Colleeege! or, "I love InterVarsity"

My baby sister started college this week (!!), which means two things: 1.) that I am feeling really old and lamenting the fact that I'm NOT a college girl any longer a little more than usual, and 2.) that I'm beyond thrilled to live vicariously through her! For those of you who know sweet Taylor, she's doing great. And I'm planning a visit to Birmingham at the end of October :)

Meanwhile, I've been praising God for a full summer of exciting happenings on the New England college front! Truly, I'm just blown away by all that God has been up to. A little background is needed here:

During my senior year at Richmond, I seriously considered being on full-time staff with Greek InterVarsity. It's such an amazing ministry, and I had been so tremendously blessed by my staffworkers, Goodie and Carolyn, and by the support I received as a college girl who really wanted to see her chapter transformed by the gospel. In the end, I decided that as much as I loved college ministry, being on a college campus full time would limit my capacity to work with high school students. It was a tough choice because there is such a huge place in my heart for Greek ministry! Several of the jobs I applied for last year entailed some contact with college students--an exciting prospect. But when I took the job at Walnut Hill, I really didn't expect to be involved with college ministry beyond coordinating communications.

It's been such a huge perk of my job that I have gotten to spend time with the college crew. I love working with high school girls, but it's so refreshing to hang out with college girls. They're so wise and so much fun!

Okay, so here are the things I want to update you on:

1. Walnut Hill is partnering with IV!!
I still almost can't contain my excitement over this--a church I love (and happen to work for) is partnering with a ministry I love! It's beautiful. Our new college pastor is on full-time staff with IV, pioneering a chapter at WestConn. I just know it's going to be amazing to watch as IV lends its many resources to a ministry that has been growing in significant ways over the past few years. New England campuses are under-resourced, so it's exciting to think about how Mike's ministry at WestConn could influence other New England schools, specifically those in Connecticut!

2. Another small-world connection...
Maybe it's just because I'm such a social creature, but few things excite me more than small-world connections. I just love it when worlds collide! That happened in a really cool way this past month. Matt had mentioned a couple of months ago that one of his buddies from our church in Nashville, West End CC, was a WestConn grad. It seemed random, but I didn't think about it much beyond that conversation. More recently, he mentioned the guy again...and the following week, while our team was praying for one another, Mike shared a request for some more supporters. As I was praying for him, Matt's friend Pete came to mind and I thought, "I've really got to connect these two." I wasn't thinking of it as a financial solution so much, but more a potentially encouraging relationship for both Pete and Mike, two guys who care deeply about the spiritual condition of their alma mater's campus. So I asked Matt to help make it happen, and he called Pete almost immediately. Unbeknownst to Matt, Pete was in Connecticut at the time! And he told Matt he had planned to attend Walnut Hill that Sunday! The rest is history. We connected in the Fellowship Mall, I introduced him to Mike, and now he's on a mission to help Mike raise support for the ministry. (You can ask my sister how giddy I was on the day this all unfolded, since she was visiting that weekend.)

His plan is pretty genius: Publicize WestConn as a mission field to Southern Christians with lots of resources. It's brilliant, really. (And it's giving me some other ideas, which I'll write about in another post.) As Matt said, "there are two things the Church in the South has plenty of: people and money." And really, if there are two things the Church in New England is lacking, it's those! So we'll see what happens. But I'm overwhelmed at how good God is to arrange for these seemingly random meetings. I guess when your God is big, the world is always pretty small :)

3. Greek Conference
Last semester, I was really burdened for the many, many girls who were going to be coming home from school for the summer. I began praying about how we as a church could help them to feel connected while they were home and about how we could bridge relationships between WestConn students and Walnut Hill students from other schools. We ended up having a girls' small group at my house before the Gathering (our summer college group) every week. It was such a sweet time of eating together and building relationships--one of the highlights of my summer, for sure! There were lots of neat relationships and conversations that came out of the summer, and all my girls went back to school leaving me VERY encouraged that there are passionate, incarnational Christian women on college campuses all over the Northeast.

One especially cool thing, though, was meeting a couple of girls who are involved in the Greek system at their schools (both in AXO)! It's been awesome to connect with them over something that's been so significant in my own life...and to know that God is using them in their chapters in amazing ways! One of them had been to Greek Conference in Charlotte (the same conference I went to in college) and shared a buzz she heard about IV possibly adding a New York location this year. She told me today that the buzz is for real--Greek Conference is coming up this way in October! So, I'm hoping to rally a group of Greek girls to go--and to volunteer that weekend as a leader.

If that weren't enough, Mike shared with me that an IV couple is pioneering the ministry at UConn this year--the guy will be working primarily with the undergrad chapter, and the girl will be starting a Greek chapter! As we talked, I started to put together that I met this girl--Alyssa--three years ago when I went to Orlando for a prospective staff weekend with Greek IV (yet another small-world connection)! At the time, she was pioneering a Greek chapter at UNH. I immediately loved her for her willingness to do ministry in New England. (Of course I never dreamed that God would eventually call me here! He's funny like that, you know.) But how cool is it that we have not only two undergraduate IV chapters in Connecticut, but now a Greek chapter as well?!

God is definitely up to something around here!

Dancers Who Dance Upon Injustice

because
in spite of all this
brokenness
it's good
He's weaving it together
for good

These are words from my dear friend, Sarah. You would just love her if you knew her. She is wise and poetic and full of grace, even on gchat, which is where she typed out these words to me sometime last year when I was living in Nashville. Her words, which are scribbled on the page of my quote book (a little book where I stash sweet nuggets of truth from good books and movies and such), came to mind last night. This world in which we find ourselves is so very broken, indeed.

I've only been back in the office for two days after my Cayman getaway, but our church is currently standing with some friends who are facing grave injustices. Yesterday some of the staff gathered to pray over a heartbreaking situation and today my team sprung into action to minister in another set of circumstances. I'm feeling drained tonight, but also strangely encouraged by the role God permits us to play in advocating for justice.

Sharon Cohn, the Vice President of International Justice Mission, wisely said (in a speech at InterVarsity's Urbana conference), "God is not knocked backward by the massiveness of the need. It does not blur the contours of each person He so passionately loves and He so doggedly pursues." I cling to those words on days like this, when I feel worn out in ministry and overwhelmed by the need. The speech is worth watching. View it here.

Oh, Jesus, how we long that you might bring your Kingdom in its fullness! May we be used of you as agents of justice to usher it in.

Go Greek!

It's September...and that means football, changing leaves, and of course, at schools across the nation, RUSH! You can read my latest myMISSIONfulfilled.com story on Greek life here.

And for more on Greek ministry, take a minute to check out Greek IV's new video "Joe and Jane Greek!"

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A Little Snippet for Greek Conference

I've been working this week on writing up a summary of my ministry experiences in Tri Delta for my friend Goodie, who is the Greek IV staffworker at U of R, to use in her talk at Greek Conference next weekend. It was such a neat exercise in recalling God's faithfulness over a four-year period that I thought I'd share it here.

I first learned about Greek Conference when I was in high school. A college youth leader (who is now my boss), told me about his amazing weekend with hundreds of Greek Christians in Indianapolis. “We stayed up all night and played worship music and prayed for our brothers,” he said excitedly. I knew right then that Greek ministry was something I wanted to be a part of.

So a month or so before I pledged Tri Delta, I met with Will (Richmond’s Greek staff at the time) to find out more about Greek IV. His words of sage Greek ministry wisdom? “Just rage at the lodges with your sisters, and go to beach week and live it up with them.” That seemed like strange advice to this sheltered church girl—rage at the lodges?! I was talking about Greek ministry, as in leading Bible studies, sharing my testimony, and inviting sisters to Greek conference. But Will’s advice turned out to be far wiser than I knew then. In hindsight, I can see that God had a much bigger plan for my sorority experience than reading the Bible with a group of sisters one night a week. I had a lot to learn.

There were certainly times when Greek ministry looked as I had expected it would: Ten or twelve girls—most of whom I was pretty sure didn’t know the Lord—showing up for Bible study on a Tuesday night. Four other Tri Delts attending Greek conference. A random sister asking me questions about my faith. But more frequently, ministry in Tri Delta looked a little more like Will had described: having the confidence to go out with my sisters when I knew I’d be the only one not drinking. Serving my chapter in offices that demanded more of my time and heart than I sometimes felt I had to give. Sharing a house at beach week with 20 wild pledge sisters and putting a few of them to bed at the end of each night. Spending hard earned babysitting money to go on spring break with girls I barely knew. And all of that just in my sophomore year!!

Junior year came and I studied abroad in Italy, giving me the opportunity to travel with sisters who were also abroad. We bonded over shared adventures, excitement over going back to Richmond, and the growing poundage taking up residence around our waists from basically eating our way through Europe. During the spring semester, I threw myself back into chapter life, holding a demanding office and trying to start up Bible study once again. I felt closer to my sisters than ever, only no one came to Bible study.

Most of the girls who had come the year before had graduated. Gone were the days of sisters meeting to share struggles, questions, and prayer requests. No longer was I seeing real transformation take place before my very eyes. I had sensed God so at work through that group sophomore year, and had even—quite unexpectedly—made one of my best friends and spiritual confidants. Now it was hard to see whether God was working at all...it felt pretty lonely at times. In the midst of that discouragement, I learned to seize opportunities to get to know my sisters and be a part of their lives: Showing up at intramurals. Volunteering to do not-so-glamorous jobs. Studying with sisters or grabbing a quick meal with them during the week. Making 45 grilled cheeses for late night snacks at beach week. Embracing and just really LOVING Tri Delta.

By senior year, Tri Delt was my home on campus and my pledge sisters were some of my very best friends. Instead of struggling to find ways to be involved and to serve my sisters, now I had to really push myself to be bold in my witness, to refrain from gossiping, to be set apart without being judgmental. It’s tricky business, this being in the world but not of it!

One of my favorite stories of a time when—by God’s grace—I did share boldly, goes like this: A pledge sister I often bond with over our mutual love of baking in the sun had called to see if I would lay out with her on the Westhampton lawn. We rallied a few other girls for a lazy Friday afternoon. Only for me, it wasn’t so lazy because I had to outline a youth Bible study on the book of Judges for my summer internship at a church. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to hang out with sisters, but up against a deadline on the study, I lugged my massive study Bible (actually, I think it was Goodie’s Bible that I had borrowed!) and an equally huge commentary out to the lawn. I guess I looked pretty conspicuous, because within minutes, an exchange student from the UK whom we didn’t know was quizzing me about my beliefs. As I shared with him my reasons for trusting in Christ, my pledge sister, a self-proclaimed atheist, piped up and said, “You should listen to this girl; God works in her life!” She then recalled for this random guy (and our other pledge sisters who were hanging out) numerous situations in which I had waited on the Lord, and He had worked mightily in my life. I was blown away!

This is what so thrills me about the Christian life—that God is so very kind to let us in on His working in the world. Jesus calls himself the light of the world in John 8:12, but in Matthew 5:14 he says that WE are the light of the world! Best of all, He lets us partner with Him in being light while we are still such a mess! I am humbled and amazed that even in the midst of my pride, my fear, my selfish ambition, and my indifference, God called me to a dark place and said, “Here. You be the light.” But I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase, The Message: “If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our very ordinary lives” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

A few months removed from college life, I hope that my sisters notice the sweet Message contained in the clay pot of my very ordinary life. When we G-chat during the workday, meet up for homecoming (or the let’s-pretend-we’re-still-in-college spring break trip we’d like to take), send out e-mail chains about the latest Richmond Tri Delta news, visit each other in various cities, etc., I hope that Christ’s brightness is impossible to miss! I’m trusting that Greek ministry is STILL taking place, even though I’m far away from my sisters. Because you see, it’s really not just about a Bible study, but about raging on the dance floor with your sisters (or brothers), a way of life that blazes through the darkness.

IJM featured in January 19 issue of The New Yorker

I received an e-mail from the International Justice Mission plugging an article recently published in The New Yorker. In it, writer Samantha Powers brilliantly investigates the work of IJM and the life of Gary Haugen, the mission's founder. The IJM staff is praying that the article will be a catalyst for their fund raising efforts, as well as a bridge-builder with The New Yorker's many secular readers, so I thought I'd do my part to help circulate it (to all four of you who read my blog). You can read the fascinating article (my only complaint is that the end is negative), as well as view pictures and Q&A with Haugen, on IJM's website.

I especially loved what Haugen told Powers about his formative time in South Africa--where he was imprisoned briefly for attending a multicultural church--after graduating college:

"What struck me was that in a country just utterly caged by fear--where whites were terrified, blacks were terrified, where anybody who tried to do the right thing was going to get crushed--I got to be with these Christians who had the most surprising absence of fear. They just did the right thing...I came to believe that they lived that way because they actually believed that what Jesus said was true. And I found that, to the extent that I acted as if I believed what Jesus said was true, I lived without fear."

Haugen, a former InterVarsity student, is the author of two books published by IV Press: Good News about Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World and Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian. He is also the co-author of Terrify No More: Young Girls Held Captive and the Daring Undercover Operation to Win Their Freedom.