The Boothmans, SOMA, and a couple movies

I got back to State College yesterday and the last few days before I returned I was able to hang out with two of the most interesting people I've ever met. My parents rent out a couple rooms, and currently living there (though, soon to leave) are Hilary and Jane Boothman. The Boothmans have been friends of our family since I was a little kid, but they moved to Yakima, so before last week the last real memory I had of them was playing around with their fat little goat Spiff (I dare you to think up a cooler name for a goat), and catching snakes and mantids in the tall grass around their house. I guess that doesn't narrow down the time window that much, but they tell me it was when I was twelve or so.

They are both WSU students now, and so have come back to Pullman. They both have the really strong spiritual spine that runs in their family. One of the coolest things about having them renting from my parents is that it seems like every spare second of the day they have, they spend singing/harmonizing/playing music with each other. God seemed fit to bestow on them not only talent with musical instruments, but gorgeous voices as well. Hilary sings, plays piano, violin, guitar, and pennywhistle among other things, while Jane has an incredible voice and plays piano. So whenever both of them have a free moment, really great music fills the living room, and it is something that my parents are going to miss when they leave.

I was bold enough to capture their rendition of "How deep the Father's love for us" on camera. It's recorded by a little digicam and it's in mono so the recording doesn't do them any amount of justice, but enjoy it anyway:



They invited me to SOMA, a college ministry put on by my church, Tuesday night. I was very impressed by the group. For one, they were very mature, for what I was used to college ministries being. Undergrads, grad students and young professionals seem to meet together and integrate very well. The teaching was mature, and not lacking in scripture, or the enjoyment and preaching thereof. The music was simple and attractive. I captured the outro. This is the music leader of EFree, Daniel, playing with Hilary. Daniel is a cool guy, he's taken responsibility in the church and helped out with leadership. Apparently he applied for seminary in Biola and may be leaving soon, but it seems like if he wants to be a pastor he is doing exactly the right thing at SOMA, learning how to preach and teach. A solid singer and musician as well.



Met quite a few other people there, like Mike, the guy who painted my parent's house over summer, and Josh, a civil engineering student who seemed to notice that I am probably the worst guy in the world at socializing after churchy events and came over to find out who I was. Then, lastly, caught up with Karl Olsen, who has been one of the leaders of the college group at EFree for a long time, and will finish up his PhD in (Lord willing) about a year and a half.

Anyway, getting to hang out with Hilary, Jane, and these people was some of the most fun I had over break.