Urbana 09 aka- the life chiropractor

30 12 2009

This week I get the privilege of working at InterVarsity’s Urbana Missions convention- an international gathering of students who are asking- “what in the heck does God want me to do with my life?” You can check it out at www.urbana09.org and actually watch to the sessions online!

16,000 students worshipping God!

This is my fourth time working at/attending Urbana.  The first time I attended the conference in 2000, I had such an intense experience with Jesus that after listening to a talk about the servant leadership of Jesus, I walked out of the auditorium in a daze on the cold, snowy night towards the busses waiting to take people back to the dorms. I saw a guy smoking a cigarette and though I’ve never been a smoker, all I could think was “whoa, Jesus just blew my mind- I think I need a cigarette.” After smoking about 1/2 of it and chatting with the guy about how Jesus was blowing our minds and reshaping the ways we thought about ourselves, this world and the people in our lives, I looked at the camel menthol I had half smoked (quintessential college student cigarette right?!) and thought- “gross! why am I doing this?!” and promptly stubbed it out, hiking through the snowy night to the dorm room where I was staying.

Though I haven’t smoked any cigarettes at subsequent Urbana conferences (I promise :) , Jesus continues to blow my mind. This is a place where I am reminded of God’s love for students, his desire to use them to teach and show the world of the priorities of Christ- to demonstrate justice to the poor, to share about the hope and life found in Jesus, to give our priorities and money to the subversive love and lifestyle that Jesus followers are meant to lead. And I’m reminded that I’m meant to lead this life as well- to care about the poor in my city, to talk about the healing love of Christ I’ve experienced, the ways that I need to change my priorities about how I use my money and time so that it doesn’t revolve around making myself more comfortable, successful or beautiful or any number of things I’m tempted to do. The things in my life that have gotten out of whack to care only about myself are shifted back into place by Jesus, the chiropractor and healer of souls.

blinded by the liiiight!

If you do check out the website, listen to Shane Claiborne and Oscar Muriu’s session Dec. 29th- on the webcast. Actually, if you don’t want your life to change, to be challenged to live a more compassionate, simple, generous life- don’t listen to it. It will mess with you in a way that only Jesus can.

the fine folks at toddland and urbana remind you- "jesus loves you...pass it on"


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sabbatical dreams

24 12 2009

It’s hard to believe that in eight days I’ll begin a year long sabbatical from my regular job with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship! After seven years IVCF grants up to a year for academic sabbaticals, an amazing gift! I’m actually in my ninth year of ministry and during this year, I plan to  finish my M.A. through Wheaton Grad school.  I was talking with my friend Gracee the other day about helpful things to consider before beginning a sabbatical- I’d love some advice from any other people that have done/are doing one!

Since my degree is modular and my first class doesn’t start until March, I’ll actually have a decent amount of time for other things besides writing papers and reading for class. I’ve been mentally compiling a list of things I’d like to do, so I thought I’d just blog it out and stop driving myself batty with all my dreams for the next year.

Here is what I actually plan to do:

  1. Finish my M.A. through Wheaton. Read like crazy. Learn some rad stuff about evangelism and leadership. Write a lot of papers.
  2. Begin writing a book on “women in witness” based on the seminar I’m leading at Urbana- I’m so stoked about this and still can’t believe I have a meeting with an editor in a few days to discuss it!
  3. Invest awesome mom time with Reuben and wife time with Dave. I’m hoping to take a mom/toddler swim class with Reuben and a dance class with Dave.
  4. Spend time with girlfriends. I always have ideas for parties but often am gone so much or am so tired that I don’t have energy to follow through on my ideas. My latest party idea: “souper saturday”; have a couple girlfriends over with ingredients for soup that we’ll chop, cook and then each take a portion home to eat/freeze having multiple soups already prepared! I’d also just love to be able to do more normal mom stuff- playdates with kids, library reading hours, things I normally don’t get to do on a regular basis because of my travel schedule.
  5. Spend some awesome time with Jesus. I’m looking forward to taking a silent retreat in January or February at my favorite place, The Hermitage. I’m also hoping to be more involved with the moms group at my church and to possibly plan a women’s retreat!

    the hermitage is beautiful year round- even now when it's covered in snow.

Here is what I’d do if there were no limits to my sabbatical (time, $, family committments, etc.) in addition to what I’m already planning:

  1. Take the “fantasy bake-cation” through Zingerman’s bakery in Ann Arbor. A full weekend of learning how to bake world-famous bread or pastries. I would so LOVE to do this! Perhaps I will be able to swing taking one of the classes. I’d love to learn how to make english muffins at home. I’m a glutton for breakfast breads.
  2. Travel: to Kenya- to visit my brother and sister-in-law while they take sabbatical/work there for six months. To Ireland to visit one of my college girlfriends Katie and her husband Rob. Anywhere warm with Dave during the months of January and February when I get cabin fever living in Michigan.
  3. Create and sell artwork, like the peacock prints I made awhile ago. I’ve had a lot more ideas for those types of things but alas- it takes a lot of time to do that sort of thing! I’ve always found I both think and feel better when I have an outlet for creativity.
  4. Do a triathlon this summer. I wanted to do the Reed’s Lake run here in Grand Rapids this past summer, but again, that takes time and money- not to mention a lot of discipline! I think I probably will end up doing a 5K this spring with Dave, but a triathlon would be pretty cool too.
  5. Reorganize my kitchen pantry. This is the kind of stuff I tell myself that I’d like to do because it makes me feel like a better person but when it comes down to it, I really don’t enjoy it.

    help. me.

    If you had a year to pursue your dreams, what would you do? Help me reorganize my pantry? ;)


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Categories : baking, church, food, friendship, grad school, inner world

the sweet escape

30 11 2009

Stopping to fuel up my jetta with diesel fuel on 1-96 and grabbing a ginormous box of good n’ plenty’s for the road, I drove through the darkened farmland of Michigan to Wheaton, IL where I’ll spend the week in class learning about the history of evangelicalism and the theology of the gospel for the M.A. I’m working on. I have so been waiting for this week.

When I arrived at my friend Annie’s apartment, I could see the glow of the Billy Graham center steeple in the background where I’ll spend all week in class. When I took my job as regional coordinator for

The Billy Graham Center & museum

evangelism two years ago, I negotiated that I could work on this degree (along with raising thousands of $ to do it) to help me best serve the students and staff I work with through InterVarsity and provide them with most cutting edge training and resources. Even though working on this degree has benefitted me professionally, I’ve enjoyed it for another reason. I get to escape into my brain. I get to spend a solid week just learning, and thinking and writing and reflecting without having to balance all the other aspects of my life.  And it feels like a vacation even though I’m working really hard. People have asked if it’s difficult being away from Dave and Reuben while I take these week-long intensive classes and it is. Once, I was staying in a guest home during one of my classes, I could hear a baby crying and his mother singing him to sleep. It was so gut-retching as a mom I had to put in my earbuds and turn on some Miles Davis to drown out the noise and mom guilt sprinkled with the sadness of not being at home to sing my own son to sleep.

But then I get over it and I get into class and start discussing theology, ideas, history and I feel like any sense of regret, sadness or guilt dissipates as I float to the cloud nine of learning. I’ve liked being able to fully immerse myself during the week without thinking about if I’ve thrown on a load of laundry since Reuben peed through all of his underpants, that I should do the dishes before Dave gets home so it’s one less thing for us to do, that I need to pick up more cat food for our two crazy cats Conan and Chester. I walk through the aisles of Trader Joe’s and pick out what I want to eat for the week (chocolate dunkers and edamame!). I sing along with Kanye, Mary J. Blige and Lady GaGa at full blast in the car as I speed along 1-94.  I talk walks alone at the end of a long day and if it’s still light out, I watch the cardinals flit through the grey leafless branches and reflect on what I’ve learned, the diverse people in my classes and how thankful I am for a husband who helps me pursue my dreams, the funds that have been generously provided for me to take classes and the space to do so.

sometimes we even hop in the wardrobe C.S. Lewis's uncle built him and escape to a dream world of magic!

 

 

 


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we are the champions, my friends

24 10 2009

This past week I met with a national staff team of InterVarsity “outreach champions” from across the country. It’s one of my favorite meetings of the year both because I get to connect with brilliant, funny and deep colleagues, but also because we have fun together over delicious meals or going out to see a movie. This time we went and saw the Matt Damon movie- “The Informant!” hil-arious! I love a good dark comedy.

Matt Damon transforms from chic Jason Bourne to dorky Mark Whitacre in "the Informant"

Matt Damon transforms from chic Jason Bourne to dorky Mark Whitacre in "the Informant"

The fun part about this team is that these people dream BIG. They have incredible ideas about how to help shape the faith of college students across the country & invite people to think about Jesus in new ways. At one point during a discussion of N.T. Wrights book Justification and John Piper’s Book The Future of Justification a team mate named Ashley who works at Columbia University in New York leaned over and whispered to me “I’d love to do an outreach called “What the Hell?” and have a forum to have people from different faith backgrounds share their perspectives on hell and stimulate discussion on this topic. Doesn’t that sound cool? It’s energizing being in the same room with people who have a common vision and passion for engaging college students on their perspectives of what faith looks like put into action. I always feel such purpose and inspiration after champions meetings because we’ve been talking about important ideas and plans that shape our whole movement of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

As we were getting ready to fly home, a bunch of our team members hung out in the Great Dane pub in the airport. I asked a few of them what their highlights of the meetings were and they responded with similar sentiments. A team mate named Terry from Minnesota said “you feel like you put on a pair of old jeans with this team- you don’t have to have an agenda, protect yourself, to get everyone going one direction. There’s healthy relationships and building one another up. There is confidence and rejoicing, not pride and arrogance.”

food, fun and friends at the Great Dane!

food, fun and friends at the Great Dane!

Another team mate named Greg from Rhode Island said “I like the clarity that God is giving us- there is real insight into what he’s doing and what the next steps might look like to help move our organization forward. There’s energy in the room, everyone clearly wants to learn together & be a learning community. People jump right in. There are a lot of brilliant and important thoughts that fly around the room- it’s like you need a butterfly net to catch them all.”

I had a friend once remark that “I obviously don’t work in corporate america” with how much I enjoy my team and my team mates. Who loves to go to meetings? When they’re like this, with this group of people, I do. You never know what you’re getting into when you decide to work at a certain place. I never expected that some of my best friends would be people I work with. But eight years later I find myself with a network of friends who I also happen to work with all across the country. What has been one of your favorite jobs? Maybe it was the people, maybe it was the place you worked. What keeps you working where you work?


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