Tabernacle Time

     Hopping back from vacation and into school again was a little bit of a shocker. If I had expected things to be the same, they sure weren't. For one, Emily C., Meg, Rachelle, and Scott all headed off to Adventure Bible School (ABS). The four of them who'd we known since July were suddenly whisked off to the rugged 6 week course of caving, kayaking, rock climbing, etc. They'll be back though for the last month of this second term. Also, we got a whole lot more students who came for BML (Business Management Leadership). They're staying for the whole 10 week term. They turned out to be mostly older than us by 10 to 20 years. There are 3 from Seattle, WA area!
     We also got a whole lot more assignments added on to this term - raising the bar a little higher. I managed to do the 2 Bible studies in one week with God's perseverance and I learned a lot from them. One was my family bible study which I chose: Philippians 2:1-4 about putting others interests first and then the other was a bible study on Hebrews 10:19-25 which proved to be really interesting of Jesus being the new and living way to enter the Most Holy Place.
     That Hebrews bible study led us right into tabernacle week which Capernwray here did for the first time. Basically what happened was this: we transformed the lecture hall into the tabernacle and then led the public through each night. It was cool to see how God worked in the different stations as the public had 5 minutes of reflection and reading a booklet as they rotated each station. Each priest had a different role: One explained where they met that there would be not flash photography, etc. then the arch priest (who stood in the arch) led the group down to the lecture hall where they waited outside until another priest came and led them inside the tabernacle. There were two priests inside the tabernacle making sure everything went well and handling the communion trays (I was one of the priests inside here). Finally, the last priest would escort the group up to where tea, cookies, and debrief time was held. It was really neat to see the community come together for this event. All the openings were booked full and people were touched to be in such an austere place. At the same time this was going on, we also had lectures on Hebrews and then also teachings from a Messianic teacher named Yaakov who was the father of one of the students here. This whole week went by really fast because it was all so different from normal schedule!