Burritos and Campus Ministry

As they say, anything worth having has a cost. And so it was for Brittany and I last night.

In an effort to recruit interns for next summer, I contacted the campus minister at the Christian Campus House at Missouri State University and he invited me to attend one of their regular Tuesday evening gatherings to plug the program. Since it's only an hour away and Springfield has 3 Q'doba locations I figured it was worth the effort. Then Dave (Embree, who is the campus minister at CCH) told me they started at 8:01pm and would be done around 9:30pm. You can see the dilemma starting to take shape.

Nevertheless, my wonderful wife agree to tag along - let's be honest, she was only in it for the burrito - despite the guaranteed late night. So we went.

First stop, Q'doba just off the James River at the Kansas Expressway exit (odd name for that road, it runs north and south - not west toward Kansas - and is chock full of traffic lights - "expressway?"). We pulled in between rushes and quickly received our bundles of goodness. My new favorite is the Ancho Chili BBQ Burrito. It's like taking all that is right and good about a trip to Sonny's and wrapping it up in a super-sized tortilla with all the typical goodness of a Q'doba burrito. It's worth every penny - and every mile.

Second stop, Brittany's brother's apartment. Brayden is a student athlete at MSU (baseball) and lives with 3 of the guys from the team just off campus. We stopped by to see him for a few minutes since we were in the area. In that time we got to see him cook himself dinner - which involved actually using a skillet and the stove - and the clothes he'd bought for a career fair this week. He and one of the roommates were trying to figure out how to tie the ties they had bought. The roommate was making progress, Brayden was fairly willing to let me help him a little. He seemed pretty happy when I tied it (on myself) then slid it off still tied so that he could just put it on and tighten it - and I don't blame him, I had to have that done for me a time or two.

Last stop, Plaster Student Union - location of 8:01 (the CCH gathering). We arrived early and set up a small display. It was only a few minutes until I encountered several students who were familiar with CIY and interested in interning. One of the students had emailed me about it back in summer and is planning to apply. By the time I got to work this morning another one of the girls we talked to had already submitted her application. The program CCH did was a good one, the worship - led by Allen Tyger, an OCC grad - was good, the Bible study done by one of the female staff members was well done. I was impressed with the sense of community throughout the group (of probably close to 200 people). I've seen campus ministry events that were larger like that and ended up being very shallow and superficial. This one wasn't that way - kudos to Dave and the staff.

After the CCH gathering ended I got a chance to talk to Dave for a few minutes. He's a 30-year Campus ministry veteran. I always appreciate getting to hear the heart of a guy who is out there doing that. Campus ministry in the secular world is a passion of mine - because I'm a product of it. Campus ministers generally seem to have a solid sense of the importance of discipling and helping Christian students grow as they prepare for careers in the secular world. They tend to see every occupation as an opportunity to serve Christ and advance His Kingdom - even if it's not a position in a church or ministry organization.

All-in-all it was a great evening, well worth the trip and the 11:30pm arrival at home. I would have been tempted to sleep in a little today, but since Britt didn't have that option I didn't think it would go over well, so I made the coffee a little stronger and went on about my way.