So I've now been at Kairos for, I don't know, 4 weeks now(?) and I realized that I haven't had any updates since week 1 so here we go. . .
Everything is still going good. I'm starting to get comfortable with my host family which is nice. On Thursday I get to go to Kylee's 2nd grade program. I'm pretty excited :) It's been fun being a big sister for the first time.
As far as class goes we're learning a lot. Actually, that's probably the understatement of the century! We're learning a ton! I've already gone through an entire notebook if that tells you anything. We've had a few different speakers come in and they're all fantastic! Our second week, Steve Sizemore came in to teach on all sorts of spiritual foundations such as grace, discipleship, and humility. I really liked his definition of humility. Humility is choosing to be known for who I really am, nothing more or less. Humility is based in the truth while pride is based in lies. I don't know, it was really interesting and the whole week impacted me a lot.
The next week, Ollie Olson came in to teach on the bible. This guy knows his stuff! He pretty much has the entire bible memorized. We spent a lot of class time simply asking him questions that we had and he would give us thorough answers that were widely supported by scripture. We talked about things like a woman's role in the church, end times and the antichrist, how people in the Old Testament were saved, the roles of angels, dinosaurs, and so much more! Plus, he taught us ways to really study scripture for all that it's worth. This was a great week to really help solidify my faith by starting to understand some of the questions that I've had for years.
Last week on Monday and Tuesday, Kevin (he's the leader of Kairos- I don't remember if I've talked about him yet) taught on freedom. He talked about Romans 6 and that once we become Christians we no longer have a sin nature. This totally goes against everything I've ever been taught but as far as I can tell, it's true. The bible supports it. I definitely want to look into it more though. But anyways, since we don't have a sin nature, we don't
have to sin anymore. We still can sin because it is our choice but we are no longer under the control of sin. We are free to choose to obey every time.This is crazy and hard but it's possible. Think about it, Jesus did it. Jesus didn't have to obey. He wasn't just programmed not to sin. He made a constant
choice to obey His father and to not sin. So we can too. In other words, you can be as free as you want to be. Wow. I don't know, this blew my mind a little bit.
We also talked about the importance of confession not only to God but also to other Christians. This is not something I like at all but it's something that God has really been confronting me on lately. Along with confession, we talked about community and prayer. One of the points that stuck out to me a lot is that if you're struggling with sin, the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself. Yeah, I need work on that one. . .
Anyways, I really liked the talks on freedom. They challenged me, a lot, but it's in a good way, you know?
So on Wednesday, we headed out on girls and guys retreats. The girls went back up to the camp where we did orientation but no ropes course this time. We did however play football and grunt like men. Just saying. The retreat was actually really good. We spent some time talking about the book we had been reading (Set-Apart Femininity) which turned out way better than I expected. I didn't really like the book at all but God gave me a new perspective on it which was very much needed. We also did something called the mercy seat. Basically, you go up and sit in a chair in front of everyone and confess whatever needs to be confessed. Now, I was thoroughly uncomfortable with this. I don't do that, ever. But God got me up there and I was able to at least get some stuff out in the open. It was hard and there were a lot of tears but it was good. I'm not suddenly "cured" from my sin or anything but it was just really nice to not have to hide it anymore. And now it's like, when I'm struggling with it, I can tell someone, because it's not a secret. It was a really good night!
So yeah, the rest of the retreat wasn't too exciting and neither was my weekend. Yesterday and today in class we watched videos of Dean Sherman teaching on relationships. This covers things like attraction, sex, friendships, homosexuality, breaking up, etc. It covers a lot! But it's really good! (I know, I really need to get more adjectives to describe stuff. Sorry.) I've been finding a lot of direct applications to my life, not just for romantic relationships, but for all relationships.
So there you go. I'm thinking that maybe I should update more so these don't get so long. Anyways though, that's what's happening here. But now, I need to go to bed. Bye.
Emily
