Joseph

It's crazy to me to think that even though I spent everyday this summer hearing the story of Joseph, I still learn something new from it tonight during my reading. 

This summer, I was blessed to be able to listen to many different speakers give their take on the Joseph story and it was awesome!

Tonight what stuck out in my mind was God sent Joseph to Egypt to save the family from the drought. He turned such a bad thing, the brothers selling Joseph into slavery, into such a good thing, Joseph saving their lives by giving them food to eat. 

It just makes me think. What in my life do I see as such a bad thing but is going to be such a great thing later?

Right now, I can only think about what has happened that he has used as good. My dad passing away is the only thing that is coming to mind. That was such a horrible time. My DAD passed away. I will never have the experience that all girls dream about of their dad walking them down the isle and I will never hear one of his corny jokes again. But you know what, if my dad wouldn't have passed away, I wouldn't be where I am now. I wouldn't be going to Carterville Christian Church where I love my church family and being able to serve every Sunday at the new guest services tent. I wouldn't have had the awesome opportunity to work for CIY this summer and listen to the Joseph story every night. I wouldn't be still in school and be able to minister to other college students. I wouldn't have the relationship with Christ that I have today. 

God does use bad things for his greater good. I still think about and miss my dad everyday but I also know that because he is gone, God has been able to use me for great things. 

I know my dad is looking down on my mom, brother, and I telling all of the other angels how proud he is of us. I just can't wait until I'm one of those angels with him.

Kristin

Isaiah 41:10

Coincidence?

It has been a little over a year since we have been attending Carterville Christian Church here in Joplin. And, it seems like we have gone there forever. 

This week, I had the honor of starting the guest services tent. I am team lead which just means I have to make sure I have workers every week. The guest services tent is key. The statistic is that within the first 7 minutes of arriving to a new church a guest has already decided whether they will be coming back. The guest services tent is made to where we will be parking them in a special place, we will be introducing ourselves from the very beginning. We want to give them a gift and a packet all about Carterville and then walk them in to their seats. We want to make sure we ease the process of checking in their kids by walking through the process with them. It's not a very hard job but its a great one. 

Now I've been sharing my struggles with everyone and I'm not going to stop now. This is another job that is getting me out of my comfort zone. I have to introduce myself to someone I have never met before (most likely). I have to show them around everywhere. I have to talk period. I have to not be shy. Crazy how that seems so easy and I'm beginning to learn that it takes work. I'm learning that its not hard but that I have to make an effort to just do it. Just talk. I think God has something big in store because this is my second job like this. The other one being CIY. Two jobs where my primary function is to talk to people I don't know. Hmm... Coincidence? I'm not sure yet. We will see.

This Thursday begins C3collegeage. This is a bible study where I am on the student leadership team. This week we are just going to get to know each other and play games and what not. It will be at Robin's house which will be exciting. In the future, we will be doing a bible study and I will be leading small group and facilitating questions to people. My prayer for this is that Southern students and Ozark students begin to mesh. I pray that there will not be any segregation in our group. We live in the same town by golly. We need to work together to further God's kingdom. 

One common misconception from Ozark students though is that there aren't any Christians that attend MSSU because it isn't a Christian school. This is not the case. There are many students on Southerns campus who are there because they want to be missionaries on that campus. I,too, have this feeling. I didn't want to go to a Christian school. That may be a shocker to some people but I wanted to go to a secular school and make a difference on that campus. I didn't want to go to a Christian school to stay in a bubble. There isn't anything wrong with that. Some people need that. I just wanted to get out of my comfort zone. We have 3 great campus ministries on our campus that are doing great jobs at bringing in lost students and building relationships with them. I'm honored to be involved in this. I'm blessed that I get to be apart of something bigger than me. Ozark is a great place. Many of the professors over there are awesome people that I love to listen to preach. When my brother said he was going there, I wasn't opposed. I just knew that it wasn't a place for me. 

I'm excited to start meeting the students over there and start building relationships with them. When it comes to this bible study, I will not build my relationships on what school you go to, I want to build them upon that fact that we have a common bond and that is Jesus.

Kristin