Wednesday update: from the library

I'm sitting here with my pal, Candice. We are about to start intense work on our term papers for Dr. Shushok's Cultures and Orgs in Higher Education class... at least that's what we say. In reality, I'm updating my blog and she's on facebook. But we are typing so that "looks" good and we have books and paper and in my case, coffee mugs out, so we really DO look like we're working.

Well, Candice is one of the wednesday update readers (even though I see her multiple times per week :)...) and last week she got on me about not updating so I feel OK about taking some study time to write this week's post.

First of all, the little cold that I got right before leaving for Greenville two weeks ago is still visiting. While I'm not against visitors, I'm not really enjoying the the friends (coughing, etc) that came with the cold. :) But yesterday I realized that if I stay really still and don't talk that I cough less... and by the end of the day I felt a lot better. I feel still better today, though occasionally coughing does indeed happen.

My trip to Greenville was great and so full of fun and good times. I hope to write about it later this morning on a study break. I got back and was in full force and somewhat survival mode!

Hmmm... updates. OK.

Did I mention that I'm going to KENYA?! May 13-28, I'm leading a team who will be doing "general ministry" in the city of Nairobi. There are multiple teams going on this trip, most are "discipline specific" (i.e. they are all from the engineering department) and a couple are "group specific" (i.e. there is a group of women going from a residence hall). My group will be comprised of people who don't fit into those other categories. We are expecting to come alongside a church that University Ministries has worked with before in Nairobi, to partner with the ministries in the city that they are already doing. We'll just be extra hands and feet.

I'm pretty excited. I don't know that I ever thought I would get to go to Africa, though I guess I hoped. But WOOHOO! I have my first interest meeting tomorrow at 4pm at my office.

And I almost forgot that last weekend was "Fall Parties" - for the Panhellenic Sororities on campus. Some of you may not know or remember that I joined Alpha Delta Pi when I went to Northern Arizona University. It was a great experience and actually, it was how I came to faith in Jesus (my delta diamond sister was a Christian and helped expose me to Christ). I've been wanting to work with sororities and fraternities again for a number of years and now I get a double blessing! I work with Chaplains of fraternities and sororities by day, and I advise ADPi by night (well, all those activities kind of overlap day and night actually).

So Fall Parties is the first part of Baylor's recruitment. They have "Delayed Recruitment" which means that "Rush" doesn't happen until January. In the fall semester, each woman who is signed up to go through rush in the spring gets a chance to visit all the sorority houses (in this case, chapter rooms) and hear a presentation by the sorority and meet some members. I think this weekend was a HUGE success for our ADPi chapter. I was impressed with how they carried themselves, their discussion and their hard work. However, we won't know the impact of this weekend until January.

It was exhausting, however, to be a part of this weekend - especially when sick. I stood on my feet in heels for lots of hours and ended up losing my voice, mostly. But it was VERY VERY fun to spend that time with the women. I really do enjoy them and am glad to count them as my sisters.

On Sunday I was part of my first "Advisory Board" meeting - it was a long one, preparing for the upcoming chapter elections. We interviewed a number of women who were applying for positions and again I was VERY impressed with how they presented themselves and their preparation for the interviews. Those who interviewed (if they are reading this) should be proud.

My last thing for right now: Operation Christmas Child. The project has gone well so far. We have a LOT of boxes, though I don't know if we have our goal of 2,500 boxes... On Friday our group will meet again to take the boxes to the drop-off location and then the project will be done for another year. Candice and I are very pleased with the work our committees did this year and we are already planning for an even BETTER year, next year.

Make it a great morning, friends. Philippians 1:3.