beyond the green

For the past week, Bethel College has been on Spring Break. For me, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I was pretty stressed, getting a little burnt out, and just ready for a nice, long break. Most of my friends had exciting weeks planned – at least half of them were going on the Choir Tour to the Pacific Northwest (details of which can be read on this blog), the tennis team visited the Southeast, a couple of my modmates went skiing in Colorado, and a handful of other friends took roadtrips to California, Colorado, and San Antonio. My Spring Break started at approximately 6pm on Friday, when a caravan of 3 vehicles left the BC parking lot to drive to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas for 3 days of rock climbing, camping, and cooking outdoors.

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Today is our sixth day on tour. The first full day of concerts in Washington was a difficult one; we had the privilege of singing in a Catholic cathedral with amazing acoustics. We arrived there with no time to rehearse in the space so we went on cold turkey. This was a challenging concert but we persevered through, and over the next few days sang three of the best concerts we have ever done.

Today is our second day in Oregon. Today we spend the majority of the day on the beach throwing the Frisbee or just walking around the gorgeous Oregon coast. My favorite thing about this day involved Open Road. We made a circle right on the water and sang “Here by the Water” and we took stones and placed them in the water. This event made me realize how truly lucky I am to be involved in this group, and how much I am looking forward to the rest of this tour.

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When we were all loaded on the bus and ready to leave Menno Mennonite Church on Sunday, Dale announced, “The service this morning made this entire choir tour worth our time.” I fully agree with this statement. We started the morning after a full night’s sleep in the beautiful landscape of western Washington. I had the opportunity to give the senior reflection before we sang, and I talked about feeling overwhelmed before leaving for choir tour but being thankful for everyone in the choir and everyone who helped comfort me and encourage me during the past few days that we were traveling. I also talked about how I picture the music we sing. I see it as something more than sound waves bouncing off the walls and people in the places we sing. I picture the choir’s harmonies as love that is being poured out to our audiences.

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Now that spring has arrived, you will see more students up and about around the Bethel campus. Tennis is still going strong but the nice weather allows for them to really enjoy the outdoors. Track is under way with plenty of  meets for student to enjoy with the outside sun. Don’t forget golf, they have tournaments coming up that you are sure to enjoy. And who can forget such leisure activities such as  ultimate Frisbee, sand volleyball, walking, running and biking the trail. The  great spring weather brings an array of students out and about the campus.

The food committee consist of a group of students that are allowed to sit before the overseers of the cafeteria food and constructively give criticism about the cafe food. The food committee’s advisers will ask questions like how do you rate the cafe food, what needs to improve, what area do you like or dislike in the cafe set up, what needs to be changed, how can it be better, what additions would you like to see to the cafe. Sitting on the food committee offers a great opportunity to students to put in there input about the food.