Happy New Year!

Here is a picture of the PC students and staff that went to the Paradox 2009 Conference in Washington DC!
We are just now getting settled back in at our house in Clinton after the whirlwind of Christmas with our families and the Paradox Conference in DC! We loved getting to spend time with both of our families for Christmas this year, and i have to say my first Christmas with the McCouns was so much fun!! Jake's parents have been going to Perimeter Church in Atlanta, and we got to go with them on the Sunday we were there. it's such a neat church and great to see how the Lord is using small groups to build true community in the church! Jake and I spent Christmas with my family this year, which was so fun for me to spend time with my sisters! I had been joking with Jake all fall about how I wanted to get a pet. At first I was thinking a dog, but he made it verrrry clear that we would not be getting a dog anytime soon, so i started talking about a cat. Well, Christmas morning came and I opened a calendar with pictures of Cats on it...Jake joked "well, i got you some cats." i started laughing, but all of a sudden Jake and my dad came running in with a large box, wrapped and moving around. When they brought it over to me, out jumped one of my parent's 3 cats: Camus! I thought Jake was totally joking, but he told me he was serious-we were getting a kitty!! I was so excited, and now we have a fat grey cat to play with in Clinton!

The Paradox Conference, a Campus Outreach New Year's conference, was awesome!! We had 70 students from PC, all packed onto 2 buses bright and early at 6:45 on Tuesday morning and headed to Washington DC to meet about 400 other college students from Campus Outreach Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte, Wingate, Davidson, Elon, UNC-Greensboro, Davidson College), Campus Outreach Lynchburg (Radford University, Randolph College, Virginia Tech) and the rest of Campus Outreach Greenville (Western Carolina University, Wofford College, Furman University). Our theme verse for the conference was 1 Corinthians 1:18: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The conference was an awesome time of transformation for many of our students! Some heard the gospel for the first time, and others began to apply the truth of the cross to their lives for the first time! With 3 of the 4 girls in my discipleship group there, it was awesome to see the Lord work in their hearts to cultivate a vision for the lost that is so much bigger than themselves! The conference was not just big for our students, but was huge for my own heart as I learned so much through the content! One of the talks that really applied to my life was Andy Lewis's (the senior pastor at Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church where we are members) talk on contentment, really challenging me to be content with the way the Lord has made me and gifted me. There will be more info about the conference on the website www.pardox2009.com, check it out!!!

Jake and I returned home late Saturday night, and were exhausted! We have finally been able to catch up on some sleep and are ready and excited for what God has in store for the campus this semester. Today we will be in meetings with our staff team planning for this term! We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and will update again soon!