Was it worth it?

It all starts with sweat and smiles on a Thursday morning as we move in incoming freshmen. You carry refrigerators, tv's, and boxes that you really don't want to look inside, sometimes up five flights of stairs. You hand out fliers inviting students to your Welcome Week events, some seem interested, some not so much.

As the sun sets and you're dog tired from moving students in all day, you set up an outdoor coffeehouse with the hope of meeting some of these new students and engaging them in small talk conversation. What's your name? Where are you from? What dorm are you living in? What's your major? Why did you choose this university? (student leaves) (new student walks up) What's your name? Where are you from...

The next morning after about 6 hours of sleep, you wake up for another round of moving students in. By the end of the night, you're standing under a tent serving ice cream. Hey, what's your name? Where are you from...

Saturday night you plan the campus' largest game of knockout, which happened impromptu last year, thinking, with advertisement, this will be a big hit in our rec center. It flops, hardly anyone shows up.

How about some BBQ on Sunday afternoon? Joining with all the campus ministries so that students will know we're all in this together. Your standing over a grill cooking hot dogs in 110 degree heat. What's your name? Where you from...

Finally Monday, students start classes. For an incoming freshmen, everyone has a 4.0 GPA and every student organization treats you like the Big Man on Campus. We're handing out freshmen survival kits, 200 of them. Treating freshmen like the Big Man on Campus.

Tuesday. You haven't really had a good nights sleep in almost a week. You've now spent the previous evening calling through students that you helped move in, or came to the coffeehouse, or ate ice cream, or one of those 4 guys that came to the knockout game (where you handed out a 4 foot trophy that cost $60), or picked up a freshmen survival kit. Everyone on your staff team has appointments with these students, which is good, but your staring down the same question you ask every year at this time. Was all this worth it?

Then someone on your staff team calls at the end of the day and tells you two students trusted Christ that day.

Was it worth it? You dad'gum right it was! Praise the Lord this is my job.