Order in the Chaos

Hello, friends! I'm writing to you from my living room couch, and I'm surrounded by a variety of interesting objects: a hammer, my Bible, my work notebook, some white ribbon, a pincushion, my favorite baseball cap, a synopsis of the Gospels, an iron, a hot glue gun, a list of all the LCMS churches in Florida, and the back of a picture frame. Let me tell you how all of these things came to be in my living room!

The hammer, ribbon, pincushion, iron, hot glue gun, and back of a picture frame are all ingredients for my long weekend activity: crafting. I made a few items for all of the babies in my life, although from that list of things I bet you'll never guess what I made (and I can't tell you, or it would spoil the surprise for the babies). I also made a craft apron for myself, because when I start making crafts, cleanliness is not my priority. I bet you couldn't tell that from my description of my living room!

My Bible and my work notebook are normally seen together. As usual, this week I wrote four devotions. My favorite one was probably the devotion for Tuesday. It involved the Ezekiel story about prophesying to dry bones. When I searched for a picture of dry bones, it came up with this:

Naturally, I thought this was hilarious and used it as the illustration.

My favorite baseball cap, which is a Harry Potter cap from Universal, is in my living room for two reasons. One, I wear it during our delightful hours spent in the Union handing out football magnets. Two, I wear it when I go to the Frenchtown community garden. Today the five of us (Maddie, Burgen, Megan, Mark and I) weeded one of the beds. With all of us working, we were able to clean it out pretty much completely. We also hunted down caterpillars in the tomato plants and ate some cucumbers and green beans. I brought back a small pile of green beans for myself.

The highlight, however, was watching the kids play a game of basketball and several of the girls perform a steps routine during their halftime.

The synopsis of the Gospels is the topic for this summer's Bible study, which I get to help teach. I led our discussion for the first time this Sunday, and I think it went pretty well! Luke 1 and 2 were on the agenda. We tend to overlook those passages because we hear them so much, but it was nice to take the time and examine them more closely.

And lastly, the list of all the LCMS churches in Florida. Tomorrow, I get to (read: have to) continue to work my way down the list, calling churches to ask if they have students heading to college in the fall. Last Friday, I knocked out 48 churches. Hopefully I get through at least that many again tomorrow. 

There you are, a sum-up of my week based on my messy living room. Until next week, farewell! 

Football schedule? Football schedule?

Hello, friends! It's so nice to sit down in a nice, quiet, shaded, air-conditioned room and write after a few hours spent saying nothing but "Football schedule?" in a sunny, hot, crowded student union.

(I really shouldn't complain -- we were in the shade today. However, it's Florida, and I reserve the right to say "It's too hot" basically every day!)

Anyway, Tuesday started our twice-a-week orientation schedule. We stand outside in the heat and hand out football magnets to people walking by. Sometimes that's new students, sometimes that's the new students' parents. Sometimes it's random staff people and other campus ministers! It gets a little tedious, but we've found ways to amuse ourselves. We chat with the people tabling next to us, who have included a pre-med group, an acapella group, and a Jewish group. Today Liz and Cricket came to visit us, and of course, Cricket was immediately the star of the show.

In other news, I volunteered to help with the Sunday morning Bible study for the summer. This Sunday will be the first one I get to lead. We're going through a synopsis of the four Gospels, discovering which writer included what and why. So far, it's pretty interesting!

And since it's summer, I get to do my favorite job: church calls. Tomorrow I'll start on the nice long list of all the churches in Florida, letting them know about LCMS-U and University Lutheran. I just can't wait. I'm very, very excited.

This Sunday I'll be doing a church swap with my friend Emily. She'll come to our worship service, and I'll go to hers over at the Mormon church. It should be very educational for both of us! I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for today -- I need to go dunk my head in cold water or something. Have I mentioned it's hot in Florida? ;)

My Shiny New Phone

Hello, friends! Today I've decided to write my blog from my shiny new phone. This gives me the opportunity to mourn my old phone, which died tragically in an accident yesterday. It fell out of my pocket as I got out of Pastor Jay's car and subsequently got slammed in the car door. This blog also gives me the opportunity to beg for your phone numbers, as I lost quite a few of my contacts because of this sad incident. (If you text me in order to give me your number, please identify yourself, otherwise I will have your number but not know who it belongs to!)

Moving on from my phone woes... On Friday I went to Yogurt Mountain with Evan to celebrate his new summer internship. It's a good thing for him my phone broke, because the embarrassing picture of him devouring delicious yogurt is now inaccessible. Friday night I spent at a going-away party for Gary and Jessica. Gary recently got a job in Washington, D.C., and they started their move today. On Saturday, Anna, her roommate Hillary, and I went to the Tallahassee Museum to do the zip line course, which was super fun!

I haven't done too much this week- volunteered at the Children's Home Society on Monday, had lunch with Justin on Tuesday, went to a circuit meeting with Pastor Jay yesterday, and had lunch with Laura today. I've also written my normal number of devotions and worked on some young adult ministry network stuff. Hopefully there will be some joint young adult stuff happening before I leave!

During our drive to and from Tifton yesterday, Pastor Jay and I decided to forego regular Vespers this summer. Instead, we're going to do trivia night at Brooklyn Water on Thursday nights, starting tonight. If you're in the area, feel free to join us! (I'll need all the help I can get...)

That's all the news from Tallahassee, except for this great story: http://m.wtxl.com/mobile/news/man-wearing-only-underwear-claims-to-be-god-tased-at/article_f623444a-fa49-11e4-8094-fb59da6c07a1.html

Until next week, friends!

New Friends

Hello, friends! As it so happens, I had the opportunity to make some new friends this week. Monday afternoon through yesterday afternoon I attended the Youth and Family Ministry Association retreat at Luther Springs camp in Hawthorne, FL. Let me tell you what I learned: youth ministers are crazy.

I did learn more than that, but that was the most amusing revelation of the retreat! By default, youth ministers are certifiably insane (myself included). No one else would willingly go into the profession. We had great fun together as we ate junk food and swapped ministry horror stories. I would tell you some of them, but you might require counseling afterwards and I don't have that kind of money.

In all seriousness, the retreat was a blessing. Our theme was "Detox." We talked about identifying the toxic things in our lives (words, thoughts, relationships, and culture), guarding our hearts against those things, and replacing them with life-giving, life-affirming, and life-changing things. Our small group discussions were wonderful and insightful. We were able to listen to, support and encourage one another in our various struggles. I appreciated the opportunity to learn from youth ministers who have been in the field a bit longer than my 10 months.

The retreat also gave me a new appreciation for prayer. I have, of course, always known that prayer is a powerful thing -- but it's one thing to know that, and another thing to see it in action. Simply the act of one youth minister saying to another, "I'll continue praying for you, and I want to know when your prayer needs change," is life-affirming. It gives validity to a youth minister's needs, which often go overlooked in favor of the needs of the congregation.

On the way back from the retreat, I gave myself a brief driving tour of the University of Florida, just to say I'd been there. If you're worried about me becoming a Gator fan, remember that my boss is a Gator fan, and therefore I must placate him until July (when I can return to not caring).

I've included two pictures for you this week. One is the YFMA crowd during one of our sessions; the other is the best picture I could get at UF without getting out of my car.

Good-Byes Are Hard to Do

Hello, friends! It's finals week here at Florida State, and that means that I have a lot of good-byes to say. All week I've been getting together with the students who won't be around during the summer. It's a rather odd feeling, because I'm not going anywhere yet, and most of them will be back next year, but by the time they get back, I'll be gone.

I like to make this joke when I'm with a student: "I don't have favorites, but you're my favorite." In reality, of course I have favorites (everyone has favorites) but I love all of my students. I've interacted with such an incredible mixture of students this year, from freshmen to grad students, from physics majors to art majors, from Quidditch players to museum enthusiasts. I love the variety. I love knowing that each student meet-up will be completely different from the next.

I didn't anticipate getting so emotional this week, but the good-byes I've already had to say have been hard. I wish I could stick around and see all of my students graduate and be with them in the next chapters of their lives. I'm looking forward to moving on in my own life, but it's definitely bittersweet. It'd be great if all of my students could come with me so I wouldn't have to say good-bye.

As PJ reminded me earlier this week, it's probably exaggerating to say I'll never see my students again. In all likelihood, in our small Lutheran world, I'll encounter them again before too long. They'll be at a Gathering or convention or camp, and we'll have a wonderful reunion. I have to keep reminding myself of that this week. This is not the end. It's only good-bye for now, not forever -- for even if I don't encounter them again in this life, we'll be reunited in the next.

I can't think of how to end this well, because I've said enough good-byes this week. I don't need to say it in my blog, too! So until next week, friends.

Roasted

Hello, friends! I hope you are all enjoying your week. Mine has been pretty fun. I met with a couple of people, planted tomatoes at Lichgate garden, went out to Madison Social and played Disney trivia with Rina, and attended our last session of Vespers for the semester -- but the most significant event (based on fun) was Sunday afternoon, when we had our senior roast.

As PJ likes to explain it, the senior roast is when we gather all of our graduating seniors who are leaving us soon and make fun of them enough that they never want to come back. Pastor Jay and I both purchased a number of Dollar Tree items for this event and presented them to the seniors in the most humorous way possible. And Justin was kind enough to have Zoe capture this on video, so I was able to review it before writing this post! Here are a few of my favorite moments.

-Evan got rickrolled, as he has insisted on doing to us for basically forever.
-Edson and Austin received many items they can use in their future careers, such as plastic medical equipment, ninja knives, inflatable hammers, and open/closed signs.
-Justin, our token Presbyterian, received a "YOLO" ring, which in this case means "You're Only Lutheran Once."
-Anna received a cat toy that can double as a conducting baton.
-Caroline is first in many things, including being first to the food line, so she received some first place ribbons to signify this.
-Justin and Anna both received a baby bottle and some blocks because they have baby fever (as evidenced by their extreme interest in Cricket).
-Evan is now an official Pro Usher, with the certificate to prove it.
-I reminisced about Caroline saying "Just go crazy!" to Larry as he was pouring her wine at the Seder meal, and got her six plastic wine glasses to make sure she had enough to go crazy again.

My favorite moment, however, was one that lasted the whole week leading up to the roast. I was telling Anna for several days in a row that she needed to be very worried about what I was going to say about her, to the point that when Sunday arrived, she was terrified... and I purposely left her until the very last minute, just to draw it out as long as possible. I enjoy being cruel far too much.

I wish I could experience many more senior roasts to come -- I may have to incorporate this idea into my future vocation somehow! Before I finish, here's the picture I stole from Justin's video of the roast. There are our graduates, looking very scholarly in their party hats.

A Baskin Robbins Blog

Hello, friends! I'm writing this from Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins while enjoying a delicious chocolate milkshake. I hope you are equally well set up! I apologize for my blog being a day late. I would give you an excuse, but I have none...

Anyway, here I am! Let me tell you about my week. It's been a fairly slow one compared to last week. I met up with a few students, had a lesson with my Mormon missionary friends, went to Elm's chamber choir concert, and led Vespers on Wednesday night. I didn't get out to either garden this week; I missed Tuesday because of Elm's concert and yesterday because it was raining. I did, however, get out to the food bank last Friday afternoon to volunteer with Rina! Coming up soon is the senior roast on Sunday (where I get to make fun of my students, woohoo!) and the end of the semester, when 40,000 people will leave town just as suddenly as they arrived in August.

"The future" in general has been on my mind a lot lately. Although I have a few job possibilities, I'm still looking for more places to apply, so feel free to fill me in if you see a likely position! I feel like I'm in limbo again, much like when I graduated from college. People keep asking me, "So what are you going to do after you're done here?", and I reply with, "That is an excellent question!" I'm looking forward to a time when I don't have to shrug my shoulders and say, "I have no idea."

I'll end on a more cheerful note - over Easter, my old roommate Lindsey came to visit me! We went to the FSU circus and Wakulla Springs in between watching excessive hours of tv shows and playing Castle: The Detective Card Game. She was surprised to see (as some of you might be, if you didn't see this picture before) that I cut off 10 inches of my hair to donate to Locks of Love! :)