Last night the students and faculty of CRTS were invited to the Visscher estate for a barbeque, the sort of event where the professors let their hair down and maybe have a beer or don an apron. The food was delicious. I’m not sure if it’s the reduced air quality or the acid rain, but something makes Ontario beef taste outstanding. The salads were good, too.
We got to meet the professors’ wives and they got to meet ours. I find that there’s something about meeting someone’s spouse that helps to shed light on that person. It must be the two-become-one that Scripture talks about, but it’s almost as though you’ve been let in on a secret. I’ll head back to class on Monday feeling like I know my professors better, although I didn’t talk a whole lot with them at the barbeque. The reason for that, of course, was the size of the crowd that was there. The seminary’s been blessed with a lot of students at the moment; there’s eight of us freshmen, the biggest class yet, and five sophomores. The juniors and seniors are three apiece, so that puts the total number at 19.
After dinner, we moved down the yard to the fire pit. The property ends there at a tributary of the Grand River, and we watched a few times as the Grand River Cruise boats plodded by with their dining clientele. They honked once and we waved. It was a great time, with pleasant conversation and lots of laughs. I got to know some fellow students better, and enjoyed talking to the ones I already knew well. Since every student has to do a chapel per semester, I chatted with a couple sophomores about their first chapels last year. Turns out there’s a lot of latitude as far as topics go. I’ve got a couple ideas in mind already so it was nice to have some more information with which to judge their suitability. I couldn’t talk to everyone, unfortunately, but there’ll be plenty of time for that.
Sixteen Seasons 