Cookie Making... really relationship building in disguise

I've come to the conclusion that it is absolutely shameful that half of the young moms I know can update their blogs more often than I do! I mean they're balancing being a mom, wife, and running a house and they can still find time to write, so I should be able to too.

Well, I'm sure you didn't stumble upon my blog to hear me rant, so I would be delight to tell you about a fun little event I hosted last night for our RUF ministry team girls and some freshman /transfer students who are new to RUF this Fall. It has long since been on my heart to see these two clusters of students become more acquainted with one another, so I offered to play host to a Christmas cookie making/decorating party. So last night at around 6:45PM a group of 12 girls converged at my apartment to make cookies, listen to Christmas music, and enjoy each others company. It was so much fun to get to see these girls getting to know one another and making cookies of course!

Biblical World and Life View

I've come to realize that I often begin my newsletters and blogs with "I can hardly believe..." I suppose that could be that we live in a day and age where we are often going a hundred miles an hour, and the last few weeks have been nothing short of that. I spent much of last week doing I can't even remember what, or at least that's how I felt when I first reflected of last week. On closer examination I remember that I was meeting with multiple girls going through various books some on prayer, others on modesty and the culture young people are confronted with today. Last week I also had the pleasure of meeting with David Green, the Area Coordinator for the RUF Mid-Atlantic region. David and I had a great meeting in which he imparted a great deal of wisdom when it comes to doing ministry in a college setting. We talked about Bible Studies, meeting with students, and the future. It truly was encouraging and has left me with a great deal to think about.

If you are reading this, I would greatly appreciate your prayers for wisdom about the future as to whether God is calling me to stay on withRUF at Maryland for a 3rd year with hopes of going on to get a Christian Counseling degree, and if so for wisdom about where I should go to Seminary. Or, if God is calling me to pursue a masters in Early Childhood Special Needs Education. All of these are possibilities that I am currently praying and seeking discernment about.

While the above is all very important, the real reason I wanted to make sure that I got a blog posted is because I have really been seeing God move in the life of one the girls I have been meeting with and befriending over the past year. So on to that.

Wednesday was quite a whirlwind with Patrick, my co-intern, and I caught a flight back to Dulles, from RUF October Training in Atlanta, in order to make it in time for Large Group Wednesday evening followed by intramural flag football. As we headed back to Maryland my head was swimming with the numerous things I had learn and been encouraged with at training. It is my hope that I will be able to fully communicate this to you as the following was very earth shattering to me. Anyways, during our final seminar on Tuesday Keith Berger began our seminar with the simple question, "What is the Father's view of the Son?" Well, as we know according to the Bible, "The Father's view of the Son is, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well please" (Matthew 3:17). Keith went on to talk about the reality that as children of God and heirs through Christ, that when God looks at us he sees his Son. I know that I often forget this is true, but it really rocked me to the core, for a lack of better words, to reflect on the fact that when God views me, this is what he sees. I don't know about you, but I am all too aware of my deprave sinful nature, and often fall into the mindset that I'm not doing enough as an intern or a child of God. This training, however, I was reminded that above all I am called to faithfulness as I serve here at Maryland. A means of being faithful require my remember that I am a beloved child of God not because of what I am doing or not doing, but because Jesus Chris is my Savior and the one that God sees when he looks upon me.

The realization really has been such a transforming reality. But now on to why I really wanted to blog.

I returned to Maryland excited to be back among the students I've come to love so much and was immediately meet with so much evidence of the Lord at work. Wednesday night a student that I often long to see at large group, but very rarely see just because she is so overwhelmed with work, was at large group. We had a chance to talk afterwards and she shared with me that she has really been struggling because she feels like she's failing to balance all that she is called to do as a student, and also as a Christian. She feels so overwhelmed that she can't do both an has been seeing her self to a large degree as a failure. It was at this point that God placed it upon my heart to share with her what God had been teaching me in that his view of me is really his view of the Son which is, "this is my son with whom I am well pleased." This had been such an earth shattering reality to me I couldn't help but long for her to know that as a christian that is God's view of her, and from that we are free and able to glorify God with our lives. We parted our ways at the end of the evening, with my not having any idea of how God was working in her through this conversation. The next afternoon she sent me a text message simply saying, "You helped me reach a breakthrough last night. I am now here trying to think of all my worries through the lens of the Gospel and what God think of me, not what I think of myself." Reading this brought tears to my eyes as I along with all those who work for RUF long to see students begin to look at the world through the lens of Gospel. It seems abrupt to end this post here, but that is truly one of our greatest desires for the students we meet with and minister to.

Praise God for what He is doing, and please join me in prayer that His Gospel truth will continue to go forth here at Maryland.

College Park, "A Livable Community"

I've been longing to write for so long, but always find that I am too exhausted when the day wraps up. So for now, I'm just going to share a link that gives you a taste of what the community I live in is like. I would highly encourage you to view the link I've included. It's a news article about two shootings that occurred this weekend. The first on which was only a quarter of a mile or less from my apartment.

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/police-shoot-three-in-two-seperate-incidents-this-weekend-1.791658

Providence.

Well, God sure does provide...

Today I set off for Northern VA to spend some much needed quality time with my former college roommates, and given how insane it is to drive down there I figured I would try and kill two birds with one stone by getting a haircut nearby. When I arrived it turned out that my hairstylist had been switched, which wasn't a big deal since I'd never been there before anyways. So I sat and waited to be called. Almost as soon as I sat down in the chair it seemed the topic of occupation came up and as usually I told the stylist that I work for a christian campus ministry, and before I knew it our conversation was off and running. Through the course of my time there we got to talk a great deal about the church and God, both things that I could tell this individual was struggling with. 

As I sat there in the chair during one of the lulls in conversation it hit me how wonderful my job is, but this time the realization struck for a totally different reason. I've come to realize just how wonderful this job that God has called me to is because of the door that is opened the moment that I tell anyone what I do. On more than one instance lately I've had conversations take off in full force the moment I say what I do. It's so wonderful that I can be used in this way. While it doesn't always play out this way, I am so thankful for when it does. Today I was particularly overjoyed because I've been longing to have conversations like this, particularly because in this area people tend to be less friendly and open. I'm just so thankful for moments like this and for God's faithful provision. :)

Growing Pains..they're really for our best

Alas I meant to post this three nights ago, as I was pondering all these things while driving through D.C. on my way home from my brother's, but it was too late and I was too tired to do so. 

Anyways, I've come to the conclusion, and not without much wisdom from others, but this truly has been a real growing year for me. I will be the first to admit that College Park, MD had never come close to making my top ten list for places I wanted to live, but had God not seen fit in His infinite wisdom to place me here I would not be growing in the ways that I am. For the first time in my life I am living in a setting that is entirely foreign to me, and I must admit that it's quite terrifying. Never before have I been in a situation where I am so often in the minority. I go to the grocery store, to my Target, to Home Depot, and 9 times out of 10 I am in the minority. When I often walk into situations such as these I will admit I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb, and sometimes it makes me really uncomfortable, but slowly and surely God is making me really thankful for the diversity around me. Just the other day I was sitting in church as we were taking getting ready to take Communion and it hit me how amazingly blessed I was to look out before me and see that we have Elders and Deacons from all over the globe representing how the Gospel has gone forth to so many people. It truly is beautiful. I know that I have a long way to come in feeling uncomfortable being in the minority, but I also know that slowly but surely God is going to break down that fear within me.

On an additional note, I'm really growing to love my church body here which is a huge praise!

*This is a bit scattered... just proof I should have written this nights ago. My sincere apologies to all who a reading this.

I Stand Amazed

Tonight as I was dropping a student off I was struck by how bizarre a job I really have. I mean I've known for a long time, perhaps even prior to beginning the internship, that this job is rather nontraditional, but tonight I had a different realization. The epiphany I had tonight was more so connect to how amazing it is that God uses us the way he does. As I left from dropping off a student, whom I had the privilege of spending several hours talking and listening to, it just hit me... It's so amazing and such a true privilege and blessing to my life to be used by God here in the lives of students at Maryland. I know that we often realize how meager we are in God's plans and how little we have to offer, but here is what was running through my mind tonight over and over... In so many ways I'm just a kid fresh out of college, I don't have any loft degree in theology or counseling and yet God is still choosing to use me here on this campus to support his people and to hopefully, Lord willing, point them to truth. I know I'm having trouble really relaying how this hit me, so I will sum it up in this image. I feel like I've had a really jaw dropping moment, and I just need to stand here for a while with my mouth hanging open. It truly is such a blessing to be free and available to love on students, encourage the, watch them grow, and most of all see God at work! 

Freshman Growth...

Tonight I had one of the most encouraging conversations with one of my freshman girls. She and I were talking about Spring Break, and the fact that she isn't going on the RUF mission trip to New Orleans. Her parents had told her she couldn't go because her grades from last semester weren't high enough. Initially she had been rather disappointed by this, but as we were talking tonight she mentioned that she felt that God could really use her at home over spring break more than he could in New Orleans. She has a sister whose in high school who really doesn't have a lot of friends and she wants to encourage her and help her build relationship over break. As this girl put it, she really wants to use her spring break to "Serve her family." I'm totally blown away by the work that God is doing in this students life. It's amazing how much she has grown in the six months that I have known her. I can't wait to see more of God's work in her life! :)

Today is the day it all begins!

I suppose you could say that today is quite a monumental day, as I created this blog about a month and am just now sitting down to start writing. It's a bit ridiculous that it has taken me a month to finally begin to post. It is my hope that this blog will serve as a means for me to both debrief from my day and to keep all those interested  up to date with my life as and RUF intern at the University of Maryland.