It's been yet another weekend packed with news. First of all, I received a rejection letter Friday evening for the first job (Halsett library) that I interviewed for, so I breathed a sigh of relief to at least know that that option is done. I am not someone who deals well with having loose ends! Still waiting to hear on the second job, will post as soon as I hear.
Saturday was crazy. We knew something good was going to happen because by 3PM I was in a foul, petulant mood and Matt showed up exhausted from working at a terrible fatal car accident since 4AM that morning. It was so obvious that the enemy was trying to do anything to distract us from that night's events! We were trying to gear up for the Party at the Aud outreach that night. Thankfully Justin was able to see right through the situation too and helped all of us to snap out of it and focus on our task. And praise God for that, because He had a lot in store for us!
The event was held outside this year, and there were rows and rows of tents packed with tables of the different student organizations and wall-to-wall people. It's always an exciting event; it is one of the reasons I like being at such a huge campus. There are hundreds of groups - something for everyone. Matt and I had a sack of frozen Minute Maid push-pops, a clipboard, and some flyers that we hauled around, while TJ sat at the Christian Challenge table and talked to people who came by. Matt and I stopped at every frat and sorority table, got the names of their chaplain or any contact person, and handed out flyers. We had all sorts of responses, from friendliness and enthusiasm to looks of utter incredulity. It's amazing what those silly push-pops did though... people were so excited to get those frozen treats in the heat! Early on we spoke with a girl from MSU Greek Life who was eager to hand out our flyers to all the new pledges. That was pretty encouraging, but the best was still yet to come.
We had almost made it through the entire maze of tents and tables when we came to the last frat. It's one that has just about the worst party reputation on campus... they had a lovely sign up on the table that said "Party In My Pants," if that's any indication. :-) Anyhow, there were two guys there that we talked to, and one of them perked right up when we mentioned Bible study. He said that he had heard of us... he attends the large church here whose pastor is helping us out... I'm guessing he got the e-mail that we sent to the church members. He said that he really wants to start a study at his house and that he needs help. He knows that his frat brothers won't be too excited about it but he is determined to get something going. Needless to say we were pretty awestruck. You never know where God is working... it just goes to show that you absolutely cannot judge what He is up to and who He calls! So please pray that we can have successful contact with this guy. He is exactly who we have been praying that God would put us in touch with. Pray too that we'd be able to contain our excitement and not overwhelm the poor guy all at once! We just get so geeked when we see God working like this.
It's so crazy, even as recently as two or three years ago I would have NEVER pictured myself working with frats and sororities. I had a funny moment on Saturday. If you've ever seen the movie "Never Been Kissed," Drew Barrymore plays a big nerd who goes back to high school to try to report an expose on the popular kids. She ends up joining the "Denominators" math club instead and having a ball. While we were walking around the tables, one science club group had T-shirts that said "GEEK LIFE" with the E's as sigmas. I thought they were awesome and started cracking up. I wanted one! I thought immediately of that movie though and remembered my "assignment." It's so amazing how God just turns even our own ideas about ourselves and our stereotypes upside down to use us how He pleases. We haven't the least clue what will bring Him the most glory, thankfully He'll show us if we really want to know.
This is a photo from Reuters that shows a highway bridge washed out by Katrina. When I look at some of these photos I can't believe this is the US; it is a reminder that we're not invincible here. We get lulled into complacency sometimes. I remember being younger and not worrying about hurricanes that would come up the East coast occasionally, they were "just a lot of wind and rain" by the time they hit us in Connecticut.
