lists

December 1st marked the beginning of my fourth month in Nashville. And in the day to day hustle and bustle, so much happens. And while some thoughts and sights are profound, or interesting, or challenging, this blog entry is simply going to be a list of some of the ways I've spent the last three months.

At Vanderbilt, with the Presbyterian Student Fellowship, I:
-take students out for coffee and conversation
-help to physically prepare our worship space each Tuesday night
-participate in Tuesday night worship
-send emails, hand-written cards, text messages, facebook posts to students, graduate students, Jennifer, and other campus ministers. Occasionally family and friends get them too. :)
-have lunch in the First Year cafeteria each Monday
-attend the graduate Theology on Tap program each Thursday night
-go to the mission events, monthly Council meetings(imagine a college session meeting), and have even gone to a Board meeting
-go grocery shopping for the ministry events, and occasionally cook the food
-have gone white water rafting, to Memphis for fall break, and am planning/helping to organize the Montreat College Conference trip, the Ski trip, and the spring break trip to Guatemala
-participate in a Bible Study and led a four week discussion group on discernment and call

In Nashville I:
-have played in the Bicentennial Mall fountains
-hiked at Radnor Lake
-have enjoyed the green ways at Shelby Bottoms
-used the airport four times in three months
-enjoyed the ArtCrawl downtown
-have learned (slowly) the highway and road systems

For the Nashville Epiphany Project (my host agency, so to speak) I:
-attend Friday morning sessions with the seven other YAVs and Susan to talk about life, discernment, discuss books we've been reading, and listening to other people tell their discernment stories
-live with four of the YAVs in an 1,100sq. ft. house in East Nashville
-have intentional community time each Monday night
-attend church at Downtown Presbyterian Church
-meet with Janet, a career counselor and an ordained PC(USA) pastor
-meet with Susan to "check in" about how I'm doing

At Downtown Pres I:
-worship
-will be teaching Sunday school on my trip to Malawi, and how that influenced me to become a YAV
-serve lunch and breakfast to the homeless people who gather on Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings
-work with Habitat for Humanity
-visit with new found friends
-serve at their annual 'Waffle Shop' fundraiser (imagine an entire church fellowship hall filled with the smell of waffles, grits, sausage, and coffee.)
-have breakfast and share stories and laughs, and occasionally tears with the pastor, Ken
-am slowly embracing the community there that is embracing me

In my own life and faith life I:
-was worried and in constant prayer for my Gramps and Gram through the whole cancer struggle, and cried each time something happened that I couldn't be present in PA for
-continue to mourn Gramps' loss, while trying to rejoice in the promise of the Church Triumphant
-question often what my call in life is
-wonder what God wants me to do next year
-try to imagine living in Nashville long term or moving to a new place
-struggle to stay in contact with people from Westminster and Erie
-struggle to keep healthy life boundaries

As I hope you can tell I'm loving this city, the people I work, live, and fellowship with, the work I'm doing, and the growth I know is transpiring by constantly putting myself out there and processing all the changes that have happened.

But then there is the whole being away from family and friends as exciting and difficult things happen. There is the self-imposed urgency on what my next step in life will be. And then the Advent/Christmas chaos is also settling in. It's safe to say that I'm not entirely emotionally stable with all that's going on. But I've been thinking and processing, reflecting and talking about all that's going on, which is constantly proving to be helpful. A lot has happened in three months; and in the months to follow there is going to be much more . . . and I can only imagine what that list is going to look like.