Day 121: Speaking and Learning

So today was the Online Open Day, where people from every part of the world could log on to our website and chat with either staff or students about the Hillsong college experience. I had the 8 a.m. to 12 noon shift, but we had people working since 12 noon of yesterday; that's right, 24 hours of sharing our insight of the college to the world. My flatmates had the 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. shift, and from what I hear that was quite the interesting experience. This is how my shift went:

I talked with a girl named Maria from Mexico for a little bit; it's much harder typing in Spanish than it is speaking it. She was a bit impatient with me and kind of left without saying bye.
Then I started speaking with this random guy that said God spoke to him saying that the next time Hillsong United came to his city he would be in the band. So I talked with him about that, about the leaders, and eventually it went to the subject of music. He asked if there was any type of music that wasn't allowed, and I explained that there were no restrictions to what you could listen to, and that some of Hillsong United's music is actually influenced by several styles of secular music. That's when the talk got awkward... he then started getting all spiritual. He asked, "How do they know they're not being influenced by the devil?" and I replied saying that it was just the style of the music, not the lyrics or status of that band. Then it went to asking about why some of the worship leaders have tattoos and how that's bad. I then replied saying that it's what they choose, not doing it to be like other people. This is where it just went south: he said "but when the devil comes back, he'll be covered in tattoos. How can you do that to the Temple of the Lord?" At that point, I was way too confused to even try and respond. So I asked Katy, one of the staff, about what I should say. Our whole group spent like 5 minutes just trying to figure out what in the world to say to that. After some careful deliberation, I responded saying that the church does not have a policy on tattoos, but that he could check the church website to see our core values. He then asked what about what the Bible says, and I looked to Katy to see what I could say. We decided on my saying I couldn't speak for the church using my personal view and reminded him that this chat was supposed to focus on the college and not a Biblical debate. He then concluded the conversation by saying "Okay, I'm going to look into other colleges that have higher standards." and logged off. So after some observation, we noticed that this guy was actually from Australia, so he was basically just trying to find some way to get us angry and give him a negative view on the church. How amazing is it that those kind of people would even try to ruin something like this?
My other conversations weren't as bad though; I had a good talk with a couple girls from L.A. and Florida, as well as another guy from Japan; they had a big interest in the college, so it was great to give them my input on how I've enjoyed it so far. Overall, it was a good time; lots of fun.

When that was over, I went over to my friend Rebecca's place to work on our Russian. We made a lot of progress, I'd say; Russian is a tough language, but the more I learn, the more fun it's turning out to be. I just need to work on getting this alphabet figured out. The rest of the day was just resting from the week and enjoying this day the Lord made. Tomorrow should be just as good since it's Sunday!

God bless,
Steven