Service, Missions, Leadership

I have my boxing gloves on and time is my opponent. Unfortunately, he has more wisdom than I, but my stamina will last ten rounds. The fortunate part, life's rounds are longer than three minutes, God willing.

In other words, once again, my schedule is full and every minute is precious.

As an Education minor, my introduction classes start this semester. It's nerveracking becasue this defines if I want to pursue teaching or not. After meeting my teacher for observations today, I am pretty excited about my career choice thus far. Her name is Ms. Tucker. She seems like an optimistic person and enthusiastic about her job, both qualities are good for a classroom. I will be observing her classroom every Friday afternoon from 12pm to 3pm. Hopefully I will have some intriguing stories for you later. :)

I am excited to learn about teaching this semester. It's our second semester of GED Prep Courses and we need new ideas to keep the participants interested. I think learning from actual teachers will help us do this. We are starting the classes again Tuesday night. We hope to have more participants after re-distributing flyers in the community to make people aware of the classes. Please pray for us and the ministry.

Campus Ministries seem to be on the move too this semester. We are constantly trying to make students aware of ministry opportunities. For the next few weeks, we will be informing students about missions through NAMB, IBM, and Stundent.go. Each organization gives college and high school seniors opportunities to serve as missionaries during the summer. Last summer I went to New Orleans through NAMB. It was the best summer I have ever had. If you are interested in missions as a career or missions, period, look into this. It's a great learning experience and an ultimate time to grow closer to God.

Well, that is about it for extracurricular activities this semester. (Besides the 18 hour course load and other church related activities later.) I will keep you updated on what God is doing through each ministry and, as a potential Judson girl or Judson student, know that Marion has tons of mission, service, and leadership opportunities. Just put on your boxing gloves and fight time to do what God wants you to do.

With Love and With Christ,

 I don't think I will be able to contain myself.

Wow, this year has been crazy. I do have to say it's in the top 20 of my 20 years of life. There have been many first time events and I pray 2010 will be just as cool. As a planner, I am already scheduling events to fill up my calendar. I know, I need to slow down, but life is short and I have eternity to reflect upon it. After thinking about this past year during Christmas break, I am extremely restless and excited to start this next year. 

Before I run into 2010, I would like to take a moment to count all of my blessing for 2009. In no particular order:

1.  I became a Little Sister to the coolest Big Sister ever, Elizabeth Tucker, in January.

2.  I was voted Chaplain for our class in March.

3.  I was able to be Pageant Director for the best Pageant ever in October!

4.  I got to mission in New Orleans for 3 months and meet some really outstanding people. This was one of the best learning experiences in my life.

5.  We started the GED program this year.

6.  I was inducted into KDE.

7.  I became a blogger for Judson. ;)

8.  I got to meet Lindy Cowart, who will be my official Little Sister in January.

9.  I was able to an RA for 2^nd floor Barron. This has been fun because I have the most well behaved, coolest hall ever!

10. I was a leader in two D-NOWs for Coaling Baptist Church and Goodway Baptist Church. These were my first D-NOWs ever!

11. I got to go to 3 Zephyrs games and pet and baby kangaroo while there. AWESOME!

12. My Judson sisters and I got to work in Marion for a week to help people with their Self-Help Housing. I am giving a big KUDOS to the Hyers, Susan Jones, Frances Ford, and all the other Judson participants who helped with this project called, Restoration.

13. I am super blessed to have the best friends and family anyone could ask for. In life, people need other people to push them closer to God and I want to thank God for putting these people in my life. Even through the good and bad times, they have pushed me to be a better person and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Yep, this isn't all God has done for me and I am sure there are major things I have left off, but with God, I think it's impossible to count all of the blessing He gives us. So, these are just a few and the major ones. I thank God, repeatedly, for all of them. I pray that 2010 will be just as awesome. I pray that 2010 will be even more awesome for you!

With love and with Christ,

 ...to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ" -St.Francis Xavier

Remember: I didn't tell you to do this, St.Francis did.

However, thirteen students did go northwest to Samford University Friday for a field trip and I was lucky enough to be one of them. We left the campus around 12:30 or so to visit one of Samford's beautiful chapels for our History of Western Christianity class. We saw Saints of old and new painted around the dome, busts of martyrs put on pedestals, seals of the apostles along the pews, the Nicean Creed sketched into stone above the balcony, and frescos of Biblical tales along the walls. All the time in effort put into this chapel really is a magnificient rendition of Christian church history.  

Each detail, for me, confirmed even further what I am meant to do in life and I believe what every Christian should do sometime in their life-to minister, to mission. I have always felt like I was supposed to be an advocate for someone; the poor, the weak, the unlearned, etc. That's why I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger so I could defend those who couldn't defend themselves. Then God showed me that maybe I could help people by teaching them. So, now, I am a secondary education minor and want to teach students the meaning of so much, but again that isn't enough. 

As I was listening to the curator describe the lives of these missionaries, advocaters, doers of the Faith; I became more and more intrigued by the thought of missions. I realized that missions is my calling in life.  I am not going to drop out and forget my education or anything, but I am extremely anxious to start traveling. I have a friend that calls this "Go-itis" because I am always on the "Go" and I am okay with this coined-phrase. I hate to be lukewarm and find it a waste of time. I am not trying to be pious or anything. Some people can minister all of their life at home and be content with doing so, I can't.

To think, if it weren't for Judson I never would have come to this conclusion. This semester has really opened my mind to new thoughts about how life can be. I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me. Why back down from a righteous fight? Why have fear about the unknown future? The missionaries who were displayed Friday didn't and some were killed for their courage.

So my point is, Mother Judson has nurtured me into who I am so far. I may not be where I need to be or nor will I ever, but since Freshmen year there has been a significant imporvement in intellect, spirituality, maturity,and I am anxious to see what God brings my way for the next 2 and a half years.

With Love and With Christ,

I know, I know it's not October, but, as usual, I am behind. At the beginning of the year, I decided to visit different churches in Marion just to see what they were like. I am not abandoning my Baptist heritage in anyway, I am just stretching my wings (I think this is what I am supposed to do in college?).  Also,  I thought it would be a good way for you (potential students) to know what kind of and where the churches are in Marion so you can visit them on the weekends.

So, I visited Berean Baptist Church in October. It is exactly a block down from the Barron Dorm.  If you don't have a car, it's perfectly fine. The great thing about Marion is you really don't need a car to go anywhere, unless it's Walmart.  We walked in and were greeted with smiles. The choir of twenty or so people were filing in and singing away. The worship was great. It lasted for about an hour, though. Not my cup of tea, but they were good. For a small choir their voices really filled the 200 max. occupancy church.

The service started at 11am. I won't need to feel like arriving on time next time I go because latecomers were welcomed just as well as early birds.  The congregation filled in slowly and after an hour or so the preacher stood up to preach. He was a visitor substituting for Pastor C. Dwight Woods. If Pastor Woods is anything like the visiting pastor, then I highly recommend this church.

The Pastor wasn't scared to bring the Word and I think the congregation was used to this. The genuineness of the message was apparent. I enjoyed the service and I recommend visits for new Judson students.