Archive for November, 2009

Corporate Logo

Kevin Mannoia Monday, November 16th, 2009

Corporate logos seem to be a pretty big deal, especially lately.  As the economic environment creates increased stress on companies and schools, reaffirming corporate identity and values is part of survival.  Along with that comes highlighting the company seal, logo, mark.  People show it, praise it, and sometimes hide behind it.  It represents security, self-identification, and even protection.  It’s the mark of belonging.  I wonder…what’s the mark that secures your personal identity?  You know God has made available a corporate mark.  It sure is nice to know that you can be part of that seal.  It’s the seal of the cross.  You can see the logo all over the place. More importantly, it is an internal mark of identification.  People marked by the seal of Christ show love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness.  Does that mean they are not astute and effective on the job?  Of course not.  But as they go about their business, other folks notice the logo. They see the mark.  And it’s the basis of your identity, your focus, and your protection.  Thank God for His company logo.  Put it on.  Let it be seen.

If you have any prayer requests, please feel free to use the Prayer Request button to me know and our Prayer Partners will be praying for you.

Blessings,
Kevin

Putting God First again

Staphon Saturday, November 14th, 2009

I never really realized how addicted to pleasing everyone I actually was. I love being involved, I love doing awesome work, I love compliments, and I love name drops like when people say “Oh, Staphon did that.” (in a positive way of course.) And so, I try to do things like this as much as I can.

But of course, when you agree to do all of these things, agree to be Super, yet, you don’t have any actual Super Powers, it is easy to burn yourself out.

I hate using that word ever since Jonny Liu informed us that to be burned out is taboo, if you are doing the will of God, he will give you energy and you will never be burned out. So when I was on the verge of throwing a fit and crying in an alley in the rain, very movie frustration scene like, I realized that I must be out of alignment with what God wanted me to do. I thought through all of my priorities and I knew that there was nothing in my list that wasn’t supposed to be there, I was doing the Will of God, but it was just not working out as well as it should have.

Then I realized, maybe its not something I am doing, but something I am NOT doing.

“But Staphon, if you are doing so much, how could doing one more thing help to lighten the load?”

Well, I realized I once again was that I wasn’t putting God First. Yes, I credited everything I did to doing the will of God, trying to please him, but in doing all this, I never really had time to actually sit down with God and be in his presence, and listen to him.

Needing to be more intentional about spending time with God, I asked my Girlfriend to keep me accountable, which is something everyone should have, an accountability partner, someone who will make sure you are being intentional and staying on path in your faith. APU has a way of doing this in groups called D-Groups (Discipleship Groups) where you have a group of people that you either can form or you can join in with (depending on if you want to do it with people you know) and you can meet for bible studies. I have never had time for one personally, but I have a lot of friends who do it and they love it, and in turn they keep me accountable.

So, I feel like I can be a lot more productive now, since God is taking a lot of my load, and I am no longer burnt out. Another lesson in our school motto of God first down.

Crazy Busy Day :)

Kelsey Bjugstad Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Packed day of class, service, alpha, and fun :)

When I refer to today, I mean Tuesday the 3rd :) I always write my blogs late at night and don’t have time to spell-check or see if they even make any sense. So there is usually at least a day delay.

Today has been a crazy day… but a really great day too. Here busy day

Slept in until 10:45 because my 8:05 Run/Walk/Jog class was canceled. This was an excellent start to the day. Not that it’s a bad class, but “Run-Run” as we like to call it doesn’t really motivate me at 8:05 in the morning. It’s a good class for avoiding the dreaded ‘freshman 15’ but it seems so early. I honestly am not sure how I went to class that early 3 days a week last year. Oh right, I went to sleep before 2. But that is my personal preference… Not everyone stays up so late. I just haven’t slept before midnight in at least a year.

Back to my day.. Sleeping in was amazing (and gave me 8.5 hours of sleep) but I was almost late for my 11:25 Health and Wellness class. My roommate and I both fast-walked to West Campus. I made it in time for our class discussion on dating. Health is often a lot of lecturing about eating right, making goals in life, and excising. It isn’t my favorite class but my professor makes it really simple with little homework and true/false tests. The class today started out ad an awkward but turned into one of the funniest class periods I’ve had all semester. Including a guy shouting “if I’m paying for her dinner it better be considered a date!!” Maybe you had to be there :)

Right after Class I went to Sam’s Subs to grab lunch. Sam’s is basically APU’s version of Subway and is definitely my favorite food place on campus. It also is probably the fastest place, which is really important if you have classes back to back.

From 1:05-2:30 I had Intro to Lit. We are currently studying Othello (a play by Shakespeare). We have daily quizzes each class that are usually really difficult unless you pay close attention to the reading. I’m happy to say I got over an 11/10 on the Act 2 and Act 3 Quiz. I feel like there is such a strong sense of accomplishment when I do well in the class because it isn’t the easy ‘A’ course.  The last half hour classmates volunteered to perform parts in the play at Seven Palms. Seven Palms is a small Amphitheater near the mail center on East Campus. It was nice to get out of the classroom but by the end of class I couldn’t wait to get back into my air-conditioned dorm room. :)

I came home (to my dorm) and planned on relaxing and attempting some homework but then I got a text at 2:55 reminding me I had a D-Group meeting in 5 minutes. I’m almost positive D-Group is short for ‘devotion group’ or a small group of girls that meet specifically to fellowship, have accountability, and be able to pray for each other. It was the second meeting but the first for me because I wasn’t able to make the first one. All of the girls seem to have conflicting schedules in the group, which left only three of us meeting today.  It was fun still to get to know my leader and another group member over a smoothie at Paradise Juice Cafe.

Right after the D-group meeting I walked to the Village so I could get a ride to The Homework House. The Homework House is a great opportunity for APU students to service (and get service credits) by tutoring at-risk kids in the Azusa Community.  Today was my third time working but I already love it. I tutored a high school sophomore with Algebra which went really well but also meant a lot to me because I remember getting tutored for the same class by my old small group leader.  It just shows how connected everyone is and it was nice to be able to give back.

Right after Homework House I had a meeting for Homework House at Starbucks. It was a really awesome meeting but I’m not gonna lie, one of the most exciting things was the fact the Starbucks Christmas coffee is out! Meaning Peppermint Mochas are back!! I’m not even that much of a coffee addict but I love Starbuck’s peppermint Mochas. And the Peppermint frappucinos. It just seems weird that its not cold or rainy to go along with the hot drinks :) It seems so strange it has only rained once since this season. Or that I almost had heat stroke while watching them perform Othello at Seven Palms. But I love warm weather and I’m going to be happy to miss the week-long rains.

I have to sign up for classes tomorrow.  I had my schedule fully planned out but when I looked today at my class options, two of them were already full.  Unfortunately, that meant I spent about 3 hours trying to redo my schedule for Spring 09.  I probably could have spent a little less time if I would have let myself take early morning classes, but honestly, that isn’t going to happen. It was probably my forth time messing with my schedule, I had it all planned out but then my advisor told me to change one class when I meet with her, and that threw off my whole schedule.  I’m also looking at studying abroad in South Africa which I’ll talk about in another blog but that also made me save some classes.

I had an Alpha meeting at 10 tonight too. Ah, I did so much today!  My leader made us Pazooki and we had fun just hanging out.

At 1:00am I realized I still had Intro to Communication Studies homework, which was happens to me a lot.  Like blogging, I tend to save my homework until later in the day. And by later in the day, I mean sometimes not finishing it until the next day.  Luckily, it was an easy, fun assignment where we had to create a page long movie plot that was marketable.

And now, I’m writing this blog around 2:00am on my iTouch because I can’t sleep. I really need to go to bed. Sorry for the lack of blogs lately, I’m blogging more now that midterms are over! Be ready to hear about All Access Weekend, South Africa Semester, and all the other exciting stuff.

Halloween Adventures at High Sierra!!!

JP Park Thursday, November 5th, 2009

HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!!!! Halloween was a couple days ago, but I didn’t get a chance to blog since it was so busy!!(In a good way, of course)

Well, I woke up on Halloween pretty late, around 11 AM. I got some lunch, and then I had to get ready for Halloween Badmitten Doubles! You basically pair up with a partner, dress up as a famous couple, and then you play Badmitten against another team, and the winning couple wins a prize. It was so fun! I paired up with my good friend Naomi, and I dressed up as Barney(haha), and she dressed up as a little Kindergartner. It was single elimination with about 10 or more teams, and unfortunately, we lost our first game against our professors, Dave Williams and Rob Simpson. Here are some pictures from Halloween Badmitten!

Happy Halloween from Me and Naomi!Playing Halloween Badmitten at High Sierra

Kiley as Mario, Katie as Princess Peach, and Rachel as Luigi!

Chelsea as Lois Lane, and Matt as SUPERMAN!

After Halloween Badmitten, all of us just chillaxed around and started getting ready for dinner. For dinner, we had the opportunity to dress up again. We just love dressing up here at High Sierra. We even dress up for dinners when it isn’t Halloween! It’s hilarious and super fun. Instead of dressing up as Barney again, I dressed up as a Surfer. There was a wetsuit in the costume closet they have here at High Sierra, which has a ton of costumes and props, so we take full advantage of it! Here are some pictures of us “High Sierrans” dressed up for Halloween Dinner!

Matt as the Joker, and me as a Surfer

Me and Tenaya on Halloween

Tenaya doing Matt's make-up

After dinner, we had a Pumpkin carving contest. I worked with my partner, Rachel, or “Edward Scissorhands!”

Rachel and I carvin a pumpkin

Luke as Slash pumpkin carvin

HALLOWEEN PUMPKINS

After pumpkin carving, I had to do my on campus job, dishwashing!! I wasn’t looking forward to it because my friends were about to watch a scary movie in the movie room we have on campus here at High Sierra. They were all girls and they hate scary movies, so I really wanted to watch it with them so I could witness them scream and laugh my butt off. I love scary movies, so they don’t phase me at all. Fortunately, I washed all the dishes from the night super quick, and then ran to the movie room. They were only about 30 minutes in to the movie called “The Messangers”. After we watched that, we watched a movie called “See No Evil” that I brought from home about a guy who rips peoples’ eye balls off. It was so funny to me to see the girls all screaming and clinging onto my arm, but I’m pretty sure the girls had a hard time sleeping that night. All in all, I didn’t have much expectations for Halloween, especially when your in the mountains. But to my suprise, Halloween at Azusa Pacific is amazing, fun, and rad!!!!!! I have to go do homework now, but I will blog again soon!

Take care, and God Bless!! J.P

Attack of the Pirates

Staphon Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Wow has it been a rough couple of weeks. I do apologize for my lack of play by play, but one of the key things I have learned here at APU is how to set priorities, and for the last couple of weeks, getting my school work done and planning for this huge Halloween event has taken over the top spots.

Halloween, at APU? Yes, well, as you know, Halloween is a key environment for college aged kids of the drinking age to go out and party. Well, as we are a dry campus, we felt there needed to be something on campus for students to do to bring them the fun and candy of Halloween AND take away the temptation with a great Alcohol free environment. Thus! we set up a dual Carnival between University Park and University Village (two living area’s on campus.

I only heard rumors of what happened at Univeristy Park (UP) I can tell you that it was a big success! My part, however, was being 1st Mate Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the good Ship Serenity as we sailed the seas (or streets) of Village Island!DSC_0094

My scene that I personally worked on was the Cannon battle scene which went over AMAZINGLY! Huge battle between a fortress and a pirate ship.

The night in all was  very tiring, but I think it was a huge success and I definitely had a lot of fun doing it.

PS: All of you who got the Firefly Reference, 10 points!

APU Professor Reports on the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Twenty Years Later

Allison Oster Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

One of the exciting things about my job here at APU is sharing the stories of what our faculty are doing inside and outside the classroom. Eager students themselves, they are always learning and further exploring their fields to bring new knowledge back to the students they teach.

Jim Willis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Communication Studies, is one of those professors. He is currently on sabbatical (a time when professors take a semester away from teaching for professional and teaching development including researching, writing, etc.), and at this moment reporting from Berlin, Germany on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A former journalist, Willis brings experience in the field back to the classroom to give students a firsthand account of what it is like to report on history in action. While working as a journalist for The Oklahoman newspaper, Willis reported 10th anniversary of the fall of the wall. He’s excited to return, to Berlin and his journalism roots, and once again blog his experience at this historical commemoration.

Here’s an excerpt from his blog at The Oklahoman. Follow along for continued updates from Willis on the anniversary events at http://blog.newsok.com/berlinwall/.

Ever tried to erase ink from the printed page?  Pretty hard to do. That image remains, no matter how hard you try to scrub it away.

Some events in world history are like that, and one of the most indelible images is the fall of the Berlin Wall. Like a singer who labors for years in obscurity and then lands the break making her an “overnight success,” the menace of the wall vanished on the night of Nov. 9, 1989, in the blink of an eye that took almost three decades to shut.

This is the 20th anniversary of this world-changing event.

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be writing about this anniversary, the event that it marks, and the impact the fall of the Wall has had on Germany, Europe, the United States, and the world.  I hope you will come along with me as we travel to Berlin and a couple other cities in the former East Germany. (Continued here.)

We also interviewed Willis on the history of the Berlin Wall and the anniversary events. I have a feeling he’s going to have some exciting stories to tell students when he returns, on the anniversary itself, and on journalism’s impact on history. YouTube Preview Image