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.

Aristotelian Stand-Up

I really need to be studying for my Philosophy quiz on Aristotle tomorrow, but am finding other things to do instead. I've been doing school work since 1:30 and am tired of it. I thought I would come on here to write something updating, or thoughtful, but instead I find myself babbling away. Bishop Scott Jones of the United Methodist Church spoke at our chapel service today. He preached from Isaiah 6 on calling, and I was very encouraged. I've felt called to work in the United Methodist Church for a time now, but that calling really felt concrete during my time withProject Transformation this summer. I was able to experience so many different ministries and was indeed inspired. Now I am moving on toward breaking down a part of that calling -- seminary. AHHHH! Doesn't that shock and scare you all? It does me. Checking out Perkins and Asbury at the moment. But just checking. Hmmm.

I would also ask that you would pray for my dear two year old friend, Cole Teut. He is in need of so much prayer right now. He currently has only one kidney and he has a tumor in it. He's been receiving chemo, but his family found out today that the tumor is inoperable. They do not know what they are going to do quite yet. I'd ask that you would pray for him and his family. He means the world to me and to many others. I know and declare that his sickness is not of God. God never wishes pain on his people like this. He has been so faithful in answering many of the Teut's prayers. It's moments and times like these, when we pray, that I see God's Kingdom alive and moving at a great speed on earth. News like this shatters people -- but I pray that we can stand firm for his family. I was thinking today about how when sicknesses happen to people we often are sympathetic and move on. But when we are a part of the body of Christ, this sickness does not just affect his family, it affects all of us! This is our family member that is sick and needs our prayers and help, not just our sympathy. Anyways, I'd ask that you'd pray, pray, pray for my dear friend -- brother, Cole.

Ok, now back to Aristotle I go....

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...

Melissa

At PT, one acquires many friends, some of the same age, some much younger. It seems that, for the summer, I have a new good friend from site. Her name is Melissa. Melissa is a hilarious, rather dramatic second grader. Every day, I look forward to the random stories/comments that she has to tell me, or anybody else for that matter (she will talk to anyone who will listen). She loves to sing, dance, and talk about her exotic life. This week, Melissa has topped the charts in her hilarious comments, so I felt her comments were blog worthy :). Here it goes:

Monday: This week, our theme is "Let's Go on a Cruise!" One of my fellow interns at site on Monday, Telana, was explaining what a cruise was to the kids during our morning Harambee session. Telana said "Ok everybody, so today our first cruise stop is in...JAMAICA!!!!" Then, Melissa, standing there in a patient position with her hand straight up in the air said, "Everyone, I would just like you to know that my family and I are going on a cruise to Hollywood. I can't believe that we are all going on a cruise now, and my family is also going on a cruise. We will be meeting many famous people. My entire family is going very soon."

Tuesday: Josh, one of my fellow interns, asked Melissa if she would like some chocolate chips. He had given them to all the students after their science experiment for that day was over (the kids made chocolate chips "dance" in carbonated water with Josh at their science station). Melissa looked straight at Josh and said "Ew. There are two things you need to know. Number one is, I only like chocolate in a tootsie roll. Number two is...NEVER stand in front of a tree frog or it will PEE in your FACE!!!"

Wednesday: As we were in morning Bible lesson, we were talking about how God gives us friends. I asked the students to name off some characteristics of good friendships. They told me that friends were loyal, loving, caring, and people who make us laugh. After I was done asking for characteristics, Melissa, as she always does, sat patiently with her hand raised. I called on her and said, "Melissa, do you have something that you need to say?" She looked at me and said..."Well, yes. Miss Molly, everytime I look at that word 'laugh' on the board, I just---start---laughing!!!" and she burst into a fit of giggles.

Also, during our afternoon enrichment component on Wednesday, we were learning about the Mediterranean (that's where our cruise stopped for the day) and so we tried different Mediterranean foods and drinks. We had hummus, pita, and italian creme sodas. Melissa, for some reason, was very hesitant about trying the italian soda. So I encouraged her to try it. After all the other kids had tried theirs and looooved them, they encouraged Melissa to try. All of sudden, she looked up and just burst into tears. When I said, "Melissa, what is wrong!?" She looked at me and said, "Miss Molly, they are just looking at me and I am SO nervous. They just keep looking at me and I'm SO nervous." So I sat her in a corner where the kids weren't looking so much and literally, 30 seconds later, after sipping her soda, she ran over to me and said, "Miss Molly, my soda is SOOOOOO good. I'm making them when I go home!"

It's true what they say...kids say the darndest things!!!

PT Story Time

I wanted to sit down and type a few wonderful PT stories before I went to bed so you can get a small glimpse into what my job is like day in and day out.
My first story happened last week when a bunch of fifth grade girls kept saying "Miss Molly, I am scaaaaaaaaaarrreeeddd!!!" When I asked 'Why?' they said it was because someone at the church died. I saw them in passing, so I wasn't really sure what that meant, but by the way they were acting, I assumed they were just being silly fifth grade girls. Then, right after I passed them in the hall, I went to pick up my 2nd and 3rd graders from recreation (they're officially "my kids," I suppose) and I was asking them how things went. Then, as I was heading towards the back of the line where some 2nd and 3rd grade boys were sitting, I heard one of them whisper "Miss Molly, come here." So I said, "Yes, what's up?" and three of them, all at once told me that a bride had died in the bride's room at the church. When I asked them why everyone kept saying that someone died they told me that everyone was talking about it. Apparently there is a sign on the bride's room at our site church that has a sign on it that says, "In loving memory of Mrs. Harry Someone." So, quite naturally, my children believe that a bride died in there, and the room is dedicated to her. After I was already dying of laughter on the inside, one of my 2nd grade boys named Efran looked at me with the most serious face and said, "Miss Molly, I know who killed the bride." As I rolled my eyes and said "Who, Efran?" He said......"Miss Molly, it was Chuckie, I know it was." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. My heart about fell out of my behind right then and there. I looked him square in the eyes and said "Efran! Chuckie isn't real." But, it's my word against his and boy, oh boy, all my 2nd and 3rd graders believe Chuckie killed a bride at my church.
For another quick story, the other day after recess was over, I went over to the sandbox to tell the kids it was time to go in. A first grade girl named Sandy and a first grade boy named Erick were both still dawdling around in the sandbox. I went over and Sandy was a complete mess! She was covered from head to toe in a sand mess. I looked at her with Erick at my side and said, "Sandy, you are saaaaaannndddyyyy...you need to start wiping all that sand off of you." In the middle of my sentence I see Erick double over in laughter and hear him screaming "Miss Moooollllyyyyyy!!!!" beside me. After I was done talking to Sandy, I looked at Erick and said "What is sooo funny?" He looked up at me and he said, "Miss Molly, don't you know that you just said that Sandy was sandy!" I laughed out loud at his small, but rather catchy observation.

Glad I could share some stories from PT. This week at our site it's "Game Show Week." We are playing a HUGE game of Deal or no Deal with the kids on Thursdays...with homemade briefcases and everything. Please pray for my kids! And me, too :).

PT Time

Howdy!! *I am in Texas, so I felt that that would be appropriate.* As many of you know, I am working down in Dallas this summer with an urban ministry called Project Transformation. I arrived in Dallas at the end of May, so this is my second week here. Currently, there are approximately 99 interns living here with me on the SMU campus in the fraternity houses. It's been great so far! Last week we all went through training, and oh my was that a long week. But, I am happy to report that I am CPR and First Aid certified. I know, I know, I should just probably hit up med school next. Anyway, I made it through training and then had the opportunity to relax this weekend, go out to eat, hit up an art museum and go to the North Texas annual conference. It was a good time!

Yesterday was my teams first day at our site. We work at a church called Walnut Hill. All together, there are around 70 elementary students and 30 youth. I work with the elementary students. I had the opportunity to meet them for the first time yesterday and I just got back from site today, about an hour ago. I feel like I've already known these kids for years! Most of them strive to be your instant best friend for life. It's quite entertaining. 100% of the children we work with are Hispanic so they Looooooooooooooooveeeee soccer. During team planning last week, my team held that in consideration and decided that our first theme would be "World Cup Week." It's been really fun so far, and the kids love it! We decided to break down our week and learn about a country that is popular in the world cup games each day. Yesterday we learned about South Africa (since that is where the world cup is being hosted currently). Today we learned about Italy (they won the world cup last time); tomorrow we are learning about Brazil, and Thursday we are learning about Japan! The kids are really enjoying the cultural diversity. During our afternoon enrichment today, I taught the kids an authentic italian song called "El Grillo." They looooooved it and really enjoyed singing. It was a lot of fun.

Those are some of the fun things going on in my life at the moment. I would covet your prayers for a safe summer and also for my kids! They are so bright and joyful and it's my privilege to be able to teach them this summer! They are learning about so many wonderful things, and PT is a true blessing in their lives. Here's to summer 2010!