Skunks and Chicken Nuggets

Random! Here are some things I have been thinking lately, so I thought these would fit well in a random post...

• It is totally "skunk season" around Kansas. There are skunks everywhere, dead and alive. It's gross!
• Speaking of skunks, I think the smell of a skunk vaguely resembles freshly fried chicken nuggets from McDonalds. Oh yeah, that's why I don't eat there.
• There is a marketing blogger named Seth Godin. He writes blogs everyday. You can have them sent to your e-mail -- they are a good daily read to make you think. My favorite advice from him so far -- "No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself." I pick me, I pick me!
• Shepherd's pie is seriously delicious. You should eat it sometime. I made it on Tuesday night. It's SO good! But you have to put peas in it.
• I think the name "Titan," for a boy, is seriously cool. I like names with meaning.
• Today at the mall, with my mom and sister, we saw a sign that said "Want an hour-glass figure? Corsets, 20% off." My mom read the sign out-loud and then said, "Not if I have to squeeze into that thing." It was funny.
• Squirrels are cute, but I believe they are rabid.
• This weekend, the Kingdom Committee that I co-lead with another student is hosting a "sleep-out" to promote awareness about Imagine No Malaria, a campaign that is striving to eradicate Malaria by 2015. I am really excited about the way God has been helping us raise awareness for this cause! It's awesome.
• If passionate prayer makes the biggest difference of all, why the heck do we/and the church lack in this area?
• I have this dream and vision for the UMC church -- it's causing me a lot of thought.
• I wonder where my life will be next year at this time.
• This summer, I am going back to Project Transformation!! I can't wait.

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.

"The END," as I know it, and I'm glad for it

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.