New E-mail Address

Hi Family and Friends!

You may have realized after trying to e-mail me multiple times at ejones@ccu.edu that I hardly ever get back to you. I get so many e-mails at work that it's hard for me to take the time in between the 9 to 5 to respond to personal e-mails. So, I now have a new personal e-mail. The Libbylamarr@yahoo.com has been saturated with junk e-mails so I never check that one as well.

My new e-mail address is: libbylamarrjones@gmail.com

*Side note for the Jones family: I would have gone with libbyjones but of course there's already one out there... I tried elizabethjones, elizabethashleyjones, libbyashleyjones, nothing... So the maiden name was inserted.

Now I hope we can keep in better touch with each other.

Love!

South Africa!

We are going to South Africa! 

I (Libby) have been praying for three years about staff leading a missions trip and for three years the enemy has delayed me by instilling fear in my mind. I know we have a lot to fear in this world but as John Piper says, "Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life." I do not want to be driven by fear, I want to be driven by Christ. So we are going to South Africa with 10 to 15 CCU students in May. May 14th through the 30th. We are SO excited. Some of the most trying times yet greatest learning experiences took place on the last two mission trips I was blessed to be a part of. Now I get another chance to be challenges and pushed beyond my limits. I'm excited to live off of God's strength in this endeavor rather than my own. I'm even smiling as I write this. I'm so excited!!! 

Nathan is too :) 

If you want to know more about who we will be working with and what we will be doing while we are over there check out www.thriveafrica.org. 

Please be praying for us. 

Also, we know it's a little early to be saying this but if you think about getting us any kind of gift this year for Christmas or our Birthdays, etc. please do not give us an item. Please give us money for this trip. It's going to be costly and as of right now we are $1,000 short for the trip and the students I'm sure will need any money they can get. We'd love it if you all prayed about giving to this trip instead of giving us material items. 

Love you all! 

The DNC

Yes, the 25th of August 2008 marks the kickoff f the Democratic National Convention. Driving through downtown yesterday, we saw policed dressed in riot gear, police on horseback, police on dirt bikes, military helicopters keeping watch by air, medics on bikes... Denver is definitely ready for this historic event. I wish, however, I was working for one of the companies putting its employees up in Aspen for the next 5 days. Given that's not the case, we'll fight the traffic, bear with the endless news coverage, and get through it. See you on the other side.

The LDC- MY TEAM!

Left to Right
First Row: Lindsey, Eric, Stephen, Jason, Shauna
Second Row: Me, Missy, Waynette, Matt


Our Website!
http://www.ccu.edu/lifedirections/

The people:

Lindsey is new. She's from Colorado and just got her Master's from NYU in counseling. We are excited about her!

Eric, Missy and I hang out A LOT. Right now I am actually watching Eric's new puppy for him while he is away. Some people around CCU call Missy Mitsy and me Bitsy... I might go back to Blonde, then we will be twins :) We dress a like a lot. Missy is now the Assistant Director, we used to share cubicle wall but she's moved up in the world to her very own office. Eric and I give her a really hard time.

Joy was our Assistant Director but now is our Director. She's doing a great job!

Stephen is awesome, he's a great listener! He will be working with Sophomores this year.

Jason shares a cohort with me. The juniors. We're buddies.

Shauna is the preacher of the group. She's got a heart for God and a lot of passion along with it. She loves Jesus, people, and B-ball.

Me you know.

Waynette is our new Admin Assistant. She's catching on quick.

And then there is Matt, he is a goof! He loves Jesus too and has taught me a lot about being intentional with students. The students love him a lot. He's been really encouraging to me as well.

I love our team, they are great! I miss those who were a part of the original group but God moves people along. I'm thankful they have been a part of my life even if it's for a short time.

90 Degrees

Today, August 4th 2008, marked the 25th day in a row that the city of Denver has experienced temperatures of over 90 Degrees. For those who have ever lived in Fresno, this isn't saying much. But for Denverites, this could be evidence for global warming, and with the DNC coming to town that might just be how its leveraged.

Anyhow, life for the Jones' has been somewhat laid back lately...or for Nathan, at least. He has been enjoying the road bike, getting caught up on some good books ('The Three Signs of a Miserable Job' by Patrick Lencioni is a must!), and enjoying the Dark Knight...twice. Libby, on the other hand has been enjoying the intricacies of the APA (American Psychological Association) formatting for her MA papers. Only 21 more days till both if us will be enjoying the late nights at Starbucks again, as Libby continues to plug away at coursework, and Nathan takes on 6 of his last 7 credits this fall.

For those of you who are interested...Bentley continues to devote his canine existence to one thing: the green ball. When Jaycee and Elizabeth aren't around to keep him company all day, he has to resort to the one faithful friend who never talks back, and from whom discipline never has its origin. It is small, round, and has two legs (funny looking thing).

Well that's enough from CO, the greatest state in the union...if you're an altiholoc (def: one who has an addiction to high altitude).

God bless!

N,L, & B

Rock Band

This was our RockBand night with the college group. It was such a fun night and such a fun game!

church

Nathan and I met with our community life pastor at Aspen Grove church a year ago with the idea of starting a college ministry. We knew that AGCC was looking to provide a ministry for the few students they had but they didn't know who would head something like that up. The Lord put it on our hearts and we decided that we could make some sacrifices in other areas of our life to pour into students. So we kicked off the college group in January. Well, our first night was a little slim in number, there were two people. After a few weeks it still was a slim group that never could meet together at the same time. This May we found out that a few people were coming home from college and would like to get involved so we put on another kick off night. since that night we've had a substantial group, 5 students. We love it! They are so fun to hang out with and talk about God with. We meet on Monday nights for fellowship time where we play games or watch movies, etc. Then Nathan meets with two guys on Thursday mornings and I meet with 3 girls on Friday mornings. Our group is reading "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. I would highly recommend this book. I love it! His Theology is Biblical and cultural without being relativistic. I'll post pictures of the group after we take a few.

Pray for our group. We would love to reach out to the sommunity and bring in more students but we don't have much free time to do so. Pray that AGCC's doors would be open so that college student can walk in, then we will snatch em up and love on em! I know em isn't a realy word :)

Love you all!

First Blog Entry

Nathan and I are keeping very busy.

Nathan is still pursuing his Master in Leadership at Denver Seminary and hopes to be done by December. He has a break right now because there aren't any classes offered this summer that would work for his degree. The break has been a wonderful a time of rest for him, yet, Nathan never rests. He is always out and about doing one thing or another. Rock climbing, camping, hiking, or his favorite, bike riding.

I'll late Nathan tell some more tales about what's going on in his life, that will be the next post.

I started my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction a month ago. It's kept me extremely busy. It's a full-time program, 34 credits, but I should be done in March and I should graduate in May. I'm in class every other Friday night from 6-10 and Saturday from 8-5. It's been brutal getting home at 11 and waking up at 6, sometimes I even have to do some homework that Friday night. The weekends I have off I mainly work on homework. I try to get some friend time in on the week nights.

Work is going well. It's summer time so it's really quite around here but I'm getting a TON of work done which is exciting. when the students are here I'm really at their beckon call and I get very little done. When they're not here I work on projects. Some of you may not even know what my job entails so here it goes....

I advise 110 juniors on academics, career options, balance, study habits, faith matters, etc. I spend about 2 hours a week with 12 students mentoring them in their walk with the Lord. I may refer to my "cohort" a lot, and that's my group of 110. I started with them 2 years ago, when they first arrived at CCU. Some have left CCU and some have stayed and I've actually taken on a few more since some students transfer in to CCU. But the goal is to be their adviser until they leave. I LOVE IT! But, that's not all I do. I work along faculty and staff to collaborate on University initiatives such as our academic catalog, new data base system, teach appreciation days, chapel, retreats, student leadership, etc. I also oversee our Undeclared program. About 40% of freshman come into CCU without a major and I help those students figure out how God has gifted and talented them to give back to society. Lastly, I am the disability coordinator. I work with the other 7 advisers in my office to help disability students have equal access to education and success. So that's my job! A place of higher education is often split up into a few different parts all led by a president. Academics, Business Affairs, Adult & Graduate School, Enrollment Management, Grounds/Maintenance, and Student Life. The department I am in is called the Life Directions Center and this department falls under Student Life at CCU. My department, the LDC has 10 staff members, 8 advisers and office manager and a director and right now we are transitioning to a new director. My department is only 2 years old and I was one for the first LDC advisers. We've lost a few in the last two years. So that's work!

As for my social life! I love my church and many of the people I hang out with come from either Church or from CCU. There are several alum still around who I hang out with. I try to branch out to my neighbors but it's been hard... Bentley doesn't like other dogs (I'm hoping it's a phase) so we are the rude people because we never let our dog interact with other dogs for their dog's safety. Oh, and a friend from High School moved out here two three years ago and we've become great friends, she married an old friend of Nate's.

Not let me explain the Nate/Nathan thing. When I first got to CCU I was introduced to Nate. Later on a found out that his whole family called him Nathan so I tried to call him Nathan too but everyone in Colorado knows him as Nate... so I always jump back and forth. Sorry! It's the same person though, I don't have two husbands!

Ok. I have to get back to work but I will write more later. Not much later, there is still more to be said.