ketchup anyone?

Have you weighed in on the debate of ‘ketchup on top of your fries’ versus ‘dipping fries in ketchup’? I am not a lover of the condiment ketchup, but an occasional dip of a french fry is certainly acceptable!

This past summer I heard someone use the term “ketchup” to refer to a time of ‘sitting and listening to each’. What a great revision to that word!

We need to ketchup here :) I’ve missed writing.

I started a graduate degree this past summer at Wheaton College in Illinois. Quickly, any writing I was doing was for an assignment and writing for fun blog posts became something longed for and nearly forgotten.

This afternoon, I sit between two modules in my classes. One paper finished and submitted, three more to come. And last night I happened into a conversation revolving around “embodiedness”, sexual sin, and the need to see ourselves as a whole unit where one part of us impacts all the others. It was like refreshing water washed over me. This conversation ignited a desire to forge out time to write, and here I am.

Since this is a time of ‘ketchup’, I’d love to fill you in on what I’ve been learning, some things I’ve been thinking about, and some plans for the coming year.

My class this past summer was entitled ‘Culture, Emerging and Global’. Completing this class while also serving full time at summer camp was a challenge. The concepts were easily applicable in the melting pot of: teen summer staff, college-aged summer staff, and adolescent poverty level campers of all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Each weekend I would read (and read and read…) my assigned books about culture, and each week I would get to sit with campers and staff and pray that I could see life through their eyes, respect their culture, and offer input for growing spiritually. My next post will be a little deeper into one weekly camp experience.

This Fall has been filled with a Research class and an Old Testament Survey class. I’ve felt many days like I was trying to take a sip from an exploding fire hydrant. As I worked to understand the various cultures that intersect as you read the Old Testament, I thought my summer professor, Dr. Hong, would be proud of my new thinking lens. 

Taking time to sit and listen, being able to see life through another’s eyes, and genuinely respecting the person across from me, are skills that the Lord has grown throughout my past decade. They are serving me well in this season. 

This year has been stretching as I’ve seen my work at camp change as our camp staff has grown, I’ve seen the end to some long-time relationships through divorce and through location changes, and I courageously walked into a college classroom after a thirty seven year absence! I also completed an online, Christian lay counseling program. I’m proud of finishing that and praying the Lord uses all of these things mashed together in me!

My eventual degree will be in Evangelism and Leadership: evangelism because I love sharing the simple message of how Jesus rescues us from our enslavement to sin; leadership because…I need to grow in seeing myself as a leader. Together hopefully they will be used to continue to love the people in front of me with conversation and beverages.

I hope in this coming year to dialogue about gender and identity. It’s been fun trying something new out at camp to encourage identity development in our campers, and combat some gender lies along the way. 

Hopefully we will also continue to look at how we can better love the people across the table or the room from us- regardless of whether or not we agree. 

And perhaps we will discuss some doctrine as my Spring class revolves around this topic!

I will be back soon- and as always- drop me a line, hit me up to hang out and chat.