Monday, December 14, 2015

It's the Final Countdown!

Hopefully I don't get sued for using that as a title. Oh well.

Well it's finals week here at Penn State! Our students are studying hard (hopefully) and not stressing out too much (I say while I head at least four banging their heads against a table while another cries in a corner).

This past week luckily hasn't been too bad, and this coming week is looking fairly light as well!

Over the past week I've really just tried to be available for our students, and been preparing for next semester. Building on what I've been talking about with next semester, I actually have some idea's about different things we can be doing!

For different studies I'm thinking about doing 3 extra ones on top of our weekly meeting. I want to go through a book of the Bible just for a time for people to get together and get in the Word. Another is a men's Bible study, Bearded Bosses of the Bible which will be awesome. I also think it would be highly beneficial to do a Christianity 101 type study to teach what Christianity is, who we are, and get into the deeper ideas of Christianity like salvation, Christology, apologetics, exegesis, theology proper, etc.

Some of the other events that I have rolling around in my head right now just for things to do include, but are not limited to:

  • Basketball Tournament
  • Dodgeball Tournament
  • Video game Tournament
  • Ice cream
  • Pancakes
  • Petting zoo
  • Inflatables
  • Campus wide capture the flag
  • Obstacle courses
  • And who knows what else!
Again the purpose of all this is to give students on campus things to do, but also to get CSF's name out there as something different and unique on campus!

Planning is also underway for our Spring Break trip. We're looking at heading to South Carolina, but who knows if that will work out or not. It's still early! 

This coming week we're looking to do a Christmas party for CSF with a white elephant gift exchange and food just to give the students some time away from studying and for us to have some fun!

But really that's all we got going on here. I'll probably be on campus for the most part this week providing support for students during this trying time in their lives. 

Monday, December 7, 2015

Looking forward!

Another week down and another picking up!

Luckily the past week hasn't been horribly busy! Meaning I could sleep a lot and try to fight of this cold which doesn't want to leave.

This past week has been looking forward a lot to the next semester. Our semester is winding down, with finals being next week, so our students are doing a lot of studying and finishing up projects and trying not to go insane, which I completely remember from my undergrad days, watching everyone else scramble to get ready for finals while I...just didn't. But I still did well on my finals at least!

This past week I finally was able to finish my class, which seemed to take forever, but I pushed through and got it done!

As I said, we're already looking forward to next semester with this one coming to a close. Some of the plans that we have for the spring are actually pretty exciting.

As stated in previous posts I've been meeting with different offices and administrators trying to figure out the needs for campus and how CSF can incorporate filling those needs in our foundation. One big thing that we're looking to do is have something on the weekends for students to do as an alternative to go out and party. Already I have a few idea's in mind, but I'm also tasking our students to get some figured out as well seeing as how it would be them who would be served through this endeavor.

We're also looking at doing some type of seminar or workshop or something to inform students on the resources provided by campus to help them through their college experience, be that a need for counselling, tutoring, or any other kind of support that campus offers. One of the big problems is that the students get stressed, and either don't know about the resources campus provides or are too proud to go seek help, so we want to offer the information for the resources and also let them know that seeking out help is nothing to be ashamed of.

We're also looking at starting more Bible studies throughout the semester, one of which I'm working on now which I'm calling Bearded Bosses of the Bible. Awesome name I know. But it's going to be a men's Bible study looking at male figures in the Bible that probably had awesome beards, and we're going to look at their life and their story, then spend time looking at what God condoned and condemned about them and what that means for us today. Already I've started working on it, and I think it'll turn out really good for our guys!

I also want to get a few more started, maybe going through a specific book, or looking at different topics, or a specific topic. But that requires some work with our students to find out what they want seeing as how I'm here to minister to, or serve, them.

This semester we're looking at doing one more event, which would be a Christmas party for our students. We're just waiting for it to be approved. But we're looking for our last Tuesday together to just be a night of fun and fellowship, having food, games, and a white elephant gift exchange.

We're also doing our Wednesday night Bible study at the church which I continually forget to write about, but it's going well. At the very beginning the attendees decided to go through the book of Revelation, of course. Last week we went through Chapter 14 which had some good topics and discussion between the guy that came and me. The big problem with Revelation though is that it is incredibly symbolic and imagery driven, so getting through that can be difficult. Hopefully the next one will be easier!

But overall that's what's going on in Altoona, just looking forward to next semester and getting things kicked off! Thank you for your prayer and support and as always feel free to get a hold of me!