Showers of Blessing

Dear Bob,

I first was asked to write you to tell you why it is that you should not be content merely reading Every Thought Captive every other month and instead you should actually come to the Highlands Study Center. This is a difficult task, not because you should stay where you are, but because I do not know how to tailor the message in a way that will make you respond with action instead of mere intention. It is a long way from finding the thought of going to HSC appealing to actually going to HSC to study. How can I facilitate such a transition in you? Perhaps it would be best if I start by expounding the trivial reasons why you should come to the Highlands Study Center and move to the more important ones.

There is something that I have found at HSC that is very, very scarce in our over-legislated society today. This thing that I have found is something that they take for granted at HSC, but it is something that is noticeably refreshing. It is perhaps one of the most trivial reasons I could have for coming to HSC, but nonetheless it is a reason. I come to HSC

because the water pressure there is phenomenal. A good shower at the end of a hard day's journey is encouraging, and the shower at HSC refreshes me. You may already have good water pressure, however, so I will not count on this solely to motivate you to come; however, I had to mention it.

After the shower, one of the other less important reasons to study at HSC is the ample supply of RCs famous homebrew. As I write this, I must confess that this reason would belong on the "more important reason" list were it not artificially divorced right now from fellowship-I was once sick for a week and my poor health was beginning to take a toll on me, but after I had one of RC's homebrews, I was miraculously restored to health. Benny Hinn himself couldn't have healed me quicker than that holy brew. Nonetheless, it is conceivable, however unlikely, that you already possess homebrew equal in quality to RCs, and therefore this too cannot be your sole motivation for coming.

The third "triviality" that brings me to the Highlands Study Center, and which I must mention, is the mandatory game (or games, depending on the length of your stay) of poker. After a few rounds of poker, a few homebrews, a good cigar, and the company of men, I am more refreshed than I was when I stepped out of the shower earlier that day. RC and Laurence tend to be over-competitive when they are playing one another, but even they know the real purpose of the poker game - fellowship. This is a marked contrast from my life in the city because I am, more often than not, simply too busy to spend this sort of time with other Christian men.

Fellowship is one of the good reasons I come to HSC. The people here know what it is to experience fellowship with one another. Laurence and RC are real men. It is a great blessing that God gave me when he put me in a position to know these men as my friends, and one of the primary reasons I come to HSC about twice a year is to converse with them. Each time I come to visit, Laurence and I spend hours talking about various things. These conversations with Laurence are perhaps the most productive time I spend at HSC; without them, I probably wouldn't bother to visit. However, Laurence isn't the only reason I come to HSC. I also come to see Angela, RC, Denise, Pat McCune, and all their children.

The time I spend visiting with RC and Laurence's young children is especially valuable; it is so valuable in fact that it is a motivation in and of itself to come to HSC (just ask the grand- parents). However, what will make it important to you as a student is that it will give you an opportunity to watch how RC and Laurence live. This will be among the most critical aspects of your visit because you will be given an opportunity to watch these men practice what they preach. You will see whether the crazy theories that Laurence and RC publish in Every Thought Captive (such as the man being the head of his household that is comprised of his submissive wife and his obedient children) actually work in Laurence's and RC's households.

The correct ordering of the family is a major theme in the writing I read and the conversations I participate in during my time at HSC. Laurence and RC have seven kids between them. In the world's view, this means that God has cursed Laurence and RC for failing to heed the advice of the recently canonized St. Thomas Malthus. However, at HSC, children are viewed as a blessing from God, and you will be given an opportunity to see how people who really hold this belief live. Both RC and Laurence hold family worship each evening, and this worship is a way of placing the family's focus on God. Children need to see that glorifying God is the focus of family life, and while a sermon entitled "Bert and Ernie go to the grocery store" may not convey this truth in and of itself, the time spent each day worshiping God will.

Before Laurence abandoned Orlando and moved to Virginia, he and I would discuss what the purpose of the Highlands Study Center was going to be. One of the things he said was that he wanted HSC to be a place where people come and learn how to implement a day-to-day routine which glorifies God so that when (or it) they leave the study center, they would still keep the routine. Laurence and RC are, by God's grace, building up such a place, and you are invited to come and participate in its construction. If you accept the invitation, you will have the opportunity to interact with a worldview that may be foreign to your own, and, Lord willing, you will leave HSC a permanently changed man.