PSALM 139 EVENT

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BY CHRISTI MAYS

psalm 139

Psalm 139 has become a tradition for women on campus

The Psalm 139 event started four years ago as the brainchild of Sydney (Stolz) Pfleeger ’19, who was a student at the time, to bring women together in worship. What started out that first year as a one-day event with a few dozen participants has grown to a two-day event with almost 200 students attending this year.

“The idea is to bring women together in community and fellowship with time to learn and worship and meet other girls,” said Ashleigh Thompson, who co-directed this year’s event with Jordan McCaslin and Caroline Zinnecker. The directors were selected by last year’s directors, and as soon as they were chosen last spring, they began preparing and praying over the event. Together, they prayerfully picked students to serve in five committees for outreach, logistics, hospitality, prayer, and media.

“This summer, we prayed and reflected over the event, thinking, ‘what do we want this to be? What’s our heart behind this?’ We talked about our hope and vision for the event,” said Faith Jermstad, who was part of the media committee.

This year’s organizers drew inspiration from part of Psalm 139:23, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart.”

“We wanted to learn together as women how we can go and live in our calling and ask the Lord to walk with us,” Faith said.

To get things rolling, the organizers created a Partner Program to match up those who were planning to attend the event so that women could begin connecting even before that weekend.

“The goal was to meet up and talk about things in your life and start conversations and encouragement leading up to Psalm 139,” said Ashleigh. “That was

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Top right, Faith Jermstad, who led the media committee for Psalm 139 this year, greets Abby Wallace. The event was filled with two days of praise and worship, messages, small group break-outs and refreshments in the McLane Great Hall.

really sweet, and I think a lot of girls enjoyed that.”

The planners decided to kick off the event on Friday night this year.

“We wanted to start the event with a dinner on Friday night where women could come together and get the awkward introductions out of the way, hoping that they would be more willing to open up and talk about things the following day,” said Ashleigh. On Saturday, attendees participated in worship and chose from various small-group breakout sessions over topics including women in ministry, how to read the Bible, spiritual gifts, Christ-like friendships, redemption in trauma, and evangelism 101.

“This year was very different,” said Ashleigh, who has helped with the event for three years. “This year, we wanted to dig deep and challenge each other.”

The group prayed every step of the way, even when choosing the color palette for their promotional materials.

“It was a culture shift in a way,” said Faith. “We said, ‘let’s go reach people who maybe haven’t been yet or who haven’t been the target in the past.’”

They even decided to hold the event earlier in the semester than usual—the weekend after they came back from winter break—to reach students as soon as they arrived back to school before the semester got busy.

“We wanted to hold it early so we could target athletes,” said Ashleigh. “We also wanted to target girls who maybe don’t feel like Psalm 139 is for them and girls who aren’t even going to church. That was my prayer.”

A CLEAR CALLING

Co-directors Ashleigh Thompson (left) and Caroline Zinnecker (right) sit with Jordan McCaslin, who was lead director of this year’s Psalm 139 event.

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Discovering her true calling through Psalm 139

As the lead director for this year’s Psalm 139 event, one of the goals Jordan McCaslin wanted most was to encourage other women to discover their callings in life, but what she didn’t expect was to finally realize her own.

Since Jordan was in middle school, she has adored all things involving church and ministry. She sang and led worship on stage, served anytime she was asked, went on mission trips, and even interned with the women’s minister at her home church last summer. “I really fell in love with it all, even the nitty-gritty of it,” she said.

But when looking into college three years ago, Jordan, who is now a junior, never considered pursuing ministry as a career. Since she was a little girl, she had envisioned herself as a nurse and came to UMHB as a first-generation student with her sights set on getting her nursing degree. But as Jordan progressed further toward that goal, the pull toward ministry became undeniable. It was all she could think about, but she fought it time and time again. As she got further along in her degree, she reasoned that it was just too late to change her major; she would lose too many credits, and it would cost too much money, she thought.

But as she attended the very event she helped plan— this year’s Psalm 139 women’s day of worship—the Lord finally made it crystal clear to her that she could no longer ignore her call to ministry. It was time to change her major, to fully focus on using her spiritual gifts to help advance His kingdom.

“The whole purpose of Psalm 139 is to put an emphasis on who we are in Christ and how we’re created for a unique purpose and a calling in life,” said Ashleigh Thompson, who co-directed the event with Jordan and Caroline Zinnecker.

The group invited Kathy Davidson of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco as their keynote speaker to

deliver two messages. As Kathy shared a message on “calling” to the group of women, explaining that the Lord has a specific calling for each of them, Jordan remembers feeling like Kathy’s message was meant for her. After the message, as the attendees were breaking into various small groups, Kathy came off the stage and over to the table where Jordan sat with her directors. The conversation soon turned to Jordan and her goals “The whole purpose and purpose in life. “Each woman at the table was of Psalm 139 is to put an emphasis telling me why I was clearly built for ministry,” she said. “They affirmed me in so many ways, and I knew the on who we are in Christ and how Lord had me at that table right at that moment for a reason.” Two days later, Jordan changed her we're created for a major to a new health sciences degree in public health that officially launches unique purpose and this fall. The new degree will offer her a calling in life." more flexibility in job choices for her future career, such as combining her —Ashleigh Thompson Psalm 139 co-director passion for women’s ministry with her passion for health. She’s already found a way to share these two passions through a new podcast she’s helping produce with the spiritual life department. “It’s opened the door to so many new possibilities,” she said. Looking back now, never in a million years did Jordan think the Lord would use the event she spearheaded to speak directly to her. “The Lord couldn’t have set this up any better,” Jordan said. “He knew exactly what I needed.” When reflecting on the event, she is left awe-inspired, thinking that if the Lord gave her clarity into her calling, how much more could He do in the lives of the other 200 women in attendance? “This event taught me so much about myself and my gifts,” Jordan said. “I am humbled that the Lord would allow me—someone who has kind of just ignored His call for so long—to direct this amazing event and to be a part of it.”