Friday, January 23, 2009
Is it Spring yet?
Like most of the country Blacksburg has been experiencing bitter cold temperatures the past few weeks (without snow unfortunately) until today. The temperature on weather.com reads "Feels like 57" and I couldn't be happier. Apparently the rest of the town feels the same way. Nic & I went to grab some lunch and run into Kroger around noon today and the traffic was K-razy (although I must confess no where even close to traffic on 1-76 in Philly on a Friday afternoon)! As I look out my office window there is still a steady stream of cars as it has been since 10 am this morning (some even disobeying traffic laws- a red octagon sign means STOP people). It would seem that it's not just me that's ready for some warmer temperatures! I like my four seasons don't get me wrong but sometimes in the middle of freezing January it's nice to get a break-my spirits are lifted and people are just nicer in general. Nic & I both got to enjoy the nicer weather a bit too, his in the form of frisbee on the Drillfield and mine a brisk walk on the Huckleberry. So whatever your thoughts may be on the weather ahead of us- here's to the smell of fresh cut grass and the sound of baseball bats clicking!
Monday, January 12, 2009
A New Semester
It's a good feeling to have survived one semester of life in campus ministry. Entering our second semester here at VT, I have much less anxiety and troubling uncertainty about what my life and work will look like. April and I have been asked on a few occasions if this first semester went how we expected it to go. I would say that we had very few expectations coming in, other than the fact that our lives would feel very different from how they did when we were in Philadelphia. Although every day seems to bring a new surprise, it is a reassuring feeling to me to have a general feel of what I'll be getting into this semester. For me, a person who is generally uncomfortable in social situations where I don't know anybody, coming into the semester having relationships with many of the students involved in our ministry makes things feel much easier. I'm looking forward to the chance to go deeper in some of my relationships instead of spending my relational energy remembering names and recognizing faces.
The winter break was a good time for me to have some reflection on the past months and some general goal-setting for the next few months. We have another week of work before students will start coming back and starting class again. It's been a good time to get some projects done around the BCM building (including cleaning out our cluttered basement), and also a time to get a head start on planning some of our Bible studies and programs. For some reason, I still feel apprehension about the upcoming semester and what it will entail, but I have a lot of excitement and hope to see what God is going to do in me and through me as I grow in my role here at the BCM.
The winter break was a good time for me to have some reflection on the past months and some general goal-setting for the next few months. We have another week of work before students will start coming back and starting class again. It's been a good time to get some projects done around the BCM building (including cleaning out our cluttered basement), and also a time to get a head start on planning some of our Bible studies and programs. For some reason, I still feel apprehension about the upcoming semester and what it will entail, but I have a lot of excitement and hope to see what God is going to do in me and through me as I grow in my role here at the BCM.
Monday, December 1, 2008
A Day in My Life
Since it's hard to describe what I do on a daily basis, I wanted to try to give a sense of what a day looks like for me. Today is our first day back at work after a week off at Thanksgiving, so there is probably a little more organization work today that I'm catching up on than usual. Here goes:
7:30am - Wake up, a little later than I wanted to, but well rested. Eat a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. Check email and fantasy football/basketball results. My teams didn't perform very well this week.
8:00am - Shower, shave, get dressed.
8:15am - Quiet time alone with God. Writing in my journal, reading Proverbs, praying about the day.
8:50am - Take the dog for a short walk in the snow. Too bad the snow is all melted within an hour.
9:00am - Gather my stuff and make the commute to work (walking across the parking lot). Turn the heat on, set up my laptop, write a to-do list for the day.
9:30am - Update the BCM website to reflect the activities going on in the near future. I do this every Monday morning. Background music: Blue Water Band. Not sure why I wanted to listen to this old recording of us playing - maybe because I saw Mike this past week and haven't listened to it in a while.
9:45am - Write an article for our monthly newsletter about events of the past month. Gives me a good chance to reflect on the month and everything that went on. Also put it into the layout using Microsoft Publisher. April is with her ladies discipleship group, so I get good work done with the office to myself. Background music: Don Chaffer and Waterdeep.
11:00am - Balance my checkbook and process the support checks that we have received over break.
Randomly throughout the morning - Write and respond to emails with BCM studnets setting up a service project this weekend to split and deliver firewood to families in the area who need it.
11:15am - Get asked by a student to do an interview about my views of masculinity for her Masculinity class. Who knew they offered such a class. Spend the next hour and a half talking about family, being a husband, being emotionally vulnerable, and what it means to be a man. I had an audience of up to four other women (including April) listening to my answers, making me feel a bit like I was on trial.
12:45pm - Talk to another student about the possibility of them using the BCM's white 15-passenger van for a trip this weekend. The insurance company is being really picky about who drives the van these days, so it doesn't work out.
1:00pm - Go home for lunch. I made a sandwich with a leftover chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, and mayo - it was quite good. Also had some homemade Chex Mix and Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's (a favorite of ours) that we imported from Cincinnati this past week.
1:30pm - Back to work. Write some receipt letters/emails to our supporters.
2:00pm - Read some NFL articles online.
2:30pm - Call a student I've never met or talked to because his grandmother had called here before break asking us to reach out to him. This is a really intimidating thing for me, so it takes me 15 minutes of going through possible conversations in my head before I can call. End up leaving a voice mail. This is the kind of thing that I want to learn how to do more though - God giving me a heart for the broken and hurting.
3:00pm - Walk down the street to Rocket Music to buy some drum sticks. I've pulverized the couple of pairs I have, and have band practice tonight. There are people there eating chocolate cake in honor of somebody's birthday, and I get offered some, but decline.
3:15pm - Write an email to student leaders about the Christmas party we're having next Sunday. It will be a pot-luck dinner and white elephant gift party, so I explain those things. Background music: Pandora radio, Belle & Sebastian channel. I asked my brother this weekend what artist to put into Pandora and this is what he recommended. I'm digging it.
3:30pm - Write this blog.
3:55pm - Do some quick research for a talk that April is giving tomorrow night about James and John the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus' disciples.
4:00pm - Meet with other staff to pray for the BCM.
5:00pm - Talk about ideas for a weekly advent liturgy service that we could have over the next couple of weeks.
5:15pm - Go home for dinner (I think we're going to make sloppy joes).
6:30pm - Back to the BCM for church band practice. I play drums at church about every other week, and we're playing this Sunday.
9:00pm - Samson society meeting at BCM. This a group where men gather together to talk honestly about their lives, and I love this part of every week.
10:00pm - Hang out with the Samson guys at Taco Bell. This is our weekly ritual after our meetings.
Well, that was a lengthy description with some details that are pretty inconsequential, but I hope you understand a little more about what kinds of things I do during the day.
7:30am - Wake up, a little later than I wanted to, but well rested. Eat a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. Check email and fantasy football/basketball results. My teams didn't perform very well this week.
8:00am - Shower, shave, get dressed.
8:15am - Quiet time alone with God. Writing in my journal, reading Proverbs, praying about the day.
8:50am - Take the dog for a short walk in the snow. Too bad the snow is all melted within an hour.
9:00am - Gather my stuff and make the commute to work (walking across the parking lot). Turn the heat on, set up my laptop, write a to-do list for the day.
9:30am - Update the BCM website to reflect the activities going on in the near future. I do this every Monday morning. Background music: Blue Water Band. Not sure why I wanted to listen to this old recording of us playing - maybe because I saw Mike this past week and haven't listened to it in a while.
9:45am - Write an article for our monthly newsletter about events of the past month. Gives me a good chance to reflect on the month and everything that went on. Also put it into the layout using Microsoft Publisher. April is with her ladies discipleship group, so I get good work done with the office to myself. Background music: Don Chaffer and Waterdeep.
11:00am - Balance my checkbook and process the support checks that we have received over break.
Randomly throughout the morning - Write and respond to emails with BCM studnets setting up a service project this weekend to split and deliver firewood to families in the area who need it.
11:15am - Get asked by a student to do an interview about my views of masculinity for her Masculinity class. Who knew they offered such a class. Spend the next hour and a half talking about family, being a husband, being emotionally vulnerable, and what it means to be a man. I had an audience of up to four other women (including April) listening to my answers, making me feel a bit like I was on trial.
12:45pm - Talk to another student about the possibility of them using the BCM's white 15-passenger van for a trip this weekend. The insurance company is being really picky about who drives the van these days, so it doesn't work out.
1:00pm - Go home for lunch. I made a sandwich with a leftover chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, and mayo - it was quite good. Also had some homemade Chex Mix and Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's (a favorite of ours) that we imported from Cincinnati this past week.
1:30pm - Back to work. Write some receipt letters/emails to our supporters.
2:00pm - Read some NFL articles online.
2:30pm - Call a student I've never met or talked to because his grandmother had called here before break asking us to reach out to him. This is a really intimidating thing for me, so it takes me 15 minutes of going through possible conversations in my head before I can call. End up leaving a voice mail. This is the kind of thing that I want to learn how to do more though - God giving me a heart for the broken and hurting.
3:00pm - Walk down the street to Rocket Music to buy some drum sticks. I've pulverized the couple of pairs I have, and have band practice tonight. There are people there eating chocolate cake in honor of somebody's birthday, and I get offered some, but decline.
3:15pm - Write an email to student leaders about the Christmas party we're having next Sunday. It will be a pot-luck dinner and white elephant gift party, so I explain those things. Background music: Pandora radio, Belle & Sebastian channel. I asked my brother this weekend what artist to put into Pandora and this is what he recommended. I'm digging it.
3:30pm - Write this blog.
3:55pm - Do some quick research for a talk that April is giving tomorrow night about James and John the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus' disciples.
4:00pm - Meet with other staff to pray for the BCM.
5:00pm - Talk about ideas for a weekly advent liturgy service that we could have over the next couple of weeks.
5:15pm - Go home for dinner (I think we're going to make sloppy joes).
6:30pm - Back to the BCM for church band practice. I play drums at church about every other week, and we're playing this Sunday.
9:00pm - Samson society meeting at BCM. This a group where men gather together to talk honestly about their lives, and I love this part of every week.
10:00pm - Hang out with the Samson guys at Taco Bell. This is our weekly ritual after our meetings.
Well, that was a lengthy description with some details that are pretty inconsequential, but I hope you understand a little more about what kinds of things I do during the day.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Snow, Football, and Vacation
These are the three things that have been on my mind for most of this week. It has been a beautiful snowy week here in Blacksburg. We've had three or four snow showers that have left about an inch of accumulation on the ground, and it has seemed like gentle flurries have been in the air continuously. What we love is that this is more snow than we saw all last winter in Philadelphia. It seems like all we ever got there was cold rain, sleet, and ice - never any real snow. There's something about the snow that puts April in a giddy mood, makes me in awe of the beautiful creation around me, and makes Mabel a bit hyperactive as she sprints around scooping up mouthfuls of it.
I've been playing on an intramural flag football team with some guys from BCM - we played three playoff games in the evenings this week. We made it to the sweet 16 of the tournament, but unfortunately lost in overtime last night, ending our season. The fellowship and camaraderie with the guys has been great, and I love the opportunity to get out and engage in a competitive activity, even if it's in very cold weather. Monday night was probably the most fun game of football I've ever played - it was our first playoff game, and the snow was falling hard throughout most of the game. It looked amazing with the rec field lights illuminating every snowflake blowing across the field and the football gliding through all of them.
Today is also the beginning of Thanksgiving vacation for all of us here at Virginia Tech. The students (except for the crowd staying for our football game against Duke tomorrow) have mostly left to spend the week with their families. April and I are heading out to Cincinnati for the week after church on Sunday. We are really looking forward to this break and time to spend with family and friends. I've felt pretty drained and unmotivated in my daily tasks recently, and am looking forward to some time to rest my mind and my spirit, reconnect with God, and reflect on these past months.
I've been playing on an intramural flag football team with some guys from BCM - we played three playoff games in the evenings this week. We made it to the sweet 16 of the tournament, but unfortunately lost in overtime last night, ending our season. The fellowship and camaraderie with the guys has been great, and I love the opportunity to get out and engage in a competitive activity, even if it's in very cold weather. Monday night was probably the most fun game of football I've ever played - it was our first playoff game, and the snow was falling hard throughout most of the game. It looked amazing with the rec field lights illuminating every snowflake blowing across the field and the football gliding through all of them.
Today is also the beginning of Thanksgiving vacation for all of us here at Virginia Tech. The students (except for the crowd staying for our football game against Duke tomorrow) have mostly left to spend the week with their families. April and I are heading out to Cincinnati for the week after church on Sunday. We are really looking forward to this break and time to spend with family and friends. I've felt pretty drained and unmotivated in my daily tasks recently, and am looking forward to some time to rest my mind and my spirit, reconnect with God, and reflect on these past months.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Time Flies
It feels like there shouldn't have been as much time between this post and our last one but the truth is-it's been a while. Time flies doesn't it? For us the semester is almost over which means pretty soon the students will be packing up and heading home for the Christmas holiday. I certainly can't believe the semester is almost over but then again I can't believe I'm turning 24 on Friday either.
We attended a statewide youth and collegiate minister conference today in Roanoke & during one of the afternoon sessions the speaker spoke about text messaging and how things are changing daily in our culture. He gave an example of how one youth minister conducted a research project to find out just how many text messages his students were sending. He asked the parents to bring in their phone bills after one month and they tallied up the texts. The winner-12,500 text messages in one month that's an average of 400 text messages/day. All I could think was "How in the world?"
Since we've been back here I've noticed that even though I'm not that much older than some of the students, I am an old lady when it comes to certain things. Texting is one of those things. At the beginning of the semester I had to get a couple of the students to teach me how to use the ITAP feature on my phone so I could become a more efficient texter. Nic & I had to increase our texting plan b/c now we get/send text messages almost daily. Before we moved here I averaged maybe two texts per week. Do you catch my drift yet?
So what do you think a/b all this next technology? Are you with the times or lagging behind like me :) ?
We attended a statewide youth and collegiate minister conference today in Roanoke & during one of the afternoon sessions the speaker spoke about text messaging and how things are changing daily in our culture. He gave an example of how one youth minister conducted a research project to find out just how many text messages his students were sending. He asked the parents to bring in their phone bills after one month and they tallied up the texts. The winner-12,500 text messages in one month that's an average of 400 text messages/day. All I could think was "How in the world?"
Since we've been back here I've noticed that even though I'm not that much older than some of the students, I am an old lady when it comes to certain things. Texting is one of those things. At the beginning of the semester I had to get a couple of the students to teach me how to use the ITAP feature on my phone so I could become a more efficient texter. Nic & I had to increase our texting plan b/c now we get/send text messages almost daily. Before we moved here I averaged maybe two texts per week. Do you catch my drift yet?
So what do you think a/b all this next technology? Are you with the times or lagging behind like me :) ?
Friday, October 24, 2008
Off to the Eyrie
This weekend is the fall statewide BCM retreat at Eagle Eyrie! Eagle Eyrie is a Baptist retreat center located in the mountains outside of Lynchburg, VA. There is a state BCM conference there each fall and spring where students from BCMs at all the colleges in Virginia gather for a weekend to worship, hang out, and stay up too late playing games and talking. I can't remember for sure, but I'm pretty confident that I went to all 8 Eagle Eyries that occured during my time as a student. I have to confess though that during all that time I never knew what the heck "Eagle Eyrie" meant. Apparently, an eyrie is a nest or a house that is built on a high place or a cliff. The property got its name from one of the original owners whose nickname was "The Eagle" - sounds like a pretty intense guy.
We're all getting ready to hop in 15-passenger vans and start the 2-hour trip to Lynchburg for the weekend, and I'm getting quite excited. Eagle Eyrie was one of my favorite events as a student. I remember so many fun times hanging out and having significant spiritual experiences there. I even met a few people from other Virginia schools that have been good friends ever since then. They've fixed up the hotel that we stay in and added a few modern conveniences (like cell phone service and wireless internet!) since the last time I've been there, but I am looking forward to the familiar place to retreat from life here in Blacksburg. I know it will be a little bit different now that I am no longer a student, but I'm excited to see what will happen in the VT BCM community and what God will teach us this weekend!
We're all getting ready to hop in 15-passenger vans and start the 2-hour trip to Lynchburg for the weekend, and I'm getting quite excited. Eagle Eyrie was one of my favorite events as a student. I remember so many fun times hanging out and having significant spiritual experiences there. I even met a few people from other Virginia schools that have been good friends ever since then. They've fixed up the hotel that we stay in and added a few modern conveniences (like cell phone service and wireless internet!) since the last time I've been there, but I am looking forward to the familiar place to retreat from life here in Blacksburg. I know it will be a little bit different now that I am no longer a student, but I'm excited to see what will happen in the VT BCM community and what God will teach us this weekend!
Monday, October 6, 2008
A Place Called Home
You know those things that make a place feel like home? Familiarity, Routines, Friends. Lately I'm starting to feel that way about Blacksburg. Last week poor Mabel was feeling a little under the weather (see picture below) & I had to call around to find a vet that would see her. Then I proceeded to call several dentists in the area to make an appointment for Nic & myself to get our teeth cleaned.
To me there's something about scheduling an appointment with a certified professional that makes it feel like you're putting down roots somewhere. It's been amazing to be back in Blacksburg (not to mention the Commonwealth of Virginia) but I must admit it's been harder than I expected to just pick up our lives in Philadelphia and move away. We miss friends, VCC West Philly, and I will admit sometimes even the hustle and bustle of the city life. But God is faithful & we are starting to catch a glimpse of what he has for us here.
We've been able to attend a small group at our church on a regular basis now and it has just been wonderful. It's so comforting to show up to church & recognize at least a couple faces & even better have them remember your name! We always joke about how Mabel is such a "routine dog" but when all things familar are taken away I've realized I start to long for those routines too. So for now I'll keep singing that cheesy song from "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" -it feels like home to me.
To me there's something about scheduling an appointment with a certified professional that makes it feel like you're putting down roots somewhere. It's been amazing to be back in Blacksburg (not to mention the Commonwealth of Virginia) but I must admit it's been harder than I expected to just pick up our lives in Philadelphia and move away. We miss friends, VCC West Philly, and I will admit sometimes even the hustle and bustle of the city life. But God is faithful & we are starting to catch a glimpse of what he has for us here.
We've been able to attend a small group at our church on a regular basis now and it has just been wonderful. It's so comforting to show up to church & recognize at least a couple faces & even better have them remember your name! We always joke about how Mabel is such a "routine dog" but when all things familar are taken away I've realized I start to long for those routines too. So for now I'll keep singing that cheesy song from "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" -it feels like home to me.
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