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.

 

Missions Conference 2010

February 10th, 2010 by Jamie Knowles

Hey everyone,

Mission’s conference of 2010 came into swing last night and I am excited. Normally, I do not like the mission’s conference, but this year I am looking forward to it. 

This year we are using what we have learned over our time here, out on the field.  On Thursday, students from BBC are heading out into different areas to minister to people. Some students are going to New York City, Cortland, NY and Binghamton, NY for a few hours handing out food and clothing, cleaning, and street evangelism.  Other students are going to Scranton, PA to do the same thing.  The rest of the students, including myself, are staying on campus to pray for those going out.

I decided to stay on campus to pray for one reason, and that was because I need to work on my praying.  I am having a hard time getting into prayer and this is a good opportunity for me to relearn how to pray.   I have no problems helping people and participating in street evangelism, but prayer is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian walk for me. 

I have been praying more than I normally do lately and I cannot wait to have the whole morning to just pray.  I learn more about God and myself every time I pray. 

I have found that my favorite way to pray is by using a prayer journal. I love to write my prayers and find that I am a lot more focused.  Has your mind ever wondered in your prayers, like when you are asking for help and you end up going on a rant or you just get distracted? I have found that writing also keeps me more sincere and less rushed in my prayers.  I really recommend it. 

How do you deal with being distracted in your prayers?  I would really enjoy trying out your ideas.

 

Community, Church and Philosophy

February 2nd, 2010 by Dan Nichols

The community found in the local church is foundational to Christianity. If you follow Christ, you will love His church – both universal and local. Within the local branch of Christ’s church, there is a community that you will eventually discover, totally unique from anything else in the world.

My local church utilizes small group ministry in order to foster community within a large group of disciples of Christ. Last semester I began to work with co-leader Drew Whipple (an Admissions Counselor for BBC) to launch a small group for 18-25 year olds. We started out by studying different portions of the Bible, but eventually our small group discussion led into philosophy. College students can tend to lean in that direction, after all. Here are some of the questions we worked through one night – see how you would respond to these questions. My argument would be that the community found in the local church is an awesome way to wrestle through tough philosophical questions that relate to God – questions like…

“If there is a loving God in control of the world, how do you make sense out of the kind of evil and suffering that the world saw on September 11, 2001?”

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how come there is evil in the world?” – Epicurus

“Did God create evil? Did God create sin?”

Wrestling through philosophical questions about God becomes an extremely positive spiritual experience within the realm of local church community. This is not the only way to have a positive spiritual experience when dealing with philosophy, but it is definitely one of the best. You should try it.