Our Family’s Twenty-Second Year of “First Day of Class”
Cady Noreen began her first year of school in 1996. Becca in 1999. Rachel in 2002. I love “new school year” hoopla. I love the smell of new pencils in a pencil sharpener. I love 3×5 cards. It is amazing to recognize that Rachel only has two “first day’s” left. This year she drove by herself up to school. I feel a sense of joy and loss at the same time — no longer having to wander the aisles of Target for pink erasers and glue sticks, but also no longer having the opportunities to interact with other homeroom moms, teachers, administrators, etc. I actually miss PTA meetings and book sales and nights at the roller skating rink. And yet, only three more “first day of school”s and Khloe will be in kindergarten.
As another school year starts, are you involved in anything new? Sending a child out the door? Starting a new Bible Study? On a new committee? We are so thankful for your partnership with us!
Starting the School Year in Indiana — Soybeans, Corn and Jesus
I got to take my first business trip in my new role as a writer for the US Campus Ministry — to Indiana. My new work team met at our Westfield, Ind., office because more than
half of our team (Wendy, Sean and Brooke) already works there. It felt as hot as an Orlando summer day but we were surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans and sunflowers. No palm trees.
Our team met for two solid days, with an extra dinner thrown in for good measure. Some of the things we discussed included: looking at our individual strengths, a reminder of our purpose in light of the campus ministry’s focus, team norms (how do we work together from three different locations, etc), assignments for now, and more.
Our team is stepping into a situation (in the campus ministry) where they have just done a huge restructuring. There has not been a consistent communication team or plan. We are reinstating ways of writing and communicating to give our ministry a more cohesive look and voice. And, in doing all of these things, making each piece of communication 
more effective for the staff who are working on the college and high school campuses as they are working with students, faculty and local ministry partners.
Our team recently helped release our first national email (Campus Communication) with vital information, and then a national Quick Read with resources and helpful information. These two are meant to replace ten or more emails, some with redundant information, sent (in the past) on a monthly basis to members of our campus staff. Getting all of that often confusing information sometimes kept people from doing what God has called them to do. I am thrilled to be a part of this writing team.
One last thing: working with the campus ministry of Cru has given me a new focus. And with it has come an amazing reality.
This Year’s Incoming College Freshmen?!
Beloit College prepares a “Mindset List” about each new college class. Here are a few of the tidbits (with personal opinion thrown in):
- The graduating class of 2022 is the FIRST to be born in the 2000s! They are NOT Millennials; but will they be iGen? GenZ? Apparently “they” haven’t decided.
- To this group, outer space has never been without human habitation (currently it’s the Space Station; I remember watching the first man walk on the moon).
- They’ve grown up with stories about where their grandparents were on 11/22/63 (Andy and I were 18 months old) and where their parents were on 9/11/01 (I was attending a Bible Study).
- Films have always been available on the Internet. (I remember missing Charlie Brown’s Christmas in December and I had to wait until the next year to see it.)
- A visit to a bank is a rare event. They will likely never have a checkbook.
- They have never used a spit bowl at the dentist’s office.
The Kelloggs 