Adventures in Apartment Living part 2, by Sarah

Sundays are generally a quite day filled with much sitting around contemplating why the specks on the wall look like the face of Benjamin Franklin. And so this Sunday was no different when all of a sudden my tranquility was disturbed by the loud rumbling of firemen racing up to the second and third floor of our apartment complex.

Benjamin and I listen to muffled bangs and shuffling of many feet above and I finally pick up enough courage to poke my head out of our apartment hoping that I wouldn't be caught in the middle of some major disaster.

I find my neighbor in the hallway with our upstairs neighbor looking utterly bewildered and in disbelief.

"uh...is everything OK?" I ask hesitatingly.

"No!" responded our next door neighbor, "The "flipping" idiot on the third floor just pulled the hot water pipe out of his bathtub and all that water not only went through his (the upstairs neighbor's) apartment but into mine as well! And they just carted this guy off for possession of firearms and drugs! No wonder he was so giddy about the whole thing!"

A few hours later after helping my neighbor clean up, she is still waiting for the water sucker up people to get the water out of her apartment and I am back to staring at Benjamin thankful that his speckled image was not damaged by a firearm wielding, drug overloaded man who thought he'd teach the world a lesson by pulling out a pipe.

Greek Conference

So… I (matt) just got back from InterVarsity’s Greek Conference. I bet you didn’t know that InterVarsity even had a Greek ministry! For someone who doesn’t associate with Fraternity and Sorority types I can see where all the stereotypes arrive: the outgoing loud party animals sure did live up to their potential but I was also struck by another fact; these are tomorrows leaders. I learned that Greeks are the most driven partiers I know, and these 600 were striving to go somewhere for God. There was more to the weekend than the Tacky Dance Party on Saturday night; there were seminars about sex and intimacy, there were students struggling over issues of oppression and hate in the world, there were Greeks learning how to share their faith with others like them, there were amazing talks by pastor Alec Gee about being desperate for God, and there was a track where students that were unsure who Jesus is and who had tough questions were met where 85 people became Christians!

I was lucky to interact with students and staff as I helped 2100 tech and photograph the event. You can see some of the photos I took as a slideshow at http://www.intervarsity.org/greek/conference/indy/ as well as links to talks and student quotes.

I am not about to go and join Alpha Gamma Omega but I guess my perception of the Fraternity and Sorority life is a little bit different now.

Reading list

If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend the book "Dear Church: letters from a disillusioned twenty something." It's an interesting commentary on the church today from the eyes of someone who has been hurt by the church and what she has chosen to do with that disillusionment. It's cool cause I think no matter if you are a twenty something or some other age, my guess is that most of us have encountered disillusionment with the church at some point or another. I think it's an unavoidable reaction to belonging to a community made up of humans. Anyways, it a good, quick, easy, challenging read.