This Is Bible College

April 29th, 2010 by Dan Nichols

Naps are always needed, but usually dorm life keeps you up. Play some beach volleyball. Stay up till 6:00 AM working. Go to class from 6:30 AM till 9:00 AM. Sleep till 2:45ish. Go to meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Pick on the freshmen as much as possible.

Learn some Greek – talk some end times. Learn some evangelism – talk some church education. Hangout at your friend’s house – watch a movie. Watch your school’s baseball team play at the nearby stadium. Lead worship after curfew. Go work in the office for a little bit. Spend time in prayer.

Miss out on the cafeteria food you already paid for and eat Chinese buffet food that costs a lot just because you want to. A date here, a date there. Homework everywhere. Agendas, meetings, good conversations, dumb conversations, social overload… accomplishments, failures, lessons learned, friendships made, money lost, life goes on and life is good.

THIS IS BIBLE COLLEGE.

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Campus, I Appreciate You

April 26th, 2010 by Catie Prinzing

BBC participates in two “Appreciation Days” throughout the year: Community Appreciation and Campus Appreciation. Thursday, I had the privilege of being thankful for my campus. Half the student body got to serve on a day-long mission trip to one of the big cities in our area (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and NYC). But the other half got to stay on campus and do some landscaping. Landscaping here means weeding and mulching – and I never had so much fun doing it.

I was in charge of Mulch Export (loading the wheelbarrows) for the majority of the day. It was cool to use pitchforks, but my hands were hurting, my arms were sore, and my face was kind of dirty. However, as I looked around at the students from every class and dormitory, I saw a body of friends working together out of thankfulness for something God gave to them. Several were singing, most were talking and laughing, but we were all working  for a good purpose. It’s true that BBC has a beautiful campus, you should visit if you haven’t yet had the chance. Feel free to check out this link to schedule a campus visit: www.bbc.edu/visit. 

Sometimes I forget to acknowledge how lucky I am to actually live here. The administration gives me a day off from classes just so I can say “thanks” to the campus where I live and learn and grow. So thanks, BBC. I hope you like the mulch.

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Great Expectations

April 21st, 2010 by Catie Prinzing

Summer is fast approaching. What are the possibilities besides endless?  I hope to visit a beach, take a hiking trip, and hit up Blockbuster every weekend with my friends (right before we raid the Taco Bell). It’s easy for me to want to take a break over the summer; to let my mind rest from the stress of daily classes and such. Aren’t we all this way? We feel as though we deserve a little time to ourselves.  Usually this also translates into relaxed expectations for my devotional life. Without the structure of a daily routine, Bible reading and prayer gets pushed aside and fit in “whenever.” Is this the kind of approach I should be taking? Not really.

This summer it’s my goal to use the abundant free time (apart from the stereotypical yet necessary “summer job”) and the beautiful weather to walk closer with God. I have the benefit of learning vast amounts about Him and His Word at BBC, and what better time is there to process that information and apply it?  Since BBC is preparing me for ministry, why not employ my new-found skills by getting involved in a summer kids’ program or young girls’ Bible study? After taking my theology classes, I can go to my pastors and Sunday school teachers with question I have about what I have been learning.  Summer is God’s gift to college students, but that doesn’t mean our spiritual lives have to take the back seat, that’s reserved for a guitar and a long-board anyway…

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Reflections

April 13th, 2010 by Karissa Craft

As I sit back and reflect on my freshman year, I realize two things. Class and dorm life is a lot of fun, and the people here are extremely friendly and personal too.

I thought classes would be easy; its my freshman year. How hard could they be? Well, they weren’t hard, but it was challenging to stay organized. I thought I was organized in high school when I had at least 7 classes. Now I have five.

I’m not going to lie, its hard to stay organized with all the work you need for the week. I found it easier when I got a planner where I could write everything down. Then after I was done with classes I could sit down and go down the list of assignments and cross them off as I completed them.

Dorm life, I would have to say is one of the most interesting things about staying at college. There will be those quiet afternoons and evenings but at night the dorm comes alive (at least in my dorm). During the day the dorm is quiet and peaceful (perfect time to get all your work done), then after curfew when everyone is in the dorm….we start to have some fun. Okay, it doesn’t always happen that way. I enjoy playing Phase 10 and Dutch Blitz during the afternoons with some of the girls and a few guys. During the spring-like weather we have been having, we enjoy sitting outside doing homework together with some socializing.

I cannot express how many caring and friendly people we have on this campus. The teachers not only teach you the information you need to learn, but they take time to get to know you and to make sure you understand the material being taught. The students as a whole are like a family in some ways. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get a hello passing by a student, whether we’re friends or not. Along with being friendly, the students are very accepting. Coming from a public school this really impressed me. Instead of ignoring what you are saying, they sit down and talk to you and direct you in a godly way. This also goes for the faculty on campus.

This year has been an amazing life-changing experience. When you’re unsure about visiting a college, just remember dorm life is where the fun is!

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Old Classes Never Die

April 8th, 2010 by Jamie Knowles

Have you ever had a class that talked about things you thought you would forget about, but you thought back on it after the class was over? It’s second semester, and today I started thinking about the American Literature class I took last semester.

We had been reading a good number of works from Nathanial Hawthorne, such as “The Blithdale Romance,” and “The Minister’s Black Veil”.

Most of Hawthorne’s writing is about sin and, more specifically, secret sin. Like in “The Minister’s Black Veil,” we all wear invisible veils that hide the sin within. We think because others do not know about this sin, no one knows. We forget there is one that will always know – one that will see beyond the veil that we put on in hopes no one will find out.

I never thought Literature would impact me as much as it did this year. The class has challenged me to think deep and more biblically than I could ever imagine. My teacher, Dr. Hicks, challenged my thought process almost to the extreme, and I loved it.

It is my hope you to will find a class that will challenge your thinking in ways you could never imagine just as I did.

Have a wonderful unveiled day,

Jamie ~ Proverbs 14:15

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TMI

January 25th, 2010 by Dan Nichols

“TMI” emerged a few years ago as the standard abbreviation to use when social situations got a little too awkward. The letters stood for “too much information,” and if you were with people who knew what it meant – it became extremely advantageous.  

The brilliance was that you could just throw the letters “TMI” out there whenever someone divulged too much of their personal life in public. The awkward situation would then be acknowledged by everyone, and the atmosphere would lighten up considerably. This past week I’ve been thinking “TMI” over and over again, but not within the awkward social spectrum. I experienced the last finals week of my college career last semester, and it felt like I received too much information.

Knowledge is a funky thing. The more you get – the more you need. When you think you’ve found more – you actually find you don’t have much to begin with in the first place. When you need it, you don’t have enough of it. When you actually feel like you have enough, you don’t need it.

If you don’t believe me, just come to college.

Information abounds at college. The library has an infinite amount of books, magazines, online articles, and reference material where knowledge excitedly runs wild. Professors interact with you daily throughout the week with degrees and life experience that should humble any freshman. Classes consume your schedule with assignments, projects, tests, quizzes, questions, answers, data, numbers, graphs, labs, charts, statistics… It seems like an endless cycle.

And then finals week rolls around.

An entire semester of “all the above” is boiled down to one solitary test (or project – depending on which class you have). There is too much information to work with in just one test or project. Professors try to make it work, and they do the best they can. But no professor would sincerely boast that they can comprehensively boil the entire semester into one final.
So what’s our response to a finals week with too much information?

We are…

1) Responsible to work hard – because our God calls us to do that (Col.3:23).

2) To be thankful that our God embodies ALL wisdom and knowledge (Job 21:22).

3) Trusting that God will give us wisdom as we need it (James 1:5).

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Professor Forgives Classroom ADD

January 25th, 2010 by Dan Nichols

What typically happens when your teacher catches you goofing off in class? In most cases your teacher will either throw a very long glare from the front of the classroom or call you out  in the middle of the lecture. Normally you wouldn’t expect your teacher to take you out for lunch after you’ve been goofing off during the lecture.

Mine did.

Greek III is the kind of class where you start to delve into the more minute details of language study, and during one particular class hour I started to move into “ADD” mode. I don’t usually have an attention deficit, but once we started talking about “aspect” and “aktionsart” in relation to the Greek verb – my attention plummeted. This sudden plunge of attention to Dr. Decker’s lecture eventually culminated in reaching for my iTouch during the lecture (again, not characteristic for me at all).

My Greek professor Dr. Rodney J. Decker is a genius. You can find his Greek textbooks on Amazon.com. He knows Macbooks better than anyone I know. He wrote his doctoral dissertation for D.A. Carson, one of the top theological scholars in America today. And he can also spot a student using his iTouch during his lectures.

Dr. Decker calmly said my name once. I looked up sheepishly, and put my iTouch back in my pocket. Dr. Decker said no more about the incident until a few days later. I was hanging out with a friend of mine in the dorm one night when I got a new e-mail in my inbox. The sender line said “Rod Decker,” and I thought that I was about to receive a polite but firm e-mail of positive reprimand. This was not the case.

Instead, Dr. Decker told me how uncharacteristic it was for me to not pay attention in class. He asked if there was anything wrong and offered for me to reply with any questions I might have – which I did. I was honest with him and told him that I had been struggling to understand why an M.Div. degree was considered profitable for pastors. I didn’t quite understand. His response was an invitation to lunch that following Wednesday.

Dr. Decker took me out to Quizno’s and answered my questions. He asked me what God was doing in my life and what I perceived to be my future in ministry. That was how I was rewarded for goofing off in class, something I never plan on doing again… maybe.

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