Life in RUF
at William and Mary
Dear Friends
Christmas is here, and we are in the last week of classes! Students are busy with final projects and presentations. We are having our last large group tonight where we will be singing carols and listening to passages of Scripture. This week we are wrapping up small group and Bible studies. In the picture bellow, I am sitting with two other Bible study leaders. With the girl on the far left I help lead the Upperclassmen girls' study, and with the girl in the middle I help lead the freshmen Bible study. This week the freshmen bible study is going ice skating at the winter ice skating rink installed in Colonial Williamsburg! In the Upperclassmen study, we will be finishing up Philippians.
This past November I have been over joyed to see new students join us in Bible studies or for movie nights. And most excitingly, they have been friends of friends. One goal for RUF is to be a place where students feel they can come and listen and share and think critically without feeling they have to identify as believing a specific thing (whether that be in God, peace, hope, heaven, hell, sin, whatever). This is best accomplished with a diversity of students coming and being a part of RUF. When students who are invested in RUF start bringing their friends (who are scattered on a spectrum of worldview) I can see change really happening. Students solidify what they believe, and students care enough about their friends to involve them in conversations about what life is. I've seen a number of students come to more movie nights and get to know regulars in RUF. And that's exciting community!
Thank you for making this possible with your prayers and donations. I still need funds to cover the year, and in donating now you can still get some tax deductible donations in before the end of the year. If you'd like to submit a Christmas donation, you can do so at https://givetoruf.org/ProductLanding/884
I'm planning to travel to San Antonio over the winter break, and I would love to meet up with those who are in San Antonio (I'd love to meet with those who aren't, too. But I am bound by space and time). Please be praying for me as I decide what to do after the internship. I'm considering staying with RUF at William and Mary for another year, but I need to decide soon. Please join me in praying for this decision. I love working here with students, but I want to make the right decision.
Merry Christmas!
Jennie
What is the RUF internship?
What do interns do?
We spend our months, weeks, days with college students. We conform our lives to match the college schedule. We become a regular at the campus coffee shop, movie nights, and concerts so that we share life with the students, not just a random meeting in a week where we clobber them with questions. And we listen. We listen to their weekends, we listen to their problems, we listen to their concerns and doubts, we listen to their exam schedule. We want to hear from them and offer to pray for them and with them. We are friends who will ask the hard questions.
What does this mean for an intern?
The greatest thing I have been learning in this internship is that while I am a friend to these students, they are also my friends. My life is being an honorary student, and through that I can love my friends better. Even after this internship, I will be doing everything I am doing here at William and Mary. I just might be in a different place, with slightly different people, but I am always called to listen and love and share.
Why support an intern?
We spend two years on a campus looking for ways to love college students while they are away from home making a new life at college. It's basically a long term mission trip, and these students go on to take what they've learned in these years to their places of work.
Our whole budget is given from people like you.
Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. If you want to donate, you can go to https://givetoruf.org/ProductLanding/884.