Update #3 from Princeton: Snow and the United Nations!

Dear friends,

I promised I'd write again sooner, and here I am! Greetings from what is currently the very white, freshly blanketed with snow, state of New Jersey! Snow has been both one of my greatest excitements and most serious disappointments since moving to the east coast. Exciting because, well, it's beautiful and leaves the world feeling peaceful and cozy, and on days like today, cancels classes! (We're enjoying our first snow day of the academic year!) And yet it has been disappointing because of the sheer lack of snow we have had this year; only once since returning to campus in January. Even so, I have hope that it will snow again before winter has expired. For now though, in the few hours I have remaining in Princeton before heading to New York City (I'll get to that momentarily) I plan to walk around campus taking pictures of snow falling and covering everything recognizable. It truly is breathtaking.

On to New York City and the United Nations: this evening I will begin the first of 4 and a half days of a conference called the Young Women's Leadership Experience, a joint event with the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) (!) and the National Council of Churches. I applied to this particular conference back in January, squarely in the middle of finals, and then promptly forgot about it. When I received my acceptance letter a couple weeks later I was shocked, which has since turned into a myriad of other emotions: excitement, apprehension, unqualified-ness, joy, and still more shock. I was one of six women who were selected out of a large applicant pool who will meet with six other women from around the world who are taking part in a longer, two-week version of the event. The 2008 theme for the CSW is "Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women" and the purpose is to give visitors an experience with the United Nations, the National Council of Churches, and to engage global women's issues through the ecumenical movement. While there we will lead a worship service,

This kind of opportunity would only have been available to me while living here in New Jersey. Being close to the City means I can take the train (considerably less than a plane ticket) and don't have to miss much in the way of classes. What an incredible opportunity! However, I would appreciate your prayers for the next four days because I'm not quite sure what I've gotten myself into or what to expect. I've learned though that those are always the best times...when I spent a month in Guatemala while in college our team motto was "Tentative. Flexible. No expectations." and this was certainly one of the most amazing and rewarding times in my life. Our conference begins with dinner tonight at 6:00pm EST and will end on Tuesday at 2:00pm; during this time I would appreciate an extra prayer.

One last thing...for many of you who spent a lot of time with me in Santa Barbara you may already know this, but today is the one-year anniversary of my grandma's death. While I am getting a chance to honor her by taking advantage of this opportunity in NYC (because I know she would be so proud of me) I know today still isn't going to be easy for either me or for my mom. However, I'm going to try to celebrate my grandma's life and remember her for who she was...a great woman who had a lot of love in her heart. Extra prayers for my mom and for me today would also be appreciated.

I'll sign off now, while the snow is still falling fresh and I can go revel in it...momentarily at least!
Love in Christ,
Megan