I'm sitting in the SUB (student union building) after meeting a couple girls one-on-one for the last time, right before our last Nav Night. I cannot believe this time has already come. This semester has flown by. Experiencing "lasts", no matter what stage of life I'm in, is always a strange time. Have you ever noticed that in the final season of a particular stage of life, relationships seem to be sweeter and you begin to love what you're doing more than ever before? That's where I'm at. I've never loved working with students here at UNM as much as I have in these last couple weeks; but that is because I know it is not a permanent stay. Because the end of this year is in sight, I have been freed to purely enjoy each part of every day. I just finished mailing out my newsletters, and in them you will read about the direction I am headed next year!
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I had my weekly time with Valerie on Thursday, and we met at Kiva Juice for a refreshing, cold smoothy on such a hot day. We first talked about what God has been teaching us from the Word in the past week, and then we spent the rest of the hour studying the fruit of the spirit. We had such great conversation! Each of those traits are talked about a lot in Christian groups, but often with much depth of meaning. We talked about what it means to truly love people...because in 1 John, we are commanded to love as Jesus loved us. That is a huge command! And joy, how it transcends circumstances, that even when we experience awful grief, we are still commanded to be joyful. We went into each of these fruits in depth, and I think we were both equally challenged by the Word! An hour had passed, and I told Valerie I needed to leave because I was parked at a meter, and I didn't want to get a ticket. We finished up our conversation, and as I walked back to my car, there was the Parking Police! Oh no! Yes, there it was under my windshield wiper...a parking ticket! I was 6 minutes too late! I texted Valerie and told her, and she responded by apologizing for making me late. I told her it was totally my fault, and she apologized again by saying, "I'm so sorry, I got way involved in our conversation"! How GREAT! Last week we had our final Caleb Team meeting (leadership training for up-coming leaders), and it was an opportunity to put into practice what the students had been learning. We went out in pairs to do a little "Initiative Evangelism"! This is a fancy term for simply striking up conversations with people with the intent of sharing the gospel. This is something most of the students had never done before...and they were terrified! For some, it took quite a bit of persuading to walk up to someone and begin a conversation!! Even if this was something I did every week or even every day, I think I'd still get a little nervous each time! Tara and I found a girl sitting by herself studying by the duck pond. I said hello and introduced myself, and then Tara introduced herself, and asked if we could ask her some spiritual questions. She said ok, so we sat down next to her and started digging in! Cecelia is from the United Kingdom, and is here as an exchange student for the year. She has a sweet English accent!! We asked her many questions, like her spiritual background, who Jesus is to her, what she believes will happen after death, etc. She believes in humanity, meaning that humans have the power to live on beyond their lifetime through other humans. Leaving a legacy. She strives to live in such a way that her life will be written down in history...thus living on beyond her limited lifetime. She does not believe there is any sort of afterlife. She believes that Jesus was a great man, but not that He was Lord. She believes that religion is a crutch for weak people, but that if people need that, then that's great for them. Near the end of the conversation, I asked her "What if what you believed about life after death was not right? What if there really is something beyond this life we're living?" She basically said she'd be in a for a huge surprise, and she would hope she lived a good enough life to get into heaven. What was shocking to me was that she said she has Christian friends who are so sorrowful by her eternal destination, and they are praying that she would believe. And this frustrates her, that they care so much. Interesting! So, we had a great conversation with Cecelia. I gave her my contact information, in case she ever wanted to talk more. And now all we can do is pray for her! I love how every time I go out to do initiative evangelism, I dread it a little bit because it is scary (!), but every time I leave, I ask myself, "Why don't I do this more often??!" I want to become someone who naturally strikes up conversation about spiritual things with the people around me because it's simply who I am. "For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" -Acts 4 I thought I'd do a mini spotlight of each of the women I am meeting with one-on-one so you can get to know them a little bit! Meet Andriea! She is a freshman at UNM, and a girl full of spunk and love for Jesus! Each week we are going through a few chapters of a book called "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven", by Mark Cahill. This is a book I highly recommend everyone to read. Sharing Jesus Christ with lost people is "one thing you can't do in heaven", and is the basis of this book. Andriea mainly has friendships with non-Christian students at UNM, and her heart has a huge burden for the lost. We discuss fears in sharing our faith, ways to turn conversation into a spiritual direction, how to answer difficult questions, and praying for her lost friends and older sister. God is going to impact the world through this girl!! You have already met Jalene a couple times, as I have blogged about her before. She is a sophomore at UNM this year, and will be getting married in July! She took a year off school after her freshmen year to work with Work Corps students. She and Nathan will be moving to Fort Collins, CO in August, which is where he will spend 3 years in Veterinary School. They are in Fort Collins as I write this, searching for a house! Jalene and I are going through a book called "It All Comes Out in the Wash." We hold each other accountable for our time alone with God, talk about balance in our lives, pray together, and of course, talk about wedding plans! She is a wonderful friend, and I will miss her dearly!!! Meet Valerie! Valerie is a Junior at UNM, and has been involved in the Navs for a couple years now. Just this past summer, she gave her life to Christ! We meet each week to go through what the Bible says about various topics such as the importance of the Word, time management, what God desires of us, prayer, ect. It's a joy seeing her catch on to the basics of the Christian faith! Meet Kristen! She is a freshemen at UNM, and has been in my Bible study all year. It's been so fun to get to know her! She is another girl with a ton of spunk, though she can be very quiet at first. We just started meeting together one-on-one this semester, and we are going through a book called "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges. Great book! We talk about sins that we often overlook, or dismiss as "little" sins, and how to deal with the sin in our lives. Last week we talked about anxiety, and how it stems from a lack of trust in God. I love how Kristen gets so excited about what we discuss! I wish you could have seen her last week at Bible study, as she thought it was a great idea to make S'mores in the oven! It was quite the sight, as she ended up with chocolate everywhere...the front of her shirt, her shoulder, her face & chin, the bottom of her foot, as she slipped in a puddle of it on the floor...what a hilarious sight! There is a lot of laughter when she is present! Meet Lauren! Lauren is also a freshman at UNM, studying nutrition. She is a woman who passionately seeks the Lord in all she does, and she is such a joy to spend time with! She and I seem to have a ton in common (love for scrapbooking, healthy food, exercise, art-sy things, acoustic/acapella music, photography, reading, ect!), and we could talk for days on end if we had the time! This semester we are going through the book "Respectable Sins" as well, and it has been eye-opening for both of us. Lauren will spend 10 weeks of her summer at Snow Mountain Ranch for the Navs summer training program. I am SO excited for her, and how God is going to grow her this summer!! If you would like to keep up with her experiences this summer, check out her blog: www.thesuninsnowflakes.blogspot.com. Another exciting thing is that Lauren's parents are adopting a little baby from China in the next few weeks!!! Meet Danielle! She is a freshman at UNM, and is also studying nutrition. Danielle is a joy, with her bubbly laugh and big smile! We have been meeting every-other week to simply talk about life and what God has been teaching us. She has had a challenging year here at UNM, and is considering transferring to a Christian college in Texas. She will be greatly missed in Albuquerque, as she has had a great impact on the people in her life! It's so fun to get to know her, because in many ways, she reminds me of myself when I was a freshmen! I am so excited to see where God is going to take her in these next couple years. Meet Tara! She is a junior at UNM, and has been involved in the Navigators for quite a few years now. She currently went through Caleb Team, which is 8 weeks of training for our upcoming leaders. Throughout those 8 weeks, I had the opportunity to meet with her each week and hold her accountable for the things she was learning from Caleb Team. Tara is a special challenge to me, as she is blind and has a very different personality. Through our times together, God has teaching me a lot about how to love difficult people! However, her heart for the Lord and for people is so authentic and beautiful, and we even got to share our fatih with a student on campus the other day. In the photo above, she is with her fiance, Chris. If you would like to keep up even more on what is happening on at UNM, feel free to check out my EDGE teammates' blogs: This is the team who will represent UNM at Snow Mountain Ranch for a 10-week intensive summer training program this summer! Clint and Leigh Ann will be there as staff, and Aaron and Lauren are the two students attending. Unfortunately, Irene (in the New Mexico sweatshirt above) decided to not go to SMR this summer, which we were very sad about. However, two students is double the record of one sent from UNM 3 years ago! I am so excited for what God has in store for Aaron and Lauren, because it was such a life-changing experience for me. Plus they get to be with Drew and Stacy Frazer all summer (directors of the program), plus their little one who will arrive this month!!! Please pray for this team as they prepare for this wild adventure! Pray for Lauren and Aaron as they begin to fundraise, and for Clint and Leigh Ann, whose goal is to have the bulk of their fundraising for next year completed by the beginning of SMR. Well, no. Not hardly, but it sure seemed like it the other day! I in the SUB (student union building) in between a couple one-on-ones, and I overheard a couple girls behind me talking about spiritual things. I tried SO hard to hear every word they were saying, but I only heard bits and pieces of their conversation...just enough to know that one was sharing the gospel with the other! Whoa! In the SUB at UNM?! Amazing! Before I left that area, I decided to stop by and say hello. I told them how encouraging it was for me to hear a couple of students talking about Jesus and the Bible! They lit up when I said that, so I pray that I was able to water the seed the student was planting in the other girl's life!! So cool! Then, the same day, I was walking to the duck pond, when I overheard a guy say, "Well, I know I should really spend some time praying about it and seeing what the Bible says..." Sweet! I felt like a huge revival was going on that day...even though it was only 2 little snippets of conversation I heard! God is at work at UNM! I had waited all semester for this day to arrive: the day my parents would be here to visit me in Albuquerque! I had everything prepared and planned out: the house meticulously cleaned, fresh yellow flowers on the kitchen table, a menu of meals, activities for each day, ect. It was going to be a great weekend together! They were supposed to arrive at 4:20 on Thursday, but I got a call from my Dad around noon. They were stuck in the Denver airport because of snow. All flights were cancelled, and it was possible they might not get on another flight to Albuquerque. WHAT?? You're kidding right?! My heart sunk at the thought of them not being able to make it. Thankfully, there were able to stay in a motel in Denver that night, and they ended up arriving in Albuquerque Friday afternoon. Praise God! Last week the 5 of us staff took 9 students to the Nav headquarters for a week! The Glen staff organized our entire week for us, and called it Spring Break Spectacular! And Spectacular it was! Each day we had a morning session with various Nav speakers, time alone with God, a workshop, time with our small groups after lunch, free time in the afternoon, another session in the evening, and fun stuff after the evening session. Whew! It was a packed schedule!! Wed. was a ski/serve day, where students chose to either go skiing or serve the Glen. I stayed to serve, and spent the day raking the lawns and making beds! It was a treat to be able to give back to the Glen in a small way like that. Here is a photo of our UNM group: Of all the stories I could tell of things I learned from speakers, ways God spoke to me during quiet times, adventures with my small group, seeing old friends....there is one story that stands above all the rest, one that I will remember forever! On Monday night, all of heaven rejoiced in the new life of XinXin!!!!! Perhaps you remember me mentioning that Leigh Ann has met with XinXin for the past year and a half, but was not a believer. Well, she chose to come on the spring break trip, which was a huge step for her. We learned on Monday that she had lied to her boss, telling him that she was available to work all week (she does research in the lab, so is able to work on her own schedule), rather than telling him that she would be out of state all week. Once her boss found out she was in CO, he called and harshly told her to return to ABQ. This is a situation that Satan intended for harm, but God intended for good! Through this situation, XinXin realized that there is sin in her life, and that her sin will always be found out. That night, she and Leigh Ann had a long conversation about Jesus and salvation, and she said she wanted to accept Him!!! Leigh Ann led her in a "repeat-after-me" type of prayer, and then had XinXin tell God her thoughts. She began her prayer by declaring in her sweet Chinese accent, "Dear God, I want to be Your Daughter!" What a JOY and ANSWER TO PRAYER! I was able to have a long conversation with XinXin the next day, and we rejoiced together! It was so neat to see the new joy in her that I had not seen before! Even though she had to leave on Wed morning to head back to ABQ, God accomplished a mighty work in her life in those couple days! Praise God! Here is a photo of Leigh Ann, Kim, XinXin and I right before she left on Wed: We just returned to Albuquerque yesterday from our Spring Break trip, so stay tuned for updates in the next couple days! Great God-Stories to come! |