Work and Hurricane

I met my team this week! I’m on the Campus Marketing team, and even though everyone is based in a different place, my entire team flew in to meet me in person and train me, which was really awesome! Our very first team time was in a frozen yogurt shop, where Ryan, the team lead, taught us an object lesson about marketing (the exact lesson is spelled out in the August Update). I loved getting to know everyone on the team and was sad when we all said goodbye on Wednesday, but I’m looking forward to working with them this year! They also gave me these lovely flowers 😊

Welcome Gift

Our team had morning devotionals, and Ryan reflected on the following passage.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness 

was over the face of the deep. 

And the Spirit of God was hovering 

over the face of the waters. And God said, 

“Let there be light,” and there was light.” – Genesis 1:2-3

Ryan described the work ahead of us like the world before God spoke: without form, void, and figuratively dark. There may be a lot of confusion, uncertainty, and fogginess in what we are supposed to accomplish, but this passage reminded us that the Holy Spirit is hovering over the work. Ryan challenged us to invite the Spirit to hover over the problems we will face at work. Then God spoke. God’s word has power to change the darkness and void, creating light. The way we fight the amorphous future is through communication. By voicing our confusion and discussing obscurities, we can sometimes bring clarity and “Aha!” moments to the work we’re doing. So that’s my prayer: to hover over my problems with the Holy Spirit, and be bold in communication.

Campus Marketing Team

Also being able to do good, meaningful work feels so nice! Within my first few days of work, I was able to help set up five campus sites and a conference page. It reminds me of the things I did last summer with Tugende, except my work now has the chance of making an eternal impact on people’s lives.

Oh yeah, we also did field ministry at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Tabling at UCF was hot. This university has over 55,000 undergrad, with lots of students from all over the US and around the world. It was cool, but perhaps the heat made college not as appealing as high school or Disney. Or it’s just that I no longer want to be on a college campus. I'll let you know where I get placed for field ministry for the rest of the year!

Also, my car arrived the day before my first day at the office! Since our team was getting dinner together, my coworker Leah was able to drive me to pick up my car from the auto transporter. God’s timing is always perfect timing. The bonus was that my parents filled the trunk with lots of goodies from home. So much thoughtfulness and love~

Trunk Full of Love

Hurricane Dorian:

I was definitely pretty stressed out when I first heard that we might have to evacuate. It also didn’t help that all the stores ran out of water, bread, and canned soup, essentials for surviving the water and power outage that usually occurs during a hurricane. Clearly everyone is preparing for the worst.

Panic Mode

But a quiet time Psalm 46 put things into perspective. Or the imminent hurricane brought new light into this passage I’ve visited many times.

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

-Psalm 46: 1-3

Waters will definitely roar and foam, and the land can definitely tremble at the hurricane swells (mountains don’t exist in Florida). But I will not fear, because God is my refuge and strength.

That was earlier this week. Dorian was supposed to arrive tonight (Monday night), but I am currently sitting on our balcony looking out to blue skies and puffy clouds. No hurricane in sight. The forecast is different every time I check, so if anything crazy like evacuation happens, I will let you know. So far, we get Tuesday off from work. Our apartment is stocked with water, canned soup, bread, peanut butter, and granola bars, so I think we can survive a few days without electricity. I also have great roommates to keep me company. 

And guess what, the thing to do right before a hurricane is to go to Disney! Apparently everyone who is not a local gets too scared, so a few of us interns hopped over to Hollywood Studios to ride the new Star Wars Smugglers Run ride. The ride itself was OK, but Disney did a pretty good job (and spent boatloads of money) creating the immersive land of Batuu. Here’s a glimpse of the Millenium Falcon (and all the people in line or trying to take a picture with it). We heard from a cast member that the brochures they were freely handing out were being sold on eBay haha. Kind of crazy what people will do…

Hurricane Prep 

Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you’re are enjoying the long weekend.