new semester, new ideas

My summer classes began yesterday (along with summer, I think. It got up to 85 and it was so warm and beautiful out!). I have two classes on Mondays. The first is Social and Cultural Foundations, which focuses on counseling minorities, and the different racial issues you should be aware of, especially as a white counselor. I am excited about the class, as it covers topics I am really interested in. In the Pacific Northwest, especially among my generation, it is easy to convince ourselves that racism doesn't exist anymore. But it does- in both subversive and obvious ways. In class we watched a video (a Dateline special?) highlighting three different groups that actually promote racist ideas. It made me ill to watch; especially as a couple of these groups claim the Word of God as their standard. Ick. Scripture so clearly teaches against anything resembling racism. My other class is Developing and Discovering Your Ministry Potential. This is a class every student at Western has to take regardless of what program they are in, and I am really looking forward to it. We will be taking a ton of different personality, temperament, and gift inventories and looking at what we are passionate about, what abilities we have, and how we are wired, and then looking at where we can make the greatest impact. The class is based on the idea that while there are a lot of good things to do, a lot of causes to support, a lot of things to be passionate about- God has designed each of us with a specific purpose in mind. We can't each be passionate about everything- if we were we'd all be spread so thin we wouldn't be effective. I have one other class Thursday nights, but haven't had that one yet. So the next six weeks or so will be really busy. That's all for now...