Week in the Life of a Campus Missonary....

So I did speak and it went ok! I was soooo nervous and I think Lisa may have been wrong! Ha! Not sure I want to speak in public like that for a while! :) I spoke about Mary and Elizabeth in Luke 1 and the plans God has for us, how sometimes they take way longer than we would like and sometimes His plan is way different than our own. Then gleaned other points from their lives! I just love Mary and Elizabeth! What mighty women of God. I was thinking yesterday how I can't wait to meet them in Heaven! :)

This weekend was super fun! Friday night we had our girls connect group (Bible Study) Christmas dinner at my apartment. We made tacos, talked and then a few us watched Bride Wars! Then Saturday night a group of us watched the Help on campus for free! That makes the third time I've seen it "on the big screen" and I read it this summer too! Couldn't get enough! The message I took away from the movie all three times is how much women can make a difference with the talents they have in the life they are already living!!

Sunday night we had a meeting for all of our connect group leaders (Bible study leaders). It was so encouraging to be in a room full of peeps wanting to spread the Gospel and love on ECU students. These student give so much of themselves!! Look at this room of world changers!!!

So this week I have been making an eternal difference by busting out a Tacky Christmas Party for oh you know 100 or so people! ;) But I am def not alone in this, an awesome team of VCM ladies are helping me! Tomorrow is the big day all we have left to do is set out chairs, tidy up, and start crock pot cooking!

Here is a picture of the girls tonight posing as we decorated! (You can't tell here but the sanctuary looks amazing!!)

MIA

(The Only picture I took on Thanksgiving was this one at the end of the day! Oh well Jack is precious! :))

I have been MIA from blogging the past few weeks! I was so going to sit down and write something over Thanksgiving Break but I was just enjoying the break sooooo much and I was pretty lazy!!

Thanksgiving was a great time with friends and family. On Turkey day at my mom's house we had 17 people. The regular Thanksgiving crowd plus friends this year which was so fun! My childhood friend Suzanne, her mom Gala, and "Nana" came as well as my sister's friend Melissa, her husband Cole, and their baby Sarah Margaret! I only took pictures of me and Jack (my precious nephew)! That night Suzanne and I saw "The Muppets" movie which was super cute! It was nice to see a movie with no blood or sex! In the hotel room they even showed twin beds!! The movie was squeaky clean, cheesy, & perfect! It even included an 80's robot! I miss 80's movies!!

I did want to post about seeing the play OKLAHOMA on Monday night before Thanksgiving! I went with Praisy, Hannah, & Carolyn! We saw Emily in the play! She was awesome and played a little girl & Dream Laurie! The play was so fun! I Hadn’t been to one in years and ECU always does a great job!! We laughed soo hard at the way everyone in the production spoke! Their oldschool wester accent was hilarious! Example willow tree= willer!! Oklahoma is a funny play so we were laughing at it and these ladies behind us b/c they were rolling the whole time!!

It was definitely the most fun I had had on a Monday night in a loooonnnngggg time!

This week will be busy! We are decorating our Church sanctuary and we always do it up big! I am speaking Thursday night about Dreams/ God's purpose for our life. Please pray for me (all two of you!) I want to speak what God wants me to and I don't want to be nervous!! This semester I have been doing a Bible Study with the other VCM staff felines called "Lioness Arising." It was a good study but every week Lisa Bevere got up in our business (in a good way) about the dreams in our hearts, what God is calling us to do etc. I kept thinking speaking more and walking into that area of campus ministry more, so we shall see how it goes!!!

(I wanted to add a few pictures but will have to do that later!)

Lately!

Lately I have been into all things domestic! I am already pretty domestic so I'm not sure what is going on! :) I have cleaned my apartment and cooked up a storm!

Oh wait maybe it's because I started reading Farmer Boy in the Little House series (the 1950's copy from the local library! ha!). Seriously the copy of the book is soo old but I love the sweet stories. The quality time the family spends together. How they make everything from scratch etc. I could go on and on, but all I know is these little 4th grade readers are good to my soul and help me fall asleep with a clear head! (The book actually says grades 3-7 ages 8-12) :)

What I've been cooking:

poppyseed chicken

crock pot mexican chicken

peanut butter rice crispy treats

sweet tea (which I haven't made in forever, used to be a staple in my fridge that I started cutting out! but now it might be back in!)

and the kicker... amish friendship bread

I have been wanting to make amish friendship bread for a while and finally got around to it today! I isn't hard at all. I just didn't know what recipe to use because I have only ever made it before when someone gave me a starter.

(the first starter)

So tonight I made my own starter. I think it would be really neat to keep this going for a while. I have a friend whose family has had the same "batch" for a long time. I think it would be neat to start a tradition like that!

I love that this will be something I can share with neighbors and friends. I think I want to double the bread batches and bake them in the mini bread loaves, so that way I can freeze some starters and give a few away.

Let's see how it goes! :)

What you wanna know?

Hi I’m Laura.

I’m linking up today with Kelly’s Korner!

Here’s a little bit about myself.

I am 27.

I have lived in North Carolina my whole life (except for a two month stint in Nashville).

As a freshman at East Carolina, I gave my life to the Lord over Christmas break!

I felt called to campus ministry shortly after I got saved, but tried to ignore it…

I pledged Zeta Tau Alpha and lived in the house for one year! That was enough! Ha but loved the sorority!

Majored in Elementary Education with a concentration in Psychology .

I did my student teaching in 2^nd grade in Farmville, NC! I loved the kids but was stressed out the whole time!

So I decided to actually listen and did an internship in campus ministry after graduation.

Loved it!!

Went to Every Nation’s School of Campus ministry= 2 month stint in Nashvegas!

Meet awesome people, saw Carrie Underwood at Grand Ole Opry, learned much about ministry, learned how to raise support and grew closer to Jesus!

Grew even closer to Jesus while raising support!

Came on Staff at Victory Campus Ministry at East Carolina Fall 2009.

Feb of 2010 was blindsided by my parents separating.

Felt pretty “down” for months.

Cried.

Prayed.

Grew even closer to Jesus.

Learned that Jesus is there even when you think life sucks.

Learned that when you minister to others, your own heart is ministered to!

Also learned to laugh again!

Went on a mission trip to Baja Mexico and saw poverty and God do miracles!

Got my own little apartment and felt like a grown up!

My heart began to heal all the way and felt alive in Jesus more & more every day!

Remembered that I was silly! Cause I do like to be silly.

So I'm just a single girl living this life of mine for Jesus and enjoying every minute of it! It hasn't always been peachy but hey who ever said it would be!

Yay Finished Job!

Back in 10th grade English class I was supposed to read Job and give a report on it. I never read the whole book. I think I probably started and then found something on the internet. If I remember correctly, my report summarized the book and then gave a little lesson on faith even when we suffer and then I played some Jars of Clay song on my boom box!

Well I am proud to say that 11 years later, I finally finished Job! Learned a whole lot more this time by actually reading a using my ever so helpful NIV Personal Life Application study Bible from Ollies! It is burgundy with a hot pink cover from the Dollar Store and is the love of my life these days!

Let me just tell you that I am right there with good ole Job! Whenever I have gone through different trials (none as bad as Job mind you), I complain, lay around thinking "why poor ole me" and ask God lots of questions. Thankfully my friends are much kinder than Job's, but other people and acquaintances have given bad advice too!

When my parents separated, I couldn't listen to the bad advice, it sometimes would make my stomach hurt!!

Love Elihu, his advice was at least 50% right.

"But those who suffer He delivers in their suffering; He speaks to them in their affliction. He is wooing you form the jaws of distress, to a spacious place free of restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food." Job 36:15-16

"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding."Job 37:5

When God answers in chapter 38, I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Wow, what a spanking!

Love Job's response: "I am unworthy- how can I reply to you..."

My Bible study notes say "Throughout his time of suffering, Job longed to have an opportunity to plead his innocence before God. Here God appeared to Job and gave him that opportunity. But Job decided to remain quiet because it was no longer necessary for him to speak. God had shown Job that, as a limited human being, he had neither the ability to judge the God who created the universe nor the right to ask why. God's actions do not depend on ours. He will do what he knows is best, regardless of what we think is fair."

Sometimes we really need to hear that, our society is all about self promotion and airing our opinions (even having blogs like this ha!) But oftentimes we need to be reminded of our smallness and God's greatness.

Job repents, tells God he is sorry for talking about things he knew nothing about. God restores Job above and beyond! Job's friends apologize, Job prays for them. ( I would want to slap them first but Job has a better heart..) All in all a good day Job died old and full of years!

I would love to interview Job years after he was "restored" and ask him about his life. I am pretty sure he didn't question God's plans anymore!!

P.S.

Soooo I haven't kept up my end of the baragin of blogging about reading the Bible. It got to be tedious and frankly I fell off of the wagon!

But Lauren, Brittany, & I have been reading together since the beginning of the school year! We started from scratch aka Genesis and are doing a one year chronological study Bible plan. So far so good! We are in Job and will finish that up next Tue. We figure out how many days we want to read each week and show up and talk about it. I may ask if they want to do the S.O.A.P method...

This time, no falling of the wagon! I plan to stick with it and think meeting with them each week will hold me more accountable than blogging! (Hate that I couldn't stick with blogging but I just didn't have the time to keep up with that!)

So that's that! Campus ministry is going great!!! Everything is in full swing!

Tonight I hung out with my friend Jayme and talked wedding stuff! She and Matt are tying the knot Dec. 18th. Here is a pic of there presh engagement pictures! So happy for them!!

http://brittanischultze.tumblr.com/(hope it was ok for me to post this)

Also, my sister, nephew Jack, mom, and Aunt Janette came Sunday for a visit. We all went out to lunch with my friend Kendall to Winslows downtown Greenville. While walking out of the restaurant my aunt asked where the downtown area was! Kendall and I were like "this is basically it!!" Ha! We walked in Catelog Connections and then headed to check out my apartamento. Carrie, Jack, and Janette hadn't seen it before! Then we did some more shopping! My mom bought me a yellow mum and a shirt from Target!! :) It was sooo good to see them and catch up!

Here is a cute picture of Jack (at a weird angle). I made him hold a twizzler, he didn't know what he was doing but it was good to me! (of course he didn't lick or eat so no children we harmed :)) Sadly this was the only picture I took that night!

Ps. Aldi has their version of Girl Scout cookies right now that are right on the money for $1.70 a box!! The Caramel Coconut Fudge Cookies describes the carmel delight to a T!! They really were delightful and I'm afraid to count how many I have eaten!

Going to bed and going to read some of Job! :)

3 things I'm loving right now!

Today was the best day in the world!!! Not because of anything big but because of a 1000000000 little things! Here are the def top 3:

3. The Weather was gorgeous today!! It was a nice sunny day, barely a cloud in the sky with a a nice breeze. Still shorts weather but not excruciating heat!

2. I have a new baby nephew!! Little Jack is one week old today!! He is precious and perfect. He looks just like his daddy but with "the Norman nose." The Norman nose is the nose my Granddaddy Parks, mama, Aunt Janette, Aunt Mimi, Carrie (Jack's mama) and I have! Mama, Daddy, and baby are all doing great! Hopefully I will get to see them again soon!

(this is what Jack's nose looks like :))

1. I love my "job." I love doing ministry at the school I love! ECU is a school that most people haven't heard of unless they are from NC! And I am totally ok with that! This is where I grew up! I came to know the Lord, grow in my faith, and mature into an adult here! I love sharing the Gospel and the same truths I learned with students, yards away from where the same truths were shared with me!! I love the legacy of our campus ministry! Yesterday I talked with a student about the Holy Spirit, the same thing I talked to my campus minister at the time Heather with, 9 years ago!! I called Heather and told her about it last night and she told me another story about a conversation we had back then about when I first wanted to go into campus ministry, second semester of my Freshman year! What a young buck I was back then! I had just gotten saved months before that at Christmas time.

Anyway, all that to say, the past two days I have had such good conversations about life and the Lord with such sweet girls! I am so thankful & humbled that the Lord had called me to speak into these precious lives! Lives I know the Lord treasures in His heart! 28,000 students can be a little overwhelming, so I love it when the Lord "drops" relationships in your lap He wants you to cultivate!

(one of the sweet girls Praisy that I'm friends with! She said, don't make me pose here like a freshman! :))

I feel like such a lucky lucky girl! I have a cute little apartment, an awesome support team, a great town to call home, an awesome church, family that loves me, a cute bundle of cuddleness for a nephew, and a Saviour who has seen me through the good, the bad, & the ugliness of my heart that He is constantly renewing, who still loves me!!