lori bailey @ georgia tech, season two

Well, folks, I must apologize once again for the exceptionally long gap between posts. Someday I aspire to be a diligent blogger with lofty standards of timeliness and cleverness. In the meantime, I suppose I should struggle to catch you up on what’s been going on with RUF at Georgia Tech…

First of all, I am back for my second semester of the internship!  Thanks to all of you who have helped with support along the way…I’m not quite to 100%, but only about $1000 shy of the target, so praise God for that!  Well, once it was certain that I indeed had a spring semester to look forward to, said semester was placed on hold while the infamous winter storm had a go at the city of Atlanta.  Not that I complained…three extra days trapped indoors provided a legitimate excuse to cook and bake relentlessly.  Finally, though, I felt like it was time to actually get back to work, and fortunately so did Georgia Tech.

Three weeks later, the semester is in full swing, and so is RUF!  Tuesday night large group, small groups, and an exciting addition that we’ve been trying out: weekly hymn sings, organized for the sole purpose of gathering students together to worship in prayer and song.  Huh?  Right, that’s what I thought at first, too, so here’s the promo video from Bifrost Arts: http://vimeo.com/14429217

The concept is appealingly simple: bring back the communal worship gathering that once was so common, when people came together for no other reason than to fellowship with one another in musical praise to our God.  This is an event that I ask you to be praying for, because it’s no simple matter to let go of our staid, suffocated approach to organized worship…nor is it easy to let down our walls of self-consciousness and oh-so-hip passivity.  I really want our students to be genuinely blessed by the practice of worship in song, and I’m very eager to see how our gatherings develop over their first trial semester.

Also, pray for my aspirations of blogging diligence  See you all back here soon.

i don’t have a bucket or a bell…

…but I hope you’ll feel generous nonetheless!

The end of the year is almost upon us, and here’s the deal: if I don’t raise about $4,000 [the remaining 13% of my annual budget] within the next few weeks, there will be no spring semester for me at Georgia Tech.

But think of it this way: someone’s donation this summer paved the way for a conversation with a freshman student. Another gift helped pack 17 girls into a tiny apartment for a fun-filled night of crafts and desserts. I am immensely grateful for all the awesome times you all helped provide for me and for RUF at Georgia Tech. I can’t buy quality experiences with another $4,000, but it will enable me to hang around a little longer to see what else God has in store!

So please keep that in mind, and pray about supporting me as I work towards 100%. Also, as a reminder, donations are tax deductible, which is nice for you

God bless, and happy New Year!

december is here, which means support…and snow!?

Yesterday, as Nathan and I left church, we noticed that the light drizzle was falling a little more slowly than usual.  After a while, the light drizzle also seemed a little whitish…and flaky.  Before long, it was undeniable — snow had arrived in Atlanta, Georgia.

That may not seem like sufficiently newsworthy material, but in my mind, it was nothing less than magical.  I could stare at snowflakes falling all day if I had a mind to.  And now, even if Georgia’s notoriously fickle temperatures decide to swing upwards towards December 25th, I can still pretend that, somewhere in the season, we had a white Christmas.

Along with snows [apparently], December also brings a time of great fun — aka end-of-year support raising!  Joy of joys!  Although I have a really hard time calling you all up and asking you for money, I hope my frankness will move you to show me grace when I do.  Anyway, it’s all God’s money, going to God’s work, which makes the whole deal a lot less about me and my paycheck and a lot more about Him and His plans.

Anyway, all that said, please pray about whether or not He would have you give to support my part in RUF at Tech, and that He would provide the remaining 15% of my support needed to get me through May.  Also, pray for courage and faith for me as I make the support-calling rounds

And finally, WWW.RUF.ORG/DONATE !!