three years

There is a sort of peace that has come over me as I've discovered that I am right where Jesus wants me to be.  My decision to do a volunteer staff year in this region, my involvement in my church, and my part-time job in the office have all intersected to birth an understanding that I was indeed listening to the Spirit when I made the choice to move back to New Jersey.

I am meant to be in this place.

As I sat on the porch, just 24 hours after arriving at Regional Staff Conference, I looked out at my (new) friends making fools of themselves in a Justin Bieber video and wondered how my heart ever longed to stay in Virginia.  I can finally say with a sigh of relief that I cannot picture myself as a staff worker in a different InterVarsity Region.  I have crazy weird connections to staff here, I am excited when talking about the rapid growth of the NY/NJ Region, and I (after only the second time of meeting most of these people) am able to be my crazy ENFJ self.  Regional Staff Conference was really, really good for me.  That's the only way I can describe it.  Really, really, really, really good.  People cared for me well, I laughed with new friends, had long, serious, and prayerful conversations with co-workers, and felt every cell in my body jump with excitement whenever we were discussing the task of reaching college students.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

This job, with this ministry, in this region makes me love being an adult in the "real world."  (And wish that all of my friends could get this revved up over their jobs.)  I was put here for a purpose.  I was made for it.

Throughout those four days at Regional Staff Conference, we discussed things in terms of our region's three year plan.  A three year period had just ended and we set new goals and prayed over these next three years.  In our area team meeting on the first day, I was given the task of looking over TCNJ's Annual Field Report from the last decade and calculating the percent increase of the different categories over the past three years.  Each staff worker then reported why they thought their chapter did (or didn't) reach their goals based on the correlations.

After a few calculations of the past three years I stared at my paper, trying to think in terms of real life and not numbers, since obviously this will be my first year with this new chapter.  Three years ago was... 2009, I thought as I tried to relate this report to real time, Three years ago I was going into my sophomore year of college... Then I stopped at my next thought:

Three years ago I wasn't a Christian.

I was sitting there, as a (volunteer) staff worker for InterVarsity... a person attempting to get hired for full-time ministry... analyzing the 3-year period that just ended for TCNJ and I realized that I wasn't even a Christian when those goals for the region were set.  And now, by the grace of God, as the new 3-year period began I was the one who stood up and wrote those goals alongside my initials on our regional poster.  Wretched, rebellious, me who three years ago wanted nothing to do with Jesus, is somehow undeservedly partnering with Him in His mission on this college campus.

God. is. so. good.

Talk about a miracle.  Talk about InterVarsity transforming lives and developing world-changers.
Talk about Jesus changing my heart.