BIG NEWS

I can't believe I am writing this blog. So much has happened over the past few months and I am incredibly excited and honored to update all of you. How do I say it!? Well, I'll just say it! I've accepted a position at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas as the Director of the service learning organization, Discipleship Southwestern. Give me a minute.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWWOWOWOWOWOWWWWWWW

I still can't believe it. As many of you will remember, Kyle and I were both a part of the Discipleship program when we were students at Southwestern. This ministry shaped my life and my calling in an incredible way. It was there that I met Rev. Ashlee Alley, the current Discipleship Director and Campus Minister. Ashlee identified gifts within me and encouraged me to think about a vocation in ministry. Long story short, I entered Southwestern as an elementary education major and graduated as a religion and philosophy major.

Then, when the job position for Director of Discipleship Southwestern came open, Ashlee was the first to let me know about it.

I tell you all these stories about Ashlee Alley because the Lord has worked through her to get me to where I am today! And, this is not just my story. This is the story of many other students who have been impacted by her and campus ministry at Southwestern.

I am convinced that college is one of the most important times in any student's life. It is most often the place that calling, vocation and character intersect. Students learn who they are, process where they've come from and decide where they want to go in the future, all while they're in college. There's an abundance of things going on in a collegiate student's life. And, often times, the decisions students make in college will affect the trajectory of their lives! It's an important time. To me, there is no better time to invest in students. College students are curious, transparent, waiting to be molded. How incredibly exciting to be a part of that. That's what I get to do, people. It's my dream job. It's the job I've prayed for since I was in college. I'm not kidding, I have journals full of prayers asking God to prepare a place for me at Southwestern to serve in ministry someday. 

So, the good news is: we are moving back to Kansas for my dream job.
The bad news is: we are moving back to Kansas for my dream job.

We are incredibly sad to leave Asbury. I'm not sure if I can communicate our level of sadness. The moment I said yes to the dean on the phone, a part of my heart sank. This is bittersweet. I can't imagine leaving Asbury early. It wasn't in our five year plan and we love it here. I have a theory that it takes at least two years to be fully settled in a place. The first year is all new -- you're experiencing things for the first time and getting into a rhythm of life. The second year, normalcy sets it and by the end of the second year, you feel like you're really "home." Here we are, at the end of our second year in Wilmore and that's how I feel. There is no doubt about it, we are leaving our home. We are leaving people we love and will remember forever. We are leaving a church we LOVE. I will have to finish seminary online. We are leaving the South and all of the features of Southern hospitality that are embedded in our community. We're leaving it! All of it! But, last night, I had a thought: I was glad that I was so sad. It means that this community, this place -- Asbury Theological Seminary, has been incredible to us. We leave it honored that we were able to be here for two short years. And we know that we leave ATS totally changed. Praise God for that!! This has been an amazing place to nurture our marriage and our life over the past two years. So, I keep telling myself, that we will be back, because my unfinished degree requires trips to campus. We will see people again. And you know what, I think heaven must be somewhat like seminary and especially Kalas Village (where we live). I learned to like tea here because it meant getting to know people. I will carry it back with me to all my Kansas folks.

Second to last of all, I must brag on Kyle. Somehow I convinced him to marry me and move everywhere with me, sacrificing career opportunities along the way. He's incredible. I couldn't do this without his support. Really, we couldn't be married and in ministry if he didn't support me like he does. So, pray with me that Kyle finds a PE job as we move back to Kansas. He wants it and I want it for him. He's pretty stoked about returning to Kansas, by the way. I think he's really happy to be going home. He's forever a part of my ministry. I know he will be the first one out there playing ultimate frisbee with my D-ship students one day soon. That's a true blessing. He loves students as much as I do.

Last of all, I must thank all of those who have supported us on this journey. To our families and friends in Kansas, thank you for all the love and support. To our friends here at seminary and Mt. Zion, our church family, who have both been on this journey with us since we found out about the job early this spring -- thank you so much for praying with us and being excited for us. You were some of the first ones we were able to share our news with! We'll always remember your support and your excitement! We know our path will cross with many of yours in the future and we're SO excited about that. The seminary experience is so fleeting -- people are coming and going all the time and things are constantly changing. However, one thing remains and that is Christ. We are one in him and through him. I look forward to spending eternity with all of you and I mean that very seriously.

Ok, I have to stop rambling. I would love to end this exciting announcement with a picture of what my new job will look like. These are from when I was a student in the Discipleship program. I can't wait to create more memories like this.
 

My covenant group, "Imago Dei!"

The entire Discipleship team.

Alma Mater, Hail!

Last night, our wonderful friends, Isaac and Cameron came over to hang out and to have a night of worship. Isaac led the group with his wonderful talents – it was a great evening, relishing the presence of Jesus in our space. Afterwards, Isaac sent me a song that he wrote and World Witness Team at Southwestern recorded last year. The song is called “We Pray” and Isaac wrote it a couple of years ago during a 48 hour prayer event. I remember the moment he told us about it and introduced us to it in the Fall of 2009. It soon became a favorite of many at SC (and it’s still my favorite today). I’ve been listening to the recording that he sent me a lot this morning, partly because I am avoiding writing a paper and most of all because I love it. It’s so anointed and beautiful. It takes me back to Southwestern every time.

As I sit here and listen to it I can pick out many familiar voices – Esther, Anna, Raisa, to name a few. It humbles my soul when I remember my time at Southwestern and all of the amazing people I was able to meet and befriend over the last 4 years. I see how the Lord used me in that space and formed my calling in such a profound way. I don’t know what my future looks like in terms of physical job locations, but, after listening to “We Pray,” I am reminded of my love for students. I am reminded of my appreciation for students who are so open to the Lord and his leading. I am reminded of my great leaders – especially Ashlee Alley and Martin Rude, who both encouraged and shaped me in great ways. I thoroughly enjoy where I am now, while also realizing that my time at Southwestern was a sacred time and space in history. Someday, I hope I can create this space for students at a college or university. My greatest wish is that Jesus would use me to create such a sacred space for students, where gifts and callings are wrestled with and discovered. I hope to create a space for beautiful things – anointed things, so that when my students are far, far away someday, and they hear a song that their fellow peer wrote and their friends recorded, they are taken back and ushered into a time of thankfulness before the Lord.

P.S. Hail My Alma Mater for being such a special place. I am so happy to be an alumnus! And my picture is from the Worship Outreach Compilation Album, and my best guess is this was when "We Pray" was recorded! I had to have Isaac, the song writer and music man extraordinaire in the pic! 

Merry Christmas Eve

I was recently at my Aunt Nancy's house to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family and she informed me that I had not blogged in awhile. And, alas, it's true, I have not! So, I will catch you all up. The fall semester, for me, started getting extremely busy in November. From the end of November until mid-December I worked on four major projects for the end of the year. By the end I finished a 16 page Exegetical Paper for Greek class -- don't be fooled, this paper was a great deal of work! I translated Matthew 28:1-20 all on my own; altogether I spent around 8 hours translating/parsing/all that grammatical stuff. I spent around another 15 hours researching/writing the actual paper. It was a crazy time. But, in the end, it was a paper I was extremely proud of! I also wrote another paper for my "Holy Spirit, the Church and the End" class. I wrote about Free Liturgy in the Pentecostal/Charismatic realm and Traditional Liturgy and what the two have to learn from one another. That was probably my favorite paper to write! It was very moving to write and it also was one of those things that really helped me shape my beliefs further, ya know? If you've never read Simon Chan (Liturgical Theology, Spiritual Theology, etc.) you must! He hails from the Assembly of God denomination and has some wonderful things to say about traditional liturgy. I wrote another paper for Philosophy on St. Augustine's view of evil as the privation (lack) of goodness. It was a great paper to write, too. My philosophy professor asked if I'd consider submitting it in a local Philosophical writing competition. Still deciding on that. Last of all, for my Worship Planning class, I had to design my own worship service down to a tee. That was a wonderful project! I really enjoyed it. I decided to design a Southwestern College Chapel service -- I centered it around one theme, "Light up the World" (I will attach the graphic I designed for class). That project really allowed me to be imaginative -- something I am really good at :). We presented our planned worship services for our final in class. It was a blessing to be in a group of so many wonderful worship planners. That pretty much summed up the semester for me.

On to Christmas happenings -- not much has happened yet. As I stated earlier, I went to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Pat's house for a few days to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Kyle went along, of course, and my family was very adamant about him being there. They like him, I think ;). My Aunt Nancy loves to sew -- she quilts and does many other talented things. In the past, she made everyone in my family a stocking complete with our names embroidered on them. This year, she made one for Kyle! It was very thoughtful of her.

For the next few days I am staying at Kyle's family's house and will celebrate Christmas with them on the 27th. After that, I will be headed back to Holcomb and will hopefully be there to stay for awhile.

Next semester I am very excited for everything going on at school. I am taking 15 hours -- a full load, and part of that load includes a 5 hour practicum in Campus Ministry. I am very excited for that. I will also be transitioning in to be the college's chapel student admin. That should bring wonderful opportunities to dream as well. Anyways, Merry Christmas!! I will try to blog a bit more often.

Pray40 and School Start-Up!

Summer is over! I can't believe it! For me, it's time to dive in head first to my junior year at Southwestern. I returned from Dallas on the 6th of August, spent some time in Mulvane with Kyle's fam and then I spent a week in Seattle and Oregon with my Aunt Robin. That was a refreshing and relaxing time and provided me with an opportunity to catch up with my aunt and cousins! After returning from Oregon, I went out to Western KS for a few days and returned to SC last Friday. It's been a crazy last few weeks! I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Shepherd training for the Discipleship program that I am in. This year, my covenant group has the privilege of leading the entire Discipleship team. We all have different areas that we are in charge of--I will be in charge of "Kingdom Committee." My focus? Youuuuu guessed it, PRAYER! My committee will work to establish prayer on our campus, in our community and we are also heading up some social justice projects. I am really excited about the things that God is going to do this year, both through my covenant group and on our campus as a whole.

Another thing that I wanted to tap in on is a project that I have been involved with for the last few months. My campus minister, Ashlee Alley, and another campus minister from Kansas City, Creighton Alexander have been working on a project called "Pray40" in the United Methodist Church. Basically, they've organized an intentional 40 days of prayer for students going back to school and campus ministries all across the world. The 40 days started on the 23 of August and will end on October 1. Over 120 people have written prayers that have been published for the 40 days. These prayers come out three times a day in a rhythm fasion (morning, noon, evening). This is a great time to come together as believers and share in fellowship through prayer every single day. Imagine the impact this can have! Truly--it's already impacting so many. I want to personally invite you to join in--no matter who you are! Head to www.pray40.com and follow along. You can even subscribe to receive the prayers and updates by e-mail and/or text message. I would ask that sometime soon (like, right now! :)) you would just go check out the website. See what this is all about, and think about the ways that you could get involved.

Midnight Tea

It's midnight in Texas and I have been reflecting on the book of Titus. I thought we should all just jump right in. This is what I do; I write when I'm overcome with emotion, Spirit-led ideas, or something else that nags at me until I get it out. Not to mention a bunch of guys are yelling outside my window...and you can hear everything in this Frat house. So, let's just go.... Many moons ago, Paul wrote a teeny tiny letter to Titus, and tonight while I was studying it, I was intrigued by Titus 2. The whole letter is basically Paul instructing Titus to bring up leaders on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean. He speaks about bringing up elders, and he also speaks about Christian mentorship.

As many of you know, I am in a discipleship program at Southwestern and I am also pursuing a minor in discipleship. I am extremely intrigued by the idea of discipleship, and deeply touched when I see it in action. I see it often with our mentoring program at SC. I've been so blessed to have an amazing mentor of my own, Kristi Singer. She is like my mom in Winfield, as well as one of my most blessed friends. I love, love, love being apart of a mentoring relationship. Kristi models life for me as my mentor. She teaches me of the faith, prays with me, checks up on me, and lives a life that glorifies God both when I am around her and when I am not. And not only that, she also teaches me real-life stuff in many different ways. I often watch her as a mom to her four children, as a wife to her husband (she leaves ooeey gooey icky love messages on her husbands wall all the time :)), she lets me use her kitchen and generally we just share life together. Thankfully, I also have this same type of relationship with my mom and dad. Of course, we went through our own family issues back in the day, but my parents are people who I really trust and go to for advice. They trust me, and I like the idea that I am trusted and supported--not just "reared" by them. Mentoring is a gift from God that is meant to be prominent.

So many times, I think adults have a hard time relating to students. They think they are too different, or they think that students think adults are lame. This even happens among parents. So many parents are lost when it comes to talking about true, real, genuine faith and life with their kids. This happens on the kid side, too, don't get me wrong. We often do not know how to go from the impersonal to the personal. According to Paul and Titus, this is not how it should be. We need mentors and godly parents to celebrate life and joy with and we also need godly men and women to help raise up the younger generation. It's a biblical command. We need men and women who will step back from their soap boxes and just help those who are seeking real advice. I can't quite let this one go...we've got to learn to hate awkwardness a little less and just dig deep into each other. Ya know? People are people, and problems are truly the same rooted problems from generation to generation. As a young person, I can say that I have questions...and I only know of a few select adults who I can go to knowing that they won't hop on a soapbox...even if they think I am stupid. Should this be? I hate awkwardness, too...but we've got to break this barrier. Even if it ain't our cup of tea...

Sneeze, God. Sneeze!

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the reading that I do in Cultural Anthropology. Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I faithfully do my reading (like any good student would, of course)...and later question why in the world I chose to take this particular class. Let's yap about how we came from apes and used to live in trees...let's question where the earth came from and why marraige is universal. Or, even better, let's question why people have "religion"-- it's to feel secure, of course. It couldn't possibly be real, according to the authors of my textbook (although they don't say it, it's definitely implied). Now, I am not going to sit here and complain, argue, and defend religion--I don't feel that I need to (I feel I complain to myself too often anyway, so why would I do that to you beautiful people in cyber-world?).

What I do want to bring up is a conversation I had with a friend at a coffee shop during Spring Break. We were sitting at the coffee shop, exchanging God stories and just catching up like old friends do, and we started talking about driving back to college. She said, "I actually don't mind driving (the 7-ish hours) back to college because I love looking around at what God created." From there, we got on the discussion of Romans 1. (See below NIV)

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

One of the things that my friend said really stuck out to me...she said, "You know it says clearly in scripture that we can just look around and see God, but I feel like some people cannot. There is this veil that stands in the way of nature screaming 'GOD' to their eyes." This statement struck me, and thus made me think of Cultural Anthropology. Dude, stuff in my textbook is totally bogus...and more than half of a world believes it. People attain Ph.D.'s in it, they run after it, study it, base their life around it. To be extremely honest, I've been too excluded from this stuff for the past two years. My major, extracirricular activities, homework, etc. revolves around theology, and other biblical stuff. In a way, that is good, and in a way that is bad. I'd like to think that I am learning quite a bit from Cultural Anthropology--and it's not even Cultural Anthropology. The chapters I do read, and the discussions I do have and listen to in class have opened my eyes to a world where people NEED Jesus. I am not just saying that because I think I am cool--I'm really serious. Is it SO silly to think that God made apes to be apes, and humans to be humans? Is it really SO silly to think that God might have made man and woman for one another? Is it really SO silly to think that nature screams God's name and expresses his glory? There are days I walk out of that Cultural Anthropology class feeling oh, so, stupid. To be honest, I don't know any of this ape-to-human-transformation-genetic-difference-we-ultimately-came-from-a-plant stuff. But then I really think....just because you have a Ph.D. in Anthropology doesn't mean you are wise. You can have 4,000 Ph.D.'s in anthropology, and everything else under the moon and be a complete fool. Knowledge IS power. Knowledge is leading and MISleading. What we often choose to believe reflects the God we serve. Is God really powerful enough to have made the world? In my opinion, he could have one, huge cosmic sneeze and create another universe if he chose to do so! So here is my last hurrah...sneeze God, sneeze! And teach us to be people who glorify you with our minds, and are edified through your Spirit. AND that, my friends, is prayed in the mighty name of Jesus.

Catch-Up, but no mustard

HoLA!

I know, I know, it's been awhile since I have blogged. Sorry for boring some of you with my inactive blog life at college. In reality, I have a very active life at college, it just sadly, does not involve consistent blogging, does it? Things have been going well lately. I can't believe it's M-A-R-C-H. What!? Spring break is just around the corner and I cannot wait! I have been busy with much this semester so I will do my best to hit the high/low points to keep you all updated.

February was a fun month, there was not much going on except Valentines day. Kyle surprised me with many different things. We made dinner together and had dessert and exchanged gifts. He put a lot of thought into our Valentines day dinner, so I was tickled by that. It was a lot of fun. For V-day, I made him a basket with our old e-mails from the summer printed out. They were a lot of fun to read back over. It was fun to re-read them and print them out to keep. They were full of summer ministry happenings from Andover and Dallas. Then, the next weekend, my wonderful friend, Lauren invited Jessica and me to a KU game (her parents have season tickets). I had never been to a KU game before, and it was really fun to be a part of their traditions and also to attend a game! Hellllllo #1 KU. Also, this last weekend, Kyle and I went up to Manhattan to surprise my wonderful friend, Trista, with a birthday party. It was a "murder mystery" party--I was a fairy godmother and Kyle was Sherlock Holmes. We were rather stylish if I do say so myself. This weekend we are heading back to Manhattan to watch a K-State game with Trista and her boyfriend, Jeremy. It should be fun, I love those two!

Other than that, things are moving along quite nicely. I have started attending a women's bible study on Wednesday nights at the First Assembly of God. It's been great to re-connect there (I went to church there last year). I LOVE those women! I am the youngest one in the group, but it's so much fun. They love me, and I love them :). I love praying with them, talking, and fellowshipping (sp?) with them! Also, last thursday (Feb. 25) was the Collegiate Day of Prayer. We had a wonderful turn-out here at SC. There were over 500 colleges/organizations that participated nation-wide, too. We had four different prayer meetings on Thursday night. We had a main one in the library, then, 3 resident halls/apartments held their own prayer meetings from 10-11 PM. Over all, we had about 30 in attendance. It was awesome. The freshman girls in Cole Hall collected prayers throughout the week and had prayer and worship, the Reid sophomore/jr hall had worship, prayer and then made "We are praying for you signs" for each of the residence halls, and Warren Apartments and the library both had prayer and communal worship.

God update: Well he, of course, has been doing wonderful things! The Collegiate Day of Prayer was one of them, also I have been asking him to show me people who are hurting/lonely lately, and he has put two particular people in my life. I won't name them, for privacy's sake, but I have been pumped by the way I "run in" to these two students. I've had to opportunity to just be-friend them and encourage them when I see them. I am hoping it's blessed them. It sure has me!

That's it for now, I should be heading back to study for yet another mid-term. Ah, the joys of being an undergraduate :)! I'd covet your prayers for sure...

A Glorious Awakening!

It's been awhile since I have posted. I just wanted to jot this down while it was still fresh in my mind. Things have been going amazingly well with the prayer room effort. God has continuously been providing in ways that are unfathomable! This past Sunday we started decorating the prayer room with the supplies we have had donated. Jessica's home church and her Grandma's church have been amazing supports! We are also gearing up for 46 Hours of unbroken prayer this weekend. Unfortunately, because of library policy, we couldn't do our 46 hours of prayer in the library where our new prayer room is going to be, so we decided to rent out another hall on campus called "Wroten." It's a much bigger room with a whiteboard and will still require some decorating, but that's the wonderful and fun part! We are so excited about what God's going to do through this prayer weekend. After the prayer weekend, the prayer room in the library will be open for good during library hours and will be available to all students and staff. Tonight, Jessica and I led prayer group and we decided that we would ask everyone in prayer group to come down and help us "consecrate" the room for about 45 minutes or so. Usually our group runs anywhere from 5 to 7 people. Tonight there were 11 there, including one person who we've been praying specifically for! He's a guy we know on our campus who is on the brink of really committing to Jesus. Jessica started out prayer group with the purple journal I've referred to in earlier posts about the prayer room, and she read some of the prayers from years past. We told them our story and how we felt called by the Lord to do this prayer room thing, then we went down and asked everyone to help us consecrate the room. Currently we have three walls -- the "Welcome Wall" which tells people what the prayer room is about and includes some prayers from the purple prayer journal, the "Word Wall," which is for bible verses and other things the Lord's been speaking to people, and last of all we have the "Wailing Wall," which is a wall dedicated to prayer requests. While we were all off praying, writing, painting and drawing everyone was so dedicated. People were crying and praying over one another and hugging. Students were hanging their prayers and art all over the new walls. Then, at the very end, we all huddled in a circle and put our arms around one another and three students -- Jessica, Derreck, and Mariam led us in corporate prayer. IT WAS AMAZING. The spirit was so alive in the room, people were still crying silent tears and voicing loud "Yes's" in agreement to prayer. Afterwards, we had students stay around to talk to one another while a couple of other students spent time writing and drawing. The whole thing, which started at 9:15 p.m. was officially over at 11:30p.m. God is already doing an amazing work and I cannot wait to see what He does as this weekend approaches, and as this year continues. Thank you for all of your prayers! They mean the world. Jesus is changing students around here, He's giving beauty for ashes and bringing fresh restoration to those who are broken and lost in this mediocre world. It's truly a blessing.

Please keep praying! We'd love for you to pray specifically for our campus, our students, and also a couple of specific guys on campus who are really searching and finding Jesus. Pray for a breakthrough this weekend. A glorious awakening is taking place, of this I AM confident. God's moving. It's not about us, but about Him alone.

Blessings!

Seasons

For those following,

Things have been going well around here. Life, like always, has been quite busy and we've seemed to completely by-pass fall, which I am rather bummed about. 45-50 degree weather shouldn't be allowed yet ;). I am, however, enjoying the beauty of fall--especially here in Winfield and at SC. It seems like God hand paints our campus every fall, and as a girl from Western Kansas where there's no tree in sight, I LOVE it! That's been great. Our campus, over the past week has had somewhat of a hard time. One of our fellow students and his family lost his parents in a tragic car accident last week, another student lost his brother to an illness, another his cousin in a car accident, and I had a friend that lost one of her high school classmates in a car accident.

Looking back, last week was a week of challenges. As things were happening, there would be so many times that I would be in prayer asking God "why!?" Sometimes we just don't understand--sometimes we will never fully understand purpose and tragedy until we see God face-to-face. Through it all, I felt God telling me, very clearly in fact, to hold on to the knowledge that "He is good." Grief is an interesting thing. It's something that is so difficult to see and even more difficult to go through. However, it has such a bonding quality. I've never seen our campus come together more than they have since last week.

Today, chapel was quite the blessing. The student whose parents passed last week was there to sing and help lead with all of his heart in worship--a very touching sight and a testimony of faith to many. Another couple of ours at SC also got engaged at chapel today! It was very sweet. Chapel was packed out with many SC students and staff to come together and celebrate--a very different feel and theme from last week's chapel. Last week, the SC family came to grieve and realize that in life, there is a time for sadness. This week, the SC family came together to celebrate, and realize that in life, there is also a time for joy!

At the end of chapel today, I yet again heard God's voice in my heart whisper "See, I am good...." and He didn't just say that to prove a point and I don't just say that because today was a day of joy. Without last weeks sorrow, this week would have been "joyful" in a very different way. I don't exactly understand the mystery of grief, but I know there are seasons of it and those seasons contribute to the joy factor that follows. SC had a valley last week--the lowest one at that, but our "mountain" was only as high as it was this week because of our sorrow last week. I am not sure if this exactly makes sense, but I sure hope it does. I think it's important to pick up on.

May I pass on the message again, and again, and again....

God is indeed good. He's good.

And may we believe it again, and again, and again

House of Prayer, anyone?

So awhile back at the end of August (I beleive), I posted a blog about how God had really been moving through my heart and my mind to start a prayer room on the SC campus. I had talked with my friend, Jessica about it and she had some of the same feelings over the summer, too. Eventually our Greek language class got cancelled and we needed an extra class to bump our schedules back up to 16 credit hours. On a long shot, we confronted our campus minister, Ashlee Alley and told her what God was doing in our hearts. We then asked her if she wouldn't mind overseeing a 3-hour Independent Study class on prayer. To say the least, God has really been exploding lately! Jessica and I are reading a book for our class called "Deep Unto Deep" by Dana Candler. It's a book about personal prayer. Dana Candler is a prayer leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. One of our assignments for our class is to interview prayer leaders. Because of that, Jessica and I decided it would be fun and beneficial to visit IHOP in Kansas City over Fall break in October and I also contacted Dana Candler to see if we could possibly meet with her. She ended up e-mailing me back saying that she would love to meet with us and if she couldn't she said she'd try to find someone else from the International House of Prayer to meet with us! Way cool or what?

Also, another organization called Campus America is headquartered in Kansas City. Campus America is simply an organization that promotes 24/7 prayer and seasons of 24/7 prayer on college campuses. I heard a man named Pete Greig speak at the June Desperation Conference over the summer in Colorado Springs about the 24/7 prayer movement. He is actually one of the founders of Campus America. I figured since they are headquartered in Kansas City, too it might be fun to try to meet with some people from the Campus America team. Just today I got an e-mail back from one of the girls on staff saying she would set up a meeting for us with some of their leaders! How exciting!

Also, today Jessica and I went to talk to Ashlee Alley about some things that had been going on in our "class time." About a week ago, Jessica and I went into the small chapel that is in the library and we found a book of prayers. The book is dated from 2000 up till now. We read the book and ended up taking to to read through the prayers. Many of the prayers ask God that He would show the chapel in the library to people and that people would use it. Also, many of the prayers ask God for a revival and revolution on the SC campus. When we found that book, we just knew that we should try to find out if we could make that small chapel into a prayer room. We asked Ashlee about it today and she was all for it. She told us to ask the library managers about it to see if we could possibly use it. Right after our meeting with Ashlee, we headed over to the SC library to meet with Veronica, the library manager. We told her about what we were wanting to do and she was all for it.

Throughout this whole process we've been asking God to make things smooth...we've been asking God to open up doors and told Him we'd accept challenges to make this prayer room a possibility on our campus. So today, when things went so smoothly...I don't know why we were surprised! We prayed.

I'd ask that all of you would continue to pray for this project and prayer room. Continue to pray for the students on the SC campus. God is doing amazing things through so many people. He is good! Very, very good.

We are shooting to open the prayer room on November 20 with a kick-off of worship, corporate prayer and then a season of continual 48 hour prayer on campus. We are REALLY excited for what God has in store. Keep praying!

Things are off...

Summer is practically over and I am back in Winfield at college. I would have to say, it's good to be back at SC. I've been as busy as ever, and thought I better write a blog to catch a few of you up ;). Move in was last Saturday. My wonderful parents drove up to Winfield to help me move in and then they enjoyed a little R & R themselves out at a bed in breakfast owned by a couple of professors here on campus. I think they enjoyed their time in Winfield. I moved in to an apartment type of dorm with Jessica S. my new roommate for the year. She is one of my best friends at college! I am so excited to spend the year with her. We've decorated our room in red, black, and white. We finished as of last night and things look pretty schnazzy. I will have to try to upload some photos later when I have the time.

Classes started last Wednesday. I am currently enrolled in: Old Testament, Introduction to the Church, Discipleship, Critical Issues in Health, and Logic. I was supposed to take Greek, but they couldn't find a teacher for it so it got cancelled at the last minute. However, God has really opened some doors for me in place of Greek. Over the summer, when I was at the Desperation Conference in Colorado Springs, a man named Pete Greig spoke. He is the founder of the 24/7 prayer movement in Britian and around Europe and he also is one of the founders of an organization called CampusAmerica. It just recently started and strives to start prayer movements on college campuses in America. When Greek was cancelled Jessica (my roomie) and I talked with our campus minister and discipleship coordinator about taking an indepedent study on prayer in place of Greek. She was quick to catch our vision and agreed to look over what an independent study on prayer would look like for us. Here are a few of the goals for our independent study:

• We really want to work on starting and eventually start a prayer room on campus, available to students at anytime
• We would like to do a campus-wide 48 hours of prayer event
• We are thinking about participating in a night of Desperation in Winfield (where some leaders from TheFurnace (a prayer house in Colorado Springs) come and lead a night of prayer/worship in our community)
• We are trying to decide books to read for our class...Here are some are thinking about: "Deep Unto Deep" by Dana Candler, "Red Moon Rising" by Pete Greig, "24/7 Prayer Manual" by Pete Greig, "Too Busy Not to Pray" by Bill Hybels, and "Prayer" by Richard Foster
• We want to visit some prayer houses and talk with some prayer leaders! Luckily for us, there is a prayer house in El Dorado! We are also thinking about visiting IHOP (International House of Prayer in Kansas City) or TheFurnace (In Colorado Springs)

All in all, things are going GREAT! I am so excited to see what God has in store for this semester. I am also continuing my work at Epic this semester, working with the children's ministry. Today was another preview service. Things went AWESOME! They're starting to come together. God's a-movin--that's for sure. Although blogs won't be as prominent this semester as they were this summer, I will still try to keep you all posted! Now onto homework...