What Would I Do With 12 More Hours?

This is the question I woke up asking myself this morning. "Why is that Kale?" you might be wondering. Let me just tell you.

As you probably know, I've been asking for prayer for the past month (and for the entire time I've had this blog) for my fund-raising. It became especially pertinent lately as I was handed the opportunity to lead a Bible study for fraternity and sorority students at SLU, something that has never really been done before on my campus. God was opening up a door for this highly experimental but extremely exciting first step in Greek ministry. SLU's Campus Ministry Department was on board, even promising funding for the project. We had a core group of four students from four of the seventeen or so total Greek organizations on campus equally excited to move into this new mission field. Guess what was the only thing holding us back? Me.

If you remember from previous posts, InterVarsity staff are allowed to spend time on campus based on what percentage of their budgets they have fund-raised. 70% is the first marker to even stepping foot on campus and then a staff worker is allotted 16 hours per week to spend with students. The idea is that if a staff has limited time to be with students, they will feel more motivated to continue fund-raising and eventually hit 100%, which allows maximum time and financial resources to be used on campus. Trust me, it is a good system and it works. However, it is also frustrating when you feel stranded between boundary lines as I have for the past few months. In November, I hit 70% and began working on campus. Since then, I have slowly inched toward the next marker - 85% - where my time would increase to 28 hours per week to spend with students.

Flash forward to January when the Greek ministry idea begins to solidify. My supervisor and I quickly realized that in order to give my time faithfully to the Greek ministry and our other ministries on campus, I would need more hours. So we began to pray that God would allow me to hit 85% before mid-February when the InterVarsity Conference for Greek students was happening in Indianapolis - a conference that myself and two SLU students were scheduled to attend. If I didn't land at 85% by then, I would be unable to help with Greek ministry and we would have to postpone any activity until later in the semester, potentially losing whatever momentum and excitement the students have been feeling the past month. So we prayed and called and waited to see what God would do.

Flash forward again to this week. I was sitting at 82% and, though I was close, I wasn't quite there. I made some phone calls on Tuesday night but didn't get to talk to anyone. On Wednesday morning, I went and had breakfast with our men's group at SLU. Afterward, I went to the student center and opened up my laptop to check e-mail before I went to our daily prayer meeting. I saw that I had received an email from a SLU InterVarsity alumna that I had recently asked to pray about possibly supporting the ministry at SLU. In God's good timing, she was responding to that e-mail with the promised gift that would push me to 85%! I was blown away. Literally two days before we were scheduled to leave for the conference, God had provided through the generous heart of one of our own IV graduates.

So now, I sit with the question - What Would I Do With 12 More Hours? Or, more importantly, what incredible things could God do with that extra time that you have provided for me on campus? What students will I meet now that I have these hours? What doors will be opened during those extra couple days on campus? What will God do with the Greek ministry at this conference and after we return?

I can't wait to let you know.