Wednesday

I finally got a full night of sleep last night! I woke up feeling so much better and actually got a full workout done at the gym!
We had the usual classes all morning, but the guest lecture was so funny! He described when his 18 year old daughter called home, informing him she had just met the man she was going to marry. She met him at church, he had been released from prison..and not just a county jail. He said "ok honey, call me in a month if you're still together." Eventually, 4 months passed and he finally told his daughter that he was coming out to meet this man. He told her that they would go out for a big dinner, he would buy the most expensive thing on the plate, and that her boyfriend would pay for it. So when they sat down with their expensive food, the boyfriend described what his life had been like. His mom had ben divorced and remarried 4 or 5 times and he had really gotten into trouble with drugs, alcohol, etc. He got into so much trouble that he started robbing people just to survive. One night he robbed a place and made it home without being caught. Well later that night a police officer came to the door. Thinking they had caught him for robbery, he confessed everything, when in fact they had come for a different crime he had committed. In court, the man confessed everything and gave up his rights because he knew he was guilty. The judge could not believe it, but gave him 20 yrs in prison. As soon as he got into prison, he started looking into who Jesus was, and who God is. Not long after was he plugged in to bible studies, his questions were answered and he had completely turned his life around. After only 6 years in prison, they let him leave with 15 years of paroll, seeing the dramatic change in his life. A week later, he was at a church service and told his life story. Afterwards, nobody was talking to him, so this daughter went up and had a great conversation with him. (according to the dad, it was because none of the dads would let their daughter near him, but his daughter was the only one who's dad wasn't there) They got married a year or two later. But, since he was still on parole and couldn't leave the state, he got permission to leave only for the wedding, then him and his wife returned to New York, until parole was up. BUT, after a year of being married, his wife pregnant and 10 yrs left, his parole officer gave them a gift. The officer told him "You're free." He still had 10-15 years left, but the parole officer said that they never had seen such a change, and so they wanted him to be able to raise his child without the restrictions. The man will get up today and tell people that the change was not done by himself, that it was through his relationship with Christ. It was a pretty amazing story!
After classes today, I borrowed Joel's jeep and sat at Kind Coffee, and then talked on the phone for almost an hour! It was wonderful to be off campus, talking where nobody was listening in! After that I went for a walk with Diana and Kristin, only the 2 mile loop. After dinner I had small groups, and then when I got back on campus, Joel, Steph and I went to the Stanley Hotel and sat in the lobby talking. There is a really cool coffee place there that is always closed, but is a great place to sit and talk. Well, i need to go to bed, im falling asleep typing!