This week, we completed the hiring of our Resident Directors for 07-08. I am excited to be on a team with these exceptional people and I’m humbled by the opportunity to lead them.

Allow me to introduce them to you..

Rob Knight will return as a Senior Resident Director. This will be Rob’s third year RDing at Grace. He, Greta, and Isabella are in the process of moving across the parking lot to Kent Hall this summer, where he will oversee Kent and the Perimeter men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Huber will be leading the Beta boys in 07-08. Dan and his wife, Denise, will be moving into the Beta basement apartment with their two young children. The Hubers are moving to Winona Lake from Dallas, Texas where Dan has been working on his PhD at Dallas Theological Seminary and teaching part time at a nearby college. Dan is a graduate of Cedarville University, where he also served in Residence Life as an ARD.

 

 

 

 

 

Janine Champoux (soon to be Dell) will be overseeing Alpha Hall this year. She and her (soon to be) husband Adam Dell will move into Alpha when they return from their honeymoon in July. This past year, both Janine and Adam were both part of the Res Life staff as ARDs - what a love story! Janine graduated from the Grace College Graduate School in Counseling and Interpersonal Relations three weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

Emily Caley, a graduate of Huntington University, will be supervising Indiana Hall and Lamppost Apartments this year. Emily originally is from Byron Center, Michigan. We are excited for her to put her experience as an ARD at Huntington to work here at Grace. Her big news… Emily was engaged to her boyfriend, Kyle, over the weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

Janelle Moffitt is originally from New Hampshire and will be serving Westminster Hall this year. She is a graduate of Cedarville University, and also studied at the Focus on the Family Institute (where she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Dobson) and Word of Life as part of her undergraduate education. Janelle currently lives in Indianapolis.

 

 

 

 

If you are a Grace College student next year, I hope you are looking forward to working with these remarkable people this year. If you are not a student, please support this team with prayer. If you don’t pray… well, you might consider it, because I think God would love to hear from you.

Metanoia,

Aaron

 

Been thinking for a while about how important my beliefs are as compared to my actions. I’ll try to post something serious about those thoughts in the future, but for now, some vaguely-related fun…

I came upon this very interesting quiz. Basically, you tell them what you believe about 60 items related to theology and religion and they tell you which segment of Christianity shares your beliefs. Turns out I’m a Weslyan, or at least I agree with 79% of Weslyans. Didn’t know that. Guess it was worth my time… Here’s my results. I don’t look anything like Mr. Wesley, which likely hurt my score, but he does look a bit like my father-in-law. You just have to imagine him with a mustache.

My results:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Fundamentalist 64% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Neo orthodox 57% Reformed Evangelical 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Classical Liberal 50% Modern Liberal 43% Roman Catholic 36% What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

I find it very amusing that my scores for Fundamentalist and Emergent/Postmodern are identical. I must be double minded or something. I should be a politician.

If you have time to take the quiz, you should get a job because no one has that much free time. However, if you don’t have time, I give you permission to put off whatever you are doing to waste a few minutes on the quiz and then share your results with me.

Metanoia,

Aaron

Family history: I was the first born of three, oops, I mean four… huh, make that five children. The last two weren’t necessarily “mistakes” but it’s not like my parents were trying to build a basketball team. When my youngest brother, Justin, was born I was already in Jr. High. When I graduated from High School, Justin began grade school. Needless to say, there is a bit of an age gap.

I’ve often felt a bit removed from my siblings. I won’t get into the various theories and reasons why, but I’ve almost always been in a different “stage of life” than the others.

Well, today my baby brother became the fifth member of our clan to graduate from Wethersfield High School - home of the Flying Geese. Whoo ha!

He’s planning on attending Illinois State University in the fall… breaking the pattern of attending Black Hawk Community College for his freshman year of college like the other four of us. Congratulations Justin!

Personally, I am running out of excuses for why I’m not closer to my brothers and sister. We’re all adults now - by some people’s definitions - so to isolate myself from them can only be explained by arrogance or apathy.

So, tonight I sit in the corner of a busy room filled with people I partially know at various levels of sobriety pondering my values and how to best build bridges. My thoughts are largely incomplete, but I know this issue hints at the “messiness of life.” Thoughts about community, thoughts about Kingdom values, and thoughts about the stereotypes and perceptions of Christians and - especially -
“full time Christian ministers.”

So, tonight I sit in the midst of a celebration - both frustrated at the disconnect with my family and proud of my baby brother. Good Job Justin… I hope to be more invested in the next stage of your life than I was in the previous one.

Metanoia,

Aaron

Well, it’s official… I have a job for the fall! This morning I was offered a position in Student Affairs at Grace… Director of Residence Life. After a brief discussion with my beautiful wife, we accepted the position this afternoon.

THANK YOU to each of you who have prayed and asked about us and our future. We have been so encouraged by everyone who has been concerned or expressed your hope that we would stay at Grace. Honestly, we are so happy that it has worked out this way - it’s what we’ve been praying for all along. Funny how God turns out to be faithful and good every time.

Now, we’ve got to find a place to live. We’re thinking about buying a house, but in the back of our mind content to rent something if the right house (for the right price doesn’t come available). If you pray, please join us in this adventure now. If you have any home buying advice (particularly buying in the Warsaw/Winona Lake area) - give us a hollar!

Metanoia,

Aaron T. Crabtree
Director of Residence Life

Well, graduation was yesterday, and after a full day of photography, check-outs, paperwork, and goodbyes - we have an empty parking lot outside our window.

Congratulations Grace College Class of 2007.

Some of my clearest memories from RDing included people who walked across the stage of the newly completed Orthopaedic Capital Center.

- Matt Smith, whom I got to know when someone from his apartment was seen by cafeteria workers at Jefferson Elementary holding a rifle (it was just an air gun, but it caused the school to lock down and the rd - me - to have a long talk with the boys). I hope enough time has passed to share that story, or I might be posting a retraction soon
- Some of my best RAs - Juliane Shlegal, Josh Placeway, Tim Mann, Amanda Bryson, Deshaun Merrick…sniff.
- A handful of amazing women who lived in Kent Hall and served as amazing neighbors to my family and I - Betsy Williams, Ashley Powell, Kendra Foote, Erin Craig, Katherine Whirledge, Kari Carter, Erin Simpson… and many others I am unintentionally leaving out.
- Andy Clark, an inspiring artist and friend… he was the student director of our video team this year and ended the year with a graduation party/ hog roast, aka: “the biggest readneck getdown Winona Lake has ever seen.” I loved working with Andy and sharing an office with him this year.
- Josh and Nathanael Smith, twin guys I had the privledge of getting to know and love last year when they lived in Kent. We’d stay up all night talking about religion, culture, girls, and a bunch of really serious life stuff as well.
- There’s probably a dozen more I should mention by name but I need to go.

Suffice it to say, this class has made it’s dent in our school and in my life. Can’t wait to see the dent they will leave in the world before they are done. They have the potential and the heart to become some of the greatest teachers, wives, artists, thinkers, dreamers, husbands, designers, leaders, mothers, pastors, fathers, servants the world has ever known…. exaggeration? We’ll see.

Matanoia,

Aaron

Well, we’re winding down on another school year. (The photo to the right is of the Kent Hall cluster at last weekend’s Junior/Senior Banquet. I’m going to miss this team.)

Talk about mixed feelings… On the one hand, elation. It’s been a long semester, and a particularly long 6 weeks here at the end. This is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been longing for. On the other hand, sadness. Grace College truly is a family, and in a matter of days, Sarah and I will say goodbye to “family members” we’ve known for their entire four years of college. We’ve watched these students sink and soar as they’ve grown from old kids to young adults. They’ve been in our lives longer than our own children. Some of them would be counted among close friends.

If you can afford me another “hand,” I will share another feeling, anticipation. It’s thick in the air around here. Sometimes it looks more like excitement and often times it smells more like anxiety. No one is thinking about today, all the attention is on tomorrow. Whether it be a summer opportunity, a season away from close friends, an internship or a new job, or the hope of the perfect job - EVERYONE is thinking about the future.

Including the Crabtrees.

While I can’t say anything specific yet, all my thoughts and conversations lately are about “things to come.” Please keep praying as we dive deeper into details and final decisions, but things are looking very hopeful. When something final is announced, you’ll hear it first on aaroncrabtree.com! [I think it's cool when blogs break exclusive news, why not mine?]

And so, our journey with this class of graduating seniors continues - as we proceed into transition with mixed feelings, emotions, and dreams. May all of our confidence in this boundary remain squarely on God - leaning not on our own wisdom or understanding.

Metanoia,

Aaron