Service Trip Final Night: Jar Busting

Our final night, Brett came to speak to us about carrying on the work of the service trip onto our campus during the semester. If the trip attitudes of service and Christian loving and family exist only during the one week then it's not worth having the trip. I agreed completely with this statement as over the past five years (since my outreach team started it in 2009), our on campus impact has varied. This year between the challenges presented during Urbana to 6 of the students and shared during the trip with another 20-30 students, I'm hoping we will have a bigger impact in our daily lives. Brett's talk focused on Mark 14:1-26 which describes a woman breaking a precious jar of perfume over Jesus' feet then wiping them with her hair. He challenged us to: 1. Go where most won't go 2. Bring what most won't bring and 3. Do what most won't do. This semester, the goal is for the students to break their jars (overcoming the fear) containing what is precious to them (time, money, future goals, etc.) to serve God where He calls them to be (wherever that may be). I know that I had to give up my preplanned life of getting a full time teaching job, with a guaranteed salary to continue to serve God on Fredonia's campus with InterVarsity so I know the temptation to just let our precious resources just drip out (giving little bits of money or time here or there, but not committing ourselves to His work completely. This semester I've challenged many students with specific ways that God might be calling them to step up and break the jar to serve Him. One student responded with "You just HAD to say the jar. Now I have no choice." It's a convicting thing to think about how God wants us to surrender to him and the metaphor can help provide students with the needed push to commit to going and doing something new this semester.