Dahlonega, GA. Incorporated in 1833.

This month has been an eventful one for ISM, and that is putting the matter lightly. Even though that sounds foreboding, I am looking forward to some major changes that are coming our way as far as how the ministry will be run and what my role will be next year as an intern. I believe that God is moving in a big way and I pray that our leadership will have the confidence and discernment to follow His will for ISM.

In other news, ISM traveled to the fair city of Dahlonega, Georgia to tour one of the United State's earliest gold mines. I found the whole trip to be more interesting than I thought it would be, and I was surprised at how interested the international students were when it came to panning for gold and hearing about the life of gold miners in the early-to-late nineteenth century. The trip to and from Dahlonega is about 1-2 hours from Athens, so I had plenty of time to talk to students on the bus. It was very enjoyable because I knew many of the students from previous events, so our conversation was automatically deeper and more personal. I don't have any pictures of our trip yet, but I will try to post a few soon!

Meanwhile, ISM is gearing up for another Snack n Chat this Friday, and this one is fiesta-themed. My fellow interns and I had a lot of freedom in planning this time around, so we are definitely looking forward to it!

[Insert catchy title here]

Now for more details! Friday night was wonderful, and ISM was so blessed to have over 90 students attend our Valentine's Snack n Chat. It was great to see how many people turned out for the event and took part in the dancing that we had after the meal. Overall, the night was definitely a success! The picture at the top of this post is of some of our very full dinner tables. The one on the bottom shows a few of our girls dancing a new hip hop dance we were taught that night.




Although I am grateful for the numbers, I hope that this will not be the only time I see many of the new students I saw on Friday night. It's true that some international students that come to ISM events will only attend our activities once, but I would like to see more students come to multiple events or even come to our Sunday small group that ISM hosts for believers and seekers. As a ministry, we are reassessing what God's will is for this ministry. As an individual, I am trying to assess what God has for me in ISM. I enjoy interacting with international students, and I love the fact that many have begun to recognize me as a leader and constant presence at ISM events. I want to stay with ISM, but I can only imagine who will be joining me as an ISM intern next year. Irregardless, I am excited to see what God does!

China-wise, I am pleased to announce that my portion of the trip is paid in full. Thank you so much for all your prayers and provision! Even though May is a long way away, the trip is starting to become more of a reality for me. I could not ask for a better group with which to go, and I am glad that we have the time to meet and get to know each other well in advance of our departure.

I'll just leave you with a picture of Kunming. It is supposed to be 70-80 degrees the whole trip long.



Oh yes.

Just a quick update...

Last night was ISM's February event, our Valentine's themed Snack n Chat. It turned out to be the most widely attended event that ISM has ever hosted! We dined on spaghetti and meatballs, and my roommate Sammy taught everyone a new line dance for our evening's entertainment. Everyone I talked to really enjoyed themselves, and I am very excited to see more students coming in, though of course numbers are not the object of our ministry. Nevertheless, they are encouraging. More to come!

"Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world."

I chose this quote by Napoleon not only because I was enamored by the historical aspect of it, but also because I believe that this is an accurate description of how the Gospel has the potential to move through the Chinese people as a nation. The fact that we are leaving for China in May has only heightened my interest in the work I am doing at Wesley with our international students. Whenever I tell my friends that I am about to visit their home country, I see an eager desire in them to share their culture with me in a new way. They tell me all the places that I should go, what I should bring back (tea), and what I should be sure to eat while I'm there. Their anticipation of my experience is so exciting, and I absolutely cannot wait until I'm on the plane headed to Beijing!

In the meantime, our group is reading The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun. I have wanted to read his autobiography for some time, so I am glad that I will finally have the discipline to do so. I hope that it will be a chance for us to understand more of what is going on in China's house churches and the heart that God has specifically for China. From the experience that I have had with my Chinese friends, I know that Chinese culture is warm, welcoming, and very community-oriented. It is obvious how God is already at work in Chinese culture, and I am so glad that I get to witness it.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

One of the first things that crossed my mind as I watched the "easy wind and downy flake" fall on Sunday evening was how glad I was that I did not have "miles to go before I sleep." I have slept a lot actually, more than I probably should over these past three days during which I enjoyed all the benefits of playing hooky from work without the consequences. As we gear up for another semester, Wesley is setting aside a 21-day period for fasting and consecration, two concepts that would normally make me fantasize about February with an unnatural fervor. However, as the snow and the beginning of this fast coincided, the time off enabled me to really examine the ways in which I approach discipline when it comes to the Lord.

I have heard many divergent views on the subject of self-control, spanning from a deep-founded belief that as believers are children of God, their natures will consequently become God-like, to the idea that "self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us" (Tozer). Self, and the things of the flesh in Tozer's view, keep us from experiencing God in the manner in which we were made. I find myself naturally gravitating towards Tozer, who reinforces Paul's message in his letter to Corinth: "But I discipline my body and keep it under control , lest after preaching to others I should find myself disqualified" (1 Corin 9:27).

Self-control and moving beyond self is essentially what this corporate staff prayer time is for - to acknowledge the "opaque veil" that stands before ourselves and God and to discover that the obstruction is not all His glory and Holiness, though we can never fully know His depth. Instead, it is mostly comprised of our fears and of our distracted minds. I acknowledge how distracted I become throughout a semester, and I am glad for an opportunity to set apart a more regimented time for the Lord, for myself, the girls I disciple, and the students I work with through ISM.

This is a song that I have been listening to quite a lot recently. It is not "officially" a Christian song, but it does the trick.

Roll Away Your Stone (Mumford and Sons)

Roll away your stone, I’ll roll away mine

Together we can see what we can find

Don’t leave me alone at this time,
For I am afraid of what I will discover inside

You told me that I would find a home,
Within the fragile substance of my soul

And I have filled this void with things unreal,
And all the while my character it steals

The darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I seek

It seems as if all my bridges have been burned,
You say that’s exactly how this grace thing works

It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive at the restart

The darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I seek
The darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I seek
The darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I seek

Stars hide your fires,
And these here are my desires

And I will give them up to you this time around
And so, I’ll be found with my stake stuck in this ground

Marking its territory of this newly impassioned soul
But you, you’ve come too far this time

You have neither reason nor rhyme
With which to take this soul that is so rightfully mine

...and that's all I have. Sorry for the absence of pictures this time around!

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things."

So... it has been awhile since I updated this much-neglected blog, and I do apologize to my four followers for not writing something sooner. ISM has certainly kept me busy beyond my expectations, but I now honestly believe that God put me in this specific ministry for a reason. This month we had a "Halloween" - although for PC purposes, "fall celebration" - themed Snack n Chat, and had many international students participate by dressing in costume:

We also carved pumpkins, which proved to be a more difficult and frightening task than Amelia, Tyler, and I had planned. We "borrowed" some knives from Wesley's kitchen and ended up short, which caused one group of students to attempt using a large, Psycho-esque kind of

knife to cut out the small eyes of their pumpkin. Seriously. This knife radiated danger.

In the end, everyone got through the activity with all of their fingers and without cutting themselves: success!

Here's one of my favorite pictures, mostly because of the Pharaoh headdress:

This Snack n Chat was also the largest in the history of ISM! We had 85 people there all together, with several students from countries never before represented at our events (like Kazakhstan!).

This month we also took students on our North Georgia Trip, which consisted of time in Helen, a climb up Anaruby Falls, and a labyrinthine escapade through a corn maze. It is one of our best trips, but it is also one of our longest. Once again, I drove the Wesley van and acquired many new mountain driving skills. It was only mildly frightening. Many kudos for Courtney for acting as my navigator, aka. the one who notices when we've lost our caravan.

Here's an awesome picture of some of the funniest (and nicest) men of ISM:

They were hilarious - mostly because they thought Helen was beautiful and a lot like Europe. No disrespect to the fine Bayernische Stadt, but the streets were crowded for Oktoberfest and the sweets shoppes were barely open. Needless to say, many pictures were taken.

From Helen, we moved on to Anaruby Falls and a Subway lunch before stopping at the North GA Corn Maze for some good old-fashioned vandalism. I didn't see anyone break the path, but I think that a lot of us used openings that were not part of the maze. At least we brought in good business!

We also took a hay ride, and my group got to be in a tv advertisement for the corn maze. That may come back to haunt me one day...

Speaking of haunting, this guy followed us around the whole time:

Whatever this guy was doing, he brought up the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and that story was enough for the students around me to start taking copious amounts of pictures of his high-collared form. I took this one though.

All-in-all, we have definitely kept on our toes, and November should prove no exception. Our director at AFUMC has gone on a two-to-three week trip to the Holy Land, so the other ISM interns and I will be on our own come ISM's largest event of the year: the Thanksgiving Dinner. It is a little intimidating, but I think that between the three of us we have it set.

On a side note, I have been blown away by how the Lord has provided for me this month! I seriously thought about taking a job in order to balance my finances, but was relieved to know that the job was no longer a necessity to pay bills. I am definitely not forgoing the opportunity for employment, but it is nice to know that God notices when we need a little more than the amount currently in our bank accounts. I cannot describe how grateful I am that the Lord cares enough to think of me in this way, and I am confident that the next few months will go on without any worries about finances!

Huzzah!

Jessica

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! For all the David Bowie fans out there...

(UGA Wesley's 2010-2011 Staff!)

As this is my first post, and as I am not sure who will be reading it, with the exception of my sole follower and friend Courtney, I suppose that a summarization of the last few months of my life is in order. I started my internship with the Wesley Foundation at UGA in August, and I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would. In hindsight, I can definitely see the ways in which God led me to this place, especially as until eight months ago, I had no intentions of interning or staying in Athens. I continue to be blessed by the spiritual

and financial support that many families and individuals have shown me this year, and I look forward to seeing how God will provide for me this year as I prepare to lead a mission trip to China in May.

So far, Wesley's International Student Ministry (ISM) is running more smoothly than my fellow interns and I expected. We have a group of dedicated and passionate student leaders and have gotten to know many wonderful international students, many of whom hail from China. This week is going to be very busy for ISM, as we have our monthly Snack n Chat event this Thursday. The theme is Halloween/ Fall, so we as a ministry look forward to getting to know more students as we dress up for Halloween and carve Jack-o-lanterns. ISM also has a program called Friendship Partners through which we pair American students with international students of the same gender to meet and share with one another. I currently have two partners: one from China and one from the U.K. God has done some really incredible things through these friendships so far, and we can't wait to see what He has in store for the rest of the year!

(Our leaders, interns, and Lynn, our partner at Athens First United Methodist)

(One of our leaders and a few international students on our trip to Stone Mountain. We were caught in a downpour as soon as we made it to the top of the mountain, but everyone had fun anyways!)

For anyone who wonders what my day-to-day schedule looks like, here's a quick rundown:

Monday: Our staff gets to work around 8am for staff meeting, chores, and ministry area meetings. I also "mentor" (or disciple) three girls that day. These girls are underclassmen and on leadership in different ministries across Wesley.

Tuesday: Our staff arrives at 7:30 for morning prayer, one of my favorite times of the week. This lasts until around 9am, and is a great time to connect with the Lord as a body. Needless to say, Tuesdays are some of my best days at Wesley!

Wednesday: We come to work at 9am, and pray as a staff for our Wednesday Night Worship Service. After that, my fellow first-year interns and I share a time of teaching and prayer before I disciple another one of my girls. We leave early on Wednesdays in order to prepare for the worship service, which officially begins at 8pm. We meet in the Tate II building on campus, a facility that Wesley is continually blessed to use, as we have outgrown our own building. This location also places us on one of the main centers of campus.

Thursday: The staff comes in at 10am, as some staff members have to tear down and bring back all our equipment from Tate after our service ends. We have a staff meeting/ teaching, and then I disciple one more girl in the afternoon. Besides that, Thursdays usually serve as ISM's preparation time for our Snack n Chats, which are always on Thursdays. We prepare the food for the event, decorate, and make sure that all loose ends are tied up before leaving for our event hall in Athens First United Methodist Church of Athens, our partner in ministry.

There you have it - my typical week! Now on to one more topic - what I believe the Lord has shown me recently. I have the great honor of being able to discuss important topics with each of my girls, and one idea that has been pressing on my mind as of late has led me to Ephesians. In this epistle to Ephesus, Paul writes that as God's people:

"We were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory." (Eph 1:11-13)

Paul also writes that we were chosen, "before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves." (Eph 1:4-6)

Needless to say, this concept is pretty incredible. Not only does God love us enough to save us from our past sin, present sin, and future sin, He loves us enough to make us brothers with Christ. Christ, the perfect one, who died for us without our asking and apart from our human desires, raised us to the position of inclusion in the family of God.

I'll try not to be Francis Chan here, but just let that simmer for a second. I find that this is probably one of the easiest things for people who have grown up in the church to hear, but one of the hardest to really truly accept. I absolutely include myself in that statement. One of the great ways in which God has led me into a deeper understanding of Him is through His word and in spite of my own interpretation of it. He has opened my eyes, lifted the veil if you will, on so many passages which I have read before, but never understood.

On that thought-provoking note, I think I will draw this to conclusion. Until next time!