Due to work requirements and the 6-hour drive needed to get to Southern Adventist University, I was not able to be there for the Thursday or Friday SEYC meetings. I arrived quite late at my mom’s home in TN on Friday night, the 16th, which is still about an hour’s drive from Southern. The house was empty, since my mom is teaching in VA. It was nice to rest and get some down-time after a long and tiring week. With the phone service suspended during my mom’s absence, there was no Internet, e-mail, etc. It was real nice and … quiet. I noticed that the neighbors had made good progress on their house construction, with the walls up and everything pretty much enclosed. It is becoming a beautiful home, which is a pity since, despite the earnest warnings of my mom and other neighbors, the owners have decided to build it in a flood plain that is submerged virtually every spring. For the seemingly inevitable conclusion to this story, see Matthew 7:26-27.
Sabbath morning I woke up with the help of my trusty cell phone alarm,* got ready, and drove to Southern. I arrived a little early and was able to find a really great parking place. On the way in I happened to meet up with my long-time friend Diana, who was heading inside to help with the event backstage. Her family recently moved away from my hometown, and it was awesome to see her again.
[*The point of that being that ordinarily I never use an alarm clock; however, I was tired from the drive there, and knew that was the only way I'd get up early enough to have breakfast, get ready, and leave two hours early (due to the time zone change between where my mom lives and where Southern is) was to use an alarm. This was the first time I'd used my cell phone as an alarm, and I found a nice, gentle ringtone which worked out perfectly. I hate waking up to a jarring alarm.]
The meetings by David Asscherick were very good. (I think they will eventually be available for download on SEYC’s website.) However, his messages were basically a repeat of his presentations last year at 3ABN’s Spring Camp Meeting. I think just one of his messages was new to me. But review is good, and I was blessed. I also went to a great presentation on how to reach the atheistic mind, by Justin Kim. Although atheism is relatively rare in the U.S. population at large, it is rife in academic and scientific circles, and the popular media strongly favors naturalistic materialism, which is an atheistic worldview. So I was happy to see Justin tackling this topic. (David also dealt with this topic in one of his meetings, and it seems to be in the crosshairs of Enzyme Productions, which both David and Justin are involved in.) And I attended a couple seminars by Dr. Philip Samaan which were very beautiful devotional-style meetings.
Over the weekend I saw lots of friends, including Johnny Suarez, Regi Samuel (also from my hometown), the rest of the Santos-Bernall family including my great friends Adrian and Andrea, Derrick, Andy Im, Jenni Brain (who, apparently, is living up to her last name at Southern), Eve Parker, and many other acquaintances, as well as coworkers from 3ABN.
For Sabbath lunch I was invited to the Santos’ home. As might be expected, it was a full house, and it was great to talk with the other guests and enjoy the good food.
In the afternoon I had a good chat with Andy. We both agreed that GYC ought to have a regular publication, as well as an online community and online articles, in addition to the website they have now (not to imply that either of us have any say-so in the matter). I think both of us are too busy to initiate such a project, at least at this stage, but it sounded like we would both be very interested in actively supporting it. Andy is a very gifted writer with a clear perception of truth. And there are many other talented and biblically sound writers within GYC’s circle to pull from, including many well-known evangelists and other who’s-who personalities.
Saturday night my friend Eve invited me over for supper at her aunt and uncle’s home, and later we played a game of O’Thunder, which I had never played before. It took me a while to figure out the rules, and it looked like I would be totally sunk. But eventually I got the hang of it, and actually won (as I told Eve, as long as I win, I enjoy playing). We had time to play only one round, as it is rather lengthy.
I spent the night at Adrian’s pad. Sunday I had to return home, so I left early and arrived home in the late afternoon or early evening. So nice to sleep again in my own bed!
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