Sabbath, September 15

This is a sort of journal entry of yesterday's happenings. God has kept us safe, and has been blessing us. Sabbath, September 15 So for one of the first times in our history as roommates, Sam was up before me this morning. You see, her Mind-clock is set two hours ahead of here -- Minnesota time. I’m set one hour back from here -- Alaska. So she woke up at 6:30 here and said her clock said it was 8:30. I groaned, and said that my clock said it was 5:30. But by the time I woke up again, she had some nice oatmeal and a cup of tea ready. It was so nice! The Fountainview people here got together for Sabbath School this morning. It was wonderful to sing together again! We also had an encouraging conversation about this school year that faces us. Church was nice, and ironically, the offering was for the Alaska Conference. I think the pipe organ is going to take a little bit of getting used to, but it was still beautiful. After lunch, with friends, of rice and curry, we headed to Pioneer Park. They have a little bird aviary, with several species of beautiful birds, including several different types of pheasants. There was even what looked like a white peacock! So we all walked around there for a while. Then we found a nice place on the grass, in the shade, and talked for a while. It’s so great to be here with my friends! So far, we have Sam (and her family), Shannon, Heidi, Carmen, Eddy, Kyle (and his family) and me. But more people are supposed to be showing up tomorrow. After we had been at the park for a while, we stood up, sang “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” and “Side by Side,” joined hands and prayed. Then we left, came back to campus. On our way, we saw a layer of clouds, gray with light peach/gold lining. It shone so beautifully, and the sky gave me the impression that there is a fire around here somewhere. The sun, low in the clouds, was red and we could look straight at it. I’ve never seen clouds do this before, but it looked the the sun was casting shadows of the gold-lined clouds on the other clouds behind them. It looked incredible! After supper and stuff, we went to Walmart. It was only a couple miles away! But we spent a few hours in there and got all the stuff we’ll need for a while. Boy, was that an experience... But this whole thing has been a new experience.