Five Minute Friday: FAST

 This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday series. Five minutes of free-flow writing shared with whoever wants to read it. This week’s prompt is: FAST.  

______GO

My intern graduates this weekend.  This was her last week with us at the Hope House.  She has been with us since the Fall of 2020.  An after school ministry is not exactly an easy job for a college student during a pandemic, with a boss about to pop with twins at any given moment, but she did awesome.

Jeff works at the same University, our alma mater, The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, so we are constantly inundated with college students. Each year we prepare for and attend all of the same events that we used to enjoy as students ourselves. 

Being around college students always remind me of what my own college experience was like.  How fun it was.  How dumb some of the things we did were.  How fast it all went by.  I think back to those adults I was surrounded with as a student.  The ones in their 30s with little kids in tow.  I remember how important they were to me in helping me find my way in the world.  

It is always humbling to realize that I am now that person.  The 'old' married couple with kids, living life, running homes, and working jobs.  Something that seemed so far away, but something I looked forward to, all the same.

It isn't often my interns (mostly females) get to see a woman running a ministry.  Let alone one with kids in tow. They get a front row seat to the good, the bad, and the ugly.  

They get to see me show up late, probably frazzled, dragging a stroller, with a bag of donated pb&js, and doing 3rd grade homework with my own before the 40 other kids filter into our facility. 

They see me with a baby under the table at a missions fair, or running off to a third world country to lead a VBS with either a breast pump, or suitcase of diapers and snacks, depending on the trip.

The gravity of my job is not lost on me.  Maybe I can't see it in the midst of the chaos, but when I stop, and I'm able to take stock at the end of the year, I realize that showing up every day, living my ordinary life, doing what the Lord has called me to do, were truly holy moments I have shared with my students.  

What a privilege to get to model the possibilities to young ministry-minded ladies who are well on their way to changing the world.  Love you all, ladies!  I'm so proud of each of you!