All of my life, I have lived within a Reformed Christian family. These teachings and the experiences have shaped my worldview. I am primarily Christian Reformed and I share many of their views such as, God is a personal God who is understanding and not worldly judgmental. Because he is a personal God, I believe that individual prayer is very important. While worship and prayer as a church or body of people is very important, being alone with God and doing individual Bible reading is just as significant. Even if I do not pray or read on a regular basis, I believe that they are very important.

I believe that it is not so much what we have in this life that matters. The material things do not have a say in how our next life is going to be. Instead, what is meaningful is our relationship with God and how that is reflected in our lives. Areas such as friendships, how we deal with our enemies, and what kind of impact we have on the people around us are determined by our worldview.

American Govenment: One of our required classes is American Government. In this class, we had a unit on the Freedoms that were guaranteed by our government. One of the most controversial freedoms is the freedom of speech. Our assignment was to write a paper in response to this statement and question:

"In our class we have learned how Freedom of Speech protects many different sinful behaviors (hate speech, pornography, slander). Even though these things are sinful and wrong, some Christians believe we must tolerate these legally, while others think that we should fight them. As a Christian, what do you think: Should we resist, tolerate or relish free speech?"

God Given Freedom...?       I believe that, as Christians, we should not only relish the freedom of speech but also take advantage of it. Even while this freedom can be used to do many things that are immoral it can also be used as a way to express our faith. When God first created the world, he gave humans the gift of free choice. If God had given someone the freedom to choose it is not our place to take that freedom away. We are called to help people make the right choices, however, not to make the choices for them.       God also created certain consequences for sin. Pornography leads to not being able to look at the opposite gender without dehumanizing them. Hate speech leads to misconceptions and stereotypes and slander leads to misunderstanding and distrust. Whether the consequences out weigh the action is up to the individual. However, when a person has "tasted" the sinful side of morality and has gone through the consequences and if they chose to correct their ways, they are less likely to regress back. Because we are allowing the freedom of expression and speech we are giving people an opportunity to make themselves a stronger person who has the experience and a reason to believe and act the way they do.

Worldviews and Christian Life: Worldviews and Chirstian Life is a one credit course that is required to graduate from Rehoboth. Our teacher, Mr. Hollabeek, has given us a number of topics on which to express our faith and to challenge us to take a deeper insight into Chrsitianitly. The following are a number of papers that I found to be helpful.

-Apologetics:Universal Morality
-Worldview Compare and Contrast: Mormonism vs. Jehovah's Witness

I came into the 'Chapel Program' about halfway through my junior year. I am still not quite sure why, however what this opportunity gave me was a call to a sort of leadership. I may not have gotten much of it by joining the Chapel program, however it gave me that slight boost of confidence that I needed as the 'quiet' girl. I look at our Chapel program now and see something that isn't quite done yet. I believe that it would take the support of the student body, more then anything else. I do not believe that this is going to happen during this year or maybe even the next. It is just something that Rehoboth has to work towards and, most of all, to take seriously.

Crownpoint CRC has become a big part of my life. My earilest memories come from this small city. We arrived in Crownpoint in 1993 and stayed untill 1998. Throughout the years after we left I had always imagined that we would never return. However, a year ago we returned and became a big part of the Christian Reformed Church. Currently, my youngest brother and I play our instraments regurally during the service and we help out with the younger student's church when their teacher is away.