Rain, Snow, and Cookies.

Back from St. Louis. We arrived in the airport 40 minutes late due to rain and wind. We came home to really cold weather and pouring rain. I must admit though, it was comforting, and I find myself enjoying the rain. It pounds on the windows as I go to sleep and I'm not sure there's a much better thing than to fall asleep listening to the rain, bundled in warm bedding, wearing socks, and falling asleep while everything else outside the bed is frigid.



The conference was a really good thing. I enjoyed it a ton actually! There were tons of speakers and group talking times. It was such a good reaffirming time to realize why I'm doing what I'm doing here. Sometimes it is really easy to lose sight of why I'm here. When you don't have tangible goals or physical mile-markers to see your "work", for a person like me who is very goal-oriented, it can deceive me to think, "WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE?!" But this conference had 1,500 other people like myself who are solely focusing our efforts toward laboring for the kingdom of God. . . so normally in a job, most of us put our focus on how to make the workplace our ministry, how to affect those in the cubicles next to us, how to produce our work as if working for the Lord at all times. This position is just like that, except on top of trying to make the "workplace" my ministry, my work IS ministry. So it is all consuming sometimes to realize that my goal is ministry...not bringing ministry into the workplace but that my workplace is solely ministry. Really really really bizarre and difficult to get used to (in my opinion) after having worked for a degree and shifting my giftings of marketing and business into working on strengthening spiritual giftings...such an abstract thing.



These are some other EDGE girls I hung out with.

So this time away was good to refocus that this job has purpose - that students are longing, waiting, and NEEDING a Savior who will meet all their needs. It "JUST SO HAPPENS" that we have that Savior and can help in ushering them into the heart of God. This really gave me a desire to come back here to Penn and pursue these girls - in relationship mainly, and trusting that God would use that faithful pursuit and breathe his love to them through me and my movement towards them.



I met some new friends. = )

This Saturday we're having a Girls' Night at my place with my study. As usual (with girls! yay I love women!) we will be doing pedicures/manicures, baking cookies and watching a girly movie. I wanted to do something to connect with the girls before they all take off for Thanksgiving. Please pray for a specific girl (we'll call her Sandy ... that is not her real name...) who is an international student who does not know the Lord but was brought to Navs by a girl who's in my study. I connected with her, and we are facebook friends (ha) and I think she might come to this girls' night. I'd like to meet up with her at some point also just to share the gospel with her - she loves to talk with us because she wants to learn english better. Also, please pray for another girl (we'll call her Bambi...again, not her real name...) who just came to my study this last Tuesday night for the first time. She is "feeling" out different organizations and spiritual things on campus to see what she wants to do or belong to or believe...pray I could share with her the truth, and clearly. She is planning on coming to Nav Night tomorrow night, as well as our girls' night! SO EXCITED ABOUT THESE GIRLS.

I have my ticket back home for Christmas already purchased and waiting to be used! I'll get to be in the Springs for a little while, I can't wait to head back and see those beautiful mountains....be still my heart!

We have three (now four!) weddings coming up. One is my roommate Christine who will be married January 5th and will move out. Then we will replace her (not emotionally though, just physically) with a new roommate, Jen, who also just got engaged like 4 days ago. Our other housemate, Jamie, is getting married to Susan on Dec. 22nd, so he will be moving out of the guy's side. Then there is Sharon, another Nav staff woman at Penn State, who is marrying Griffin (who lives very close to Stacia in Philly) on January 12th. She'll move to Philly (so sad about this) but will hopefully become closer friends with Stacia...so that's good. Then my dear dear dear friend Philip is getting married (yay Phil!) to Anna on Dec. 22 so I will be home to go to that wedding!



This is Christine, my soon to be old roommate...boo hiss...

I'm also beginning to pray more about what to do this summer, as well as what next year will look like - what I'll do....If it crosses your mind, please pray for me that I would be lead exactly where I should go. I have some thoughts, but nothing formed or set in stone...just thoughts.