Earning Our Wings

Here are a few pictures of my dorm room! A lot of them are blurry because I'm so shaky, so I'm sorry about that. 

Our sink, fridge, microwave, and shelves.

My desk area

My closet and desk

My bed is on the right, Kailey's is on the left. We still need to get fabric and pictures to put on our bulletin board above our beds

I really like our room! It's been fun. Last week we had 12 girls at once in there watching the movie Tangled. It was great! 

We got back from Dry Gulch yesterday. It's an awesome camp! There are bumper cars, go-karts, a merry-go-round, pool with 4 slides, a lake with a swing into it, horse rides, and a lot of other things! It's just like a western town and we had the whole thing to ourselves. Over 600 people went. There were 100 upperclassmen and staff who went to help too. We took charter buses there and I don't know how many there were! There were a lot of buses for all of us. 

This is my friend Chelsea who is my neighbor in the dorms. It seems like we've known her for forever, even though it's only been a week. 

There's a deck at the camp where you can eat that overlooks the lake. 

It was gorgeous!

Most of the buildings had bunks in them, but the outsides looked like stores at a western town.

We did various activities while we were there, and heard speakers talking about college. We met in the town hall for all of the speakers and things. On Friday night, we all dressed up in western outfits.

One of the best things was the candlelight devotional on Friday night. We all got candles and when we walked to the town square, the upperclassmen were in a huge circle with their candles lit. We all went into the middle and started singing a couple  songs. Our candles were not lit yet. Then we started singing Light the Fire. Here are the lyrics. 

I stand to praise You,
But I fall to my knees.
My spirit is willing,
But my flesh is so weak.

Light the fire (echo)
In my soul,
(In my weary soul)
Fan the flame, (echo)
Make me whole.
(Make my spirit whole)
Lord, You know
(Oh Lord You know)
Just where I've been,
(Where I've been)
So light the fire in my heart again.

I feel Your arms around me,
As the power of Your healing begins.
You breathe new life right through me,
Like a mighty rushing wind.

So light the fire in my heart again,
Light the fire in my heart again,
Light the fire in my heart again.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com

As we started singing that, the candle light started spreading in towards the middle of the circle. Within a couple of seconds, everyone's candle was lit. It was so bright when all the candles were lit, despite it being 10pm. We continued to sing and praise God and it was amazing. The candle light devotional is a tradition that has been there a long time. Someone went up on a lift with a video camera and filmed the candle light spreading and it is incredible! 

Before we went to the devotional, we read this verse. 

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." Matthew 5:14-15

When we were holding our lit candles, we didn't try to hide them. It was impossible to hide the light. 

Why do we try to hide the light in us that is Christ? It should be impossible to us to be able to hide the light in our lives. 

The whole week of Earn Your Wings, we tried to figure out what it means to earn our wings. What we learned is that is not one event that gives us our wings. It's about loving each other as a community and that along the way we earn our wings. The theme this week was that we at Oklahoma Christian University are a community who are here to support each other. I think we all finally understand what earning our wings really means. 

Right before we left yesterday, we all got our wings (a pin in the shape of wings) while they played the song I Believe I can Fly. We are now officially a part of the OC family. I can't wait to see how God uses us. 

Tomorrow is my first day of school in 3 years since I got sick. I'm starting with 1 class a day. I'm so excited. I'll post more after it tomorrow!