Become Active in Your Community #5

Church: a community that anyone should be able to join (depending on the church and the people in it). I have grown up in the Mennonite church, and attended the one that my parents chose to attend my whole life. However, this year is the first time I have had to make the choice to go out and find a church not familiar to me. (At Hesston, I had family in town that I went with, and also went home on occasion since it was only an hour away) Therefore, I was forced to give up my faith life, or find a church out here to go to. Living with my brother helped me, however, I wanted to make the decision on my own.
After seeing and visiting a number of churches, it just so happened that North Main in Napannee seemed to fit me just right, as well as my brother. (He is in the process of changing his membership to NM) This church is so welcoming to outsiders and the people just "wrap you up" and take you in as one of their own. They are so happy to have guests.
I have also become an active member in their sunday school class, taking my turn of teaching when it happens to come to me. The people in this class are great. Even though I am by far the youngest, I can relate to the 30 and 40 year olds that too are in the same classroom.
As part of the church, they asked me to become a member of their church-league basketball team. Therefore, every saturday morning (my only sleeping in day) I wake up to play basketball with the guys at 8, 9, or 10 in the morning. Even though it takes from my sleep, I really enjoy getting to know the guys and their families better.

Away from church and school, I only have a little other time to do much. I spend most evening at Chilis in Goshen. I am a server there and love what I do for them. It is fun for me to get to see some of the people around town, and am even starting to get my regulars that come in and ask to sit at "the tall guys" tables. It is fun to have people I never knew before this year ask for me to serve them. This really has helped me get into the comomunity and meet people that come in, people I work with, and the managers and thier families. This has made my experience in Indiana rewarding.

Take Your Education Seriously #3

Mid-term week has come and gone, but not without lots of time preping for many exams, spending long hours into the night cramming for those tests that seem to have more weight than others. In my past years of schooling, I was able to study for 30 minutes on my own and do fairly well on any given test. However, Goshen College academics are a little different than those at Hesston College. They take things here a little more serious. I was not aware of this when I came, but soon found it to be true.
Test weeks are a stressful time for most, especially mid-term and finals week. I tried studying for mid-terms alone, however, my mind just started wondering, and suddenly I was thinking about work or the weekend, with nothing getting done for my test. I found it obvious that peer support would be the best thing to help me for a test.
I called up some friends and we all decided to meet up and do some much needed studying for the upcoming exams. This was very useful for all of us, as we found out we all had different answers on the questions and then compared to get what we thought was right. I enjoyed doing the "study-group" thing, as it gave me more options and outlooks on the material. It was also easier to keep on-task for the studying. These will be very helpful for my time here at Goshen, and will be put to much use, especially in times of tests.

Get Political #2

College is a time that I as an individual have really lost track of what is going on in the world around me. I never seem to watch the news or read the paper, because I am usually doing studies when the news is on, and I don't take time to do extra reading than what is assigned in the class. However, I have tried to read articles in newspapers, online, and watch the news (occasionally). After doing these, it is amazing how much more knowledge one can acquire after doing this for even just a week.
Each time I open an internet browser, MSN or other websites have top stories up for reading, which are very interesting to read about, and for the most part, are fairly easy reading.
Right now, more locally than nationally, elections are a huge thing. One does not even need to read the papers or watch the news to know that the election is a big thing that is coming up. Just on the drive to campus everyday, I pass a random 100 or so signs telling me to elect STUTSMAN or man others either for city council, mayor, sheriff or whatnot. I have never really enjoyed this time of year, because I am one that is not huge into politics. I find it sort of annoying that the have all these signs in the yard, and not just one, but each yard has 15 of the exact same signs within a ten-foot line. It seems like if they have money to be wasting on stupid signs like these, they could spend it on something better than the signs that would make a difference in the community, while showing the community that they can do good. (if nothing else let me have it to pay for Goshen College!)
Keeping up on the world has been a good experience for the past week or so and I plan on continuing this for a long time.