Sending to the Nations

Last week, I spent a “pre-project” week in Fullerton, California.  Part of my specific job on SoCal Summer Project is to help with the finances at the PSW Briefings and Debriefings for all of the International Summer Projects.

  **Some context – Cru sends out multiple international summer projects from each region every summer, including Arizona’s region, “PSW.”  Before the students leave for their projects, they attend a “briefing” at Hope International University in Fullerton led by Cru staff.  The briefing helps prepare the students for their mission trip abroad, meet their team, and get all of their support in and organized before leaving the country.  My job is to help with processing the students’ support and working with each project’s personal finance person to make sure their budget is correct/complete before leaving the country.**  

In order for me to become familiar with the briefings, the staff, and my job, I spent about a week in California observing and being a part of the first “sending” of about 30 students to four different countries around the globe.  It was a pretty incredible event to be a part of.  The students came in from different campuses and states, many not knowing each other.  They met a team of students who they may or may not have met before and by the end of a few days it was already obvious that they were bonding with their mission team.  They learned about the importance of loving God and their team, specifics about sharing the Gospel in the region they were entering, and had some hands on experience sharing the gospel at Cal State Fullerton where a student accepted Jesus!  

On the first night, a few of the students shared their stories of how they came to being on their specific project.  One student shared that he had been accepted only 3 weeks before and had been right in the middle of finals!  In just a couple of weeks, he had managed to overcome opposition from his family, raise $6000 of support, and board a plane to briefing 10 minutes before the doors closed!  I love hearing stories about the incredible things that God can do, and I am even more excited to hear the stories when the students return!

At the end of the briefing, the students were “commissioned” and each team was individually prayed for as they prepared to enter into another country for about 6 weeks to share the Gospel.  I was caught up by how amazing it was to see God provide THOUSANDS of dollars to send students all over the world.  I loved the willingness of the students to leave their own comfort zone to follow God’s call to bring Jesus to people who don’t know anything about Him.   I was blessed to be part of the team sending the students, even if only a small part.  And I was reminded that without a team of staff willingly following God’s call to prepare and send the students, they probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to go.

I have been blessed with a few extra weeks at home before heading back for my official 8-week project, but I am really excited to return to California.  I’m sooo looking forward to the next briefing, where we will be sending 63 students to five more countries!  I love being a part of the great commission, and though my involvement may be different than other people, it feels just as important.  What a blessing it will be to continue to send students and working in the Cru regional office helping with finances for the region!  

As I prepare to return to California, I am still working towards completing my own financial support for the summer.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers for the rest of my summer, and if you are able, your financial support.  You can read more about my project and give online at the link below!

Join Hannah's Team of Ministry Partners!

High School Competition!

At the beginning of this year, I was offered the cool opportunity through Eller Ambassadors to be in charge of Eller’s Second Annual High School Business Analytics Competition.  I said “yes” enthusiastically because I really loved being involved in different FBLA and Acadec competitions in high school and I loved the idea of being part of hosting one!

Pretty much the entire spring semester I have been meeting weekly with my adviser to plan the competition – everything from ordering tablecloths to coordinating with schools to eventually having 44 students from 10-12 local schools show up to compete!  I’ll admit it was a lot of work, and towards the end I was getting a little tired of putting in all of the extra effort, but alas, we powered through.

The event was last Friday and pretty much every moment from when I arrived at 8AM to when I left around 1:30 was quite a success!  The students arrived and were given a short presentation on marketing a presented with a case requiring them to come up with an innovative way to brand the U of A and Eller to prospective students.  The students were split into groups of four that were mixed with class, gender, and school.  They were then given about 1.5 hours to prepare their case and a presentation/powerpoint and then had the opportunity to present in front of judges.  The event ended with a complementary lunch and award presentation by our Associate Dean.  For only the second time it was done, the competition went pretty well!

The school administrators were very pleased with how smoothly the details went and how organized the event was, the associate dean was quite pleased with the turnout, and the students had fun (or at least appreciated the shirts we gave them)!  Over all, I am really thankful for the opportunity I had to coordinate the event and work with the students and teachers.  Seeing the competition play out well is something I really love, and I hope they ask me to do it again next year!

On another note, these past few years have been the years of “Hannah getting weird, random ailments because her body either hates her or hates Tucson.”  I thought I was done after discovering my allergy to mosquitos.  I thought I was done after pneumonia.  I thought I was done after mostly ridding myself of a 5 month cough.  But alas, my eye has now contracted an “irritation” from the climate and my contacts that resulted in another trip to campus health, eye ointment antibiotics, being prohibited from class, sunlight, and basically all activities for a day, and the wearing of glasses for who knows how long.  On the bright side, we caught it before it go reallyyyy terrible. On the bright side, Mike was super sweet and stayed home to keep me company all day yesterday and my eye is definitely doing better today!  I don’t want to think about what my next weird thing will be…

Changing Perspectives

This semester, I have been learning and thinking a lot about the REASON that I do the things that I do.  And when I say learning and thinking, I really mean God has been pretty clear in showing me.  I’ve always been one of those people to get involved in tons of things.   I love the business, the participation, and sometimes the people.  But most of all, I now realize that I love the recognition.  I like to be noticed, I like the title on my resume, I like the list of things I’ve accomplished, I like the competition.  These things can be good, but if the root reason you are doing something is for the recognition, what’s the point?  I used to love everything about being involved and in charge, and lately I love less and less.  It’s not because the things I’m involved in aren’t rewarding or fun or academic.  It’s because there isn’t meaning behind it.

I guess this can be hard to understand or wrap your head around, but I’m beginning to realize that God doesn’t want me to be a leader so that I can say I’m an “Executive Board Member” or I was in charge of this or that.  He wants me to be one to make a difference in the lives of people, and most of the things I do don’t have that importance behind them. 

So I’m stepping back.  It’s hard for me to step back because I still want the participation and the title, but it’s refreshing to be free of some of the things I don’t actually get any joy from or give a whole lot of passion too.  I’m no longer going to be an RA or an E-Board member of Eller Ambassadors.  I’m not going to complete an Honors Thesis just because it sounds cool.  I’m going to start putting my time into things that matter, that yield life, that I hope are the places that God intends me to be.

But who knows?  He seems to change my ideas and perspectives every day.  How crazy to look back and see the difference.

Coughing

This semester, I am no good at staying healthy. I don't know if it's the busyness, the lack of sleep, or just my body hating me, but it just doesn't want to be well!  I am also no good at blogging, as is obvious and you have most likely noticed by my very lacking number of entries.

Back in September I had a terrible case of pneumonia and ever since I have been coughing. And coughing, and coughing and coughing.  I thought for a while it was just a residual cough and would go away, but alas it is 5 months later and it is still very present.  So this week I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor.

I found out that my chest is completely cleared up, but they think I have a post-inflammatory cough, or something like that.  So it seems that the only thing that will cure me happens to be two inhalers (one with steroids) and using a humidifier at night.  All of which I should use for a month.  And then maybe it will be gone?  If not, I have to go back again.

I am praying and hoping that it will pretty please finally go away.  I am sooooo very tired of coughing.

"I can't comprehend your infinte and perfect love..."

This was the first line in a song that I especially liked at Winter Conference.  It's so true.

This semester, God has taken my mind and my heart and emotions on quite a roller coaster.  I finished last year and began this one with full intentions of spending this coming summer studying abroad in Italy.  I've been pretty excited about going - traveling abroad for the first time and finishing my Religious Studies minor in Italy sounds pretty darn cool.  Not only would I be working on my academics, I would be having an amazing and diverse experience in a foreign country, something I never planned on being able to do.

A month or two into the semester, Cru began talking about Summer Projects at our weekly meetings.  We do this every year in order that the new Freshman can learn about the experience.  My Freshman year, I was swept up in the idea of going on a Summer Project - so I did, and had an incredibly summer.  However, I didn't plan on repeating the experience, as every summer for a business student is vitally important.  This year, when I heard all of the talk about Summer Projects, I got a little flutter of excitement in my chest, but nothing to actually convince me to consider going.

A few weeks later, sitting on my dorm room floor, I typed the Summer Project website into my computer.  I don't know why, I just did.  I won't bore you with the details of the researching and emails that followed, however it led to the slow changing of my heart to kind of just a little bit consider going on a Summer Project.

When I presented our Director's wife with a threefold decision for the summer with a choice between studying abroad, going on an international summer project, and going on an operations summer project (including pros and cons for each), I was becoming increasingly confused about what path I was actually supposed to take for this summer.  She helped me a little bit, but ultimately, the decision was/is of course up to me.

Over the remainder of the semester God continued to work in my heart and provided multiple divine circumstances that led to my knowledge of a brand new project in Irvine, California.  This project is unique in that it calls for students to use their unique technical abilities (graphic design, event planning, finance) to serve Cru in their regional office for the summer while also having some of the same components of other summer projects.  After getting the opportunity to email and eventually speak in person with the director of the project (Dan), I began to get excited about the project.

A few times I stopped and checked myself - I'm getting excited over the possibility of doing accounting in California instead of traveling in Europe??

But I was, and the fact that Italy was getting pushed further and further to the back of my mind was definite evidence of it.  By mid-November when I decided to officially apply for "SoCal Summer Project," Italy no longer even sounded like a pleasurable option.  I was almost certain that God wanted me to go to California, and pretty positive that's what I wanted too.

Of course, God threw me for another loop during my time at Winter Conference this year.  On the third day of the conference, I met for an hour with Holly, the woman project director (and Dan's wife) and after chatting for a bit, she officially accepted me to SoCal Summer Project and invited me to spend June 13 - August 9 in Irvine, California.

With a relieved and joyful sigh, I thought that my decision was made.  But God sometimes has even bigger plans than we dare to imagine.  On the last day of the conference (New Year's Eve), Dan asked to speak with me after our main session.  By the time we got to talk, it was 10:30 PM, and I was already missing some of the New Year's Eve party.  But at that moment, it didn't really matter.

Dan sat me down and offered me an incredible and incredibly challenging opportunity - the job of acting as the Finance Director the summer briefings and debriefings.  What does that mean?? I'm still not absolutely positive.

Cru sends out hundreds of students every summer to countries all over the world to share the Gospel.  Before leaving, each team of students meets in California to finish turning in (or raising) their support and receive training for their trip.  My position, would be to oversee the all the incoming and outgoing money for each of the projects.  I would get to watch support come in, and literally be part of the process of sending students all over the world.  What an incredible job!

However overwhelmed I was in that moment with Dan, I became even more so over the following next week as I thought through the decision and discussed it extensively with Mike and my director's here at UA.  The job will be difficult and stressful.  It's a lot of responsibility and would require me to report to California around May 20th and stay for the entire summer.  It would include additional support, commuting, and a very long and exhausting summer of work.  I would be participating in both position and the summer project.

This has probably been one of the most challenging decisions I've ever had to make.  Doing a complete 180 from studying in Italy for 5 weeks to spending 3 months in California doing accounting for Cru has been a really stressful process. I'm not taking this decision lightly, however I am thankful for it, as every new option offers an incredible opportunity presented by God.

After 5 months of discernment and praying, I've finally made my decision (unless God does more crazy things this semester).  I'm going to California.  I'm not going to Italy for 1 month, or on Summer Project for 2.  I'm going to spend 3 months serving God and Cru with the special and technical skills He has given me.  I made promise to do what God wanted me to do.  I'm certain that this is it.

Ending the Semester

My semester ended in a quick flurry of events!  Most of my classes ended before finals, but I had two pretty difficult accounting tests on the Tuesday and Thursday of finals week so I got to spend a lot of time studying.  Along with studying, I was busy checking my residents out of their rooms and cleaning and preparing myself for break.  Even without classes, the days flew by!  After my final on Thursday, my brain was so tired all I wanted to do was rest!  I found out with relief on Friday that somehow I had managed to end my first semester of Eller with straight A's!  Just barely, put percentages don't show on a transcript :P  It was definitely the hardest semester of my life, and I don't thing the Spring will be any easier...

With all of my residents completely gone for the holidays, I was allowed to move out of the dorms on Saturday.  Deciding to mix up my winter break a little bit this year, I chose to spend a few extra days in Tucson relaxing.  Saturday, Mike and I spent the day cooking, cleaning, and watching the UA football and basketball games.  It was lovely spending the day inside and warm listening to the rain outside.  Each day since moving has gone by quickly as well even though we've simply spent it shopping, relaxing, and trying out an array of new recipes.  So far, we've made some pretty tasty food!

I'm excited for the rest of break, planning on visiting Nicole in Flagstaff, spending some time in Kingman, and attending Winter Conference in San Diego!

Case Competition

The week after Thanksgiving, my entire Eller Cohort (like 400-500 students) participated in a Business Communications Case Competition.  We had spent the semester learning about different forms of business communication, and now we were placed on teams and presented with a case to tackle.  The case revolved around a luxury senior living facility (weird for college students) and we were tasked with finding a new way that they could use the internet to reach, interact with, and maintain potential new residents.  This was not especially easy, as the company was already using a wide array of social media to promote their communities.

My team quickly decided to focus on YouTube, and with a lot of convincing research to back up our decision, we came up with a very comprehensive plan involving videos with an overview of the communities, virtual tours of floor plans, and monthly updates including "Resident of the Month" videos.  The competition was structured with 15 different rooms of 5 teams with judges in each.  Rather than drag it on all day to reach a single winner (it already took 4 hours), there was a winning team in each room.

It was clear as my team watched the others in our room that our intense, drill sergeant teacher had definitely prepared our team for success.  We performed excellently (not that I'm being conceited...) and won the competition for our room!  A few of my friends won in other rooms as well and we celebrated by taking pictures with our new portfolios.