The Things that #PrayforParis Taught Me

The first place I saw it was in a post on Facebook: “The attacks are close to me. But I’m okay.” The person, a friend from high school, was marked “safe” in the attacks, the post said.

And I began to scroll through my Facebook feed I began to see more news articles appear and a post from another friend living in Paris, “Jesus, make yourself know here.” And even this afternoon, I see over fifty Facebook friends changing their profile picture to the red, white and blue in “support,” as Facebook says, of Paris at this time. Facebook is calling it a “temporary” profile picture change.

But changing our profile picture is not enough. Among the hundreds of news articles, blog posts and stories we see, there is a small mention of the other events happening in the world at the same time. The hashtags we choose to add onto our social media posts are not enough. Because tagging #PrayforParis doesn’t actually create a prayer. Changing our profile picture doesn’t rebuild community. It doesn’t replace the broken hearts and the lost lives.

I don’t mean to be critical, but I want this to be real: we have to start praying, and praying for a long time. For our brothers and sisters overseas who are being persecuted and killed every day, not just in Paris but across the world – we cannot be immune. For the lost, the broken, those who have never heard of Jesus – we cannot hesitate. What we see every day when we turn on the news, both local and world, is how much we truly desire peace. And our peace cannot be a worldly peace, because we see too many hearts breaking a little more every day. But we also see the breakthrough of a powerful God that comes into our situations and brings peace and restoration. We see hope rise and darkness flee. We see our prayers move in power, in the same way of the Kingdom of Light.

Pray for ParisAnd I like the way the Eiffel Tower was placed into the peace symbol. But I can’t help but notice the cross it creates at the bottom.

We have to bring the hope and light of the Gospel into France– not by our Facebook profile pictures or the things we hashtag, but instead by an incredible God who loves us– and loves them– more than any of us can fathom.

We have to choose to pray, and pray hard. Not only for Paris, but for the world. Not just today, but every day.  #PrayforParis isn’t just for the next 24 hours on our Twitter and Instagram news feeds. Our Facebook profile pictures can’t be changed “temporarily” to support those who need hope. It’s a lifetime prayer. We can’t allow our praying to be a trend on social media– we must allow it to be a trend for our life.

How I Learned About What Happened in Paris

Peace for Paris
Peace for Paris

I heard throughout the day on Friday that something happened in Paris. I kept seeing the word “Paris” in group messages and hearing it in conversations as I passed tables in Phelps.

I figured something bad had happened. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to hear about it.

I was in a friend’s room last night when we had a discussion about Paris. What’s happening? Should we check Twitter? Why is everyone saying “Pray for Paris?”

Eventually, someone googled the phrase, “what’s happening in Paris.”

A terrorist bombing.

I was too struck to be emotionally affected. I knew that people had died. Maybe I was desensitized.

We drove to McDonald’s and after we sat down with our food we saw the the number on the news. 153 killed in a soccer stadium. In one moment, I realized my smallness compared to all of humanity. I sat in a chair sipping my milkshake, and felt a hint of the emotional weight of 153 deaths.

As I write, the count is down to 129 deaths. 352 people were injured, with 99 seriously injured. Apparently, ISIS is responsible.

Today, the day after, Paris is a hot topic of conversation. But the murder of 129 people in Paris yesterday actually happened. While there is little we can do to help, maybe the most important thing is to stand in solidarity, to take a moment to allow ourselves to feel grief and mourn the loss of so many.

Only today, the day after, did I start to feel heavy with sadness for the people of Paris.

May peace go to Paris.

Read more about the attack here.

Important Hockey Game this Saturday, November 14, at 9 p.m.!

This Saturday,  November 14, at 9:00 p.m. at Edge Ice Arena, Hope College Hockey team is playing the Michigan State University, the defending national champions.

Hope College Hockey has had a great start into the season. Currently, they are 9-0-1-1 (Wins-Losses-Ties-Losses in Overtime), so theoretically they are undefeated in the regular time. This past weekend, Hope played Oakland University, which is currently ranked as the #1 team in the nation. Hope tied the first game 2-2 and lost 5-4 in OT after the great comeback from losing 4-1. As, earlier stated, this weekend Flying Dutchmen are facing another tough opponent. Hope wants to get back on the winning streak by beating Michigan State University in both games, especially on Saturday, November 14, in front of the home crowd.

This games is not only important because Hope wants to win both games and be 11-0-1-1 after the upcoming weekend, but also because Michigan State University is the defending champion and there is no one better to beat than the team that won the league last year.

So, please come out and support Hope College Hockey team this Saturday, November 14 at 9:00 p.m. at Edge Ice Arena.

Fans are always the “sixth player” on the ice and Hope College will need this “sixth player” against tough team like Michigan State University this Saturday. 

Defeating “I don’t feel like it”

Over the past week and a half or so, studying has become far more a part of my life than it had been for the previous two months of the semester. However, it has also been a much healthier part of my life than it was in my first two years of college, especially since I am now doing most of my work during daylight hours rather than between the hours of 1 and 6 a.m… Let’s not get into it. I think the problem there is pretty self-explanatory.

I have had so much schoolwork due over the past two weeks! Add in an off-campus job that takes up most of my weekends, seemingly endless meetings with professors regarding registration and future planning, group project work sessions, worship team rehearsals two or three times a week, cooking my own meals (an amount of commitment that sometimes seems small for a full-time Hope student)… It all adds up, and if I’m not careful, this can easily turn into a schedule that forces me into that doing homework during the hours of death when no one should ever be awake. Ever. Though I still cannot say I have been sleeping as much as I should, I have actually figured out ways to give myself the opportunity to sleep for several consecutive hours at night instead of taking two hour naps at random times of day, such as 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. Yep, let’s not get into that lifestyle either, folks. There’s a reason it gets dark outside each and every day.

This year, my homework method involves maximizing the time I am awake when normal humans are awake, and making the most of any time I’m not at work, in class, at rehearsal, or in meetings. I try to get up around 6 a.m. each morning to make it to Lemonjello’s or JP’s by about 6:45, or to get to rehearsal at 7 if I am singing with worship team in chapel that day. On those days, I head to the library or one of the coffeeshops as soon as I’m out of rehearsal. I grab a cup of coffee (actually necessary so early in the morning), take out my laptop, and go to work. Thankfully, my pal Sarah has been coming to these early morning homework sessions with me. Having someone there to chat with in between homework assignments can make the early mornings seem way less miserable. I try to stay wherever I plant myself in the morning until I run home to eat lunch and then head to class. After class, I usually try to head to the library until dinner, and then I come back after dinner and stay until at least 11 working on homework (or tonight, a blog post!). I think the most important part of all this is that I only go home to eat meals and to sleep at night. Going home in the middle of the day always sucks me into a bottomless pit of laziness, but being in a setting where I am used to getting work done keeps me productive.

Fall leaves at Hope
I will admit, sometimes it’s hard to be inside studying when it looks like this outside. Today was another strangely beautiful November day!

You’ll also notice that I do not do homework in my room. I actually try to avoid doing any homework in any part of my house. I’m pretty sure our brains get trained to recognize our location and what we typically do when we are in that spot. If that’s not a scientifically proven fact, it should be. Someone work on that, please. Therefore, when I go to my room, my brain knows that it’s probably time to start getting prepared to sleep. When I sit in my dining room, my brain knows it’s time for a break. When I walk into LJ’s, my brain knows it’s time to get work done like crazy. This consistency has been key in getting a lot of work done over the past couple weeks.

Sometimes when I am doing so much work all day, it gets really hard to stay motivated. However, I recently found a video from a Pinterest link that talked about motivation (you know, because sometimes when you aren’t feeling productive you look up ways to be productive on Pinterest, hoping that these few clicks will somehow subliminally make you become more motivated and productive through technological osmosis… Or something.). The synopsis of the video was as follows: Saying “I don’t feel like it” doesn’t change anything except your productivity. Don’t let “I don’t feel like it” control anything about your life because it won’t do anything except mess stuff up.

Hm. Makes sense, right? And it’s so simple that I definitely should not have needed to watch a video to make me understand it. But here we are.

Today I spent over nine hours working on the same assignment. It was tedious and frustrating at times. But now it’s almost done, even though for most of the day I didn’t really feel like working on it. Take control of your attitude and productivity, drag yourself out of bed, drink a cup of coffee, and make it happen! Maybe, just maybe, there really are enough hours in the day. Usually.

Thanks for reading! Keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17), Instagram (@kathrynekrieger), Etsy (LakesPointCollective) or send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu.

“For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!”

Ephesians 5:8

 

Tip of the Day: Double Crediting

Picking a major is a big decision for all students. Currently, I met with my academic advisor and I will be declaring a triple major in Economics, Political Science and Philosophy next semester. It sounds fancy, but in reality doing a triple major is much simpler than most students think. After speaking with multiple professors about declaring a major in their department, they told me a fact that not many students know about. Students may get double credit for two classes towards their majors.

In Hope College to get a B.A. degree from Philosophy students need only 24 credits, which is six four-credit classes. But not many students know they can get double credit for some classes. For example, Philosophy of Law is a four-credit class. This class is categorized under the Political Science department, but if student, like myself, is aiming for degree from Political Science and Philosophy, this class can count towards both majors. This means, that if I take Philosophy of Law, I can count four credits towards my Philosophy degree and four credits towards my Political Science degree at the same time. It is a clever advice, which based of talking with some students, not many students know about.

Unfortunately, double crediting has a limitation as well. Students are allowed to use the “double credits” only in eight credits. In the other words, students can count only two four-credit classes or four two-credit classes towards their degree. In either way, double crediting as a great way get a triple major in four years.

Even that double crediting is limited for eight credits, it is a huge help, which shows the strong academic curriculum of Hope College. In life many jobs overlaps with the skill required as well as the skill required overlaps in different departments. It illustrates huge benefit from liberal arts school education because real life is colorful, not only black and white.

Lib Love

Happy Tuesday, Readers! I hope your week is going awesome so far, I know it’s a busy week this week for me. Lots of homework, you know?

And what better place to do my homework than the library! It has recently become one of my favorite places to do homework, partly because there’s a little bit of every environment that I like to do my homework, but also because there are so many amazing resources that the library offers for FREE that are super easy to use and super accessible. So this week’s blog is all about the Van Wylen Library!

We’ll go through the floors to start off. The first floor is home to the rowdier study area. This is mostly where people gather to do group projects, or study if they enjoy working with a bit of background noise. In addition to a more social working atmosphere, there is also the Cup and Chaucer coffee shop (which you can get your snack and drink at, for all you 7+ meal plan people), the Klooster Writing Center, the Research and Circulation Desks, and desktop computers that you have printing access to.

A bit about the resources I just mentioned: the Klooster Writing Center is a place where you can take your papers for any class in any stage of the writing process and they will help you brainstorm ideas, give you suggestions on how to make your paper better, or even help you come up with a thesis. It’s a great place that everyone should utilize – I don’t use it nearly enough! Similarly, the Research desk is in the lobby of the first floor to help students do research for papers and classes. There are students there that are equipped to help you at any stage of the research process, and there are librarians here that can help you dig deeper in your research as well.

Moving on, the second floor of the library is similar to the first – a bit less social than the first floor, but still very open to group projects. The second floor is my favorite floor because it has Media Services and the TechLab. Media Services has helped me print, laminate, scan, and basically do everything under the sun, including buy colored paper for a project. They also let students check out laptops, cameras and voice recorders for class. It’s the best and I love them. TechLab can help if students need help with certain software programs. It’s so convenient!

Then we get to the third and fourth floors of the library, as well as the basement with the Rare Books Room. These floors are the quiet floors, and students usually go to these floor when they need to focus and get things done (like crank out two papers like I had to do last week). I like it up there because there are individual cubbies and I feel like I can really focus on what I need to do. Sometimes it’s lonely, but you do what you need to do. These floor don’t have any resources like the first and second floors, but they have ENDLESS books that are all at your disposal.

The library has over 370,000 volumes, and 50,000 electronic journals that are all available for students to use whenever they want. I know I just used all of these resources that I mentioned for a research paper I was doing and honestly, it was the best research paper I’ve written EVER. I love the lib.

Just so everyone knows their hours: Monday-Thursday they are open from 8 a.m. – midnight, Friday: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Sunday: 12 p.m. – midnight. I just recently started using the library to it’s full potential, and didn’t realize that it wasn’t open 24/7. I’m a Junior. YEESH.

So now that you know about the library, go ahead and start using it! It’s become my second home, so let me know when you all are there – I could use a friend sometime when I’m locked away in a cubby on the third floor. 🙂

Until next time, Readers. Stay classy!

National Novel Writing Month: Hope College Edition

National Novel Writing Month is referred to as NaNoWriMo by participants because we simply don’t have the time to get the entire eight syllables out; four is much less consuming. Why don’t we have the time? Because we’re trying to pen 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. That’s right, “30 days and nights of literary abandon.” Keep Calm and Write On

To most people, the thought of penning that many words at all is similar to being buried alive. To novelists desiring that one novel they’ve always wanted to write, it’s like being dug up from the burial. Once you get the hang of it, it’s freeing.

I’ve participated in this event for many years starting in high school, but have only completed the task twice. I say that as if it’s not a huge feat because I have these looming 60,000-70,000 word manuscripts on my computer; they haunt me in my sleep, begging to be edited and perfected. Little do they know that I have no idea where to even start with them.

This year I’m already over halfway to my goal at around 30,000 words today. The month isn’t an easy one, especially as a college student. The only way I manage to get all the words out is to break the writing into chunks throughout the day: wake up early and write, write between classes, write after dinner, write more, more, more. Eventually I get stuck. I actually get stuck a lot, but if I can get past those spots, I’m golden. Sometimes you have to say no to donut runs, but in the end your body will thank you anyway. Homework is also an issue, but it has to come first. Often times writing comes last. Weekends are the best time to get ahead.

I decNaNo-2015-Participant-Badgeided that this year I wanted to find a community of writers at Hope. Last year, I didn’t tell anyone I was doing NaNoWriMo or look for other writers on campus. This November, I made an active effort. I started a Facebook group called Hope College NaNoWriMo, which now has nine members. The purpose of the group is to talk about the month and our writing. I was thinking it could extend to beyond November, as a place for writer friends to just talk. I don’t have enough friends who write, and while I haven’t made huge connections with those in the group yet, I really hope we’re able to.

I think it’s so amazing that there are 9+ students on campus taking part in this National Novel Writing Month. Tons of people say that they want to write a novel one day, but how many actually do? How many even try? I bet it’s a lot less than proclaim they’d like to have written one by the end of their life. NaNoWriMo is a pretty big task, and it just goes to show how dedicated Hope students are, no matter what their major or interests are. Something I’ve noticed is that we
always give anything we do our all.

Let me know if you’re doing NaNoWriMo! I’d love to chat about it. It’s all I think about until December.

I have to go now, because I really should be writing.

Brooke

You can email me at brookelyn.wharton@hope.edu, find me on Facebook, or check out my twitter @hopebrooke18!

#JustPhelpsScholarsThings: The Indianapolis Trip!

Map of Hope College, Michigan to Indianapolis
“Fasten your safety belts, clench your buttocks! It’s going to be a bumpy ride!” —Shrunken Head from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Sorry for bombarding the blog with a bunch of #JustPhelpsScholarsThings posts, but this one I just have to add. The Indianapolis Trip takes the scholars to lunch at Jiallo’s African Caribbean Cuisine and to the highlight of the evening: the Conner Prairie Interactive Historic Park. While the museum has a variety of interesting, interactive exhibits like hot air ballooning and animal zoos, the attraction that we are participating in is called “Follow the North Star”, a living drama in which guests are taken on a trailer to somewhere in the forest and act out the part of runaway slaves in the Underground Railroad. It’s not a mandatory trip, but I genuinely recommend prospective Scholars to try it out.

The bus ride is a four-hour trip with a pitstop after the second hour, so bring homework or a soft pillow. They also play movies for those who have nothing better to do; “Big Hero 6” and “Totoro” premiered on my bus’s little screens but after the first movie I chose to spend my time sleeping in awkward angles.

African/Caribbean Cuisine at Jiallo's
I see the guy in the far left had the same idea as me…

When we finally arrived at Conner Prairie after lunch, night was falling and the sky was darkening rapidly. They told us multiple times to bring layers (which I had done), but don’t forget to bring a pair of gloves too or else you’ll spend most of the time jamming your hands into your pockets.

I don’t want to give too much away but it’s so intense that the visiting group goes through a debriefing session right after the experience. It’s probably my favorite Phelps Scholars field trip so far not only because we dug into African American history but because it turned the slaves’ experiences from something we read in a book into something we smelled, heard, saw, and felt. We made the choices and decided if the chances of dying or, worse, being caught and punished was worth our freedom (don’t worry, they’re not allowed to physically harm you). It’s difficult not to empathize with them when a slave trader treats you like cattle and screams in your face, or when you hear a gun clicking somewhere to your right as you’re forced to kneel in the wet dirt.

A close encounter with a gunned man
This isn’t us because we were told to turn off our phones thus all picturing privileges were gone, BUT, boy, was this part an especially knee-knocking encounter D:

The thing is once the experience ends and we’re led into the warmth of the building, the fear and the hope that we felt fades into memory. That was until the employee that led the debriefing session asked us whether we supported slavery. Of course the answer was no, but she retaliated by asking us, “Who makes your shoes?” The discussion and the experience made us realize that slavery has yet to become a thing of the past; while we don’t hear it screaming bloody murder in our ears every day, somewhere out there, slavery is a very present, living hell for a young girl or boy. In other words, they don’t get a debriefing and a fun retelling of events with friends.

We did a mental “I see what you did there” nod to our FYS professors because the trip was related to our current reading of Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book addresses the issue of women oppression in the developing world and how that led to underaged prostitution and rape as a weapon of war, delegated by a culture of power that takes advantage of the idea of honor and a woman’s social standing.

Again, I love, love, love this trip and I recommend anyone to try it out. Really, just join PSP for this because 1) you get to go on a road trip with your friends and 2) Follow the Star is normally $20 per person and, unless you live in Indiana, there’s a small chance you’ll ever be able to do this in your life.

Long Distance Relationships Can Work

Living proof of a lasting long distance relationship is that of Hope College and Meiji Gakuin University in Japan. This month Hope is celebrating the 50 years old exchange program. President Udono of Meiji Gakuin spoke at Chapel last Wednesday about the ties between our colleges and their common founding in the Christian faith. President Udono said that their challenge is to share the Gospel with college age students and they hope to one day have a Chapel service as filled as ours here at Hope.

President Udono of Meiji Gaukin University speaking at Dimnent Chapel
President Udono speaking at Chapel. One of the many great pictures from the Meiji Gakuin Anniversary Photo Gallery.

Tonight I bothered my neighbor in Van Vleck Hall while she did laundry with some questions about her Hope experience. My neighbor, Shigeri Hayashi, is an international student from Meiji Gakuin.

Shigeri studied here at Hope for just a month last year, but in that time loved the small community and the Hope College life. Her English was not as good then as it was now, so she wanted to return again for a longer period of time to improve her English to better understand professors and students, and to experience American college life. The best part of Shigeri’s experience so far has been how nice the Hope professors and students are and their constant willingness to help her with papers and class readings. Though Shigeri is not a Christian, she sometimes attends a Bible study and always feels comfortable there, glad to be a part of a Christian college community.

Shigeri said her biggest challenge has been the American food. For the first month it was alright, but then she realized how much she missed Japanese food. Sometimes she cooks for herself and has gone to Mizu Sushi downtown for some good Japanese food. So, we now have a date to get dinner there with some friends on Sunday. 🙂

So far, Shigeri’s experience has been wonderful and she is looking forward to interacting with more friends to continue improving her English and making a lot of memories while she is studying at Hope. She is looking forward to being a part of the String Orchestra next semester and performing this Saturday in IMAGES, an international showcase in which she will be dancing.

Students on stage at the 2014 IMAGES event
Students performing in last year’s IMAGES event from the IMAGES 2014 photo gallery

Through this relationship of Meiji Gakuin and Hope, Shigeri has been able to make new friends, memories and experience American college life. I, and many other Hope students, have been blessed by the opportunity to make new friends from across the world who will be dearly missed.  Thanks for talking with me, Shigeri!

Thank you for reading!
~Erin

PS: It’s fall which means campus is gorgeous which means lots of pretty pictures on my Instagram (@e_delaney333) which end up on my Twitter (@HopeErin18) so if you like fall pictures and either of those social platforms feel free to follow.

It’s the Little Things

This weekend, I had the opportunity to journey back to Wexford, Pennsylvania. For the first time in three months, I was going home. Prior to this trip, I would not have even called myself homesick. It’s not that I wanted to leave Hope, or felt lost in Holland, Michigan; I just needed home, and all that comes with it. After a long soccer season that sadly came to a close on Wednesday, my mind and body were desperate for a break. For me, the answer was home.

During my seven-hour, solo car ride back east (shoutout Mallory Beswick and family for allowing me to borrow your car), I had a lot of time to construct my picture-perfect weekend.

For starters, I could not wait to see my dog. I’m writing this blog as my eighty-five pound German Shepard curls up next to me and let me tell you, it’s as awesome as I thought it’d be.

In addition, I knew a weekend at the Binnig residence meant plenty of my mom’s cooking, which is always a win. Finally, I could not wait to know where I was again. It sounds simple, but after being in Holland for a quarter of a year, I could get you around campus, to Engedi Church, and Good Time Donuts… but that’s about it. There’s nothing I like more than cruising around my favorite roads listening to music, so I was definitely excited for that. Looking back on it, I have no idea why, while I was still in the process of road-tripping, I was already making plans to get back in a car and drive. Who knows. Anyways, it was a killer weekend. Now back to little things and donuts.

There’s a donut store in Pittsburgh called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. The weekend I left for school, a new branch of the shop opened five minutes from my front door. This weekend was my first chance to get there, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The place has every donut flavor you could ever imagine, and the best part, (or worst part, depending on how you look at it), is that every miniature bite is better than the last.

So yeah, bottom line – the donuts rocked. But stay with me for just a second, I promise I have a point:

I wasn’t even supposed to be at the Donut shop. My original plan was to go to Pamela’s, (a famous downtown Pittsburgh diner), but I slept in until 11:30 on Sunday morning, so donuts it was. Their small size got me thinking. What if life is a little like these donuts? There were a lot of really small details about this weekend that reminded me why I love home so much. I’ll spare you all of them, but just to name a few:

  1. My older sister who is a nursing student at Pitt, has been hanging around the universities YoungLife program for the past few months. I met her “YL friends” this weekend and I haven’t seen her that happy in years. God is good.
  2. My other sister, also older than me, has a new friend. We’ll call him that for now because I’m not sure if they’re “official” yet and do not want to step on any toes. Same thing though, this new “friend” brought out some smiles in Rachel I haven’t seen in a long time. You’re beautiful when you smile, Rach, so keep that up, boy or no boy.
  3. I had the opportunity to surprise my Dad this weekend. The man had no clue I was coming home. I never realized how bad of a liar I was until my dad asked what I was up to Friday and I told him I was at Phelps eating dinner, when in reality the Ohio-Pennsylvania border was fast approaching. Again the common theme continues, the look on my Dad’s face when he opened the door Friday night: Priceless. Just like those old Visa commercials.
  4. To top it all off, I got to see my best friend Zach who is a wrestler at Arizona State. Although we only got two minutes together, (the kid had a flight to catch), those two minutes made my entire year. Wouldn’t have traded those two minutes for the world.

If you can’t tell, I’m full. Filled with the little things I guess. Of course, there were plenty more great happenings this weekend that made it just that, great. Yes Abby, seeing you was still the absolute highlight!

Anyways, my encouragement is to, yet again, enjoy the little things. Based on my own experience, God does not often work in earth-shattering, life-altering events. At the end of the day, he who is faithful with very little, will also be faithful with very much. His words, not mine.

Hope you all have an excellent start to your work/school week!

With love,
Steve