I am reforming my website (www.vision.givengain.org)to accomodate 'Global Community Advancement' - our new ministry. So I need to delete some of my older projects, but I want to save the precious history of all the stories and people tied up in them. Chavvah is one of them. MISSING YOU LADIES!!
August 2005:
A year into my studies here at DTS and I felt useless. I had managed to remedy the catastrophic consequences on my GPA taking Greek Honors somewhere in my past. I had committed to a lovely local church and served in the youth ministry for twelve months. Some of the American members even joined me on two of the four different mission outreaches I went on in Africa during the summer. But I still had the distinct impression that I had only been going through the motions.
Something was missing.
I attended (and still do) a weekly SF group which began with a bit of a disturbance. Although we had sorted ourselves out since then I still went because I had to, not because I felt like I belonged there.
Worst of all, I felt like I was beginning another year in the Dallas Monastery…yes, the monastery and not a convent and was missing the excitement of having non-Christian friends and colleagues.
This thought hit me one afternoon when I was buying a cheese burger at Jack-in-the-Box across the street and a local man noticed my accent. He asked me where I came from and what I was doing here. When I told him, he had no idea what or where Dallas Theological Seminary was.
September 2005:
Unless I took drastic action, the fields of my spiritual reproduction would lie barren until I got out of this place and connected to reality in another zip code. DTS training and leadership opportunities aim at a specific demographic into which I did not quite fit. I came to DTS from twelve years in an ungracious corporate world, dominated by bisexuals, rich geniuses and New Age humanitarians but plan to go back there and still affect a relevant impact on their realities.
What could I do? Where could I practice all the good stuff I’ve been getting in since I arrived? Who could possible need my contribution while they were also struggling to find time between classes, reading and assignments due? Taking Creativity with Prof. Hendricks generated several options in my over-caffeinated imagination.
Two easy questions came to mind: who am I and what are my top five needs?
I wanted to feel like;
1. I belong here in Swiss Tower as an individual,
2. I had a family-nucleus to love on and cry with,
3. I could add value into like-minded hearts to reach beyond DTS,
4. Have an excuse to throw a party every week, and
5. Have physical contact with other human beings without breaking any codes of conduct.
Setting off on a localized surveillance-operation, I became determined to flush out other prisoners of our introverted environment of spiritual consumerism. They needed to match the following profile: un-male, un-married, non-ThM and non-locals.
Thus a few Swiss Single Females went underground and founded Chavvah* - the sexy sisterhood after the matron saint of Bridget Jones. Don’t tell anybody but we meet on weekly and give each other pedicures while discussing sneaky ways of infiltrating scary places like Starbucks and other organizations.
In addition to our principle of celebrating cellulite we exist to affirm others and practice contentment in where God has us in life. Our most powerful strategy remains getting together with our designated prayer-partner at a secret location each to pray and encourage one another for the week ahead.
December 2005:
I loved going to school this semester! Especially one class where we numbered no more than seventeen. It freaked me out a bit in the beginning when I had to bare my insecure soul to a room full of married men and the three other ladies. We read our work out loud to each other and receive honest critique and encouragement every time we got together.
Looking back, that will probably be the DTS class that lives on in my heart forever no matter where I go after I graduate. One of our classmates almost died in hospital during last month and our professor needed to get rides from us after class every day because she had also been in a serious accident.
February 2006:
After thorough investigation, I have found that authentic community can exist in the land of the lonely. May God help me finish strong in cultivating hope here in my own home of the needy…
*Hebrew for chique chicks
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