What DO you DO...
We are asked this question alot: Just what DO campus missionaries DO...
The rest of the question usually varies... at the office? during meetings? to raise money? on campus? and the focus of today's post: during the summer?
So, just what DO campus missionaries DO during the summer?
I thought you'd never ask. :)
Here's a little pictorial review of what this summer has looked like for the Jacksons!
As you can see, it's a little bit of family time and a whole lot of planning & prep time! In actual words, here's some of what we did this summer:
Planning >
We spent the majority of the summer making plans for the upcoming school year (which starts for us in about 1 week). We manage two properties which we rent to students and those needed updating and leases renewed. The first few weeks of summer were spent making those arrangements but most of our summer planning hours are spent on Chi Alpha events, strategies, and organization for the Fall. We have planned our first two weeks of school, which we call Welcome Week at SFA (top left photo). They are jam-packed with events designed to attract freshmen and connect them to our small groups. We want them to feel loved and welcomed! We keep in touch with small group and iTeam leaders throughout the summer. We plan and facilitate a retreat just for the leadership team at the end of every summer, which requires budgeting, negotiating, planning, shopping, brainstorming, and more (bottom left photo).
Freshmen >
We also spent 5 weeks this summer participating in Freshmen Orientations. We set up a table during the University-sponsored Religious Organization Fair and spent several hours a week meeting and connecting with incoming freshmen (read, "Potential Chi Alpha members"). We invested more effort this year in our table set-up to highlight our major Welcome Week event, the XA Luau. Every member wore a lei and the girls put flowers in the hair, too. We gave every student information to take home about Chi Alpha and our upcoming events, which brings me to...
Design Work >
I (Ashley) spend an insane amount of summer time catching up on design work and planning new marketing strategies for the coming year. This summer I've designed multiple websites for Chi Alpha related entities in addition to the pieces you see in the collage above in the top and bottom right photos: Promo Pieces for the XA Luau and a new Chi Alpha tshirt.
Underground Church >
This summer we tried something new. Because we had a good number of Chi Alpha students staying in Nac for the summer, we organized a weekly Bible Study which we called Underground Church. We got together each week for a bit of worship and a study through the book of Romans. In addition, a different student took the book Operation World home each week to learn about and pray for a country, which he/she then shared about with the rest of the group. We spent time in prayer each week for a different country! How awesome is that!
Support Raising >
But probably the most important part of our summer schedule is the time we spend raising finances. This summer was quite the task: we had 3 major ongoing projects that needed financial backing. Personal Support ($1,000 monthly), Welcome Week ($1,000 one-time), and our International House Remodel ($5,000+ one-time). We are still in the process on several of these projects, but are excited to say that the up-front work on the International House Remodel has been provided for - Praise God! We have received a few donations towards the Welcome Week budget and while we have received an overwhelming amount (seriously, it's been amazing - thank all of you!) of special offerings for us personally, we have still not raised anything towards our new monthly goal.
So, as you can see, the summer may technically be "off" time for us - but our workload is anything but light! In addition to all that, we managed to squeeze in multiple medical procedures & accompanying doctor's visits, a trip to south Louisiana, a couple of short trips to north Louisiana, and our first real family vacation with Katelyn!
Please do pray for our family: we need to raise our personal finances, we need wisdom and God's direction in several areas, and we need strength and peace to continue working hard for His Kingdom. And please pray for our ministry: we love these students and have big dreams for what God could do in them and through them! Help us to communicate those dreams clearly, to accurately and proudly proclaim the Good News to this campus, and for souls to hear the Gospel and respond to Him!
I hope you've enjoyed our first installment of What DO you Do... Keep your eyes open for more answers to your questions in the future!
Read more »
The rest of the question usually varies... at the office? during meetings? to raise money? on campus? and the focus of today's post: during the summer?
So, just what DO campus missionaries DO during the summer?
I thought you'd never ask. :)
Here's a little pictorial review of what this summer has looked like for the Jacksons!
Planning >
We spent the majority of the summer making plans for the upcoming school year (which starts for us in about 1 week). We manage two properties which we rent to students and those needed updating and leases renewed. The first few weeks of summer were spent making those arrangements but most of our summer planning hours are spent on Chi Alpha events, strategies, and organization for the Fall. We have planned our first two weeks of school, which we call Welcome Week at SFA (top left photo). They are jam-packed with events designed to attract freshmen and connect them to our small groups. We want them to feel loved and welcomed! We keep in touch with small group and iTeam leaders throughout the summer. We plan and facilitate a retreat just for the leadership team at the end of every summer, which requires budgeting, negotiating, planning, shopping, brainstorming, and more (bottom left photo).
Freshmen >
We also spent 5 weeks this summer participating in Freshmen Orientations. We set up a table during the University-sponsored Religious Organization Fair and spent several hours a week meeting and connecting with incoming freshmen (read, "Potential Chi Alpha members"). We invested more effort this year in our table set-up to highlight our major Welcome Week event, the XA Luau. Every member wore a lei and the girls put flowers in the hair, too. We gave every student information to take home about Chi Alpha and our upcoming events, which brings me to...
Design Work >
I (Ashley) spend an insane amount of summer time catching up on design work and planning new marketing strategies for the coming year. This summer I've designed multiple websites for Chi Alpha related entities in addition to the pieces you see in the collage above in the top and bottom right photos: Promo Pieces for the XA Luau and a new Chi Alpha tshirt.
Underground Church >
This summer we tried something new. Because we had a good number of Chi Alpha students staying in Nac for the summer, we organized a weekly Bible Study which we called Underground Church. We got together each week for a bit of worship and a study through the book of Romans. In addition, a different student took the book Operation World home each week to learn about and pray for a country, which he/she then shared about with the rest of the group. We spent time in prayer each week for a different country! How awesome is that!
Support Raising >
But probably the most important part of our summer schedule is the time we spend raising finances. This summer was quite the task: we had 3 major ongoing projects that needed financial backing. Personal Support ($1,000 monthly), Welcome Week ($1,000 one-time), and our International House Remodel ($5,000+ one-time). We are still in the process on several of these projects, but are excited to say that the up-front work on the International House Remodel has been provided for - Praise God! We have received a few donations towards the Welcome Week budget and while we have received an overwhelming amount (seriously, it's been amazing - thank all of you!) of special offerings for us personally, we have still not raised anything towards our new monthly goal.
So, as you can see, the summer may technically be "off" time for us - but our workload is anything but light! In addition to all that, we managed to squeeze in multiple medical procedures & accompanying doctor's visits, a trip to south Louisiana, a couple of short trips to north Louisiana, and our first real family vacation with Katelyn!
Please do pray for our family: we need to raise our personal finances, we need wisdom and God's direction in several areas, and we need strength and peace to continue working hard for His Kingdom. And please pray for our ministry: we love these students and have big dreams for what God could do in them and through them! Help us to communicate those dreams clearly, to accurately and proudly proclaim the Good News to this campus, and for souls to hear the Gospel and respond to Him!
I hope you've enjoyed our first installment of What DO you Do... Keep your eyes open for more answers to your questions in the future!
Katelyn Update
My brave little girl has now been to the doctor not once but twice for follow-up visits since her surgery in April. I know many of you have asked how she is doing since all that chaos - Keep reading for a full update on what's happened since we left the hospital!At first, everything was going great - Katelyn was improving, she regained use of her leg within just a few days of returning home. We started her back in her Mother's Day Out program, which helped significantly with her clingy-ness issues with Mommy. We had to postpone her allergy test because of conflicts with the Clindamycin (antibiotic) she continued to take after release from the hospital. She spent a total of 6 weeks on the antibiotic, 3 doses / day. In the hospital she got her meds through her IV; but at home we had to give it to her orally. Every doctor, tech, pharmacist, pharmacy employee... everyone we talked with about her antibiotics told us how gross it tastes and how difficult it would be to get her to swallow. They were all right! We eventually found that by mixing it with a few tablespoons of yogurt or apple sauce, she would take it. So 3 times a day (including one dose at 3am given by my amazing husband) she had a bowl of yogurt or apple sauce. Needless to say, we actually did a dance when we gave her the last dose at home!
By the time she went back for her first follow-up we were very excited about her progress! We thought for sure she would be cleared and we could go on with our lives. While her follow-up appointment went as well as could be expected, she was not cleared. Her doctors were very encouraged by the bloodwork at that visit - both CRP and ESR levels had dropped since her last day at the hospital and were back to within normal ranges - but they wanted to check her levels one more time 2 weeks after her last dose of Clinda. So, we waited about another month and headed back to Dallas for follow-up appointment #2. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Between follow-up appointments 1 & 2, our baby girl spiked a little fever. Nothing major - very low, never going above 100.5, but technically a fever, which was NOT supposed to be possible on such a strong antibiotic. So we rushed to the doctor and she rushed us to the hospital for more bloodwork. The first set showed a slightly elevated CRP level, a scary thing that could indicate more infection in her hip. So we waited through the weekend and had another test done on Monday to confirm the increase, but luckily the second set of bloodwork pointed towards a viral infection, meaning something different from her hip. Sure enough, her "fever" went away and we never saw any signs of discomfort in her hip. Whew.
Now, back to follow-up appointment #2. Having been there before, we had the routine down this time: we showed up an hour early, rocked through her bloodwork, and then headed upstairs to wait for her exray's. They wanted to take a look at the bones in her left hip to make sure the infected fluid hadn't caused any damage structurally. When we met with the doctors, they told us her blood work was once again perfect and that her exray's also looked clear. We expected to hear the magical words, "We think she's over this thing now." Instead, we heard, "But we'd like you to come back one more time... in 6 months." More exray's. More blood work. Apparently, damage from this fluid to the structure of her hip can take up to 6 months to appear on an exray, so back to Dallas we go at the turn of the year.
As I'm sure you can sense in my sarcastic tone, we are less than excited about a return trip to Dallas. It's an all-day adventure with a toddler strapped in a carseat - and those adventures are never fun. But, even as I complain about the return trip, I am SO incredibly grateful that she has improved as much as she has - and I am equally grateful for the diligence our doctors have shown in her care. I would much rather make one more trip to Dallas than to discover in a few years that she has major structural damage to her hip.
All in all... it's not such a bad drive to Dallas - plus, there's always Fadi's Mediterranean Grill to help me get through it! (It's our new favorite Dallas restaurant)
So, thanks again for all the prayers for our baby girl. She is so precious to us! We love you all!
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