It is almost August, and students will be moving on to campus at William and Mary on 22 August. As a future RUF intern at William and Mary, I have been support raising all summer and attending two weeks of staff training. I just returned from the second one, and I am excited and nervous. I still have to raise about $8,500 in order to move to campus, but I am beginning to shift my mindset to what my life will be like on campus. At training we talked about one-on-ones, who we should be introducing ourselves to, how to share the gospel with students, and how to care for our own spirituals needs.
The seminar on Soul Care (caring for one’s own spiritual needs) made an impression on me. I realized that evangelizing, leading a Bible study, even simply serving a student by driving them to walmart, would be impossible if I was not centered around Jesus Christ and him crucified. If I am to share the joy that I have in being a child of God, I need to be immersed in this truth. This means saying “No” to over stimulation (the internet, movies, music, constant interaction, etc). What would it look like for me to sit and create something for a change? What if I sat and read my Bible every night? What if I ended my days playing hymns on my guitar? What if I actually stopped and prayed for the people I tell I am praying for? I have started to implement these practices now, because once I am on campus, the temptation to distract myself from my loneliness, students’ problems, and overall life change I am going through.
I want to tell you about the most encouraging moment of my summer. I was having a spontaneous dinner out with my sister, and she tells me that she had a mini revelation about ministry. She saw someone else ask a person to commit to praying daily for them in their ministry. At first she thought this strange, but then it dawned on her that this could easily be done and could only help. She told me, “And I thought, ‘Jennie needs prayer!’” No matter if you are in ministry, if you are a Christian this is the best thing to hear. My sister had a moment of realizing the hardship of my ministry, constantly pouring out to students and the temptation to neglect my own spiritual needs, and she wants to bring my name before the throne of God and ask Him to uphold me specifically. This is enough to almost move me to tears. The great struggle in life is to be known. My sister knew my greatest need– to be drawn closer to God always.
Please pray for me. This summer is drawing to a close. The temptation to lose hope of raising my $29,176 budget is strong, and the realization of actually arriving on campus and beginning to speak love and Christ into people’s lives is dawning on me.
Lavished in Grace 