"Harvesting" Memories

I cannot believe that November is over and Christmas is right around the corner! This is always a bittersweet time on campus because we are anxious to spend a little time with our families for the holidays, but it is sad to think that another semester is coming to a close and students are graduating (If I can barely handle our students graduating and leaving, I feel sorry for our future children). But before I get ahead of myself, November has been a great month!

With the close of the election, we gathered together on campus the next morning to pray for newly-elected President Obama. It was such an awesome morning to have students come together and lay aside all political differences & spend time praising God for his sovereignty and praying for protection and wisdom for President Obama. In the heat of an election, it is so easy for Christians to become short-tempered and voice harsh words about others (including the candidates) and to others. It was a joy to begin the next 4 years on a positive and supportive note by honoring our President and praying for him like God desires us to (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

So excited for David Crowder!

The week before Thanksgiving, in leu of having a weekly meeting, we went with a large group of students to the David Crowder concert at Temple Baptist Church. Since we knew that we could not compete with Crowder himself, we had decided early on to cancel our weekly meeting and instead encourage students to come with us to his concert. For those of you who are not familiar with David Crowder, he is a Christian artist who has lead worship at many CRU events and also at the Passion Conference. We had a great time of fellowship with the students, as well as enjoying great music! 

The weekend before Thanksgiving break, our whole staff team travelled to Atlanta for our annual CRU Fall Conference. It was a very full and busy weekend, but it was so great to see our friends (and co-workers) from around the Southeast! After the conference ended, Mitch and I headed to Destin to spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family. I had not seen my family since August and I couldn't believe how much Caleb (our nephew) had grown!! He is by far the cutest little thing in the world but I guess I'm a little biased :) It was such a wonderful and refreshing holiday and I am so thankful that I got to spend it with my family!

Sweet little nephew!

Best Thanksgiving outfit ever. 

With Christmas right around the corner, and our one-year anniversary of being at Southern Miss coming in January, we thought it was about time to send out some prayer cards! I cannot confirm when they will be arriving (as I do not know yet- but they are ordered!), but I can leave you all with a sneak peek of some of the photos we took.

And just to leave you guessing, we have some big news (no we aren't expecting) to share next month of an opportunity we were presented with while at our Fall Conference. Stay tuned... :)

Fall Festivities

Since the ministry has really taken off this semester, we have been able to have several fun events this fall to gather together for fellowship & the occasional s'more. A couple weekends ago, to celebrate Southern Miss' homecoming, CRU hosted our very first tailgate on campus! We spent the day watching football, hanging out with students & friends, checking out the homecoming parade & floats, and munching on tailgate food. It was a great day with beautiful weather and uplifting fellowship.

It was a great day with beautiful weather and uplifting fellowship! If only the football game had turned out as well... Between Auburn's season and Southern Miss' we pretty much avoid all social media & football commentary on Saturdays now. Praise the Lord that we have something greater to live for than football, right?

Claire, me, Kate & Yasmin

In addition to the tailgate, we also hosted a CRU Bonfire on the night October 25th in the middle of Lake Serene! (Literally... the lake was drained) The Hamilton family was so generous to allow all of us to come out to their house and build an extremely large bonfire AND hang around until after midnight. We spent the night hanging out, making s'mores, "cutting" fire wood, & running around the empty lake.

 It was a great night and a lot of people joined us for "s'more" CRU fun (Sorry, I just couldn't resist). Everyone enjoyed the night so much, we are hoping to have one before Christmas break when it is actually cold outside this time!

Our women's event this month was a very festive night of pumpkin painting! Elizabeth hosted the night and made two very delicious chili recipes that added to the fall-like theme. We had a lot of fun painting and spending time together, although painting pumpkins sounds a whole lot easier than it actually was! I will be sticking to plain old orange pumpkins from now on. 

This fall has been so fun and we have been overwhelmed with how much growth we are seeing in the ministry as well as in our relationships with our students (and friends!). Since Christmas is just right around the corner, I know we will be having many more festive nights coming soon to CRU!