Dealing with Transition

Hello my friends!

A lot of stuff has happened in the last month! First, it is the start of the Fall semester so I have been busy welcoming new students and welcoming back those who have returned. We have done a lot of fun events to help spread the word about our campus ministry and have been worshiping together for 3 weeks now! I have also started working part-time at the Presbyterian Church in downtown Fargo to help run and grow their young adult programming. So I now do work with United Campus Ministry, Churches United for the Homeless, and 1st Presbyterian Church, Fargo.

Last month I found out that the director/pastor of the campus ministry was resigning to move on to other projects. This came as somewhat of a surprise but I wish her the best in her new endeavors. What this leaves however is a vacancy in our director position for now. The search is on for an interim director but at the present time I am the only staff person at United Campus Ministry. I have been assured that my role will not change and that a new director will be found soon. So, with the help of the UCM Board, we will press on and continue to do ministry! I ask for prayers in the midst of this transition as big decisions about the future of the ministry will be made.

Right now my mindset is that God has placed me here to carry out a position and that is my focus. I have a lot of help and support and I know that God is watching over the ministry. I am not stressed out and I understand what my role is and that things will be different. Change is inevitable and I just need to embrace it. In fact, I am excited by change. Sometimes it can be fun to “mix things up”.

Well, I shall see many of you soon! I will be home briefly in a few weeks before I head to New York City for my US-2 Midterm Event.

24 in Fargo

On May 11 I turned 24! I had a fun birthday in Fargo. The weather was great and I had a lot of fun! Also, no one is ever too old for the playground!

Also, Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom! I would not be the person I am without her (or my Dad). Here is me with my mom over the years.

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun!

Hello support group!

I  apologize for not updating my blog more consistently! But I have a number of posts and pictures to share with you today! It is Finals Week here in Fargo, ND! So, my first school year as an associate campus minister is almost in the books! The spring semester has been a great one! There have been some challenges but also many blessings and fun times! Here are some of the highlights since I last posted:

My friend and fellow United Methodist missionary, Dan Randall, came to Fargo to lead United Campus Ministry’s Leadership Retreat. He shared a very motivational and encouraging message with us and we also had a lot of fun clowning around, without alerting the police!

A week after Dan’s visit, my parents came up to visit Fargo for a week and get a glimpse of what I do here! They had a fun time exploring the downtown area, seeing where I work, and also volunteering as well!

I started and finished up my small group Bible Study on the Gospel of John. I had five students actively participate and it was a blast! I enjoyed leading the study and getting to know the students more. A few of them were new to the ministry!

My campus ministry held our spring semester Pig Roast and we drew in 175 students from the NDSU campus!!! It was a time of good eats and a great way to give our ministry exposure on campus.

I have also taken on more responsibilities at the homeless shelter and am starting to expand my role there as well as expanding my role with United Campus Ministry! I’m really starting to feel comfortable and settled in Fargo!

Finally, for fun I have a picture of me from when I left on September 1, 2011 for Fargo and a picture from April 2012. I have changed quite a bit!

More Photos of My Work and Life in Fargo

I have written a lot about what I do and where I live, but here are some more pictures of Fargo and the places I work!

Here I am in front of the Fargo Theater, one of the more “iconic” sites of Fargo!

A lot of my time is spent sorting donations, especially in the Food Pantry at Churches United for the Homeless.

Here I am leading a group of young volunteers at Churches United for the Homeless

Ashley and I outside of the Fargo Theater. Ashley is another US-2 serving with United Campus Ministry. She is also a special friend of mine. Her two years are coming to a close and she will be leaving in August. You can read more about her time in Fargo here: http://www.umcmission.org/Learn-About-Us/News-and-Stories/2012/May/US-2-Reaches-Youth-and-Young-Adults

Mom and Dad in Fargo

My parents came to visit Fargo, ND after Easter. They had a fun time a a nice visit!

Here are my parents in front of the miniature Statue of Liberty in Fargo, ND.

My dad and I in front of United Campus Ministry Center.

Mom enjoying Downtown Fargo at night

Dad in front of the Fargo Theater

Go Bison!

Urban Immersion Service Retreat

Pictured above: The crew that organized the mattresses

Last weekend I took a group to Minneapolis, MN to participate in an Urban Immersion Service Retreat. Urban Immersion uses interactive exercises to educate groups about poverty and the struggles people face daily. We examined reasons as to why people are in poverty and the injustices in our community, nation, and the world.

On Saturday we went to serve as volunteers for Bridging Inc., a non-profit organization that collects donated furniture and gives it to those in need. They are networked with social services and have families sent to them for a once in a lifetime shopping spree. Families go through the warehouse and select couches, tables, mattresses, basic electronics, and other household furniture. As volunteers we helped organize their donations in the warehouse. Most of the time was spend organizing mattresses by size. This was easy work until we got to the King size beds which were extremely hard to handle. Some moments I felt like I was in a squishy compactor as one mattress would fall and squish me between another one. Also, I had not gotten much sleep the night before so I was tempted to knock a mattress over and take a nap. The work we did was fun and we bonded as a group.

On Saturday night we played through a scenario to understand the tough decisions struggling families must make. We were told we were a family of five with two working parents a little above the poverty line. We had $3000 for the month to use on housing, healthcare, daycare, food, clothes, household expenses, and entertainment costs. There were also cards we had to select that would give us unforeseen expenses or opportunities that could have positive or negative consequences. We had to sacrifice healthcare, take bad childcare (which was still expensive), use public transportation. But we still ended up -$40 after the month. We had to deal with a child getting the flu, which caused a parent to lose their job because of time taken off to care for the child. Our power went out for too long and all of our food spoiled. What we came to understand was that many families struggle to survive month-to-month and experienced the tough decisions these families must make.

Our final day was spent examining what we had learned and seeing how we can help make a difference and bring about change in our community. As a group we are going to hold each other accountable to do what we can to educate others and enact proper change in our community to help those in need.

Taking a Nap Break!

Up All Night

1:30AM: I am starting to fall asleep!

I am staying up all night tonight! Not because I have a lot of homework or because I am out partying. I am volunteering at a church which has opened its doors to be an emergency homeless shelter for the homeless in the area. Because of the freezing temperatures at night and not enough room at the shelters, churches in the area have taken weeks to host overflow homeless as guests for the night. Volunteers are recruited to provide hospitality to these special guests throughout the night. Some churches split up their volunteers in shifts throughout the night(which I have done) but this church has volunteers stay up all night. So, I have had time to blog and catch everyone up on what I have been up to! Please enjoy reading my latest postings! Below is the board report I just submitted. I will share it with you as well so you can see what I have done with United Campus Ministry in the past month:

I have coordinated volunteers to help at Churches United for the Homeless. A couple students have consistently helped with the CUFH Food Pantry on tuesdays, and I have had a few students log some volunteer hours at various times/days at CUFH as well.

One student told me that I “make community service easy” because I can arrange service opportunities for students. There is a committed group of about three students who volunteer regularly as well as a couple new students to UCM who found out about community service opportunities from friends. CUFH employees are impressed with UCM volunteers and UCM volunteers really enjoy the people at CUFH. It has made for a great relationship!

I have coordinated volunteers to help with Faith UMC’s weekly Food Pantry.

This service project allowed me to connect with a student volunteer who had not been out to UCM activities lately. I also received interest from a new student as well as one of UCM’s faithful student volunteers. Faith UMC’s food pantry is also open to students and they are free to take any food that they need. Another great relationship for UCM!

I have coordinated volunteers for the Churches Emergency Homeless Shelter.

After having three students help in January, two of those students volunteered to help with an overnight shift in March! These are two MSUM students who are new to UCM and interested in community service. I was able to connect with them as I too served as a volunteer on the same shift. I received good feedback from the students about this service opportunity.

I have recruited and planned for UCM to participate on an Urban Immersion Service Retreat from March 16^th-18^th. This trip will educate students on poverty and the injustices that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. It will also be a time of service and fellowship. Pastor Theta Miller, Ashley Rosser, and I will be attending along with two students.

The fruit of this trip is yet to be seen but there is great excitement about this trip from all who are going and a great expectation that it will be an educational and eye opening experience for all.

I have helped organize and participated in Taco Salad Fundraisers to help raise money for Costa Rica 2013 and the Urban Immersion Service Retreat.

It has been a good time to bond with students who are considering going on the Urban Immersion and Costa Rica trips. These fundraisers will make UCM mission trips much more affordable for students. Since December 2011, we have raised $2,622.75 for missions!

I have led a UCM worship service. Theta was on vacation and asked me to give a sermon and lead worship.

This was the first worship service after the tragic accident on Presidents Day in which four NDSU students were killed. Theta had given me the sermon topic a couple of weeks in advance and the topic happened to be death. I was able to have an intimate, spiritual discussion about death and grief with students. Many had attended the memorial service that week and my message echoed Pastor Theta’s message of hope in a time of tragedy and grief.

Tragic News But a Living Hope in Christ

On Presidents Day, four NDSU students were killed in a car accident due to bad road conditions. The campus community has been in a state of shock and grief. There was a nice memorial service held the week of the accident with over 800 students in attendance. My campus pastor gave the message for the service.

Two weeks before the accident my campus pastor had asked me to give the message for our campus worship service the Sunday after Presidents Day. We were using the film Courageous to do a four week sermon series. In the movie, the main character’s daughter is tragically killed in a car crash. I was asked to use this scene and talk about death. This was a week before the accident! I was wondering how I would approach the topic since I have not really experienced such tragedy, nor had many of our students. But when I heard about the accident I knew that all of us in the campus community now had experienced death! It’s crazy how it worked out that I was already planning to speak about death. I shared the following message with the students that week:

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Death is not always fair. It does not always make sense. We have no answers as to why such tragedies occur. Even when we know how a tragedy occurred, we still ask “why”? “Why God”? Some may say that God had a plan and that this tragedy happened “for a reason”. I do not agree! The Bible says that God “does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men“(Lamentations 3:33). God loved these girls who died tragically. Their death was not by design. I’m not saying that God cannot still shine through the darkness of this tragedy, but I cannot believe that God willingly had these girls die for some greater purpose.

Death causes us to have many different reactions. We have regrets. In the movie, Courageous, the father wishes he had been a better father. But he is quickly reminded that he still IS a father, that he has a son to take care of and a relationship to strengthen with him. His regrets turn to action as he makes an effort to grow closer to his son and be a better father.

Tragic deaths, like the one NDSU experienced, remind us how fragile we all are and that life is a gift. It causes us to examine our lives and reorganize our priorities and rejoice in the life we do have. We are not invincible, but thanks to Christ we have the gift of eternal life with God!

We were born a slave to sin and death. But God sent his only son to die in our place so we could live with forever with God. Jesus conquered death when he rose from the grave. I love how Paul mocks death because of his faith in the grace of God: “O death, where is your victory. O death, where is your sting? In the movie the pastor says, “we have a living hope! Because Christ lives the broken, grieving heart has hope!”

Death, where is your sting??? Christ has redeemed us!!!!

Amen

Attack of the Bed Bugs!!!

A few weeks ago I was part of an experience that I will not soon forget!

As many of you know, I work at a place where a community of individuals share close quarters. One of the common problems of such a living arrangement is the invasion and spread of bed bugs! Bed bugs love seams, especially the seams of a mattress. They then suck the blood of the person who sleeps in that mattress. While that may seem gross, bed bugs are not dangerous and do not spread diseases like mosquito. But the idea of little bugs infesting your bed and sucking your blood is not very pleasant. So, we were all put into action to cleanse the building of these little pests.

To make sure that all of the bed bugs were eradicated we had to have everyone bag up their clothes, blankets, and anything else that had a seam. The best killer of bed bugs is heat so we took all of the clothing to various laundromats in the area to dry everything for 30 minutes. I was a part of one team that took a truck load to one area laundromat. We arrived and began to unload bags and bags of clothes, blankets, shoes, and bags. The good thing was that the place was empty so we had access to a number of dryers. But we quickly realized that this task was not going to be as easy and relaxing as thought. The dryer doors did not lock into place and with the shoes bouncing around inside, the doors quickly began to burst open and clothing was vomited out onto the floor! So my coworker and I had to hold the doors shut, but we had more than 4 going at one time so it became a game of running from one dryer to the next to keep the doors shut when they began to open. It was one of those “you had to be there” moments but looking back I get a laugh out of the whole experience. After two trips to the laundromat and a long afternoon we had “cleansed” the clothing of the bed bugs by frying them in the dryers.

After this day of extermination we now have new rules and procedures in place to make sure that something this large scale does not happen again. My hope is that this was just a “once in a lifetime” experience!

 

Mild Winter in Fargo/New Semester/Site seeing

This Fargo winter everyone told me about has not really shown itself to me! We have had some cold days, like the -19 degree nights a few weeks back. But there has been little snow fall and the temperatures have stayed above zero, something that is rare for this area in January!!! Below is a picture of the frozen fog we had for 3 days! It made a very beautiful site!

I have been back in Fargo for about a month now after a nice time back home in New Jersey. Thanks to all who gave me words of encouragement and gifts, they were all greatly appreciated!!! As soon as I arrived in Fargo I moved into my new apartment!!! The room they had been preparing for me was finally a liveable space! It is a nice space for me and I am settling into it well!

One of my first tasks when I returned was the coordination of volunteers for the Emergency Homeless Shelter in town. Because of the cold of winter in Fargo, it is deadly for anyone to sleep outside. So, the area churches have opened their doors to help shelter the area’s homeless each night. One church was looking for volunteers so United Campus Ministry decided to lend a hand. I got the word out to students that we needed people to stay up all night and provide hospitality to the guests who would be staying at the church. We were given a night and asked to fill it with volunteers from our student congregation. I immediately heard back from a few students, some who were not really connected to the ministry but had interest in helping. While staying up all night can get boring, the students who helped found it to be a rewarding and uplifting experience. Their service helped provide shelter for many people on a deadly cold night.

Another area of service I have been able to plug students into is helping with the food pantry at Churches United for the Homeless. I have been asked to have a greater role with this area of the shelter to help free up time for other staff to help the residents there. So, on Tuesday afternoons I take students over to CUFH and we help struggling members of the community get the food they need for their families.

There are more service opportunities I am looking to coordinate this semester and I would love to see more students become involved with community service throughout the semester!

Besides working, I have also found time to do some site seeing! I visited the Hjemkomst Center over in Moorhead, MN. It houses a recreated Viking ship built by a man from Minnesota who wanted to build and sail a Viking ship from the US over to Norway. The ship successfully sailed across the Atlantic in 1982. I also got my picture taken with some trolls! (FYI Ashley is not one of the trolls)

I also got to explore the city of Minneapolis, MN! People here will tell you that it’s only a 4 hour drive down to “the cities” (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Just 4 hours!?!?! Another example of the different perspective I deal with here in Fargo. The city was nice, I spent an entire day exploring the Mall of America. It is as big as advertised! But there was no escape from the cold. It was zero degrees the one night with a -20 windchill!!! I will have to return in the summer when it will be more bearable to do outdoor activities. But I did get a discount on my ice cream because of the cold!!!