The Average Week

Hello faithful blog reader. It's a sunny and beautiful day here in midtown Saint Louis and I pray that the day finds you well and reminded of the gracious love of our God. On this blog, I generally like to go into detail about major happenings in the SLU InterVarsity chapter and in my life in general as I serve as the staff of said chapter. I realize that though not everyone will enjoy the minutia of life as an InterVarsity staff, there are some unique aspects to the missionary life that may at least be interesting enough to hold your attention for a few moments as you sweep through your e-mail inbox. I know this because every once in a while, someone will look at me very curiously when I attempt to answer the question, "So what do you do for a living?" My answer usually elicits two responses:

1. Wow. You fund-raise for a living? What is that like?
2. So what do you actually do during the week? I mean, what does the average week look like for you?

Now, that first question is actually not difficult to answer. The answer is this: I used to hate fund-raising. It's really hard. Really hard. But now I love it. I love it because I love stories. I love telling my story, the stories of my students, the stories of how good God has been to us. I love hearing stories too. I love hearing people say, "Wow, I wish we would have had something like that when I was in college. Here's how I came to know Jesus..." I love praying with and for people and knowing that they pray for me. Honestly, I don't think this job would be as interesting to me if there was just a salary check that came in for me every month from some nebulous fund set up in some office somewhere. The fact that every dollar my students and I spend has a face and a name and jobs and history and struggle attached to it changes everything about how we spend it and how grateful we are that you love us enough to invest in us.

The second question, however, can be challenging. It's been posed to me several times in the past month and every time someone asks, I find myself pausing and asking it back to myself ("Wow, what do I do every week?"). Now part of my hesitation is that every week is a little bit different; the same elements may be present in each week but they are rarely arranged in the same order from week to week. I have to confess, however, that part of my hesitation also comes from some fear and brokenness in me that makes me think if I don't impress the questioner with my answer, they won't think I am a worthwhile investment. There's a part of me that genuinely believes that people won't love me if I don't seem like I will offer a good return on their love. The Fall has shaded my eyes and my heart to see love as a currency that is offered to me only when I deserve it. I pray against this but still it pops up from time to time.

So, in part as an act of transparency and in part as an effort to seek some sort of freedom from that fear, I want to give you an example of what the average week looks like for me as the InterVarsity staff worker at SLU. A few notes before I start:

1. Four days per week I don't work before noon. Those days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. There are two reasons for this: (1) I am prone to workaholic tendencies. Given the option, I would rather work all day every day until I just pass out from exhaustion. Wisdom has been given to me to see that this is not very wise. Starting at noon guarantees that I don't develop those unattractive gray circles under my eyes. (2) I am young and single. This eliminates the need to be home at a certain hour every night and gives me the freedom to operate on a college student's schedule, which usually means later evenings as opposed to earlier mornings. It also gives me time to spend with Jesus and at the gym those four days.
2. I have one general overriding rule for myself as far as time and work goes. That rule is this: Work 50-60 hours in six days. InterVarsity highly encourages staff to take a Sabbath day every week in which NO work is done for 24 hours. You may have a number of reactions to that rule but trust me when I tell you that it has become my sanity. It does two things for me: (1) It forces me to work efficiently and plan ahead so that everything gets done in six days and (2) it forces me to take time to rest and spend a longer block of time with Jesus that day than I normally would on an average morning. I highly recommend it.

With that in mind, here is my average work week:

Monday - The Edge Day
12pm - Lead prayer with students
1pm - Lunch with students and anyone we meet along the way
2-6pm - Finish any last minute logistics, printing, etc. before The Edge
6pm - Arrive with Core Team to the Edge site and prepare together
7-9pm - The Edge (our weekly large group gathering)
9-10pm - Debrief with Core Team

Tuesday - Fundraising Day
12pm - Pray with students
1pm - Lunch with students and anyone we meet along the way
2-6pm - Fund-raising Administrative Work (letters, this blog, budget stuff)
7-9pm - Phone Calls (calling to invite folks to support InterVarsity at SLU)

Wednesday - My Early Morning :)
6:30am - Meet with my Core Men to Pray
7-8am - Man Breakfast (social event to meet and pray with the men of InterVarsity)
8-9am - Spend time with Jesus
9am-12pm - Work on any planning or prep work for the week's events
12pm - Pray with students
1pm - Lunch with students and anyone we meet along the way
2-6pm - Mission Window (left intentionally open to hang out with Jesus on campus and see what happens)
6:30-8:30pm - Church Small Group
9pm - Lead a Bible study for Fraternity / Sorority students

Thursday - Spying Out the Land
12pm - Pray with students
1pm - Lunch with students and anyone we meet along the way
2-6pm - Mission Window / Staff Meetings (1-2x per month)
6-9pm - Take students to attend other events/groups on campus to meet people and build relationships with the greater SLU community

Friday - SABBATH :)
I usually spend this day at the park, the Basilica, or some other equally quiet and beautiful place just hanging out with Jesus in Scripture and prayer. No plans, no schedules, no cell phone, no laptop. It is glorious.

Saturday - Service and Social Day
Depending on the Saturday, we are either working with a local church to serve the refugee population near SLU, cooking breakfast for freshmen, exploring the different neighborhoods in the city, or hanging out on campus in somebody's apartment. Saturday events are usually great ways to meet and hang out with people on the fringes of the IV community. My Core Team also meets two Saturday mornings each month to be in intentional community together around the Scriptures and to be trained in mission and leadership.

Sunday - Church Day!
8:30am - Take students to church with me
9-11am - Church
1-5pm - Prepare Scripture study for the Edge; Work on any planning or prep work for the week's events
5-7pm - Meetings with students in preparation for the Edge
7-8pm - Put together schedule to prepare for the week

That pretty much wraps it up. If you have any other curiosities about staff life or about how things are going this year, feel free to comment on this post and maybe that will be the next thing I write about! Exciting :)