by Stephanie Yu

Serving on College Life these past three years have been a rewarding and humbling experience. Some of the collegians have seen me through the many stages of life: dating, engagement, marriage and now, mommyhood. This ministry is very much a part of the Yu household, and on any given night, we are going to Praise Team practices, bible studies, or meeting up with the collegians; but there was a time before I was cleaning spit-up, washing my second load of onesies of the day, reading children’s books to my two-month-old in obnoxious voices, and wearing the same outfit at home three days in a row.

When Hansol asked me to write this article for College Life, my first thought was of the other new mommies in the ministry and how much our roles have changed since welcoming our new additions. By God’s grace, we’ve been allowed to be witnesses of His good work in the collegians during this formative time in their lives. In years past, we’ve had the privilege and challenge of leading small groups and building relationships with these younger sisters on a weekly basis. But now, we are answering God’s call to us as mothers and young wives to “love our husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to our own husbands” (Titus 2:4-5) and learning how to keep that a priority while we juggle our desires to be committed to the church body and specifically how to continue to be an edifying part of the College Life ministry.

This year, we’ve started Staff Mom groups within College Life – an accountability group of other small group leaders facilitated by a designated Staff Mom, of which I am one! The goal is to provide a place for small group leaders to keep each other accountable, where we can also talk about other things going on in our lives or trade ideas for small group activities, but foremost to pray for one another. Small group leading is no small business or easy task! They are presented with opportunities to keep collegians accountable with issues ranging from keeping daily QT’s consistent, to struggles with purity, and conflict resolution.

It is an incredible blessing, but it makes the truth that God oftentimes uses broken vessels and jars of clay to fulfill His godly purposes so much more poignant. We are indeed poor and needy (Psalm 86) and need prayer to remind us that there is none like Him and none who accomplish good works like Him; it’s an important ministry to pray for one another & be reminded that the ultimate good has already been accomplished.

The official ministry of the Staff Mom ends there. Upon arriving at church on Friday nights, some of the new mommies drive their strollers and Boppy pillows straight into the nursing room where we spend a good chunk of time during bible study. We emerge from our cushy lair just in time to make it for the discussion groups at the tail end of the night. Beyond that designated 20-30 minutes we’re given to talk to the ladies regarding the message (currently a series on “Collegians Have Issues”), we have the potential to have little to no actual interaction with the collegians for the rest of the week!

Paul David Tripp says in his book “A Quest for More”: “In a fallen world, there is a powerful pressure to constrict your life to the shape and size of your life.”

Given our current stage of life, it’d be easy to excuse our absence or lack of participation on a rough night or a baby’s need to sleep, etc. And rightfully so; our greatest ministry right now is to be at home taking care of our children so that our husbands are freed up to serve the church. But God also provides ways for us to do much more.

Paul Tripp in his book, “Relationships: A Mess Worth Making,” says, “We enter relationships for personal pleasure, self-actualization, and fun. We want low personal cost and high self-defined returns. But God wants high personal cost and high God-defined returns.”

Being a mommy and serving in a vibrant ministry provides us with a unique opportunity to bring the (even) younger ladies into our home to spend time with us so they can see how God is teaching us to be workers of the home and to share in the joys and hazards of baby care – hearing our children coo and seeing them smile, at the same time smelling their diapers and risking poo-poo blow-outs and projectile vomit. And while we juggle baby in one hand and a cup of tea in another, we are also so blessed to be able to share in the lives of the collegians.