A Day in the Life of a LUXA Missionary: Thursday- TNW and Twilight

Well, I just got back to my house a few minutes ago. I had the opportunity to speak at Thursday Night Worship for the first time tonight. More on that in a little while.

Continuing with my series, A Day in the Life..., today is Thursday, probably the busiest day of the week for me. Got up at 7 this morning to get ready and meet Gil for Chi Alpha's hot chocolate outreach. I plan to write a blog on this soon, explaining what we do and why. Helped prep water and load car, then drove to campus. Unloaded supplies, set up, and parked car. We stayed on campus until about noon, handing out several cups of hot chocolate to students, faculty and staff at Longwood. We also heard some awesome words from two female students. They were making their hot chocolate and they began thanking us for being out there. They said that us giving them hot chocolate really made their day and they got so excited when they saw us out there. Praise God. After we finished with the hot chocolate outreach, I came back to the house to eat lunch and get ready for Thursday Night Worship. Since I was speaking, I still had some loose ends to tie up and an outline to write before going to help load the equipment. Was late getting there (I did text Gil and let him know I would be late), so I wasn't able to type the song lyrics. Gil and I loaded his van up with all the sound equipment and other supplies we would need, then left for leadership meeting. We met with our student leaders to discuss plans they are making for a Valentines Day campus outreach, plans for the retreat next weekend, as well as other activities they are planning. The student leaders helped us unload the van and set up the sound equipment. Then we went to eat dinner together in the dinning hall (wasn't very impressive, but we did have several good conversations). After dinner, we went back to our room in the Student Union. I showed one of our student leaders how to type the song lyrics into the program we use. She typed those for us while I worked on finishing the slides for my message. Then we began setting up the tables for worship centers and getting the rest of the room ready. I went to make copies of the songs for the worship team and announcement sheets for the students. I came back to the Student Union and the worship team, student leaders, and staff prayed together before beginning. I decided that while worship team was practicing I would go look over my notes and re-read the scriptures. Around 7:45, students started arriving and the room was filled with everyone greeting one another. At 8pm, we began with one of our students announcing the upcoming events we have. Gil welcomed everyone, said a prayer, and the worship team began playing. We had an awesome time of worship, including a long prayer time. It was amazing to hear the students in the room praising God and crying out to God. Then it was my turn. I had to rearrange my message a little because there was a part I wanted a specific student to hear, but she had to leave early. I talked about the difference between flattery and affirmation. I connected it to Twilight because the main character, Bella, affirms another character, Edward (the vampire). I talked about ways to affirm one another and why we should be affirming one another as the body of Christ. I also shared a few times when someone has affirmed me and it meant a lot to me and a time when I felt I needed to be affirmed and didn't receive it. The message went well, although it was fairly short. I finished and turned it back over to Gil, who make a few additional remarks, then closed us in prayer. We packed all of the sound equipment and supplies up and loaded them in the van. I met Gil and Freeman (another LUXA staff member) at Gil's house to help unload and put the sound equipment and supplies away. We finished fairly quickly, then went to the kitchen for some chicken wings Freeman got from the abby he's working on. We discussed a little how my message went; Gil told me I need to watch my "um"s. I noticed I was saying it a lot and I've been told before that's something I need to work on when speaking to a group. I was glad I made the outline, although I would have an idea to add, then see something that would distract me and the thought would fly away. I have to say, I have a new respect for people who prepare and deliver messages/sermons every week! :)

A Day in the Life of a LUXA Missionary: Mon., Jan. 25

Mondays are usually my day off. Each missionary gets one day a week off to spend with family or in my case, work on things around the house that got neglected during the rest of the week. This particular Monday, I went to prayer meeting with some students at 7am, then came back to the house to eat breakfast and get ready for the day. I also got chili started in the crock-pot for dinner. We had worship practice that night and the members of the worship team usually eat with us. One of my roommates, Jenn, didn't have any classes and wanted to go look at dresses to wear to a friend's wedding. We left the house around 10am and dropped my car off at the mechanics to get the oil changed. We went to one of the dress shops in town and Jenn tried a few dresses out. She found some she liked, but decided to look at a few other stores before buying one. We tried Belk and she found a dress she liked, but it needed a little work to it. The dress had several strands of fake pearls attached to the neckline, as well as two strands of metal chains...they seriously needed to be removed and after she did, the dress looked so much better. One of our roommates from last year came to town to visit for a while so we met her at the Daily Grind for lunch. She's interested in moving to Farmville soon, so we went with her to look at apartments. She was worried that she wouldn't be able to find any in the middle of the semester, but luckily the lady that owns several rentals in town had 3 available to choose from. The rest of my afternoon was spent here at the house, hanging out with Jenn, sampling my (yummy) chili, and making some phone calls. One of our XA students called me and asked if I would take him to get his car from the mechanics...that was an interesting trip. Neither of us had been there before, so he called for directions. Apperantly, the lady he talked to thought we were coming from 460 and gave us directions that way. We ended up not being able to find the place and having to call again. I got home from that adventure and began getting stuff ready for dinner. Freeman and Will got to the house around 5:45 and we all sat down for dinner. Our friend that was visiting joined us with another friend, so we had a full table and plenty to eat (I love my crock-pot by the way...it makes dinner soooo much easier!!!). The worship team went to practice and I worked on my on-line classes (I usually sing w/ them, but I'm getting over a cold and I'm speaking Thurs night, so I opted not to sing this week). The night ended with a few rerun episodes of Criminal Minds and conversations with friends.

A Day in the Life of a LUXA Missionary: Tues., Jan. 12, 2010: The Students Return

I had an idea for my blog recently. I'm going to choose a random day of the week and blog about that day, what I did, students I talked to, things like that. I'm hoping these blogs will give my readers a better feel for what I'm doing in my daily life, instead of looking just at the large events LUXA is doing. So, here goes the first installment! Enjoy!!

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010: The Students Return

Today was the first day of classes for a new semester. I can't believe it's 2010 already!! Seems like just yesterday everyone was worrying about the world ending in 2000 (oh, wait, that worry has now been pushed back to 2012). Anyway, since classes resumed in full swing today, LUXA decided to set up our hot chocolate table and bless students. We had a few difficulties getting to campus (like the water containers, full of hot water, turning over in the back seat of my car at two different turns. Luckily I have leather seats and a towel in my car, so it was very easy to clean up) and forgetting the table. But after we got set up, we had quite a few good conversations with students. We also had an awesome conversation with the Longwood police department chief. Yeah, turns out he's also a pastor in Buckingham County and was very supportive of our ministry. Awesome!!! We decided to break down the table at 12:15ish because we ran out of cups and we were fairly cold. I dropped Gil off at his house and unloaded the water containers, then ran back over to my house for lunch and a shower.

By 1:30 I was back over at the Banton's for staff meeting. We discussed the Tuesday night mission trip meeting, leadership meeting, and Thursday Night Worship. We also put strings on the guitar I borrowed from Dad. Hopefully I'll be able to begin learning to play soon. Today was learning how to string and tune. Then it was on to WalMart to pick up ingredients for Cesar salad, to be served with the pizza at the mission meeting.

At 5:45, I began putting said salad together and the students began arriving, as well as Gil with the pizza. Most of the mission team was able to attend, except for those students that had class during that time. We chowed down on the pizza and salad and began talking about our trip. We shared the things we were excited about and the things that we are concerned about. We also spent some time in prayer, not only for our team, but for those who are financially helping us to go and the country we will be visiting and the people that we will be working with and ministering to. At the end, we took care of the financial part and talked/hung out for a while. I drove a few of the students back to their dorms/appartments, then came back home.