Falcon Footnotes

I thought this was really great and encouraging. During this finals week, and during this holiday season, our College President is PRAYING FOR US!!! Here’s what she sent us:

Dear Messiah Students,

As the Christmas season approaches, I want to take this opportunity to wish you a time of much-needed rest and renewal as you enjoy spending time with family and friends. I know that many of you are very tired (more…)

This morning, I woke up early (on a Saturday) for a dress rehearsal for my Women’s Ensemble concert tomorrow. As I groggily looked out the window in my floor lounge, I saw the most beautiful sight of the year: our first snowfall had begun! I am almost twenty and I still get excited over snow as if I were in elementary school. I ran back into and woke up my roommate so we could gawk out our window together, then I texted my friends.rnSnow is a wonder. It’s a mystery. It will only fall IF it’s cold enough and IF it was going to rain anyway. once it’s falling, it only sticks IF the ground is cold enough. Once it does, it sparkles there in splendor. In Grantham, snow that sticks for more than a day or two is a rarity, so one must be transfixed by it as soon as he sees it for it may be gone.rnWhen finals stress me out, sometimes I forget to go out and search for the beauty and splendor of God. Thank you, God for sending this blessing to beautify Grantham and to catch my attention! Thank you, God for this beautiful time of the year and for the blessing of friends to share it with. Thank you, God for friends who are rooted in you and for your miracles and blessings!

Trick-or-Treat, check. Thanksgiving break, check. It’s now socially acceptable to listen to Christmas carols and nearly every organization has begun to celebrate the season in its own special way. Finals are in less than two weeks and nearly every project on your syllabus is due between now and then, BUT IT’S FINALLY CHRISTMAS!!!! How does the Messiah community celebrate the birth of our savior? Where do I begin? On Tuesday, we celebrated Advent in chapel with some age-old hymns and the guitar choir as well as everyone’s favorite scriptures. Then, Tuesday night was out campus-wide tree lighting complete with the brassy sound of more of the songs that warm our hearts, hot drinks to warm our hands, and sweets to start the season off right. Last night, the crafty students had their time to shine as our annual “Deck the Halls” competition took place. The fun of “Deck The Halls” is that each floor decorates their lounge, walls, and even themselves with a Christmas theme and judges as well as other students go around and experience each display of decor and skits too. (more…)

I really have to say, I’m thankful for the wonderful school I’ve found in Messiah. Not only is it a challenge academically, but it has also provided me so many opportunities to dive in and stretch my faith. Sure, if you don’t work at it, you’ll fall away in your relationship. It’s easy to get involved, but that doesn’t mean you should take the easy route and expect growth to happen in yourself without work. At Messiah, I feel like I’m caught up on current events in the global church. We discuss current issues. We seek biblical truth, and we are showed all of the options so that we must pick one and learn to defend our position. I am so thankful for friends with differing viewpoints and I am so thankful for professors that challenge the students in their faith and genuinely care about how we are developing. I’m thankful fro the ways I’ve been encouraged to grow while in college!

As college drew near for me, I kept praying that I would have a roommate that I could get along with. I planned out the type of decorations that she would support me putting up in our room and how we’d decorate together. When it came down to it, though, I was placed in a supplemental triple and my eagerness to get to know people at college was a little hampered. We were actually untripled within the first week of school, and although that was great, I now had to invest the time to get to know yet another roommate. God had heard my prayers, though and this room was a fit even down to the decorations. I had found someone who, despite the ups and downs of our relationship, I could really relate to. It took me investing the time and getting to know her on such an intimate level that really made the difference for us. It wasn’t simply being nice or getting along that helped us to bond. Yes, we were both open and giving, but after awhile that’s not what holds you together. It’s the being there when life happens and the support that you can find in the common ground of Christ. I know it was God who held us together!

It’s Friday afternoon, and I’ve just finished my classes. With any luck, my weekend will start as soon as I finish my work. So, what’s there to do on campus? Tons! And I’m having trouble deciding. The department of Theater’s A Comedy of Errors opens tonight, the one dollar movie shows twice tonight and again tomorrow. There’s an African Student Union celebration tonight and a Multicultural Seminar tomorrow where I will be helping to run a donations table for relief in El Salvador (where I’ll be spending Spring Break with a group of Messiah Students). There’s a concert tonight featuring a big artist and a band with Messiah Roots, and several exciting Bible Studies as well as an alternate chapel with a discussion on hunger and homelessness to tie up this week’s focus, or a kayaking trip through the Outdoors Club, and that’s just getting started. Oh, I almost forgot, I’m logging on to Skype to talk to a friend who is studying abroad in Lithuania at 5pm, which is midnight her time and my roommate is playing in the play-offs for field hockey this weekend. How will I ever decide what to do? Who shall I meet for dinner?rnWhat would you do?