Summit Ministries

My Life (mostly just Saturday) according to Ben Abele

Saturday morning started as any other day, the sun rose, the birds chirped happily and I stumbled down to breakfast, ten minutes after I woke up. At my house I have to stumble down the hallway to breakfast but here at Summit I stumble down a mountain of stairs and one long tube to get a meal that I can only hope is nutritious. The cereal is about the only thing that seems the same as home or any other regular place.

After our delicious breakfast of dried eggs and rubber bacon, we went outside to get on the bus. But the bus, to all of our horror and dismay was nowhere to be found. So, we sat in the hot sun waiting for our beloved high occupancy vehicle. It was hot and I quickly became tired of waiting. Thankfully, one brilliant staff member, I don't know who, decided that it would be smart to get in the shade. I concurred. So I sat down with some friends and we played Egyptian Rat Screw or other close to it, depending on your geographic location. Whatever the name, we had a blast. Soon, we found out that our regular classroom was under construction and so we went to a different place that was an exact replica of the Supreme Court.

We had two speakers that morning: Staver and Small. Small didn't get his full time because of the wait we had before the bus came. Small was supposed talk about Acts through Revelation but I guess it's hard to argue almost the entire New Testament in less than an hour. The seats were so much more comfortable! They were actual fabric and foam or whatever squishy stuff was in it. So, we had some Q and A and took a break. After a quick snack, many of the students looked at a lot of old, mostly dead, guys who led our great civilization. The hallway adjacent to our new classroom was lined with portraits of all the presidents and wise sayings, all having to do with the Bible. When the time came, we all filed back into the classroom and sat for another two hours or so of Dr Staver. He spoke mostly on law, abortion and homosexuality and the effect of them on the government.

When the class was over, David had some announcements. The first words out of his mouth were telling the paintballers to leave and go eat lunch in the cafeteria, which was probably about .3 miles away. They all left, grinning and jeering that they were gonna be first in line. The good, amazing, and humble person I am, I was only happy for them. After the other announcements, we all got up to leave. As we walked outside, I was unhappy to be in the hot sun again. So, after waiting in the shade, I decided to get to walking. But before I had got too far, Matt (I think) said that people could get on the bus. So, me and a few other people got to ride the bus in style. It was a blast to pass the people who walked first. We smiled with glee and laughed at our friends who were hot and sweaty. The first words of my friend, Andy who was a paintballer, when he saw me after we beat him were, "I hate you." Yeah, I loved him too.

After lunch, there were three events. Either go play paintball and get shot (super fun), or walk a million miles in the sweltering heat to the mall to talk to mean people, or sleep and do laundry in the cool of the dorms. Not many people stayed back from any event. I went evangelizing and talked to some people.

Later we had a talk on homosexuality by Mike Haley. It was a big hit and lots of people liked him. Soon, we were all tired and we went to the dorms. After a small group discussion, we all hit the sack and I was out in a second.