Life in RUF
at William and Mary
Dear Friends
This week is one of the busiest of the year. This past Tuesday was our first Large Group, and we had a great turn out, freshmen and transfers were all talking and munching on cookies. Ben is teaching on the Minor Prophets and gave a reflective talk on Hosea.
But a lot happens before that night. The week before we had the Activities fair, where students pile through the gymnasium and sign up for as many organizations as their pens can handle. Lucky for us we use an electronic sign-up sheet. We met many students using our best small talk conversation pieces (“where are you from?” and “have you enjoyed orientation?”). I do not excel at small talk seventy times in a row so my favorite part was when a student politely inquired what RUF’s stance on Scripture was. We had sixty people sign up for RUF that night.
We also had a Pizza Party on a field near the dorms. We had freshmen and upperclassmen join us to play volleyball and listen to music and wipe the grease off our hands in the most discreet way possible. I was amazed and encouraged to see our RUF students welcome and engage with new students, I hardly felt necessary! Which is, after all, the goal.
These are only a few of the activities of the first week. I want to thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support. Being back on campus is exciting and exhausting. I have already begun reconnecting with students, and it is at this point where I see God at work and not myself. I had one student, a good friend, tell me she had fallen into disbelief over the summer after our strides made last year. This hit me harder than I thought. It is easy for me to feel like one of my most encouraging encounters with a student had all been for not. But I am not the one orchestrating the spiritual life on this campus, and I am reminded to trust that God will reach the students, whether or not I see it.
Please be in prayer for the students, for new students trying to get connected and feel at home and the old students to continue in their search for God.
You are all an encouragement to me and I am so grateful for our conversations this summer.
Jennie