This Friday evening, April 13th, 7pm, come enjoy a night of poetry, prose, art, and coffee! The English Department is putting on a poetry reading to benefit Grenn de Lespwa (“Seed of Hope”), a recently founded school benefiting children living in an impoverished Haitian refugee community in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Professors, grad students, and students will be reading, and the evening includes an open mic portion and a silent auction of original Haitian artwork. Gather in the multipurpose room of the Graduate Life Center (right next to Au Bon Pan). Suggested (and much appreciated) donation of $5. All proceeds go to Project Esperanza’s efforts to help the seed of hope take root through providing teacher salaries, books, materials, and hopefully a new school building.

Don’t miss the two exciting events this weekend that involve projects that [nlcf]ers are pouring their talents and hearts into: Project Esperanza Dinner, Fri, 7pm, Owens and Project Dance Extravaganza, Sat, 7pm, Litton Reaves. See the video of the [nlcf] dance team in action on March 25.

Twenty-three men took to the woods this past weekend for a monolithic adventure of mind, body, and spirit. We spoke of our nascent superpowers, dubbed each other with descriptive superhero names and spoke openly about our individual kryptonite. Per tradition, a rope swing was devised that would test the limits of personal safety, fire was made, chili was devoured, the creation was experienced, and the Creator was praised. We should do this more often.

Hey everyone, just letting you all know that APEX will be at the BCM building (Baptist Campus Ministry) at the corner of Washington and Kent St. this Friday at 7:30pm. Hope you can make it!

The tri-“city” area of Christiansburg, Blacksburg, and Radford makes the list of the top 10 affordable job powerhouses for MSN Real Estate: places where the cost of living and unemployment are low and the number of jobs is growing steadily. It’s yet another reason to hang around after graduation and keep being a part of [nlcf], as if there weren’t enough reasons already.

If a person is looking for reasons to feel proud of themselves for choosing Christ, the book of Romans will lay them flat on their face. Every chapter repeats praise to God for deciding to choose us to be part of his family. It’s here that we encounter the infamous freewill debate. It usually centers around human freewill but what about God’s freewill? He is under no obligation to reward faith with salvation yet he does. What motivates God to choose to do things this way? To give grace to the undeserving? Why does he accept returned damaged goods for in-store credit? What kind of love is that?

Paul is deeply concerned about the Galatians actually getting it. He says. “I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” Now I don’t know what childbirth feels like, and I doubt Paul does either, but I’ve witnessed it in person twice and even with a lot of modern drugs it’s seems rather uncomfortable. Paul is dedicated to his people. He could have said, “I preached the truth to you—take it or leave it.” Instead he is following the commission of Jesus to not just verbalize the good news, but to make disciples. Paul’s teaching and his life continue to reiterate that finishing is just as important as starting.