So yesterday morning we awoke with all agleam in our eyes, For this is the day in which I was to see a ninja dera (ninja temple) and a Samurai castle. I couldn't even describe to you how excited i was to see these two things. so the story goes, we went to this temple and found out it wasn't actually a ninja temple...story of my life... BUT what we did find out is that it was a Samurai temple with many tricks and illusions to fool enemy ninja sent to the kill the Feudal Lords back in the day. Things such as murder stairs, hidden stairways, trick doors, and many other little things that were designed to help the lord hide in his temple or to injure the intruders.
Next was the castle, and to say the least, utter disappointment...So as it turns out, back when the Feudal Lords were all battling, basically all the castles got burned down by each other...so there was no actual castle... we did get to run around the grounds of the castle and ended up hearing about the history and the layout of the grounds from a volunteer guide that found us foreigners wandering around.
we then went to the park, Kendo -something something park...it was absolutely fantastically gorgeous!! it is actually one of the three most popular and famous parks of all Japan!!!
afterwards we went to the a fish market.... This was sooooooo cool! literally a ton of small alleys lined with fisherman and their days wears shouting out trying to sell them! we found a 600 dollar fish...a ginormous tuna fish!!! it was mainly crab season, so we saw tons and tons of crabs!!! one of which pinched a mouthy Japanese guy as he tried to mockingly make fun of me for not being brave and stinking my finger in his claw.....serves him right!!!
we also found a super famous street that has been filmed in movies many times ( can't name any though)....but we found a gold leaf shop!!!! and they let us eat straight gold!!! also let it be known that i was dared to snort some.... and as thick headed and manly as I am....i totally did... two words: no bueno
after this tiresome and fun filled day, we ended up at a 100 yen ($1) sushi shop..... I will try my best to accurately describe this... but basically you sit in a booth with you buddies and there is a big super long conveyor belt that brings out hundreds of plates of different kinds of sushi and you just pluck it off the belt as it goes by and eat it....they charge you per plate as it all cost 100 yen a plate.... all us boys had and average of like 10 plates each, the girls averaged 6 plates each... we then retired for the evening.
when we did get home, we started packing the van for what came today, Hakuba, and more specifically Hopp one resort..... a HUGE mountain!! with a 5 mile long run...it was sooooooo awesome!!! I actually switched backs to skiis for today because i wanted to keep up with all the pro boarders i was with, as it turns out... I like boarding better now, the skii boots were too big and multiple feet of snow is now bueno on those skiis...i should have stayed on a board.. on the upside! i met a british guy and his student Andy who was learning English and how to skii. i also bumped into 2 Australian Girls who thought my American accent was cute. Also 2 ladies from New Zealand who i skiied with for awhile because we were all trying to get to the bottom of the gondola... This place was sooooo big, i literally got lost with a map... yeah... with a map... so once i made it down to the gondola, i ate lunch quick and had a beer while chatting to three British guys in the local pub. As it turns out, everyone from everywhere was there that day. I also met a gentleman from Chicago IL but has lived in Asia for the past 20 years and is currently in Singapore doing HR work...
we all came home to Sally's famous cooking and we had Curry.... The really hilarious Satoshi came over and brought his brother with him...they all are playing card games around the table... while Tyler and I blog away, and everyone is winding down....
I am sore and tired, so I'm going to to soak in the bath tub with healing bath mineral waters.. peace out
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Church, Jam, Onsens, and Snowboarding!!!
SO Sunday (Yesterday from this post) we had church in the morning at the Church planted by Joel and Sally Kaufman. It was an all Japanese church, so between Joey, Abby, Sam and Essie Kaufman we got the gist of the sermon preached by Joel. Later that day we Practiced for JAM which is basically like a "called to worship" for those of you Illinois readers, uh... a Youth Fellowship night for you Leo readers, and well..Bluffton doesn't have anything like it...but basically we had Joey Kaufman and Dustin Huber on guitars, Sam Kaufman on the Bass, Yukiko on the Keyboard, Machiko, Essie, Abby and myself on Vocals, and ryunoske on the drums.... it was interesting to sing in Japanese....and actually it was a blast!!! they gave me romanji (characterized wording)for me to sing along with... don't get me wrong it was tough..but tons of fun...I also had a puny egg shaker and tambourine too! that went super late!! but praise was lifted and the Japanese Christians loved hearing and singing with us, hearing my testimony (translated by a super cool Japanese guy named Isaac) and hanging out with us too! right after that us boys met a guy named Toshino... Toshino is possibly on of the funniest and coolest Japanese guys I have met! that's putting it simply.... he took us to an arcade...
Words or pictures can't really describe what a Japanese arcade is like... HUGE!!! TONS OF GAMES!!! CHEAP TO PLAY!!! they had things that range from slot machine (for tokens), to virtual horse racing, to guitar heroes with BONGO drums....
any ways we also visited sento's and onsens.... you need to google this phrase to get a great description of it.... basically you go into this huge room and get completely naked.. you then go and take a shower in a communal room..and then go into various baths and massaging waterfalls, and saunas.... to say the least it felt phenomenal...yeah it was a little awkward at first... but eventually you get used to it.
Today, we woke up early and set off on the adventure of a lifetime!! we went snowboarding in the mountains... Raicho Valley is a "small and local" place in toyama.... to put it into perspective, it is bigger than any slopes I have ever been to in the Midwest..it was HUGE!!! yet a "small and local" place in japan.... in a day or two we are going to Hakuba, which is one of the big boy slopes of japan!
after snowboarding we hit the local onsen..... which is exponentially better after a day of learning how to snowboard....needless to say, my body is shot beyond belief right now.... we came home to dear mama and papa Kaufman and supper...
we now are just taking it easy, by the fire, all sprawled out on the floor, doing our own thing....we are just getting ready to pop in a Japanese movie and chill for the evening.
we all are warm, filled bellies, and comfortable...
(yawn) i guess its time to watch tha.... ....t.... ... ... mo... ... .. .
Words or pictures can't really describe what a Japanese arcade is like... HUGE!!! TONS OF GAMES!!! CHEAP TO PLAY!!! they had things that range from slot machine (for tokens), to virtual horse racing, to guitar heroes with BONGO drums....
any ways we also visited sento's and onsens.... you need to google this phrase to get a great description of it.... basically you go into this huge room and get completely naked.. you then go and take a shower in a communal room..and then go into various baths and massaging waterfalls, and saunas.... to say the least it felt phenomenal...yeah it was a little awkward at first... but eventually you get used to it.
Today, we woke up early and set off on the adventure of a lifetime!! we went snowboarding in the mountains... Raicho Valley is a "small and local" place in toyama.... to put it into perspective, it is bigger than any slopes I have ever been to in the Midwest..it was HUGE!!! yet a "small and local" place in japan.... in a day or two we are going to Hakuba, which is one of the big boy slopes of japan!
after snowboarding we hit the local onsen..... which is exponentially better after a day of learning how to snowboard....needless to say, my body is shot beyond belief right now.... we came home to dear mama and papa Kaufman and supper...
we now are just taking it easy, by the fire, all sprawled out on the floor, doing our own thing....we are just getting ready to pop in a Japanese movie and chill for the evening.
we all are warm, filled bellies, and comfortable...
(yawn) i guess its time to watch tha.... ....t.... ... ... mo... ... .. .
Friday, December 24, 2010
The "REAL" night before Christmas Story
Twas the night before Christmas over here in Japan,
a whole bunch of ruckus like a marching band,
All through the house there was laughter and glee,
a ton of people in the Cabin, it was a sight to see,
As midnight came and Santa did not show,
He must have forgot or is very very slow,
he must have left his suit in Karuizawa town,
and all his elves were asleep making no sound,
One by one we all awoke in the morn,
a crap ton of snow outside white and shorn,
Joey stirs the fire and brings back to life,
with sticks in his hands, and not the usual knife,
as mama Kaufman stirs and rustles the house,
she makes lots of noise like a flock of grouse,
Essie just lays there on the couch by the fire,
she dreams of snowboarding and big jumps she aspires,
the rest of the girls upstairs and silent,
but watch out for Abby she can sometimes be violent,
Tyler is skyping with family and friends,
he blogs, and facebooks, and communications he sends,
Sammie and Dustin asleep in their den,
they won't sleep downstairs due to the snoring of Ben,
Ben as he writes and observes the morning day,
Is bound by language and is running out of what to say,
we are all having a gift exchange of small,
we had quite some trouble deciding the best present of all,
with much thought and coffee put into this conclusion,
it has been decided by all without any confusion,
The best gift of Christmas that anyone could acquire
is our faith and fellowship with our beloved Kaufmans by the fire.
a whole bunch of ruckus like a marching band,
All through the house there was laughter and glee,
a ton of people in the Cabin, it was a sight to see,
As midnight came and Santa did not show,
He must have forgot or is very very slow,
he must have left his suit in Karuizawa town,
and all his elves were asleep making no sound,
One by one we all awoke in the morn,
a crap ton of snow outside white and shorn,
Joey stirs the fire and brings back to life,
with sticks in his hands, and not the usual knife,
as mama Kaufman stirs and rustles the house,
she makes lots of noise like a flock of grouse,
Essie just lays there on the couch by the fire,
she dreams of snowboarding and big jumps she aspires,
the rest of the girls upstairs and silent,
but watch out for Abby she can sometimes be violent,
Tyler is skyping with family and friends,
he blogs, and facebooks, and communications he sends,
Sammie and Dustin asleep in their den,
they won't sleep downstairs due to the snoring of Ben,
Ben as he writes and observes the morning day,
Is bound by language and is running out of what to say,
we are all having a gift exchange of small,
we had quite some trouble deciding the best present of all,
with much thought and coffee put into this conclusion,
it has been decided by all without any confusion,
The best gift of Christmas that anyone could acquire
is our faith and fellowship with our beloved Kaufmans by the fire.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
International flight - day 4
Basically I am going to skip over the international travels because our time in japan is way cooler than our travels. So I will just skip straight to day 1 in Japan
Both day 1 and 2 we spent in Karuizawa up where the Kaufmans own a cabin and have their Christmas and Summer Ministry. Some of the highlights were Elving, which is where we all dress up as elves and Papa Bear Kaufman as Santa and sang Christmas songs and passed out Japanese literature.
we ate curry for supper cooked by mama bear. and then went to the famous woodshed coffee house that the Kaufman kids worked at as young kids. We then went to an onsen....
words cannot describe what an onsen is like but I will say this one thing: pure awesomeness, relaxation, and openness...
the second day the entire Kaufman family drove to a hospital to see a friend so the three oblivious Americans (also known as Gaijins) took a walk into the Machi or the town market. We made many a few blunders and a few really sweet discoveries. Including curry fill doughnuts and heated cans in vending machines.
we then packed the van and headed to Toyama. We stopped along the way at the monkey park to see the Japanese snow monkeys. They were awesome to say the least. You should check out Tyler Knochel's Blog that links to a video of the monkeys. you can see it at http://thaikno.tumblr.com.
We then went to a Traditional Japanese Families house and had fresh apples, and they ended up feeding all 14 of us!! (P.S. we met the Kole Family and they came to see the monkeys and came to this house with us.) after being stuffed full of Tea and Raman noodles we chatted for awhile and asked many questions about their lives and the traditional Japanese Lifesyle!
Upon arriving home late night, we were surprised by Joey Kaufman showing up and it was phenomenal being able to see Him again!!! I squeezed him so hard i think his eye about popped out of his head!
the next day we ran around Shiminato which can be classified as probably the jankiest town you could ever think of. We went to the equivalent of a dollar tree store and bought souvenirs for you all! We then ate at the Kaufman kids favorite Curry place, it was dandy!!!
after lunch we went to flamingo ( a store) which is like a humongous store owned by a guy. Everything is slightly used, or cheaply purchased, or something else...When you buy things, it seems like a black market of everything ran by the yakuza....
oh and P.S. - everyone around me thinks we are Russian. They always try to speak Russian to us, and we just smile and nod.... maybe its because of the massive beards we are sporting.
anyways after dealing with they yakuza and getting some sweet steals on goods. we came home and spent the evening with David the ambassador of Japan from Sierra Leon. He awed us with his Gospel style singing on Christmas songs including O Holy night and last Christmas. We then chatted the evening away and ended up singing Christmas and Praise Songs. We all went to bed pooped as always with our ever busy travelings and sight seeings.
I do apologize as I am not a writer by trade, and my humor is not good on blogs as it doesn't make much sense..other than the fact that I am humor myself in that many people laugh at me. Stay tuned for the next few days. I will try to do it every night but there will be no promises as we are always on the run.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Character Profile of Japan
So there are actually 10 of us, but profiling everyone would take forever and they won't be with us four guys so the group consensus was to only profile the main group of our traveling posse. Although one other member not in our posse did make the profile list because she really really wanted to be. So here is our gang:
Sam Kaufman - Our trip leader. Sam is a 22 year old Civil engineer who attends Purdue University. His parents Joel and Sally are the family we will be staying with for most of our time! He is big on snowboarding and looking at world wide economical blunders and wants to fix the world's problems.
Dustin Huber - Standing at 6'4" at 170lbs, this Giant of a Man hails from Bloomington, IL. He attends Illinois State for accounting. He makes a great elf here in Japan, although he literally can account for two on top of each other.
Tyler Knochel - Ty is 20years old, attending Arizona State for Business Management. He is very trendy in his style here in japan and is also or designated photographer as he is always toting around a camera and tripod.
Ben Gerber - [written by Tyler] Ben is the balancing member of our group. The yang to our yin. He's about 2-3 levels louder than the rest of us guys and proportionately more fun. He's gung-ho literally 24/7, even when he sleeps, his snoring sounds passionate. I love him to death, I'm soo glad he's here.
Abbers Kaufman - Abby-chan has made our profile list because well, she is just awesome and so darn cute! and there are many leo people (quelly, whit and the rest) that want to hear about her! She is the life of the party when Ben is not the party. With extreme excitement and zeal she can make anyone laugh at will and brighten their day with a smile.
The other members are Melissa Mcleoud, Essie Kaufman, Joel & Sally Kaufman, and Ruthie Kaufman! You will probably hear these members being referenced to often in the first two weeks of our adventures!
Monday, February 8, 2010
email novel
For those of you who have alot of spare time on their hands..(mainly Tyler Stiegy) I am posting this super long email describing how i grew up spiritually..(as we all know i still act like a child in physical form) It was an email from a group asking for college kids to come out of the woodwork and talk about college life and why there are higher numbers in recent years of people who leave the denomination than in years before....so here is my testimony of growth, and viewpoints on the topic...
Disclaimer: I will try to explain myself to the fullest in this email. My message is not to bash or offend the church body in any way, shape or form....later in this email, i am trying to show what some may struggle with in ideologies and beliefs in college. I fully support our church body and appreciate our heritage and beliefs. Our denomination is unique and diversified and I support our denominations traditions and practices.
I am coming out of the woodwork of just "lurking" on this list. i mainly don't respond or share anything is because I guess i feel not experienced than most people on this list that regularly post. I am a University Student, let me tell you a story:
My name is Ben Gerber from Leo, Indiana. I was born and raised in the Bluffton Christian Apostolic Church. I repented at the age of 15 at the Lord's calling and to this day i have NEVER regretted doing so. at the age of late 17, i graduated high school early and jumped head first into college. I moved into a house that was chuck full of brothers from our church. This house is dubbed the "truckstop", because we have road signs all over our house. Also becuase there were about 9 - 11 guys living in this two story house. Finally it is all called the truckstop because it served/serves as a central hub for commuters(male only) from bluffton and travelers visiting the Leo church where they could stay for a night or two or three.
Let me jump back a little bit to when I was 15. (forever ago) just kidding...I am only 21 currently....anyways...so back to 15, My big brother and his age group was at that time currently in control of the Bluffton Young Group. By "in control" I mean leading signings, organizing the events, and being the examples and spiritual leaders of our young body of believers. There weren't a whole lot of people my age in the young group at that time....so i hung out alot with people 3 years older than I... (when your that young.....3 years is a BIG difference) I started helping organize and leading the singing, and with all my wisdom and knowledge at 15 or 16; tried to help lead the young group. THen all of a sudden, a plague hit this leadership group. It was horrid, people caught this bug quick and it affected them to the point of rendering them incapable of leading our group anymore. this plague is known at Marriage... in the flash of light and a barrage of blue cards over the pulpit (blue cards signify engagements), There was only few leaders left, or those who had been "trained" to lead the young group. At this time, I was young, ambitious, and wanted to serve to the utmost in giving myself until I would literally crash from exhaustion. I actually remember a conversation I had with my Guardians whom i lived with at the time. They actually limited me and made me stay home for 1 night of the week. In bluffton there was soo much going on, literally every night of the week there was an activity of some sort. I Very rapidly became in charge of alot of things. I started organizing and leading nursing home signings, organizing singings, invites, family hymn sings, potlucks, bible studies, relief projects, etc. I had an extreme liking to serving, leading, and being a part of making things happen. By the age of 17, I would dare to say that I had a fairly large chunk of leadership in a young group whose size on average was about 200 people....
(on a side note: i would like to at this time share that I am not in any way trying to be boastful about my accomplishments and things that I have done. I feel like I sound pretty arrogant in the past paragraph. God has had me deal bountifully with leadership and high positions in the young for a reason. It is only by God's hand that I could have possibly done all that and He was gracious to allow me to partake of being a part of the leadership of his flock of sheep)
with that being said, at the age of 17 i moved to the truckstop and began college at IPFW, studying computers, AND i got a job at the International Harvester Plant in fort wayne at a computer fixer intership. It was awesome, I was going to school full time and working a full time job. After just one semester, i felt at unease with computers as my major. I switched to elementary education, a passion for kids I have had all my life, I love people, are incredibly sociable, and love teaching people things. At this time I started attending the Leo Church.
I am right now into my third year of college as and education major and still work at International, I like computers, but don't want to fix them for the rest of my life as my career. Over the past 2 years, I have slowly, (very slowly) transitioned out of the bluffton young group and leadership. Although getting pulled back in occasionally to help again. I thought at this time i could just relax and put it on cruise control for my college life, but God had other plans. I roomed with the two leaders of out house (when I was 17)... They started out small giving me responsibilities by organizing our IPFW bible studies, and eventually into running FreeBiblenow.org for the IPFW division. After these two leaders moved out, guess what.... you guessed..I became the house leader. Currently I am one of two leaders, I pay all the bills, and collect money and rent for our landlord. I organize social events and try to keep general order with 5 other college guys. talk about a challenge. I will note that IPFW does not really have the big of a solid AC crowd of young folks...so its mainly Leo YG and a few commuters from IPFW, there is no "president" for our college young group. but the President is usually the "most eligible" to lead a group....(can you guess whats coming?) yup... I was unofficially nominated the President. Soon enough the grandaddy of all grandaddies was set in my lap...organizing and leading the "College Weekend", where about 500 - 900 college students from all over come to your church and you have to organize 5 speakers, discussion groups, songs, and food for all of them. THis was by far the biggest challenge of planning I have ever faced.... to think that all the previous years of training in leadership and organizing were just coincidence and fate was foolish...I believe that God directly put in that line of things specifically to prepare me for that moment of college weekend and for what is to come ahead of me. College weekend was big and bad...I had a treasurer and Secretary... halfway through planning told me that they had never even been to one before.... after alot of prayers, tears, and sweat, college weekend was done! the people were blessed, challenged and God was glorified!!
up to current day, I am still in college full time, I work two jobs now. still at International at an intern, and now at olive garden at a host. I love traveling on weekends and meeting new people and being touched by other Christians and their lives and testimony. I just recently got voted in as an usher in the Leo congregation. I have come to accept that my life will never slow down and that He has called me to a life of servant hood by leadership and any other small way possible. I would never trade my life for anything else in the world. I have Christ in my heart and would have it no other way! I am currently single and love it that way. I wish not to be "plagued" as it would completely change my ambitions. I like to think of Christ's and Paul's Ministry, they accomplished much and were single. Being single mainly because there are less obligations. Less to provide for and more focus on the ministry around me.
This summer I will be teaching as an intern at the Gateway woods home... http://www.gatewaywoods.org/ , I would also like to put a plug in for anyone and everyone to come and fellowship with us!!!! we are soo blessed and want to share ourselves with the world!!
so with all that.... Being a victory of attending university and still staying AC.... I think that the main reason people could leave is because of soo many reasons I can't list them all. I think some of the more popular ones are, our culture is becoming more sex saturated...not that that had a direct effect on Christians, but i think in Essenes it has driven us more towards emotional feelings than in older days. The praise of even young christian groups and worship of songs is becoming more and more heart felt and you get more a sense of closing your eyes and feeling the presence of God around you and flowing through you. (that is the only way I can describe it, as I have personal experience with it)...don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the praise and worship songs of the newer generation...I also absolutely love and appreciate the hymns...i just love singing in general.. God has blessed me with a big mouth and a strong set of lungs... :-) but i think in general there is more of a longing to have a significant other and to have intimate relationships with one another... In a world of advancing technology, between chat, email, cell phones, and other things...there is less and less direct physical encounters and interactions, like talking face to face over coffee, or being at home...why when it's more convenient to call someone or chat, or video chat! so in summary, because of a lack of close physical intimacy, there is a much stronger pull to be in a close and connected relationship with someone....aka, dating, which we don't practice... the majority of my personal friends that have left the AC denomination is because of a relationship they wanted.
the second main reason I could see people leaving is because of the "indoctrination" of the church. I have even struggled with this myself. growing up in the AC church, we are taught to believe in the bible, in God, and the teachings and morals of the bible... also things in the statement of faith that our church believes in. everything in the list i just mentioned is absolute except the statement of faith... no one can truly refute the Bible, or God....but there are alot of logical and somewhat reasonable arguments against some of the positions that our denomination holds. ( I am not a rebel without cause) I am just pointing out to you what most college kids think...I was raised to believe in these view points, but actually never taught why or how. I was recently asked if I believed in the Rapture, I said yes...and was asked why i believe that... and the only answer I could give them was it is in the bible, and it's in Revelation...other than that..i had nothing...no real premise or study to back my own personal belief...a friend in college a few years ago asked me why i didn't date.... i had nothing... other than, "because my church says so"....it is not sound and not a good reason...I am not even sure if dating is talked about in the bible whether it's right or wrong... (i don't date, and have a more logical reason than a direct biblical one....obviously backed by scriptural teachings and thoughts) anyways...my point is this.... AC's are typically raised WHAT to believe, but not WHY, other than....the bible says so...and because my church does it and says we need to do it too... In University age students, alot of the knowledge is challenged...also beliefs...because even in our shelter lifestyle (sheltered from the world)(a good thing) in college you meet people who are not sheltered and have lived in the world to the fullest and have beliefs that can be to a point bizarre!! but yet they are still living, and seem to be doing fine for themselves.... which makes one question.... how can that be? I thought that i had to live by the bible..but they don't..and their ok.... why is that?? when talking to these people..they can't seem to make any sense of why I do what I do, because i don't really have a reason for it. Thus challenging all my beliefs and whether i have a sound reason for believing in it. At a time i found that for quite a few of my beliefs, i didn't have very sound answers.. which made me question in a bigger sense what I was believing in..
with that being said, I do not question God in any sense, nor do I think that I need to have all the answers to everything. Nor will I ever have answers to everything. That is what I experienced and what probably most others encounter in college as well.
with that being said, i will no list anymore because I feel like I have written a novel already... anyone want to try to get it published for me? :-) just kidding... and Kudos to those who have made it this far...wow..I feel like i should give you a prize or something..
after an hour of typing...i need to get going...if you have any questions, comments, or concerns....let me know and I will be more that glad to talk to anyone about them.... I am in a steady relationship with Christ my King, and have accepted his calling as a servant to His Kingdom and His people. to live the live of a servant by spending myself for others, so that they may prosper spiritually and grow closer to the Lord our King.
blessings,
Bro Ben
Disclaimer: I will try to explain myself to the fullest in this email. My message is not to bash or offend the church body in any way, shape or form....later in this email, i am trying to show what some may struggle with in ideologies and beliefs in college. I fully support our church body and appreciate our heritage and beliefs. Our denomination is unique and diversified and I support our denominations traditions and practices.
I am coming out of the woodwork of just "lurking" on this list. i mainly don't respond or share anything is because I guess i feel not experienced than most people on this list that regularly post. I am a University Student, let me tell you a story:
My name is Ben Gerber from Leo, Indiana. I was born and raised in the Bluffton Christian Apostolic Church. I repented at the age of 15 at the Lord's calling and to this day i have NEVER regretted doing so. at the age of late 17, i graduated high school early and jumped head first into college. I moved into a house that was chuck full of brothers from our church. This house is dubbed the "truckstop", because we have road signs all over our house. Also becuase there were about 9 - 11 guys living in this two story house. Finally it is all called the truckstop because it served/serves as a central hub for commuters(male only) from bluffton and travelers visiting the Leo church where they could stay for a night or two or three.
Let me jump back a little bit to when I was 15. (forever ago) just kidding...I am only 21 currently....anyways...so back to 15, My big brother and his age group was at that time currently in control of the Bluffton Young Group. By "in control" I mean leading signings, organizing the events, and being the examples and spiritual leaders of our young body of believers. There weren't a whole lot of people my age in the young group at that time....so i hung out alot with people 3 years older than I... (when your that young.....3 years is a BIG difference) I started helping organize and leading the singing, and with all my wisdom and knowledge at 15 or 16; tried to help lead the young group. THen all of a sudden, a plague hit this leadership group. It was horrid, people caught this bug quick and it affected them to the point of rendering them incapable of leading our group anymore. this plague is known at Marriage... in the flash of light and a barrage of blue cards over the pulpit (blue cards signify engagements), There was only few leaders left, or those who had been "trained" to lead the young group. At this time, I was young, ambitious, and wanted to serve to the utmost in giving myself until I would literally crash from exhaustion. I actually remember a conversation I had with my Guardians whom i lived with at the time. They actually limited me and made me stay home for 1 night of the week. In bluffton there was soo much going on, literally every night of the week there was an activity of some sort. I Very rapidly became in charge of alot of things. I started organizing and leading nursing home signings, organizing singings, invites, family hymn sings, potlucks, bible studies, relief projects, etc. I had an extreme liking to serving, leading, and being a part of making things happen. By the age of 17, I would dare to say that I had a fairly large chunk of leadership in a young group whose size on average was about 200 people....
(on a side note: i would like to at this time share that I am not in any way trying to be boastful about my accomplishments and things that I have done. I feel like I sound pretty arrogant in the past paragraph. God has had me deal bountifully with leadership and high positions in the young for a reason. It is only by God's hand that I could have possibly done all that and He was gracious to allow me to partake of being a part of the leadership of his flock of sheep)
with that being said, at the age of 17 i moved to the truckstop and began college at IPFW, studying computers, AND i got a job at the International Harvester Plant in fort wayne at a computer fixer intership. It was awesome, I was going to school full time and working a full time job. After just one semester, i felt at unease with computers as my major. I switched to elementary education, a passion for kids I have had all my life, I love people, are incredibly sociable, and love teaching people things. At this time I started attending the Leo Church.
I am right now into my third year of college as and education major and still work at International, I like computers, but don't want to fix them for the rest of my life as my career. Over the past 2 years, I have slowly, (very slowly) transitioned out of the bluffton young group and leadership. Although getting pulled back in occasionally to help again. I thought at this time i could just relax and put it on cruise control for my college life, but God had other plans. I roomed with the two leaders of out house (when I was 17)... They started out small giving me responsibilities by organizing our IPFW bible studies, and eventually into running FreeBiblenow.org for the IPFW division. After these two leaders moved out, guess what.... you guessed..I became the house leader. Currently I am one of two leaders, I pay all the bills, and collect money and rent for our landlord. I organize social events and try to keep general order with 5 other college guys. talk about a challenge. I will note that IPFW does not really have the big of a solid AC crowd of young folks...so its mainly Leo YG and a few commuters from IPFW, there is no "president" for our college young group. but the President is usually the "most eligible" to lead a group....(can you guess whats coming?) yup... I was unofficially nominated the President. Soon enough the grandaddy of all grandaddies was set in my lap...organizing and leading the "College Weekend", where about 500 - 900 college students from all over come to your church and you have to organize 5 speakers, discussion groups, songs, and food for all of them. THis was by far the biggest challenge of planning I have ever faced.... to think that all the previous years of training in leadership and organizing were just coincidence and fate was foolish...I believe that God directly put in that line of things specifically to prepare me for that moment of college weekend and for what is to come ahead of me. College weekend was big and bad...I had a treasurer and Secretary... halfway through planning told me that they had never even been to one before.... after alot of prayers, tears, and sweat, college weekend was done! the people were blessed, challenged and God was glorified!!
up to current day, I am still in college full time, I work two jobs now. still at International at an intern, and now at olive garden at a host. I love traveling on weekends and meeting new people and being touched by other Christians and their lives and testimony. I just recently got voted in as an usher in the Leo congregation. I have come to accept that my life will never slow down and that He has called me to a life of servant hood by leadership and any other small way possible. I would never trade my life for anything else in the world. I have Christ in my heart and would have it no other way! I am currently single and love it that way. I wish not to be "plagued" as it would completely change my ambitions. I like to think of Christ's and Paul's Ministry, they accomplished much and were single. Being single mainly because there are less obligations. Less to provide for and more focus on the ministry around me.
This summer I will be teaching as an intern at the Gateway woods home... http://www.gatewaywoods.org/ , I would also like to put a plug in for anyone and everyone to come and fellowship with us!!!! we are soo blessed and want to share ourselves with the world!!
so with all that.... Being a victory of attending university and still staying AC.... I think that the main reason people could leave is because of soo many reasons I can't list them all. I think some of the more popular ones are, our culture is becoming more sex saturated...not that that had a direct effect on Christians, but i think in Essenes it has driven us more towards emotional feelings than in older days. The praise of even young christian groups and worship of songs is becoming more and more heart felt and you get more a sense of closing your eyes and feeling the presence of God around you and flowing through you. (that is the only way I can describe it, as I have personal experience with it)...don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the praise and worship songs of the newer generation...I also absolutely love and appreciate the hymns...i just love singing in general.. God has blessed me with a big mouth and a strong set of lungs... :-) but i think in general there is more of a longing to have a significant other and to have intimate relationships with one another... In a world of advancing technology, between chat, email, cell phones, and other things...there is less and less direct physical encounters and interactions, like talking face to face over coffee, or being at home...why when it's more convenient to call someone or chat, or video chat! so in summary, because of a lack of close physical intimacy, there is a much stronger pull to be in a close and connected relationship with someone....aka, dating, which we don't practice... the majority of my personal friends that have left the AC denomination is because of a relationship they wanted.
the second main reason I could see people leaving is because of the "indoctrination" of the church. I have even struggled with this myself. growing up in the AC church, we are taught to believe in the bible, in God, and the teachings and morals of the bible... also things in the statement of faith that our church believes in. everything in the list i just mentioned is absolute except the statement of faith... no one can truly refute the Bible, or God....but there are alot of logical and somewhat reasonable arguments against some of the positions that our denomination holds. ( I am not a rebel without cause) I am just pointing out to you what most college kids think...I was raised to believe in these view points, but actually never taught why or how. I was recently asked if I believed in the Rapture, I said yes...and was asked why i believe that... and the only answer I could give them was it is in the bible, and it's in Revelation...other than that..i had nothing...no real premise or study to back my own personal belief...a friend in college a few years ago asked me why i didn't date.... i had nothing... other than, "because my church says so"....it is not sound and not a good reason...I am not even sure if dating is talked about in the bible whether it's right or wrong... (i don't date, and have a more logical reason than a direct biblical one....obviously backed by scriptural teachings and thoughts) anyways...my point is this.... AC's are typically raised WHAT to believe, but not WHY, other than....the bible says so...and because my church does it and says we need to do it too... In University age students, alot of the knowledge is challenged...also beliefs...because even in our shelter lifestyle (sheltered from the world)(a good thing) in college you meet people who are not sheltered and have lived in the world to the fullest and have beliefs that can be to a point bizarre!! but yet they are still living, and seem to be doing fine for themselves.... which makes one question.... how can that be? I thought that i had to live by the bible..but they don't..and their ok.... why is that?? when talking to these people..they can't seem to make any sense of why I do what I do, because i don't really have a reason for it. Thus challenging all my beliefs and whether i have a sound reason for believing in it. At a time i found that for quite a few of my beliefs, i didn't have very sound answers.. which made me question in a bigger sense what I was believing in..
with that being said, I do not question God in any sense, nor do I think that I need to have all the answers to everything. Nor will I ever have answers to everything. That is what I experienced and what probably most others encounter in college as well.
with that being said, i will no list anymore because I feel like I have written a novel already... anyone want to try to get it published for me? :-) just kidding... and Kudos to those who have made it this far...wow..I feel like i should give you a prize or something..
after an hour of typing...i need to get going...if you have any questions, comments, or concerns....let me know and I will be more that glad to talk to anyone about them.... I am in a steady relationship with Christ my King, and have accepted his calling as a servant to His Kingdom and His people. to live the live of a servant by spending myself for others, so that they may prosper spiritually and grow closer to the Lord our King.
blessings,
Bro Ben
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