Bigger and Better Things

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, but then again the end of the school year is always a time of big changes.

With the end of the school semester, my time as an InterVarsity staff intern has also ended, meaning that I am now officially a full Campus Staff Minister! What does that mean? Well, for one, it means that I am no longer being trained. Whereas this past year has been peppered with things like trips to other chapters, reading books, and meetings with various staff workers, my time is now going to be devoted more to simply working on campus and building up the students there. I loved the experiences of the internship, especially the opportunities to grow in my understanding of spiritual disciplines like prayer, but it is also exciting to have now "arrived" in a sense and to really devote myself fully to being a part of God's work at UNM.

I did have a few final experiences to round out my year these last weeks, though. One really exciting opportunity was to get to experience worshiping God in a new way by attending worship services drastically different from my own.

One Sunday, rather than attending my home church of Hope, I went to Christ the King Anglican Church. It's a great place - a beautiful combination of simplicity and extravagance that emphasizes both highly liturgical worship and accurate, straightforward Bible teaching. I'm not very familiar with liturgical practices, but being able to attend the service was a great experience. In fact, if I didn't already have a church that I love, I think I would really enjoy becoming a part of Christ the King.

I was also able to take a prayer retreat for a full 24 hours at a Catholic retreat center, the Norbertine Community. There I took up residence in a small hermitage to spend my time in reflection, prayer, and worship. The center has two masses each day - one in the evening and one in the early morning - which I was able to attend during my time there. The masses were performed using a prayer book, marking my first time of singing antiphonals (a kind of Gregorian Chant) and partaking of Eucharist in the traditional Catholic fashion. While my time became a little uncomfortable at times, the time there was well worth it, and I am glad to be able to know more about ways I can worship my awesome God.

My other big event of these past weeks was Chapter Camp. Every year, IV chapters from throughout the Rocky Mountain Region gather for a week of fellowship, Scripture study, fun, and worship. We meet in Bear Trap Ranch, a wonderful camp owned by IV tucked away in the mountains outside Colorado Springs. After a long and hard year, a week spent at Bear Trap around friends is always a wonderful respite, and this year was no exception.

An average day at Chapter Camp is a glorious thing. You begin with a hearty breakfast in the dining hall, providing an opportunity to mingle with the dozens of other students from around the region (161 total for our week). From there, students attend a manuscripting session, where they explore a section of Scripture by making observations, discussing questions as a group, and then choosing applications related to the central theme of the passage. Students then go to the creative response time, which provides an opportunity to explore what God is calling them to do more fully as they pray, paint, sing, or do any number of other exercises related to the passage. Lunch follows and then leads into free time, which is usually filled with hikes, horseback rides, basketball or volleyball tournaments, and a bunch of other activities. Next is track time. Each student chooses a track for the week (1 of 4), which provides specific training in areas such as prayer or Christian leadership. Track time continues until dinner, and after dinner everyone heads to an all-campus worship session. There is also a sermon on the passage from the morning given by a speaker chosen for the week, who delves deep into what God is telling us through His Word and what that means for us. The night ends with chapter time, where each chapter is able to meet together and share how God is at work in the students.

Honestly, I was a little nervous going in; as a part of the staff team, I was responsible for helping run the camp and could no longer simply enjoy the week as a participant. My specific jobs were to help with our creative response times and the afternoon games each day. God really showed up, though, and this was one of the best Chapter Camps I've ever been privileged to attend. In fact, day after day I continued to see God at work. We studied the life of Moses, targeting especially the ways that he continuously brought up his inadequacy before God and how God worked in spite of the weakness of Moses and the Israelites following him. Throughout the week I heard students praying for God to release them of their excuses and feelings of inadequacy, asking to find a way to be a small part of the big work that God is doing around them, and taking the first few steps toward obedience as they recognized what God was telling them through the week. How awesome to see God at work!

And I ask that you pray for these students. We had 24 from UNM alone, and I believe that God had a message for each of them at Chapter Camp that they are called to follow. A summer is a long time, though, and it's easy to lose sight of a calling within a few months' time. Please pray that the things God has been doing in the students of UNM would continue to work in them and that they would be ready to follow Him wherever He leads this next year. Pray also for me as I enter this summer of fundraising once again. The first few letters have gone out, and already I have begun to hear from people who would like to support me! Thanks to all of you.

"Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, 'What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?' He replied, 'Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.' "
- Judges 13:17-18

P.S.
Since there won't be much going on with InterVarsity this summer, I will probably make updates more seldom. In fact, I'm considering dropping the blog format in favor of a monthly email newsletter, though for the time being this blog is my update location of choice. In any case, check back in sometime in mid to late June for my next post.

Underground

Yes, yet another tardy blog post. Sorry for not staying on top of things; the past week has been rather uneventful as far as ministry things go, so I haven't felt a strong need to update. Things are largely starting to wind down, especially with finals coming up for the students next week (or even this week for many of them).

The past week has been fun, though. For Large Group, we had a special underground church night. This meant essentially using the entire Students Union Building as an arena for us to try to hold a secret service for the Christians, who had to hide from the undercover police in the group. I happened to be one of the police, and so my goal was to find my way into the meetings by blending in with the Christians, then arrest those who did anything overtly "Christian", especially targeting the leaders of the group. It was a lot of fun to run around trying to be under cover (though after a couple of arrests I did become somewhat infamous), but it was also interesting to see the ways that the groups naturally reacted to the situation. We had some students resist arrest, while others would be really discreet or even just avoid the meetings altogether. Meanwhile the leaders, when put in our makeshift prison, would try to evangelize their captors, and in the absence of leadership, others would take on the mantle of leadership and organize meetings on their own. It was supposed to be a really open-ended simulation, but it was cool to see it take on aspects of reality down to covert communication between the Christians via text messaging. We ended the night in a time of prayer for those around the world for whom church oppression is the reality, and I think we all felt a renewed sense of unity and brotherhood with those far-flung churches after spending a short time seeing things from their perspective.

Though the semester is coming to a close, there are still a number of events that I would appreciate your prayer for. This week marks the end of our regular meetings, so we are having the final Small Groups and Large Group. We will also have an end-of-the-year party and a farewell party for seniors this weekend, and then for a couple of days next week we're giving away coffee as a service to help energize students needing a little pickmeup for finals. Not to mention the week of Chapter Camp the following week, which is going to be an incredibly important occasion. Please remember all of these things in your prayers, and please also pray for the students as they undergo the craziness of finals week (and graduation in some cases). Also, I can tell you all now that I probably won't be able to update until sometime next week, so don't be expecting my next post to be on time....

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?"
- Romans 8:31