the bigger picture

I could get used to life on the road...good music playlists, sleeping on mounds of pillowsand air mattresses, surviving on fruit roll-ups, apples and trail mix (really just the peanuts and m&ms because I pick everything else out) and spending the days and nights with amazing people.  But really, the one reason I would love it the most is the opportunity to get a glimpse of the bigger picture - a picture of what God is doing outside of the USC bubble, even the LA bubble. 

This past week, I spent 6 days traveling up the California coast to visit campuses and meet with staff and students about their Greek system/ministry.  The destinations included UCSB, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal.  Each campus is experiencing a different phase in their Greek movement, but each campus has evidence of God's desire to see the Greek system reached.  My hope was to be there to encourage them, learn from them, pray for them and be a resource in any way I could.  This depiction will not give the experience justice or explain in enough detail what happened, but I wanted to share the glimpse of the bigger picture.

The journey began in Santa Barbara.  We (Heather, a fellow USC staff member, and I) arrived in Santa Barbara around 10am to meet up with Angelica, a senior in Alpha Delta Chi (the Christian sorority at UCSB).  Over a cup of coffee, we talked about the Greek life at UCSB, the difficulties of reaching out to Greek students, the need to reach out to Greek students and ways to reach out to Greek students.  After gathering prayer requests, brainstorming ideas, sharing resources and offering as much encouragement as we could, we finished up talking and prayed for Angelica and UCSB and the Greek students and the future of a Greek movement there.

Then on to San Luis Obispo.  I was already amazed at the beauty of the area of Santa Barbara (which is probably why I almost went to school there), but I had no idea how much I would love San Luis Obispo.  After discussions with many of my fellow Trojans, we decided that USC would be pretty much the perfect school if you picked it up and dropped it in San Luis Obispo.  Mountains, beaches, farms, amazing coffee shops, the best tri-tip sandwiches and WONDERFUL people!  Not only did I get the opportunity to meet with the student leaders and staff that were helping out with Greek ministry, but I was greeted by 8 students at a gathering that had been arranged for students interested in Greek ministry!  I was so blessed by the opportunity to get to know them, hear about their Greek system, learn from them, tell them from my own mistakes, encourage them and pray for them.  As I was talking to one of the students after, I couldn't help but thinking about how sovereign God is.  As a confession, its easy to fall into the mindset of thinking that I will have something to offer people being on staff.  After all, didn't God put me there for a reason?  What a silly thought!  I would hope that I would move out of the way enough for the Holy Spirit to speak through me, but without Him, I have nothing to offer!  So as I listened to the ways God has been moving with Greeks at SLO and the hopes for Greek students to experience Jesus continuing into the future, I was thankful for the things I was learning and the ways I was being challenged to take steps of faith!  Leaving SLO, I felt blessed with encouragement, new challenges, new friendships and a renewed passion to see Greek students everywhere experience a relationship with Jesus.

Moving further north, we made our way to Berkeley.  I have never felt more out of place surrounded by earth-toned clothing as I walked into a coffee shop in a bright green and white striped shirt on St. Patrick's Day!  I hope this doesn't come off as a negative comment at all, but it is definitely a different culture there!  I got to spend some great time with Arijaan (staff at Cal working with Greeks) and spend some time in prayer with her about Cal, Greeks at Cal and Greek Summit, the summer project we will both be on this summer geared specifically for Greek students.  I then had the opportunity to join Arijaan and three Greek girls at Cal for a "dinner and discussion" time.  The girls shared their hearts, their fears and their desire to see more Greek students get to have the relationship with God that they have.  Again, my hope was to encourage them, pray for them, learn from them and share what I had learned from our mistakes and successes at USC. 

We are not all in the same phase, but we all have the same heart.  We are united in Christ wherever we are.  That is the bigger picture. God has bigger plans than we can ever imagine, we just have to trust Him.  We have to believe that He is bigger than the box we tend to put Him in.  Jesus increased my vision of Him and of what He wants to see happen in the lives of Greek students.  My prayer is that He continues to do the same for all of the staff and students I had the opportunity to meet and even those that I didn't.  Join me in praying for this as well!