Confessions of a delinquent staff

Ahhhh! It's April 17th, 2008! Was my last post truly last year?!?! Five months ago??? Indeed, the facts are startling but true. You've been hit by another case of my good intentions fallen through. Grace, I ask, Grace.

We've got a lot to catch up on, so let's get down to it!

Dec07/Jan08
The biggest event was InterVarsity's National Staff Conference. Held every three years, I went to my first in 2004. While the intimidation of going to my very first staff conference was no longer present (trust me, being with a group of staff is super intimidating - shows you how much I need to grow), this conference presented plenty for me to worry about - I was speaking for the first time at a national staff gathering! Let me clarify, I was giving a short 5-10 minute testimony - but it still involved speaking and having my face blown up on the huge video screens! (cringe) Whatever preparedness I felt leading up, it all flew out of the window the night before I was to speak. My testimony was nothing at all like what I'd heard people sharing so far. I was beginning to feel like a complete and utter fool. So what happened? Well, apparently God likes it when people are willing to be a fool for him (something about that whole strength in weakness thing) and amazing things resulted. Honestly, I felt like a bit of a rockstar for the rest of the conference because of the number of people who came up to talk with me afterwards. If you'd like to check out the testimony yourself... http://www.intervarsity.org/news/immeasurable-worth
Trust me, once you see it, you'll see there was nothing humanly rock-starish about it.

I haven't even mentioned my parents yet! They came to the conference (if you knew the background, their coming is kind of a big deal) and had some pretty powerful experiences with God there. My dad, still not a Christian yet, but he was sure experiencing the values of the kingdom. My mom was able to receive some great ministry too. I think they cried when I spoke and as a daughter, I still want to make my parents proud.

Jan08/Feb08
Mexico City. Because I'm leading my first global project this summer, I joined all the first-year directors for an immersion training. After tacking on a couple of vacation days at the beginning, I found myself in Mexico City for a whole week. It was awesome in this incredibly life-giving way. I'd forgotten how much I thrive from traveling to another country and engaging with people of a different culture. Plus I LOVED the food - especially the stuff sold on the streets - the taco stands, the fresh fruit stands, the ceviche, sigh.... It was a glorious week, shared in a community of people who were of like mind and spirit. I kept thinking to myself, "Lord, you are SO good to me. I cannot believe I get to be here and experience this." Praise God for good gifts. I like being reminded (in big ways or small) that He is good. Too often I forget.

Mar 08
I was only on campus one out of the four weeks in March. What else was going on? The CityLights Spring Break project for starters. Five students from SLU were there for the first time. It was great to see these students entering into deeper community with one another and with students from other campuses. The week is spent at various work sites around the city of St. Louis. In the evening, students return for dinner and an evening session focused around an issue of social justice. Since CityLights started, over 25 students have moved to St. Louis after graduation to serve as Jesus' hands and feet in the forgotten neighborhoods of the city.

A one-week stint to Cairo was also to be had this month. Jean (my co-director) and I joined Kristen (the previous years' director) in Cairo to do some much needed set-up work for the summer project. As I had never gone to Cairo before, I was grateful to be able to go at least ONCE before taking students along. The trip was great - we accomplished everything we needed to do and connected with a ton of people (possible families for our summer home-stays, headmasters and teachers at the schools where we'll be working, random people on the street), but it definitely blew the romantic notions (I can make anything romantic) of business travel out of the water. This was certainly NO vacation. We got up early, came home late, and aside from crawling into bed, there was not a moment where we weren't engaging cross-culturally. Don't get my wrong, I'm not complaining, just laying out the reality a little more clearly.

April 08
You might have noticed there hasn't been much mention of campus work yet. It's true, the added responsibility of leading a summer trek has taken away some of my campus time. The positive side is that it has also forced me to learn how to be a better delegator and give students more ownership of the chapter. I've been incredibly proud of how they've stepped up to the plate. In addition to leading their weekly small groups, they have pretty much taken over the monthly Gatherings. In Feb they brought someone to speak on justice, in March we had a panel of Christians discussing body & identity related issues, and in April we hosted a "taste of sudan" (a preview of summer's upcoming experiences). The response continues to be encouraging.

Right now, we're also in the midst of leadership selection for next year. We've had a pretty small leadership team for the past few years and are looking at whether we need to create more on-ramps for people to step into leadership or simply greater involvement with the chapter. In InterVarsity, you experience growth and discipleship through ministry. So getting more students involved in the ministry, rather than just being consumers of it, is pretty key. If you have been reading this, we would LOVE your prayers for the process.

In other exciting news (no I'm not engaged or getting married...) SLU is graduating its first ministry intern and has hired another full-time staff! YEA!! Partnership. I've been longing for it for quite some time now. I'm excited to move into the position of team leader and continuing to work with Kale (our intern) and Esther (the new staff). The new role feels stretching, yet appropriate.