This post is finally being published. It was typed, sitting in my drafts for a few weeks, then when I went to publish it, the Wi-Fi did something to the website and cleared everything that I had typed after about an hour and a half of time put into this post. That said, this isn't everything I originally planned on posting, but perhaps I will someday come back to this and add more.
Week 1:
After just one week of classes at
Arrowhead, I have already learned so many applicable ways to understand the Bible more! After breakfast, Monday - Friday, all 24 students head down to the classroom. Yea, one classroom, one teacher, one class a week, a new class every week. The way classes work is 50 minutes learning and then a 10 minute break. It's a small school and because of that, the classes are intimate.
Bryan Hughes (Pastor at Grace Bible Church in Bozeman, MT) was our first professor and he taught us
hermeneutics. I'm glad this class was first because now I have time to adjust my thinking before all the other classes begin. Main point I got out of Hermeneutics was always remember to check the context of a passage. There are so many passages taken out of context! Some of the examples that stood out to me were
Matthew 18:20 (which is talking about correction in the church and not prayer) and
Revelation 3:20 (which is about believers always listening for God and not a passage about Jesus calling the unsaved).
Currently, I am transitioning into a new way to view the Bible and how it pertains to me. I'm starting to realize more that the Bible wasn't written to me as I've previously thought, but rather, I am to look at who it was written to, what it would've meant to them, and how I can learn from that.
Week 2:
Everyone got to choose what trip they wanted to attend; there were three options. The first- camping, the second- a medium exertion backpacking trip, and the third- a difficult backpacking trip. I had originally planned on going on the 2nd trip. I had prepared for it before even getting to the school. I bought the things I needed and felt pretty ready. However, once I arrived in Montana, I realized I was not ready for that. I will blame the altitude for that... but in reality I heard that there were mattresses being brought on the camping trip and there was no limit to the amount of things we could bring. Thus, I switched. And I'm so glad I did because I realty enjoyed the trip! We were able to explore the area and hike up to
Mystic Lake.
The trip actually started before we left campus. We were running around collecting a grill, mattresses, tents, games, food, and more. Then we jumped into vehicles and left for our 25 mile/1 hour trip to get to the site. Once we got there, we spent about 3 hours setting up camp. It took a while to cut all the posts (for the tents) to be the same size and hoist up the tents into the trees and getting everything unpacked. Being up in the higher elevation, the temperature dropped and our group quickly grew close through shivering and neglecting some sense of personal space. The high was only 60 and the low was 33 while we were gone.
I heard that less equals more when it comes to heat while sleeping. I didn't know if I liked that statement so I tested it out. The first night, I wore capris, under sweatpants, under my snowboarding pants and a long sleeved shirt and sweatshirt. With the low temperature, I didn't that that was overkill. However, I kept waking up overnight because I was so cold. The second night I decided to lose a layer. I just wore sweatpants, a long sleeve, and a sweatshirt. After still waking up cold, on the third night I just wore capris, and a long sleeve. Much to my surprise, I actually woke up over night, warm!
Highlights of the camping trip include (1) sitting by the stream reading the Bible, (2) Hiking up the mountains, and (3) waking up early and watching the sunrise and reading the Bible by the lake.
