Playing Catch-up: In the Beginning...

...God created the heavens and the earth.

What? You expect me to pass up an opportunity like that? Please!

Anywhos, the start of the program:

We started with a kickoff retreat on Sept. 2, 2008. I managed to get a hold of my host family prior to meeting them, and they were gracious enough to let me drop my car-full of stuff at their house since I didn't really want to bring it to the retreat center and have it bake in the sun for 3 days or so.

It was a blast. All the Fellows shared their testimonies, and I finally got to attach people with the Facebook friends I had made prior to the start of the program (note: Facebook friends are not actual friends). It was a busy time. Many things were jammed into our time. In addition to the telling of testimonies, we spent time getting to know the people we'd be working with in our various ministries at the church (5 Fellows are working with the youth group, 6 with 4th-6th graders, and 2 with the young adult ministry), doing a photo scavenger hunt around D.C., going to a Nationals baseball game, playing many games, and lots of get to know you conversations.

After the kickoff retreat, we were introduced to the church body. It was kind of like being put on display for over 500 people that you didn't know. I have a newfound appreciation for what zoo animals go through everyday of their lives. =P

Anywhos, so after that initial Sunday of get to know you with the entire church body and the youth group a little later that night, things began to settle into a routine.

• Sundays: Sunday school, church, youth group, Harvest (young adult ministry)
• Mondays: AM class, free time, dinner, roundtable discussion
• Tuesday-Thursdays: part-time internship with a law firm doing foreclosure work, representing homeowners, so basically we try to save houses all day
• Every other Wed. night: class
• Friday: class, free time
• Saturday: off

The schedule is pretty full with the class work and the ministry work as well. We're taking 4 total classes this year. They're certified at a graduate-level by Reformed Theological Seminary. We're taking a Christ and Culture class (Learning to Read the World and the Word), Apologetics, Spiritual Formation, and Biblical theology.

The classes have been both infuriating and stimulating. They certainly stretch me to think about things in ways that I haven't even imagined in the past. They have forced me to think at least a little bit about things that I haven't ever considered.

In short, this program has made me grow every step of the way.

Playing Catch-up: Interviewing from Bed

So my job with CTY ended in mid-August. I had already committed to being in the Capital Fellows program prior to going to CTY, so I was trying to gear myself up mentally for the year to come. But first, a wedding to attend. My friends Bonnie and Andrew were getting married, so I flew into NJ to stay with a friend so that we could carpool to the wedding on Long Island. I get to NJ on a Thursday I think (right Sarah?). At this point, I'm waiting to hear back from a job interview for a potential internship position that I would hold throughout the year in D.C. Later that day, I receive an email from the Fellows director, Bill, saying that another potential internship had been lined up and that I would receive an email soon about an interview. I shot off a quick email saying that the internship sounded good and was interested. I figured, it'll be a little while before I actually receive that email and set up a time for a phone interview. So I didn't check my email for the rest of the day.

The next morning, I'm in bed, happily asleep at 9 in the morning. Then my phone rudely awakes me. "Waaa??" I think groggily. I hadn't set an alarm the night before. I swing my legs out of bed and amble over to the phone, squinting because my eyes don't want to work that soon after waking up. A number I don't recognize appears on the screen. "Huh?" I think to myself as I flip the phone open. The resulting conversation is pretty much how it went.

"Hello?"
"Hi, this is ____. May I speak to Frank Wang?"
"This is he."
"I'm calling to tell you a little bit about the law firm and what we do here."

OH CRAP, this is the interviewer that Bill emailed me about yesterday! WAKE UP!!! I tell myself.

So I ended up doing the interview sitting up in bed, with the covers over my legs, trying furiously to wake up. The Lord must have worked a miracle, because a couple hours later, I get an email extending a job offer.

My internship runs three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday. I work normal business hours and get paid too! I work at a law firm that does foreclosure work, representing homeowners instead of banks. As you might expect, business is exploding as the mortgage crisis deepens and the economy sinks. I pretty much do whatever they tell me to do, a sort of office handyman for everything. Though it's busy and often stressful, it's worth it when we save houses from foreclosure. It's nice to know that my job actually makes a tangible difference in someone's life.

Playing Catch-up: The Summer

So I guess that it would be a good thing to catch everyone up with what has happened in my life. The question is where to begin. If anything, let's start with the latest ending of a chapter of my life: graduation from Princeton.

Yes, I did graduate from Princeton in June. (Believe me, I didn't think it would happen at some points during the thesis writing process.) Anywhos, after that, I chilled out at home for about a month. And much to everyone's utter astonishment... I did the same thing that I had been doing the past 3 summers, working at CTY Summer Programs. Shocking, I know.

This year was a bit different. I had a slightly different position, but nothing too major. However, I was still worried. There were issues that I had being a Christian and being at camp again. There is a culture that runs in opposition to Christianity, often overtly opposing. It's easy to be sucked into the lifestyle of camp when there is no one to keep you accountable. The summer of 2007, I had no one to keep me accountable. The only brother in Christ I had left after the first 3 week session (there are 2 sessions). Left alone, I tried to be strong, but found that I was weak. It's easy to get caught up in a life of sin when you're not answerable to anyone. So this year, I was worried that I would once again fall into temptation and sin.

I prayed specifically for brothers and sisters to be sent to camp to keep me accountable. I got my small group at Princeton praying for it. Wouldn't you know, the Lord answered my prayers. The Dean of Residential Life (my immediate boss) turned out to be a student at Reformed Theological Seminary. The first day, we had a meeting to discuss expectations for each other, since we'd be working closely together. At the end of the meeting, I couldn't help but ask if he was for real. I wanted to know if he REALLY had devoted himself to Christ. After a few moments of chuckling, we worked out that we both wanted to keep each other accountable. But the blessing didn't stop there. I would find out that 4 of the RA's (camp councilors for whom I was at least in part responsible for) were also believers. It was certainly the Lord making my cup overflow with blessing. The Lord brought 3 new sisters and 2 new brothers into my life at the time that I needed them. It was amazing. Furthermore, one of the guys was only going to be around one session, but his replacement was a Christian guy that I had badgered into coming for at least one session! Fellowship and accountability, check.

The mere fact that the Lord answered my prayer would have been a great story, but it doesn't end there. In a camp that is relatively hostile to a vibrant Christian faith, we ended up having a twice-a-week bible study. Everything we prayed for over the course of the 6 weeks we were there was answered. We asked for students to pointedly ask about our faith, the only way we were allowed to talk about it. A few hours after we prayed that, one of the girls was asked about her faith. We prayed for encouragement and energy for the weekends, which are the most exhausting times at camp. One of the weekends, I met a couple who were there to pick up their daughter. We ended up talking and figured out that we had a mutual friend who had been a part of the Christian acappella group I had been in at Princeton. They promised to get their church praying for us. It was like that time and again. The Lord really delivered in amazing ways this summer.

Let's hope this works...

So, hopefully I'll be able to update everyone with this blog. Let's keep our fingers crossed since my last blogging experience died the slow death of neglect. But, we can hope that this will be an expedient way to keep everyone aware of the awesome things that have happened in my life.

P.S. be aware that there will be many stories posted, so if you want a distilled picture of big events, let me know and I'll post a timeline every so often