About 24 hours ago (well, less about 8 minutes) I woke up to start my day. As I said to Margie, all in a day’s work…
It was a good day. A long day but very much worth it. Road trips are so worth it! I’ll post back on this in a bit. I think I’ll grab a bit of sleep now.
I’m going, I’ll be there at 11am, I’ll be leaving around 10pm. One long day, but I’m looking forward to it.
Around this time of year, right now, I am feeling a bit fatigued.
Today I felt a little bit of fatigue while listening to some students describe their Muslim faith. I’m getting a bit tired of hearing Muslims describe their faith but not critically analyze the source and validity of their holy scriptures.
Today I also felt a bit overwhelmed that I’m simultaneously trying to understand how to discuss matters of spirituality with atheists (who believe in the non-existence of God), Muslims (who believe in the one true god they call Allah, but do not worship Christ), and apathetic students who don’t really care much about anything.
It is starting to seem to me like you can’t just do a “Does God exist?” debate anymore and expect a majority of the campus to actually respond. Almost a quarter of the campuses here already have theistic-minded people. The other portions are very antagonistic towards theism.
Today I’m also overwhelmed with the fact that many men are dealing with personal purity, and how as a min we can deal with these heart issues while at the same time disciple them to become multipliers of faith. I mean, we aren’t an accountability service. We can’t sacrifice the vision, but Christ-centredness contains purity.
And here begins an in-depth search into the purposes and effectiveness of a min to university students in a para-church environment. I’m beginning to wrestle with the issues, and it’s starting to wrestle with me. This is what I was looking for, but I didn’t think it would look like this.
Going to WC tomorrow to set up. Here is my list of things I need to watch out for, so that I don’t die again.
1) Not getting enough sleep. Go to bed early, do not hang out with people past 11:30pm if I can help it.
2) Not eating. Ask people to buy breakfast for me and don’t feel bad about it. Eat snacks regularly. Eat healthy foods, restrict myself to only one meal of street meat.
3) Exerting myself too much. Take breaks and naps when I need to, when I can, and when there’s down time. Go to the hot tub. Take the elevator. Rely on others to do what they can do and I don’t need to do.
4) Not spending quality time with students I work with. Dedicate time to talk to students and staff, don’t keep a “always busy” appearance and mentality. Schedule breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them so that I eat and I talk. Focus on a few, and not on the many (and there are many I could definitely diffuse my time with).
5) Not learning anything about God due to paying attention to details. Pay attention at some points to the speakers we have. Delegate tasks that demand attention. Allow God to challenge me. Bring my Bible to each main session. Pray for the students and staff and myself to be challenged deeply.
6) Feeling isolated. Welcome social parts.
7) Skin gets dry. Bring humidifier to hotel room.
8 ) Way too serious. Ease up, allow mistakes to happen, problems to be corrected next time, to encourage people and joke, and praise God even when I’m stressed out or sick. I am not indispensable. God still works in people.
I woke up from coughing. Now I can’t sleep because I’m thinking and pre-visualizing all the av setup and the main sessions. in my mind.stuff like music before sessions, video songs, worship lyrics, computer setups, and a whole lot more. i had a mocha in the afternoon and chinese tea at dinner but nothing keeps you up at night more than a looming conference with many open loose ends.