Three Months Down the Road

The last several weeks have been both busy and quiet for us.

At the end of October, I left my job with the non-profit working in Europe for a job on campus at Wheaton.  Even though my old job was a blessing to have, it was not a great fit as far as my strengths, passions and convictions about ministry. The hours were also too intense for me to stay on top of school and other responsibilities.

This job on campus popped up right when I was starting to feel like I should seriously think about leaving my old job. In the course of three days I had interviewed on campus, been offered the new job, quit my old job and started the new one. It was an interesting experience, since I've never actually quit somewhere before...they were very gracious and let me go without any fuss.

My new job is a part of the Student Development office and I work with students who are on chapel probation (meaning they aren't meeting the attendance requirements for chapel). I am so thankful to be there because it means that I get to sit down with students, hear about their lives and their thoughts on chapel. I am not a proponent of mandatory chapel, myself, but it is still very interesting to hear what students view to be the purpose of chapel, what their experiences have been with the attendance policy and how that affects their whole campus experience. My meetings with students would be a great base for a research project...hm...I just might have one of those due at the end of my program :)

In the past few weeks we've made a trip to Iowa and had many guests here in Lombard. On Halloween weekend we went to Iowa for the Hawkeye football game against MSU. It turned out to be a blowout, but we had a good time anyway. We were also able to see some extended family and friends and enjoyed time at home with Andrew's parents. Then, the following weekend, my sister and mom came down to go to a Taize worship service in a suburb closer to the city. Just this past weekend, friends came in for the Iowa football game at Northwestern, which was a major disappointment and frustration.

Andrew is heading to Michigan this weekend for a bachelor party. He's standing up for a very good friend over Thanksgiving weekend and I'm playing the piano for the same wedding. We're really looking forward to seeing friends and family up in Michigan over the holiday.

In other news, I've started training for the St. Louis marathon in April. My sister-in-law is running it also. I've been thinking about a marathon for a few months now, and when my job change happened, I knew I would have more time to devote to training. It will be a huge challenge, but I am very excited to push myself to reach the finish line!