Just a quick one

Hello friends! Have I told you lately how blessed I am to have you in my life? Thanks for caring about me and what the Lord is doing in SLO. And boy, He is doing a lot!

The intern de-brief followed by the regional staff conference was great. Encouraging and challenging - I love when those two come hand in hand. Fun story - at 1:15 AM someone (not one of us. . .I hope!) pulled the fire alarm at the hotel and we all had to evacuate. It was so great to see many of my co-workers in their pajamas. Because our region is in the middle of a baby boom many of the couples had to wake up their kids to get them outside. One of the staff couples at Chico has triplets - crazy! So, not everyone was thrilled but it was still a fun experience and because we were in LA on a super hot weekend at least we weren't standing out in the cold!

The week of 24/7 prayer is well under way. I can't wait to take some pictures and show you how awesome the transformed Swanson Center looks. I had 2 discipleship appointments today and I took these women with me to the prayer room. It was so amazing to join others who were praying at the same time as well as read the many prayer requests and praises written all over the room by those who had gone before us. It is very evident that God is ministering to students through this experience - what a neat way to see Him be glorified.

It's a busy week for several reasons. I am sharing my testimony at Grace Church's women's Bible study on Thursday morning and then Thursday evening I am leading Bible study in Trinity. We're still plowing through Ephesians and I have been learning so much! We're also in the process of selecting next year's small group leaders which means that I have many leadership bios to read and phone calls to make - some potentially hard conversations as well. Tomorrow night we are having our weekly meeting outside in the University Union plaza - it might be a little chilly but how sweet to worship the Lord under the stars and pray that someone walking by might be touched by the Lord.

Okay, I think that's all I'm going to write right now - I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

Where, O where. . .

has the time gone?! Tomorrow morning I leave with the other 5 interns at my campus to head down to Ontario (California :)) for our regional intern de-brief. We'll be meeting up with all of the other first and second year interns of our region. I'm so excited to see everyone, deepen my friendships, de-brief (not exactly sure what this entails but I'm sure it will be good) the year, and get encouraged to finish this year out strong. This will be Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon. Then, starting Friday evening (and at the same location - how convenient!) we'll be a part of our regional staff retreat until Sunday. Once again, I'm not exactly sure what this means but I'm excited none the less. I love the staff of our region and no matter what this will be a sweet opportunity to get to know more of them and rejoice in what the Lord is doing on the college campuses in California, Arizona, Hawaii, and Las Vegas (I love how it seems like LV is a state. . .) as well as on our partnership campuses all around the world.

Speaking of partnership campuses: here are some super fun pictures from the STINT/intern kick-off conference. God is raising up so many laborers in SLO to go out into the world. . .I get the chills just thinking about what He is going to accomplish through these peeps!

Here's the whole group from Cal Poly. . .they made up almost half of the region's interns/stinters for next year - crazy amazing and God gets all the credit!

Here's the team we're sending to El Salvador for the year - so exciting! 9 from Cal Poly SLO and 1 lovely lady from Cal Poly Pomona

These are the 4 Poly students headed to East Asia next year. . .they'll be joining one other student who is stinting there currently and will stay for another year.

This is the San Fransisco Metro team interns for the coming year - they will be joining an existing staff team. The 2 girls are graduating from SLO this year!

And there should be more pictures to represent the students from our campus that are being sent to South Africa, Israel, Turkey, and Boston, as well as the new first year interns that will be serving here. I just love the body of Christ so much!

Okay, time to get some sleep. Oh - quickly though, Friday evening starts a week of 24/7 prayer (yep, 24 hours a day for 7 days. . .students can sign up for 1 hour slots and spend that time in a prayer room that is being set up at the Swanson Center) that our movement is hosting. . .I promise to blog more on that when I get back but I am just so thrilled as I think about what the Lord might do individually and corporately in the lives of our students and on our campuses. Let's be faithful and join in however we can. Have a blessed weekend!

Another weekend down. . .

one more to go!

Although that's really not my attitude because I'm really enjoying each of the weekends the Lord has placed before me. First it was Women's Retreat which was awesome - still applying things I learned there, that's a good sign! And now the intern/stint kick-off conference is behind me as well. It was a wonderful weekend, the Lord really provided me with a relaxed disposition and encouraging words as I stood before 49 students. How humbling knowing that they are all desiring to walk in such obedience to the Lord's calling on their lives! It was a joy to pray for them, role-play with the speaker, share stories and scripture, as well as encourage them to stay engaged and energetic through the meetings. I loved getting to know many of the students there and it is amazing to think that many of them will be off serving God oversees and right next door (literally, one of the upcoming interns is going to be my roomie next year!) for the coming year. The weekend was also great for me because it refreshed my memory on how to go about the support raising process - slightly daunting but I know that God is such an amazing provider. . .it'll be another sweet chance to step out in faith as I talk to people who will potentially partner in ministry with me.

And, today's day off was lovely and much needed. . .I had no idea that this weekend would wipe me out so much! After a super solid night's sleep (before going to bed I rented and watched "Miss Potter" and highly recommend it!) I enjoyed a relaxed time in the Word, caught up on emails, filled out a couple of reference forms for students applying for summer mission opportunities, got my hair highlighted (out with the red, in with the more natural brownish blond!), tried on some sale items at Urban Outfitters (didn't buy anything although I did like one shirt - thought 20 bucks was still too steep), read from a super good book called "The Allure of Hope", did 2 loads of laundry, had my brother over for a yummy dinner (brown rice with stir-fried veggies and chicken in a oriental marinade from Trader Joe's) and crazy conversation, caught up with my fellow intern Jena, in Wisconsin, and read some blogs of good friends. All in all a relaxing yet productive day - just what I needed. Now I'm going to read a little more and head to bed. Tomorrow is Campus Crusade's World Wide Day of Prayer so we're getting together as a staff team from 9-3. Then the parents are in town so we'll hang out until I help put on our info meeting for next year's small group leaders. I hope you're looking forward to your day as well!

Could you. . .

please pray? I am headed out of town this weekend (to Orange, CA) to be the MC for this year's new Intern/STINT kick-off conference. It was an honor to be asked to do this and I am very excited about it but I am also a tad nervous as this is something I've never done before. Therefore, it's a new way to step out in faith for me - this is one of many things that I love about my job. . . I'm always being given opportunities to do things that I've never done before, things that are going to challenge and grow me. Pray that the Lord would use me to encourage these students, pray that He would give me His strength to initiate conversation and get to know all these new people (sometimes this drains the introverted side of me!), and mostly pray that His name would be lifted high and glorified through ever aspect of this weekend. I'd love to be praying for your weekend as well. . .shoot me an email. Thanks for all of your support. Now I'm off to jot down directions to the hotel, pack, and have breakfast before heading out to carpool with a bunch of our students who will be interning and stinting next year. Have a great Friday!

This is Our God. . .

That was the theme for women's retreat this weekend. Heidi, our speaker, did an amazing job of elevating our view of God by teaching us through the Word that our God is the God of redemption, our God is a God of beauty, our God is a God of joy, and our God is a God of relationships. Her talks were personal and applicable - I am confident that all 180 women, myself included, fell more in love with the Lord this weekend and is now more equipped to act on this love back in SLO. We also had a blast worshipping together (such a glorious sound!), getting competitive with games at the beach, enjoying fellowship over meals, in our discussion groups, in our cabins, and with our classes (I got to lead the jr. class time - such amazing women, it was a joy to spur them on to finish out college for God's glory!). Oh, and I must not forget the annual lip-sink. . .such a blast. The single staff women (this needs me) did a little number and it was so fun! I'm excited for all of the fruit that will come out of this weekend and I'm already looking forward to the retreat next year!

Today was a day off and it was so nice! I slept in, had quality time with the Lord and in His Word, cleaned the kitchen, had a surprise lunch visit from a friend who was driving through town, went to the beach (the weather here is so amazing right now!), stocked up on groceries (but not too many because I'm out of town again this weekend), and signed a lease on a house for next year! God is really providing and answering prayers. . .as usual. :) Now I'm off to have some dark chocolate and prepare for my discipleship appointments this week. Have a great one!

El Salvador Pictures!

Well, I am realizing I probably should have divided these pictures into several posts BUT for the sake of time (I'm leaving for our women's retreat in a couple of hours!) there are a lot of pictures, not in the best order, for you to enjoy below. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to elaborate!

This is where we stayed, the Princess Hilton. . .for 25 dollars a night - what a deal! It was located in the "American" part of town with restaurants that you would find here (even a Tony Romas) - not a realistic view of what the country is really like. . .thankfully we didn't just stay in our hotel the whole week!
Nicole, Noel, and Robb enjoying the breakfast that was included with our stay every morning!

Like I said, these pictures are out of order. . .here we are with students (97 came!) at the "Meet the Americans" party we threw on Thursday night after doing 2 days of campus ministry.
Annette (2nd on left) with students we met at one of the universities earlier that day. There was a clear Gospel presentation given which is so exciting!
Jeff (who became "Jefe" on the trip) and Alan (center) with some of the guys they formed relationships with at the party. . .now we're all keeping in touch through facebook - oh, technology!
Sunday afternoon we were taken to this carnival at "Devil's Gate" - interesting, and slightly crazy!
We went on a little hike together - this was the only time the entire week that it was foggy. . . and it wasn't a cold fog - it was still humid!

Here is one of the Universities that we did ministry at - it was founded as an evangelical university and now it is still a private university but belief in Christ is no longer it's foundation.
Here are Samantha, Jorge (these 2 students came with us from UC Berekley), and my back :) as we are having spiritual conversations in the cafeteria on one of the university campuses. Students are really open to talking!
Our transportation consisted of this van that all 13 of us squeezed into (not including the driver). . .many fun times were had with lots of singing. As you can see, Robb and Joel are getting into it!
Our team was so fantastic - here I am with Nicole and Noel, 2 freshmen from Cal Poly that came along. We're having dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant!
Baby Kate also joined us for the week - she's the daughter of the other staff members that I helped to lead this week with. She was such a trooper!

We enjoyed authentic foods like pupusas and plantinas. . .and other things but I can't remember what they were called. Here Joel is - ready to eat off of all those plates they brought him!
Wow - he went a little over-board! :) Thankfully the food was super cheap and we didn't have to stay and wash the dishes!
Here we are with students who gave us a tour at one of the universities - we went to a total of 4. At this university the guys had to play a game of "futbol" against the school team. . .so thankful that I'm not a guy!
Here we are going a "meet and greet" with students and staff of another university. In the center is the president of the university - who is the former Vice President of El Salvador. . .crazy!
And yet another group picture - we took lots of these during the week! This one includes some of the staff members (and kids) of Campus Crusade as well as Victor and Elly, two students that we formed particularly close relationships with throughout the week.

Here's an idea of how we traveled - it was crammed, thankfully we all are such good friends that it didn't matter!
A typical El Salvadorian market. . . where I tried some of the BEST pineapple ever!
The country is very lush and green - their rainy season starts in May and goes until November. I'm so glad we weren't there for that. . .
but we were definitely there for some intense heat! Robb had a particularly hard time with that as you can see!
We found the ladies bathroom signs to be quite funny at times - here's one with a women with very big hips - taken at the San Salvador airport, shortly after our arrival at 7 AM in the morning!
At another authentic restaurant I had a "guava frozen fruit" - so yummy!

And then the guys and I decided to combine the different flavors of our frozen fruits and drink it at the same time. . .3 of the 4 in this picture (myself included) came home pretty sick - but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of this particular drink. We think it might be some lemonade we had at the beach. . .bad news!
Not only did we do campus ministry - we also had the opportunity to minister to poor children in a very rural community - unforgettable.
Every kid, no matter where you live, needs help with their shoe laces!
They enjoyed the goodie bags that we put together including paper, crayons, stickers, erasers, bubbles, little games, and more - how fun it was to play and sing with them!
This picture should be at the beginning - because it's the first thing that didn't go according to our plan - how hilarious!! :) Really though, God provided so much protection and safety during this week - the entire trip was basically problem free!

A good portion of our day on Saturday was spent relaxing at an amazing beach! Here are Nicole and Noel enjoying the hammock together. We also swam, ate, napped, shared testimonies, and enjoyed God's creation together!
There was this awesome waterslide that got used a lot by our team!
Oh Robb - this is just one of countless silly pictures that we have of you!
I'll end with this one - how beautiful! The Lord really displayed His majesty and sovereignty throughout the entire week. . .I'd love to tell you more so let me know when and where and I'll be there! :)

Okay, now I'm off to pack and prepare for women's retreat. 180 signed up to go which is so exciting. Pray that God would meet each and every woman where she's at and that she would leave the weekend so encouraged and challenged to keep Him her first love. Have a great weekend yourself!

Hola!

Friends, I am back - safe and very sound after an AMAZING week in EL Salvador. Quite possibly one of the most wonderful and memorable weeks of my life thus far. Thank you for all of your prayers for I can see how God has answered them - He was so incredibly faithful to provide strength, protection, and fruitfulness for our entire team. I'm already looking back on the week and wondering if it was just a dream because it was that wonderful. Here is a short video that you can watch that will be shown at our weekly meeting tonight. Pray that more students would get excited about our partnership in El Salvador and that we would continue sending many there for countless years to come. I'll try to write more later!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjgkS_u5Olo click on this link and it'll take you to the video. . .it's just a snapshot but it's fun to see faces and places!