Friendships Renewed (30 Days of Gratitude)

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 21

Lauren and I knew each other in college but briefly. The only time we really met in significance was my junior of college when we were in the same manuscript study of I Corinthians. We went to "sister" InterVarsity chapters (myself, Cal Poly SLO, her UCSB). We had many mutual friends and could recognize each other in a crowd.

But we didn't become friends until I started staff with CSUN. The first year I knew she was around the general area and it wasn't until my best friend went a wedding she was at and said - "you two NEED to hang out" and we got boba did we really become friends. I knew we'd be friends when our "boba" meet up turned into a 3 hour hang out or so.

I'm grateful for her understanding of InterVarsity staff life. We took "opposite" paths. She did staff first and then teaching. I did teaching first and then staff. She understands my world, my acronyms, my love of Myers-Briggs, my love of boba, my love of beer, and my love of working with college students. I'm so grateful for your friendship.

Twenty Fourteen

2014 was a good year. It had a lot of joys, a lot of new experiences, a lot of growth, some pain and fears - as do most years. But overall this year felt like a stepping into myself, more of who I am and growing into the person I love being. 

So here are 14 highlights from the past year. 

1. Full Time Staff and Fundraising 

After some very difficult seasons, I felt a sense of joy to step into full time ministry. With that came fundraising. Fundraising was a great way to teach me about story-teling, dependence on Jesus, and humility. 

2. Maintaining and Making Friends 

Making friends outside of college is just hard. This year I've had a lot of new friendships occur, many mature and grow, and taking risks as some prepare to move away. But the friendships I've maintained over this year have been so sustaining to me this year. 

3. Pentatonix Concert 

They are just awesome. It was amazing. There was screaming and shouting and singing. Best mini road trip of the year.

4. Getting a Tattoo

I actually got 2 tattoos this calendar year. It feel surreal sometimes but both carry extremely special and important meaning to me. This is the story of the first one. The second one's story is coming soon. 

5. Supporting Sean and Jenel in the LA Marathon 

In March two of my students ran the LA Marathon. I was so proud of both of them for their perseverance, their training, and their fearlessness. They both inspired me to sign up for a half marathon in May of 2015. Also I got to randomly volunteer hand out water to runners! 

6. How I Met Your Mother Series Finale 

I had watched the show starting in season three. I followed the gang from New York for years. It was both exciting and sad to see the series finally come to a close. But I did finally get to meet the mother and that was legendary. 

7. Teaching Mark I at Catalina

I love teaching manuscript study. And preparing to teach the gospel of Mark was amazing. The text came alive for me again as I saw Jesus' compassion and power throughout the pages. 

8. Orientnation for New Staff (ONS) 

This was one of the best conferences I've been to with InterVarsity. I made lasting friendships, had an amazing breakthrough about my multi-ethnicity, and became reaffirmed in my calling to ministry. Table 9! Yeaaah! 

9. Visiting Nashville

Every year my best friend and I take a vacation. This year we broke our Portland/Seattle tradition to visit somewhere new. Here I grew to love country music, bought a pair of boots, and ate a ton of BBQ. 

10. Hiking to Glen Aulin 

We've talked about it for years and our family finally made this happen. It was a beautiful hike to see parts of Yosemite I had never seen before. I grew up camping here and I loved seeing a new things. 

11. Developing InterVarsity Leaders

This has been the year to develop new leaders in IV. We took on apprentices, taught leaders about intercession and prayer, took risks together. One of the most challenging and fulfilling seasons of ministry so far. 

12. Intercession and Prayer 

Thanks to Molly Ramos, I've learned a lot about intercession and prayer. I'm not an expert at it but I'm growing to see a deep need in my life to commit to interceding and praying on a much deeper level. 

13. Fall Conference 2014

This has been the most memorable Fall Conference I've been to date. Our speaker not only challenged our students to see God as immeasurably more, but I was able to seek healing from Jesus in some deep places. This was the start of some very important growth and seeking more of Jesus not just for my students but for me. 

14. My 27th birthday

I love birthdays and celebrating birthdays. This year was one of the best birthdays I've had. I felt celebrated and relaxed all at the same time. Pizza, card games, and Fast and the Furious movies will do that to a person. And yes even 27 year olds can still have sleepovers. 

Here's to many more adventures in 2015! 

Dorm Small Group (30 Days of Gratitude)

When I planned bible study I did not expect what happened. We studied Luke 7, the passage where a sinful woman anoints Jesus with an alabaster jar of perfume. It's a powerful passage but we only looked at it for about 30 minutes. Conversation seemed to wrap up quickly and I didn't even really have a great application planned. But we decided to do listening prayer and then that turned into sharing some deep, personal, and painful stuff from our own lives. We went deep with each other tonight and I can say I was not expecting it but I was rejoicing afterwards.

In a weird way we saw the passage lived out. We came in expecting one thing - like Simon came in expecting to have a nice dinner with Jesus. We came in expecting to play a fun game, look at a nice passage, have a relatively easy application, and then head on back to our respective places. In and out. But Jesus had more for Simon and Jesus had more for us. We were met with a moment to be vulnerable before each other and be vulnerable before Jesus. We share honestly, even let our tears fall, and we held each other's past wounds for a moment.

I'm so grateful that I got to experience that moment with Devan, Danielle, Tyler, Jeremy, Perri, and Ryan tonight. I'm so thankful for their honestly, for the risk to be vulnerable, and for the weirdly awesome family that we are becoming. I cannot wait to see what more Jesus has in store for us when we are willing to go deep with each other.