On Monday, the day after I got back from Chicago, I got on a plane again with my friend and co-author Lisa Rice and we flew to Dayton, Ohio for me to be able to speak at a college chapel at Cedarville University. Two wonderful students who were so enthusiastic about Cedarville picked us up, and immediately Lisa started getting very intrigued about this great University. Cedarville is sort of placed out in the middle of nowhere in Ohio, yet has excellent academic standards. According to the Dean of students, Cedarville is in the top 12% of all schools nationwide in terms of SAT Scores and grades of the entering class. Cedarville is also a Christian University, and these students were certainly very enthusiastic about it.
The next morning, I spoke at the daily college chapel of about 3,000 people. It’s a mandatory service, which to me was very interesting. I was very fascinated about the fact that they have a daily chapel service. As the students explained, it gives them a chance everyday to bring the family together so to speak, and have the family feeling of this relatively large Christian University.
The service in chapel went really well, and we ended up running over and doing our very first focus group for the research for the new book, “For Young Men Only.” This is one that will be co-authored by my husband Jeff and Lisa’s husband Eric, but Lisa and I are obviously helping them do a lot of the research. I am finding that some of the research will be very helpful for me as I start into the research on the next book for me, which is probably going to be, “For Singles Only”. The focus group of six people, mostly people in their twenties, was extremely helpful, and they were really honest and vulnerable about their feelings in all sorts of various areas; that I think will end up being a good starting point as we jump into the research for “For Young Men Only.”
That night after the focus group was finished, we came back to the college to lead an optional meeting held in one of the smaller auditoriums on the college campus. And when Lisa and I got there 15 minutes before the presentation time to this room which only held about 250-300 people, 15 minutes in advance, the room was absolutely packed! There was standing room only, people were lining the walls, crowding into the back, sitting up front near the stage on the floor, and people were still coming. Finally, the room got so packed that we had to open up the backstage doors and let people fill in the back of the stage, and there were still apparently several hundred people that couldn’t get in. We were so encouraged to see these college students be so interested in coming to a non-mandatory meeting to hear more about relationships and the differences between men and women. There was a question and answer session as well, which was fascinating to be able to see what some of these kids were asking. I was just really encouraged about the younger generation, even though I don’t like thinking of myself as that much older than them. I think I am going to have to revise and realize that I am quite a bit older than them, but it was a great step. Lisa and I flew back the next day in order for me to have one much needed day at home with my kids before I flew out again.