Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The best way to begin the first installation of the President's Blog would be an introduction of the President, right?
My name is Emily Miller. I am a Junior History/Romance Languages (read: Italian) Double Major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More importantly to you, this week I am officially beginning my second term as the Regional President of the Blue Ridge Region of Lutheran Student Movement-USA (LSM).
To be fair, I really didn't begin to get involved in LSM until the Fall Retreat in 2008 where I was first elected your Regional President. I have spent the last year getting to know our region, our movement, etc. We had some problems with our New Year's Gathering with GALSM falling through, and what not, but with this new year comes a brand new excitement on my part and on the part of our new Regional Web Master Kristen Long (also a Junior at UNC). MAD Props go to her for doing some major overhaul on this website. Also, please head to facebook to join the regional group and become a fan of the Lutheran Student Movement-Blue Ridge Region. We even have a youTube page.
Y'all, it's time to move.
You might wonder why you should care. I guess I should first tell you about why I care.
I may go to school in the Blue Ridge Region now, but I grew up in Mobile, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast. There are about five Lutherans in the state of Alabama, and in all honesty, they are all related to me. Okay, so that's a SLIGHT exaggeration, but not by much. My youth group had a total three members: me, my brother, and my friend Kyle, who was basically my brother anyway (even goes on family vacations with us). My mom was our Youth Group Leader.
It was great. I loved growing up in Mobile at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, but I always felt like I was missing out on something bigger. I have cousins everywhere (NOT an exaggeration), and they would tell me about all of their Lutheran functions. Mama even told me about being involved in big churches in North Carolina and New York as a child.
It was not until I attended the 2006 ELCA Youth Gathering in San Antonio, Texas, that I REALLY began to understood what it meant to be in a community of believers. We raised money for the youth group of our sister church in Long Beach, Mississippi, to travel with us. (They lost everything in Katrina. Comparatively, our loss was small.)
As we were driving up, I started freaking OUT. We were a little late and pulled up just as 20,000 Lutherans MY AGE were walking into the Alamo Dome. It literally blew my mind, just as the experience continued to blow my mind the entire week.
San Antonio is also where I first learned about LSM. LSM had a booth staffed, and I remember talking to a couple of their representatives. I always planned on going out-of-state for school, and the idea of being around Lutherans my age AGAIN really appealed to me.
Flash Forward to College: I've been able to find a community of people with the same beliefs at my school's campus ministry. Pastor Mark is great, and LCM at UNC is fabulous. I couldn't ask for more from a campus ministry.
But LSM gives me something more. There is something extremely comforting to know that you have a network of people you can really count on across the country, and more specifically and dominantly across the region. It can be hard to be a Christian in college, hard to be a Christian who's okay with some of those more liberal things the fundamentalists eschew, but since coming involved in LSM, it's been impossible for me to feel alone.
I know not everything is for everyone, but I encourage you to MOVE, to get involved in our region because I can almost guarantee there IS something or someone here for you.
God's Blessings and Love Always.
Emily Miller
Lutheran Student Movement-Blue Ridge Regional President 2009-2010
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Class of 2011
blueridgerep@gmail.com