What exactly is going on in Chapel Hill?!

Okay so there is the thing that happens in life where we get really proud of how busy we are. It kinda goes like this...
"How are you doing?" Jack asks Jill
(Jill sighs dramatically and shakes her head) "I am writing a term paper for every class I've ever taken. Then I am playing on 7 intramural teams, each of which I am the captain. In between running for class president, I am running for president of the whole college. I have also decided to take up tap dancing and will be choreographing my own recital.... just another crazy week."
Then Jack starts nodding empathetically and tells Jill that he is doing all those things too but also trying to stop world hunger. He will probably beat her in the campaign for class president. Because of this, Jill gets mad and leaves.

So, the point is... we are busy Jack's and Jill's. I am not the busiest person on the planet, or even in my house. But there are some cool things that I get to do every day. They require a couple of cups of coffee in the morning, and usually one in the afternoon. I thought it'd be fun for you to hear about a typical week in the life of Ally, Campus Outreach staff woman here at UNC... (and included a couple of pic's of the students I meet with)

Sunday, November 9th- met a student at Panera for breakfast. Talked about her walk with God and ways I can help her grow. Drove to a park nearby, sat in the car listening to music, praying, and reading Scripture. Then we had a leaders meeting for the student leaders at my house. Ate at Whole Foods with another student Margaret on our way to church (we go to the pm service at the Summit www.summitchurch.cc). Worked in the nursery at church and tamed crazy 2-year-olds with Hannah Love, UNC sophomore. Drove home and sang Happy Birthday to my roommate Tiffany and ate cake. Did laundry. Brushed teeth, bed time.

Monday, November 10th- staff meeting at Cafe Carolina. Shared how we're doing and talked about recruiting students to Atlanta Conference. Afterwards, met with my campus director Bowe and talked about how my time was visiting my grandma. He told me I might need counseling for all my personal issues! This is kind of a joke, and kind of not. We then talked more about what's going on in the women's ministry. Spent time with Jesus, studied Proverbs 1:1-7. Went to my Summit Life group (Bible Study from the church) it is amazing, we talked about how we carry around a lot of guilt to try to pay for our sins when in reality, Christ did all the work for us on the cross... we are called to "confess our sin and have no further uneasiness about it" -Brother Lawrence. Drove to Raleigh and printed out my newsletters (Woohoo!) This took a very long time and many cusswords ran through my head as I tried to print the newsletters and failed many times before it came out right. Showered and went to bed at 3 am (eww).

Tuesday, November 11th- Got up early and went to Starbucks with Betsy. We talked about why we care so much about how we look and how stupid that is. We prayed that God would use us here and teach us how to love Him. Then from 9-1 we had a regional staff meeting (this includes the UNC and NC State staff). Drove home and planned for my Bible Study that night. Next I went to pick up acrylic paint and a big white sheet. The girls in my d-group and I painted a huge banner to welcome students to our weekly meeting (Wednesday nights at 9 pm). It was great except I spelled the word FABULOUS-- FABULOS. Big boo-boo, thankfully we had white paint. Then we had our weekly Bible Study together at 8 pm. We talked about and prayed for our friends on campus and studied the book of Galatians together. Love them, love it. The guys next door had a cookout and watched football with students they're ministering to, at 11 pm Jim brought me over a really good piece of bbq chicken. My roommates and I prayed and worked on our powderpuff football tournament.

Wednesday, November 12th- woke up and did my day of prayer (a 5 hour eval/scripture reading time that we do once a month) Then at 1pm, I got to meet with my friend Erin Coomer who is on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. So great, she told me about a talk that she's giving in December at their big campus meeting and we shared stuff about our lives, realizing we have a ton in common. Love Erin, she refreshes me a lot! Then I went to the Starbucks on campus and met my friend Kayleigh who is a sophomore. She is thinking about studying abroad in Australia and wanted my advice about it. We talked and prayed together, so great. Next I hung out with Molly, a girl that is in my Bible Study, in her dorm room. We mostly talked about boys, and giggled a lot. After that is the highlight of the week---- our campus meeting! We call it 104 because we meet in Howell, 104 a room on campus. There were about 40 people there. We played Pictionary and the winner got a 50$ gift certificate for the Atlanta Conference. Daniel, the CO Regional Director at UNC, gave a talk on 6 reasons why people don't like Christians. So great, and at the end of it, he explained that real Christianity transforms your life and comes from understanding you are a sinner and that the only solution to mend your major eternal flaw is to enter into a relationship with Jesus. Afterwards we have food and talk to the students, I always look for new faces and try to make them feel welcome. Erik gave me a ride home and we talked about what we were gonna wear to DT and Kellie's wedding this weekend.

Thursday- went to Wendy's house (her husband is Daniel, our regional director) with Katie (also on staff) we drank coffee and shared what we've been learning. Then At 11, I met Kristi, a junior at UNC. She is trying to grow in her walk with God but doesn't know how. We're going to start studying the book of Romans together. Then I met with Morgan (another girl in my Bible Study) we talked and prayed for the students she is reaching out to (even though Morgan is only a sophomore, she knows a lot of students that don't know about God). Last night, I had 3 students spend the night- Margaret, Anne, and Sandra. It was a blast. We sang and jumped on my little trampoline. Then we went to bed, kind of. We mostly laughed and talked.

Friday (aka TODAY)- woke up early with my slumber party friends went to Bob Evan's for breakfast. Sandra and I stayed longest and talked about God for a while. She is in an early Judaism class. We talked about Jacob and how he was kind of a jerk. We decided we are really glad that God uses failed people like us to accomplish His purposes. So glad He doesn't ask us to be perfect, or even good. I think this is a new concept for Sandra. Came home and met with Nicole- shared with her Campus Outreach's definition of discipleship. Nicole got so excited! She is ready to reach out to women on this campus, that is an answered prayer. NOW... I am packing, listening to the Supremes sing "You can't hurry love" and getting ready to go to Myrtle Beach for my friends Kellie and DT's wedding!

If you are still reading this post, I am shocked. These are 5 days out of my week. Thanks for taking time to keep up with me and for your ongoing encouragement and support. Please keep me in your prayers :) Ally

Insomnia

Okay so I am a pro at sleeping. It typically takes me 3 alarms to wake up in the morning... I have this really, exceptional roommate who is a human alarm as well. She touches my leg everyone 20 minutes, tells me to wake up in the sweetest voice, and sets hot coffee on my night stand... which makes me think that it's gonna be hard for me to find a husband who will measure up to her.

But falling asleep, sheesh, that is another story.

So I can't sleep tonight and thought that I could fill you in on this week. Well, not all of it, so I'll pick one part. And maybe by typing some things out they will leave my head and I will have less going on in my brain. It's like a circus in there.

So tonight I led this Bible Study that we actually call a discipleship group (every Tuesday night it starts at 7:30 pm and goes until someone complains and reminds me that they are college students and have work to do)

The girls in the group are Molly, Morgan, Margaret, and Nicole. We try to be nice to Nicole even though her name doesn't start with an "m" and she's from Honduras. These girls are amazing. They love serving this ministry, but even more so they love serving the kingdom of God

We have this map of the campus- each dorm that we know people in mapped out with multi-colored sharpies and every week we write down the girls we've met this semester and where they live. If any of these girls saw it, they would think we were majorly weird and stalking them. But really, we pray for them. We ask God to take these girls lives and transform them into women that love Him in a really radical way.

A lot of times, doing this gets the girls in my group talking... they tell me about meals they had this past week with girls on the chart. Or ways that they are seeing God move that girl closer to knowing Him. To us, each name is someone who God has made in His image and really, passionately loves. He has a plan for each of these girls and we are really hoping that He'll let us be part of that plan.

"Come, follow me," Jesus said. "And I will make you fishers of men..."

New Pictures...

This is Stephen and I (in the front row) with our team of students at the Summer Project. There were 4 teams total this summer. In this picture, we just had our field day competition (relay races, team cheers, games) and we won... of course.







Here is a picture of me with the other team leader girls. We lived in a room together this summer and helped run/organize the project. On this night, we dressed up for an event we put on called the "Nursing Home Boogie" all the students dressed up like old people (wore depends diapers, walked around stopped over, put baby-powder in their hair) and we had a dance, an applesauce eating contest, and bingo...

One of the students, Katie a senior at Coastal Carolina University, worked at Liberty Inn in Epcot. This is her in the hotel room one day after work showing off her fancy uniform!














This picture is back in Chapel Hill one Sunday after church- Susie, Anne, Sandra, and Katherine are sophomores at UNC that I met last year and continue to get to know and spend time with!










Two of my favorite students took me out to dinner for my birthday and got me flowers!

Better late...very, very, very late... than never!

Hello friends and family! I am sick today. And after browsing BBC and Nordstroms.com, and responding to old, old e-mails, it popped into my mind to update my blog! Here is what has been going on via a month-by-month update...

1. May 2008- said good-bye to most of the students for the summer, took a course at Wheaton College towards a Masters degreed called: Spiritual Formation and Witness. Had the joy of studying and experiencing God with students from Uganda, Rwanda, Brazil, and Boston, MA! We spent 5 days dialogging over prayer, how not to always be so busy, American materialism, and how to engage with what God is always doing around us. After that I took a vacation with my dad and my best friend Betsy to Nevada! Dad played poker and Betsy and I enjoyed all the lights, swimming pools, good food and a Cirque de Soleil show that Vegas had to offer.

2. June 1st 2008- drove to Orlando, FL for Campus Outreach's Summer Project. Here we had 150 students (31 from UNC and NC STATE!) come to learn about God and work at Disney World for 2 months! Students live in a hotel and we get them a job working 40 hours a week at Disney. In the evenings, they attended meetings where they learned how to grow in their relationship with Christ. There were also a ton of social activities for them.
I was there with the students for 2 months! I was a team-leader. My friend Stephen and I led a team of 35 students. We helped the different rooms on our team get to know each other, grow in their faith by meeting with them one-on-one-- often showing them how to study the Bible, and sought to develop in their planning and leadership skills by putting together a big weekly meeting! (the big weekly meeting includes skits, worship music, and a talk... the students learn how to do these over the summer then they do them on their different campuses throughout the school year!)

3. August 1st 2008- left Orlando (Very, very sad after all the new friendships I made) and drove to Chapel Hill! Two of my roommates from last year got engaged and I had to find a new living arrangement. God is so faithful. The house I live in this year is even closer to campus and bigger. I rent a room in this house along with 4 other girls. 2 are also on staff with campus outreach and the other 2 are graduate students at UNC.

4. August 22nd- 1st day of class! We helped students move into the dorms and showed our sophomore student leaders (those who want to learn how to minister to their peers here at UNC) how to reach out and build friendships with those around them. We asked many of them to go to the dorms with us and meet freshman. We have been following up with the new people we've met ever since... cooking meals for them, inviting them and their friends to tailgate with us, bringing them to our campus meetings, we held a retreat for the students, visited them in the dorms, eat with them in the cafeterias, asking them to our awesome church (www.summitchurch.cc) , but overall building friendships with them and asking God to give us boldness and creativity as we point these students to the purpose life they can find in a relationship with Jesus.

April Rewind...

Strange places that I slept this month.

In a box...

An organization at UNC hosted a night called "Box Out" it was an opportunity for students to experience homelessness in a small way by giving up the comforts of home for a night. Two of my favorite friends I've made this year- Anne and Sandra- asked me to be a part of their box community so of course I said yes, good opportunity to sleep outside. Our box was in the shape of a castle, amazing! I really enjoyed this night, met some great students who really cared about empathizing with people in the community who were less fortunate than them.

On the beach...
One night at the cafeteria freshmen Lizzy and Katherine were saying how much they wanted to go on a road trip to the beach but couldn't find a ride. So I said that I would take them! We drove 3 hours to Wilmington and slept on the beach. The next morning we watched the sunrise and drove back to Chapel Hill so they could get to class in time! The girls and I had a blast bonding in the car- we talked a lot about relationships and how to build a relationship that is focused on honoring God. On the way home we listened to an awesome sermon about how lots of people think that Christians are really narrow-minded, it started a great discussion.

On this deflated airmatress...
This airmatress just stays in my car, I don't even bother putting it back in the house! For the last 3 weekends I have gone on a road trip to Charleston, SC for planning/leadership training for this summer! I have been asked to be a team leader at our Summer Orlando Project-- it's a cool role where I will work about 15 hours at Disney, play a part in organizing the Project meals and socials, and lead a team of 40 students along with my team leader partner Stephen. To lead this team, I get to spend a lot of time with Sarah, Adria, Felicia, and Alex- four girls that are going to be room leaders. They get to experience discipleship first hand for the first time. The girls in their rooms this summer will have the joy of having a woman who walks with God pour into their lives- teaching them how to study the Word, pray, reach out to their co-workers at Disney World, and learn how to tend to their heart and character to walk with Jesus for a life-time! I love it, it is an honor to help lead and develop these women.

This picture is of me and Zach-- Zach is on staff with Campus Outreach at NC State and will also be a team leader this summer in Orlando.

Love is in the air...

Two of my favorite people are engaged!

Katie, my roommate and fellow Campus Outreach worker, is marrying her boyfriend Landon, a CO staff guy at NC State, this October! Woo hoo, I will miss her so much but am gaining an awesome new staff worker since Landon is gonna move to our campus and help us reach more men! Katie and I have lived together the last 3 years and I've learned so much about God from her

Katie, my SISTER, is marrying her boyfriend Drew! She came to visit me last week and Saturday when she flew back to Chicago Drew popped the question. When I tell people about the two of them I tell them about how I don't know how two people could be better matched up. If I could handpick a guy for my sister, it would be Drew. The joy I feel about a guy like him joining our family is inexplainable. He brings so much laughter and depth to our relationships, particularly how he loves my sister and is a big brother to Steven. I see God reign in their relationship and they are so in love and selfless towards one another. This is such good news.

Memorial Service

As I said in my last post, I went with some students to a memorial service about Eve Carson last week. There were over 10,000 students, faculty, family, and friends of Eve in the Dean Dome and the service was so beautiful. Eve's friends said the most wonderful words about her, they described her as one of those rare people that you meet that longs to change the world and is actually doing something about it. Here is a little of what the student body president just before Eve, Seth Dearmin, said about her:

"Eve was certainly more than a laundry list of superlatives [...] Let us today shed our last moments of silence for Eve. For though she led her life fully, she was not able to lead a full life. From this point forward, we must speak loudly and act boldly. Eve's mantle has been passed to us."

Eve was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow who studied abroad in Cuba and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program. She was a political science and biology major. She was one of the top students in the class and was valedictorian of her high school. People just adored her, she was always dancing and making people laugh. Her best friend Anna said that Eve genuinely loved getting to know people and validated them when ever she could.

Walking up the bleachers I started thinking to myself how rare a life like Eve's is because there aren't many people out there who believe they can make a difference in this world. I thought to myself- although I likely don't have the courage to do so-that I would like to trade my life for Eve's, so that she might go on living and impacting people. Then it dawned on me in a way that's what I'm doing here at Chapel Hill. I will likely never travel like she did and achieve academically but perhaps I can lay down my life in order that students here at UNC will know Christ in a deeper way. Knowing God through relationship with Jesus is the only thing we can do with our lives that will truly bring transformation. And that will last forever.

And you don't have to be a full-time campus minister to do so, you can trade your life for other people's just by spending some of your time praying for them, offering a listening ear even when you need to be doing something else, and by sharing what God has given you.

Eve Carson

The Thursday before I left Carolina for Spring Break there was a lot of commotion in the Student Union. I was meeting with a student and we asked the editors of the Daily Tar Heel (the school newspaper) what was going on- they told us that the unidentified student shot the morning before was actually student body president Eve Carson.

School police made an announcement a few moments later and as some of her friends found out for the first time that Eve was lost to them, a lot of emotion and anger came out. It was so sad to see these students grieve.
Having lost a few friends myself, I can kind of relate even though all of our sufferings are so different.
Last week they found out that the men that shot Eve were in a gang in nearby Durham, they had also shot a student from Duke University in January.
Please pray for the students right now, not just here at UNC but all over the country. And pray for the people who have known nothing but violence and find their lives wasted away by the influence of gangs.
There is a memorial at the Dean Smith center tomorrow for Eve and I am going with a few freshman girls, I pray that we can somehow find Christ together in the midst of so much hurt.
I was stunned to realize the impact Eve's short life made on this world- look at this web-site to learn more about her and the ways her one life has changed things:

http://universityrelations.unc.edu/alert/carson/

Prayer Request

Okay so lately there have been some really good things happening here in Chapel Hill. Last weekend at our first retreat in Asheville, NC, a girl named Nicole- from Honduras- a freshman at UNC gave her life to Christ and it has been amazing to see how her life has changed and her heart has truly been revived by Jesus. Another girl- Margaret, also a freshman here at UNC, realized that she gave her life to Christ for the first time at our Christmas Conference and she is so eager to share this with her friends that are trying to find joy in partying and relationships. I was able to share the gospel with one of these girls- her name is Mimi- last week and am having her over for dinner tonight to follow that up and ask her if she has given any more thought to surrendering her life!

But the further I get into friendships with different women here, the more I am becoming burdened and broken over the hurts in their lives. They have lost close friends in car accidents, had family members suddenly killed, seen their fathers leave their mothers, watched loved ones die of cancer... they wake up and are pushed to succeed academically and socially every day but in their hearts there are deep unanswered questions that lead them to struggle with anxiety and depression.

The blanket of emptiness I see these girls wrestling with makes me hurt. I am not a counselor nor a doctor yet I long to cure them of the pains they carry! There are about 15 girls I am reaching out to right now and each of them is struggling with the claims of Jesus in different ways. If he truly is the Son of God who has come to change our lives and bust our paradigms about religion, then it may cause a major life change for them. It is really challenging me to spend time in the Word, asking God to reveal to me who He is and how He would like me to share Him specifically with each of these women He has placed in my life.

Please join me in prayer as I ask Him to show me specific passages in Scripture to share with these women and for Him to minister to them in their pain in a way that only He can!

Praying that God will break up all unplowed ground like He promises in Hosea 10:12--
"Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you."

Some January News...

"What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs" -Matthew 10:27
Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful week! Life in Chapel Hill has been very sweet this past week. God is doing amazing things in different areas of my life...

• We have a women's accountability group (about 7 staff women) that has been meeting weekly since September. Sadly, until last week this time was relatively shallow. We would talk about our lives but never go much beyond the surface of our hearts. Last week we asked each other "What about this group makes you fearful?" and "What is something about you that you are afraid the women in this group won't give you grace for?" I said that I am often fearful that I will share something deep and personal and be met with blank stares. That the issues of my life aren't important to the people around me. I told the girls that I am afraid I won't get grace for being a messy person, a person with so many flaws that sometimes I fear that if people knew who I really was, not just who I seem to be on the outside, they wouldn't love me very much at all. God really showed up during this time and in our honesty brought each of us to a place of deeper trust in Him and in one another.
• Bible studies! My staff partner Kellie and I are starting up a Bible study for 7 girls that are interested in walking deeper with God! Some of these girls may not have even surrendered their lives to Christ yet. Their names are Morgan, Sally, Elizabeth, Katherine, Lizzy, Freddie, and Margaret. Each of these girls are so full of life and personality. They each struggle in different ways to believe that God loves them. I can't wait to learn more about them and about Christ through leading this study.
• We have started to meet in the mornings at 8 to get in the Word at a coffee shop near all of our homes. It is really changing me. I used to try to spend time alone with God at whatever point in the afternoons I had free time but having this set time in the morning helps me sit still and engage with God in a deeper way than I would on my own.
• I am part of a party planning committee! Katie, Erik, Tony and I meet every Tuesday to plan events and then present them the following day to our staff team. We are working on planning a Superbowl party for the students. Last Saturday we had an all girls sleepover at our house! It was great, 13 girls spent the night! We played pranks on the boys down the street (the picture is of a few of us before we attacked their home!) and ate lots of pizza and watched Father of the Bride. The next morning many of these girls accompanied us to church, for some of them it was their first time attending church since arriving at college. This upcoming Saturday the boys are playing Flag Football and the girls are having a Miss America Party- we're asking girls to bring their high school prom dress (or providing them a dress via our abundant bridesmaid attire!) and watching the Miss America Pageant. Erik has agreed to come as our host and during the commercials we're going to have a fun pageant of our own complete with toilet paper sashes. These events help bring students and staff together, ultimately for the gospel to be shared, lives to be changed, and God to be glorified!
  

Atlanta Conference 2007

We started praying for students to come with our staff team to the Atlanta Conference last October. Since students had never come with us on a retreat or to a campus meeting, we felt like only God could compel them to give up a portion of their Christmas break, spend the money it cost to go, and be around people they didn't know very well for 5 whole days. Our prayer was that 5 girls and 5 guys from UNC would decide to join us at the conference.... amazingly 6 girls and 4 boys from UNC came, 2 boys from Duke, and 19 students from NC State took a bus from Raleigh to Atlanta to go to the Campus Outreach Christmas Conference (ATL 2007). The picture above is of some UNC girls hanging out after an evening rally.

Many of our UNC staff were involved in planning the Conference. There were over 1,000 students from CO Gulf Coast, CO Charleston, CO Augusta, and the new region that I'm a part of... CO Raleigh! I work with these hilarious guys, Bowe and Tony and they spent weeks planning for their roles as the conference MC's, listed below are some of the videos that they made.
Here are some guys playing flag football on their free day:

The best part of the conference was seeing God show up in these students lives. The theme was "More than a Cliche..." and the various speakers delivered messages focused on God's love being more than a cliche. One speaker said that if you don't understand God's love for you, you miss out on an incredibly important aspect of having a relationship with Him. Over the course of the conference, many students decided to give their lives to following Jesus! These students will surely make an impact on their campus, in their families, and in the lives of so many they encounter as they grow in their relationship with God!

Here are some girls from UNC breakin' it down at our New Years' Eve Dance Party!

My friend Jim took some great pictures of the main conference room and then another here of students listening to a seminar:

End of semester update

"Look at the nations and watch--

and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe, not even if you were told."
Habakkuk 1:5

Hello! It has been one of those nights where those of you that support and love this ministry I am a part of have been heavy on my heart and in my prayers.
Thank you for your role in making Christ known throughout this campus! Here are some of the events that students came to towards the end of the semester!

A holiday cookie party! We had over 40 girls at our home to drink hot chocolate and cider, decorate dozens of cookies, and watch the holiday favorite Elf. It was such a great chance for students to connect with one another and feel welcomed in our home. It was also a chance for us to tell students about the upcoming Christmas Conference.

Our first campus meeting! We invited students that we were connected to to come and hear about the Atlanta Conference Campus Outreach puts on every New Years. Nearly 30 students came to hear about why the conference is worth their time and travel (it's nearly 6 hours from Raleigh) and to hang out with one another!

I will post more about this later- but we had an amazing time at the conference! 31 students from Campus Outreach Raleigh (UNC and NC State) joined us at the conference (God exceeded our expectations, as a staff we prayed for a total of 20 students to come, that's 10 students to come from each campus). Some of these students made commitments to follow Christ for the first time in their life. Each was so thankful for the opportunity to learn how to grow in their faith and experience God's love on a deeper level.