Rookie Blogging - First Day

My hope for this blog is to keep my friends and family updated as to what's going on in my life through stories, learnings and pictures. I also want to keep a daily journal because... it's so hard to get in a rythym of doing it. Writing down everything that goes through my head in a day would take all day long and then some, but I'll try.

Another goal is to keep people who are supporting me with Campus Crusade updated and in the know of what they are paying me to do... as yesterday was a 7am - 11pm day... I can assure you it's being well used.

I am learning a great deal right now. Mainly, humility and grace with other people. All people, not just my friends or people I want to be nice to. I am trying to see everyone as God sees them... as people full of potential for amazing things. I try to give up control of things daily as well... in all situations... knowning that sometimes my way of doing things is best and others its not. There's always room for the opinion and feelings of others.

My need for quiet time, prayer, and time in the Word is increasing daily though sometimes not well attended to. If life can be approached from a quiet place, where peace abounds... anything situation can be viewed as a chance for growth and not a struggle... and things that once frustrated me sometimes do not and by that prove the very value of just slowing down and being still. It's a tough lesson for someone who wants to run at every chance.

It's interesting to me how often times in life we cannot see what's going to happen in the next week, day or minute... yet we continue to try to forecast and project our goals onto an already perfect plan... and are puzzled when that adds to the confusion. In a season of my life right now where so many things are in the air... it's easy to wonder and let my mind wander. But it's refreshing to stop and realize all has been taken care of so far in life, and that by holding onto a few key principles (loving others unconditionally, forgiveness, being humble and hopeful) life turns out perfectly.

My day to day role in campus ministry is teaching me a large part of this. During any given week, our team of 6 other men, 3 student staff women, and a few hundred involved students at the UA, will go through a few hours of concentrated prayer time, an equal amount of planning meetings (discussing our minstry as a whole, ways to improve and forecasting future opportunities and obstacles), time for personal development (there are both guided development cirriculum and then simple personal development opportunities), and the remainder of my time is spent with students in the fraternity houses, meeting with fraternity alumni in an effort to prepare for and plan our Greek ministry, and reaching out to leaders on others campuses to get thier best ideas and practices.

Tuesdays are our busiest days... I personally worked on finding new ways to reach out to fraternity men from 7 - 9, had a campus ministry prayer group from 9:30 - 11, from 11:30 - 1:30 did more contacting of undergrads to set up individual meetings, from 1:30 to 2:30 went to one of our fraternity houses and visited with some of the pledges and setup a lunch today out of that time, worked more on contacting guys from 2:45 to about 4:30... then from that time until 11pm we had our weekly student leaders meeting from 5:30 - 8:15 and then at 8:30 held our weekly student-wide meeting featuring praise and worship, a speaker, and time visiting with the students before and after. So, our days are hectic to say the least.

I am enjoying what I am doing (a great deal). It's a pleasure and a privelege to be able to invest in the lives of young people... young men with the world ahead of them... men that are now where I was almost a decade ago (yikes!). It's interesting to see how smart and up to date on everything students are these days... with technology, entertainment, etc. The same struggles still continue though, especially in fraternity houses. On the same campus, people are making both incredibly wise and incredibly destructive decisions for thier lives. Within the same pledge class, the same can be seen. My heart goes out to the student who doesn't realize thier own boundaries until they are crossed and decisions are made that can't be undone. However, I am learning to view each person as a clean slate... as someone in search of something... maybe an identity, maybe a friend, maybe a simple smile. Maybe they already have these things... but looking at my time as an undergrad it was often times spent wondering and wandering.

Apart from serious times, there are a ton of fun/goofy/joking times we are having daily. I was in a house this week where one of the members had ordered some duck calls from Mack's shop in Stuttgart (the Bass Pro Shops of duck hunting)... needless to say I ended up feed and hail calling (very very loudly) in the hall of the fraternity house... to the amusement and enjoyment of the guys. They got a kick out of it for sure!

I am enjoying the men on the staff team as well, and have made a large number of new friends through our ministry. I find myself continually amazed at how mature these students are that come to our weekly meetings, prayer times, etc. They have a depth of understanding of scripture and life in general, each with incredible talents and interests, that is beyond amazing.

As the days go on, I will continue to post different ideas and things learned along the way.

On to the day -