A lesson from rush hour.

This morning, the crazy traffic downtown showed me something that will be very helpful for my job.

I've actually enjoyed my 5 mile, 25 minute commute to the office so far. You've probably heard by now that Minneapolis got a ton of snow over the weekend. The roads are fine now, but there's so much snow that there is generally one less lane on many major roads that have heavy traffic during rush hour. This makes for a much longer commute.

Traffic had just started to pick up a few blocks from the office. I was trying to watch the cars in my lane up ahead to see how packed it was, when suddenly the car in front of me hit their brakes.

Luckily the roads were clear and I stopped in time. I needed to both watch far ahead of me to make sure I was going in the right direction, and immediately in front of me to ensure I didn't crash into some one.

And so it is with operations. The ability to focus on the task at hand is obviously essential, but it is also important to be heading in the right direction as I work. The other day I found myself updating contact information on some forms, when I realized that we wouldn't need the forms for several weeks, and I had quite a bit to do that moment for a conference.

This sort of reminds me of a quote I heard back in the B-School: Climb the corporate ladder. Just make sure your ladder is up against the right wall.

Bring on Week Two!

I'm excited to get back to the office this week; we've got a lot going on. TCX, our annual winter conference, is coming up in quickly! Two weeks from tonight, December 26th, I'll be setting up our conference office at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. It takes a ton of behind-the-scenes work to prepare for and execute a four-day conference for 2,000 people. We have a great website this year with some more info; check it out here.

Also on my radar this week are the international summer missions projects for our region. This year I'll help 6 couples from the Upper Midwest coordinate their 4-6 week long trips to international cities. Each trip will have several staff members, and probably 15 students on average. This week I'll be meeting with a few people who will teach me how to coach our project directors through the process of leading a successful trip. One thing I'll do this week is update the very out of date info on our website - I'm no web designer, by any means, but we don't have one in the office so we'll make do! (You can see the website here).

Week One Thoughts

Whew! My first week of work at the Regional Office is down in the books. It was great! I really like my team and the other officemates I've met this week. I feel so privileged to be serving with Campus Crusade, especially in the Upper Midwest region.

What strikes me most after this week is that God really does equip those he calls to serve Him. I've heard this promise many times, but I believe it now, in a different way. He's been growing my heart for the world in a few different ways since new staff training, specifically in the last 4-5 months. Looking back I can see Him preparing me for switching to a new role within the Operations team: coordinating our international summer missions projects.

I'm a quote collector (collecting and archiving all kinds of info is one of my strengths). One of my favorites is from Amy Carmichael: It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires that He creates.

I have desires that He probably won't fulfill in my life, for whatever reason. Some of them are from the world, constantly forced upon me. Some are true desires He's given me. Many people cite Psalm 37:4 as one of their favorite verses: Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. This doesn't mean God will give me what I want. It means He will place the desires He has for my life in my heart. When I take delight in Him, the desires won't matter so much.

God's given me desires to do things that I never pictured myself doing. The reason why doesn't matter, because it's not about me - it's all about Him.

100%!

Great news: over the weekend I reached 100% of my financial goal, and today I got the final "ok" today to report to the office! I could not be more excited to head into the office tomorrow to join my teammates in reaching college students with the Gospel.

The "office" I so often speak of is the Upper Midwest Regional Office in Minneapolis, MN. In the US, Campus Crusade for Christ is organized into 10 different geographic regions. One of those is the Upper Midwest, made up the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Each region has an office in a major city, ours being Minneapolis, as sort of a nucleus of staff that offer leadership and support to staff around the region.


There are two main teams in our Minneapolis office: the Leadership Development team, and the Operations team. The Leadership Development team is basically the HR team of the office. They facilitate staff interviews, coordinate and lead our interns, help coach staff in their support raising, among many other things. HR in a non-profit organization really intrigues me; our HR team has more of a focus on training and development than legal/compliance issues that a for-profit company deals with. (There is an HR division in Orlando at our International headquarters, so I'm sure they deal with similar issues as a for-profit company).

The Operations team has several functions, providing leadership in areas of Fund Development, Information Systems, Technology, Finance and Conferences/Events, among others! Our overall goal is the same as campus staff: build spiritual movements everywhere, so everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus!

Well, that's enough ministry mumbo-jumbo for one evening!
Photos of my new office cubicle coming soon! (:

Dave Ramsey's Christmas Giving

Dave Ramsey encourages us to "give like no else" this Christmas - here are some of his ideas to get you started:

1. Buy several winter jackets at a discount retail store and deliver them to the homeless in your community.
2. Pay the power bill for a family who is struggling financially.
3. Purchase a restaurant gift card for a young couple who are new parents, and offer to babysit their kiddo for free.
4. When checking out at the grocery store, hand the cashier some cash and tell her you want to pay for a needy family's groceries.
5. Take a single mom on a Christmas shopping spree for her kids.
6. Clean the home of a shut-in and cook for them. Stay and chat with them over dinner.
7. Bless your pastor with a Christmas bonus.
8. Call your church and ask them if they know a family in need of gifts this year. Then, purchase a gift for each family member and drop it off at their doorstep on Christmas Eve.
9. Shovel snow, rake leaves, or pick weeds for an elderly couple in or near your neighborhood.
10. Next time you fill up your gas tank, give the clerk $50 and tell him you want to pay for someone else's gas bill.

A Solid Rock

We got no food, we got no jobs, our pets HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!

One of my favorite childhood memories is hanging out with my older brothers, watching Dumb & Dumber. They thought the movie was hilarious, and I idolized them, so I'd join in whenever they watched it. (I thought it was funny too, but I was only 8 when the movie came out, so it took awhile for me to get all the jokes). I even remember watching Jim Carrey back when he was on "In Living Color" on Fox (...or maybe I remember the syndication). He was hilarious then, and still is.

Early on in my life, I realized that humor could be an effective tool for obtaining and keeping friends. Everybody likes the funny kid. Laughing is better than fighting.

But you can't build a life on humor. Eventually you might take it too far, hurt someone's feelings, maybe even lose a friendship. Your sarcasm that was once hilarious can turn bitter and sickening. Humor is fine, but a continually pessimistic, perpetually sarcastic disposition? Not so fun.

This has been ruminating in my mind for weeks now, mainly as part of a deeper issue: Around/on what do we build our lives?

A few years back, Jim Carrey was quoted in the San Bernardino Sun (Feb 17, 2007):
"I used to think that the parts I did or the fame would define me and someday complete me. After a while, I understood that those things could be crossed off the list of things that will do that. I wish everybody fame and fortune so they can cross it off the list and move on to something else."

Carrey is so close, and yet so far. He's also quoted as saying this about his spirituality: "When it comes to Jesus, you know, he said a lot of incredibly impactful, wonderful things that were amazing and completely misunderstood for the most part. Somebody might not understand “nobody gets to heaven but through me.” They might take it literally. I believe it means “by loving like I love and forgiving like I forgive.”

This topic also reminds me of some song lyrics by the Dixie Chicks: "I've been afraid of changing 'cause I built my life around you." You can't build a life around a person, either.

The tricky thing is, even after we realize Jesus is the one true, perfect, consistent being on which to build our lives, we are still tempted to rely on other things to fill this void or be our rock. We see our value and worth in other things. Whether it's being the most popular, or the most merciful, having tons of money, or tons of faith, we put our trust in other things.

If you're going to build your life on something, Christ is the very best thing.

When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Transformed.

Two weeks ago we had a women's conference in Minneapolis called "Transformed: Laboring for a Lifetime." (Insert your witty comment here about a women's conference with the word "laboring" in the title).

As far as conferences go, this one was pretty typical- worship, a speaker, breakout sessions, campus time, free time, a dance party, lots of laughing, definitely some crying, etc.

It was a really encouraging experience for me as I wait for the last bit of funding to come in. My calling to ministry was definitely confirmed. I'm a passionate person, but not excites me more than hearing about a student coming to Christ in her dorm and seeking to be used by God to reach her friends and family.

I'd love to be able to solve the economic, political and social problems we face in America and around the world. I can't do much about those problems, but I can help college students discover the truth about Jesus. And someday, maybe they can make a difference in the economic, political and social arenas.

Jesus didn't give up his time in heaven to suffer, die, and then come back to life to give me a peaceful, safe, comfortable existence. One day I will have all those things in Heaven. But He came to earth for redemption. And because of this I can glorify God with my time on this earth, which ends up having a lasting difference in the lives of people I meet.

Here is a photo from the women's conference (I am in the bottom left, in front of a laptop at the sound booth).



This is what it's all about. A sea of college students, learning about Jesus. Some realizing their need for redemption for the first time in their lives. Some considering how God might want to use them to make a difference, for the first time in their lives. So awesome.