Living in community

Hello friends and supporters,

I'm writing to you from my apartment-style dorm room on the campus of Robert Morris University, just outside Pittsburgh. The mouth-watering aroma of simmering vegetables and chicken wafting from our crockpot has been filling the walls of our room for the past 8 hours. Mason Stumpf, the 10-year-old son of one of the new staff just stopped by to see where the smell was coming from. Before him three different people came knocking at our door almost exactly 5 minutes apart. Before that I was in a meeting with four other trainers trying to plan an intricate event just a couple days away. All this is to say Rachel and I are in one of the most unique and trying forms of training ever conceived of by human beings. All our time is tapped with learning, reading, applying our learning, and rediscovering what it means to love and be loved in the context of community.

It's an important lesson to learn (and re-learn) as a campus minister. Our students will be living under similar conditions almost the entire time they are in college...with the exception of the 10-year-old kids stopping by...and oh yeah, I got to pick my roommate, and we are best friends...the coolness of that never wears off :)

In a few minutes seven new staff will come through my dorm room door to chow down the stewing crockpot meal. It seems our periods of rest here are mostly filled with preparation for whatever is coming next. But, it only goes on like this for another two weeks. On July 23rd Rachel and I get to return to the comfort of our third-story apartment town-home in Philly--a luxury the typical college student will not have.

I'm realizing more and more through this time at RMU the constant pressure students feel as a result of living in community. You must be wondering to yourself, "wait a minute, wasn't Elliott in college just two years ago?" Yes, I was. There's a certain wisdom that is gained when you get to stand on the outside of an experience. When I was inside the college community I felt a pressure and stress, but couldn't fully comprehend it's origin or affects. Looking back, I realize now that community is both a beautiful thing...and a very intense thing.

Community has a way of both creating support and unity (when done correctly) and also a way of amplifying our brokenness. After all, anyone who is married knows that the longer you are with a person the more their hidden brokenness comes to light. I don't think that bringing brokenness to light is a bad thing, but I do realize now that it's helpful to have people around you who are attentive to the angst and internal struggles often caused by living in community who can help you process through these things. I'm really looking forward to being that attentive person for some of my college students in the fall.

A quick happy note: I just found out a student I ministered to in High School, Hannah McLean, will be coming to Eastern University in the fall. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with her , and hearing how Jesus has been working in her life since the last time we talked. Pray that the Lord will provide Hannah with discipleship opportunities at Eastern, and that she matures in her faith when she gets there in the fall.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

In Him,
Elliott