The Master's College

My first thought is that it is way too hot here! And the dorms are at the top of a very steep hill (everything else, of course, is at the bottom). But it's amazing. From my window I can see the hills and the mountains in the distance. It's not at all like home, which of course is flat; also, it's so much drier here so the colours are different; more muted, I think, yellows and darker green with bits of brighter green here and there. The houses that I can see are all yellowish with red roofs.

I've met a lot of people, mostly from the states of course, but another Canadian, one from the Dominican Republic, and a woman from Japan who figures that about the time she gets over jet lag it will be time to go home! We talk a lot about homes and families and programs (it seems most people are in Biblical Counseling; so far we've only found 4 of us in Biblical Studies). Some people are on the "suicide track" (a.k.a. the very intense 2 year plan); the rest of us are working on completing in 4 to 6 years instead!

They don't serve meals on Saturdays (and the only official Sunday meal is breakfast but we stopped for lunch after church and there's a welcome banquet tonight) so, since most of us arrived in the afternoon we were hungry by evening! We were waiting for the shuttle bus driver to ask if he would drop us off in town on his way through and pick us up on the way back (it's a bit of a walk; not so bad going but uphill all the way back) when another guy came over to see if anyone wanted to go get some food; he had driven (he lives about 6 hours away) and had a car and knew a good pizza place. A group of us went with him and he's right: it is really good pizza! We brought a couple back for the others as well so everyone got fed.

This morning we went to Grace Community Church. I was hoping to hear John MacArthur preach but he's on vacation; Phil Johnson (the chief of the Pyromaniacs; see the link to the side) preached instead; he talked about Ephesians 2:8-10. It was really good stuff. The church is huge; I think their choir is bigger than our entire church! That was for first service; during second service we went to one of the fellowship groups; I ended up in Crossroads, the college and young adults (official ages: 18-25, so I decided to be 25 again!) which was interesting. They were definitely young adult oriented with the praise band and mostly praise songs (but they sang one hymn; let me tell you, though, "O For a Thousand Tongues" sounds somewhat different with drums and electric guitars than it does with an organ). The songs, though, were good songs with good doctrine and they didn't sing the choruses 6 times over (you know the type I mean) and the speaker was really good. He talked about Paul before King Agrippa and about being able to give a testimony that highlights salvation. It was a good morning.

So now most people are finishing homework or having some down time. Most of us are still tired from travel and we didn't all sleep well last night (one girl kept waking up sweating and then finally thought "hey, I bet that thing under the window turns on"). In an hour or so we have a tour of the campus and then the welcome banquet. Tomorrow classes start and I can't wait! If I have time and energy I'll try to keep you all updated!