Our first upper room club meeting was awesome. It went really well. I MC'd and my friend Ben Wisan spoke for about ten minutes about what our club stands for. We then broke up into small groups and had discussion times on verses that talked about what we are about. It was awesome, and people were really connecting. I cant wait to see what happens with the club. God does amazing things.
So I went home for thanksgiving. My brother and I took the 6 am train from San Diego to San Luis Obispo. I stayed up all night so that way i would just sleep on the train. It actually worked surprisingly well. My brother and I boarded the train, played some games on my mac for about half an hour and then I fell asleep for the remaining five and a half hours. I woke up, and took the bus for the remaining two hours. It was a great couple days. My sister-in-law had to work on thanksgiving day, so on thanksgiving day we had filet minion and had thanksgiving dinner on Friday. It was a really good week food wise. I saw my friends from high school and it was a lot of fun. We all got together and shared about what God has been doing in our lives. It was hard to go back home. Great week off.
Some of usleaders who were part of an organization called Campus Crusade forChrist which is a club on my UCSD campus, decided to start a club this year. This club is focusing on building a strong community and encouragingpeople to pursue what they are passionate about. If there is a strong andloving community, then everything else will fall into place. People willwant to reach out to others, and others will be drawn in. No one will beforced to do anything that they don't want to do. The club is calledupper room because in Acts 1:13-14 it says "13When they arrived, they wentupstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John,James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son ofAlphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14They all joinedtogether constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother ofJesus, and with his brothers." I am super stoked for thisclub. We have not had our first meeting yet, but it is going to be great. We are expecting around seventy people to show up. We will see whathappens.
Went on a sweet mountain bike ride today! I have been wanting to get into mountain biking for a long time, but have been rather fearful of the whole situation. I took my sweet little Specialized Stump Jumper out for a short spin on Sunday and was immediately hooked. So, got some friends together and went for a longer more involved ride today. Santa Cruz is an incredible place to mountain bike, it is so beautiful! I have been kind of against the sport because I've seen a lot of people drive to their trailheads to go for rides and that has always just seemed silly to me. In Santa Cruz you are surrounded by trails and never have to get in the car to find a sweet route. There are tons of fire roads that are nice for learning and then a lot of single track through the beautiful redwoods. I am of course starting out rather cautious, but it is really fun and reminds me a lot of snowboarding off trail. It is the same constant state of focus and maneuvering at high speeds. Basically going as fast as you can but still be in control enough to not run into anything or just eat it. Thus, the constant adrenaline rush.
Sometimes in college I feel completely overwhelmed with the problems in the world. Whether it be history, environment, psychology, or social classes it seems impossible to grasp the damage we have done to each other, and our planet. And, it seems we are being educated in hopes of improving some of these situations. As we are known for speaking our minds and refusing to conform to society, UCSC students are making a strong stand against the Long Range Development Plan. The UCSC campus is already huge, but there is a lot of beautiful, untouched property above our campus that the regents are dying to develop. Us tree-huggers are quite opposed to that idea. First of all, the majority of our student body enjoys attending one of the smaller UC's so the ideas of building colleges 11, 12, and 13 is absolutely horrifying. Plus, the property in upper-campus is a very valuable space to runners, bikers, walkers, nature-lovers, as well as a very wonderful resource for environmental and botanical studies. Not to mention our connection to the meadows for drum circles and a few of our favorite trees; tree nine and the wishing tree. We want to stay UCSC, not turn into UCLA. We like to be surrounded by trees, not buildings. In an effort to show this, there have been students camped up in a few of the redwoods. Three or four were harnessed in, wearing masks, and refusing to come down. Of course the police had to get involved and things did get a little violent last week, but that has calmed down. Students are still camped out and hanging out around the trees at Science Hill at all times. I admire their commitment and devotion to the cause. Sometimes I fear how small our voices are as college students or young adults. But, I am encouraged by how many of my peers are willing to stand up and speak out for our environment. I hope that population grows and expands so that our generation can have a positive impact on our planet during our time here.