Students open the big book in an independent group on campus

Anyone can learn to read but not everyone has the capacity to understand what they read. The Brown Bag Bible Study is a small group of students who get together at Clackamas Community College. They read verses from the Bible, analyze them and share their thoughts.

Before the meeting starts, they begin by introducing themselves so they can get to know one another, especially if there are new people. It’s a great way to get to know people and create new friendships, especially since everyone goes to the same college.

Patrick Moffatt, a new attendee, said, “It makes you feel really good inside to go and get to meet new people and know their thoughts about God. It makes you want to be a better person.”

Since fall of 2002, the Brown Bag Bible Study has been run by Beth England, an adult volunteer. England has been doing these meetings for a while now, but when asked why she said, “One thing that I have experienced, and one of the reasons why I keep doing this is because I love it when I see a student who is able to learn something new or they’re able to practically apply something, and it helps improve their life, or helps improve their life with God.”

They only get through a few verses of the Bible at a time because, besides having limited amount of time, they analyze the passages instead of simply reading them.

England said, “My biggest priority is that we have opportunity to look at scriptures, and that we look at scriptures for what it has to say but then how it impacts us on a practical level.”

They are currently reading Romans 5:1, which states, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” After reading this verse, each student was able to share their thoughts with the group.

Frank George IV, another member of the Bible study, said, “For me, it’s a real light in my life to be able to come here and be with like-minded people here who are going to be positive when there’s like a lot of negative ones out there. It really makes me really who I am and grow in my faith.”

A couple of main questions being discussed in the meeting were: What does peace mean to our culture?

Another member of the Bible study, Kylee Francher, said, “It gives me a sense of peace and I like to learn more about the Bible and God because I wasn’t raised around it.”

This term, the Brown Bag Bible Study meets on Tuesdays at noon in Randall 221.

“We accept everybody, and if you’re not a Christian, you can come, and you don’t have to feel like you need to know everything about our faith,” said George.

“We don’t know a lot about our faith, but we’re growing and we love everybody.”

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International Baptisms

On February 14, the Light of the World Church celebrated its International Baptisms in some of the major cities of the world for the public to see.

In Oregon, the Light of the World Church congregated at the Portland Convention Center at 10 a.m. Approximately 1,800 people attended this event and it lasted for about four hours.

As a member of this church, I had the opportunity to attend and be a witness to how everyone rejoiced in this event. I saw how all the members from the church wore all white to symbolize the purity of one’s soul after being baptized.

Many of the members from the church said that they were there to celebrate the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for the world, which is why this event went public, so everyone could be a witness.

There was a choir that sang acappella throughout the baptisms. I saw people cry tears of joy after seeing one of their family members submerged in water.

There was one elderly man, Jesus Felix, who was in a wheelchair who also had a desire to be baptized and there were men that carried him in and out of the water.

In the end, there were about 50 baptisms in the Portland Convention Center. On a worldwide level, in more than 50 countries, there were more than 50,000 people that were baptized and converted to Christianity in one day.