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: