Prep for Cross-Cultural Ministry (#31DaysofMemories)

All senior inter-cultural studies majors at LCU have to take a capstone missions class called Prep for Cross-Cultural Ministry or Prep for short. It is a class that simulates being on a team of missionaries who are preparing to head to the field. The main presentation is given as though you are asking a missions board to support your team financially. It's definitely a class that stretches each and every missions major. It is an incredibly challenging class and has made the best missions majors want to throw their hands up and quit. Part of it is challenging because it's a huge group project based class. Part of it is challenging because you are determined to not look like a fool in front of the class prof and the board of professors you present to. Part of it is challenging simply because the stress and determination to not fail pushes you to your limits. And part of it is challenging because of the reality that this is what we've worked 4 years for and what we will have to face when we graduate and are ready to head to our respective fields.

One of our team photos from our first
round of pictures for our displays. 

The fall of 2010 was the semester that I took Prep. I had a great group. There were 3 girls and 1 guy. And we all had been in classes together since we were freshman. We worked well together and worked long hours on our project. For our project, our team was preparing to go to Kampala, Uganda to work with former child soldiers. It was an incredibly long semester of hard work and it came down to our final presentation before the board of professors. 

We had to prepare a presentation complete with display board, handouts, visuals. The works. Our team did great in getting everything together. I did some of the design work for our brochures and handouts with the help of my sisters and goodness, did it give me a new appreciation for people who do those kinds of things. We prayed and prepared and prayed some more. And before we knew it our presentation was just around the corner. 

Now, like I said earlier, this class could push every student to their limit. And it pushed me over mine. I got so stressed and worried about our project, about doing well, about having to present, that I actually made myself sick and was on the verge of giving myself an ulcer. Not even kidding. 

I had been feeling super nauseous and weak for a few days. I was working at the Y as an after-school childcare provider and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break, I was so sick at work that I couldn't even drive myself back to campus. I could barely get up from the fetal position. My sister and My Love (at the time we had only been dating a month or two) came to pick me up. They immediately took me to the emergency room in Springfield where we passed the hours well into early morning waiting for test results and to see the doctor. My Love spent quite a bit of time reading the book of Esther to me while I tried to rest and not think about what was happening (I love it when he reads Scripture out loud. It's peaceful to me). 

While we were waiting at the ER, my mom had gotten into the car and driven 5 hours from Iowa to Springfield to make sure I was okay. When we finally got the results back and there wasn't anything clearly shown they sent me home and told me to follow-up with my family doctor. So, my mama packed me up and drove me back home to Iowa. I would end up not going back to school until after Thanksgiving break because of doctor's appointments and resting.

If you know me at all, you can imagine how freaked out I was. Not just by being sick, but also by missing that much school right before our group presentation. I hated having to email all of my professors and say that I would be late on getting assignments to them. I hated having to email my team to let them know I would miss our meetings til after break. I felt awful. But per the doctor's orders, I had to get my stress and anxiety down and that meant just resting and not doing much of anything. 

After Thanksgiving, I headed back to school and had a week to work with my team to finalize things for our presentation. I did my best not to freak out. But it was hard and it was a long, nerve-wracking week. 

The day finally came and we gave our all for our presentation. Part of the experience is to have to answer on the spot questions from the board of professors and roll with any curve-balls our prof may have given us. Thankfully, we made it through and we passed. We hadn't failed. We had been challenged. We had grown. We had made our prof proud. And that made all the hard work, the long nights and even the being sick, worth it to me. 

The logo we designed for our ministry in Uganda.