Summer!

Summer's here! I've been asked, "What do you guys (Chi Alpha missionaries) do during the summer when the students are gone?" Well, for me, it's been a pretty busy summer so far.

I attended the Potomac District Council in early May in Woodbridge, VA. District Council is a time for ministers and missionaries affiliated with the Potomac District Assemblies of God to come together for business meetings, fellowship, and times of prayer and teaching. For many of the ministers, this is a time when they see friends they haven't seen since the year before. At the council, Chi Alpha sets up a coffee shop and serves coffee, bagels, fruit, etc. to the attendees. I also had the chance to spend an afternoon in DC with Erin. We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and few other places.

I also took a road trip with my friend Erin to Tallahassee. We meet some of the people I'll be working with next year and visited Florida State's campus. I was able to walk around FSU's campus and drive around Tallahassee. Erin and I made a stop at World Market, an awesome store with food from around the world, as well as furniture and decorations. On the way back to VA, we stopped at my aunt and uncle's house in South Carolina. It was nice to visit wit them. I'm so glad they live about halfway to FL and have said that i can stay with them on my trips back and forth from VA to FL.

In July, I'll go on vacation with my family. We found a cabin on the Shenandoah River last year and had a great time canoeing, fishing and reading. We decided to go back this year and do the same thing. I really like canoeing on the Shenandoah...it's fairly calm, not many rapids.

The week after vacation with my family, I'll be traveling to Phoenix, AZ for Chi Alpha's Campus Ministers Conference. Most of the campus ministers and those affiliated with XA are going to descend upon the Arizona Grand Resort for a week. We'll have a guest speaker as well as time to spend at the water park on the grounds of the resort. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends I met at RUI last summer. Also, to me, this will be my "official" transition from Longwood Chi Alpha to FSU Chi Alpha.

This summer's going to be busy, but I'm looking forward to it :)

End of the Year

Friday, April 23rd, LUXA celebrated the end of the school year with a semi-formal dance. The local coffee shop, Daily Grind, allowed us to have our dance there and catered the refreshments for us. This event was completely planned out by our student leaders, with little help and guidance from staff. They did an amazing job. We asked a LUXA alum and our missionary associate last year, Sarah, and her husband, Jon, to DJ the event for us; they also did a great job with the music selection.

LUXA recognized our graduates, Jennifer Harris and Jessica Prewitt. Jenn (who is also one of my roommates) graduated in December with her bachelors and is now a grad student, getting a masters in Special Education. Jessica will graduate next Saturday. Both of them received Longwood Alum car decals.

The student leaders also recognized staff members. Erin was given a bucket of gluten-free goodies; Freeman and Gil were given gift cards to Barnes and Noble; Lindsay was given a gift card to the Daily Grind and baby-sitting certificates. For me, the students are writing letters of encouragement for me to read while I'm interning next year. I'm a little nervous to read these letters because I know they'll be so sweet I'll cry...hopefully there will be some funny ones too. :)

Here's a link to pictures from the semi-formal, as well as other events from Longwood Chi Alpha 2009-10. There may be some pictures that don't come up; I've had trouble with some of them showing up. Longwood Chi Alpha 2009-10 Album

Janitors for Jesus (J4J)

I meant to post this blog earlier, but it got lost in my list of blogs I've began, but haven't published yet...

The student leaders planned two Janitors for Jesus (J4J) events during the spring semester. During J4J, the students take cleaning supplies around a dorm, knock on the dorm doors, explain who they are with, and ask the residents if they can clean their bathrooms. This earns a lot of strange looks and questions. There are times when students turn us down, but most students will open the door and let the J4J'ers into their bathroom. The goal is to clean the bathroom and engage the students in conversation about what they think about God. Some students are willing to talk and some would rather not, which is ok. The first J4J we did, we cleaned from 8-9:30pm. We were in Curry, one of the 10-story dorms. We had two teams and began on the 10th floor. One team went to the left and one to the right and we met back in the middle of the hallway at the elevators. We decided to clean one more bathroom each on the 9th floor before calling it a night. After that, we went to the cafe for a snack and to talk about how we felt the night went. A few weeks later, we had our second J4J, this time in North Cunninghams dorm. Gil decided to turn the students loose in one team of 4, no staff members. He and I walked around the building praying for a while, then went to the cafe to pray some more and wait for the students. Another staff member, Erin, joined us after a while. The students decided before to clean from 8-10pm, but didn't finish until around 10:15pm. They decided to clean one more bathroom before meeting us and ended up having a good conversation with some students.

Our reason for doing this is from the example Jesus gave by washing his disciples' feet (John 13:1-17). In Biblical days, people wore sandals and walked on dirt roads. At the end of the day, their feet were nasty dirty and tired. Usually, the servants were responsible for the customary washing of the feet of their masters and guests, but on this occasion, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as an example of serving others.

Today, we have better shoes and roads, and foot-washing isn't a part of our culture. Our thought is what's one of the dirtiest places on a college campus? The answer Chi Alpha came up with is a dorm bathroom. We clean these bathrooms as a practical way to show the love of Christ to these students without making them feel pressured or anything. For us, it's another great way to show Christ's love and to love on our campus in a practical way.

Northern Ireland Pics!

I've been saying that I was going to get my pictures from Northern Ireland up, but I hadn't found a picture site I liked. I've had pictures on Facebook for a while, but wasn't sure if I could link the albums through here. I don't think you have to be a member of Facebook to see them

Album One

Album Two

Also, here's a video I took at Giant's Causeway. You can hear how much the wind was blowing as well as the waves crashing on the rocks. Pretty amazing!

Georgia on My Mind

The last weekend in March, I went to Georgia for a training conference on how to raise my support budget. A student from UVA rode down to the conference center in Toccoa, GA with me; we spend most of the car ride talking about the ministries we are working with or will work with. She'll graduate in May and is hoping to give a year to Students for Christ (SfC), Europe's version of Chi Alpha.

At the conference, we learned how to present our vision and love for our mission field (for most of us, it was Chi Alpha) to our potential supporter team. We also learned how to connect with people in order to share our vision for the campus where we'll be. We stayed at a wonderful conference center that reminded me somewhat of a modern-day Camp Fincastle. We had a few hours Saturday afternoon to ourselves as a break and a few of us took books and went by the lake to soak up the sun and enjoy the quiet. It was nice to slow down for a few hours. The other hours we were there were filled with a LOT useful information, sleeping, and enjoying meals with the team. I did notice that the conference center where we stayed had a curfew of 11pm and a "lights-out" rule at 12am...these people definitely aren't used to working with collegiate ministries where late nights and early mornings are the norm. I don't think we were even close to following that rule over the weekend. :)

For me, it was great to be around people who are close to my age and who have the same passion and love for campus ministry as I do. There are so many amazing stories just from the 8-10 campuses that were represented there. God is really moving on the college campuses in America and around the world.

Northern Ireland Spring Break Mission Trip

As I've blogged before, Longwood Chi Alpha took a spring break mission trip to Northern Ireland March 6-13. It was an amazing trip that pushed us all, students and staff alike, out of our comfort zones and helped us grow in our walk with God. We had some difficulties throughout the planning process and even after we left, but God brought us through and showed us what He is doing in the country of Northern Ireland and in Carrickfergus, where we worked during the week.

We left Farmville at 11:30 Saturday morning to drive to Regan Airport in DC. We got there at 2 for our 5:00 flight, but the Continental rep bumped us up to a flight that was leaving at 2:45 because the 5:00 flight was usually delayed. We had to literally run to security and to our gate...we got there as they were boarding the flight. We flew to Newark, NJ and had a long layover. We boarded our flight to Belfast around 9:30pm and flew all night. We arrived at the Belfast Airport at 8:30am their time and were picked up by our OneHope missionary, Mindy, and the local pastor, Pastor Jonny. We then proceeded on to church at a satellite building for Sunday service. The people there were very welcoming and happy to see us. After church, we grabbed lunch at Springsteins Cafe and walked on the road along Belfast Lough. We passed Carrickfergus Castle, but decided to visit it later in the week. We also visited a local ice cream shop and got Pooh Bear ice cream (vanilla ice cream with honey, crisp "combs", and chocolate wafers). Apparently it's a specialty of this shop and it was delicious! Gil, Freeman, and Will went back to the satellite church for their evening service while the rest of the team stayed at the main church for evening service. After the service was over, we were dropped off at our host homes for the night. Our host house had 4 girls from Longwood, plus Mindy, so it was a full house!

Since it was so late when we got in and all of us were so tired, Pastor Jonny said he would pick us up later Monday morning, so instead of beginning at 8am, we began at 9am. We visited one primary school from 11am-2:30pm. We weren't able to take pictures in the school because of security. We also went to the Monday Night Connect youth groups at the church we were working with (Carrickfergus Elim Pentecostal) and did a few sketches for them and hung out with them. Gil, Will, and Mallory went to a local radio station to be interviewed about what we were doing there. After they got back, we all enjoyed some fish and chips (fries). I don't usually like fish, but this was pretty good. We then went back to our host homes for the night.

Tuesday, we left our host homes around 8:30 and went to two high schools. Half of our team went to the girls' school and the other half went to the boys' school. I was with the group at the boys' school. We performed the sketch, Two Masters, for each class and talked to them about choices and consequences. Freeman shared a personal story about how a choice someone else made affected him and his family. Two of our students left halfway through the day to visit a primary school with Pastor Jonny for a few hours. When the groups at the high schools were done, we drove into Belfast City to do some shopping. We went to a restaurant in the mall for dinner then to the church for the Boy's Brigade. BB is a group of 4 yr old boys, similar to Royal Rangers in the states. Mindy taught us a song on the bus to sing with them and she told the story of Jesus calming the sea. Two of our students made a boat, Freeman was Jesus, and we used 3 of the boys to be the disciples. I took a video of it and the boys were so cute. After that, we went back to our host homes for the night.

Wednesday, we left our houses around 8. On our way to the schools, we designated parts for the sketches. When we arrived at the school, we were taken to the assembly hall and the kids came in after us. We performed the sketches Walk of Life, No Touch Ninjas, Gum & Money, and "Wrap an American" with the bullying lesson and discussion questions. We were allowed to take pictures at this school. After we finished, we went to our second school of the day and performed the same sketches. We were not allowed to take pictures at this school. We were supposed to eat lunch at the school, but they forgot to fix us plates, so we got on the bus and drove to a local supermarket deli and got sandwiches, drinks, chips and KitKats (regular and orange-flavored). After we ate, we went back to the school to do the last lesson. We then went to Carrickfergus Castle to tour and take pictures. Being that close to the water, it was pretty windy. The castle is one of the oldest around and the only one in Northern Ireland that has never been breached. They have different rooms set up like they were when it was being used with plaques telling what the rooms were used for or who the people were. The castle closed around 4, so we walked to a local coffee shop to wait for Pastor Jonny to pick us up. We ordered coffee/hot chocolate and had a team meeting (or at least attempted to have one...there was a very distracting cartoon on the TV near our table). After Pastor Jonny got there, we went to the local museum. We were able to see posters from The Troubles with descriptions about what they meant and what was happening at that time. We then went back to our host homes to have dinner with them. Our host family, Darren and Suzanne, fixed spaghetti, salad and bread for us. It was really nice to sit down with them and talk. We didn't see them much because of our schedules (leaving around 8am and not getting back til around 11pm). The church we worked with had a prayer service at 7pm. It was an awesome time of worship and prayer for one another. The pastor asked our team to come up front (along with a team their church is sending to Uganda in a few months) and asked other people there to come pray for both teams and the work we would be doing.

Thursday, after we loaded up and left our host homes, we discussed the plan for the day. Five of our team members (Gil, Freeman, Kelsey, Laura, and Mallory) decided to go to a school for special needs children while the rest of us went to the primary school. We did an assembly and two lessons. The rest of our group met us and we got lunch at Subway and ate on the bus. We went to our second primary school of the day and did two lessons with them. After we finished there, we went to Giant's Causeway (http://www.northantrim.com/giantscauseway.htm). We first visited the gift shops before they closed (got a pair of earrings for Marissa and Jenn), then began the walk down to the Causeway. It's a beautiful natural wonder on the Atlantic Ocean. Neither pictures or words can begin to do it justice. We also visited Dunluce Castle on our way out. We were not able to go in because it was closed, but some were able to get good pictures (my camera battery was dying, so I didn't get very many). We went to a restaurant for dinner; I ordered the peppered chicken (chicken breast, pepper sauce, onions under and onion straws on top) and new potatoes. The chicken was so good, I didn't eat the potatoes. I sat at a table with Pastor Jonny, Gil, Mindy, Will and Mallory and we enjoyed listening to Pastor Jonny talk about his experiences he's had in ministry. We left to head back to Carrickfergus and got back fairly late.

Friday was our last day in the schools. We left our host homes around 8:40ish and went to our first school. We did an assembly and two lessons with them. We were able to go outside during recess and play basketball or jump rope with some of the students. We ate lunch at a local restaurant and went back to the school for one last assembly. We went back into Belfast City since most of us still had money to spend. I bought a cross for myself, a sun catcher for Mom, a chocolate leprechaun for my little brother and a caramel Dairy Milk bar for Dad. We decided to go to the Starbucks and hang out for a while before going to supper. We ate supper at a bistro in Carrickfergus. Most of the meals our team ordered came with either an appetizer or desert and most of us ordered the Pooh Bear ice cream. The bistro took a while to get our food to us, so we had to get our ice cream to-go. They put it in a plastic container and gave us spoons. We stood out on the sidewalk waiting for Pastor Jonny with about 5 of us crowded around this tub of ice cream eating. We went to the young adult service at Elim. We did 2 Masters and I talked to the young adults about having to decide between following the plans I had for my life after college or following the ones God had for me. Freeman talked to them about clogged pipes and had a time of prayer for individuals and the group. Later, we went to the back room of the church and talked about the week, what we learned and what God taught us during the trip. Mindy also had words of encouragement for everyone that she shared. We left the church and went to Tesco's and spent the remaining money most of us had. We then went back to our host homes for the night to pack our stuff and get ready to leave. On the way back, we gave Mindy a jar of pickles (her fav food) and a Thank You card from all of us.

Saturday, we got up early and finished packing our belongings. We said goodbye to Mindy and Suzanne and were picked up at 7:20am and went to pick up the rest of the group. On the way to the airport, we signed a Thank You card for Pastor Jonny. We got to the Belfast Airport, got checked in and said goodbye to Pastor Jonny. We went through security (one of our students and I got randomly searched) and settled in at the food court. Most of us got coffee and fruit while we waited. We headed to our gate and boarded our plane back to the US. I sat in a row with Lane and Freeman. I watched the movies "Everything's Fine" and "Old Dogs", listened to my music, took a nap, ate lunch and a snack, and had a good conversation with Lane and Freeman during the 8 hours it took to get back. We landed in Newark, NJ around 1pm East Coast time. We had to go through immigration, claim our luggage, go through customs, and recheck our luggage. We tried to find our gate only to discover our tickets were printed with the wrong gate number. We got that straight and went through security again. We must've been in the original terminal of Newark's airport...it was a circular room with a ton of people. The weather was rainy and several flights were delayed, including ours. We were supposed to leave at 5, but didn't board the plane til 8pm and didn't take off for DC til 8:30 for several reasons. After we landed in DC, we called Mark, got our luggage, and met Mark with the bus. We loaded up all of our luggage and got on the bus for the ride back to Farmville. Most of our team slept the whole way from DC to Farmville. We got back to Farmville around 1:30am and unloaded the bus. The students who lived on campus walked back from the Banton's house and Freeman gave me a ride back to my house on his way home. I put all my stuff in the corner of my room, put my pajamas on, brushed my teeth and crawled in bed. Getting in that late was a blessing because it helped all of us to adjust back to East Coast time easier (along with the time change, which made it a 4 hour difference instead of 5). I slept til around 10:30am Sunday, then spent the day unpacking, doing laundry, transferring pics to my computer, and hanging out with Marissa.

Hot Chocolate

For the past few weeks, LUXA has been handing out hot chocolate to students on their way to class. It seems like a simple gesture, but for some students, it changes how their day is going. I've lost count of the number of students that have told us "This really makes my day. Thank you so much for doing this." During class change, a line of students can usually be found waiting at our table for a cup of hot chocolate (or tea) and brief conversation. An amazing story has come from this table: Gil and I were manning the table one morning and a student stopped to ask us for directions. We asked her if she would like a cup of hot chocolate or tea and began to talk with her. We found out she was a transfer and this was her first day on Longwood's campus. We invited her to Thursday Night Worship. For the next few days, we saw her walking across campus and she would stop for hot chocolate or tea and talk with us. Thursday night rolled around and we saw this student there. That night after Gil's message, he gave an opportunity for anyone who wanted to to accept Christ. This transfer student we talked to all week accepted Christ that night. To me, it's stories like this, reaching students for Christ, that make all of this worth it. :)