SBS - End of Quarter # 1

This whole adventure begun with silly joy and crossed fingers. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I think I cried 3 times in the first 2 weeks, completely overwhelmed by this whole thing.
But as I got to know my classmates, pressed into God, the 14 hours of study stopped freaking me out and quickly became life. These people are incredible. Living in a dorm, sharing EVERYTHING (including my flu), with 36 other people is not always simple but it is a blessing. I truly love these people, as we journey together through the many challenges they show me how flawed I am and how loving they are.
I have learnt so much and yet nothing at all. It feels like I have always been here, studying the word. Ideas and beliefs are being reinforced, revealed and rebuked. I love it. I can actually tell you what I believe and why now. How sad that I have been a Christian for the past 10 years and yet this is the first time I feel confident enough to say that.
So now I am off first to Seattle for one day to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, then fly to Philli, get to hang out with my beautiful friend Emmy, her pregnant belly and her beautiful new husband Steve. I get to chill with my people in NY for a couple of days and then study some more (as I am missing the first week of class, later ticket, so have to do three books without my classmates and lectures). Prayerfully this will be my first white christmas, but no matter what the weather it will be the greatest present, to just relax and do nothing. I am always so happy when I talk about my life, filled with you and memories of wonderfulness! Thank you for everything that you have given me over the years. Like always, I feel blessed to have you in my life (You - being my wonderful friends). Hope to see/hear from you soon. Have a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' birth. What a gift, perfect and complete in every way. All that we need. 

SBS - Base Celebration

Lets just say that it is all fun and games until you get your butt kicked! Funny day, I realised that you should take competition seriously when playing with serious people. It was hilarious!

 

SBS Dreadlocking

Look at Jan-Michel's beautiful hair.
Yep I killed it - I am turning the world into dreadlockers!
hehehe - it took two days and about 10 hours ... I am not going to be doing that one anytime soon

 

SBS Wk 10 - SNOW SNOW AND MORE SNOW!

WINTER IS HERE – With thanksgiving comes the snow and boy did we get some (almost a meter in 2 days). Not only was I able to partake in an American traditional celebration – thanksgiving but I also took part in another tradition, Thanksgiving sales. Yep you wake up at 5 am and go and buy things you don’t need with thousands of other sleeply confused buyers. What a great few days, SNOW, Cold (averaged -14 to -21 degrees celcius), Turkey, Shopping and old friends (I caught up with old friends from my DTS – that I hadn’t seen for 10 years).

Plus I babysat, dreaded a friends hair, dyed another, and DROVE A TRUCK IN THE SNOW! I am so tired! 3 ½ weeks to Christmas break!! I know that I will probably get sick of this soon, but how beautiful is this place with snow on it.
 

SBS - Some friends

People here not only put up with my craziness but they join in, and bring their own special weridness. This is Pristine (who is a sweetheart) and Bryan who has become my brother. He even wrestles with me. He is insane and I love it!
This is Deb and Jeannie. I just love these two, a great example of how quickly you can get close to people you don't know when you live in each other's wardrobes.
This is Matt. Funny All American. He is teaching me about football and I am teaching him about dressing. Baby steps.
This is Liz. We are really similar in many ways and we are the exercise girls, leading the way/others.
I feel so blessed by all of these guys. And there are so many more - photos to come
 

SBS - Week 7 + 8

Man this place is incredible. I wake up in the morning and am so grateful for the chance to be here. Every morning I wake up to an incredible sunrise - yes Katie is not only getting up at sunrise but she is running an exercise group! Crazy, Tuesdays is boot camp and Saturdays is kick boxing 7 am! Another student and I share the load of running it so I have my two days. It is a funny thing but I have to say I am tough and we always hurt the next day which is great. All this means that I have yet to have a sleep in. Yep I have yet to have a sleep in. I think this is the longest I have ever gone without my beloved sleep ins!!
There has been so craziness – You can see the snow – but here is a picture of my first snowball fight of 2006. I can’t really call it a fight as I got hit in the face as I was talking to someone and went down. I began to bleed and this was the result. Funny thing was it was thrown by a really petite girl and she felt really bad. So you know me, have to play it up. It was actually fine but just looked bad for a couple days. Oh the fun!
I also went to my first American football game (the YWAM team “Buckwheats” are 6 – 0, which means they haven’t lost yet) IN THE SNOW!! They play in the snow. Craziness. Needless to say I went out and brought long johns the next day as I froze. Thank God for the gift of snow boats I got my first week. This is going to be a long winter. Crazy thing is that I now really love football, as I am the head cheerleader and scream encouragement at everyone. LOVE IT! I am even going to try to get to a professional game with one of my friends who plays for our team.
Everything is going well. Had a few hissy fits about living in community but on the whole it is great. We did 1st and 2nd Thessalonians AND Philippians all in one week then Romans last week. It was crazy. Romans is an incredible book and I highly recommend reading it when you get the chance. Craziness. I got some great “light bulb” moments and was exhausted at the end. I worked for 14 hours straight two days that week. My work duty, snack bar and my volleyball team “dill pickles” gets me out of the study chair thank God! Miss real food with garlic and lime, just the freshness of our food. Praise God though, the food is great. All is great! 

Week 6 - Snow!!!!!

We have had incredible weather and though it has been in the low teens over all Montana is treating me well. And then it happened, first it looked like tiny little hails then came the flakes and soon after we had snow. 7 cm in 2 hours!! All I wanted to do was get a snowboard - soon and very soon!!
I have felt so blessed - We finished Acts last week, the biggest assignment for the semester and I got a fever and had to hand it in early to get my work duty done. Even though I took a whole day off to be sick God was faithful and I still got the assignment done, (16 charts, a full New Testament Timeline and a map of Paul's journeys). It was a great week realising that God really doesn't fit into any box I may create for Him. There is no magic formula for using the power God gifted us through the Holy Spirit, just a right heart and love for God! Awesome.
I did have a bit of fun with out Timeless Truths (these are the things that we get from focussing on a section - that should apply to the everyone). As Acts has alot of fun prison breakouts, and circumcision arguements - well you know me ... I had a bit of fun with it. Lets just say that if I ever get to preach these messages ... people will be amused!That is really what it is like for me here. I feel like I am learning so much about a God I have supposedly known my whole life. Every book is a new thing, something I have just never seen. Also you will be happy to know that every book also has something hilarious - lots of nudity and craziness! I love it.
Funny things is after every book is due we all stand around in the hallway trying to work out what to do to be with each other, considering we spend 70 hours studying, most of which is on our own. You can imagine that by Saturday I am alittle stir crazy. Sadly it always takes a good hour to work out what to do and how to do it (as you need cars to get anywhere and we don't have alot). But in true Katie style I end up just making and decision and telling everyone else to either come with me or make their own mind up. An hour is too long to spend in a hallway - in saying that it never changes from week to week ... we always end up in the same place asking the same questions. AHHHHH ... funny what this much study does to your brain.

INTERESTING FACT - when we finish we are given the official Princeton University seminary test. It should take between 4 - 6 hours and only about 40% of the people pass. SBSers average 1 -2 hours and 90% pass! Cool how much we are going to learn in 9 months with all this study. It is worth the hours in the hallway and craziness!

SBS - More Pics with Me

 

SBS - Week 5

This is what Fall looks like! The leaves are amazing. What is more wonderful is the friendships that have come and slapped me in the face. The couple is Mark and Ashley and from the first week we have been great friends. They study with me, introduce me to new things like how to order an American coffee (yes it is a whole new language). They just bless my heart.
There are just so many incredible people to tell you about but I am sure over the next 8 mths I will get through them all.
We had a retreat (where the pic of the cross by the lake was taken) this week as a class. We just chilled out in a big cabin on the lake, I even got to paddle a canoe into the middle of the 64 km lake (okay not the very middle). It was awesome spending time away from the computers and books and just getting to know each other. We had a great time and ate lots of bad american food - that I thoroughly enjoyed for a few minutes before it wanted come back out. heheheh.
We did Luke this week. 22 Chapters and lots of work but praise God I got it in and babysat (had to get my kid fix) for our leader too. And organised for the entire school to write notes of encouragement to one of our friends who is really struggling with the work. (I don't know how second language people do this - I find it hard enough and this is my first language and I have finished university - crazy).
This really is a great time of blessing in my life. I have never worked this many hours but the payoff is worth every second. Really ... but please continue to pray for me. I can feel the difference when you do and it keeps me going - something that I treasure more than coffee and chocolate (two of my best friends)!!!

SBS - Montana is Incredible!!

The lake, the sky, the mountains all in this incredible weather - I am truly blessed to be here!

 

SBS - Week 2 - 4

So week one was great. I thought that reading Philemon (which is only 24 verses) was rough. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.
So Philemon is on Chart. Then came Titus that was then 3 whole chapters and 3 charts. So lots of freaking out about only having a week to do all that work. Every chart is about 2 hours then add 2 hours for working out the historical background and about 8-10 hours of reading through, colour coding and making the strucutre (called horizontals).

Then came Ephesians - the only book of the bible I have personally read more than 20 times. I was worried that I would not get anything new but it was incredible and God showed me so much I had never seen through using this Inductive Bible Study technique. So Ephesians was 6 Chapters = 6 Charts in 4 days. FREAK OUT!!
Galatians was next - but this time it was 7 Charts in 3 days. WOW ... That was a hard week. I thought that God had made a serious mistake and I needed to get out. The revelations were awesome so I stayed. Up until this point had classes in the morning and at night - about 25 hours a week. Plus 6 hours of work duties and the Galatians meant 60 plus hours of work (not including meals and volleyball) over 6 days - Sunday is off!

I was not ready for Mark - 16 Chapters, 17 Charts and 4 days!! That was the biggest jump and we all went a bit crazy. So that was about 70 hours of work. Thank God I am getting better at this whole thing so the time is cutting down.
But when I don't write know that it is that I literally don't have an extra minuted to do it. However I do get to check emails briefly in class (sometimes) so thanks to everyone who has been updating me and encouraging me. It reminds me that I am still human underneath all this study!