Tinkerbell, a Puppy, New T-shirts, and a Mission Trip!

It's only Tuesday, but Longwood Chi Alpha has been busy so far this week! I met with the student I'm co-leading a Bible study with this morning, then spent the afternoon working with Gil and Lindsay on office work and staff meeting. Gil and I went to pick up LUXA's new sweatshirts and t-shirts after staff meeting. We actually got them earlier than we thought we would; it usually takes the shirt place 2 weeks to have them ready. We took them back to the Banton's house and pulled them out to look at...they're awesome!! I'll put some pics of them up later if I can (the pictures have been giving me trouble lately). Lindsay designed flyer invitations for our costume party and I cutthem to hand out to students. Lindsay and I dressed the girls, Emma and Adison, up as Tinkerbell and a Dalmatian puppy and took them to the dinning hall to hand out the flyers. The girls had a great time dressing up and the students thought they were so cutest adorable! Adison has shoes that have squeekers in them (think rubber ducks) and the female students thought they were so adorable...I overheard one student say "Aww, she's barking!" We handed out all of the flyers we printed and didn't cover a fourth of the dinning hall. We have some students who have agreed to dress up and do the same thing throughout the week.

Our costume party plans are coming along pretty well. We kinda had a difficult start planning. I tried to reserve a room on campus, but was told the room we wanted was not appropriate for "glittery costumes and loud music." The glittery costumes I guess I can understand (this room is in a section of a building that was recently renovated and I can understand concerns that glitter may scratch the floor or get stuck in the carpet), but I don't understand the problem with the loud music. Really, how many college students do you know of that go to bed prior to 11pm on a weekend?? I sure don't know very many. Anyways, we were able to reserve the clubhouse at one of the Longwood-managed apartment complexes. I took our freshmen/transfer student decorating committee to the clubhouse Saturday so they could look at the available space and then to the Dollar Store and WalMart to buy decorating necessities. I'll post an update and let everyone know how our Costume Party goes.

And, to end on a very exciting note, we have our Spring Break Mission Trip destination confirmed!!!!!!!!!!! I can't say yet where we're going because we're not revealing our destination country to the students until next week. Once we tell them, I'll post it on here.

Overdue Update

So it's been a while since I've updated my blog...it's been a busy, busy, busy three weeks. Two weeks ago, LUXA went on our fall retreat to Camp WEAG. It was needed by all the students that went and myself. We had a great time and a great speaker. Our speaker, Rev. Mark Briley, was the Chi Alpha campus pastor when our current campus pastors were students, so it was special for them to have him come speak. God really used Mark to reach out to a lot of students. During the Saturday night portion, Mark talked about letting go of our Amalekites (see 1 Samuel 15) and I started praying about my future, whether it be in Chi Alpha or teaching. As I was praying, I looked around and watched the students worshiping, while comforting a student that was struggling with homesickness. As I prayed "Lord, is this where you want me?" I felt a peace that I can't even begin to explain fill me. Every time since, whenever I've prayed about it, I've felt the same peace begin to fill me. Right now, I'm looking into Chi Alpha Campus Minister in Training (CMIT) programs at different colleges to attend next year. I'll keep everyone up-to-date with this process as it goes. I'll also include some pictures from the retreat at the end of this blog (if I remember! haha).

This past weekend was very busy. It was Oktoberfest weekend at Longwood, so LUXA met for dinner at the dining hall picnic (it was pretty good for once). We had a nice sized group and everyone had fun. The girl that served as our missionary associate last year (the same position that I'm doing) came also; her husband's band was playing in Battle of the Bands. It was good to see her and catch up on life. Saturday, I helped with Farmville First, the outreach that the church I attend here, was doing. Chi Alpha students helped to feed parking meters and talk with people, inviting them to the other events going on at the Daily Grind coffee shop and one of the local car dealerships. I then went to lunch with one of my roommates and some friends for her birthday. We went to Charlie's Waterfront Cafe. It wasn't as expensive as I thought (well, as long as you don't get the file mignon or other huge entrees) and we had a good time. Then I drove home for a fundraiser that my wonderful home church was doing for me. They sold spaghetti dinners, had a cake raffle and a chance drawing. It was a great experience and, although a lot of work, it was enjoyed by all. God has blessed me so much with such a supportive family and church family. Sunday, I drove back to Farmville and helped my Gil and Lindsay prepare a dinner for some of the international students here at Longwood. It was a lot of fun and I got to know some of them a little better.

Well, I'm going to wrap this up. Please say a prayer for the Farmville community. I'm sure everyone has heard about the recent tragedy that happened on First Avenue and even more recently, the fire at one of the apartment complexes near town.

Ok, so no pictures from the retreat tonight...the internet won't let me upload them for some reason. I'll try to remember to upload some later in the week!