Nice dinner

Tonight I had dinner with two/three members of InterVarsity staff in the New England area, Greg and his wife who act as staff for 3(wow!) area colleges and one of Sara's students, new staff at Roger Williams, found she'd been attending the same church I had as well.

It was really great to hear some of their perspective on what it's been like to be in ministry in this area of the country, where we talked about the difference of a freshman bible study of 12 from a hall of 25 to 3 from a dorm of 300. Hmm. Again, hate to fall into regionalism or type-casting anything.

They talked about having to take time for themselves, some of the difficulties having to raise their own salaries and just in general having to learn general life boundaries--both with students and their neighbors. That's another thing, they have chosen to move into a more run-down section of providence. They joked, calling it the "hood junior." We talked about the adjustment process moving in there, making friends being difficult and getting only great responses from kids.

It was cool to see that they were normal people. That in so many ways they were people just like myself---cursing sometimes, joking about liquor stores, talking about God, the sacred and the profane intermingling into beautifully framed lives.

I think about going into ministry myself. Is this area of the country for me? Maybe, I feel myself fitting into the culture a lot here, well at least in some ways. I really enjoy this city and many of the people I have met. It is reassuring to see myself in them definitely. All the questions and fears I had heard about were manifest in their lives as well, maybe this was normal.

I'm struggling a lot this week with what I want to do in the future. I feel like somedays I could just arbitarily pick something and push forward towards it and have no problem, there's nothing really holding me back from anything (how blessed I am, what a luxury). But I know that isn't god's way. there's something i've got to learn in all of this.