Well, I have officially been in the beautiful town of Winona, Minnesota for nine days now. The two-day trip out here with my Dad was very successful. We encountered some interesting things along the way, including a drive through a torrential downpour in the state of Nebraska and a visit to the national SPAM museum in Austin, Minnesota (never thought I’d be so excited about SPAM in my life)!
The first few days here consisted of moving in to the house (which is really charming!), settling in, and exploring the town of Winona. It really is a beautiful town, with a population of about 27,000, an elevation of about 600' and a couple bodies of water bordering the main part of the town: Lake Winona and the mighty Mississippi River. Driving into Winona, you drop about 500’ in elevation in about three minutes, as the town sits basically in a valley, with tall green bluffs surrounding the entire town. Also, Wisconsin is less than a mile away--- just a drive across the river.
The campus of Winona State University is very beautiful! Our team got a tour of it last week from Tom, the campus minister at the Newman Center. Many of the buildings are only a few years old, and there are many open spaces with beautiful greenery and trees. The St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center is directly across from one side of campus, and the Sacred Heart Cathedral is directly across from the other side of campus—very convenient locations!
All last week, our team worked hard on preparing and planning for the students’ arrival and the vision our team and ministry are going to take. Because we are the first ones starting up FOCUS on the campus of WSU, we are really striving to build a strong foundation for our ministry so that it will thrive in all the years to come. It has definitely been interesting learning about all the planning that goes in to reaching others for Christ on campus!
It has been wonderful getting to know my team on a deeper level these past nine days. My teammates are Jake, Mary, and Mark (in order above). This weekend, we went on a team "off-site" up to Pierz, MN, which is just north of St. Cloud. It was good to just relax and have fun for a couple days before things start full swing. It has been fun seeing the dynamic we all have when working, praying, and hanging out together. I definitely know that God has gifted our team with an individual uniqueness and already a sense of cohesiveness, so it will be exciting to see the fruits we will bear in working together! One thing I love is that we laugh a lot, which I think is important in this type of ministry, as well as life—to be working with/spending time with people who make you laugh, even when things are a bit stressful.
Things kick up for us tomorrow with the arrival of the freshmen. The whole week we will be doing outreach events with the Newman Center and meeting tons of people! Hopefully God will give me the grace of remembering names… a skill that I definitely need to work on! Classes start for the students on the following Monday, the 22nd, which will bring all 8,600 students back to campus for the start of the semester.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. You are in my prayers daily, so please continue sending me prayer requests! May God bless you and keep you.
Yours in Christ,
Emily
Emily,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have had a good nine days. The Spam Museum really? Never knew there was one.
Hope you have a great first week with the college students. We know that god will guide you.
Love you
Aunt Andrea
Auntie Drea,
ReplyDeleteYes, there IS such a thing as the SPAM museum.... I will post pictures on Facebook soon! It was pretty exciting.
The first week went great.... they start classes today so things will get more underway with a set schedule soon. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Love,
Emily