Your Kingdom come, Your will be done

I just had one of those whirlwind moment/ days on campus.  I’m typing this in the lounge area of Batten Arts & Letters building, realizing just how real this campus ministry thing is.

It’s real when I have my weekly meeting with a student, but started late so we decided to walk over to the place where his class would start and meet there instead.  Sitting and hearing about the past week having a friend ask big questions about prayer, hearing a sermon about prayer, and realizing he had signed up to lead this week’s prayer time (oh yeah, it’s called TGIF).  After he went to class, I ran into 4 students who were on their way to a World Religions class.  I have heard about this class, these students, their frustrations in the class, their commitment to pray with each other before the class.  I just happened to be standing there, talking about praying for the Kingdom to come on campus.  So I joined them… in prayer!

“Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

staying up late thinking about donuts- HOT & NOW

I find myself dragging my feet at “bedtime” and I just realized it’s that I am used to a phone call from Tyler to say goodnight.  I find myself staying up because I know he is(….at work.  The night shift at Krispy Kreme… it’s all part of learning the trade).  Silly.   But, I want to be less averse to silly and more willing to show my love for him, however it might express itself.   I’ve probably spent the last 10 or so years of my life trying to downplay my emotions, especially twitterpation, so that I wouldn’t be “that girl.”   I was boy-crazy.  I got obsessed over certain boys.  And as I tried my hardest to not be that way, I think I lost something of myself.  Weird, isn’t it?  Now that it is TOTALLY appropriate for me to feel butterflies and excitement about this one boy (ok he’s a man, but for the sake of argument)– I’m not fully released into that.

At an impromptu dinner with a friend tonight we talked about breaking free and it felt a little bit like a breeze coming in to a stale room.  Makes me motivated to take some next steps… pursuing some wise counsel and an older woman to speak into my life!

All that to say… I’m in love with Tyler, the Manager-in-training at the Krispy Kreme on VB Blvd!

reminding me of how funny homestar runner was!!

InterVarsity spring update!

This past week, 15 students and I spent our spring break on a service project in Richmond.  We lived, worked and worshiped in the inner city with a community of people dedicated to showing Christ’s love in practical ways to their neighbors.  Church Hill Activities and Tutoring (CHAT) offers after-school tutoring for children who are being left behind, but more importantly does so by asking families to open their doors and invite children to experience a healthy home environment.  Thank you for praying for our time there.  The LORD was indeed close by and clearly at work!  We saw Him at work through our

• Painting and home improvement projects for the house that headquarters CHAT and hosts 100+ kids per week.
• Participating in after-school tutoring; reading from the Chronicles of Narnia as part of CHAT’s literacy campaign.
• Playing with the kids, walking them home and seeing their neighborhoods and homes.
• Feeling unexpectedly safe as we walked through the “seedy” section of town— the neighborhood with the bad reputation suddenly had a face, the people who live there.  We began to see those faces representing stories of injustice and of sacrifice and of love, and those people’s hearts needing to receive the life-changing reality of Jesus.
• Discussing how to take this life of service back to the ODU campus, and how to apply what we saw of God’s heart for the poor, His heart for racial reconciliation, and His desire for us to submit our resources to Him.

for more photos and stories, check out my photo album: ODU InterVarsity!

Tonight we meet as a large group at Crash, our weekly meeting.  Instead of having a speaker share a thought from scripture, we are going to have group discussions about the particular needs on campus and what we might do to partner with Him where He is moving at Old Dominion University.  Please pray for our student leaders to speak out, for new and younger students to speak up, and for the Spirit to be unifying this community.

The Future!  More sunshine, and…
You may have gathered that this is my first year on staff with InterVarsity, thus I have been training with Shane Arthur, who has been at ODU for 5 years now and has built this community of students.  It is my joy to share with you all that though I expected to be sent to some other campus to do work after this intern year, I have been invited to continue on staff at Old Dominion for the next few years!  Shane is taking a position with InterVarsity that will take him off campus as he cares for staff in the Eastern Virginia area, and I will take his place as IV’s full-time campus staff at ODU.  This is great news to many, and seemingly perfect career transitions for the both of us.  However, the staff transition can be quite difficult for students.  I have been so encouraged by their responses as the student leaders recognize God’s hand in bringing this all together, but it is really important that the end of this semester and this summer are carried by student momentum.  Please pray for all of our students to finish strong both academically and in their roles in this chapter.

Please pray as we select student leaders for next year.  Pray for the Vision team (core student leadership team), Shane and I to have clear direction and vision for next year.

We are also beginning to recruit for our end of the year conference at Rockbridge.  This is a hugely influential week for all kinds of students.  Please pray for students to sign up and find scholarship money.

THANK YOU!  It is a joy to know that we are in this together.  I thank God for each of you!

Peace,
Kristen

thankyou note packs a punch

I just got a note from some students that rocked my world.  (the note, and the students?)

Dear Kristen,

Thanks so much for speaking at Crash last week.  We are extremely grateful for your dedication and love to our team and for the campus.  I hope you are adjusting well and fund-raising continues to be a success.  Your excitement, ideas and encouragement help us to stay focused on what is truly important.  We are so very glad you are here and helping us serve and love our campus.  Let’s see what God does!

Much love,

The Crash team

This note is like 2 months late (ha) but the last line gives me chills!  I am so thankful for my partnership with these awesome student leaders, and am growing more of a heart for the ODU campus to be impacted by the life-changing reality of Jesus…

it’s good to be here

fun!

Staff Update:

My first staff meeting with the area team was a week or so ago, and at it we spent a lot of time catching up with each other since we are almost all at different schools.  The “share time” was structured like this:  tell us an awkward or crazy moment with students.  Lots of laughs and genuine sharing of hearts as well.  I didn’t really know what story to tell– granted, I’ve been full time on campus for all of one week by this point– most of my interactions with students have been typical ministry times (being a part of a planning team, one on one discipleship, etc).  I definitely enjoy my time on campus, but wouldn’t call it amazingly fun.  So the question got me wondering when my silly/fun moments were going to come!

Well…. cue feisty music, argyle socks and bowling shoes.  On a Sunday night at 9pm we took a big group bowling.  The soundtrack playing was reminiscent of a middle school dance, and the slick bowling shoes allowed for some sweet dance moves!  As usual, I got a few strikes per game, as well as a few — (zeroes).  Total scores were pretty sad… 54 then 37.  I did not bowl a third game.  Piano players don’t like contorting their fingers and wrists like that.

At the end of my games, I wanted to foster some more community time,  so I told everyone to meet at Sonic when they were done with their 3rd/4th games.   A student and I left early to reserve spots and hilarity ensued.  We drove a couple of miles down the road trying to find it… turned around and decided to go to the Wawa instead (Annie, send me that gift card!!)… drove back to the bowling alley to tell everyone about the new plan (Wawa instead of Sonic) only to discover the Sonic was directly across the street, closed.  So we descended upon Wawa, made our own milkshakes, participated in general tomfoolery, and were eventually asked to leave.  Pretty fun!

It was fun to invite several international students into this evening, and some of them have since signed up for our fall conference “222″!  Please pray for all those who will be in the “Following Jesus” track as well as our time together as an ODU chapter, and the times of corporate worship.

sisters of the world!

to all my sistas livin the post-college life, as graduate students, finding niches in careers and the “work world” at large…

I found a really nice place online to read and be refreshed:

“Find community to support yourself and others,” our writers say. “Take time to retreat and make space for God.” At times these are thankfully one and the same.

http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/well/resource/about-wap ::: the Well website

http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/well/resource/unity-of-the-spirit ::: article on unity; global and cross-cultural ::: love it

MEN! READ HERE!  http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/well/archives/goodbrothers ::: thanks if you do

students and phones

As I get to know a new campus and a whole new batch of students, one thing I am just now getting used to is… NOT BONDING OVER AREA CODES!

It’s normal for these students to live in the 757 or the 703 or the 804…. weird!  I don’t know what to bond over with them unless they have a Samsung phone, or Sprint! One of the student leaders has sprint and I do find myself calling her when I could just text.

I mean, who can really get by on only 700 daytime minutes?  Of course, I should mention that I spent at least 338 of them talking with my boo in Chucktown.

–a random tidbit of my ever-adjusting life–

Staff Life

I’m so thankful for InterVarsity.  As an organization, it is driven by a vision that’s so close to the heart of God, so true to scripture and backed by experience of the Spirit of God.

clearly guided vision-> mission-> core values-> program-> testimony of lives changed

All the staff I’ve met are dynamic, multi-talented, enthusiastic, intelligent, creative and relational.

Life: vibrancy, authenticity, vitality, renewal, breathing deeply… is what I’m receiving as a new staff.  Thus why I title this post “Staff Life”

With many thanks to Shane, Amy and Willis, Jimmy, Libby, Pete and Emily for helping me process and think through my “staff life” as well as providing specific thoughts and words of encouragement.

Does that feel like the end of a speech?  It’s a speech that one gives in a moment of delectation, raising a glass (“to the beak!”) and asking someone else to join in the celebration!  Give thanks to God for this season in my life!