A group from Oklahoma State came in this week for their Spring Break.  The purpose of the trip was to serve a like-hearted Christian Challenge (BCM).  We had a great time with them.  They were able to do a lot of landscaping work at the Pruett’s house (which was a huge blessing as they will be gone all summer) and a thorough house-cleaning and retaining wall construction plus yard work at the home of one of our church small group members.  He recently lost his wife to ALS and has four children to care for.  This was an even huger blessing.

The group was fantastic.  They displayed servant hearts as well as grateful and humble attitudes.  I would take that group of students anywhere.  And props to Tony and Melissa who led the team as servant-leaders.  

We had our first meeting of the semester last night.  It was a good re-gathering of students and a few new ones added in.

We are unpacking a theme of “Pursuit of Holiness” and to start it off we gave everyone a small package of floss.  The connection?  Well, its good to develop habits that will keep your teeth in good condition.  Its even better, way better, to develop habits that will help you pursue holiness.  We are called to be holy so lets do those things that will move us toward holiness.

We have put a wrap on the Fall semester.  Things ended with two Christmas parties - one for our freshmen Bible study which was fun except that none of the girls could come (pray for Jenna who broke her arm snowboarding just before) and a big Challenge party with white elephant gifts, ugly Christmas sweaters (for a contest), and lots of food and hot chocolate and Bangladeshi tea.

It was a transition semester.  Sometimes people say this as a nice way of saying bad, or hard, or, in our case, just transitional.  A large group of upperclassmen moved on ( Julee and I were able to enjoy some premarital counseling with 2 of these) leaving a younger group than we’ve had before.  This meant our leadership team had a different makeup.  We also transitioned our leadership team from meeting once a month to once a week.  This was a big change that will take another semester or two to become rooted in the ministry.  Our leaders have counted the cost and appreciated meeting once a week.

So it has been a transition, but some things remain unchanged.  Several students are around who don’t know Jesus, but are moving closer to Him. There are always some people who have a few hurdles to clear before they are ready to commit their lives to Jesus.  Thats why we are here to expose wrong thinking (CU doesn’t always help give students right thinking), to assist and encourage and love people and help them move to acknowledging Christ as their Savior and Lord.

I admit readily that I am a bad blogger.  I think about it quite a bit.  The little blog elves that are supposed to read my thoughts and turn them into meaningful blog entries have left the house since we started redoing our kitchen.

Ministry has been moving at full pace.  Table talk Tuesdays have been up and down, but today we looked at how the Bible we read was put together.  Our next topic will be ‘does God hear the prayers of non-believers?’   We have been going through 2 Timothy at our weekly meetings and I spoke last week and will speak tomorrow.

the freshmen bible study has also been really good.  they group of guys we have is a good group to have and build on.  Kind of like a great freshmen recruiting class.  I wish I could redshirt some of them.

Pray for the several students who are around and close to following Jesus - R. and M. especially.  They are very close to being ready to commit to Jesus.

Enjoyed a good game of knock out at our Friday Night Thing tonight.  Played on a basketball court with two balls, players line up behind the free throw line.  The first in line shoots and then then next person tries to make a basket before the player in front.  If the player behind you makes a basket before you, then you are knocked out.  This game is great fun and we had almost 20 people playing tonight.  Its really fun when someone like Hudson or Kylee knocks one of the stud students out.

Sharing life and playing like this make for some great ministry times as well.

In the last 5 weeks we have had:

- our leadership retreat to get prepared for the first weeks of school

-  tables on campus to meet new students.

-  4 freshmen bible studies at our house.

-  4 weekly meetings on campus.

-  4 table talks

-  many individual meetings with students.

-  3 leaders weekly meetings.

-  2 Friday night things

-  2 weekend retreats.

-  and even a little sleep.

While not exhaustive, this is a little idea of what has been happening.  The first weeks of school are tiring, yet a tremendous time of meeting new students, learning about them, helping them adjust, and presenting a vision for investing in their spiritual life.

What fun!!  I guess we can sleep in heaven.

Ah Fall!  The time when a young woman’s fancy turns to 4 and half hours of orientation for the school of education. Well, at least the girl next to me at our Challenge information table. Well, maybe not her fancy.  Well, OK, she is going because she has to and she would like to graduate.

Ah Fall!  When young freshmen start jumping through the hoops, or at least the ones who are thinking about graduation in a few years.  The time when they arrive on campus with that lethal mix of excitement, fear, overwhelmedness, anticipation, overprotective parents (and underprotective as well), a need for textbooks and helpful friends, and of course eager for football.

And we are here doing what we can to meet them and trying to connect with them enough that they will check out Challenge.  Its a busy time and a critical time.  The first 4 weeks are when most students develop their routines and decide how what is important to them.

So pray for us as we get after it here at CU.

Today we celebrate Josh’s 15th birthday. It should be a lot of fun, especially with the fireworks the city of Boulder will be displaying for him (at least thats what we tell him). He quit believing us a long time ago.

Next week Julee and I will speak with students at a training program thats taking place in Denver. That should be a lot of fun also.

The window is closer to completion. The window itself is in now, just having to make modifications in order to install some structural steel. You should see the 1/2 inch concrete screws we are using - Tim the tool man would be proud. We could screw whole houses together with these things.

Continue to pray for our team in South Asia. They have continued to see fruit from their labor and God has been teaching them deep things. Our challenge is to shepherd them so that the things they are learning stick and to help them process all that has happened this summer. Also our good friends who were on staff here at Challenge will be moving there on July 10, so they would appreciate your prayers for their challenging transition.

We will be receiving many freshman contacts soon and will begin the process of connecting with them. Please lift up these freshman whom we don’t know - yet - that God will encourage their hearts and connect them even closer to us and Him over next year.

Colossians 2:1

Our CU team in South Asia has sent back a good report.  In the last week 8 new believers have joined our Family and several others are close.  Please pray for them as they are over their honeymoon period and adjusting.  Also as they begin to disciple their new brothers and sisters and continue to make the word of God fully known.

I hope no one has been holding their breath in eager expectation for the next blog. If so and you are reading this, you might want to contact Guinness Book. I not sure, but I think you might have done something big.

As for us, we haven’t been holding our breath, but doing what we do after school ends: a wedding, a two-week road trip family vacation (a little longer than usual, but what a great time.  And when is the last time you ate fresh grouper throat just pulled from the Gulf?), starting some projects that we can’t do in the fuller flow of ministry (an egress window in a basement bedroom is the big one now), sending off summer teams, and starting up summer ministry.

We have a team of 7 in South Asia for the summer.  Please be praying for them as they are sowing a lot of seed and helping with some church planting.  They are also way hotter than they are used to in Colorado, so pray they can maintain good attitudes amidst the oppressive heat and spiritual climate.

There are also 9 at a training program in Denver.  They are working full time jobs during the week and involved with small groups,  training, and service during the evenings and weekends.  The entire group spent a Saturday at our house and the Pruett’s house working on various projects.  The goal was to wear them out and that we did.  This is a valuable part of training as it displays character which students have.  You can see who works hard and who hardly works.  You can also teach some good skills and show what hard work looks like.  Three small groups even came back the next week for more glorious hard work.

We also just added a hamster to the family.  Pretty exciting.

In all things Christ.