New Staff Development

Every month of this year we spent one day in Berkeley with other Bay Area Campus Crusade staff learning, being trained, and hanging out for the day. The other 29-30 days of the month we are trying to live out the things we learn there, as well as to spend a bit of time reading the pre-selected articles and material. These New Staff Development (NSD) days were a real bright spot in my year. Daniel Curran is the staff person responsible for our training and our fearless leader every month. I have much respect for Daniel, and have learned a great deal from him this year. As I’ve been reflecting a bit on the year, I was reflecting on some of the things I learned from these days.

 

I can confidently say that every time I walked away from an NSD day, I have one application: Pray more.

It is so simple, and yet so hard. It was so striking to me that more than any strategy, tool, book, or skill, PRAYER is the heart of “good” ministry.

Here are a few of the other things that I stood out to me over our year of NSD:

- Pray. Really can’t emphasize enough the impression this made on me. I have been realizing that my job as a missionary is to give people the opportunity to know Jesus and have their lives changed by him, but I can’t actually do the changing. I can share the Word with them, invite students to Bible study, take them to serve the poor, and so on. But GOD has to do something in between my words/the event and their hearts to actually change anyone. Sometimes when I’m talking to a student, and I’m challenging them or sharing Scripture etc, I’ll actually say, “I’m going to say something, but in order for it to actually matter the Holy Spirit has to do something in the space between my lips and your ears.” That’s the truth. So, any event, conversation, Bible study, or relationship MUST be covered in prayer. I have not been great at this.

- “90% of ministry is just showing up.” I know what Daniel means when I says this. If coupled with, again, prayer; if we are led by the Spirit and available to people, God will work, despite or in spite of our plans, preparation, skill, or knowledge.

- Another Daniel-ism that has stuck with me is “Ministry by Sitting Around”. From our very first time together, Daniel shared with us his “strategy” of just being on campus, being available, sitting around- without a plan or agenda- and just seeing what God does. For example, at San Francisco State it’s really common to be sitting at a table in the student center and have someone ask if they can share your table with you. Now, if you weren’t sitting there, alone, without an agenda, you would never have come across this person. But, there they are- sitting across from you, eating lunch, and a conversation is the most natural response to said human sitting across from you. This is true with people who are doing surveys, passing out fliers, or protesting things on campus. There is so much activity going on, and if you are just “sitting around” campus, you are BOUND to talk with people. I haven’t always been great at this. Many times I fill up my schedule and make myself busy with appointments and meetings with students I already know because it’s a bit safer and more predictable. 

- Say hi to…everyone (okay, within reason). Ask about their lives. Ask if he can pray for them. Ask how else you can help.

- Weep with those who weep. Daniel is great at this. I started crying at our last NSD day (shocker) because I felt like I saw God working and humbling me, and was sharing with the group (that’s always where I really lose it). He cried with me. Just us two in a group of 10 others. I also remember a moment earlier in the year when we were hanging out on campus and we ran into a student Daniel disciples. He had just found out that they were cutting his sports team from the school- obviously really hard and emotional. Daniel cried.

- This one kind of goes along with the last, but the final thing I learned is to really LOVE the people you are ministering to. Daniel was teaching us one time about one of Bill Bright’s transferable concepts. At the end he showed us a few pictures he keeps in his Bible of people that he is trying to reach with the Good News. The pictures are there so that he will remember to pray for these people and that in seeing them his heart would connect more to them. As he showed us his pictures, he started weeping and sharing how much he loved these people and desired for them to know Christ. It was evident that his love was sincere. I am certain these people know the sincerity of his love, as well.

I still have so much to learn, but I’m really thankful for wiser and more seasoned people to learn from.

These are my reflections from NSD…not that you asked ;) 

i love these faces

As our year with students has wrapped up and we’ve transitioned off campus for now, it was fun for me to look back at this video today. One of our teammates created it partway through the second semester. I love all of these faces. Enjoy!

City Cru Students Speak from Leah St. Pierre on Vimeo.

Yay for May...

This fast-paced blogging world is TOO fast-paced right now. I mean, I think I'm getting ahead by blogging a whopping 6 times in April and then here I am in the middle of May with nothin’. Reality check, though: There are FAR more important things in life than the vain pursuit of you knowing about my life. But with that being said, I’d love to tell you about my life… hehe.

May is consistently one of my favorite months of the year. It’s just solid. From the beginning of wedding season to birthdays galore, to celebrating moms and graduates antsy for their diploma, it’s just gold. I love being born in March- I kind of have March pride, but I’m pretty sure you May people know that you got it goin’ on. Here is a pretty unexhaustive list of some highlights of May so far:

Staff Retreat: The retreat officially started in April, but since it ended on May 1, it gets May status. We trekked down to Oxnard for the 2-day Pacific Southwest Regional Retreat. It was a real blessing. I would describe it as: fun, refreshing, relaxing, encouraging, reflective, and necessary. I am lucky enough to have some really close friends also work for Campus Crusade, and thus, this retreat and others like it are the PERFECT excuse to chat for hours sans husbands (though we love them, re-living the girl power status of college days is so fun). On top of old friends, the new just add to the fun. We love our team here in San Francisco, and all around we work with such a high caliber of people that we respect, enjoy, and learn from. It’s seriously such a perk.

 

Birthdays! Though we’ve celebrated others from a distance (hey, birthday boy Mark St. Pierre!), we have gotten to part-ay with a few friends for their birthdays in person. Both Erin Cox and Eva Van Horn turned 24 this month and it’s always so fun to celebrate your peeps. Erin’s parent's house is quite possibly the coziest and most welcoming home you’ll ever enter and so any excuse to go hang out there is welcome. Add that to celebrating the birth of dear Erin and it makes for a great Saturday, May 7. We are so blessed to have close friends from college live in the Bay Area. We celebrated Eva on Monday and had a girl’s night of Indian food, cake, and gifts. Her adoring husband was MIA for the week, so we took care of the birthday girl in his absence. We are equally as blessed to have new friends to celebrate and spend time with.

 

SLO! En route to Oxnard, we got to stop and spend a night in the “promised land”…good ol’ San Luis Obispo. Now, while (most days) I don’t want to live in SLO anymore (kinda), I LOVE visiting. I got to visit with my dear friend Kellye and hear all about her life, which is so much of what my time is SLO was even about- chatting over coffee at the Nautical Bean! We visited Tammy at Upper Crust and just feel so loved that we still matter to her and that it is still a place that feels like home. We ate at Firestone and Pizza Solo and had Yogurt Creations. We got an Old West cinnamon roll in Pismo. (Don’t judge me for how much we ate.) It was lovely. Matt and I are going to be really annoying to our kids when we take them to visit someday…”We used to walk on that sidewalk!” and “I love that gas station!” I would love to re-live college. But I know I can’t and so I’m thankful that what I have instead is a whole lot of great memories, a great place to vacation that feels like home, and some quality friends that will last a lifetime.

The end of the school year. I’m not happy it’s over in the sense that I won’t miss our students or that I don’t like doing ministry. Moreso, it was just a great last two weeks of ministry, and an encouraging and full and emotional and celebratory ending to the year. More on this another time, but we have had so many moments of being overwhelmed as we are taking this time to look back on all the amazing things God had done, and his graciousness in allowing us a glimpse into it. We were so busy last week wrapping everything up with students, but it was so worth it. I cried a lot. But in a good way. In thanks and celebration.

And, great news, it’s only May 12^th!

(Disclaimer: Please don’t think my life is awesome, perfect, or better than yours, by the way. I don't think it is. I think that’s the worst thing about blog world. I want to share good and fun and exciting things in my life with you, but I fear you’ll think that I think my life is somehow better or cooler. I assure you it’s not, though I’m really thankful for a lot of things. Every once in awhile I need that reminder about other people’s lives, so hope that helps any who are like me!)