Well it's almost the end of my sophomore year--I can hardly believe it, actually. It went by incredibly fast! Yesterday Jessica and I started packing up our room, it was a sad day. This has kind of been our first "home" away from home. Having an apartment type thing is just different than a dorm room--so it's bittersweet to leave! But the best thing is....knowing next year I will have a flippin' kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry SC, but I am ready to never step foot in the caf again. Ok, so I will probably set foot in it at one point, but....KITCHEN!! That little blurb just made me feel like Kyle. Anyway, back to where I was, yes we are packing up and realizing how icky this room was before we came in and gave it some love. We took all of our art down and took most of our furniture away, Jessica and I are freakin out without our bookshelves. What nerds we are, I had to buy a 99 Liter tub to put all mine in. Finals are finally finishing up, my last one is today. I am SO ready for summer.
Before we go back, we will go forward. SO, speaking of summer, I am going down to Project Transformation this year. Yes, yes, Kyle did it last year and I guess I just couldn't stand to be away from him. How cheesy. No, but I really am excited to go to PT, I love working with kids and it's an internship that I thought of doing last year! I will spend my summer down in Dallas living and loving God and kids. I decided to tell my friend, Trista, about it in January-ish, so she applied and is coming, too. Now, just for a funny. At PT, they divide about 100 people up into groups of 10 and assign you to a church site to work at all summer. Kyle told me at the beginning that they try to not put you with people who will also be there from your school (AKA I wouldn't ever be assigned to a group with anyone else from SC). So then I kept thinking, "Man, they don't know that Trista and I are BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, they are totally gonna put us together." See, this type of thing just happens to Trista and me. So, yesterday, I got my church and team assignment...and guess who is on it? YUP, Trista Mybestfriend Fenton. Way to cheat the system, eh? I knew she went to K-State for at least one good reason.
Now to flash back--last week I went to Nashville, TN with my campus minister, Ashlee Alley. She is a deacon in the Methodist Church and has teamed up with another campus minister to do a thing called the "40 Days of Prayer." Basically it is just a calling to all UM pastors, churches, campus ministers, students, parents and anyone else that likes to pray, to pray for college students during the first 40 days of the college semester (Aug. 23 - Oct. 1). We went to Nashville in a partnership with the Upper Room Ministry and UM Communications. We had a prayer meeting with about 20 different people from all over the United States, and had 5 on a "prayer faculty." The meeting was intermingled with speakers, worship, prayer and fasting all day on April 30. We heard a lot from God, gained great ideas for the 40 days of prayer from those present, and had an awesome time!
The "Prayer Faculty" included:
- Margaret Therkelson (Amazing, amazing UM woman from Lexington, Kentucky)
- Vance Ross, GBOD (for all of you non-UM people like me, that would the General Board of Discipleship)
-Tom Albin, Upper Room
-Dana Hernandez and David Blackwell, Campus America in Kansas City, 24-7 Prayer International
These speakers were recorded by UM Comm and will be released during the 40 Days of Prayer for campus ministers, pastors, etc. to use to teach people about prayer. I am so excited about what the UMC is doing for their church family and their campus ministries. Prayer is rising among students and adults--it's so exciting. I am so glad I've been able to be apart of so many different prayer efforts this year.
