Week Four and Frustrations

So, I can’t believe that it’s week four already. One of the leaders added up all the time that we spend in class during the first three months of the lecture phase and it is said to be the equivalent of going to church every Wednesday and Sunday for four and a half years. So, am I learning a lot? Yes! Am I going to have to go back and read all my notes again several times to comprehend all that I have learned? Yes! Am I loving it, despite being tired or overwhelmed at times? Yes! This week is relationship week, so I am looking forward to sharing with you at the end of this week what I learned from class with John Murphy.

So, I know you have all been waiting for this one……is there anything frustrating you? Of course living in a community with 40 students and 14 staff twenty four hours a day seven days a week on a mountain is going to have moments of frustration. What are the biggest frustrations? Well, the same things that are the biggest blessings too. One frustration has been my six roommates and I trying to find the balance of “preferring one another as more important than yourself,” and speaking up when something really bothers us so that we can fix the problem. It definitely is a test in humility, and a great learning experience. The other frustration has been with showers. We have a limited supply of water here as you have to actually buy water rights in Colorado, so Eagle Rock only has a certain amount of water a month, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. YWAM is working on the final purchase of another well to be used starting in January, but in the meantime we are limited to three minute showers. The time isn’t that bad (and I can't complain considering some people in the world don't even have water), but if we abuse the time then we may not have water at the end of the month to drink or cook with, etc. This is also another reason why we come down the mountains on Mondays to do laundry. So, while short showers and problems with roommates may be an occasional frustration, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

Now for the fun stuff…..last night I got to go swimming at an indoor pool while watching it snow outside – it was so pretty. The Gilpin County Recreation Center is ten minutes from Eagle Rock and they have given us an amazing three month membership price of $46 (that is less than the students at the college I worked at paid a month). We go to the gym Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but we had some free time yesterday evening, so I went back again to swim. The gymnasium is really nice with all the essentials as well as the Olympic size pool. There is also a kid’s pool with a slide that is heated, so yeah, I went down the slide a couple times!

Well, I will close for now, but I pray that each of you is experiencing God in a new way each day too.