The Next Chapter

Four months of living back in the states, it's time for another transition right? This weekend I will be moving to Lafayette, IN.

I'll start at the beginning...my friend, Ashlen, was reading Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey. In the book Bessey writes about a women's rehabilitation center called Mercy Ministries. Ashlen knew that after getting back I was now interested in counseling women and in particular at a place where we all lived together and the help could be in every aspect of their lives. So she texted me and I looked up Mercy Ministries. I found they have a house in St. Louis. I read more about them a decided to apply. For no reason at all I Googled to see if there were anymore houses like this and I found Vision of Hope in Lafayette. I applied there too.

I received a response from VOH and after some phone interviews went up for a shadow weekend to see how everything ran. I loved everything I saw and everyone I met. While I was there I got a call from Mercy and set up a phone interview with them later that week. After talking with friends and praying about it I decided to take the position at VOH.

"Vision of Hope is a faith based residential treatment center whose staff and program focus on applying love, practical solutions from God's Word to help produce permanent and lasting change in women whose lives have been characterized by negative, life-dominating habits."

You can read more about VOH and watch testimonial videos here.

I will be escorting the residents from meals to classes, overseeing their volunteering at the church and community center, and going through counseling training. Since my shifts are about four hours I will have some free time. I am excited to get involved in the Lafayette community. When I was visiting I heard about some ways people are helping in the homeless cimmunity, one of the girls working at VOH is on a volleyball team, and I'm hoping to go to Thursday night meetings at Purdue's Campus House.

The next two weeks are training; afterwards I can post again and share how it's all going.  

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.

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.

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.