Hey guys! Sorry it has been so long; this semester has definitely been a busy one! Although my schedule has been very full this semester, I enjoyed a short weekend off campus at Camp Mennoscah. My church, Tabor Mennonite Church, was having our bi-annual weekend campout at Camp Mennoscah.

Smiling faces covered in taco salad and chocolate cake!

My family set out early Saturday afternoon. When we got to camp, we started moving into our cabin. We stayed in Sunrise this year. Members of our church stayed in the retreat center, in staff houses, or tents. We set off on a nature hike on Saturday afternoon. We found spiders, lizards, and many bugs. This is one of my favorite parts of camp: the opportunity to slow down and realize the beauty of nature that surrounds the camp. For supper, it is often a Camp Mennoscah tradition to eat taco salad without silverware or hands. My table decided to continue this tradition, and we ended up looking very messy! After supper, we left on a hayrack ride as the sun was setting. Our theme for the weekend was “Radical Hospitality.” We talked about ways that we can welcome all people into God’s family. Marlene Bogard was our speaker for the weekend. She spoke at both campfire and at our Sunday morning worship. After campfire, we got into a very competitive game of four-square. We ended the night with several hours of SCUM, a card game. We played late (or early!) into the night!

We woke up very early on Sunday morning to start cooking breakfast. My family and another family worked together to make sure that breakfast was ready to go for the rest of the hungry campers. After a worship service and some more four-square and wood tag, we decided to spend some time by the river. Camp Mennoscah is located along the Ninnescah River. There is a dam with a very pretty waterfall. I find this to be a very peaceful and relaxing location to just sit and take in the beauty. Soon after lunch, it was time to leave camp and head back to our busy lives, which had been so patiently waiting for us to return.

We live in a world filled with technology, and I often find myself surrounded by it. When we left for camp, I realized that I accidentally left my cell phone at home. As the weekend went on, I realized that it was a good thing for me to get away from technology to spend time with others building new relationships and strengthening others. It was so necessary to get away for a weekend and spend some quality time with my church family. This weekend away was a learning experience for me as I took some time to slow down and take note of the beauty that surrounds me.

This week was a crazy time on Bethel campus! For students, professors, maintenance, and anyone else connected with planning any part of fall fest. As a student, I love this time of year! Each day this past week I got more and more excited as there were more tents and chairs set up everyday (a big thank you to the people who helped with this). It got really difficult to focus on school work as the week went on. Who would want to read a text book when fall fest was so close??

For many students at Bethel the fun started Thursday evening with Taste of Newton. Instead of going to the caf for supper, many of us drove over to main street for the annual Newton celebration. A big section of main street was blocked off and was, instead, full of tents and tables with foods and other goods. There is always quite the variety of booths at Taste of Newton; a few that stood out to me were the fire pit for making smores, the homemade root beer stand, and the verenike booth. Verenike is my favorite thing to eat at Taste of Newton, but I also saw lots of other good foods: ice cream, chinese food, mexican food, corn on the cob, grilled chicken, and much more. There are normally great entertainment options also: dancers, martial art displays, and many different musical groups. It was a fun evening!

Next was the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) symposium. This started Friday afternoon and continued again Saturday morning. Three Bethel alumni presented on the topic of chemistry. I found what they had to say very interesting, but I was also reminded about how little I know about chemistry! Also on Saturday morning was the Kidron Bethel Country Breakfast to which my sister, a friend, and myself were invited by a lovely lady from my home church. Though it was early, it was definitely worth it! The dining hall at Kidron was filled with smiling faces and delicious breakfast foods!

Finally Bethel Fall Fest arrived! My first activity of the day was working the Bethel Social work booth. We were selling all sorts of good cookies and some awesome v-neck t shirts. Jacob Miller and I were quite the sales people! Next, I had half an hour to talk to millions of people and eat all the lunch I could. First, I got some zwiebach and then I ran over to the verenike booth. Thankfully my older brother was there to buy me and some others some delicious verenike! As I was quickly eating this, I went over to the culture shock booth to help serve curry. It seemed like the curry was quite a hit! After this, I took a few laps around all of the booths, stopped by the bookstore and Mojo’s, and then went over to the volleyball game.

Later I took a nap and then went over to a tail gate before the football game. Thanks to the Rudeen/Goering family for the food and fellowship! The football game was cold, but fun! The boys fought hard, but ended up losing. Finally I went over to Reba’s with some friends to listen to the Bethel jazz combo 1 perform.

Sunday morning I got up early to warm up for the Bethel college concert choir performance at Bethel College Mennonite Church. The church was very full and it was a great service! It was a great fall fest!

 My family does not live very far from Bethel… about twenty minutes to be exact.  So, when I heard Bethel was having a Family Weekend, I was not too excited. I can go home very easily and didn’t really see the point in inviting my family here for a special weekend. Because of this, I did not even bother telling my parents about family weekend. That is until about two days before, when I got an email about family weekend and decided I should at least forward it to my family. 

Little did I know! My parents were SUPER excited to come to family weekend! They called me up and wanted to know all about it. Honestly, I could not tell them much, but they said they would come for lunch the next day and then see what the rest of the day would bring. The next day around noon I met my parents and two younger sisters (Katrina is also attending Bethel) for lunch. My friend Katelyn Melgren also joined the Regehr family for that day. We were treated to an awesome lunch outside the Caf where many tables were set up. It was a great day for eating outside! Here is a picture that was taken by Vada Snider.

 After lunch we skipped over to Kauffman Museum (it was free admission for family weekend). Most of my family had been there before, but there was an awesome new display on the WPA, which stands for Work Progress Administration. The WPA was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Besides this new display, all of the year round displays were very interesting. We learned about Anabaptist history, the Mennonites journey from Europe to the Central Plains in the 1870’s, and many other cool things about countries from all over the world! Also, we saw many awesome pieces of Mennonite immigrant furniture. 

 Next, we ran over to Thresher Gym to watch the volleyball games. Bethel went up against Manhattan Christian in a close game, but ended up losing 2 matches to 3 matches. Then it was time for the family to head home.

 Next day, they were back! Bethel College Mennonite Church welcomed all students and their families to come and worship with them for the morning. After that, my family went over to the Caf for the brunch that was being offered. My dad, especially, greatly enjoyed the food! All in all it was a great weekend, and I think it can grow into quite the tradition for years to come!