Vicar (ad) Ventures Part III
It is strange in a ministry like mine to be in a place of new beginnings of the church year with Advent and at the ending of the first semester with campus ministry. Because of this, December is a great time for both looking ahead and reflecting on the past few months. Reflecting back on these four months, I have come from using a road map almost everywhere I drove, including getting to and from the different universities and member’s homes, to recognizing street names and navigating the best routes. In a similar way, I have come from sort of recognizing familiar faces at church and remembering first names to knowing people’s deeper stories and histories. In particular, I enjoyed van conversations in our trip to Kansas City with our campus ministry board and dinner conversations at our monthly “Bread-breakers” fellowship group at church. Hearing people’s faith and life stories keeps me going and reminds me of why I am becoming a pastor. By no means is everything old hat – I’m still experiencing a lot of “firsts.” For example, I have worked with others to plan the Advent Wednesday midweek services with the theme, “A Light in the Darkness,” and discovered that there were many things that the church “has always done” in my attempts to add some newness to those worship services.
As I wrote in my last update, we will be taking students from SLU and WashU to Guatemala for spring break. We will be building houses with a group called ConstruCasa during the week. This group is similar to Habitat for Humanity in that we will be working with the local construction workers and future owners of the homes. In addition, we will have the opportunity to worship with Lutherans in Guatemala and learn how the ELCA is partners in their ministry. In preparation for the trip, students will be meeting with us on a weekly basis starting in January. We will learn Spanish, learn about the country and culture, and prepare spiritually for this journey. This trip is a great opportunity for students who haven’t heard about Lutheran Campus Ministry to join us, and for our dedicated members to learn more about themselves and each other.
And so as we celebrate the end of 2009 and the end of another semester, I also look forward to the way that God continues to make all things new, to the advent of new programs and new faces and to the beginning of a new year and semester. I look forward to working with our new Green Team that I have organized as a part of my internship project, to leading a new discussion group at St. Louis University, to continuing to go deeper in relationships, and to encountering many more things along the way.