On reaching out

Living in Athens I see a lot of Christianity being shared in a way that hurts my heart... people who yell at students as they make their way to class, people who yell at strangers downtown from street corners, people who first express a message of damnation before a message of unconditional love.

But I am fortunate- and deeply blessed- to work with an outstanding group of people and to worship with an outstanding community of people who see and understand Christ to be a giver of grace, a giver of as many second chances as we need, and- most importantly- a giver of unconditional love.  And I am so grateful to minister alongside these people who simply want to share with others our God who cares so deeply about each of us.

Ashley, Jamie, me, and Josey-- 4 of 57 UGA Wesley Interns

Tonight after our normal Wesley worship service, a group of us will be heading downtown, hopefully to extend a little token of love with encouraging notes and warm cider and hot chocolate to students and locals participating in the holiday festivities.  Our goal is simple: to pray for people if we can, to encourage people with notes and goodies, and to just reach out and let people know that there is a God who loves them, a community who is constantly praying for them, and that they are always invited at God's table, and always invited at ours.

October stands for Hectic

It's been a crazy couple of weeks! October is in full swing and Fall feels like it's here to stay a while. Of course, that means that it's time for pumpkins and cardigans!  And, this:

Dazzling in our red, black, and while at Wesley's annual Fundraising Dinner! 

L-R: Mary Claire, Nico, me, Erin, and Elizabeth.

A visit from my friend Sarah!  Naturally, we went to Target simply to test out their Fall collection of beanies, Fedoras and floppy hats. 

Catalyst Conference with the ah-mazing youth pastors at Athens FUMC and senior youth leader Anne! We enjoyed speakers like Jon Acuff, Mark Burnett, Francis Chan, and Christine Caine.  We also enjoyed the musical stylings of Gungor and Michael W. Smith.

L-R:  Anne, Jason, me, and Eric.

A mystery at Wesley... what's coming?  No one knows!  Guess we'll find out on November 1st!  Stay tuned for pictures/blog posts about said surprise! 

On group "DT"

Discipleship, or "DT", is one of my favorite parts of being involved with Wesley.  In addition to being individually discipled twice a month, I'm also group-discipled twice a month with other beautiful, wise, and caring ladies who teach me so much about what it means to love the Lord and be comfortable in my own skin. I value their hearts and treasure their wisdom.  Here are some pictures of what my group discipleship looks like...

My group DT for this year.  Autumn (second from the left) disciples the three of us this year!  She is gentle, stunningly wise, and a talented fort-builder. It's so exciting to see all that the Lord has for us as this year unfolds!

My group DT from the 2011-2012 school year.  Literally, I have no words for the amazingness that this group was.  Jessica, in the middle, was my discipler for two years and I continue to glean truth and wisdom from her words and actions. These ladies are some of my dearest friends. 

On being tough

I work with the youth at Athens First UMC.  I love working with them for a lot of reasons: because they're funny, because they're kind, because I like to dress up, and because I like playing silly games.  But mostly, I love working with them because I love reminding them that they are brave, that they are tough, that they are loved, and that they are powerful.  And so whenever I have the opportunity, I tell them because I remember how strongly and greatly influenced I was by my youth leaders when I was younger.  I am constantly reminded of the ways in which their love and encouragement shaped my character, my confidence, and my faith.  I hope that I can have that kind of impact on even one of my students.  So while I have silly hair, silly facial expressions, like silly games and have silly dance moves-  there are a lot of meaningful things that I hope for these students: that they will grow deeply into Christ, that they will feel deeply loved, be powerful positive influences, and always, always, always remember that they are tougher than they think and braver than they know.

Shout out to my Orange Team from the Amazing Harvest Race-- how tough are we??

This also happened...

In honor of our Harvest Camping Retreat this weekend, AFUMC hosted it's first Hoedown Throwdown: consider it properly thrown. 

The few... the brave... those who dressed hillbilly in honor of the occasion!

 Anne and I- one of our leaders!

 Camo and overalls forever, y'all.

Being among the watchmen

In a lot of Christian teaching, there is a great deal of metaphoric language.  One such metaphor is the image of "breaking down walls" which has frequented sermons that I've listened to since I was a kid.  It just seems to be an easy way of expressing the Lord's desire to break strongholds in lives-- like pride, or anger, or depression, or grief.  These are emotions that can weigh heavy upon us and, at times, feel inescapable; like a wall built to prevent escape... not built to protect.

In the Old Testament (or, the Hebrew Testament), there are verses that reference the watchmen who are designated to guard the walls of protection.  These are very different walls than those that guard our strongholds.  And the watchmen wait diligently for morning to come.  In Psalm 130, David proclaims

I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for morning, 

more than watchmen wait for morning.

There are walls that are built for the purpose of protection.  And guardians who are also given to the protection of the wall and what it protects.  What I love most about this verse about the watchmen is that David equates the diligence of the watchmen to the way that his soul longs after the Lord.  Diligently, with patience, with alertness, and with the promise that morning comes each day.  This year at Wesley, one of our themes for the year is: rebuilding the walls and re-digging the wells.  We have taken a place on the wall... metaphorically, yes.  But also, quite literally.  

This is a picture of our staff praying outside of the building where we meet.  We have taken the place of the watchmen.  We are intercessors for what happens on the inside of this building ever Wednesday night.  We ask the Lord to protect this place; to make it a place of freedom, of safety, of joy.  As we guard the wall of protection, we simultaneously ask God to remove any walls that are preventing people from feeling loved, heard, and fought for by God. And that when those walls come down, people find safety behind the Lord. 

It is a true place of humility to be among the watchmen... to bear witness to joyful intercession, to see hearts broken out of love for those who have been broken by life's circumstances, and to diligently watch the wall.

Our parts compose a more beautiful whole

As most of you know, I work at the Wesley Foundation.  What you may not know, is that we pray... a lot!  We have 2 morning prayer meetings a week, 2 evening services, a 36-hour prayer watch before our Wednesday night service, and interns have their own personal intercession times throughout the week as we prepare for discipleships ("dts"), meetings, and generally prepare our hearts for ministry.  Here's a picture of 7:30 Tuesday morning prayer!  It's a bit blurry-- but the beauty is that a bunch of people show up just to pray for UGA's campus, for Wesley's leadership and service, and specific needs that arise in our community.  It's AWESOME.

We also kicked off a new sermon series called IMPRINT last week.  The series is all about leaving an imprint on Athens and on UGA- and what kind of legacy each of us leaves here.  The most amazing, fantastic, out-of-this-world, blow-your-mind cool thing that is happening right now is that there are 8-10 other college ministries in Athens that are also doing the Imprint series!  On Sunday night, we all joined together and prayed for unity among our ministries, for breakthrough on our campus, and just for good things to happen here in Athens.

 It was incredible.

I was so blown away by the uniqueness each ministry brought to the table and to prayer-- for example, at Wesley, we're generally known to be the loud pray-ers who generally stand.  People from other ministries come to the Lord more quietly, are more ready to sit and pray, and sit in small groups to pray.  But as we worshiped together and prayed together for Athens and for UGA, our differences began to be stripped away and we began to simply be the Body of Christ- contending for our friends, classmates, sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, teammates, professors, and coworkers.  We prayed for those held in the strongholds of addiction, depression, negative self-image; those consumed by anger, fear, jealousy, and hostility.  Most of all, we just asked to love people well-- so that we can share our faith well.

As we prayed, I began to really understand a part of truly being the Body of Christ: it's understanding that our parts-- all of our parts-- are constantly shaping and composing a more beautiful whole.  Our ministries are set apart to be good at different things, to be gifted in certain areas, and to attract people who feel at home in that ministry.  The most beautiful thing about differing ministries is that no person is the same. So, as ministries beneath the banner of Christ, we serve a higher calling than our numbers or our lights & sound.  We serve Christ the best way that we know how- digging into the Word, relying on the Holy Spirit, trusting Christ's promises, and pressing into the heart of the Father.

And when we pray collectively for our campus, we know that our God hears us.  As we trust and believe big things for Athens, I know that our parts are composing a bigger, more beautiful whole than imaginable.  I'm so excited to see what's in store for Athens this year-- and what imprint each of us involved will leave.