Thoughts from the Sunshine State

We have returned from Summer Conference 2010! The above picture is of me and freshman, well sophomore now I suppose, Sam Carper. Sam was one of our students that came to Freshman Bible study regularly. Sam caught the winning catch in the Ultimate Frisbee tournament at SC!!! She is from Tulsa and is a wonderful part of our community :)

John Stone, former RUF Campus Minister, was the speaker our week. Amidst many funny stories, anecdotes, and tangents, he clearly presented the gospel every night. One of his more memorable talks was on forgiveness. While he did borrow this from Tim Keller, John Stone said, "To the extent that you see how much you have been forgiven, to that extent you will forgive and love others." Wow. This statement makes me want to study, learn, and appreciate my forgiveness. I want to be a good forgiver.


The above picture is of two of our cherished students. The guy sans-cowboy hat is Wes Martin. He is normal the one donning the hat. I think I saw him for the first time ever this week not wearing his cowboy boots. He is from the rural Oklahoma town of Tallequah and is getting married next week. The guy sporting the cowboy hat so proudly is Ben, and has just finished his freshman year at OU. He is another one of our freshman Bible study attenders, and is from Wisconsin. To say that this guy loves sports in an understatement. We bantered about the Gators and Tim Tebow quite a bit!

Summer Conference was chocked full of activities for our OU crew. We layed on the beach and swam in the ocean everyday. The waves were pretty strong, and schools of manta ray kept swimming by. Some students formed an ultimate frisbee team and won the SC bracket!!! Every night we had ice cream outside Doug and Julie's apartment and debriefed from the day. One night both Doug and Bentern got thrown into the pool. It was pretty priceless. Speaking of Bentern...


Ben and I are proud recipients of airbrushed t-shirts, courtesy of OURUF. I really like mine, which has a dolphin on it, but seeing Ben open his t-shirt was priceless. His t-shirt has emblazoned on it his nickname, "Bentern," and the turtle from Nemo. Both of those things made Ben giddy with excitement over his gift. I think there is an official facebook petition to change his facebooke name to "Bentern Nichols." Students claim they go to search for him, but can't find him because they don't think to search for "Benjamin Nichols."

SC '10 was a great success!!! I am in Florida now for a couple of weeks, and am currently visiting some college friends. Yay for summer!

The Semester's End

Greetings from Norman, OK! Students are in the middle of finals, and will be done this weekend. Then, about 40 of us will head to summer conference in Florida. Before any of that happens, however, I would like to catch you up on some stuff that has happened here:

- North Texas Presbytery: Last week Ben, Doug, and I took a trip to Dallas for Presbytery. We saw two ordination exams. Brent Corbin, a former OU RUF student, passed his ordination exam. It was great to see our denomination at work. Ben, Doug, and I got to eat at this cool place called "Eatsies." I think you could eat there everyday for a year and never have the same thing twice. It was super cool.

- Relish Projects: This semester in our leadership team, Relish, our topic has been personal growth. We have been reading The Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges. Each week there has been a project due. The projects have included a poetry project, a service project, an art project etc. The semester finished with a "personal project" that students choose at the beginning of the semester, and have been working on throughout. These included but are not limited to: learning how to cook, writing songs for an album to be recorded, running a half marathon, and a photography project (me!). Below is a picture that I really love but did not find a place for in the final book. That gross lookin' stuff is called Hooflex and I put it on Chance's hooves to keep them strong. I feel like this picture captured how messy this stuff is!

- I stuffed 150 envelopes with my news letter last night to send out to my supporters. If you do not currently get one of these, please let me know- I would love to send one to you!

- The John Williams Project is going splendidly. Every week when students come over to watch the Office, we play a movie afterwards. The last two weeks we have watched Star Wars, which I had not previously seen. The Empire Strikes Back has been my favorite. This weekend I watched Schindler's List with some people. Three words come to mind: horrific, intense, awesome. The next two movies are Amistad and Saving Private Ryan. Apparently we are going with an intense theme.

- I leave tomorrow to drive to Florida. Summer conference will go from Monday May 17- Saturday May 22. Please pray for safety for our students as they drive a long way from Oklahoma to Florida and back. After summer conference (and Anna McDowell's wedding!!!), I will be in Florida for two and a half weeks. I am having an after service lunch at Christ Community Church on June 6th. I would love to see you!

- Boomer Sooner!!!

Humans vs. Zombies

This week I have been reminded that working in campus ministry means that you are able to do totally over-the-top completely ridiculous and yet excessively stimulating things every once in a while. What am I talking about exactly?!? Humans vs. Zombies, of course! humansvszombies.org

In an effort to do an outreach event similar to Assassins, OU RUF sponsored our very own HVZ game. We thought 75 people might register. 764 people did.

It has been crazy. I have been wearing a bandana (almost) everywhere I go. I always have socks with me in case I need to stun a zombie and make a getaway. I am always looking over my shoulder to see if I am being snuck up on. I see complete strangers on campus and smile, because they are wearing a bandana on the arm or leg (denoting them as a human) and I know that we are both survivors of the human race (for right now). The number of humans is getting smaller, and the zombies are getting more frantic as they need to tag (feed) on humans in order to stay a live.

We are having a dance party on Friday night. Humans vs. Zombies 1980s theme. Yes!

OU RUF has been featured in the campus rag twice this week. Once for HVZ and the other because Dr. Os Guinness came to speak to our campus. 10 campus ministries, including RUF, brought in the "Veritas Forum" to talk about suffering and injustice in the wake of the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Check out the veritas forum: veritas.org

Dr. Guinness was very engaging and did a wonderful job speaking to about 300 people. I will admit my own skepticism in that I did not feel like people would come to this forum, even though the topic is interesting and relevant. The turnout was great though. He addressed topics that I often speak to students about. When faced with the question "Why was evil allowed to exist?" He responded the same way I do, "I don't know. No one does." I know have a copy of his book "The Call," and am excited to read it.

We leave for summer conference in a mere 3 weeks! Boomer Sooner!

Live from Cafe Plaid, it's the Tuesday Blog Post!!!

Hello Friends!

Hope you are doing well. I am enjoying a sunny here in Oklahoma. I am sitting at Cafe Plaid, looking out on the Visitors Center and the North Oval- very pretty!

This last weekend we travelled to Springfield, Missouri for our Relish Retreat. Relish is the leadership team here at OURUF. 12 students came and it was a great time of 4-wheeling, hot-tubing, camp fires, and discussion. God has blessed us greatly with students that have a heart for ministry and who think intentionally about how to love people.

Here is a picture of (from left to right): me, Brittany, Doug, Ben, and Anna. Brittany and Anna have previously served as interns at OU. It was wonderful to have them with us and hear about their experiences and their wisdom.

There are only two weeks of classes left here at OU, then "dead" week and then a week of finals. Even though time is running short, we have much left to do. This weekend we are doing "Not-A-Date." Norman has a music festival going on, so randomly matched couples will be enjoying dinner and then hearing some of Norman's finest artists.

We are also about to embark on an adventure called "Humans vs. Zombies." Haven't heard of it??? Check it out: http://humansvszombies.org/. Our game will last a week as the zombies try to take out the humans. This game is similar to "Gotcha" or "Assassins." We currently have 320 people registered. The week of play will end with a Humans vs. Zombies 80's Dance Party!!! This is sure to be a unique experience- I look forward to sharing it with y'all!

Summer Conference Promo Video!!!

The assignment was to parody a favorite youtube movie and make it into a summer conference promo video, and boy did we ever!!! Teen Girl Squad! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdfqyklmBng

Good Friday, Bunco, "Little Event" and More...

We're going to work our way backwards....starting with Bible Study. This morning we entered into the New Testament in the Jesus Storybook Bible. The last line of our story this morning read, "Meeting Jesus would change all of their lives forever." We talked about how the gospel does/should change our lives. It was my favorite lesson yet. God is so good! We also enjoyed these wonderful treats: Pioneer Woman's French Puff Pastries. Baked treats continues to get girls out of bed at 7AM for Bible Study!

This weekend OU sponsored the "Big Event." Thousands of undergrads went all over Oklahoma City to do a service project. Students worked at schools, highways, and even homes of the elderly. I have heard nothing but good things about this project from students. While they were working around OKC Bentern, myself, and two graduate students helped out the Servens at the "Little Event." We worked in their yard and did some other small projects. It is always wonderful to spend time with the Serven family!
The 8th Annual RUF Bunco Tournament was this Friday. It is the longest standing OURUF Tradition, and boy is it a good one! Have you ever played?!? You should. I won for most "buncos." Here is a score card:
Jena, Kevin, and Katie having fun outside playing bunco. Over 30 people came, so there were bunco games going on anywhere you could find room to sit!
A little late, yes, but better late than never! Here is the chapel where we had the RUF Good Friday service. It was wonderful. I had never been to a Good Friday service before. The hymns and scripture readings were all great reminders of Christ's love for us.

This weekend the OURUF leadership team, "Relish," will be going to Missouri for our Relish Retreat. It will be a great time to fellowship with the people who serve OURUF together.

The most exciting news however?!??!?!?!? THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL POST TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT! I don't want to give anything away, so stay tuned!

Has it only been a week since my last post?!?

Seriously, I feel like it has been forever since last Tuesday. Here are some reasons:

- I got really sick last week. I was miserable. I laid in bed for 3 days, but it might as well have been 30. Yuck!!!

- My mom came to nurse me back to health. Seriously, she is awesome. We talked on Thursday morning at 4:30 my time since I had been up all night, and by evening she was here! It was such a blessing to have her here.

- We did a service project in downtown OKC on Saturday morning. We had 19 students show up to paint, sort, and organize clothing. The project was with a group called TEEM, which seeks to get people who are unemployed back on their feet. This includes GED classes, interview strategies (even interview clothes), computer classes etc.

This weekend is Easter, and RUF is doing a special Good Friday service. It will be held at a building on campus, with hymns and readings. I am really looking forward to celebrating Easter this weekend. Doug made a good point in stating today that Easter is one of the most important and yet under-celebrated holidays. Now that I think about it, I totally agree!

The second annual Norman Board Game Geek conference is this weekend. It will be at a local coffee shop. There is a group of students (and Doug) here that love strategy games. Saturday will be a full 12 hours of Agricola, Puerto Rice, Le Havre, Ticket to Ride, Dominion and many many more! I am definitely going to participate, but probably not for the entire time!

On an entirely non-ministry note, Chance is loosing his fur at a very rapid rate! Oh the pleasures of living in a state with such a cold winter. I think I am going to miss Furry Chance :)

Happy Easter Everyone! Christ has risen indeed!