BIFL = Basic Issues of Faith and Life

October 16, 2012 by in Academics | Comments Off

BIFL (bif-uhl) stands for Basic Issues of Faith and Life. BIFL is a 400 level Bible course that all seniors are required to take sometime during their final year at Bethel. In a sense, I guess you could say that it is the senior exit course. This class meets twice a week for 2 hours each day to discuss books and topics, and then figure out how we can apply them to our lives today. Professors take turns teaching the course each semester.

There are two main things that BIFL is known for…1) the BIFL Oral Exam and 2) The Credo Paper. Yesterday was my oral exam. I was really nervous going into it, primarily because of the fact that I didn’t know what to expect. All of the people who have graduated in past years that I talked to told me that it really wasn’t bad, but hearing that didn’t exactly ease my nerves.

Here’s a brief rundown of how BIFL Orals work: Each year, professors meet together and pick a book of the Bible to cover and one additional book that all seniors will read. (We read many other books as well, but those selections are up to the individual professors who are teaching the course that semester.) The Orals are designed to be like a conversation between two students and two faculty members. They ask us questions about the book of the Bible, which in this case was Hosea, and the book that we read, “Fidelity” by Wendell Berry. A lot of the questions that the faculty members ask are related to themes in the books or how we can apply these books to our lives today. The Oral exam is a pass/fail deal, and you must pass in order to graduate from Bethel College.

Yes, I know. This all sounds really intense. That’s exactly what I thought too. However, now that I look back on my experience yesterday, it wasn’t too bad. Sure, there were questions that were tough and that I didn’t exactly know how to answer, but that’s the goal. The faculty want us to be critical thinkers and learn how to communicate our thoughts effectively. That’s part of the Bethel goal.

Fall Beauty, Weather, Festivities And Such

October 15, 2012 by in Events | Comments Off

Walking outside yesterday I saw the beautiful colors of fall beginning to decorate our campus. There is this gorgeous tree outside the mods that is shedding gorgeous bright yellow leaves as we speak.Yes, it is finally fall and I could not be more excited. Along with the wonderful weather and colors that fall brings it also brings many exciting and fun festivities to the Bethel campus as well. The first one is fall break. Fall break was much needed for me, although I did not do anything particularly exciting or eventful, just being able to relax at home was just what I needed to get me rejuvenated to finish out the rest of the semester. The other exciting festivity was Taste of Newton and Fall Fest weekend. Taste of Newton was tasty (haha) as always, that included delicious verenika and apple dumplings. Fall Fest was especially busy for me this year because I am not a part of SAA and Student Senate (I wasn’t last year) and so along with those new titles came more responsibilities with helping with booths on Saturday. Although the day started off not looking promising with the early morning rain and the clouds looming over, it turned out to be a wonderful day for the event. After helping with the booths I was still able to walk around and enjoy food, samples, the photo booth and other entertainment.

In the evening on Saturday then was the football game. Although it was sad to see them lose, it was fun to be in the stands with the students watching together. It was also a great honor at half time for the women’s tennis team to be recognized on the field for making it to Nationals for the fourth year in a row this past season. Other teams and individuals were also recognized: the men’s golf team for their award of the team’s overall GPA, as well as individuals from tennis, golf and track for their individual achievements.

This year has seem to have flown by so fast (which is partially why I am behind on my blogging, yikes), and I know it will continue to keep picking up speed, but I am so thankful to experience the fun and beauty of the fall along the way.

Some Things: A Personal Story

October 14, 2012 by in Study Abroad | Comments Off

It is the middle of my second month living in Barcelona, Spain, and although I have shared with you a general account of my impressions of the place, the report of an individual human experience has been missing. That is why today I will tell you the story of Jan and Magdalena: two Spanish people I met during my travels who have given me permission to share their life stories. This account, I hope, will help us understand the difficult time Spain is living in its history and offer a particular point of view on some of the current struggles of the Spanish people.

Magdalena was born in a small city in southern Spain in the middle of WWII and was three years old when the war ended. By the time she was five, her older sister—who suffered from sudden visual impairment—and her mother, traveled together to Madrid to seek treatment. It had been a year since the pair had left, and Magdalena’s father decided to send Magdalena north to live with his sister. Magdalena lived with her aunt for several years while her father struggled to move his shoe-making business to the capital. At the age of thirteen, her family was reunited in Madrid and Magdalena began working as a seamstress.

A Change of Heart

October 9, 2012 by in Study Abroad | Comments Off

Now I don’t talk about religion and my personal beliefs in depth very much. I don’t like to mainly because I think what a person feels regarding religion and God is extremely personal and more often than not points to our differences as people rather than the much larger number of things we share in common that bind us together.

However, because Bethel is one of what feels like the few colleges that is active in the religion it is associated with, lists discipleship as one of its four central values, and has played a big role in my faith life the last few years, I’m going to broach a subject I often avoid.

Before I came to Bethel, I quickly and with little thought identified as Quaker whenever someone asked me what religion I was. Throughout my childhood I regularly attended the Friends meeting in San Antonio, Texas where I’m from, but as I got older and entered high school, my attendance dwindled. By the end of high school, I was going to meeting maybe once a month and other than the yearly Quaker retreat, wasn’t really interact with Quakers my own age. So when I started Bethel, I felt like a fish out of water to be surrounded by and have so many friends with a strong faith in God, Jesus, and Christianity.

College Buddies

October 3, 2012 by in Campus Life | Comments Off

Throughout my years at Bethel, there is a program that has become very near and dear to my heart. College Buddies is a program where the Bethel College SCAN program pairs up with the Harvey-Marion County CDDO (Community Developmental Disability Organization). Once a month, Bethel students meet with adults who have developmental disabilities in the Bethel College Mennonite Church basement for an evening of socializing, laughing, doing crafts or games, and eating snacks. We also work to break stereotypes that are associated with developmentally disabled people.

As a freshman and sophomore, I participated in College Buddies (then called Circle of Friends), and after two years I was asked to be the leader of the group. I am so passionate about this program. I love it’s mission. I love the college students that are willing to give up an evening out of their busy schedule. I love the community members that come with smiles on their faces and stories to share. I love how these people look forward to this day for an entire month, just as I do. I love their hugs and handshakes. It is an incredible program and an amazing way for Bethel College to reach out to the community.

Last Thursday was our first meeting of the year. We did some get to know you activities, created acrostic poems with our names, and had snack. I think a good time was had by all. Other activities this year will include pumpkin decorating, a Holiday Bash, Valentine’s crafts, a newspaper fashion show, and a Bingo night.

Finally, a break!

October 3, 2012 by in Campus Life | Comments Off

Congratulations! We have reached that wonderful point in the semester where projects, papers, and assignments start piling up and people get really stressed when they think about how little time is left in the semester and how much they have left to do. This is also the time of the semester when people begin to sleep a lot less and get sick much easier. All of this starts to happen and then…BOOM! Fall break arrives! 🙂

My fall break was very relaxing and I will admit, I did not do much homework. Instead of sleeping in, like most students would on a Saturday morning during their break, I got up at 3:30 AM to take my sister to Wichita to catch an early morning flight so she could go visit friends in other states for her break. We then ate breakfast at IHOP and snagged some great sales at the early bird Kohl’s sales before heading home. In the evening, I had a barbeque with some of my friends and then caught the tail end of the BC football game.

On Sunday after church, I headed out with 2 of my modmates to a lakehouse in Council Grove that one of the girl’s parents own. We spent the next 45ish hours there relaxing and enjoying our break. The house overlooks a gorgeous lake and we were able to get out the jetski and zoom around on the water on Sunday afternoon. Despite the chilly water, we also decided to go tubing and swimming. We wished we could have said that we went swimming in October, but we were one day too early. During our time there, we also watched movies, cooked so much AMAZING food, did some crafts, and slept A LOT. Needless to say, it was a wonderful, relaxing weekend with friends.

I am so thankful for Fall Break.

Fall Break

October 3, 2012 by in Campus Life | Comments Off

This past weekend was one of my favorite weekends on campus-Fall Break. Most colleges in our conference get a five-day weekend, but since we take a day to do service later in the semester our fall break is a Monday and Tuesday without class. It’s a very different experience to be on campus for that amount of time without class, but with friends still around.

I had a goal of getting ahead on homework during my days off, but instead went for the relaxation and fun with friends route. I baked a cookie pie using chickpeas with my friend Erin, played video games that I hadn’t played since middle school with some other friends, and slept in until 11 on Monday and Tuesday. That’s really late for me.

Besides the fact that there was no class, Fall Break also is one of the best weekends on campus because it marks the beginning of a spectacular month to be a Thresher. First of all, fall is finally here, and Kansas does fall right. It’s starting to get cooler and soon the leaves will be changing and falling. I grew up close to campus so fall was always one of my favorite times because there are so many absolutely gorgeous trees around.

October is also special to Bethel because it means Fall Festival is coming. I’m sure there will be many posts about Fall Fest in the next few weeks. This year, the city of North Newton even declared October Bethel College month in honor of the 125th anniversary of the college.

Ordinary Wonders

October 3, 2012 by in Campus Life | Comments Off

Every once in awhile a string of serendipitous circumstances finds you all at once and you are left with in awe. This happened to me this past Tuesday.

The day began as most Tuesdays do for me – I slept in, enjoying having no obligations till Concert Choir at noon. I then went to my afternoon Social Work class, spent some time in the library, finished up a few assignments. I ate an early supper in preparation for a soccer game later that evening.

We played a tough nationally ranked team and it was an occasion for our team to rise up and pull together. We played our best match of the season even though we ended up losing 0-1. The team defended fiercely and as a unit for 90 minutes. We proved we can hang with any team. During the last twenty minutes or so of the game lightning flickered in the looming storm clouds to the south.

As I was walking back from the game I ran into a friend. We both commented on the fact that it had been raining, that we loved the rich, loamy smell that rain brings, and that we like walks in such circumstances. Plans were made to go on such a walk. Another friend joined us. The three of us headed for the Sand Creek Trails, the wood chip trails that run through the woods adjacent to Bethel College. Here the lightning illuminated our way through the dark trees.

The Children’s Concert!

October 2, 2012 by in Fine Arts | Comments Off

Wow! It’s hard to believe it is already October! Only a little over a week ago did Memorial Hall have a hoard of young children with their parents and grandparents, the Bethel forensics students, the Bethel education students, the Bethel Wind Ensemble, and the Women’s Association for the first ever “Tales and Tunes — Adventures with Aesop” children’s concert. The Women’s Association had the idea to try out a concert just for children. The Wind Ensemble played a piece that included four of Aesop’s Fables that had a narrative part as each movement was played. Before every movement one of the forensics students told the story dramatically to the children and after the movement the elementary education students led various movement and craft activities that connected to the fable. Timothy Shade, the Wind Ensemble conductor, also talked about parts of the songs with the kids. For example, for the story the Tortoise and the Hare, he pointed out the different instruments that played the part of the tortoise and the instruments that represented the hare.

The turn out ended up being excellent. Since I was in the Wind Ensemble I did not get the opportunity to work with any of the kids but it sure looked like they enjoyed their afternoon. One of the little boys even tried to direct the Wind Ensemble during one of their activities! Even though it was a pretty chaotic afternoon it ended up being just another one of the awesome experiences Bethel has to offer.

Living in the Heart of Civilization

October 2, 2012 by in Study Abroad | Comments Off

Greetings from Athens! I have been here for just over 2 weeks now and life is starting to reach some sense of normalcy again. Classes start in a week and the group of American students I’m here with has really started to bond. All in all, things are going very well.

Athens is a city cloaked in white. Buildings rarely seem to be less than 4 stories tall so many of the streets are blessed with shade except for around noon. Everywhere you look there are balconies and plants and cars and motorcycles and kiosks. Walking out onto the street, you are surrounded by constant noise, movement, and smells. There seems to be a little cafe, bakery, or take-away souvlaki place every 20 feet and you quickly learn which are the best and which aren’t.

Walking around the city, it isn’t hard to get lost since much of it looks largely the same. In the monotony of the streets glows the occasional landmark, a welcome relief. Parliament marks the center of life in Athens, the place where demonstrations and negotiations occur. If you find Parliament and Syntagma Square, you can get anywhere. Not far away is the Acropolis which overlooks the new center for government from its ancient home. It’s almost as if it’s watching over present-day Greece, judging both things good and bad. Read More

Archives for October 2012