Return to the Arbor

This blog sat idle for most of the summer because, well, there wasn't much to tell.
I worked full time on first shift at a factory in Hudsonville called Royal Technologies.
Honestly, there's about 85% of my summer stories.

But on Friday I returned to my second home; moving two hours from 616 to 517: Spring Arbor.
My family knows that it's nothing against them at all, but I've been ready for this day for months.

Now that I'm here, though, I'm realizing a lot of things... one of them:

I'm responsible to help ease the transition into and foster the spiritual growth of 22 freshmen girls.
Can anyone just take a minute to sit with me and think about the weight of that?!
I've told each of them today that as their "Spiritual Life Adviser," it's not my job to preach Jesus at them. It's not like I have all of the answers to life's deepest questions and, as one dad (albeit it sarcastically) asked me today, I can not recite the entire bible.
I can, however, have an open door, open ears, open arms, and an open heart.
After a few very long days this weekend of SLA training, talks with my wonderful RA-Becca, some serious self-examination of my heart, many many prayers, more than a few cups of hot caffeine, and my finally starting to get settled in with my roommate, Corina, today...I'm feeling more and more confident that this is what I need to be doing.
One of the important things that was stressed at training was that we should never feel completely prepared. Total preparedness means that our dreams are within reach by means of our own strength. We were really encouraged to make goals that would require us to rely on God more fully. This is something that's hard for me: I want to pick a reasonable goal, take logical steps, and make plans to carry it out. Unfortunately this really isn't going to be a thing that will get me through this year.

I can already tell that this year is going to be an amazing one, but doubtless, there will be bumps.
From the few short hours that I've known them, I can tell we've got so many different personalities, family lifestyles, personal habits, relational approaches, and life perspectives.
Yes, I am excited.
But I'm also anxious.
Because I know that I, in my own strength, am not enough.
But in Christ, I am fully enough.
I have everything that I need.

It would mean so much to me to know that this ministry would be lifted up in prayer by those of you back home. (Lord knows I'm going to need extra measures of almost everything!)