You Too Should Come to Norman...

The title of this post works on so many clever levels. 1.) My mom came to visit me in Norman this weekend, and you should come visit me too. 2 out of 2 visitors have really had a good time! The picture to the left is my mom with Chance. 2.) U2 DID come and performed in Norman and it was awesome!!! The picture to the right is a group of RUF students that sat together at the concert.

The semester is half-way over. This is great for numerous reasons. One of which is that I am personally feeling more settled in, feeling like more organic things are happening with students, and that things are just happening more natural in general. This time in the semester can be hard too. Students can be overwhelmed with school work, anxiety, loneliness etc. I myself certainly experienced all of these things in college. Please be praying for the students of RUF at OU. Pray they will seek to glorify God in their studies. Pray they will see God as applicable to their lives and as a God who loves and cares for them.

On Saturday I leave for Intern training in Atlanta, GA. All of the 1st and 2nd year interns will spend 3 days talking about what we have learned so far on campus and what we have yet to learn. Please pray that this will be a time where we can be honest about our struggles and successes and learn about God. I am really looking forward to this time to be able to reconnect with the interns!!!

I recently sent out my mid-semester updates. If you did not get one and would like to, please send me your address by facebook or at natalie.haynes@ruf.org. I would love to add you to my mailing list!

PresWIC, Dates and Dating, U2 etc...

- "Community life will validate or negate the claims of the gospel." from The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood.

- I attended PresWIC this weekend in Dallas, which is the woman's conference for the North Texas Presbytery. It was great to see women thinking intentionally about their role in the church, and gave me a lot to think about. More importantly though, I got to spend some more time with women from Christ the King Pres. This was wonderful. The above quote is one from the weekend. It showcases how much emphasis was put on community, and how it plays an integral part of our lives.

- It has been raining and in the 50's for the past 5 days or so. I know that people have mixed opinions about this. I love it though! It reminds me of Sweden and makes me feel warm inside (even though my hands might be freezing!). Chance also likes the weather. He galloped around the field yesterday like he was a kid again :)

- I had some people over last Thursday to watch the Office. This is a regular thing every week. Jim and Pam got married. We ate cake afterwords to celebrate. It was wonderful.

- Doug's topic for RUF this week is "Dates and Dating..." This should be interesting. I am looking forward to the discussion that ensues after this.

- I am going to the U2 Concert (which we have affectionately been calling the "RUF Concert Series") a week from yesterday. You guessed it, that will totally be written about in next week's blog post....stay tuned!!!

Facts of Life in Norman

- I found out last night that I missed a great opportunity for an outing. The Cordell, OK annual Pumpkin Pancake festival and Pumpkin carving was on Saturday. This is a must for next year! Put it on your calenders OU RUFers!!!

- I just finished The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. That makes the third book of his that I have read, including Transforming Grace and Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts. I would recommend any of them.

- I had dinner with and played games with a group of students last night. These types of things make my heart warm. Love it!

- The picture to the right is of me and a statue on campus that I think is called "The Gossips," and I am wondering what they are talking about. One of my favorite thing about the OU campus is how they have captured history. They have interesting statues like these as well as framed photos everywhere of things that have happened on campus. These photos have captions on the bottom with the date and an explanation. I have spent several hours wandering the halls at OU looking at these pictures and loving the stories they tell!

- I have my membership interview at Christ the King Presbyterian today. I am loving this church and am glad to become a part of it. We take communion every Sunday and prayer requests are taken from the pulpit. Those individuals are then prayed for by a pastor or elder. These are things that are different from previous churches, but I love about CTK.

- Fall is definitely here in Norman, OK! I had a conversation with my mom this morning about making sure I have enough winter clothing. We decided that I probably have the right coat, but need more long sleeve shirts since I have 2 (two).

- I watched my campus minister's kids this weekend. Although there are many memorable moments, my favorite was probably Drew and Anna sticking their head out the window of the car and saying "Dog Mode." They then stuck their tongues out and let the wind blow their hair.

- Every week before RUF we do "pRUF" or pre-RUF. This is a pretty informal gathering of students to hang out and chat before our large group meeting at 9. Two weeks ago we went to a classic-50s dinner and last week we went to the OU Volleyball game. pRUF is becoming a favorite activity of mine!

Faith Sustains Us

Doug (OU Campus Minister), Ben (the male intern), and I visited the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial today during our staff meeting time. It was a very well done memorial. There was a chair for each person who died. The chairs for the children who died were smaller. That was especially touching. In one part of the memorial there is a tree that probably should not have survived the blast, but it has continued to grow. Around this tree is a lookout with this engraving. In reality it says a lot more than "faith sustains us," but this is the part that kept me thinking today.

Faith does sustain us. Faith sustained me through my senior year of college which sometimes seemed like it had too many trials to handle. It sustains me when I sin and I feel hopeless. It sustains me when terrible things happen, like the Oklahoma City Bombing, because I know that these things are not from God and were not meant to exist in this life. Praise God for sustaining faith!

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, I am loving Oklahoma! God has graciously provided for me!!!

Would you like some Oklahoma trivia??? I was excited to learn these facts today about the state that I live in:
1.) Toby Keith lives in Norman.
2.) Sonic is from Oklahoma.
3.) Mickey Mantle is from Oklahoma.
So, basically what I am telling you is that I don't really live in Oklahoma, I live in Hollywood :)

Community

I love community. I love that we were created for community. I love that God Himself, in the trinity, is community.

This is something I talk a lot about during my one-on-one meetings with students. God gives us each our own lives and stories. We are each our own person. This is one of the reasons that one of the presuppositions of RUF is "the individual: God has created every person and no two people are alike." And yet, despite our own unique personality and circumstances, we are able to relate to one another in community.

Despite this community, however, I often feel as if no one really understand me. While this may be somewhat attributed to the fact that I have grown up in an age of postmodernism (Kafka's Metamorphosis anyone?) it is also a lie that I am tempted to believe. Sometimes I would love to believe that God has put me in a unique place in which no one can understand me, because then I can give up and stop trying to fix my problems.

Community is just the ticket, however, to understanding one another and encouraging each other with the Gospel. It is what makes it possible for the individual, in their own circumstance, to love and feel loved. Jesus himself loved people as an individual. He was able to understand people on a personal level, as we also are able to do. John 4 and the story of the Woman at the Well is an example of Jesus' ministry to specific people. We (the interns) were pointed to this story at staff training when we were talking about focusing on "the individual."

In the four weeks that I have been an intern, I can already tell that this is a big topic of conversation for girls. In moments of loneliness, frustration, and despair we are tempted to believe that no one gets us and it is hopeless (seriously- God has created me, the one person who CANNOT be understood by ANYONE). Community is here, however, to share our own experiences and to share the Gospel.

I love that I can encourage girls with this truth. I love that I am different than each of these girls, and yet we can encourage one another. I love that I can hear their own individual stories and yet point them to the story which gives hope and love.

A Word on Non-Ministry Things...

Happy Monday, Everyone!

As many of you know, I was blessed to be able to bring my horse with me to Oklahoma. This has been a great source of comfort and familiarity in a place where many things continue to be foreign to me. It is great to be able to spend some of my free time out in the country with my faithful steed, Chance. I thought I would share these pictures of my pretty boy...

Being able to have my horse here is just another way in which God has been faithful to me in this time in transition. I have been riding since I was seven and have owned Chance for nine years. Thinking about not bringing him to Oklahoma was very hard. In His ever mysterious ways, however, God provided a way for me to bring him and a place for me to keep him here in Norman.

Ok, so now a word on things related to my job. I thought I might mention some of the books I have been reading. Two books I completed for my study program are Putting Amazing Back into Grace by Michael Horton and The Enduring Community by Brian Hebig and Les Newsome. Putting Amazing Back into Grace is a book which goes through the beliefs of Calvinism. It is thorough and thick. Not for the faint of heart, this book will answer all of those pesky questions you might have lingering about Reformed theology. The Enduring Community, which was written by two RUF campus ministers, explains the role of the church in the modern community. It talks about people who "church-shop" and what the Bible has to say about it. I really enjoyed this book! As someone in their early twenties, I enjoyed the Biblical perspective they took on church membership, which will undoubtedly shape a lot of the rest of my life.

I enjoyed getting to go to my first Sooner football game this weekend. The Sooners trounced Idaho State 64-0. It was a cold and wet game, but was enjoyable as I sat with a group of RUF students and cheered on the Sooners. We enjoyed dinner at Raising Cane's (equivalent to Zaxby's in Florida) afterward and watched a movie together. It was a great weekend here in Norman! I am speechless at God's daily provisions.

This coming weekend the Sooners will face the University of Tulsa. OU RUF looks forward to hosting the RUF from Tulsa at our tailgate.

Freshmen Bible Study went well last week. We had 8 people attend. Please continue to pray for these freshmen as they are one month into their first semesters, and undoubtedly beginning to feel the pressures of school. Pray they would turn to Jesus in this time and that RUF would lovingly welcome into the group. Thank you, once again, for your prayers and support!

Just in the Nick of Time...Another Monday Blog Post!

Ahoy!

Well, tomorrow marks the beginning of freshman Bible study. Freshman Bible study is done the complete opposite here than at UF: it is led by Doug Serven (OU RUF Campus Minister), it is co-ed, and it is two semesters long. It is going to be great to see this done differently and get to meet (and bring) girls through it. We will be studying the Sermon on the mOUnt (hehe).

Also coming up this week is the "OU RUF Freedom Float Trip." What does this mean exactly??? Well, to mark the 8th anniversary of September 11th, OU RUF is floating down a river...hence, floating for freedom (hey, I don't write this stuff...I just publicize it). The river is in Tallequah. We will drive up Friday night and then float Saturday morning. It should be a great opportunity to get to further relationships and enjoy each other's company. They say this river is cold. I am anxious to compare it to the Itchetuknee in Florida :)

Well, I am sad to say friends but that is all from me this evening...it has been a long Labor day and I am ready for bed. Thank you for your prayers and support. Please let me know if you would like to know more or would like an updated prayer card.