Summit Ministries

We've reached the end of the first day of the second week here in Manitou Springs. (How's that for a confusing sentence?) Everything seems to have flown by, but it's been an incredible life-changing experience so far. We started off with a bang in the form of Doc's Bible Hour. Bible hour is a wonderful way to begin. Not only does Doc share inspiring verses and leadership guidelines, (and many intellectual reasons why we should study our Bible), he also provides memorable one-liners to keep us all awake. One of my personal favorites: "Here in Manitou, we know nothing and we can prove it!" I know it doesn't seem to relate, but Doc has a hilarious knack of applying phrases like that.

Today at the Summit, our day started off with a nice breakfast of quiche, cereal, and bagels. Yum! After making sure our rooms were very clean, we started off the academic part of our day with the pledge of allegiance to the American and Christian flags and singing the first verse of Amazing Grace. Then Dr. Noebel gave his daily Bible hour. His verse of the day was Proverbs 23:23. Dr. Doug Groothuis was our next speaker and supposedly it was his first time speaking at the Summit. He spoke on "Confronting the New Age: Or, Why Oprah is Wrong?" Then he spoke on "Intelligent Design: Finding the Signature of God in Nature". One proof of an intelligent designer of the universe and everything in it is the Bacterial Flagellum. Look it up! It is an amazing microscopic "machine" located in cells.

Learning who Jesus Christ truly is in His essence and more importantly His meaning and impact in everyone's lives is at the core of what Summit is all about. On Wednesday the twentieth, Dr. Michael Bauman accurately portrayed and demonstrated just that in his lectures about predestination, God's character, and the problem of suffering. Dr. Bauman exposed us all to such a unique teaching style in that he rarely gave the answer to any questions which were asked of him. Rather he always invoked thought in the students by turning the questions into idea provoking inquiries. He helped us all immensely by working through all the issues we encountered step by step and really brought all those massive concepts down to comprehensive levels. So many times professors at other camps seem to talk over your head because they can, but Dr. Bauman has a passion to see his students excel in their understanding of God.

It was an incredible day. Today my shower was HOT. It made my day! From this point on things continued to get better and better. Incredible staff works constantly to make this the best experience ever, and they are remarkably successful I might add. After a fantastic breakfast to start the day, we were ready for our first session, or so we thought.

What an amazing day! It almost feels as if we've been here the two weeks already because we have learned so much today and have done great activities, plus wonderful bonds of friendship have already begun.

Greetings from the girls of room 409! United from across the nation, four very different girls from California, New Mexico, Florida and Virginia are excited to bring you today's blog. Despite the miles of difference between us, we've grown close through shared faith and passion. Sporting battle wounds from an intense round of paintball, muscle cramps after mountain hikes, and headaches from study sessions for the Bible exam, we finally get the opportunity to look back and share our experiences thus far.

Wow, where to begin?! We are at the end of the first week here at Summit and so many awesome things have happened. In fact, writing this blog is somewhat of a challenge because there is far too much to convey within a few simple paragraphs on a screen. My favorite thing about Summit so far has been the people. It has been so cool to be surrounded by likeminded kids my own age. What I mean by "likeminded" is that these are people my age who are actually concerned with the world in which they live. Here at Summit, it's not surprising in the least to pass by a table during the lunch hour and hear kids discussing political, economical, ethical, and Biblical issues that are prevalent today (and that's just to name a few topics).

One of the greatest things about being in Manitou Springs is the surroundings. It's this gorgeous landscape of mountains, red rocks and trees. I wish you all could see the morning fog as it wraps around the neighboring places. It is the essence of beauty.

Today began with two words: cold and wet. After the past few days of pretty warm weather, though, it was a nice change. We heard again from Dr. Bauman who, as always, challenged us to really think about our faith and why we believe what we believe. We were also taught by Mr. Stonestreet, who discussed the importance of Christianity, our culture, and the family. Both men had awesome concepts to teach and really made us think about, well, everything! I really enjoy that aspect of the classroom because it opens my eyes to the reality that Christianity is so much more complex than I thought.

Hello everyone! I am from Mesa, AZ... and Brian and Cheri Stegall, if you're reading this, thanks for sending me here. What a blessing! Anyway, since all of you parents are dying to know about the lives of your children right now, I will begin:

Wow, I never thought I'd be writing one of these. Hi, my name is Roberta and this is my second visit to our lofty Summit. I feel so blessed to be here and to have been able to return to stretch my mind for God and to know Him more.

After an extremely turbulent fifteen minute flight from Denver, I landed in Colorado Springs, which is very close to, though not quite home of, Summit Ministries, which is located in Manitou Springs. After hanging out and getting to know the other students, our group went to our first classroom session, which consisted of orientation and the rules of Summit. Then, after breaking into small groups, we went to sleep. That concluded day one of our Summit experience.

My official staff title is Nightwatch. While it sounds both ominous and regal, it basically means that I stay up all night and enjoy the cool evening breeze as I keep watch over my new group of 184 friends. This afternoon I awoke to the joyous laughs of newly arrived students from all over the U.S., the bright and cheery smiles on the fresh faces all around energize me for my final tour of duty in this summer-long adventure.

Hello, and welcome to the final entry for the Summit Session 5 student blog. Tonight was the Session 5 graduation. The two weeks of sleep deprivation, intense learning, and exciting activities came to an end with a charge to go out and be light in the world.