Bustin' Out in Emory!

RUF Emory Staff and Leadership Team

Hello everyone! First and foremost I want to thank all of you who have supported us through prayer and donations. By His sovereign power, God has used each one of you to bring me here to Emory's campus! Since I've arrived, things have been going non-stop. We went to a Braves' Game recently and took over 120 students with us! It was a great opportunity for me to meet new freshmen and get to know them. I have also been meeting with a number of students throughout the week and am working on getting Community Groups started. These groups are crucial to our ministry because they gives students the opportunity to meet together regularly in smaller groups to build deeper friendships and study the Bible.

A group of us at the Braves' Game!

We had our first large group meeting this week and it was encouraging to see such a diverse group of Christians and non-Christians come together to explore God's word! We had nearly 100 people come to the meeting and the campus minister, Hunter Bailey, gave his first talk from our series this semester on what it means to be a thinking Christian. He discussed what it means to love Jesus with all of our mind and how that influences the way we love Him with our hearts and souls.

Our RUF Emory t-shirt for this year!

The internship is not all fun and games, though. It has also been very challenging. I find myself dealing with issues of approval in how desperately I want students to like me. I see lack of faith in the ways I become upset when things don't go how I plan, such as trying to get a game of Frisbee together and no one showing up. I find issues of self-reliance in the way I try to approach students based on my own gifts and skills rather than through dependence on God. I often feel completely unqualified for my job and regularly wrestle with the tension of wanting to always be doing something for God but remembering that He has already done everything for me! In our study program this month we have been reading The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which has been extremely encouraging to me as I struggle through these issues. Being reminded that my standing before God is not dependent on how many students I meet with or how well my planned events go or how much I do for my campus minister is deeply comforting. It allows me to serve the Lord faithfully and trust that He is in control even when I get stood up for lunch or feel like I had an awkward conversation and will now be forever avoided. That, my friends, is good to know! Glory be to the God who does not judge us according to our own works, but according to the works of His perfect, righteous Son!

In other news, God has answered our prayers and provided Caroline with a job as a nanny until she begins her classes in January. She works for a wonderful Christian family with two young boys named John and Daniel. They have a pretty amazing story of their own you should definitely check out. Please read their blog at hemakesallthingsnew.com, I guarantee you will be encouraged if you do. Caroline and I are still adjusting to life in the big city of Atlanta, but we are enjoying the new adventures that come with it. Apparently the nation's largest indoor rock-climbing vented is right down the road from us, which I'm looking forward to visiting and out-climbing Caroline to the top!

Thank you so much again for you support and encouragement. Caroline and I are so thankful for each of you! If you want to learn more about RUF at Emory you can check out our blog at  emoryruf.blogspot.com.

Have a great day! We would love to hear from you!

You can always contact me at 478.321.4124 or marlin.harris@ruf.org

God Bless!