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.