hum.

I know, I said that I would write more about the Aletheia REFLECT conference... and I will... sometime. But not right now :)

Anyway, this past weekend was great.  I got to meet a lot of awesome people that go to Aletheia through various events and just at church.  Most of them happened to be guys.  While I talked to each of them, naturally the question of "what's your major?" came up every time.  Everyone without fail asked me what I wanted to do with my major.  I. Don't. Know.  haha. I normally can tell people that I just don't want to teach, and they let it go at that.  Not people at Aletheia! They always ask 5,000 questions about things, which is pretty great.  (I actually really love that about people.)  It just makes it hard when you don't know what you want to do with your life.  So I told a bunch of people that I pretty much just wanted to be a mom.  Afterward, I was like, hummm... Maybe that can be sort of intimidating to a guy... for a girl to be like, "Hey! I'm Janelle.  I want to be a mom. Oh, and, in case you didn't know, I'm single!" ...not that I was advertising that I was single... Whelpsk. anyway...  I promise my next post will neither be this lame or... something... :)

Work

For the first time in my life, I have a summer job -- other than babysitting.  I'm two days into it, and I really don't know if I am cut out for it.  I've only had the crash course in running and hosting so far, and hosting is a piece of cake.  But I feel like I don't understand the running, mainly cause the guy who trained me is really chill and has only worked there for like, 2 weeks.  Basically, he didn't really know what he was doing either.  Also, if you know me, you know that I don't drink, and I probably won't when I am 21 either.  Therefore, I don't know my liquors, mixed drinks or brands of alcohol.  We have to know every kind of alcohol that they carry.  How am I supposed to learn that? I have a test on Friday. Pass fail. haha. Something tells me I'm going to fail.

Plus, all my coworkers talk about is sex and getting smashed.  Once again, two things that I can not relate to, nor do I want to.  People ask off on Sunday mornings, but it's not to go to church.  It's to nurse their hangovers.  I know that this would be a great place to try to bring people to Christ, but I already feel like everyone thinks I'm lame cause I don't smoke, drink, cuss and hook up with random people (well, anyone.)  

One good thing, is this is really making me appreciate my awesome friends.  It seems like a lot of the workers only have their coworkers as friends.  One of the kids just turned 21 today (well, tomorrow... they're going out at midnight) so most everyone is going drinking with him.  I was like, man.  I'm so glad that I have legit friends who I can hang out with and not drink.  I dunno.  This job is just already stressing me out.  I'm sure I'd be fine if I only got customers like my family, but I know that's not going to be the case. 

Anyway.

Time to go read the Bible, cause I'm reading through it chronologically this summer with some 50 + cool kids from Aletheia :)

REFLECT pt. 1

These past few days I was in Richmond with my fellow "Aletheians" as Matt Light likes to put it. For those of you who don't know, Aletheia (which means 'Truth') is the church I attend.  It was started 10 years ago by a father son duo, Dave and Aaron Proffitt.  (Whenever I talked about the Proffitts, my mom thought I was saying 'prophets' and was quite skeptical...)  They both have a heart for missions and church planting, especially in college cities.  I don't really know how, but they decided to move from California all the way to JMU in good ol' Harrisonburg, VA.  Since then, 3 churches have been planted in the USA (Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion, and University of South Florida) with a 4th (University of Florida) on its way.

We had 5 sessions where we heard from all the lead pastors:

Session 1:  The Church & its Message, Ephesians 1 &2 - Josh Soto, Richmond VA
Session 2:  The Church as a Mystery, Ephesians 3 - Dave Proffitt, Tampa FL
Session 3:  The Church & its Mission, Ephesians 4 - Paul Fiske, Harrisonburg, VA
Session 4:  The Church & its Maturity, Ephesians 5-6:9 - Aaron Proffitt, Tampa FL
Session 5:  The Church & its Spiritual Morale, Ephesians 6:10-24 - Jamie Limato, Norfolk VA

Right from the bat, I was once again struck by Aletheia's ability to keep everything focused on God.  The pastors each went up and spoke straight from God.  They had no agenda to push except Jesus.  I'll get to it later when I talk about AP's session, but they really all demonstrated that if it isn't furthering God's kingdom, there is no need to even be talking about it.

I learned so much more about myself, things I need to work on in my life, and my relationship with Christ at this conference than I did at both the Mennonite Conventions combined.  Maybe it's because I am growing stronger in my faith since I started going to Aletheia, but I somehow, I doubt it.  I mean, at Aletheia's sessions, we talked about Christ and how we can further His kingdom.  We used our Bibles (woah). We didn't have a "Christian magician" for a session, or have a dialogue between those who think homosexuality in the church is okay, and those who don't.  Everything at REFLECT was upfront, blunt, and true.  I'm not out to bash Mennonites, but Aletheia works for me.  I like how it is black and white; nonnegotiable.  The Bible is God's Word, and God is Truth.  It is what it is.  Aletheia doesn't blur lines by obscuring Bible verses to make them try to say what they want them to.

I love the passion that everyone has for people they don't know.  It has changed me in big ways.  For instance, I was driving on the outskirts of Harrisonburg today, and I stopped at a stop sign, then pulled out onto the new road.  The speed limit was 45, which I quickly got to because there was a rather large SUV speeding up behind me.  They proceeded to pass me where it was quite illegal to, drove half a mile, then pulled into an apartment complex.  I wanted so badly to follow them and invite them to church tomorrow.  Ya know?  I don't know if they were Christians or not, and that was the first thing I thought of.  I wanted them to be saved.  I wanted them to have this awesome salvation which is available for them.  It also has made me hyper aware of my friends now and past friends who aren't Christians.  Before, I've had this mindset of, "Oh, well, if God wants them to be Christians, then someone more equipped will surely come along and guide them."  No, Janelle.  That's not okay.  I have more than enough resources to do something, even if it is as simple as praying for them every day.  So that's precisely what I'm going to do.  I wrote their names out on a piece of paper which I put by my bed so I will remember to pray for them in the mornings when I wake up and at night when I go to sleep, and in the afternoons when I take an occasional nap (which is really quite often.)

Wow, I got really off topic from where I wanted to go.  Oh well.  I guess I'll have 5 more posts on Reflect having to do with the 5 sessions that I have not talked about yet.

Another thing that made this so awesome was the people.  God has put some pretty amazing people into the Aletheia network.  He's doing crazy awesome stuff in them too.  I'm excited about seeing those people again next year, or if or when I visit various Aletheias.  I'm also super excited about getting to know some of the Harrisonburg people I barely knew, or did know at all, over the summer.

I'll be sure to post links to the podcasts if they are making podcasts for everyone to hear the sessions.  And as always, let me know if you want to come to church -- I'm always available to give rides :)

Degree

Ugh.  College is stressful.  I've been thinking a lot about this recently as I just finished the half way marker for my undergrad.  There are things that I am definitely looking forward to in my last two years:  Going on cross cultural next spring to the Middle East in my number one motivator to stay in school.  Others include, but are not limited to, friends, choir, the occasional fun class, friends, voice lessons, friends, um... yup. Music and friends basically sum it all up for me.  I know college isn't necessarily enjoyable for everyone.  There are plenty of hard times, but there are also those rewarding times which for me, outweigh the hard.

But then I think about the degree that I will be getting:  a B.A. in Music -- Vocal Performance.  For those of you who know a thing or two about music, if you really want to have a job at all related to your degree, you need to go to grad school.  I guess I should say what I really want to do music wise with my life.  I would love love love to be an aria soloist with a symphony.  I don't have enough acting experience to be an opera singer, but that too would be awesome. (I really really want to be the Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute.)

More than singing though, I want to be a mommy.  For me, this most definitely involves being married first.  There are just so many things I want to do.  I just feel like I don't know what I'm supposed to do.  If I'm going to be a mom soon (soon is a very relative term) should I even be pursuing a career in music? I want to be a stay at home mom, which just would not be possible as a soloist.  There is a lot of traveling involved in this job, even if just for the weekends.  I don't think I'd be okay with that while I had a family, but at the same time, it's something I'm really passionate about.  But really, being a soloist and having a family just don't go together.  And let's be honest.  I'm at EMU.  I'm a big fish in a teeny tiny itsy bitsy pond.  I can't even imagine being thrown into Juilliard or Peabody or some other big conservatory.  I feel like I would be eaten alive.

I would also love to help Aletheia plant a church.  Ever since I started attending Aletheia, I have loved their passion for spreading the Gospel to college students.  As a student, I definitely appreciate this, because I know how difficult, yet incredibly important it is to reach out to this age group.  To avoid a long story, I didn't really want to go to school in Harrisonburg -- it just happened.  And now I know that God had way bigger plans for me than I had made for myself.  At first, I saw Church Planting as way to get out of Harrisonburg while spreading God's Word.  That was pretty selfish of me to think though -- I would have been going for all the wrong reasons. But now, as I pray more and more about it, I really feel like going on a Church Plant is something the Lord is calling me to.  I know that it would stretch my relationship with Christ and others in a way that nothing else ever could.  I know there will be plenty of ups and downs, but it is something I really want to look into more.

But when I think of planting a church with Aletheia, I always picture myself going with my husband or future husband.  He would be someone that I could depend on spiritually to help guide my footsteps.  I don't know if I could move somewhere (probably Florida, seeing as how it is the next plant) as a single woman in her young 20's.  I feel so inexperienced.  I wouldn't know what to do by myself.  Will I be willing to drop my life here in Harrisonburg to help plant a church in a place I don't know all by myself as a single woman?  What can I offer to this new church in Gainesville?

You know what the beauty of it all is? I have time.  But it would be great if someone (God) would smack me upside the face and tell me not to worry about the future.  Matthew 6. I know, I know.