Five Weeks In

Quote of the Day #1: “Is this where Satan eats?” — Chris Gatlyn, USF Navigators staff who can’t stand it when the different foods on his plate touch, describing a Vietnamese restaurant whose specialty involves mixing a variety of different foods

Quote of the Day #2: “Walk back over there.” — April Flores, USF EDGE Corps staff, to Dave Wirgau as he was pacing; he had an idea on one side of the room but forgot it on the other side

So I’ve been working this Navigators gig on campus for five weeks now and I have to say that it’s been a veritable roller coaster ride. You have to understand that the first month of school is always going to be the craziest, both for the students and for any organization on campus. You’re constantly meeting new people, your schedule is a complete mess, and you just hope to God that eventually things will begin to slow down and become a little more normal. I don’t want to jinx it, but I think we are about to reach that state of normalcy here in Tallahassee. But before I forget everything that’s happened up to this point let me tell you a little about what’s been going on around here.

About half of my time is spent getting to know new students. Most of them are freshmen, but some are transfers or are folks that are just new to me. Usually this means being on campus, either in the dorms where they live or in the cafeteria where the unfortunate ones have to eat. (Okay, the food isn’t that bad, but it is pretty expensive considering what you get.) That can also mean bringing them over to my house for a cookout or dinner. Each home football game my roommates and I plan to have a cookout for anyone who wants to come (our second one of these will be this coming Saturday for the NC State game). We also like to take folks off campus and have fun elsewhere. Over Labor Day weekend a big group of us went tubing down a lazy river. There have been a couple of weekends where a group of men have gone to play paintball together.

Now you might be wondering why I’m spending so much of my time socializing and, well, “goofing off” when you thought I was a campus minister and that I’d be leading a Bible study or something. Well, the idea here is that not everyone feels all that comfortable with, “Hi, I’m Andrew. What are your thoughts on Jesus and spiritual things?” Most folks have to warm up to that kind of thing. And besides, I don’t want to just be a teacher to these students. I want them to know about all of me so they feel that they can be just as open to me. I want them to trust me. In my experience that takes more than just being the answer man.

When I’m not spending time with new students I’m with the two seniors that I’m mentoring. My big goal with them this year is to prepare these guys to be Christians outside of college. That was something I really struggled with my first year after graduating. One of these men is a guy named Aaron, who I’ve been friends with (and mentored in some capacity) since he was a freshmen. We lived together in Kellum Hall back when I was a senior two years ago. This year our primary one-on-one interaction is on Thursday mornings, bright and early at 6:30 AM. We head over to a coffee shop or someplace on campus and read the Bible together. The other man is a fellow named Zack. Or James. Or Jack. He has a lot of names. I tend to call him Zack. I met Zack when I was a senior but didn’t really get to know him until last year. It wasn’t until this fall that I started to intentionally meet with him one-on-one. As such I’m still trying to get to know him better so I can get a feel for what we should be doing together. It’s my hope that, starting soon, we’ll be taking these things I’m teaching them “out of the classroom” and out into the real world. Stay tuned.

I only have one complaint about this job so far. I always feel like I’m working or that I should be working. Six days a week are packed with things to do, even Saturdays and Sundays. The work is at odd hours in the day, ranging from as early as 6:30 AM to as late as 11:30 PM or so. What’s worse is when I’m at home and not with students I feel like I’m not doing enough and that I should be on campus. I have one day off from both of my jobs: Monday. And let me tell you, I try to do as little as possible that day. Even though I’m technically working 20 hours each week with the Navigators I doubt it’s ever been that few. It’s just not that kind of job. I wish I could find a way to be at peace with the amount that I’m working and not feel like I need to do more all the time.

Last week was a change of pace. Monday through Wednesday I was at the Florida Navigators regional staff meeting. (Yes, I had to work on my day off.) All the staff from FSU, University of Florida and University of South Florida, as well as staff from the military and b2g ministries, met up in Gainesville. We talked through what had been working so far this fall and made plans for the rest of the school year. We even began to plan for this coming summer. I enjoyed getting to spend more time with the staff from other campuses. The very first thing we did was share with each other the three strongest feelings we were having so far this year. It was interesting to see how many people were feeling both overwhelmed and hopeful. It was comforting to know that I’m not the only one.

This coming week will also be a change of pace, but only for me. Today I’m headed to Orlando for the first of two annual meetings for my state job with all the volunteers we have working for us statewide. This Thursday I’ll be teaching a seminar on the database I work on. Oh yeah, exciting stuff. I really do enjoy teaching though, so it’ll be fun to get to do that even if the subject matter is a bit dry. I’ll be back in Tallahassee sometime this Friday. It’s sad to be away from students so much, but agreeing to go to this meeting was my leverage for letting me go to the regional staff meeting.

I’m going to try to blog more consistently from now on, though some of the posts will probably be about non-ministry stuff and non-life events. I’ve been itching to write about my thoughts regarding the new iPods. I should probably also tell you about some of the music that’s been tickling my ears lately, not to mention the TV show I’ve become obsessed with. With me being out of town this week (and since I don’t own a laptop) I probably won’t be able to make good on this desire until next week. Just know that I am still very interested in blogging and that it’s just been a time thing that’s kept me from being more consistent.

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