Grad 2010

Oh, Graduation! I can hardly believe it's that time of year again. Graduation was on Sunday afternoon. It was a wet and chilly day, but there was much joy and warmth amidst the celebration! I had many great former RAs graduate this year and thus had a full evening of party hopping - it was a blast!

Here are photos of me with some of my favorite people...

me & Rachel
one of my favorite mentees/former RAs/friends!

me & Taylor
a former RA who is going to do creative and cool things in the world of media!

Kat & me
a beautiful young woman full of potential who was an RA in Kratz and attended LifeSpring with us. I will miss her!

me & Ben
a former M2 RA and someone who is easy to like and will be missed!

me & Grant
He's not a former RA, but he went to LifeSpring while at GC and has become very dear to my heart.

A BIG change is coming!

So, if you are my facebook friend and read my status updates you may have noticed that recently I that have been a bit cryptic about something going on in my life. I have been praying for several years now about what my next steps should be. What could my life after GC look like? I've applied for a couple jobs along the way, but it's been clear that ultimately I am suppose to be at Goshen. And I was fully expecting to be at Goshen again this fall. Ultimately God had other plans...

On April 1st I received a phone call from a former colleague. He is on the board of another university and heard of an opening there that he thought I would be a good fit for. It came out of nowhere, but I felt God telling me to at least entertain the thought. So, I've spent the last 3 weeks praying, talking to my mentors and a few close friends, praying some more, contemplating what a change like this would look like, fine tuning my resume, applying, and interviewing for the position. I received an email yesterday afternoon offering me the position. While I haven't written the acceptance letter yet, but I am going to! :)

The position is the Director of Community Life at LCC International University. I will be in charge of the Residence Life Program and the Intercultural programs. This is a step up in the world of Student Life administration. It will be a great deal more responsibility and I'm grateful for all the wonderful experience that I've had here at GC to prepare me for it. I am so excited to use much of that knowledge and learning to impact the lives of this new group of students.

While work is going to be an exciting challenge, the biggest challenge will be the move! You see, LCC stands for Lithuania Christian College. Yes, I am moving to Lithuania! It's a country in eastern Europe - bordering Poland, Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and the Baltic Sea. Don't worry if you have to look it up on the map...I did! :) Wild, huh?! :)

I am in the process of telling my close friends before I make it public on FB early next week. I know that my regular readership includes some of you who I would want to be "in the know" before others, so I thought this would be a good place to get the word out as well.

I look forward to telling you more about the position, the process of discernment that I went through to make the decision, and for you to learn about ways you can partner with me in this exciting adventure!

Here's a link to the school's website... http://www.lcc.lt/

Time to say good-bye!

Tonight I had a farewell meal for my 2007-2008 RA staff. Three of them graduated last year, but stayed in the area. The others will all graduate later this month. Most of them will be moving away at that point. Since everyone is going their separate ways, this will likely be the last time that all 8 of them will be together. We had a lovely meal and talked for almost 2 hours - sharing plans for the future, reminiscing about our year together, and just general chit chat. It was a lovely evening.

Back row - Bryce - the new Athletic Director at Florida Christian College, Ben - will be back in the fall while his wife does her student teaching and then he'll start in December as the Program Director at Mennohaven Retreat Center in IL, Rachel - doing MVS in San Francisco, and Taylor - travelling in Peru after grad and then back to IN to work in TV news.

Front row - Kaleem - entering the masters in Japanese studies at IU, Grace - working at MMN & getting married in July, Kat - entering med school in the fall, and Heather - still job hunting in the Indy area.

I am so proud of this wonderful group of young adults! It was a pleasure to be a part of their GC experience!

Men's basketball banquet

I am a pretty big fan of our men's basketball team here at GC. I go to all the home games and have travelled to many of the away games. I have had an RA that played on the team the past three years and will have another one this coming fall. Since one of the guys on the team is an RA it usually ends up that most of the team lives on his floor. This has granted me the opportunity to get to know the guys on the team pretty well. The notice that I attend their games and appreciate it.

The coach took note of my presence at many of the games - esp the one I drove 2 hours in a blizzard to get to and the one at Bluffton over Christmas break. As a thank you for my support he invited me to the team's end of the year banquet. It was held on Saturday. There was a nice catered meal followed by the presentation of several awards and a time of honoring of the seniors. It was a fun afternoon/evening! Here's a photo of the seniors and the coaches.

Nate West Jr, Asst Coach Neal Young, Shawn Martz, Coach Gary Chupp, and Erick McCollum

It's been incredibly fun to watch Nate and Errick play ball at GC the past 4 years. Both are phenomenal athletes in their own way and have brought a lot to the program. I will miss them on AND off the court!

You'd think I live with 4 other people...

...with all the shoes piled up by my front door! I was never good at putting my shoes away when I was a child. I obviously haven't gotten any better at it! :)

Hacienda with my Life Group gals!

Last week on Thursday afternoon I got a hankerin' for some good Americanized Mexican food at one of our best local spots, Hacienda. I texted the gals from Life Group to join me. Four of the seven were able to join me. It was a fun time filled with laughter and delicious food!

Sarah, Emma, and Ashley
(current, future, and past RAs from Miller Hall)

Emily and me

My Betsy turns 11!

My niece, Betsy, turned 11 years old on March 26th (the day before my birthday). I went out for dinner with her and Daisy (her sister) and Gary (my brother & her dad) that evening. We went to Bob Evans...not my favorite place to eat, but it was the where the Birthday Girl wanted to go! :)

We were talking a bit at dinner about how the girls do such a good job at speaking up for themselves and not being timid. Gary and I were talking about how we both were pretty quiet and shy kids. Daisy looked at me and said, "I can't ever imagine you being that way Aunt Susie!" I was so tickled by her comment! It was a fresh reminder of how much I have changed in the past 10 years...so much so that she would never suspect that I had a shy bone in my body. :)

Betsy (the Birthday Girl) and Daisy

Betsy, Gary, and Daisy

New RAs!

March was super busy at work! February had felt a bit relaxed, but our schedule always amps up as we begin to plan for the following year's housing assignments. One of the first things we do is interview and hire our RA staff. Here is a photo of my new team right after their initiation activities (hence the markers on face, bright pink panties, shaving cream, wet hair, etc.) I'm quite excited to get to know and start working with this team!

Hannah, Lynelle, Matt, Maria, Emma, and Tavo!