In limbo

Sorry it has been so long! Last week was quite busy preparing to write the proposal for my semester research project and the weekend mirrored the same. Last Monday my advisor and I met to talk about my project. This informal meeting was quite encouraging because it looks like the phophorus speciation-small project will most likely lead to thesis work! This is a huge "Praise the Lord" sort of thing, because it means that I don't have to start all over when it comes to a literature review, seeing how I've put much time into this semester's work.

Some highlights from the week past:

Thursday evening Bible study - we had dinner before hand to organize Friday evening's after-large-group-event (ALGE). Dinner was amazing - Nina cooked homemade everything - stuffed italian shells, biscuits, brownies! Bible study is always a wonderful time, too!

Friday evening we had a worship service for Grad IV - music only (yes, with instruments), completely God exalting, though. The ALGE we planned was a Numbers-themed (Numbers as in the book of the Bible-Numbers) scavenger hunt. It rocked, but didn't quite live up to the standard set by Christian Challenge last spring. I've got some great pictures though, hopefully I'll post some soon.

Saturday I pounded out my proposal! It felt great to write and synthesize all that I have been learning. I also went with IFL (International student Friendship Link) to hang out at a lake north of Champaign. We played kick ball, line-danced and carved pumpkins. It was a great time and I met some really cool international students. I plan to join some of them for badmitten and ping-pong sometime. You can check out pics from the IFL event at:

http://ifl.gfmuiuc.org/lakewoods/

I attended church on Sunday at Community E-Free church. The worship service was complete with about 40 minutes of music - mostly hymns. Singing was followed by a Piper-esque sermon over Romans 1:24-27. The past even quoted Piper a couple of times. Why not though? The guy (Piper) has preached nearly all the way through Romans twice in his lifetime, each time taking over 5 years! If everything works out, I'll visit CEFC again this Sunday.

Today (Tuesday) I made my way to the Darwin club meeting. They had a speaker give a presentation over a conference he attended. It was a decent presentation. I felt sorry for the speaker - he had a horrible stutter and it was difficult for him to finish a complete sentence. I asked one or two questions that I thought were important in understanding the theory of evolution, but it seemed like the answer was skirted around. My question was "In biological science, what is the difference between a theory and a law?" It seems much different then chemistry or physics, and is really important to evolutionary concept.

In my devotional time I'm enjoying Numbers and Mark. I posted about my time in Numbers, but Mark is just as exciting. I'm learning what Jesus meant in Mark 10 when he asked the disciples if they were able to "drink the cup that [he drank], or to be baptized with the baptism with which [he was] baptized?" The word "baptizmo" (ignore spelling) in the greek is a term that the Greek Septuagent associates with the waters over coming a person, or one being cast away from God's presence. The cup signifies the Wrath of God - read Isaiah 51 and 52 - the wrath of God upon Israel is prophesied to come to a completion when the final dregs of the cup are tasted. Christ takes upon the bitter wrath as he tastes death for the church, and finally the wrath of God is taken off of Israel by the suffering servent (Isaiah 52). Enjoy!

Love you all!