C.I.Y.

This past week I was able to hang out with 80 awesome students and leaders from CCC church in Naperville. We went to a conference called CIY- Christ in Youth (www.ciy.com) held at Hope College in Michigan- so beautiful- it's where my sister goes. At the end of the trip my mom asked me if I got anything out of the week since I've been on so many conferences, retreats, etc. I told her that it was honestly one of the most wonderful times I've spent growing closer to the Lord! Here's some of the reasons why!
1. The Music- even though the worship leaders wore v-neck shirts that revealed their hairy man chests, I LOVED the music and had so much joy over singing beside the students. It was awesome to look around the auditorium and see 1,000+ people praising God, singing and dancing.
2. The other leaders- I was able to have awesome talks and see the giftedness of the leaders there. Alison H and I had a talk one night- she told me about how conversational her relationship with God is, how she often talks to Him aloud, sometimes getting so choked up by the fact that when she prays she is ushered into God's presence. What an awesome reminder of how near our Creator is.
3. My small group! I was able to lead a small group with Shawn Williams who is the youth group leader at CCC. He made me laugh so much and when students shared in our group I could hear in them their excitement about God and desire to follow Him with their lives. These kids are so different from one another but they are united for sure by their passion.
4. Plexiglass- so there were these plexi-glass walls put up all over the auditorium one night and during worship, the speaker told the students to go write on the walls a few words that described the painful issues in their lives. I walked around and looked at the hundreds of words and saw so many things that broke my heart- depression, rape, abuse, divorce... these students are living in a very broken world. There were so many times throughout the week I was moved to tears by the stories some of the high school girls shared with me. But there is hope. So many of them realized that healing can come from the love and connection we're all made for through Jesus. That night some staff of CIY prayed for 14 hours for every un-named individual that wrote on the plexi-glass and for their pain. Definitely an example of how God seeks to be a part of our every hurt and enter into it with us
5. Ones- The theme of the week was ONES- Here is the mission statement I found on the CIY website about the week (the picture below is some of our students holding hands and singing):

"In our differences, we are the same. We are a wide spectrum of people, with distinctive traits and talents, each reflecting a different characteristic of God. Each of us is playing a role in a saga so big that it can not be confined by time or space.
In our pockets of isolation, we search for significance and yearn for true community. So we come together, broken and injured, looking for a place to rest. Some come to support, some come to be healed, in coming together, are made whole.
They all come to be known, to matter. We are here as more than just a number or a statistic. We are here because we were created to bring value. We are here to make her laugh, to cause him to think, to convict them, and to grow. Here to be more than just ONE person, ONE failure, ONE sinner, or ONE saint. We are here as a part of the ONES. And we are here…

…Because we were never meant to be alone."

A real home... at the hill!

Yahtzee! We (Me, Kellie, Katie, and Megan) have a wonderful house that is less than 1/2 mile from the UNC-Chapel Hill Campus, so I can totally walk/roller blade/ride my bike there every day. A supporter that we had in Raleigh decided that this would be a good investment so we are very excited. I am especially excited about the abundance of bookshelves and all the pretty trees.

Classes at Wheaton

This past week I have had the privilege to take two classes at Wheaton College. In order to earn a semester's worth of credit in 3 days, I had to read an average of 7 books for each class, sit still and focus for 9 hours at a time, and write a whole notebook full of class notes! It was SO worth it though. I LOVED being at the school, sitting on the trees and eating lunch with new friends and being at a campus where so many amazing people learned to follow God.

The first class I took was called Planting and Reproducing Growing Churches and it was taught by the two wonderful, innovative founders of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL- Dave and John Ferguson. These guys have helped thousands of people find their way back to God through their church structure and strategy to reach the Chicago area (www.newthing.org). I never knew anything about church planting before I started prepping for this class and now it is definitely on my radar as a BIG way that God is working in the world to let people know of His purpose and presence!

After 3 days of interesting discussion and knowledge from the Fergusons I showed up for Jerry Root's class on C.S. Lewis. We spent two days talking about the Romantic publications and thoughts of Lewis (which doesn't just mean lovey dovey poetry but instead some real deal heart based theology) and then one day focusing on the Reason approach Lewis had to literature. One of the most interesting lectures Dr. Root presented to us was Lewis' journey from atheism to Christianity. As one of the most influential minds in this past century- thought to be true by those inside and outside the faith- Lewis' brilliant understanding of God can make a huge difference in the life of readers from all backgrounds! My favorite books by Lewis that I would recommend are...

• Mere Christianity- Lewis leads the reader through his pilgrimage from doubt to faith with some awesome tips along the way
• The Great Divorce- This piece of fiction provides a really interesting look at heaven and hell with characters that you can totally identify with. It's scary to see hell from this perspective but the hope of what heaven could be like is worth your time and thoughts.
• Screwtape Letters- This fictional book describes the conversations between a senior devil and his nephew, also a scary view on what hell might be like as well as the ways that eternity influences how we live our lives in the present

Ones I can't wait to read based on my classmates' perspective...

• The Silver Chair and Voyage of the Dawn Treader (both from the Chronicles of Narnia series)
• Surprised by Joy (Lewis' autobiography on how he came to faith)
• God in the Dock (a bunch of theological essays I probably won't understand!)

The Happiest Place on Earth

Disney World!! It never gets old, I love it every time. One of the contacts we made at Disney said that Campus Outreach staff could have a day to play in the parks, under the guise that we were "inspecting the working conditions of our students." Ha! After stacking strollers in the arm-pit of the Magic Kingdom for two months I am sure that they're doing fine in comparison to what I did two years ago.

So first we went to the Animal Kingdom (where we went on the best safari ever!) then we headed to Epcot, ate in Mexico, and watched the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. We rode some of the best rides and just had a blast together. We were troopers and went from 10am - 11pm and decided that we had our Disney fix for at least another year, our wallets did too especially since we felt the urge to eat at every park!

Staff Training

Last week we had our staff training in Orlando, FL at the Summer Orlando Project. We got to see 130 students from colleges in the Charleston area living together in a hotel, learning how to grow in their relationship with God, and working at Disney World. It has been an awesome privilege for me to be connected to some of these students over the past 4 years in Charleston. I attended 3 of these projects and they really changed my life! Needless to say, it was pretty entertaining and exciting. Water fights are the big thing this year, it is pretty fun to see twenty-year olds running around screaming like crazy people with water balloons in hand.

My best friends Betsy and Katie are helping to run the show this summer. Somehow I escaped to be in Naperville raising support and taking classes at Wheaton so I get to be grown up while they have all the fun. They were pretty excited to see the staff when we arrived last Sunday and the students were confused by the new faces on their turf.


One of the nights we were there the students had a home-made chili and pie cook off so of course we went to check it out and got all decked out in our country gear. Kellie caught us singing in the car and took a picture... I'm not sure why I have my back pack on?


Later in the evening the boys found a way to get everyone dirty and started a sliding contest in the mud, standard. Here is a picture of our new staff guy at the College of Charleston, Max, and James, setting a great example of how to be ridiculous at the project.


While the students were at work, the staff came together and learned some awesome stuff about the Lord to strengthen our vision. The first day we met together as a Raleigh team, Ben Elseroad shared with us some equipping information on how to talk to people about the validity of Jesus rising from the dead. It is pretty essential to the Christian faith and at UNC I am hoping to get into some good discussions with people where a question about the resurrection might come up. Lots of intellectuals discuss what might have happened to Jesus after the cross. Through valid documents, hundreds of testimonies, and the Holy Scriptures, it becomes clear that he appeared to many people 3 days after he died and several days after that. I was reminded that He is the Son of God, worth giving my life and heart to.

University of North Carolina

Some facts about UNC Chapel Hill:

• UNC anchors the famed research triangle (Raleigh, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University) which plays a vital role in nurturing the economic development of the country.


• It is one of the 75 most competitive universities to attend.


• Ranked #1 out of the 100 best public universities.


• In fall 2006, UNC had 27,500 students enrolled from 49 states and over 100 countries.


• UNC fans tell me that the Tarheels are the best basketball team in the country!
  

What are college students at UNC saying about God? A video camera stopped a random sample of seven students and asked them what God means to them. Here are their responses:

1. "I guess for me, God is more of an abstract sort of thing, rather than a person or a figure. Just like the relationships between people, between nature and people, animals and people."
2. "I personally have a lot of questions about whether I think God actually exists. I think that if God does exists it's in a intangible way."
3. God to me is a force that connects all of us."
4. "To me... God is the questions unanswered by science. That's where I draw on faith."
5. "If there was a God, he gave up on us a long time ago. I think it's a life force and energy."
6. "I think of Jesus the same way I think of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gahndi, more of a political figure. I think he's a political, historical person."
7. "He [Jesus] is an amazing man there is no question about that. But I don't call him 'Christ' and I don't think about him as a god... but that's just my god. I think different people have different gods."

Famous Last Words

One of the reasons I am making this blog is to let people know about a way that God has compelled me to serve Him.

So Jesus was this amazing guy. Many people think that he was a really great person, a moral teacher who set an example of how to love people. Then they stop there. But Jesus said that he was the Son of God... if he was just a teacher, that would make him a crazy one. I would definitely walk out of the classroom if my teachers said that.

So if we respect this man's character (which was perfect) and look at the reality of what he said (that He is God in the flesh) and what he did (the way he reasoned with perfection, loved the unloveable, did the miraculous) then we can truly answer his question that he asked the disciples: "But what about you... who do you say I am?" (Mark 8:29-30)

Peter followed Jesus for three years. He saw His life and the focus of His mission, and because of what he saw Jesus do and what Peter knew in his heart, he was able to respond: "You are The Christ."

He is the son of God, who came to change the world through a few ordinary men (Acts 4:13)

The last thing that Jesus wanted us to hear, before he went to heaven wasn't so much a statement as it was a command. He said: "Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

Famous last words... I think that Jesus really wanted us to listen to this. I have decided to be kinda crazy and take this literally. Therefore, I will be going.