Steppin' Out 2005!

5:00am-up and at 'em for the day (i was too excited to sleep any later)
7:00am-show up at campus to get ready for the steering committee to show up
8:00am-steering committee starts to arrive, we eat breakfast together
8:45am-other volunteers show up to help
9:00am-start moving tools from the basement outside
10:00am-start allocating tools for 2500 students
12:00pm-groups start showing up to pick up tools
1:00pm-break for lunch

1:30pm-out to the FCC worksite
2:00pm-back on campus, prep for groups to return with tools, prep for celebration
3:00pm-groups start showing up with tools, clean tools
5:00pm-celebration ends
6:00pm-major cleanup (lots of paint brushes)
8:00pm-meet with steering committee for debriefing
8:30pm-home!

Today was a great day! I worked with a group of undergraduate students to put on something at Baylor called Steppin' Out. It is a day of service for our students here and I am not going to be able to sleep tonite I'm so excited (that is the little bit of extrovert coming out in me). I know it might sound a little cheesy, but I really do believe that we made a difference today. We had about 2500 Baylor students working at 43 different sites in the Waco community for a few hours this afternoon. Most of the students were at houses scraping and repainting for people who could not afford to do that or were unable to because of sickness or disabilities.

One of the sites in particular that my FCC group was working at is an old run-down motel that is going to be used as a home for single women. We had about 200 students at that site alone, working hard for about 3 hours and they completed the entire project. I don't have pictures back yet but hopefully by tomorrow I'll have some fun ones I can add to this blog to give you a better idea of what they were doing. When I was talking to the man working at the motel, he said that he thought a handful of students were going to come to help him paint, but instead we sent half of the school! (A bit of an exaggeration, but to him it might as well have been half of the school) He also kept going on and on about how he couldn't believe that a group of freshman would get together on a nice, Sunday afternoon to help him paint. He was speechless with tears in his eyes talking about it. And he told me he was going to trade in his Texas hat for a Baylor one, and down here...that's saying a lot! It was that story right there that made me realize it was worth all the work of the last two months to be ready for today.

Today also made me realize once again that this is really the place I need to be, and the place that God has me. My assistantship is such a good fit for me because I get to be a part of something like Steppin' Out...which makes me remember and realize that there is always a bigger picture, there is always more people to serve and to love on, and it is always a good thing to be pushed outside our comfort zones, especially when it benefits, serves and loves other people.

I was also amazed because I felt so loved on today. We had a lot of people from the Student Activities office show up to help with the sorting of tools and organization of different sites. That alone meant a ton simply because it is nice to have others in the office realize and experience what we have been working on!

I am also amazed because I work with some pretty outstanding students. My boss, Karin, first of all is unbelievable. I am lucky because my job is mostly great because I have such a great supervisor. But, we get to advise a committee of 9 people who are just phenomenal. I will have to take another blog to share more about who they are...Seriously some amazing people.

So anyway, that was my day today and it was a good one! It started off early and looks to be ending pretty late but it will have to go into the records as one of the better days I've had...ever! I am blessed to be here, more than I express in these blogs I'm sure. But I am thankful for the opportunity to know how to serve college students better!