Why me? Why this? Why now?

I'm Mandy Guss. I have a super unspectacular life that I blog about here.

I'm on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. I live in Bowling Green and I am currently raising support full time to minister to college students in Uppsala, Sweden.

I became a Christian when I was 16. The story is over on my blog under "My Story" if you're interested.

The last few years have been interesting for me as I have gone from working at a "normal" full time job in the corporate office of Fruit of the Loom, to working as an administrator with a local church (Grace & Peace PCA), to joining staff this summer. I can't remember a more stretching time than the last 2 years have been since I was a student at WKU from 1998-2002.

I was involved in Campus Crusade at WKU and also studied Spanish and Religious Studies. I led a Bible Study, was active in evangelism and even spent a summer in Central Asia doing ministry. The year after I graduated, I worked for Crusade as an intern at WKU. I continued leading my Bible Study and also had many more opportunities to be trained in sharing my faith, teaching about the Holy Spirit and seeing women's lives changed by the Gospel. It was a hard year but I was consistently challenged and stretched.

After that experience, I headed into the "real" world. I struggled to really know how to walk with God without the context of being in ministry and constant Christian community. I was involved in a local church and was encouraged greatly through that, but struggled in my personal time with the Lord. This continued until going to church had become a facade to cover up the fact that I was so detached from the Lord that I almost never spent time with Him. I would feel bad about it, but wouldn't do anything to help it.

Things started to turn around in the fall of 2007 when I realized I was at the end of my rope... And continued with a major push towards walking closely with the Lord after a visit to Sweden in March 2008. While I was there, I was able to regain some consistency that again pushed me to reexamine my life and what I was doing with it. Shortly after that I left my job at Fruit of the Loom began working for the church, and later joined staff.

My relationship with the Lord seems to be somewhat tumultuous even now. My schedule is less than consistent because while raising support, I am not really the master of it. My weekly activities vary greatly based on other people's availability and I am often working nights and weekends. I am more dependent on the Lord than ever - every area of my life is truly dependent on His provision - and yet it's difficult for me to be consistent in spending time with Him.

Three things really help to anchor my weekly activities and remind me to stay in the Word. The first is Church. We meet on Sunday evenings only which gives me a nice break Sunday mornings to just rest and spend tim with the Lord. I am also involved in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and we are studying John this year. It's a great encouragement to me to keep up with my lesson every week. And finally, I meet with a friend every Tuesday who helps keep me in line. I'm grateful for these things and am hopeful that adding the J Club to this regimen will encourage me to dig even more deeply into the Word.

My biggest hope from this is that I would grow in consistency and that I would really be deepening my relationship with the Lord. I look forward to seeing how God chooses to use this in my life and in the lives of my fellow bloggers and readers. :)