Etiquette Part 2: Supporting Documentation

So no one feels awkward about the blog post below, I'm adding a bit of visual encouragement. Notice how happy both dancers in these photos look.



*all photos by Cameron Ingalls (he's amazing!)

Etiquette Part 2: It Takes Two to Tango

First, let me congratulate everyone collectively on the success of my last post. I went out to ice cream with Friend Tim and Friend Clayton and they opened my car door AND my front door for me. I felt very affirmed.

In conversation with Jessica, however, we realized that my last post was somewhat deficient. We were talking about weddings, and I mentioned that the only difficult part of a wedding is standing around at the reception, hoping someone asks you to dance and then...no one does. She suggest I write a blog post and I heartily agreed.

Now, I'm not going to push the dancing like I did the door-holding. I mean, the door-holding is an always, while I understand that sometimes it would be just plain awkward to ask someone to dance.

But...know this. We (girls) really like it when you (guys) ask us to dance. I remember very clearly being asked to dance at different weddings, and that it made me feel so valued...both times by guys that I will obviously never be in any sort of romantic relationship with. Like, definitely, never, it was absolutely not romantic. So while it may seem like asking someone to dance is akin to asking for their hand in marriage, I'm telling you...it's not.

So dear honorable young gentlemen, next time you're at a wedding, consider asking one of your friends to dance. Technically, it's socially unacceptable for ladies willing to dance to sit down while there are gentlemen in the room not occupied dancing with someone else. Of course, that social norm is from two and three hundred years ago, but hey! it's always good to have a little classical-ness kept around. Go make Emily Post proud.

New FAV

Stories get me. So does dancing. Tonight was awesome.

The girls had a lovely dinner (thanks, Suz!) and went off to a ballet performance by a Christian dance company here in KC. It was unbelievable! The first half was the story of Jesus, and it was just so moving... Favorite scenes included him wrestling with little boys to the tune of Cory Asbury singing "Delight in me...delight in me..." as well as an opening scene of the throne room in heaven, complete with four dancers that had colored capes attached to them covered with eyes (Revelation 4:6), danced to Matt Gilman singing "Holy". Then there was the wonderful ending, which has led to me to certain song that I'm hoping will go on my iPod playlist: "The Awesomeness" very, very soon. Listen to it here. It talks about Paul & Silas, and about Moses, and then has the coolest bridge:

"I see the long, quiet walk along the underground railroad;
I see the slave awaken to the value of her soul.
[The Underground Railroad and the end of slavery]
I see the young missionary and the end of the spear
I see his family returning with no trace of fear
[Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and 3 other missionaries were killed in South America by tribesmen they were trying to reach for Jesus. A few years later their wives, sisters, and children returned again to the tribe to preach the Gospel. The Waodoni now know Jesus]
I see the long, hard shadows of Calcutta nights
I see the sister sitting by the dying man's side
I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
I see the man with a passion come and kickin' down that door
[Everyone in the audience clapped and cheered once this one finished and the guy dancer came and rescued her. You can tell when you're living in a community praying for the end of human trafficking.]
I see the Man of sorrows and His long troubled road
I see the world on His shoulders and my easy road"
[And aren't these last two lines great?! Jesus took it ALL...]

Reading the Signals

I yelled at the dog this morning.  Two or three times.  I hardly ever yell...at anything.

I thought about it before I did it, then I did it anyways.  Can someone say opening a door?  If you follow my twitter (or check it on the sidebar) you have already read that I knew instantly: something's off.  (And how do I fix it?  Repent.)

I could make a lot of excuses; trust me, I've been trying.  Something really, really hard for my heart happened yesterday (maybe I'll write what I've learned from that later).  I had a hard time engaging in the prayer room this morning.  I learned that there might be an opportunity that I would LOVE to get to do, that I might not be able to because of work.  Lots of excuses.

But I think I can recognize when I have a sin issue to be dealt with.  I don't have joy, I'm consumed with thoughts about myself, the kids start disobeying for no apparent reason, I want to check twitter instead of engaging in their game of checkers, I complain to myself about how many times I have to get up to get another cheese stick, I yell at the dog.  Sometimes you just can't deny that there's something going on in your heart that needs to be taken care of, and you get desperate because, well, if you don't repent of something soon, the potstickers you just put on might boil over or the tv might explode and send little bits of sparkly dust all over the carpet.

The Lord is faithful.  When I have these days where my heart needs to spend a little bit of time with its face on the floor, I can repent and He turns it around.

Right after I yelled at the dog, I put my knee on the swing (because it's quite low for me to sit in), started going back and forth, and prayed.  "Jesus, I repent for being anxious.  I confess I decided to judge Your goodness by much and what you give me.  I'm sorry for not trusting you..."  Glorie watched me and asked "What you doing?"  "I'm swinging and praying."  She promptly circled around me to the next swing, put her knee in it and I heard from her little lips: "Jesus, thank you for this swingset...and this swingset and this swingset.  For the slide, and toys, and the swing..."

Let's all learn something from Glorie.  

Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you for these four beautiful kiddos I live in KC with.  Thank you for my job, and the way you've provided financially for the past year.  Thank you that I got into the right college, and that there is someone in Tacoma who wants me to live with them.  Thank you for the deep friends you've provided in Kansas City.  Thank you that Amy is almost done with high school, thank you that Rachel got into nursing school.  Thank you that Your presence is a promise.  Thank you that Your plan is perfect.  Thank you that your gaze is on me and thank you that I delight Your heart.

Thank you for being You, Jesus.  Thank you that You took all the death, all the pain at the cross.  Remind me of Your heart; help me know You more when I go to bed tonight than I did when I woke up.

On Holding the Door Open

Dear Guys,

I just want you to know so that you're informed...you have the ability to make a girl feel like a million bucks.  Not just the girl you date or marry - any girl.  

How?  Hold the door open.

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At IHOP we usually have situations where two people are trying to go opposite directions through the same door.  Blame it on the number of people on base...for some reason two people always have to be trying to go through the same door.  I'm sure some poor pair of people is going to head-butt each other some day, but as for what I've seen, the situation has merely provided the guys of the community a very special opportunity -- the opportunity to be...a gentleman.

I was laying in bed last night, going through the various thoughts I needed to think before I could fall asleep, and a memory popped into my head.  A few days ago, I was leaving the prayer room and was heading out the same door friend Jesse was going in.  He opened the door, saw me, and stepped back to hold it open.  (Come to think of it, his dad did the same a few days before...it must run in their family!)  Guys have held the door open for me plenty before, but for some reason that moment made me feel particularly honored, and I said "Thank you!" much too loudly.  I'm sure most of the patio heard me.

I finished walking out, proceeded to feel embarrassed about how loudly I'd said it, and then was left thinking for the next few days about how much I appreciate it when guys hold the door open for ladies.  

I've also been thinking about a situation prompted by a plate of cookies.  At the Zoe Foundation banquet last Thursday, the server brought a plate of cookies to the table, and Tim said, "Ladies first!"  I kid you not, I was stunned and said: "What??" He repeated, Joanna and I each took a cookie, and I sat there stunned that he was serious.

There is part of community that can and should lead guys to honor girls, with absolutely no romantic interest involved.  You don't have to be in love with a girl to open a door for her; it's just etiquette.  I mean, if I'm walking down a shady street at night, I don't care whether or not the guy with me has any interest in me...I just care that a) he's a guy and b) I can trust him.  It's like girls are automatically wired (or maybe it's just this girl...correct me if I'm wrong) to assume 'Oh, you're a guy, you can protect me if I need protecting.'  

When a man holds the door open for me, I get the same feeling I do when my big brother tells me I'm a beautiful young woman.  A few weeks ago, Judah wanted me to put on my pretty dress so we could dance around the basement.  When I did and came out to dance to the tunes coming from the fake Little Mermaid cd player, he just stared at me with his big, smiling, 2-year-old blue eyes.  I asked him if I looked pretty, and he got a smile on his face as he let out a bashful "yaaaaaa..."  I got the same feeling then too.  It's the emotion of being honored, of being told that I'm worth an extra second to hold the door open, or that there is something about me worth being liked or affectionated (like that word?  it means being given affection. :)  

Yes, someday there will be one particular man who shows that honor and affection to me more than any other...but for now all guys who know Jesus have been given the charge to "Treat...younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." 1 Timothy 5:2  Let me speak as a sister - one of the best feelings in the world is when my older brother Sam takes care of me.  

There are so many ways we can all love each other well, and guys, I'm gonna be blunt and say that being a gentleman is a way to love us girls well (again, in a totally non-romantic way!).  Plus, it's a proactive way to go against the grain of what the world tells us day-in-and-day-out...that we're merely objects, with worth determined by how skinny we are or how well we can do our make-up.  I can almost promise you that the girl you just passed in the hallway is in a fight for her life, wrestling whether or not to believe the liar whispering in her ear that she has to lose ten more pounds or wear that cool scarf to be worth something.  

So I'm thankful for the gentlemen I know -- for the OJs, the Peters, the Sams...for the Jeffs and the Jesses, the Tims and the Trumans, for the Joshuas, the Jacksons, and the Judahs...

Hold the door open, guys.  It tell us we're worth something. =)

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I totally recommend John Piper's message: Affirming the Goodness of Manhood and Womahood in All of Life.  I know that's a mouthful, but it addresses key points on why it's not demeaning to women that they're not to have the main leadership positions in the church, and he spends a little time on normal guys-and-girls hanging out.  He says groups of single guys should be the main initiators of hanging out with groups of single girls.  Whoa.

Plus, he poked his future wife in the eye trying to put his arm around her on their first date.  I mean, guys, loosen up.  You can't get more awkward than that.

The Cry

Back when I wrote my essays for college applications, I planned to post this particular one (which I sent to the Christian colleges I applied to) up on the blog...  I waited until all the application processes were done, decisions were mailed, and then (obviously) I waited even until now, when next fall is already planned!  So here it is...on adoption.  {Feel completely free to recognize this as being inspired by what God is doing with and through the Bohlenders.  The twins had probably just come, and my heart was on fire.}

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There is a crisis of epic proportions affecting the smallest among us.  In China, many babies are given up because of the government requirement for each family to only have one child.  In Southeast Asia, little girls and boys are taken out of their homes and adopted into the sexual slave trade at alarming rates.  Africa sees children orphaned every day by genocide, war, and HIV.  In Eastern Europe, special needs babies are often left neglected and unloved.  Every one of these children is just an arm’s reach away from the care and love they need.  I hope and pray that someday my arms will be doing the reaching.

The issue of adoption is a crucial intersection for the church, yet sadly one that is often a place where we stand and gape instead of intentionally choosing action.  It is where our own spiritual heritage, that of being defenseless and penniless yet being saved by Christ’s sacrifice and accepted into the Father’s family, meets a terribly real issue in the nations of our world: children, everywhere, without parents.  James gives us a window into God’s heart: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.”  God certainly does not miss every longing of each of these little hearts.  Nor is He numb to their need to have a father wrap them in a cocoon of safety or their desire to have a mother whisper: “I love you.”   

This crisis, however, is not purely international or far removed from us.  Adoption has the potential to be a critical part of many lives in our own country.  Sadly, these lives are babies that are never met, fingers and toes that are never counted, and destinies that are never seen.  Abortion has ripped forty-eight million babies out of our country since it was legalized in 1973.  Approximately twenty-four percent of all American pregnancies end in abortion.  As Christians, these facts need to arrest our hearts with the reality that the statistics are not numbers but lives.  We hold a privileged position where we can work to save these lives, both through prayer and through action.  I believe it is time for the church to see adoption and abortion as two issues that are anything but separate.  If as the people of God we want abortion to end, we have to be willing to open our hearts and our homes to those that are “unwanted”; we must be willing to do for them what He did for us. 

On a clear day last month, I was driving in Kansas, a state of wide-open space with nothing but a lot of seemingly empty land.  The part I was in, however, had new homes, built in beauty and almost painted across with “The American Dream.”  The thought struck me: what kind of dent would it make if every American Christian household adopted one child.  We have the space; we have the money.  Millions of “unwanted” children would, in one sweep, suddenly have a home and a place to be taught the love of Christ in the most tangible way.  I am reminded of a moving line to a worship song: “You rescued me, and picked me up…”  Jesus saw us as orphans and then acted to change the status quo.  I pray that the Church would see not just visions, but actions.  Let us show those called unwanted that they are indeed wanted, not just by us, but by a Creator who desires for them to know his unfailing, saving love.

The Zoe Foundation Banquet

It was wonderful.  I love being with people, and boy...were there people.  We had fifty-to-a-hundred more than originally expected, extra tables were brought in, and the room was packed!  

Seriously, what could be better than a room packed with people you really like, talking about how God feels about adoption and what we should be doing?  Randy and Kelsey rocked while they brought the message...to be pro-life, you have to be pro-child.  God is doing something great in the earth, and it undoubtedly involves the fatherless and "unwanted" being welcomed with open arms into the Church.

Plus, everyone knows I had the COOLEST table.  That's right, the coolest.  See below.

Joanna Reyburn  and I.  I heart her.  In fact, I heart her so much that I'm putting this picture up even though it's blurry, just because it makes me happy to be in a picture with her.  

Oh, and some random guy who worked at Chipotle bought her burrito the other day because he had read her blog and been encouraged by it.  Ummm...any Chipotle-worker readers out there?  I like the Barbacoa, with black beans, green  sour cream and cheese.  

Next up, JM and the Cone.  I promise they weren't actually bored, I just took these pictures while everyone was listening to someone present something, so everyone's looking focused.  Tim was, in actuality, very entertaining. (And he didn't pay me to say that.  Well, I mean, he didn't pay me more than a doughnut and a couple dozen eggs.) 

Plus, notice the way awesome view out the windows behind them!

Three lovely ladies: Crystal, Wendy, and my very own beautiful sister Amy.  Amy's saying hello to me through the centerpiece...Hi Amy!

Lastly, Tim and Truman...two of the coolest guys ever. (For serious, you should know them.)  Tim is dutifully listening (just like the other Tim, I promise he had a somewhat good time...I just wasn't taking pictures while he was smiling) while Truman is hamming it up for the camera.  =)

Dear Table-People, you're the coolest.  Thanks for coming to the party. :)

That's Right

Call Me Crazy

To quote myself: "When people develop a fascination with air conditioning (as seems to have happened in Kansas City), it might be hot, but you're always cold!"  My sister was particularly impressed by this quote when I said it about a year ago while visiting KC.  

I enjoy being warm.  Very warm.  I love, love the feeling of when you first sit in a car that has been sitting closed on a summer day.  You know that warmness that presses in on you?  I love that!

Weird, I know.

It just got nice and warm here in KC and what do people do?  They run to turn on the air conditioning!  You'd think they were afraid of melting like beeswax candles at first reception of rays of warmth.  This results in me being cold all. the. time.  I want to wear short sleeves, but I can't go anywhere without a sweater!  

In conclusion, everyone please turn down your air conditioning.  Enjoy the warmth, soak it in, save some money on your energy bill...just turn down the air conditioning!  Freezing like a popsicle in July makes no sense.  No sense at all.

The Zoe Foundation

It's exactly one week until the biggest event to hit Kansas City since the Great Snow of 1907.  Don't know about the Great Snow of 1907?  Neither do I.  Don't know about the Zoe Foundation Banquet?  Well, you're about to find out.

The Zoe Foundation was begun by Randy and Kelsey Bohlender as a way to promote adoption as a positive alternative to abortion.  In a nutshell, the foundation seeks to provide means on multiple levels for children to be adopted who otherwise might have become one of the victims of abortion.  To quote Randy: "In order for the church to really say it's pro-life, it's got to be pro-child."

If you have a heart for abortion to end, you should be there.  If you love adoption, you should be there.  If you want to understand how these two issues fit together, you should be there.  If you like food and fun people, you should be there!  Lou Engle, founder of TheCall is the keynote speaker, and the night is going to be unbelievable!  

To find out more about the people behind this (some of my dearest friends!), read Randy's blog HERE.  To spend two minutes of your time seeing the unrivaled beauty of adopted babies and adoptive families, click HERE.  From there, look around the website, read everything, watch the promo video, then RSVP to come next Thursday, May 14, here in Kansas City.  (Or, if someone in Colorado happens to read this, go to the one in Colorado Springs on the 19th!)  Don't forget to say that you were invited by a table host (because I am one!) and put my name (Annie Peterson) in the blank.  

Hope to meet you there! 

Don't judge my parking.

Today I went to Blanc with some friends. It was spectacular! Blanc is a super fun burger place in Westport, that is basically famous around IHOP, and I had never been. Our conversation was interesting, I'll have you know, though I won't be reciting it all to you in detail here on the blog because that would be just plain boring. What I will share with you, however, is this redeeming bit of information (redeeming on my behalf in case any of you doubted my driving abilities). I'll have you all know that, according to Adam Hanly, I do not have Female Driving Syndrome.

I'm honestly not even totally sure what that particular disorder (FDS as Adam likes to call it) is. The only explanation he had was a little anecdote about a lady who stopped in the middle of an intersection to finish a statement to a friend in the car and then, once she was finished talked, proceeded to let traffic continue normally.

By that definition, I suppose I'm free and clear. In fact, I would even say I'm at a very low risk of ever developing FDS.

On second thought, Adam had to take over parallel parking for me today when I just could not make it work. He fixed it in about three seconds. Excuse me, aren't I supposed to be from Chicago, the city some have called the Land of the Parallel Parkers?

Ahem.

Tacoma, the City of Destiny

I'm moving!  And the craziest part of it is...I'm seeing prayers and desires from years ago being answered.  Right now, right this summer.  God is so good.  

I knew I would be back in Tacoma!  Every time I left at the end of the summer, I knew I had to be back.  

Now I'm going back for REAL.

I want to describe to you something that maybe can't be said with words.  When I think about being there again, being in that community, taking Jesus to that campus -- when I think about it, something feels strong inside, almost physically deep in my core.  It's like the peace of knowing this is where God is leading and the joy of going where God is taking you and the excitement of the unknown and the pure bliss of just knowing that I will see these wonderful people all! the! time! just ends up as a pillar of surety inside. 

It's like God's hand in me, steadying me every time a twinge of fear shows up, His firm grips is felt again and I remember that He has done this, and it is marvelous in my eyes.  GOD has done this!  Over and over again, His peace reminds me that He did this.

On another note, I had my first dream about moving back.  This is wonderful.

Wowsa

Do I EVER have a lot to tell you, blog world!  Do I EVER.

Let's start with the facts, or, shall I say the FACT.  I am going...to the University of Puget Sound!  [applause...applause]

How did this decision come about, you wonder?  Because, dear people, my God is GOOD.  Let's recap.

The past five months have been some of the most intense of my life.  While I was a blissfully happy member of the IHOP community and resident of the great, flat Kansas City, my heart was...sore.  Sore is really the best way I can describe it.  It wasn't broken, it wasn't shriveled up, it wasn't dying, and it wasn't dry...it was just sore.  Jacob wrestled for a night?  Pshaw...he's got nothin' on my five months. (I kid, I kid...)

God was gracious the whole time.  It was almost like I could look at the whole situation in third person -- Oh look!  There's Annie.  She is in the middle of a FIRE.  It's so good for her heart, but it's one of the most intense refining experiences she's had in her short seventeen years.

I remember one morning specifically, sitting in one of Tim Reimherr's sets.  I said to the Lord "Oh, it would be so cool if you gave one of the singers a song for me...would you?"  

[Insert for you if you're not familiar with IHOP and the Prayer Room: the singers on a worship team sing prayers, basically.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit downloads a specific song to a singer, and they'll just prophesy with their song for a while.  I bet you that pretty much every day you could find at least one person who sat in the prayer room and thought "wow, that song she sang was just for ME!"  For a beautiful example from one of my friend Tim's sets, click HERE and then click on "He's Like Spontaneous"]

Sure enough, that morning, it happened multiple times.  First it was his singer with red hair who sang something to the effect of: "Some of you are wondering...He sees...some of you are asking 'Is God good?  Is God faithful?'"  My heart was struck  -- at the root that is what my cries were.  Maybe I wasn't accusing him of not being faithful, but I was laying in bed at night crying "God, when will you answer?  Do you promise You'll answer?"  Tim went on to sing: "If you ask for His heart, He'll give it to you...just ask for His heart."

The Lord was speaking the whole time, and I was learning.  I was learning big things, like how to wait.  You can try to "learn" to wait while everything around you is working out and is under control, but I was forced to learn to wait.  Two weeks ago, with a college decision deadline looming on May 1, I had no idea what was going to happen to my life.

March 30 brought rejections from all the Ivy League schools I had applied to.  I cried for two minutes, it stung for a few hours, and then I was over it.  Encouragement flooded in from twitter, and OJ bought me a milkshake and prayed before our Chick-fil-a dinner: "Lord, thank you that Annie didn't get into those crummy schools.  Amen."  

Then next day I left for California to visit Westmont College.  On the plane there, Elizabeth and I (we traveled out together) watched the movie Amazing Grace.  Let me just quote from an e-mail I sent Kelsey the next morning:

As we watched I felt so weighted...I feel like him!  That line of "I have a glittering political career ahead of me, and yet in my heart I want spider's webs..." feel SO familiar!  It seems like there is so much potential academically, for my brain, for my music -- but I want to walk away from it all and do something simple...just save babies.  His battle to do what burned on his heart and what others saw for him to do -- I know that battle intimately.  The fact that he felt torn in two on the inside yet couldn't explain it to people on the outside -- that he tried to describe it and felt like it fell to the ground in his friends' hands...

As I thought about what to do for college, I was so torn.  It felt like there was a holy unction inside me that said "You will ACTUALLY be able to change something.  Your life will make a difference."  I believed (and still believe!) that I could save babies, and if it was actually possible, then how could I bring myself to sit in a classroom for four years instead??

I came home knowing that I wasn't moving to California for college.  (Although, I have to say -- the Lord is doing some crazy awesome things there!  Pour it out, Lord!)

The week before Easter, things started happening rapid-fire fast.  We had a Call staff meeting, where everything was outlined about how things are changing.  That change included that the whole team was being disbanded, as of April 30.  If we wanted to keep working for TheCall, we were totally welcome to come talk to the leaders, but, across the board, things were going to have a fresh start.  It took a few days and some heaving sobs (a LOT more crying that getting rejected by the Ivy's. :) to realize that this was, in reality, an answer to prayer.  I asked the Lord a few months ago that something would actually happen to show me whether I was supposed to leave or stay with TheCall.  I had imagined that "something" would be more like my boss sitting down with me and saying "Sorry, Annie, but we just don't need you on the team anymore."  I am blown away by the goodness of God that surrounds how it actually happened.  Imagine having the door to one of the most significant things ever to happen in your life close without ONE OUNCE of rejection.  God is amazing!

My sister Amy repeatedly pointed out to me that you couldn't get around the significance of the days.  Done with TheCall April 30, college decision due May 1.  Leaving TheCall was no light thing to my heart -- it seemed like everything I burned for was happening in their vision.  Praying for an adoption movement, seeing a youth movement sparked...   Just the thought of leaving the team had me crying in that meeting.  

On Easter my dad called.  He gave me wisdom, he spoke to what he saw going on in my heart, and he basically said that staying in Kansas City was out of the question.  That took about two days to sink in, and then I had peace.  I know it was God, because three days before I had been sitting in my car in the IHOP parking lot, heaving sobs, hardly able to breathe at the thought of going away.  Ever since I've had peace that leaving Kansas City is the right thing.  Hard, but right.

Then the Tuesday after Easter, Suz and OJ returned from a weekend trip to Tacoma.  They came home bubbling about what had happened.  Basically, to put it in a nutshell, there is a powerful movement in its beginnings to literally fulfill the Great Commission.  People who have never heard the gospel are going to hear about Jesus, and my church in Tacoma has been called to be an integral part of it.  There are so many streams to this river of a story, but basically the deal is that Suz and OJ are going to move to be a part of it, and I am too.  The gospel is going to be preached, and my generation is going to hear about Jesus then be called to go tell MORE people about Jesus!  

You see, I know God has been calling and drawing my heart gently for the past few months toward preaching the gospel.  For one, I don't believe there exists a Christian who's not called to preach the Good News.  Of course, knowing that and having a passion for the lost are two different things.  On my birthday, God called my name in a very specific way at church.  One of the things I knew He spoke to my heart about was an opening of my mouth.  I can't stay silent, because the world needs Jesus!  It's been on my mind every time I go to the store these past few months, feeling like all I see are broken people who need to know God.  

In the past week and a half, God has given my parents peace about me going to UPS in Tacoma, something they never expected.  They know His voice, though, and are sending me.  I love you, Mom & Dad!  

The last piece to fall into place was a disappointing financial aid package from the top-running Christian college that my parents would have otherwise loved for me to go to.  I love it when the Lord brings clarity.

So I'm enrolled.   I sent my letter and my check yesterday.  God is doing something big, guys, and I'm going to be a part of it.  It's going to go around the whole earth -- people who never knew about this saving grace are going to meet the God-Man Jesus, and it's going to spread across the earth.  Across the earth, and across the campus of the University of Puget Sound --across my campus.