Identity. Influence. Impact.

Here is the text of the letter that many of you will receive by the end of this week regarding the trip to Kenya and how you can partner. Some of you may not receive it (generally because I don't have a current street address). I will also post this week my 2006-07 update postcard, which is also being mailed this week. :)


____

Identity. Influence. Impact.

The three words at the top of this letter capture the mission of University Ministries at Baylor University. Our hope is to help students begin to realize and develop their identity, recognize who and what influences them and who they influence, and learn how they can make an impact on the world, based on their identity and passions. The discipline-specific missions program at Baylor is innovative in its approach to this mission. It pairs professors with students in their disciplines (i.e. engineering) and projects in developing countries (i.e. creating a power supply) and then sends these teams to the communities to actually put their project in action. This program has led to some amazing experiences. Please check out our website (below) if you are interested in learning more about them.

As you may know by now, I am leading a group of students on a mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya this May. We are partnering with pastors in the city to work within their existing ministries; primarily working with children living in Kibera (Africa’s largest slum). The team I’m leading is a “General Ministry Team.” Most of the students on our team are undecided as to their area of study, and some are undecided as to their faith. The vision for the General Ministry team is to expose our students to the needs of the world and help them see how their God-given passions, gifts and skills, can help meet those needs.

I invite you to share the vision with us; to become a partner in changing the lives of college students and impacting the world. As a leader, I am not responsible for fundraising. My co-leader and I are responsible for training the team spiritually and emotionally, helping them grow in cultural sensitivity, and establishing a strong team unity. In doing this, we need your prayer support. As you can imagine, we need prayer to help us know what to teach and how, prayer that we would each be prepared for what we will encounter, and prayer that the team will be able to fundraise what they need.

Each student has been asked to raise $2,900 to cover the cost of the trip, which is done through a combination of fundraising events done here in Waco, and working with their home communities. To honor their efforts, I’m also sending out informational letters to my community. If you choose to go beyond prayer support and would like to offer financial support to the team, you may do so by mailing any donations to the address below. All monies donated will go into the team fund and will be used to help each student reach their fundraising goal. Please put “Kenya - General Ministries” in the memo line. We also have a trip blog (http://kenyahelpusgo.blogspot.com - link to the right) where we will post a "wish list" of supplies, beginning in April. If you would rather help us by providing needed supplies, that would be neat, too. We will also post fundraising updates, photos of the team and trip reports on that site.

My time here at Baylor has been instructional and blessed. The Lord has given me favor here with students, staff and faculty to begin to impact lives in the ways that I hope to continue doing – meeting with students individually and working with groups of students to help them develop a broader world view, a deeper affection for Christ and to evidence that love of God in how they relate to each other and the world. At the same time I have been learning a ton about higher education and students today, and am constantly encouraged by the passion and drive of these young men and women.

I hope you will consider partnering with me in this endeavor as the Lord leads you. I look forward to hearing from you and to keeping you updated on this project! If you’d like to receive updates as we prepare and after we return, please contact me by email, or writing a comment on this site (include your email address) and I will add you to the list. I will send out periodic specific prayer requests and then an update letter following the trip.

May God’s grace be upon you, may He richly bless you, and may He find your heart open to receive His blessings, that He might be glorified in you.

(here is a picture of me and Marquette, the other co-leader)

Love, Tiffani

Donations can be mailed to:
Baylor University - University Ministries, Africa 07
One Bear Place #97013, Waco, TX 76798

For more info: www.baylor.edu/um/missions and http://kenyahelpusgo.blogspot.com

KENYA!

Check out the new website:

http://kenyahelpusgo.blogspot.com

It is the soon to be central location for all info for our upcoming trip to Kenya! We have our fundraising progress there, and soon will have a "wish list" for supplies. There is also information at that site regarding how to partner with us as we prepare to go to Kenya this May.

Check it out! :)

Love, Tiff

A real update! 2-15-07

Sometimes I feel like my life is advancing at warp speed. When you travel that fast you forget
to notice what is going on around you, and thus don't have any stories to tell. But, inspired by my friend Alexis to persevere, I am writing a note with some bullets to update you on my life - since that is what this forum is for. :)

So if you can believe it... its already February! I can barely believe that January went so fast!
I had my first exam in Human Growth and Development, last week. I'm learning amazing things about the human body and mind. Its pretty fun actually. A week or so ago, I went to the Fergasons. Drexel is about 3 months old now and so I was watching all the ways he's changed and developed. Being in this class has added some fun to that relationship (though he was already so cute and smiley it was hard to not have fun anyway).

I've added a new member to the Kenya team - a coleader, named Marquette! She is a friend of mine, a Resident Chaplain living in Collins Hall and a Truett Seminary student. We met during training and she was the speaker on the youth ministry team I helped with last semester. This morning Marquette and I met to talk about training our team, and ended up spending 3 hours just sharing our lives. It was delightful and just as important to me as actually planning... though we will have to do that at some point. We got to pray together and that was a blessing for me. I need to be praying more with peers. Soon my letter will be posted on this site - if you're interested in supporting our team in prayer or financially, there will be information. :)

My parents sent me flowers last week (see photos) because I was having a sad day. I found out that the current Interim Chaplain, (who I work for) will not be hired for the permanent position. And at the same time, I had had a lot of meetings with various women and was just worn out with the weight of what was going on in their lives, and with not having enough alone time to process my own life. I am feeling refreshed now. The flowers were a nice reminder of my parent's care for me.

Speaking of parents, Sarah's came last weekend for 28 hours. It was nice to have them here, though it was also initiation weekend, so I didn't see them as much. But we did play Settlers with Joel and Jessica on Saturday night and had a fantastic, rollicking good time.
Also speaking of parents.... mine are coming in ONE WEEK!!!! I am SO excited. Be prepared for 800 pictures! My dad hasn't been here before, and my mom was only here with me for about 2 hours.... and we were in a heat-induced stupor. Unfortunately, its not very warm. I'm hoping the chill is off the air for their visit so we can do a lot of walking. I'm also working on getting ahead on my schoolwork so that we can really have a good time together with no studying!

Sing starts tonight (http://www.baylorsing.com/). Its the largest amateur variety show in the country. ADPi has an act and its fantastic!!! I'm so proud of all their hard work! You'll see pictures from it eventually, but up until now its all been a secret, so I could not post any pics! Their theme (which is OK to tell you today) is: "Meet the Greeks" and its a really fun show. I'm so excited to see the other acts, too - you know how I love musicals.

Oh, and for Valentine's day my friend Kathryn Wheatley (who is my new amazing race partner now that Tall Brian is married and soon, well, relatively soon, going to be a daddy) and I had a date. We decided that we were going to go try and see "Music and Lyrics" but we have class on Wednesdays till 7... every other week we have gotten out early... but last night it went until 7:05. The lines were long when we arrived at the theater at 7:20... and the movie was basically sold out. So we decided to rent a movie.... but there were none worth renting. So we got Whataburger (which was delicious!) and went back to Kathryn place and watched the Devil Wears Prada - it was a GREAT evening! :)

Thats probably it for me now. I'll be in touch soon! I promise this time!

(pictures below, with captions)

the flowers - they were beautiful!
what fun - thanks mom and dad!
this is a sweater that Sarah picked up at the Christian Women's Job Corp, where she is interning. Its amazing - it is patchwork, with patches of fur.. and it smells like perfume. We keep it on the stairwell to share with our friends - its kind of like our pet. Anyway, she thought I would like it. Above is a picture of me being bossy, with the sweater....
Marcos, our apt. repair man came and fixed the leaky faucet in our tub. when we got home, he had left the old faucet on the top of the toilet. This is what it looked like, seriously. It was so ridiculous I actually left it there for a few days as part of the decor!

Texas? Really?!

Its February, people. The 14th. And its 32 degrees outside my office. I walked here from my apt and I do love to walk... but I didn't know it was going to be like this in Texas. Granted, I know that you friends in Illinois aren't feeling much pity for me, and I don't want you to. But I do want your empathy... or sympathy... whichever means you say, "I feel ya, sister." All the snow and cold from up north is traveling south it seems... into my neighborhood.And all I have are medium and warm-weather clothes. Not really a lot of winter clothes. People tell me that this is abnormal for Texas. They say things like, "normally we'll have two weeks of cold and then its warm again".... I no longer believe you, Texans. It has been almost as cold here as it is in my former home and for almost as long.OK, that is it for today. 32 degrees. Seriously?!

Patience, dear friends

Good morning my friends! As you can tell by the time date on this post (somewhere around 6:30 in the AM on a Saturday), life has not slowed down one iota for me. Actually, that's untrue. I had an hour or so last evening at my house, all alone, where I watched an hour of TV and ate a lovely dinner. It as fantastic. But turns out that had I known I should have been at the ADPi chapter suite helping them sew costumes for their Sing act. I ended up there later in the evening, until about 11:30.

This morning we have initiation for the chapter's new members. I will be there as one of the advisors, and I'm looking forward to it... its just really early.

I tried to write a post last week, but I got distracted with work while I was at home, and then didn't write anything of substance, so I hope to begin writing again this week AND establish a date for my weekly updates (of which I was fairly consistent last semester, I think).

I hope in the meantime you will have patience with me as I have patience with myself. The year has gotten of to a great start - but the start has been somewhat like being fired out of a cannon - I'm moving fast and am not sure how long I'll stay airborne. :)

Thank you for your patience. Check back next week and there will be news. Mostly, I may be talking about my parent's upcoming visit! (woo hoo!)

And blessings to you!