C.S. Lewis

"A man who is eating or lying with his wife, or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness, and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach and reading Plato in a state of pride."

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable."

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

Three Principles for Internship

Three Principles in which the intern must understand and be committed too:

1. The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

· The Scriptures are trustworthy, inerrant, infallible and authoritative.

· The Scriptures are sufficient to reveal God, the way of salvation, and the will of God for men.

· The Scriptures are clear enough to be understood by any Christian using ordinary means with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

2. Justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ.

· Justification is God’s declaring the believer forgiven of all his sins on the basis of Christ’s bearing the guilt and penalty of his sins on the cross.

· Justification is God’s declaring the believer righteous on the basis of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to him.

· Justification springs from God’s free grace and is received by faith alone.

· A proper understanding of justification leads to:

1. A Christian’s continual acknowledgment that his acceptance by God is based totally on the work of Christ.

2. A Christian’s understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience.

3. A Christian’s knowledge that sanctification necessarily flows from justification.

3. Sanctification is God conforming sinners to the image of Christ by the work of His Spirit.

· In sanctification the believer is increasingly enabled to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.

· In sanctification the believer is progressively renewed in the whole person after the image of Christ.

· A proper understanding of sanctification leads to:

1. A continual engagement by the believer in the means of grace, including prayer, meditation, mortification of sin, worship and fellowship.

2. A recognition by the believer that the means of grace are means by which he is aided in his responsibility to seek holiness.

3. An attitude of dependence upon the Holy Spirit for growth in grace.

4. A clear understanding of the dynamic tension between justification and sanctification; that is, sanctification springs from justification and justification is the continual ground for sanctification.

5. A confidence that God will bring the work of sanctification to completion in glorification.

Steps in Applying for Internship and Placement

Steps in Applying for Internship

Bullets in red are steps completed as of today:

· First and foremost those interested in the internship must talk with their Campus Minister and inform them of their interest. The campus minister will guide students through this process.

· Those interested then must have their campus minister, or themselves personally, contact the intern administrator in the RUF National Office. The administrator then send those interested the intern application, answer any further question they may have, and will be sure to email those interested with regular updates concerning application deadlines and interview information.

· Applications will be emailed out to those seriously interested by November 2010

· Applications are to be submitted to the intern administrator by December 31^st, 2010

· If the application is approved applicants must attend one of the five nationwide interview sessions in the spring (more details on dates and locations TBA).

· If approved post interview, applicants will be assigned a campus by mid-March and informed of placement by late March. If any applicant is unsure of their commitment to the internship by mid March we ask they not apply.

· Those hired will begin some development work in May and will begin full time fundraising June 1^st.

This will also give you a good time line to know what you can be praying for as each step comes a long.

Placement

Interns are placed on any campus across the nation dependant on several factors:

· Where returning interns are placed

· Male or Female Applicant

· Number and type of campus minister request received for that year

· Number of intern applications received for that year

· Personality of intern applicant

· Personality of campus minister

· Demographics and personality of campus

· Need and size of RUF at the campus

· Applicants ability to raise money

· Finances of individual RUF

· Local factors; church, peer group, size of city, location of city

Please note: Applicants will NOT be placed on the campus from which they graduated or with a former campus minister. If the applicant is NOT willing to move wherever they are placed we ask they NOT apply.

Defining the RUF Internship

All the subsequent information is from the Intern Informational Packet. There will be quite a few posts from this packet so you can be in the loop as to the process that is ahead of me! Hope you enjoy!

Title: Campus Intern

Duration and Objective: Two Year Minimum in which the internship provides the intern with the opportunity to try vocational ministry; an opportunity to learn strengthen and weakness and develop gifts for both secular and ministerial jobs.

Focus and Responsibility: An intern’s student focus is primarily fringe students with little connection to RUF, freshman, and new students. The purpose is to develop relationships with these students to help equip and disciple them for life and service as a believer and to reach out to non-believers. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

· Raising Support – interns must raise a budget of at least $31,000 each year

· Staff Trainings – interns must attend June Orientation, July Staff Training, and October and May Intern Training

· Study Program – interns must spent 15hrs a working on a rigorous study program

· One on one interactions with students – interns spent most one on one interactions with fringe and new students. Interns need to identify the spiritual condition of those students and determine how they will minister to those depending on each students need

· Assistance with or leading small groups of various kinds – groups include core group, Bible studies, Freshman lunch, prayer groups, etc

· Assisting the CM with ministry goals and strategy

· Campus and RUF social events

· Large Group

· Conferences and mission trips

· Communicating with supporters the accomplishments and needs of ministry – interns must send out quarterly newsletters to communicate with support base

Funding: Intern funding comes primarily from individuals and one or two supporting churches that the intern has a personal relationship with. Church support must be approved through the Atlanta Office.

And So it Begins... :D

I checked my email today and this was what was waiting for me! Oh my gosh! It is sooooo exciting!

Afternoon!

You are receiving this email because at some point within the past year you have expressed interest in the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) intern program. We are so excited to have so many students interested in our internship program!

As a brief overview the RUF internship is a two year opportunity to serve in vocational ministry. RUF is the college ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America and is located on hundreds of campuses nationwide. Interns will serve two years under a PCA ordained campus minister on an assigned campus anywhere in the nation. The purpose of the internship is to allow the intern a chance to test and develop their gifts. From leading small groups, to planning social events, to one on one student meetings interns have the chance to explore their strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes all while helping to serve RUF at large.

Attached is a packet of information providing further detail on the program as well as a more detailed overview and application outline. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, Emily Shriver, the intern administrator. I am happy to walk you through this process and to further explain why the RUF internship is a wonderful experience for anyone wanting the chance to explore vocational ministry.

You will continue to receive intern information updates and the Fall 2010 application later this fall. However, if you wish to be removed from this mailing list please reply with the subject “no mail”. We will promptly remove your name.

Thank you again for your interest in our program and I am looking forward to meeting many of you through the coming months!

Emily Shriver

Reformed University Fellowship

Intern and Female Staff Administrator

eshriver@ruf.org

404.775.0343

ruf.org

Fall Conference 2010 and Raising Support

Fall Conference 2010

So last weekend was Fall Conference for RUF and it was AWESOME! I had so much fun! For those of you who don't know what Fall Conference is allow me to explain. It is a RUF retreat for all the RUFs in VA to get together and hear solid preaching and fellowship. I was so glad that I was able to go this year. This is the only year that I will be able to go as a student and I wanted to get a students perspective before I went as an intern. It was great to see what my future students will get to enjoy and I look forward to getting an inside view if you will as an intern next year, Lord willing.

I was also blessed with the opportunity to lead worship for the weekend with my Lynchburg RUF worship team. It was such a great honor and blessing to sing amazing songs of praise to the God who loves me beyond belief! God's love was definitely made very evident in those 3 days!

Internship News -

While there I was able to sit down with some interns from other schools to get their perspective on their experience. It was awesome to be able to hear what their challenges were and what God has been doing in them through the internship. It got me even more excited.

Now that I am meeting with Marc and Parker on a regular basis to prepare me for internship it is becoming more real to me. And with that excitement comes a lot of nerves. As I have stated in my past posts I am nervous about being a good intern and about support raising. Well lately God has really been helping to ease my nerves about being a good intern. Not to say that I am fully confident that I am going to rock at this. Haha! Far from it but I am able to rest in Him knowing that He is in control and He will be leading me through the process and the one on ones that are ahead of me.

Future Fears of Raising Support

Support raising still however scares me to death. $32,000 is a LOT of money to raise. And that is just for 1 year. I have to do it again the second year. And that is just the minimum. Depending on where I get sent I could end up having to raise more! I have to call, email, speak to people and ask them for money!

I am the type of person who likes to do things myself. I don't really like asking for help when it comes to responsibilities and support raising goes against all of that. I have to humble myself by admitting that I CAN'T nor should I do this myself and that I NEED many people to give me substantial amounts of money. Oh that thought makes me cringe! Part of me just wants to work my butt off for the next few months and crank out as much funds as I can. But I know that is ridiculous. There is NO WAY that this can be done alone. Nor am I expected too! Still it is quite daunting.

How in the world am I going to be able to raise all of that money? I have heard other people try to raise money for missions trips and organization. It is hard! A lot of people just sit there and listen and then walk away with out a second thought. I must admit I have been among those people on many occasions. How am I going to make people understand my passion for this and my desperate need for funding? How do I get people to want to give to me? How do I get people to believe in RUF like I do? How do I get people to believe in me? How can I raise money from people who are already supporting my campus minister and his family? How do I get my largely Baptist extended family to want to support me in a Reformed campus ministry?

All of these questions and worries are getting more and more apparent as my school grows quickly to a close. Even now as I am still months away from support raising I would covet your prayers on all of these worries and that even now months out God would be paving the ways and moving in those people to be my future supporters.

All of that being said I still want to do this more then ever. I still feel God leading me to do this and I know that if this is indeed His will that I will get the supporters. I must rest in His will and His provision and pray constantly for His comfort, peace, courage and wisdom. I would love for you to join me in those prayers.

TTFN

Rach~