one on one

it's a big part of what i do (though i have to be reminded it's not my only responsibility).

i have the priviledge, joy, sorrow, annoyance, etc. of meeting with college girls who are trying to figure out what it means to live their life in this world. they have problems with roommates, boyfriends, sorority sisters, parents, teachers, friends, really with anyone who has a pulse. and that's only where it starts.

what am i to do as i listen to these girls? they really don't want to know what i think or what advice i have for them. they don't want to hear how i can identify with them or how i've been there too. they don't really even want me to cry with them.

they want to be known.

and most of the time, they don't even know it. they are unaware of this deep yearning inside to be known. and i've been there, too. i know what it means to feel like no one around knows me...they may know things about me, but they fail to know me, really know me. yet this is normal. this is the longing of our hearts, this is our humanity. we were created to be in relationship--in community--and so this deep yearning makes perfect sense. but they also don't know that they're trying to fill this through relationships with their boyfriends; through their intensely busy schedule; through their academic work; through their social activities; through their identity as being in greek life, the honors college, a pre-med major, an athlete, a non-conformist, a super-christian; through their desire to escape from their thoughts that tell them they're just not good enough.

they hear but don't believe that Jesus knows them. He knows her name. He knows her desires. He knows her struggles. He knows her sin. He knows her ambitions. He knows her fears. He knows her pain. He knows her laugh. He knows her tears. He knows her disappointments. He knows her joys. He knows her doubts. He knows her deepest secrets. He knows her idols. He knows her gods. He knows her.

what a comfort. scary, though it may be, that Jesus actually knows me and these girls i'm just trying to love on.

so what do i actually do when i meet with these girls? i try to point her back to the only One who can put her together again. i'm pointing her back to reality, to the One who created her and knows her. trying to get her to quit looking at herself and to behold her Savior. He is her only hope. and He fills her every longing.

that's why i'm here.

hebrews

we had our first small group Bible study on hebrews this past monday. i really enjoyed being in dialogue with the girls--we had someone from each year, freshman through senior, which was encouraging to me. and i wasn't expecting all of them to jump in and contribute something to the discussion, as i know there are some who are still seeing where they fit in. so i was surprised that when our time came to a close, i realized that each girl had added a comment or question or observation.

please continue to be praying for these girls as we read through and consider God's Word. these girls come from all different backgrounds, so pray that their unity in Christ will overstep their boundaries they have as they look different, are involved in different things, and are going through different stages of life (an 18-year old in-coming freshman is thinking about and struggling with different things than a 22-year old senior whose trying to figure out what their next step in life will be) but they have been willing to share their thoughts and ideas and be generally well received from the group.

and please continue to pray for me that my identity and my view of the success/failure of the group will not rise nor fall based on the numbers who come, on the discussion had, nor on the presence or lack of keen insights i share.

thank you for your prayers and support!

bookshelf

so, here it is, our bookshelf. all of our walls are white, so i wanted something to add more color. and green it is. actually, it's called guacamole. though, now looking at a picture of it, i think the books add more color than the bookcase, but i like it.

we spent some time yesterday unloading boxes of books, so our office area is getting a bit less cluttered and looking more like an office/practice room. i'll be thankful when it's complete.

a brief summer update

summer conference -- ruf's national conference at laguna beach, florida -- was wonderful. there were over 900 students during the two weeks where their typical day looked like: breakfast; 2 seminar classes taught by campus ministers from all over the country on various topics from christianity and the arts to idolatry to evangelism to justification and everything in between; lunch; free time on the beautiful beaches of florida; dinner; a large group worship time of music and preaching by either Jeff Hatton, the pastor of redeemer PCA in waco, texas, or Rich Lambert, the pastor of new saint peters PCA in dallas; ending with small groups and a bit more free time. what a great time of fellowship and growth!

alex and i married in june and moved to waco, texas, mid-july after honeymooning and spending time with family. we have been settling in since -- our current project is building and painting a bookshelf to house all of our books.

because of our marriage, my work with ruf has transferred me from texas a&m to baylor university, my alma mater. the ruf staff at baylor includes the new campus minister Shaynor Newsome, previously the campus minister at new mexico state, and Tyler Hall, who has been working with baylor's ruf for the past year (he and i will be doing similar jobs -- though i will be directing my attention towards the girls and he towards the guys.) we are very excited about this upcoming fall, which is fast approaching.
- freshmen move in this wednesday and thursday
- our leadership retreat is from thursday to saturday
- we have a church fair for the freshmen on saturday
- classes begin the next monday (august 24)
- Shaynor, Tyler, and I will be on campus passing out water bottles and telling people about ruf the first week
- ruf's first large group is next wednesday (august 26)

please visit baylor ruf's website for more information: www.baylor.ruf.org

thank you for your continued prayer and support!

frozen custard

i'm within the final three weeks now at texas a&m and am amazed how quickly this semester has passed. and i know how these next 17 days will go by.

i was reminded today why i am here. i am an ear to listen, a hug to give, a marker to point to our Lord Jesus Christ. i don't have all of the answers, nor the wisdom, for these girls' problems. i am a fellow traveller who has come alongside to walk with them through the dark muck of sin that pulls upon them during their college years. i am to point them away from themselves that they may behold One who is greater than they, that they may be able to continue to walk, and to get back up when they fall, though covered with that sticky, smelly muck. i wish i could continue walking through that muck with these girls at a&m for another year, but i know i am being called away from bryan/college station that i would marry. and i look forward to that day.

and i know the muck in the lives of the girls at baylor university, in waco, texas, is just as prevalent, sticky, smelly, and burdensome as it is here. and so i look to keep on travelling until i meet with those girls at baylor that i may walk with them, beside them, in the muck that is our sin.

but until that day...

would you please pray that i will keep my eyes upon Jesus my Saviour that i would continue to work where He has called me this day.

would you please pray for these girls and guys at texas a&m -- they are hurting, they are burdened.

would you rejoice with me at the faithful work the Lord Jesus continues to do in these students' hearts and lives! i have been so encouraged to see the change that has happened even over the past eight months in their understanding of who they are and who God is.

about the title: i am pleased to know i have converted one of my girls to frozen custard : ) yum.

the last one

it's been a whirlwind of the past month and a half, and i realize i haven't stopped to give you all an update in more than a month...so, hopefully, i'll send out a more "updated" form of what is going on after this week.

i just wanted to let you all know that tonight is our last ruf large group of the semester. we have around five seniors who are graduating this december, so we are sad to see them leave. sometimes it feels like this semester has passed by so quickly, yet i also feels as though i've been in bryan/college station for some time. it feels more like home.

i would love it if you would be praying for these students here at a&m as they are trying to finish strong with their studies. the freshmen (more commonly referred to as "fish") are slightly anxious about what "finals" actually look like. everyone else sees the light at the end of the tunnel and are looking forward to the winter break.

i am still meeting with my girls and thankfully our conversations are becoming deeper than surface-level.

thank you for your prayers, your support, your kind e-mails, and your dear notes...they are appreciated more than you know.

sorry this is a bit scattered...my mind is bouncing to things that need to happen before 8 this evening.

is it really fall?

after hearing from my mom today that the temperature in nc sank as low as 35 last night/this morning, i'm am reminded that in other parts of the country fall really has set in. sometimes it's hard to tell the changing of seasons (which, to me, says that the days are passing) when it's steadily been in the upper-80s here in bryan/college station. but yesterday was october 1 and that means fall--not the changing of leaves and the smell of smoke from fires burning, but fall nonetheless...and that also means fall conference with ruf.

this year, we are actually doing a fall missions weekend to downtown houston. our focus has veered slightly since hurricane ike hit, so we will be doing some disaster-relief work and volunteering. i look forward to telling you more about it once we return (as i will then know more of the details). some exciting things about it, though, is WHO is going. we've got a great group of students who are going down with us. both ben and i are really excited. one thing that fall conferences can do is really plug the freshman into the group--and we have six who are coming with us, which is awesome!

please be praying for this weekend:
- we have a group leaving early to help set up (i'll be taking six students down with me around 2pm on friday) and then the later group will meet up with us (ben will be taking these students around 4pm on friday). please pray for safety as we travel.
- please pray for community both within our a&m group as well as with the other ruf's we are meeting up with (rice, smu, trinity, ut).
- please pray as we work on saturday in whatever we are doing--whether repairing buildings affected by ike or talking with people affected by ike.
- pray that these students, interns, and campus ministers will see how to better love these souls, for the sake of Jesus' name and His glory.

thank you in advance for your prayers. we do appreciate them.

an exciting couple weeks

well, we're heading into the 5th week of school! and it's hard for me to believe. the past two weeks have been quite busy and quite exciting...

this past week and this week have been the first round of tests/projects/papers/presentations for students, so we are finding that students are studying a bit longer (which is a good thing!) but normally when this happens, the first thing to go is their church/ministry commitment. i definitely remember the pressure to either study for a test/write a paper or go to ruf or Bible study--for some, it's a no brainer, others struggle with it and then struggle with the guilt of not doing the other. so we try to love them and remind them that their spirituality is based only and completely on the perfect work of Jesus Christ, not on their attendance or performance.

speaking of Bible studies: we have a freshman Bible study which meets on mondays--we're going through Jesus' parables and then having discussion questions--and thankfully the freshmen are talking : )
girls upperclassmen Bible study meets on monday nights at one of the core group girls' apartment. we're studying 1 John and two of the core group girls are leading--which has been an exciting time for me to witness them struggling over the text and really seeking to apply it to their lives. during meeting times, the discussions have come along way from the first--the girls are opening up more about how this truth impacts their lives and how they struggle to believe it.
guys upperclassmen Bible study meets monday nights also at some of the core group guys' house. two of the core group guys are leading this study on Galatians. many guys are meeting together to go through God's Word and i have been encouraged to see their faithfulness to studying it.
finally, we have an upperclassmen co-ed study on tim keller's book the reason for God. last week was our first time to meet (thanks to ike and determining schedule issues) and we had a great showing. we just did an introduction to the book, but it seems that many are excited about it!

over the course of these five weeks the girls are becoming more comfortable with me and i am thankful that we are starting to get below the surface level in our conversations. i'm meeting with girls normally over lunch or coffee--or a sonic drink : )

thank you for praying for us while hurricane ike was an issue--we are grateful that the extent we saw was some wind and rain--we even had electricity the whole time!

during that weekend, some other exciting events occurred--alex proposed and i said yes, so we will be getting married this summer : ) we're both very excited and are looking forward to how God will use us together for His glory and the extension of His kingdom.

prayer requests:
- praise that the Hailey's are fully recovered from their sickness!
- praise for God's faithfulness that His Word is going out and penetrating into the hearts and lives of these students
- please pray that these students will be open to hear the Truth and to wrestle with how God's Truth determines truth, as opposed to their own judgment
- please pray that i will have meaningful conversations with girls in 1-on-1's and that i would seek to and would be faithful in pointing them towards the One, Jesus Christ, who completely fulfills and satisfies more than their needs
- please pray for me as i budget my time in studying God's Word, prayer, meeting with students, doing administrative work, and doing "wedding stuff"
- please pray that i will be reminded of the Gospel each moment of the day and that i will look to my Saviour as i am pointing others to lay all at His feet

thank you for your faithfulness and your support. i pray this finds you all resting in God's grace.