Steph is a second year student who is pursuing a BA in
Pastoral Ministries. She is from Virden, Manitoba, where she is an active
member of Virden Baptist Church. She loves God, people, music and being silly.
She likes to encourage others to think about how to be a Christian in Western
culture, to worship God fully and to live according to the way of the kingdom.
She has a contagious laugh and a huge heart. Her involvements this year
include: STUCO Spiritual Life Chair, House Band pianist, Selah Team member and
vocal accompanist. Her favorite book of the Bible right now is Amos because it
talks about justice with a deep passion and an unquenchable hunger.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “tomb”?
I think of Jesus’ Saturday in the tomb. I think of waiting,
the in-between time, the almost-but-not-yet. I’ll be honest: sometimes, I don’t
like to think about tombs because it means waiting. And who needs the tomb anyway? Can’t we just
fast forward to Sunday?
No. We can’t. Saturday comes before Sunday.
During my second year at Bethany, the metaphor of a tomb has
come to represent the season of life I am in. At Bethany, I encounter God in so
many ways and I am grateful for each one of them. At Bethany, I am surrounded
by people who believe what I do. They look like me. They talk like me. It is
easy to become absorbed in Bethany, to hide from the world. And hiding from the
world is easy.
Enter the second year class Society, Religion and God, where
the primary goal of the course is to answer the question: “As a Christian, how
do I relate to the world around me?” My
culture…the world…out there? But it’s scary out there! There is death, pain,
lust, suicide, hate, ignorance, apathy, relativism, pluralism and they are
different from me. Shouldn’t I hide? I’m
safe here at Bethany.
Then, God showed me something: I won’t be at Bethany forever. I will rejoin
the real world, where I am called to address all these problems in Jesus’ name.
Bethany is my tomb—a time of preparation to learn who God is, what he wants
from me and how to share him with others. Sunday morning will come. I will go
out into the world. I will love it like he does. Sunday is coming…it will come
for us all. Thank God for Sunday.
House Band 2012-2013
Top: Spencer, Ryan, Chris, Jacob
Bottom: Steph, Michelle, Jenny
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