fighting for the Kingdom?

Pray with me… for some reason, God loves it and honors us when we pray.  Our prayers go up like a sweet scent to Him.

I need wisdom and spiritual discernment in several things right now.  Pray for me as students are asking about spiritual warfare, wondering if they are under attack, how to know, and what to do about it.

Pray for students who are making big decisions this week!  Robert is going to interview for InterVarsity staff.  Leaders are nominating new folks for leadership of next year’s small groups, worship and Crash team. Younger or new folks who are nominated will decide whether to apply for leadership!

Pray for my current leaders- they are such special people, and they all have a place in the community.  But as they look towards next year, it can be fuzzy what the next step is.  For some, they will continue to lead in the same position.  Others will move into different places of serving and leading in IV, and some might step down from that role.  Pray for loving, honest conversations about these things.

John Piper on prayer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KzZJChhtvY

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”

what it’s like to be “on campus”, and why I’m not (yet)

I spent 5 hours on campus today, which is longer than I have since the beginning of May.  Time on campus includes one-on-one conversations with students, observing things in the student center, running in to people at the coffee shop… talking about Jesus, family, relationships, schedules, ministry, conflict, reconciliation, and casting vision for our community of faith.  Today has been so entirely refreshing, revealing and motivating!  Refreshing because it helps me to remember and know my calling.  Revealing because even as I pray for specific students and the chapter as a whole all summer, so much comes out in conversation that really moves things along.  I’ll hear straight from someone else’s mouth a very specific situation or dealing that my spirit has sensed in a general way.  Certainly the Spirit prays for me in my confusion and misunderstanding, and I treasure that, but to have discernment and be able to pray with specificity is so special.  I also love praying for people and places when I am there or near.  And when I say “moves things along,” I truly believe that the Kingdom is being built, brick by brick, and these conversations with students are like bricks for the Kingdom of God at Old Dominion.

Back to refreshing:  I think the most exhilarating thing is that I know that the students I met with today are grateful for me, and that the Lord has specifically gifted me and placed me in their lives to help them towards maturity in Christ.  And on the days that I feel like a failure?  Days when I don’t feel appreciated?  Let me remember that God is using every, every thing to work towards His good purposes.

Now the piece on motivation:  There are some aspects of this job that aren’t on campus, like most of my summer has been.  The off-campus work serves the on-campus work… and vice versa.  My off-campus work right now is to be dedicated to raising up a group of supporters for this ministry.  My off-campus work is really intimidating sometimes.  It might include a “cold call” or speaking in front of a big group about my needs.  My off-campus work is also at times really tedious– excel spreadsheets and calculations, managing email lists and tracking down contact information, loads of writing notes and making phone calls….

Let me remember that God is using every, every thing to work towards His good purposes!  I firmly believe His good purpose for me includes me staying on staff and having a full-time ministry position.  I overwhelmingly believe His good purpose for ODU includes the growth of this missional community.  And I am certain that His good purpose for the ODU students is to be drawn into an ever-deepening relationship with Him.

So now, let me spend a few more hours in honest dedication to the “other” part of my work.

–This weekend will kick off the official season of “full-time on campus” work as I take the 25 student leaders on a retreat to reconnect and prepare for this coming semester.  Monday starts the official “New Student Welcome” season as we host events almost every day to invite and envelop new students into the community.  Pray that I will finish the bulk of my fundraising in the next few days!

photos of InterVarsity at ODU!

InterVarsity Update

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

vision

“do you have to have a vision for everything?”

(thinks for a moment)… “yes.”

This is me, telling my trainer that I wanted to come up with a vision for my trip to Charleston, something that would make the 14 hrs in the car and 4 days there feel like they are serving a great purpose in my life– mostly I think the “great purpose” is caring for others, but it could be other things that fit somewhere under “the kingdom of God is like…“

So, vision.

What is it that is so captivating about a clearly articulated vision?  Is it only appealing to those “NF” personalities like myself?  I see an overarching vision as being big enough, broad enough to create a big umbrella over your goals and actions… Or maybe it’s like a giant pillow you can jump around in, and outside the pillow is like a hardwood floor.  I feel safe with a little bit of structure, boundary, parameters, within which to function.  A vision statement in particular helps me to judge whether or not my actions and goals are serving the greater purpose.  Might others feel stifled by that?  I am open to consider others might feel stifled by a phrase that they “need to serve” but to them I submit that they recognize a good vision is one that is bigger than humanly possible, yet adaptable to the reality of experience.  And those are the vision statements worth serving.

May I submit that our IV chapter is one whose vision is to be

a missional community offering authentic relationships centered on the life-changing reality of Jesus.

If so… what does that open up for us as we dream of starting a “Party Planning Committee” (for outreach through social events/ service opportunities/ publicity), or as we plan what goes on each week at Crash?  Are we fully there yet?  How can we journey towards being a truly missional community, towards authenticity, and in line with the true and full gospel?

These are questions worth answering.  Which is precisely what I get to with student leaders at C-team meetings!

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.

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!