Misericordia et Veritas

Ladies and Gentlemen:
I have just returned from a weekend in the Italian Alps for our Pepperdine International Students Spiritual Retreat. We stayed in a ski resort in Bergamo at the “Hotel Vittoria.” A quick note about this hotel; there are not actually walls for the shower, only a drain on the floor and a large squeegee to mop up after your shower. Though this is strange, it was not a problem as the water got quite hot, and combined with the in-bathroom radiator, a sauna effect was easily obtained. Of course, it is not quite ski season here, so we were able to take over every room in our hotel. When we stepped of our bus, we were met with sunshine, cool weather, and some residue of the last snowfall still sticking to the streets. Snow capped mountains and pine forests made for an incredible surrounding for our weekend.

We arrived Friday noonish, after a night without sleep, since we left London at three that morning. Even though I was exhausted, I could not sleep because of all the squealing resulting from friends seeing each other for the first time this year. After catching up with a few of the people I hadn’t seen, I went for a walk. As I got down to the end of the road I saw one of the most incredible natural sites I’ve ever seen. I was standing on the top of a cliff that overlooked a grassy valley with a single solitary pine tree surrounded by a few mountains composed of entire forests of pine, watching as the sun was just beginning to drop below the towering mountains. Out of nowhere, a cloud of fog began to form in the valley, and as I continued to watch, the wall of fog began to overtake the forests a few yards every few moments. It was absolutely amazing and left the whole area in a quality of light I had never seen before. Later that evening, right before diner I went to a clearing at the base of three ski runs which still retained a good deal of snow fall. Though the sun had disappeared behind the mountains hours ago, the resulting twilight was just now relenting to night. Again I remained there for a while, watching the glowing twilight receded into the west and give way to a sky with more stars than I have seen in a while. Another new quality of light struck me as the snow reflecting the twilight forced my eyes to squint, even though I was mostly surrounded by dark forests of pine trees. God’s majesty seemed to be a theme for me this weekend, and kept revealing itself through these encounters. After diner Friday night we got the retreat started with an hour of worship and a sermon by the visiting religion prof in Heidelberg.

Saturday was filled with retreat-centric events. The high point of this was a photo scavenger hunt in which we were sent into the town in groups and told to take a certain series of pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of my group’s photos and post them on Smugmug for you next weekend. Sad story; I actually got to Italy this time with a dead digital camera and didn’t take my SLR because I’m out of film, so I don’t have any pictures of my own. Saturday went well into the night with events, in this time frame some very clear definitions of the different International Programs immerged. I must say that I came away from this weekend with a clearly defined gratefulness for being in the “London Programme.” Our group has been able to encourage a sense of individualism, though also forged a strong group ties, where the other groups have become completely dependent on each other and seem to oftentimes retreat from the culture they are in for the year. (not always, but in general this seems to be the case) Our group has been able to identify a sense of God’s roll in our lives without relying on the traditional C of C setting. Added to that, I can easily say we have the best RAs, in our case, leaders who lead through earning respect.

Sunday we got up early to catch a bus to the airport and head back to our house in South Kensington, London, UK. As I write this, I am also pondering the possibilities of an Astronomy term paper and a more eminent history paper “accounting for the rise in Political Islam in Egypt following 1967.” The later is due Thursday and I just want to get the former done with before my other term papers start to stack up. This is going to be a long week, I would appreciate, as always, any prayers you would like to shout out on my behalf.

MISERICORDIA ET VERITAS

(Two points on whoever can tell me where this phrase comes from. Current point tally, John Deniston: 1; everyone else: none. John got his one point from prop. 4136, even though he got it wrong, he was the only one who took a guess.)