welcome rain

In our big, yellow living room, we have a long bench next to our windows with cushions covering it (a sort of window seat), and currently I am laying there with the windows open next to me. There is a magnificent lightning storm occurring right now, with accompanying thunder. I have not been in rain since I left Alaska, and this is all the more sweeter since it is joined by the thunder and lightning (which were not present in Juneau).

The past few weeks have been jam-packed with wonderful things. The first couple of weeks each semester are always crazy school-wise, as you are adjusting to a new schedule and new teachers, but even more so in August. With Cru, our first three weeks or so are centered around reaching freshmen, since that's the time they are all trying to figure out what they want to be involved in and how serious they are about following Jesus now that they are on their own. For the first week, we had events planned every day, so I felt like I was going non-stop. Things are starting to slow down now (just as they are starting to pick up with school and my upperclassmen Bible study), and it is encouraging to look back and see all that God is doing here on campus at UA.

I have gotten to be involved on the "north side" of campus this year (Maple Hill, Reid, Quads, Futrall), and it has been a really different experience from Pomfret the past two years. The students who live in these dorms are typically different from the Pomfret Honors crowd, and these dorms have higher security and are therefore harder to meet freshman in. However, it has been so neat to talk to girls who have been praying to be involved in a Bible study and to meet other believers in college.

As I look at my senior year ahead of me, the verse that has really been on my heart for the past few months is 2 Corinthians 12:15 - "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls." I want to see women grow to be more passionately in love with Jesus Christ, and I want to spend of myself in order to help them get there. I want to encourage other leaders in our movement on campus so that they, too, can encourage girls in their own sphere of influence. I am definitely learning what it means to balance all of this with my schoolwork and my friends, but I want to live in such a way that I leave a legacy behind me here in Fayetteville - not a legacy to remember my name, but of girls who want to pursue Jesus and who are equipped to encourage others in the same way.

Praise Jesus for the new (huge) freshman class, and all that He is continuing to do here in Fayetteville!


P.S. I turned in my application for graduation this week. And wrote down how I want my name to appear in the sidewalk. Which, by the way, made me excited because my full name fits: "Samantha Clair Swartzwelder" is 27 characters, and you can have up to 29.