Mike Kestler

Well, today you have the misfortune of reading a more descriptive post than normal, because even though almost more happens in one week at college than did on this break, I now have time to write about it!

Last week on Tuesday we wrapped up classes for Thanksgiving break, and to celebrate, we had a potluck in the dorm. “Potluck” is a polite way of saying the we collectively committed the sin of gluttony. As in, we spent money we didn’t have on unbelievable amounts of food, brought it back on forklifts, and ate, and ate, and ate.

And then we took our dorm picture. Allow me to explain the embarrassment of one guy, possibly me, during this situation. A guy with a pretty nice camera (which, as I would later learn, was equipped with a timer and video recording capabilities) had it set up on a tripod, and all of us were just goofing off, trying to make a pyramid, but one of us, possibly me, didn’t know that Braden had the video rolling and was planning on just editing out one frame later on. I said that we were goofing off and trying to make a pyramid… well, most of us were, one of us, possibly me, was standing in the back holding up his iPhone taking pictures,

and when everyone finally got into position, he was standing there with a dumb expression on his face… to be preserved for posterity on the huge dorm poster that will be printed with a professional matte finish and hung in the lobby for a year.

“Michael, you’re always different.” – Dr. Mark Rasmussen, US History I 11-20-09

That’s what happens the night before Thanksgiving break in Heritage I, and I would have stayed up for the slumber party if I hadn’t had to drive to the San Francisco area the next day, but most of the guys dragged their mattresses out to the lobby and did most everything but sleep for the rest of the night and morning. The two guys who rode with me the next morning got some great sleep in my car, and I was happy that I had slept the night before.

We had a nice trip to Manteca, and the Silver Bullet handled well, though it likes to fishtail at 75 mph in the gravel on the side of the highway. Just kidding I did get us lost on the way up and we hit terrible traffic on the way back, so both ways we spent a lot of extra time in the car. I was able to get some extra rest, but not enough to not look forward to Christmas break!

I saw reindeer, (provided by California Reindeer Rental Inc. [pictured here looking somewhat forlorn in the desert climate])

A (normal-sized) house with more lights than I have ever seen in one place

complete with a train circling the yard (not running yet)

Moving on: my “friend” dragged me out of bed at 5:30 the next morning to go fishing in a muddy river and wear Bass Pro Shop hats. It  actually was fun; it had been a few years since I had watched people fish. (What? Did you think I would spend $25 whole dollars on a fishing license?) (Ahahaha!)

Here’s what I was watching:

But I was listening to some music, so the combo of watching people not catching fish and beautiful Christmas music made a great day. Thanks Ryan and family!

My friend’s church rents a building with another church, so they have their service in the afternoon, which allowed me to go over to North Valley Baptist in Santa Clara for their 11 A.M. service.

Of course North Valley and Golden State are great ministries up in the Bay Area, and it was so nice to visit there for a service. Dr. Trieber and Alvin Martinez were very kind, and of course it was awesome to listen to the two Bosendorfer pianos!

So with that nutshell, or bombshell, of a synopsis, you now know what I did on break, and ten minutes of your life have been irretrievably lost… thanks for reading!

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes through Facebook and email, I appreciate it so much! I rescheduled all of my Thursday piano lessons to Friday so that I could have the day off and celebrate with friends (and sleep.) My mom always used to make (the best) lasagna for my birthday, so my friend took me to one of the best Italian restaurants on this side of town, and theirs was close to mom’s.

Getting things in the mail, even email, means so much to me now. The one thing that makes my day more than anything (besides receiving an exorbitant amount of cash, earmarked “Spend it on something fun”), is when I get a note or card from a friend at home on some random day. Again, thank you guys, I love you!

College Days, where high school juniors and seniors come for a couple days, attend class, see what it’s all about, and wander around with the same clueless, lost expression we freshmen had a few months ago, happens to fall right on my birthday, so the event planners were very kind to have large balloons flying outside, in honor of my birthday, I’m very sure.

This picture is the first good one I have of chapel piano every other Friday, so sorry for the self promotion, but some people may enjoy it. Actually, my mom will, everyone else, peruse something else.

I’m going to try to just write about what I’m doing instead of authoring a comprehensive primer on activitues here, but this is something every new student should know: October is a big month here! It’s called Country Harvest Days at church, starting with Roundup Sunday (last week) and ending with the Missions Conference at the end of the month. Roundup Sunday is where everyone wears formal dinner dress… yeah, just kidding! A lot of church people, all of the kids, and lots of college students dress in their western best and come for a morning of horse riding, chili contesting and western stunt show watching. (And preaching too, don’t worry.) No, I didn’t put on any western clothes, do you honestly think I own any?

The biggest day of the year though, is tomorrow, Open House Sunday. (Actually, by the time you read this, it will be today, I’m writing this on Saturday.) This entire week every year, the church and college student body visit every home in the Antelope Valley, inviting them to the big day; there will be just two big services in the morning, with a chicken cordon bleu dinner after each one. I’ll write about it when it’s done, but this week in preparation for that, we took a day off from class, and earlier in the week, as well as Saturday, I got to go out with Dr. R on some visits. (A word of knowledge, if you’re ever waiting for him to leave his office with you, bring some homework, [otherwise you'll have to read the 1999 yearbook] it’ll be a while )

The highlight of the morning for me (besides breakfast) is the daily fourth hour chapel service held in the main auditorium. Since I’ve been here, I’ve gotten to hear and meet Pastor Chappell and Dr. Goetsch, Dr. David Gibbs Jr. and Dr. R.B. Ouellette! I’m pretty sure we have Dr. Gibbs III, Paul Schwanke and a several other great preachers coming within the month. In my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much great preaching all of the time!

Chapel is like a fun daily church service; we always give the preachers a standing ovation when they walk onto the platform (in the Sunday evening service, the men of the choir and orchestra all say Amen when they walk onto the platform, it’s pretty funny), then Bro. Wall usually leads us in a couple verses of a nice up-tempo song to get us moving. If you’re going to come here, listen to announcements carefully, they usually announce important things over and over throughout the week, so it’s your fault if you get demerits for missing an important meeting. So far, the tour groups have been singing their summer tour songs right before the speaker begins, it’s a great way to prepare just the right sprit for the sermon.

This morning, Dr. Goetsch gave a speech about September 11, reminding us not only of the details of that horrible day since we were all either pre-teens or in ourearly teens in 2001, but also encouraging us to never forget, and never allow anyone to strip today of its meaning for us. If I can, I’ll get the audio and post it for you, itwas honestly one of the most sobering speeches I’ve ever heard.

The audio from some recent chapel messages is posted here, and if you’re interested, it would probably be good to check back often.