Its spring break.  This usually means a ‘break’ for students and staff alike.  We, however, usually think that summer is not so far away, so we can break then.  So for us spring break means an opportunity to get students to a different place with fewer distractions, or at least different distractions, in order to hear from God about their heart, life, vision.  (Other trips mean a chance to work hard).

So 22 drove away last night heading for California.  The goal is to see places through Jesus’ eyes.  This trip is more about vision than serving, and so we will plan a good serving trip for the future (so that we don’t just see with Jesus’ eyes, but serve with His hands and feet).

Please be in prayer for the group this week.  It will be an exhausting trip (not exactly the spring break most people long for), but has the potential to be life changing experience - and not just from entering the frigid Pacific waters for the first time - but from coming into contact with people whom God has placed there to make disciples of all nations.  It is our experience that God uses trips like this to change students so that the rest of their lives are given to serving Him faithfully wherever students scatter to.  Our thinking goes beyond just having a fun week while you are a college student.

In reading Mark 4:26-29, I had these thoughts:

- The gospel in people’s lives takes time.

- We need to be good farmers, not just harvester’s. So evangelism and ministry is farming: knowing how to sow and different ways of sowing, cultivating and fertilizing, and then harvesting at the right time.

- This can make ministry frustrating at times because we want to see results quickly. Jesus said that growth takes time. There is a part of growth the farmer has no control over.

For ministry it made me think of questions to help evaluate.

Therefore, questions to evaluate ministry would be:

- What have we done to sow seed: the gospel, character qualities, vision?

- Which seed did we sow last week?

- What are we doing to watch over the seed and cultivate?

- How are we evaluating the readiness for harvest?

- Do we evaluate with just individuals, ministry as a whole, or both?

- Who is following up with whom?

- What seed have we sown across the ministry this semester through Challenge, small groups, retreats?

- What are we asking God to do with the seed and the plants?

I would welcome comments on these ideas to help us be faithful campus ministers at CU. We are doing our best to sow the gospel in several ways. It has been working best through relationships our students have with their peers. It has worked some through speaking on campus (Bobby speaks outside when the weather, and policy, allows). The whos new and whos close post mentions how this is going.

Weekly staff meetings  are a place we ponder these questions, evaluate, and try to be strategic with what we plan, so that even though there is a part of growth we have no control over, we can be the best farmers we can possibly be by working hard at those things we can control.

Please pray for us as we seek to be good farmers.

In our newsletters over the years, we have had sections for glimpsed into our boy’s minds - Josh’s World, Zach’s Planet - but now with Hudson things are at an even higher plane, or dimension.  He has left our normal levels of reality and is stretching into new ones.   I’ll try to include some glimpses into these when I remember.

The other day he came down our stairs with a pair of underwear on his head -

    “Dad, how do you like my new lid?”

Creative people often turn ideas on their head, so I just took this as creative genius.

I tried to keep this post brief!

Ministry is continuing here at CU and has its ups and downs.

UPs: Our freshmen group has been really great. They are gaining teachable hearts and are responding to Jesus lordship in good ways. Almost all of them are going on our spring break trip to California. It will be a great vision trip as students see the greater LA area and USC campus and Las Vegas (briefly) through Jesus’ eyes. They will have time with several people who have planted churches there and really been through some ups and downs. There will also be some time at the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena. And a morning at The Price is Right will make it fun as well.

Table Talk Tuesdays are going well. Last week we started talking about Pharaoh and how God hardened his heart or how he hardened his heart. What is that all about? (as students would express it).

Other students are still considering Jesus and whether or not they want to follow Him.

Downs: Class and work has made it hard for some of our students to be involved as much this semester and we miss them. Some students are dealing with difficult things and their deciding to trust God is iffy. Life doesn’t seem to get easier, it gets harder.

Overall, we are grateful to be here and to be investing in students. We really do love it.

When speaking of Boulder, my dad would describe it this way,

“They say it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round. I say there are all kinds and they are all in Boulder.”

He also said we had the world’s best hardware store - McGuckin Hardware. This is really the store where if they don’t have it, you don’t need it. A trip to McGuckin’s was always one of the highlights of his visits. Its kind of like Disneyland for certain kinds of people (of which there are some in Boulder).

But back to Boulder. Dad was not the only one who thought Boulder is different. Another well known description is this,

“Boulder is 20 square miles surrounded by reality.”

I asked some students what they thought of Boulder and they said this question summed it up best (not necessarily asked on Halloween),

“Is that Halloween or is that Boulder?”

So we can have some confusion at times.

Boulder is the only place I’ve been where a homeless man didn’t just ask me for a ride - he just opened the car door and got in and then asked for a ride (in the spring, not a freezing cold winter day). I guess every car is a free taxi ride in Boulder if you can get in before it gets locked.

A few other tidbits from campus:

If its not made from hemp, why wear it?

They have classes here!?! I’m just here to ski/party/hike/ride trails. (the same person can’t say this more than two semesters however)

And then our most recent issue. CU has a new president, Bruce Benson, and we had a bit of an uproar over his being the finalist to be voted on by Regents. First of all, how shameful it was that they only voted on one person. This was an outrage! And on top of that he was in the oil and gas industry and made money (a good bit of which went to CU and helped get a building with his name on it). Outrage!! And to top it all off he doesn’t have an upper level degree! Unbelievable!!! (to be fair, our students had a few other complaints with more substance and well taken, but the above were the loudest and most fun to blog)

Well, despite all these outrages, he was confirmed as president by a 6-3 vote of the Regents (6 Republicans for, 3 Democrats against). We’ll have to watch and see if CU can survive (and see how the more substantive complaints play out).

Anyway, in honor of my father and his perspective, I wanted to give you a brief look at our fair city.

Ps. 16:6  The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

Even with the pain of losing my dad, I am more proud than ever to be his son.  He was committed to Jesus and was not ashamed of the gospel.  He studied the Bible and knew it well and taught it well for three decades.  So I hope to honor that heritage for decades to come and pass it on to my own children so it can continue to their children’s children.

His absence has left a big hole not just with his family, but with many others as well.  We will really miss him.

We closed on our (God’s) house in Boulder Monday.  Our excitement was subdued by our sorrow, but we are grateful to God for making space for us and placing us in a key location to minister and invest our lives in college students.  So we are excited to get settled and honor my dad by letting the gospel be heard and seen.