Chi Alpha Happenings

I realized earlier in the month that I needed to post an update on what's going on with Florida State Chi Alpha. Since it's been a busy few months, I'll give you the bullet point rundown.

* Chi Alpha Live- our weekly meeting, Chi Alpha Live (XAL) kicked off in August with around 75 students. Since then, we have been averaging 50 each week, both new and returning students. We are now meeting on campus in Moore Auditorium, which has provided some unique challenges (transporting and setting up equipment; sharing the auditorium with another Christian group that meets before us; time constraints), but has also provided us with even greater benefits. We are more accessible to students who live on campus and when we talk with students on Market Wednesdays, we can just point to the building where we meet. Our students love meeting on campus again.

* Small Group Bible Studies- our small group Bible studies began meeting the first of September. We strongly encourage our students to get involved in our guys and girls groups because this is such a great way for them to get to know one another and grow in their faith. We have three guys groups and two girls groups that meet once a week and discuss a topic or verses from the Bible. They also have an opportunity to pray for and encourage one another in their walks with Christ.

* Events- we've had several events since the beginning of the semester. We partnered with a local church's college and career ministry to have a digital scavenger hunt. The pictures from the teams were hilarious! We also have had a tailgate for one of the first football games and have watched some of the away games together.

* Staff- the staff have all been staying busy. Our new Chi Alpha director, Anthony, and his wife Heather, have been traveling to different churches sharing about Chi Alpha and connecting with pastors. The staff also had the opportunity recently to serve at the West Florida District Spiritual Emphasis Days. Many pastors, their families, and members from their congregations attended the Spiritual Emphasis Days and our staff was able to set up a cafe to serve them coffee and snacks. This was a great connection point for us and a great way for us to serve and also share about Chi Alpha and what God is doing here in Tallahassee. This was also a great connection point for me since I am still fairly new in the West Florida District and haven't met many pastors in the district. The Spiritual Emphasis Days were also a great time for our staff to absorb the Word of God and return to campus to share it with our students.

* Personal ministry-I have began meeting with students on a regular basis, which is my favorite part of my job. I love sitting down with students and hearing how their life is going, how classes/work/etc are going, and what God is doing in their lives. I also get to pray with them and talk with them through challenging decisions. Another part of ministry I love is small groups and this year, one of my roles has been to oversee our student-led small groups. Like I said before, we have a great group of students leading and part of my role is to make sure our leaders are healthy (spiritually, emotionally, physically) and that they have the resources they need. I love checking in with our leaders and hearing how their small groups are going and how God is moving through each group.

* Personal life- I started playing again with a co-ed team from Mosaic Church. It's been great to play again and I've really enjoyed watching our team come together. I’ve also been spending some time with a family from Mosaic that is also from Virginia. The husband and wife have become good friends and their three kids are a lot of fun to be around. I usually eat dinner with them and make a dessert; it’s a great time for me to make new recipes I find on Pinterest and a good excuse to get creative :) Also, my nephew, Nicholas, is due in just a few weeks! My older brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first baby mid-November and I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to see pictures and Skype with them, since they are currently living overseas. 


So there’s an update on my current life: busy, but a lot of fun! I’ll be posting more updates soon, so keep an eye out :)

For Thy Sake

I've been reading devotionals from a book, "Tozer for Today: Tozer on the Almighty God" recently during my quiet times. The compiler, Robert Eggert, took passages from well-known Christian author, A.W. Tozer's books and put together a daily devotional. There are some devotions that are good, and I'm glad that I read them, but then there are some, like today's, that grab me and make me think, challenge, and encourage me. 

Here is the devotion for today, September 28, entitled "For Thy Sake."

A Christian poet of a bygone generation wrote a rather long hymn around a single idea: You can, by three little words, turn every common act of your life into an offering acceptable to God. Those words are "For Thy sake"...

All this seems too simple to be true, but Scripture and experience agree to declare that is indeed the way to sanctify the ordinary. "For Thy sake" will rescue the little, empty things from vanity and give them eternal meaning. The lowly paths of routine living will by these words be elevated to the level of a bright highway. The humdrum of our daily lives will take on the quality of a worship service and the thousand irksome duties we must perform will become offerings and sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. 

To God, there are no small offerings if they are made in the name of His Son. Conversely, nothing appears great to Him that is given for any other reason than for Jesus' sake. If we cannot die for Christ we can live for Him and sometimes this is more heroic and will bring a larger reward.

"For Thy sake." These are the wondrous words which, when they are found in the heart as well as in the mouth, turn water into wine and every base material into gold. (from Tozer's book, "Born after Midnight, pg 70-71).

As I read this devotional this morning, I was deeply challenged. There are so many times where I have viewed a task as mundane and insignificant. If I have this mind-set and attitude, where in all that I do, I declare it as "for Thy sake," my tasks become an offering unto God. The phone calls that I make, the conversations I have, the text and Facebook messages that I send can all be an offering to God. Washing  dishes, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floor can be an offering unto God. This devotional challenged me to not think of a task as something that needs to be completed and checked off my list, but as something I can do for the glory of God and to do it to the best of my ability. It also encouraged me that even if I feel that a task is insignificant, if I do it for His sake, it is an offering unto Him, and He doesn't view it as something small. 

I needed this devotional this morning and it always blows my mind that God knows exactly what I needed and when I needed it. How awesome is that?? :)

 I wanted to share it with you to encourage and challenge you in your walk with Christ as it has mine, even only a few hours later.

A New (Academic) Year...and My Prayer for This Campus

A few weeks ago, Chi Alpha partnered with eight other campus ministries to host GO Week, a mission trip to Florida State's campus. During those three days, we helped freshmen and transfer students move into their dorms, become acclimated with campus, and work with the university to provide entertainment and pancakes for the new students. Tuesday night, there was a kick-off service for the ministry staff and students that were participating in GO Week. We met at First Baptist Church in Tallahassee for registration, dinner, and a brief service to worship, pray over the rest of the week, and talk about why we were doing this. During the worship service, we sang a worship song named "You'll Come" by Hillsong. I've sang this song several times since I moved to Florida in different services and has become one of my favorites, but this time, the bridge hit me differently. The bridge goes like this:

"Chains be broken
Lives be healed
Eyes be opened
Christ is revealed."

I realized in that moment that this is my prayer for this year...I want this happen in the students at Florida State: chains to be broken, their lives to be healed, eyes to be opened, Christ be revealed to them. Basically, whatever is holding them back from having a personal relationship with Christ to be stripped away and for Him to be revealed in their lives.

Since that service, the bridge has run through my mind several times and each time, I pray, "Yes, Lord, let this happen on your campus." I am also in awe that God has chosen to use me, that as powerful and almighty as God is, he chooses to use me, an imperfect, broken vessel...but that is another post for another time. :)

Our semester has gotten off to a great start, with 70 people coming out to our first Chi Alpha Live service of the semester and nearly half of them being new!! Our small group Bible studies start this week and we are very excited to see God move through both our small groups and weekly service.

*If you would like to hear the song, You'll Come, click here for a link to a YouTube video. I get goosebumps every time I hear this song :) *

Ecuador 2012 (FSU Chi Alpha Mission Trip)

Last May, a team of nine students and three staff traveled to Ecuador for our summer mission trip. I had the privilege of planning for the trip and leading the team. What a great team!

We left the Miami airport on May 6 and arrived in Quito, Ecuador that night. We spent the night in Quito and Monday morning, we met Ron and toured the school affiliated with the ministry, Montebello. We began our journey to Misahualli. We stopped briefly in Banos and were able to walk around the town before resuming our drive through the countryside. The scenery was beautiful!

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent ministering in Misahualli. After eating breakfast at the hostel, we spent the morning working at the school. Half the team painted, sanded, and treated the missionary, Roberto's, house and the other half built a small building to protect their water pump. We also shoveled dirt around the foundation of the pump house; talk about a workout! In the afternoon, we had a Vacation Bible School with the children in the community. Roberto and his team have been working with this community to become familiar to them and gain their trust. The students had a brief skit for the kids (Noah’s Ark) and sang songs in Spanish with them. The kids were then divided into three age groups and rotated through the Bible story, craft, and game station. We ended the VBS with snacks and spent some time playing with the kids.

Thursday, we took a motorized canoe down the river. We stopped at a community to have a VBS with the kids, visited a zoo with animals native to the area, and ate a river-side lunch. That afternoon, we enjoyed an intense hike to see the local waterfalls and swim.

Friday, we traveled back to Quito by a different route. We stopped at Papallacta, springs that are heated by a nearby volcano and combined with cold river water in pools. After working hard in Misahualli, this was a welcomed treat for the team. That night we had a BBQ and campfire with Ron and his family.

Saturday we spent the day in Quito doing out sovunier shopping. We visited the city park where many of us purchased paintings by local artists. We also went to the market and purchased a variety of items for ourselves, family, supporters, and friends. We ate dinner at Pizza Hut (which I think has a better crust in other countries) before returning to our house to pack and prepare for the journey back to the States.

Sunday morning, our team woke up early to eat breakfast and finish preparations to return to Miami, and from there, to their respective homes. The team departed Quito that morning and arrived in Miami that afternoon.

About a month after our trip, some of us got together to exchange pictures and laugh about the great experiences we had while in Ecuador. It was such a blessing to watch how God drew this team close together and even after the summer break, how these students have a special bond.

Here are some links to pictures from Ecuador and a video made by one of our very talented team members:
Facebook album
Video

Ecuador 2012 in Pictures

I'll be posting a wrap-up blog about our trip to Ecuador soon. It's going to be a long one, there's so much to tell! But first, I wanted to post links to the pictures I took and a video compiled by a student. The video is 30 minutes and does a great job capturing each aspect of our trip, from the beginning in the Miami airport, during the trip, and what God taught the team.

Here are the links:
Ashley's pictures
Team Video

(Please let me know if there are any problems with the links :))

Coming Soon!

Coming soon to this blog are the following posts:

*FSU Chi Alpha's mission trip to Ecuador.

*My summer plans, happenings, etc

*My plans for the next academic year

*Some musings that have been brewing in my head for a while

I promise I will try my best to make these posts to my blog before August :) This also entails figuring out all the changes Blogspot/Google has decided to make to their website and updating the look of my blog! Stay tuned!!

Ecuador Update

In my last blog, I wrote about a new opportunity I had this  semester, to plan and carry out a mission trip. I can't believe that two weeks from tomorrow, we will be on a plane to Ecuador. God has been so good to the team throughout the process. Last weekend, we held our two biggest fundraisers, a yard sale and parking for FSU's spring football game. The yard sale was a lot of work: organizing, gathering items, transporting and setting them up at the location, and being there most of Fri and Sat. Parking was a little easier, but God really blessed both our events and we raised a total of almost $900 to be divided among the team members.

The yard sale also was a great time of bonding for our team. A lot of team jokes and laughs came out of that event and in addition to raising money, it served to bring our team closer together as a team unit and family. I was so impressed by every member who helped out with the yard sale, whether it was by separating clothes and making signs beforehand, or helping set up and sell the items the day of. Everyone on the team pitched in and did a great job to make sure this event happened.

We are now working on making sure we are prepared for the Vacation Bible School we will be teaching while in Misahualli. We are learning songs in Spanish and preparing lessons, crafts, and games for the kids. The students have been divided up into teams and have been working on their area of ministry for a few weeks. I'm very excited to see what they have prepared and how God is going to use them to reach the kids and community of Misahualli.

As we are nearing our time of departure, please continue to pray for our team. Here are some ways you can pray specifically for us:

*Pray that the final finances will be provided for all team members (and I know they will; God has been so faithful in providing for us).

*VBS prep, that everything will come together and that we will be able to learn the songs in Spanish

* Safe travels to the airport, smooth check-in process, and smooth flight.

*Health of team- the road from Quito (the capital, where we will be landing) to Misahualli is a very windy mountain road and causes motion sickness for a lot of people. Also, that our transition to the food there will be a smooth one; their food is a lot less processed and sometimes causes slight digestive issues.

* For the community, especially the children we will be working with. Pray that their hearts will be softened to the gospel. From the information the missionary sent us, the area is "over-evangelized," meaning they all have heard about the gospel, but don't have a lot of knowledge about the history of our faith.

Thank you all for your prayers. I'll be sure to post pictures when we return! :)