Chapter Two...

Fall semester is in full-swing here at the University of Tennessee, and football season is right around the corner. The campus is once again buzzing with students, and there's a slight crispness to the morning air, hinting at the amazing weather that lies ahead.

This time last year, I was still as lost and confused as the freshmen walking around with maps on their first day of class. The idea of an RUF large group meeting with more than 300 people was still very overwhelming, and as I was simply adjusting to a new job and a new city, I really didn't have too much to actually do.

One year later, however, I find myself in the role of "veteran intern." My two co-interns from last year, Anne and Mary Beth, have both moved on, and now I'm the one "showing the ropes" to our new intern, Catherine (who has jumped right in and been awesome, by the way!) I'll admit, it's been a bit of a transition having to remember a few more things and having a few additional responsibilities (thankfully, I learned from two of the best!), but overall, it has been a great experience so far this year.

They always told us in training that the second year of the internship was incredibly different than the first...in a good way. You arrive back on campus knowing your way around, with established relationships with the students, and plenty of lessons learned from victories and mistakes along the way.

Sometimes it's hard not to dwell in the past, wishing I could go back and do things differently last year, worrying about missed opportunities. But one of the main lessons I have learned through working with RUF is that God is at work, even in the midst of our failures. I have already been encouraged to see the ways I can learn from my experiences last year as I begin building relationships with this brand-new class of freshmen.

As I begin this second chapter of my internship with RUF @ UT, I'm really excited to see how God will be at work. I'll continuing to build relationships that were started last year, and I'll also be pursuing a whole new group of freshmen guys. Through it all, I pray that I'm continually reminded of God's faithfulness, and that I remember my job is to love these guys and point them to Jesus...not to myself.

A FEW QUICK NOTES FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:

• Large Group - We just had our third Large Group meeting of the year last night. We've been averaging over 300 students, many of whom are freshmen! Brent is preaching through the gospel of Mark this semester, looking at the person of Christ. 
• Sophomore Guys Bible Study - I'll be leading the Sophomore Guys Bible Study this year, and we had 25 guys show up at my house on Monday for the first one! It was a little crowded in the living room! We'll be studying the Jesus Storybook Bible, looking at the larger Story of Scripture and how all of it points to Jesus. I'll write more about this later, but if you've never read the JSB, whatever age you are, you should check it out!
• Freshmen Bible Studies - We had a "mixer" for the freshmen guys and girls last week, and tomorrow will be the first Freshmen Guys Bible Study that I'll be helping our campus minister Brent lead. We have about 30 guys signed up so far, many of whom I've met, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better over the next months. 
• Hiking Trips - I'll be leading a Freshmen Guys Hiking Trip in the Smoky Mountains on Labor Day, and Catherine will lead one for the girls. We each plan to hit the Apple Barn restaurant in Pigeon Forge on the way back. Hopefully this year we'll actually get to hike, unlike last year's experience...
• Family Weekend Tailgate - We'll be hosting a tailgate during UT's Family Weekend on Sept. 10, before the Cincinnati game. It'll be in Redeemer Church's parking lot, and it will be a great way for students, family, and friends of RUF @ UT to learn more about what's going on with us this year and have some fun before the Vols beat the Bearcats!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement as I begin this second year! Please continue to check my Prayer Page for ways you can continue to be in prayer, and also my Support Page, as I'm still raising funds to meet my budget for this year!

Resting in His Promises,

Stephen

When in Rome...

Well, time has certainly flown by and left me spinning. It was a year ago this weekend that I arrived in Knoxville, and I've been calling Rocky Top my home sweet home ever since. After living my first 18 years on Florida's beautiful Emerald Coast, I've been moving steadily northward. Florida was followed by a 4-year stint in Alabama to get some higher learnin', and I now find myself up in the Tennessee hills (where, by the way, there are telephone bills, but I've yet to see any smoggy smoke.) Knoxville has been an awesome place to live my first couple years out of college. 

Disclaimer: This post has little to do with anything of any significance. Fair warning.

Each new "home" has been considerably different than the last, and wonderful in different ways. I love where I am now. Knoxville is one cool city, and it's having an effect on me. At first, I felt a little like a fish out of water here in the mountains. Being raised a mere mile from the sugar-white sands of the Gulf of Mexico, East Tennessee was minor culture shock. Not to mention the fact that after attending a high school of 55 students and a university of 4,500, I now found myself navigating across a campus of 27,000. And let's just say that fall Saturdays look a little different at UT than they did back at Samford...

Some changes were obvious. I was in a new city. I had a new roommate...a new job...and a new apartment (now a new house!). But that was only the beginning.

I resisted the changes for a while. I held on desperately to my suburban-Alabama-twinged Florida-ness. My first clue to the coming metamorphosis was in November when I began searching my closet for something to wear to our RUF Barn Dance. I realized that my wardrobe was overwhelmingly dominated by pastels and stripes. A quick trip to Goodwill solved that immediate problem, and I didn't think much of it...for a while.

I'm not sure what happened after that. I wish I could say. All I know is that my small selection of plaid began to reproduce like rabbits. My closet started getting full, and brightly-colored striped shirts began a sad migration to the box under my bed. 

But, not to worry...my wardrobe would not go without bright colors. In fact, one color in particular began to spread faster than the others. And not just clothes. Before I knew it, I had T-shirts, polo shirts, button-down shirts, shorts, a towel, a visor, a chair...all BRIGHT ORANGE.

 Yes, this life-long Seminole fan, who was quite distressed after the National Championship of 1998, soon owned nearly as much orange Tennessee paraphernalia as he did Garnet & Gold. The final straw was when the "Power T" made its first appearance on my vehicle (I can't claim credit for this one...thanks, Dad.)

Up until this point, the changes in wardrobe could be easily explained away one way or another. But after living nearly a year in East Tennessee, I stopped looking for a pretense. I figured, "When in Rome..." and I bought my first pair of Chacos (the official footwear of East Tennessee). My guilt for caving into peer pressure has been eased by the fact that they are by far the best things I have ever put on my feet. Seriously.

There are many other changes not having to do specifically with my new home, but rather with my new stage in life. For instance, I have had to learn how to feed myself (without going to a cafeteria or fast-food restaurant). When it came to decorating, down came the Ferris Bueller and college football posters...and up went art. Yes, you heard me. Art. The likes of which you buy for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I won't get started on the decorative fake plants.

My media choices have also shifted considerably. After long protesting that I wasn't interested and that I'd never read it...I finally began reading Harry Potter. More than a mere choice of reading material, I feel like a cultural veil has been lifted from my eyes, and I finally know what the heck everyone's been talking about for the past decade. It's lived up to the hype, for sure. I've just started Book 5, and I say with all semi-seriousness, if you ruin the ending for me, I may not be able to forgive you for a while.

And then there's the music...I've always been upfront with the fact that I am way behind the times musically, and I've never been able to fit my tastes into any type of genre (or even artist!). I had no idea who all these new bands were everyone was talking about, and frankly, I didn't care. But drop me in Tennessee, and specifically into RUF, and I didn't stand a chance. Call me conformist, but my iPod is now happily full of the Avett Brothers and, thanks to my hip(ster?) campus minster, Mumford & Sons. I know, I know...you all liked them before they were cool. I'm okay playing catch-up.

So yes, it's been a year full of change since I moved to Knoxville. A new job, new house, new friends, new church, new clothes, new shoes, new team (in addition and subordinate to the old team, mind you), new skills, new decor, new books, new music...

However, all of these changes are still pretty surface-level. I'm still the same person I've always been (and I'll always be "from Florida"). I think there's something good to be said for adjusting to your new surroundings.

The most important changes are the ways God has been at work in my heart the past year. He has shown me in ways that I've never before experienced just how weak and helpless I am without Him. He's shown me places in my heart that I never knew were there (and wish they weren't). There is still a whole lot of work to be done, and there always will be. However, as God has been revealing the glory of His gospel to me more and more real in my life this year through the ups and downs, His grace has been working and shaping my heart. While I feel like I'm always finding more and more that needs to be "fixed" in my life, I can rejoice and praise my Father in Heaven for the work He has done. I have been justified by grace alone, and I am also being sanctified by grace alone. The more I understand how helpless, lost, dead I am without Him, the more I love Him...and, thanks be to God, the more I can love others. There is a long way to go...but I can rejoice in how far He has brought me.

So as I face my second year in Knoxville, with Mumford on the iPod and Chacos on the feet, I look forward to all of lessons (some of them difficult) that God still has for me to learn through this internship, and the real "changes" that He is always at work accomplishing in my heart.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Resting in His Promises,

Stephen


P.S. go vols!

P.P.S. but really...go noles!