Week Eight: Back to Campus

This is going to be my last blog post...wow. I'm just thinking about this summer, and I can't believe everything that's happened. Was it really just two months ago that we moved into Jacksonville, and I came in as an incredibly intimidated college student from a small town? It feels like that was forever ago. And here we are on the last week of JAX STP.

On Monday, we heard from Jason Ross, the director of the program. He reiterated to us everything we had done in the program and emphasized the need for us to plan - plan for how we are going to spend the time before we go back to school and how we are going to use our time once we're back. He challenged us to prepare a group of people to keep us accountable and to think about who we are going to be teaming up with in the fall to have the most effective ministry possible. This was great for me because it reminded me of the importance of every single week and of the great value of having brothers in Christ who can keep me accountable and encourage me.

On Tuesday, for my last one-on-one, I got to look back at answers I had written at the beginning of the program for questions like "What is something that will be the biggest obstacle for growth at JAX this summer?" or "What do you want to gain through your experience at JAX?". When I looked back at my answers, I laughed because the answers I had written were the things God had really changed in me throughout the program. John, my team leader, also helped me plan what I was going to do during my time back home, and how I was going to keep in the Word before I get back to school.

On Wednesday, we had campus time...or, perhaps, it would be more correct to call it "campus strategy time." We split into our separate campuses and began sharing how STP had changed us, and then we broke up according to our "spheres of influence" (residence hall men, fraternity men, sorority girls, etc.). We prayed for our the places we will be staying this fall, and tried to come up with plans for how to encourage each other. Then, we got back together as a campus and tried to integrate as many Greeks and Non-Greeks as possible so that we could get a better understanding of each other (one of our goals coming back is to unite Greek Navs and Residence Hall Navs).

Thursday was our last Bible Study. While we did focus a lot on planning ahead, we spent much more time encouraging one another. We talked about areas where we saw each other grow and things that we really appreciated about each other. It sounds a bit corny, but it was actually great for us to encourage each other like that and realize the appreciation we have for each other. (In the end, we also concluded that our team loves to do nothing more but to make sarcastic jokes and laugh.)

Friday was the last day of work and our final banquet. Although it was sad to leave behind new friends at work, I can honestly say that I did not have any problem driving away from my job. There were a few tears, but, being the...erm...very emotional person that I am (not)...I escaped with no shed tears. Later on at our final banquet we had a great time remiscing about good times at STP and what we had learned. We also honored our team leaders by giving each of them some special momento to remember us by. For ours, we sang a song that brought the house down with laughter (God knew what He was doing by placing me with funny men on a team). I would go into more detail, but I see that it's now 12:21 AM here, and I feel sleepiness coming on.

Tomorrow (Saturday), we will be spending all day packing, cleaning, and having a few last moments together as teammates and members of the program. I know already that this is going to be very hard for me. If there ever might be a time I'll shed a tear, this will be it (but still...probably not, I'm not one to shed tears :) ). What I know I'll have to remind myself is this: even though we may never see each other again on this side of heaven, we have all of eternity to spend with God together on the other side. His goodness is more powerful than any momentary sadness.

And then Sunday we will depart early in the morning to go to Clarksville, Tennessee before we finally reach the flooded plains of Nebraska on Monday.

As I said before, this is the last post I will be making for this blog. I look forward to telling you all the stories I could not fit into this blog when I come back. I hope that you will realize how sovereign and powerful God is when I tell you the stories, and I hope that it will be an encouragement for you to rely more upon Him. Thank you all again for praying for us and supporting us monetarily. I could not have experienced what I did if it wasn't for you guys, and I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have had this time down here. It truly was life-changing.

Thank you again.
Jordan