So Long 2022!

 

Despite the Title of this entry, December was actually a really fun month! Right before the Christmas break, I got to see a lot of the girls in our ministry and continue to love them well.

<- This is me and my friend, Kaylee, on New Years Eve!

 There's a girl I met on campus at our last Outreach event, and we ended up getting coffee. For the sake of ambiguity, I'll call her Jess. She isn't interested in Jesus in the slightest, and has actually gotten burned by Christians; however, she likes to spend time with me. So I'm excited to continue being Jess' friend and getting to know her. I am not going to make her into a project; I want to look like Jesus to her and be a real friend. I'm sharing all of this because, this is a newer experience for me. Years ago, I think I would've tried to convert her and then move along if she says no. In spending time in prayer about Jess, I really felt Jesus tell me to stay consistent with her and have a listening ear. So that's what I'm doing for now, and it's liberating. I get to love this girl well, show her who Jesus really is and what He can do, and possibly get my heart broken. Somehow I'm okay with that, and I can look at Jesus' ministry and see that His heart was broken many times. Ronnie Worsham once said, "I'd rather be a stepping stone for someone else into the kingdom of Heaven than to be 'all that' in this lifetime." That quote is out of context for this story, the the phrase "Stepping stone" really stuck with me, and I want to look like that for Jess. 

-

Over our Christmas break, our staff read "Working the Angles," by Eugene H. Peterson. This is a book talking about how easy it is for pastors to slip away from what they ought to do (reading, learning more about scripture, praying, etc.) and giving into all the pulls from the congregation (meetings, counseling, home visiting, etc.). By all means, there are many hats a pastor wears, but it's easy to put the "spiritual nourishing" on the back burner because there's a lot of other things to get done. This book calls pastors to realign with God and remember to prioritize and protect the things that we do that aren't glamorous: sabbath, prayer, scripture reading, etc. This doesn't mean that a pastor can't do anything else, but my friend, Garret, put it best. He said, "When I aim to be a good minister, I miss being a disciple. When I aim at being a disciple, I am a more competent minister." This is something that I'm going to be thinking about for awhile, because I get so caught up in my schedule and To-Do list. What would it look like for me to take a day of Sabbath each week and protect it? Or wake up earlier and actually ask to hear God's voice and read His Word? And this isn't only for ministers! You can do that too! I highly recommend this book if you're the least bit interested. 

-

I didn't have a lot of pictures from this month, but I have one from staff retreat. This is my roommate Bailey and I sitting in cold doing one of the sermon talk activities together

Prayer requests

• Please pray for Jess. That she starts to feel seen and cared for by me, and that ultimately what she is seeing is Jesus. 
• Winter Retreat is next weekend! This is a 4 day excursion we take all of our students on (from all 15 campuses) and have a weekend full of worship, sermons, games, and lots and lots of Hot Cocoa. Winter Retreat was really impactful on my faith as a student, and I met some of my closest friends there. So prayers that these students really let go of being cool and are open to hearing from God and letting Him shape their hearts.
• Praise! I've asked for prayer lately for some physical pain in my back I've been experiencing. That pain has been greatly reduced lately, and I'm so thankful. It's not 100%, but I'll take what I can get. Thank you so much for your prayers!

 Much Love,

Emily