Proclaim Talk

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! (And Joel, if you need a translation, feel free to ask me. 😉
So back on Sunday, it turned out that I didn’t have as much to do as I had originally feared. The astro assignment was pushed back to Wednesday because Chuck hadn’t covered the chapter that half the assignment was on, and then the lab got pushed back because the software wasn’t working, and because Chuck wanted us just to finish the super-ultra-long tests from the previous Wednesday. Anyways, that meant that I actually had the time to attend the Gustavus spring play, “All’s Well That Ends Well” by Shakespeare. It was a 19th-century adaptation of the play (in terms of costuming, etc), and I honestly thought it was the best production of a Shakespeare play that I’ve ever seen. The acting and directing were very good, which made the plot very easy to follow and the dialogue easy to understand, despite being in archaic Shakespearian English. And it was a play that nobody’s familiar with, including myself, so I was able to come at it with basically no preconceptions. I had read through it once though, back over Touring Week when I thought I was gonna try out for it. Part of me wishes I had tried out… And then Sunday evening I went to the Gustavus Choir concert in Christ Chapel, which was pretty good. I’d never been to a G-Choir concert before, and I don’t think I’d been to a choir concert since a Chapel Choir concert back in freshman year, so it was good for me to go to one.
Sunday’s flurries lasted into Monday morning, but I think I can safely say that’s the last snow we’ll be getting for a few months around here. Even though it was only about 40-45 and pretty breezy on Monday, the air just felt different than it had for the last two weeks, it really felt like a warmup was imminent. Anyway, Monday was long, just like Mondays always are for me this semester. For St Ansgar’s we had our final rehearsal in the Chapel before our concert this coming Sunday night. We’ve really got a few cool songs (11 or 12 total), you should all come, especially if you’re already on campus. 7pm Sunday night in Christ Chapel, be there or be somewhere else. Anyway, after yet another exhilarating episode of “24” (they keep getting better!! only three episodes left this season!), then it was time to go lead the talk at Men’s Christian Fellowship. I printed out a double-sided page with Scripture passages on it that addressed the questions of who God is, and what God is like. About 16 or 17 guys showed up, a pretty good turnout, and we actually had a fantastic discussion about all that stuff. In my honest opinion, it was one of the better MCF’s this semester in terms of quality and focused discussion/Bible study, which was what I was hoping for.
Tuesday got a bit warmer, up to about 55 or so, and sunny. Heat wave, I know! For golf class we were by the putting green over by Norelius (which I had never noticed before). John and I had a little competition to see who could get our chip shots closest to the pin on a best of five basis, but both of us are bad enough that it was basically a draw. 😉 I guess neither one of us will be getting the free pop that Brownie (our instructor) was offering, oh well. Senior Sem was cool. Claire had everyone make a polymer (kinda like Gak or extra-moist and malleable Play-Doh), it was fun playing with that the whole rest of the class. Seriously, it’s a good stress reliever! It turned my hands green though for awhile, and sometimes distracted me from the other people’s presentations, hehe. And I promise that making a polymer had something to do with our values and ethics (or at least Claire’s). It may seem unclear as to how, but just take my word that it did. 🙂
But definitely the biggest thing that happened Tuesday was Proclaim. I was scheduled to give the talk this week at it, and I’d been working on it for a couple of weeks, handing it off to people like my Dad, Brian Beckstrom, and Gary Gilbertson along the way for feedback. Basically I’d put a lot of work and time into the talk, trying to make it as good as it could be. Like my MCF talk, my Proclaim talk was also on the questions of who God is and what God is like, but it was quite a different spiel. The group from Prepare Ministries that went on a spring break missions trip to Dominican Republic also put on a touching skit right before I went up there, and the Proclaim band played “Prince of Peace” and “Great Is He” (my two favourite Proclaim songs) per my request, to go along with the topic of my talk. 🙂 Anyway, I was a bit nervous beforehand, but then all that went away when I got up there and started talking. I was also apprehensive that my talk would be too long and that it’d lose the audience, but it seemed to me both during the talk, and from the feedback I got afterwards, that seemingly everyone was paying attention the whole time, and really engaged by what I was saying. (Yes!!) Basically, I thought the talk went really well, and so did heaps of people who were listening (at least judging from what people told me, I’ve been touched by how many really good compliments I’ve gotten from people about my talk), I think it really touched and impacted a lot of people, and glorified God, which was my entire goal in giving the mini-sermon. I think people were most blown away (as I had hoped they would be) by Dr S.M. Lockridge’s “My King” sermon, which I played the audio of. Anywho, I’m relieved to have that over and done with, so that now I can turn my attention to other things. Although I must admit, it was still kinda tough concentrating afterwards, trying to finish the astro assignment.
Wednesday was the MAYDAY! Peace Conference here at Gustavus, this year’s theme being “Energy for Peace.” It was a glorious day for it, clear blue skies and 65 degrees. And the college put up all these colourful banners lining Eckman Mall, from Three Flags all the way to Christ Chapel, it was really festive-looking. Truth be told I’d never gone to a single Mayday talk during my previous three years at Gustavus, and still avoided the chapel service, because it contained an hour-long global warming lecture by some activist. That actually annoys me, when the college mixes the actual church/chapel service with such blatant political activism. And it’s not just that I get annoyed when a leftist group takes over the pulpit for a service, I’m also made uncomfortable by some of the political pulpit shenanigans that go on on the right, though naturally I typically agree with the political message in those forays a bit more. I just don’t think that it’s appropriate to use the pulpit for an entire hour during a service for political activism. But anyway, in the afternoon I did go to a talk on Wind Energy and Minnesota’s Energy Grid. That was also an incredibly alarmist lecture on global warming and stuff, and while the guy did have some points that I agreed with, I also disagreed with a few of his assertions and conclusions. Naturally I hope that as a nation (and planet) we could en masse switch to forms of renewable energy (or at the very least, a healthy mix of wind, natural gas, and nuclear power), but I just don’t agree with some of the methods that these people are proposing to accomplish those goals.
Anyways, between that and St Ansgar’s rehearsal I went down to Mankato with Carl & Bridget to help Carl with his photography final project. Basically it involved him taking pictures of me interacting with a store clerk, and then having both of us separately showing some exaggerated emotion, like a scowl or whatever, to illustrate how some people put on a fake positive persona while in public. It was a little weird doing all that stuff while other shoppers were walking by, and it was even a bit of a challenge to find clerks and stores willing to let Carl photograph them. Then right after St Ansgar’s I went over to Mark Anderson’s house for the Admission Office BBQ. I wound up getting there at the tail end of the senior stories (those are always good, hehe), just as people were starting to leave, but at least I got some free food. I also got a thank you card with lots of nice notes from all the Admission counselors on it. I’m actually gonna miss Admissions, and miss the people there… Immediately following that I went to a concert/lecture about Martin Luther, put on by a student who did an independent study about him. She talked a good deal about his theology, his polemics and his hymnody, and had us sing a bunch of Luther’s hymns, it was a good program. Then I went over to Pittman for awhile for a Bible study, basically I just wound up hanging out with Micah and Nolan for awhile. And now I’m here writing this, while I should be in bed sleeping.
My cell phone should get here tomorrow! I can’t wait! As soon as I get it working I’ll probably call Cingular and try to have them give me a new Pennsylvania number, since I’ll be moving out there in three months anyway, instead of the current Mankato number that I’m assigned. And just for fun, if any of you are bored with my site, check out what gizoogle.com translates it as, it’s hilarious! And you can get any site translated by gizoogle.com, it’s the dizzle fo’ shizzle. Check it out yo.