SURPRISE!!!

This past weekend Anna, one of my best friends, and I went to Wyoming. We went to surprise Nadine, another friend, on her wedding day. God brought Nadine here for grad school last year. She met Daylen, the other staff intern, and now they are happily married!

The ceremony was in a small church so when the doors were opened for Nadine and her dad to walk down the aisle Anna and my faces were the first ones she saw. She was shocked! It was the perfect reaction. Nadine looked beautiful! The whole wedding was perfect. There wasn’t too much “show off” of every wedding has to have this or that. It was simple and lovely. Everything that was done pointed to God.  It was in the most beautiful setting too!

Daylen and Nadine left the church in a one horse open sleigh.

The reception was wonderful. It was very relaxed. Even though Anna and I didn’t know anyone else but Brad and Cailyn, Nadine’s parents and Daylen’s parents were very happy that we could be there. It was so much fun dancing with Nadine and her friends from undergrad.

Vision Week

This week we took a week “off.” We transformed the basement of CCH (where we usually have chairs set up to listen to Brad on Wednesday nights) into a place students could get out of their ordinary routines and encounter God. The building was open so that students could come anytime that worked with their schedule.

We hung sheets to separate the space into different stations. Each station had a different theme. Some were review about what we have been studying in David, while others were new, we had a station where students could give $1.20 and package 6 meals to be sent to Africa through Something To Eat.

This year there were several new things we added to vision week. Every night at midnight we had worship, some students fasted for one, two, or three days, and for the first 36 hours students were praying continually in the prayer room upstairs.

Thursday night we had our wrap-up. It was laid back with worship and some sharing of what God had revealed to us.

One of the coolest things for me was the Intro. It was based around John 13:1-17 when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. At this station there were washable markers where you could sit down and write your sins on your foot and then step into a tub of water and the marker would disappear from your foot as a picture of Jesus making you clean. If you don’t know, I have a tattoo of a cross on my foot, so when I was writing sins on my foot I was writing them on the cross, and when the marker was washing off my foot it was an awesome picture of because Christ died on the cross is the reason my sins are being cleansed.

A day in the life of...ME

I realized while talking with my family last night that many of you may get to hear me tell stories of exciting things going on here at the campus house or you may receive my monthly newsletter and read about the highlights from the month, but most of you may not know what I do on a daily basis. So I thought I would share with you what my day usually looks like.

First off, I need to say that no two days look the same. So I will give you an idea of what I have done and still plan to do today.   

For our upcoming Grow Trips I am creating a daily devotional. When I went to Haiti this past summer the mission sent me a booklet containing a daily devotional  and it changed my experience of the trip. Coming into this year I knew I wanted to provide something similar for the students of CCH. This morning I worked on it a little more. I am designing the booklet in InDesign. I’m not completely satisfied with the cover yet but it is coming along. I am laying out the text as well. I asked the staff and some students for some input on what they thought students needed to know and be intentionally thinking about on a mission trip.

I am leading the Grow Trip to Kansas City over Christmas break. I emailed a few more people trying to finalize our plans for the week. I also looked up each of the places we are for sure going to on a map and none of them are more than 30 minutes away from each other. So that’s great because I don’t want to spend the entire trip driving from place to place. God is working everything out, just a lot more slowly than what I would have wanted.

I took a break and did some reading in I Once Was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp. One of the students I meet with weekly and I are reading through it and discussing it.

I worked on a few things for vision week, which is coming up in two weeks. Vision week is a time we set aside and cancel all our activities. We transform the basement into a place where students can come and meet with God through different means. Last year a few places we created were a place where students could let go of their worries, a place to pray for the world, and a place to reflect on beauty. This year the areas will be different and all centered on the picture of Shalom. Shalom being wholeness, completeness, rightness, the way God intended.

Usually for lunch on Tuesdays I go to Planet Sub ($2.50 turkey on Tuesday) with one of the girls on the leadership team. We share life together. We talk about everything. Hopefully I am able to answer questions she has about school or relationships or whatever is going on in her life.

This afternoon I will meet with another girl on the leadership team. We usually sit outside on campus since it has been so nice but soon we are going to have to move inside to the Union or something. Her community group meets on Tuesday night so we go through what she has prepared and I give her any thoughts I have. We talk about anything and everything as well. I love the time I get to spend with these girls.  

I hope this gives you a better picture of what I do here at the Christian Campus House.

Community

My main ministry is the work I do at CCH but on Wednesday mornings I go to a women’s Bible study at one of the churches in town, Northside. We are going through the book The Shelter of God’s Promises by Sheila Walsh. We sit in table groups of about eight ladies at each table and discuss the promise for the week.

Personally, I have really enjoyed this time because I have been able to interact with women in the community who I would otherwise not see. In my group there are women in all stages of life. There’s me, a newly graduate of college, few are new mothers and a few are grandmothers. Likewise we are all in different stages in our spiritual lives. One woman started following Christ later on in her life but because of how broken she was before she met Christ she has a lot to share and teach us. Another woman just started coming to Northside because her son said his friends from school went there and so he wanted to go there too. Another woman found Christ and her husband saw a change in her and wanted to know what had happened, so for years now instead of pretending they are Christians who went to church every Sunday they live their life for Christ. Another woman grew up in church like me; her and her husband went to a Christian college together. I may be the youngest but since I work at the Christian Campus House everyone seems to assume I know the most.

Our conversation usually starts out talking about the promise for the week. This morning it was the promise of hope, Hebrews 13: 5-6. In the process of our talking we start asking different questions and the topic moves from hope to actually knowing if God is there when you are praying to Him to how to forgive, to eating right, to Halloween to Christmas to being a good wife.  

I have left challenged every week to search for answers to their questions. I pray every week when I am sitting at the table for the Holy Spirit to give me words to say to speak truth into these women’s lives. Sheila said this morning to tell the truth, don’t hide what God is doing in your life, someone needs to hear about it.

This Saturday night I drove to Joplin to volunteer with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They were building 7 houses in 7 days. I heard about volunteering through one of the students whose hometown is near Joplin. By the time I had a chance to sign up the night sifts were the only shifts available so I decided since this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to work from 8pm-2am.  A few days before, I got online to get instructions and maps of what to do and where to park and that sort of thing. It said to get there an hour before your sift started. So I left Warrensburg around 4 and didn’t have any problems getting there. I eventually found the parking lot and asked the shuttle driver if I was in the right spot. He told me of another parking lot that was closer to the sight. I found my way to the sight, which is across from the hospital that was hit really bad. I could see a few houses that no longer had roofs and looked untouched from when the tornado came through.

The 7 houses are in a row on the street. I guess I expected cookie cutter houses, where they all look the same. But in front of each house was a large poster of the family and the theme of the house. There is the cabin house, the dollhouse, the eco house, etc. That impressed me, that even though they were building houses for families who where struck by natural disaster it was not just about providing them with shelter, the team took the time to listen to what the family wanted in a home.

My first job was sweeping the floor and picking up the plastic and cardboard the kitchen cabinets were wrapped in. It’s like how they show on TV where everyone looks to just be running around but they all know what they need to be doing. My next job was raking. Some volunteers were digging in the front yard for irrigation. I raked the rocks out of the yard and into the street. Then when the bobcat brought fresh rock-free dirt we raked it evenly over the yard. House 6’s yard will look the best!

I met a few people who were volunteering. There was a couple from California, Missouri, a woman from Kirksville, and some college girls from MSU. In the volunteer tent there was a 6’x8’ map of the United States and we were asked to put a piece of string from Joplin to where we were from. This map had some many pieces of string on it from cities all over the US!

In case you were worrying. I didn’t stay until 2 and then make the drive back to Warrensburg. I think I left around 12:30 and fell right to sleep when I got home.

Thoughts from DIG...

“The wilderness holds answers to questions man’s not yet learned to ask.” –Nancy Newhall

This quote reminds me of what my professor would tell us all the time about the “real world.” She would say, “You don’t know yet what you don’t know.” Meaning she had taught us four years worth of interior design knowledge but there were things we had to experience for ourselves in the work force that could not be replicated in a school setting.

The wilderness is where you grow when you didn’t know you needed growth. David was in the wilderness running from Saul in 1 Samuel 24 & 26. He learned to ask, “Should I take revenge?”  Jesus spent time in the wilderness in Mathew 4:1-11. When Satan was temping Jesus He relied on His father instead of Himself.

The wilderness does not have to be a scary, dreaded place. Brad pointed out the wilderness can be fearful and awe-inspiring at the same time. This afternoon I was talking with Meagan with three a's and she imagined when in the midst of the wilderness the fear would take over more than the awe but when you think back on the experience you will remember the awe more than being afraid.  It is an important part of our stories where we get answers to questions we don’t know yet to ask.

Click here to listen to Brad’s message this week from the Life of David series.

Repeat that one more time please

When I went to Haiti last January one of the lessons God taught me was that I can’t do it alone. I just saw things I wanted to fix in the Haitians’ lives and I couldn’t. But I also saw the love and passion growing inside my group members for the Haitians and I was encouraged. With our different talents and resources we could make a difference.

This last Sunday God reminded me AGAIN of this lesson. I went to Graceway in Kansas City. They are doing a series called Why Church? They are answering this question by studying through the book of Acts. This past week in Acts 9 the answer to the question Why Church? was Because together we can impact the world.

You can listen to the entire message here

Paul could not have done what he did without the church. (I need to stop and point out that the church here is not one specific church but is referring to all believers) After Saul has an encounter with God and his name changed to Paul he spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus. He didn’t do this by himself. Some men and women went with him while others stayed behind to invest more where they were at. When Paul was writing to the Philippians he thanked them for providing for him without him asking, because they were praying for him they knew he was in need.

None of us can reach the world by ourselves but all of us have a part in God’s mission for Him to be loved, served, and worshiped by all peoples.

A Different Perspective

Recently I have discovered a new perspective on Joseph’s life, Joseph in the Bible that is. I’ll give you the short story of his life. He was the eleventh son of Jacob. He was the favorite of his father’s. His brother’s hated him. One day his brother’s threw him in a well and eventually sold him into slavery in Egypt. This is usually where the preacher/ Sunday school teacher stops and tells everyone that God knew the whole picture and had a plan in mind. Back to the story, Joseph eventually becomes second in command in Egypt. There is a famine and his brothers come to Egypt to receive some food. We are usually left with the main point of the story being that even though God brought Joseph trough some hard times he is now able to provide for his family. Read Genesis 37-47 for the complete story.

 But what if that wasn’t God’s whole purpose? What if there is even a bigger picture than Joseph’s life? When we are going through trials we tell ourselves, “God has a plan” but we think that plan is still about us. What if God brought Joseph to Egypt so that he could tell the Egyptians about the God he served? If Joseph’s brothers had never come to get food, God’s purpose would still have been accomplished because Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and God was able to show how great He is by not only saving His people but the Egyptians as well.

Even when we are at the center of God’s plan do we still think it is about us?

So my soul longeth after thee

          
             Today for lunch I left the Campus House and headed to Lions Lake. I got in my car and it said the outside temperature was 100°. But I was determined to eat outside and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. I drove around the lake and saw some benches but they were in the sun so I decided to park and sit at a picnic table under a shelter. There were several geese who wanted to enjoy the shade of the shelter as well. Again though, nothing was going to deter me. I ate my sandwich and chips rather quickly keeping an eye on the closely approaching geese. There is a trail through the woods that I had taken before with a few friends. I decided to eat my apple as I walked.

           

              As I walked I talked with God. I told Him how beautiful everything was and how thankful for where He has brought me in life. I just wanted to tell Him so much more, it was over pouring but I didn’t feel like I had the sufficient words. So I stopped. I told God I was sorry I kept talking when I should be listening. Not a minute later I heard the leaves rustle to my left. I looked up and there were two deer. I froze and stared at them. They stared back at me. I stood there for a long time just watching them until this guy came by riding on his bike. I probably looked pretty strange just eating my apple staring out into the trees.

            Do you have a specific animal or experience that you know when you see it God showed up just for you? That for me is deer. And this time God was telling me, “Megan, you’re right, you need to shut up. You do a great job listening to everyone else, now you need to listen to what I have to say.”  

Pray and Seek

I would like to say I have a good prayer life. It’s one of the things we as Christians measure ourselves against. Do I pray enough? But in reality my prayers consisted mostly of things that were going on in my life. I would thank God for things and pray for others when need be but mostly I would pray for God to fix the things that were making my life uncomfortable.

Recently I have discovered that writing my prayers down helps me stay focused on what I am talking to God about and I can look back and see that he has answered my prayers when I forgot that I prayed them. This has also helped me in praying for others. Instead of asking God to bless this person and this person I write down specifically what they need prayer for.

One of my goals as a staff intern and hopefully for the rest of my life is to pray and seek before acting. I don’t want to think because I am in the ministry anything I do that is right is what God wants me to be doing.

This past week being able to spend time sharing life with a few girls has been incredible! I just want to be in a constant conversation with God about what he is doing in the lives of these students. There are so many things to pray for. I don’t know where to start or where to end. It’s not just a list of things I need God to do for me either. Its thanksgivings and more than any time I can remember I want to pray more for others than myself. I have been telling God all this week, “In all I could do to praise you it would not be enough.”

Turning a Page

               It has been an interesting beginning to the start of the next chapter of my life. I spent the last semester of my college career reevaluating what it would look like for me to be an Interior Designer. I let God know I was up for where ever He wanted to take me. It turned out He was not finished with me living here in Warrensburg.

                I started my internship at the Christian Campus House on July 5^th. I took over the basement floor with projects getting CCH ready for returning students. No one project could get down without many steps so while a painting was drying I would start another one. I surprised myself a few times with how good a project turned out.

                There was a week or so when I was the only one in the office this summer. This was a tremendous learning experience. I discovered that when I feel overwhelmed I need to stop and take each situation separately and work through it. I am so glad I learned this during the summer and not after school had started.

                I was thankful when the whole staff was back and students started returning. Our leadership team this year is amazing! This includes the 5 staff members, 5 student interns, and 10 community group leaders. To learn more about them here. Before the school year started the leadership team went to the National Student Conference. It was a chance for us to grow closer as a team and become stronger leaders. Tim Sutherland was the main speaker. He spoke about the story of everything. He had great things to say every night but the thing that stood out to me the most was how vulnerable he was towards us. Speaking to 300 people he not only told us about hard times in his life, his son leaving for college and his wife leaving him, but he shared with us how he felt in those situations. There are very few people I can be that honest with and through Tim doing so God presented it as a challenge to me. Maybe not to speak to 300 people, but to be more open to share my life with others. That is one of the reasons I started this blog.

                One of my fears of coming on staff the summer after I graduated was that the students, my friends, would still see me as such and not respect my authority. I have had not one instance of that happening yet. When we got back from NSC the leadership team had two days to prepare for students arrival. Brad and I had a list of everything that needed to get done. Once someone was done with the task they were assigned they would come asking for more to do. When we were setting up for the Week of Welcome activities, a student intern was in charge of each night, they came and asked me what needs to get done or how does it need to be set up. It brings me joy to see their servant hearts.

                Also at NSC I went to the women in ministry luncheon. It was encouraging to see and hear from the other women in ministry. One woman spoke about whether you are single or married you need to find time for yourself outside of the ministry. I thought since I am single I can focus everything on the ministry. But I understand her point and I am still in the process of figuring out what that looks like for me. I came to the conclusion; this is going to be the hardest year of my life thus far. A few days ago God reminded me of the girl I was when I first came to college compared to who I am today. After this year, of who know what crazy things God is going to do, I am going to be changed and it will be good.