Life is full

It's been another busy week here on campus. I started my "feeding rituals" this past week. The RDs here are encouraged to find ways of connecting with students that fit with each RDs personal gifts and talents. I, as you likely know, enjoy cooking and am pretty good at it! Lucky for me college students are good eaters! So, much of how I connect with students is over a shared food experience. Each Sunday I host or arrange hosts for the group of students that attend my church, I have my RA staff in each Sunday evening for a "family dinner" and business meeting, and I host "Supper at Susie's" for students that sign up to join me for dinner. It keeps me busy in the kitchen, but I connect with lots of different folks and I get to cook a lot...everybody wins! This week I hosted 25 students...not bad for my first week! :)

Friday evening was the other big event for the week - a memorial service for Deanne Binde, the GC student who was killed in an auto accident in May. I spent the day running errands getting ready for the various events of the weekend and didn't really prepare my heart for dealing with the memorial. It made for a difficult evening. We had a meaningful service in the college church with vibrant decorations that reminded us of Dee, music that was beautiful and gave glory to our God, and the sharing of stories that made us both laugh at the joy she brought to our lives and cry at the realization that we only have stories left. It was a bit like pulling the scab off the healing that had happened since her funeral and experiencing the mourning again in a new way. It was hard to participate in, but I am thankful that I did.

There was a brief reception with snacks after the memorial service. I was in charge of this portion of the evening. I had purchased all of the food and done much of the prep work. When Deanna (my friend and fellow GC employee) got off work she came over lend a hand. We ate a quick dinner of leftovers and then worked together for a bit until I had to leave to go to the memorial service. Deanna finished the food prep and set up the table area during the service. It was a huge blessing! I was thankful to be able to be there for the entire service and not worry about the details that still needed to be done because I knew she had it under control. When the service was over I went back and we worked together to keep the trays of food and punch bowl filled. It was good to work together.

I went to bed both physically and emotionally tired that night, but knew that God would give the rest I needed and the strength to keep moving forward the next day.