Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Update & Pictures!

Dear blog readers, I have a confession:

I'm not doing a very good job at keeping up with this blog. There is SO much that has happened this semester that I'd like to tell you all about... given the time (and motivation), I could probably write a book about all that I've experienced, learned, and seen God do since I began working with RUF at WCU. 

Since I don't plan on writing a book anytime soon, here are some pictures of some of the highlights of the semester. (They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?)

(Photo credit for a lot of these pictures goes to the one and only Morgan McCool!)

Tailgating!
Fall means football and football means tailgating!


WCU has had a less-than-impressive football season... but the band is awesome!
(And check out that view!)

Fall Conference!
In September, we joined the RUFs from Duke, NC State, Wofford, UNC Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest (about 300 students total!)  for a weekend retreat at Camp Greystone (in Tuxedo, NC). John Pearson (the RUF area coordinator for NC and VA) was the speaker for the weekend. He focused on the book of Hebrews and tackled the question, "What does it mean to live in light of God's promises?" Most of the students that came from WCU were new to RUF, and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to spend the weekend with them and get to know them. 

No RUF retreat is complete without a dance party!!

Not-A-Date Night
One of my favorite events of the semester (so far) was Not-A-Date Night at the end of September. The point of Not-A-Date Night was to give students the opportunity to meet and get to know one another, and to help newer students to get more plugged in. We had about 50 students sign up, and we divided them up into groups of about seven. The evening was split up into three stages:

Stage 1: Each group decided on a time and place and ate dinner together.
Stage 2: After dinner, the groups had to go shopping: everyone had to find and wrap a random object as a "gift". (Creative wrapping methods were encouraged!)
Stage 3: Once everyone had a "gift", the students all gathered at the Osbornes' house for desserts and a giant White Elephant gift exchange. 

Not-A-Date Night was a success! We had a good mix of new and "old" students, and it was overall a fun evening. Since it was a few days after my birthday, they surprised me with a cookie cake! We are hoping to do another Not-A-Date Night soon!

Pumpkin-Carving Party!
Last weekend, we had a pumpkin-carving party just for the girls. We had so much fun hanging out, carving pumpkins, and eating some delicious homemade twix bars and other fall goodies, courtesy of the Jenny Osborne. :)



Thank you all for your prayers! I know I say this all the time, but God is at work at Western! Sylva feels like home now, and I can honestly say that there is nowhere else I'd rather be living and nothing else I'd rather be doing right now. God is good!





P.S. I just sent out a new email newsletter! If you would like to get those,
click here to subscribe to my newsletter!