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Continued on page 3

THE BEACON01.13.11

This is my first article for the Beacon and before I begin I think it is important for our readers to know a bit about the person behind the article.

Many readers may have seen a letter printed a couple months back in the Beacon, titled “An Unhappy Athlete”. I hope that it was very evident through reading that letter that I am passionate about our school’s athletics program as well as physical fitness and the health and

well being of all who are part of this school. I am a firm believer that this academic institution can not only create community through faith in Jesus Christ, but that athletics can also serve as a means to strengthen that community and bridge the gap between be l ievers and non-believers. I was so pleased to see a great turn out at our varsity men’s basketball game on Wednesday and I hope to see more people at our next home game!

My spiritual history really began in

Check out the new student center in

Stultz Hall

PUBLICATION OF THE CSA

Where do I fit in at Crandall?By: Adem Campbell

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CONTENTS Where Do I Fit In at Crandall -Adem Campbell

Student

a c a d e m i c s u c c e s s

seminars are held at 2:00pm on

Wednesdays throughout the Winter

2011 semester. They will all be held in

the Welcome Centre reception area,

meeting room 167. these seminars

are free of charge and are open to

al l Crandall University

students.

STUDENTSUCCESSSEMINARS

Student Success Seminars

Where Do I Fit (Cont’d)

Compassion - Melissa Moore

Realities VS. Romantic Comedies - D. Attenborough

The Spin - Amy Pike

Timeline - Brianna DeJong

Bedlam in Goliath - Matt McGraw

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2

3

4

5

6

7

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Student Photography

Ron Scott is a first year BS major from Nova Scotia. Check out one

of many of his genius photos!

Watch for more Student Photography next issue.

Wednesday, January 19 Essay Writing: Writing as a ProcessWednesday, January 26 Taking Effective Notes Wednesday, February 2 Evaluating and Writing Thesis StatementsWednesday, February 9 Words that are Commonly ConfusedWednesday, February 16 How to Use Commas Wednesday, March 16 How to Use ApostrophesWednesday, March 23 Test Preparation

[3]

“Do not be conformed

to the things of this world, but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind”

- Romans 12:2

My spiritual history really began in the United Church and having a public speaking and debate background in high school, I had the opportunity to lead some 50 or more church services as a late teen and into my early 20’s. In case you are unaware the doctrine and theology of the United Church is very liberal and coupled with my early education at St. Thomas University, walking through the doors of Crandall was a transition to say the least. I am proud of my church’s stance on gay marriage and homosexual rights and its belief in a woman’s right to choose when it comes to abortion. I thought I would never be welcome here at Crandall and came here with blinders on, thinking I would never be accepted and would be deemed as an outcast. Man was I ever wrong!

It was baseball that brought me to Crandall, unlike many of our students who came here looking for a liberal arts education with a Christian foundation. I came here filled with doubts, with my faith very weak, going as far as saying non-existent. The Bible tells us “Do not be conformed to the things of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. (Rom 12:2) It has been that renewal of the mind that Crandall has given me that h a s e n a b l e d m y strengthened and renewed faith.

My first class yesterday was Evangelicalism in Canada with Sam Reimer and what I learned in that first class is that Evangelicals are the fastest growing group within the Christian church and have the highest rates of attendance and involvement out of any other group. Evangelicals also believe that in order to be a true Christian we must have that “moment of conversion”, whether that is a “Paul falling off the horse” moment, or a collective group of events that helped bring us to faith in Jesus Christ. I can honestly say that I have had the

conversion moment here at Crandall. I had been living “The Big I” or a worldly life, and have only in the last few months have I realized how rewarding a life of second to God can be.

As I said earlier baseball brought me to Crandall, not my faith. I would have turned my nose up, so to speak at many people who would consider themselves Christian Evangelicals and today I find myself to have more in common with them than ever. Yes we disagree in areas of theology and social doctrine however there is a place at this school for anyone who wants to further explore and strengthen their faith.

Getting back to creating community here at Crandall, I want to leave you all with a quote from Robert F. Kennedy, addressed to the Cleveland City Club on April 5th, 1968. “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues; we learn at the last to look at our brothers as aliens, whom we share a city but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in a common effort. We learn to share only a common fear and only a common desire to retreat from each other.

Our lives on this planet are too short, the work to be done is too great, to let this spirit flourish any longer in this land of ours. We can perhaps remember if only for a time, that

those who live with us are our brothers that they share with us the

same short moment of life. That they seek as do we nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.”

I look forward to any other further topics you would wish for me to discuss or cover and would love all the feedback possible, positive or negative!

Adem Campbell

“I can honestly say

that I have had the conversion moment

here at Crandall”

Continued from page 1

[4]

CompassionBy: Melissa Moore

A young man named Francin in Haiti has been writing letters

to members of our student body for the last 10+ years. Francin

will be 18 this year and writes to us faithfully, sharing God’s

blessing with us in his life. But why? Because 10 years ago

someone on the CSA decided to sponsor a child through

Compassion.

I was serving as Third Year Rep when I found old letters from

Francin. I read them with care and responded to each one. We

send Christmas cards, Birthday Cards and share encouragement

with this young man who is living in complete impoverishment

with his family in Haiti. He is happy to share with us, that despite

the struggles in his life, God is ever present and he is thankful for

the blessings we have showered on him for the last 10 years.

Last year after the earthquake in Haiti, we decided we would

sponsor another child. We waited for word on Francin and

received a letter in the mail that informed us that while his home

was damaged, he and his family were 100% healthy. We voted to

sponsor another child last winter. So today, I’d like to share with

you Agenta, our precious little 10 year old beauty. She and her

family suffered minor damage in the earthquake and she is

absolutely healthy and happy.

The letters and pictures that we receive from Francin and

Agenta are absolutely beautiful. This Christmas we were able to

send wonderful gifts to each of the families of these children; we

sent educational supplies, a soccer ball, and a goat. We wanted

to be able to give the children something to play with, but also

other things that will help benefit the rest of their families as well.

My hope is that next year we can give a larger gift that will help

someone in the community flourish and provide for themselves. If

this is something you’re passionate about - please talk to me and

I’ll make sure that I leave the proper information with you when I

graduate to continue contact with our sponsor families.

We ask that you add Francin and Agenta (and their families)

to your prayer list and keep them in mind as Haiti continues to

struggle. We will continue to write to these children and

encourage them as well as support them financially. I encourage

you to look into Compassion or World Vision -- if you don’t think

you can afford to sponsor a child on your own, maybe talk to a

few friends and pool some money together. It is worth it when you

get pictures and letters from them. It is rewarding. Bottom line.

And in the end, life isn’t about saving that extra 40 dollars a

month to go to a couple movies -- change someone’s life with it

instead.

“For He

will rescue the poor who cry out

and the afflicted who have no helper. He

will have pity on the poor and helpless and

save the lives of the poor. He will redeem them

from oppression and violence for their lives

are precious in His sight.”

- Psalm 72:12

Agenta Celestin

Francin Alexandre

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H a v e y o u e v e r b e e n dumped? Have you ever seen a romantic comedy? If you answered ‘no’ to both of these questions you are probably Dr. Sam Reimer who is the ‘Michael Jordan’ of Crandall University. If you answered yes to both of these questions you are not alone, at least I don’t think you are. Being dumped and watching romant ic comed ies a re positively correlated but whether that relationship is causal or spurious is unknown at this point (unless, again, you are Sam Reimer). There are c e r t a i n v a l u e s a n d pa t t e r ns i n roman t i c c o m e d i e s t h a t a r e detrimental to the healing process of being dumped and I am going to outline why. I’m going to be speaking from the viewpoint of man getting dumped by woman. Let’s take your average ‘ r o m a n t i c - c o m e d y - d u m p i n g ’ scenario. The main character is head over heels for this girl and, without fail; she rips his heart out or leaves him at the altar. At first the main character is sad but it’s ok because we learn later that that girl was actually the devil and if the main character had stayed with her he would have been miserable for the rest of his life. This is not the case in real life. When a girl rips your heart out it’s not because she is actually Voldemort using a polyjuice potion to

look like your girlfriend. A girl isn'. She probably dumped you because you are a doofus who screwed up the relationship from square one and she had to get out. This reality hurts but it needs to be known. The girl could have been the girl of your dreams and because of things you did, she got away. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Hey if this girl is actually my dream girl, it’s only a matter of time before I realize the mistake I made and we get back together;

maybe partake in a sing-along that gives a nice upbeat

c o n c l u s i o n t o o u r romant ic mishaps.” Again this is rarely the case. Sometimes the girl of your dreams leaves and you never get her back. When this

realization occurs it’s best if you watch a movie

l ike Star Wars because nothing takes your mind of your

doomed love life like watching Darth Vader chop off his own son’s hand with the coolest weapon ever created: the light saber. To the best of my knowledge a working light saber does not yet exist but if it did you can rest assured that Dr. Sam Reimer would own the only working prototype. Anyways I’m getting off track, we should recap. When a girl dumps you, it’s not because she’s evil or because you’re going to get back together before the credits roll. Somet imes a g i r l dumps you because you screwed things up and there’s nothing you can do about this other than move on. That’s right, the best way to forget the past is by

looking towards the future. The future, a place where ice cream will actually be healthy for you, and we’ll have dinosaurs as pets. A time when we’ll have moon colonies and Jedi knights. A time and place where you will have healed from the breakup you’ve experienced and accepted the truth and learned from it. Relationships don’t always have a happy ending but they always have a lesson to be learned and that lesson is that we cannot trust Romantic comedies to mirror reality. We must place our trust in Star Wars.

Reality vs. Romantic ComediesBy: David Attenborough

When a girl rips your heart out it’s

not because she is actually Voldemort using a polyjuice

p o t i o n

Student association led

small group Chapel features

the nooma series by Rob Bell.

-Room 023 SH-

Check it out

Editor’s Note:

We would love to hear your feedback on the articles you have read in this issue. Either

email us at beacon1011@gmail.com

or FIND US!

Don’t forget to check out the online version

of The Beacon!

[6]

So, first let me explain that I have been uber obsessed lately with someone known as the Pioneer Woman. I was first introduced to her by a facebook post that had a link to one of her recipes (which looked divine!). So lately, as I strive to start cooking better meals at home, I have been devouring her website - finding recipe after recipe that sound good, look good, and that I can make. When it comes to her recipes, she is a true southerner - using milk and cream and all sorts of other things that royally screw up my Weight Watchers regime - and yet they taste phenomenal. If you want to check her recipes out, so you can find them here: h t tp : // thep ionee rwoman .com/cooking/ (or you can buy yourself and me her cookbook called The Pioneer Woman

Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl). What makes these recipes fun are not only the deliciousness of each one, but also the step-by-step pictures and humorous commentary that are included with each recipe.

The Pioneer Woman’s real name is Ree, she is originally from the South, but left her hometown as a young adult to build her career. In the middle of this, however, she met a handsome cattle farmer (whom she lovingly refers to as Marlboro Man), they got married and she returned to the south, and is now fully employed as a wife and mother (you can read more about her story in her novel Black Heels to Tractor Wheels).

Although the recipes are my favorite part of her website, that isn’t the point of this article. You see, Ree homeschools her children. Before you blow me off as being absolutely nuts, understand that as the non-judgmental Christian I am, I always pegged homeschoolers as being crazy, unsocialized losers (I profusely apologize to all you who have homeschooled and have been homeschooled - I was crazy back then) . Although I am by no means at the bra-burning end of feminism, I am all about women’s rights, and I always imagined that I would be the breadwinner in the family working day

in and day out and barely being on maternity leave long enough to pop the baby out. But reading her blog about homeschooling (which multiple homeschooling parents contribute to), I am being strangely drawn to the benefits of it - spending days together as a family, being able to help your children learn and grow, being able to be home to have supper ready at suppertime (as opposed to my usual 8:00 suppers), and just being able to be a support to the entire family. And I no longer believe that homeschooling is equated with being unsocialized. Rather, I see numerous opportunities where children can get very involved with other people: sports, church events, classes outside the home (sign language, anyone?), summer camps, and much more.

Now don’t worry, I am by no means going to drop everything right now and sit at home and cook and clean

and pop babies out all day. Not only do I not want that right

now, I could very surely not afford it. But I think this is an interesting question. What is best for a child? What are your thoughts on homeschooling? Have you

been homeschooled? Are you in the Ed program and

feel there are more benefits to outside education? I want to know

your opinion and would appreciate it if you would write a letter to the editor and send it to the beacon (beacon1011@gmail.com) so I can gauge responses and better understand people’s own experiences so I can at some point, make an informed decision for my own family.

“What are your thoughts on

homeschooling?”

THE SPINBy: Amy Pike

[7]

If you like knights in shining armour, love stories that are actually unpredictable, and adventure that is not all easy then Timeline is the movie to see. In the Dordogne Valley of France, a team of archaeology students and their professor work to uncover the ruins of a 14th century castle. I have given this 2003 film FOUR out of five stars.

TAKE YOUR BODY BACK is a campaign started by Siskinds, The Law Firm to get women across Canada in

the KNOW about the potentially damaging

health effects of taking Yasmin/Yaz birth control pills compared to other

types of oral contraceptives and to keep

you up to date on the class action lawsuit against Yasmin/Yaz

manufacturer, Bayer.

Chances are you have several women in your life using one of these birth control pills, and they should know about the potentially damaging

health effects of these drugs.

Check out the facebook page:

www.facebook.com/takeyourbodyback

For Professor Edward Johnston (Billy Connolly) this dig is his life. With the help of his assistant, Andre Marek (Gerard Butler); his son, Chris Johnston (Paul Walker); and his students, Kate Ericson (Frances O.Connor), Josh Stern (Ethan Embry), and Francois Dontelle (Rossif Sutherland), Professor Johnston not only uncovers the ruins of Castlegard but also a monastery and some of the villages surrounding. Work seems to be going well but Professor Johnston starts to become suspicious of the groups benefactor, International Technology Corporation (ITC). It is this suspicion that leads the Professor to visit ITC.

While the Professor is away, his students discover a chamber connected to the monastery. Before the entrance caves in, Andre and Kate make two startling discoveries: a lens from a pair of classes and a plea for help from Professor Johnston... dated April 2, 1357! Confused and curious as to how this happened, the students went to ITC where they learn about a new invention. Originally created to revolutionize shipping, a ‘3D’ machine managed to open a wormhole that leads to the 14th century and once Professor Johnston heard about it he had insisted on trying it out. That being said - after Professor Johnston arrived in the year 1357, he was captured and unable to return. Now these archaeologists must find the professor and make it back to the 21st century before their time is up.

Filled with romance, battles, and history, Timeline took me by surprise as my notes soon lay forgotten. There was quick action and the actors made us believe what is in general almost impossible. Gerard Butler and Paul Walker quickly captured the audience with their brotherly banter about the uncovered couple that Butler’s character finds. Quickly we can see that Walker is quite taken by Kate Ericson but that Ericson has more interest in her job. These things all make the characters real so that the audience can identify with them even when they leave their realm and enter the world of knights and love.

timeline

Gerard Butler

and Paul Walker

quickly captured the

audience

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The saying that something can be “so crazy that it just might work” is the most accurate way to describe this album. Here’s the premise: a seventy five minute noisy psychedelic rock album riddled with violins, tenor saxophone, and tempos which rarely venture below two-hundred beats per minute. Oh, and the lead singer sounds like Alvin from ‘The Chipmunks’. What sounds like an accident waiting to happen is a surprisingly enjoyable (albeit odd) piece of work.

The album Bedlam in Goliath is an entertaining glimpse into what I’d describe as true pandemonium. With an opening track which does its very best to ward off the skeptical listeners through obnoxious singing and non-sense guitar twanging, it comes as no surprise to us that this album is incredibly hard to love. Even after having listened to the album over the span of two

years, there are still songs which I find hard to enjoy. On the other hand, there are songs which have grown on me and due to the hundreds of noises crashing together on each track, there has always a new guitar-lick or drum beat to be found. This is the real beauty of The Mars Volta: their lasting novelty. And I suppose the fact that there isn’t another band on the planet which sound like them.

A few highlights off the album are ‘Soothsayer’, ‘Goliath’ and ‘Wax Simulacra’. Be warned: they’re ‘far out’.

“BEDLAM IN GOLIATH”- The Mars Volta

“Snowing again!”

“This is not the best ham I’ve ever tasted”

“This little book is how much?!”

“Why didn’t they finish the ceiling in the new student center?”

“You’re allowed to swear here now?”

“Why are the community boards fuzzy?”

! ! ! ! “I can’t figure out Moodle for Worldview!”

“I already have so much work to do and it’s only the second week.”

“I have no work to do!”

“and the lead singer sounds like Alvin from

‘The Chipmunks’”

OVERHEARD AT CRANDALL

By: Matt McGraw

Something else we overheard: Auditions for “12 Angry Men (And

Women)” are being held in SH177 from 4:00pm-5:30pm TODAY!

So get something together and come on out! There are spots for

cast AND crew members! More audition slots 6:15pm Friday.