returned home on Tuesday.

Wednesday, labs were cancelled so I went and visited my TA during those hours. The lab that I had finished early (though everyone else stayed late) and thought I did well on, I had an 87 on it, and I was surprised. The entire last page was negative 4's and 3's so I took it to my TA and asked him about it. He glanced at it and then began to apologize profusely saying that he thinks I was the only one who did it right and he was going too fast and just marked it wrong. He corrected it and I received a 98 on the lab instead. That's a big difference!

Thursday I had a meeting with HKN, an Electrical Engineering society on campus that I had been invited to join. They described the initiation process which included scavenger hunts, wearing suits on certain days, collecting signatures from 75% of the faculty in the department (and they were allowed to ask you a question they had prepared before they gave you their signature) and a service project. I was seriously considering it, though undecided, when I noted that the service project and some of their meetings were on Sunday. I sent an e-mail to the president asking if it might possibly be changed to a different day (why Sunday?!) but haven't received a response in nearly a week, and I doubt it would be changed for one person anyway. That settled my mind for me though.

Friday evening I headed over to the International Coffee House again. Jonathan was the ping-pong champion last time, this time I beat him. JP and I talked a little bit about the baptism issue and then the two "real" ping-pong players showed up and we all watched for a while. At the end, there were three young lads who were playing around and Jonathan and I ended up getting into a ninja fight with them.

Saturday afternoon, after getting some homework done earlier in the day, I headed over to the N house for dinner and to meet Aunt Helen. As I arrived, Stephen and Daniel waved to me, they were outside playing frisbee so I joined them. Shortly after that, Gus and Aunt Helen drove up and we went down off the hill to say hello. Then we returned to frisbee until it was time for Daniel to leave. We headed inside and I talked with the elder (elder as in years) Mr N for a time and then we sat down. Shortly thereafter, F.B. and Daisy arrived. We went outside after supper and played some frisbee until we couldn't see anymore (and then played for a while after) and played Sardines (Daisy found a great hiding spot, she's methodical!) and Flashlight Tag (I think it was called). I was "it" and ran around the house trying to gaurd the cat's brush while not "camping" out on the spot. There was a brief time of family worship in the evening and then Aunt Helen went upstairs to see some of Philip's films, and I decided I had better head on home.

Sunday I read in the afternoon again. This time there was an elderly lady who was there first and I asked her what her background was. She said baptist but she didn't believe that there was only one God or right way, though she did believe in Jesus. I began to read and other residents showed up after some time. After finishing the Old and New Testament reading, I took a brief break to ask people their names and their background. The second lady I came to said that her father ran a baptist church. I asked her if he was the minister and she said "Oh no! He hired the minister." Which made me a little er.... concerned. Then she said that she was also thankful for her catholic experience because she felt they were the closest to the Bible. I politely said that I had to disagree with her, that they held tradition on equal footing with Scripture. She stared at me and said "son, who told you that?!" I said that you could look in their own creeds, I don't think any knowledgeable Catholic would deny it. She started to get upset and talk faster, and when she talked faster her dentures kept on falling down from her upper gums. Have you ever had a person angry at you who was trying to talk while their teeth were popping out? I have to admit that it's hard to keep a straight face. I changed the subject and she forgot almost immediately about it. She kept forgetting what we had talked about previously. After that though, I only asked what their names were!

One man asked me where I was getting my training. I was puzzled and asked what training he referred to and he said training to read out loud like I do. I said I didn't have any and he said "Oh! Well, you read very well." It was a very high compliment! I read up to the Interpreter's House in Pilgrim's Progress, taking the time to make a couple of comments along the way, to help keep the attention of the residents. At the end, I asked what Christian's burden represented, and was rather sad to see that no one could tell me. So I explained that it was his sin that was weighing him down, and he could feel his guilt. And gave a sneak preview of the next section where the sin is forgiven and the guilt is taken away at the cross and what a beautiful picture that is! I also explained what Mount Sinai and Mr Legality represented, and how this was the path that people chose when they tried to fulfill the law to gain their salvation. As Christian felt, his burden became even heavier!

I said good-bye to them all and one of the caretakers said "thanks for keeping them busy for an hour." Huh! Busy indeed! I hope it's doing more than just being a break from daily life!

Monday, in my Differential Equations class, it appeared that the previous class (Psychology) had left a drawing on the white board, a drawing of a pig with a ring around its middle. Above it were the words "do not erase." I contemplated whether or not they had done that for a test to see if people would unquestioningly obey instructions (so it would be there next class session) or if perhaps that people wouldn't obey instructions even for two days! My math instructor came in, glanced at it and the writing and said with a grin "Don't you just hate imperatives?" and promptly erased it. That afternoon I met with Alan and we had a good time of discussion on various subjects, but more particularly on the first chapter of Ryle's Holiness, which was on Sin. At least (I should say) it was was profitable for me!

From there it has been pretty much just a regular week, not a whole lot has been going on out of the ordinary. School, homework, reading a little here and there. I'd probably best be getting back to that right now, so I'll close this "brief" update.