In 2006, our family had the opportunity to lead a mission trip to Oberlin, LA, contribute to the rebuilding of

First Baptist Church and begin some encouraging relationships.  God used that trip to not only reestablish a place for community in Oberlin, but also to establish a heart for people in our family and a desire to be part of what He is doing in the world and to explain Him to the world.  Of course, the main expression of this heart and desire takes place in our sharing our lives with college students at CU, ASU before that, and OU before that.

     As a continuation of this desire, we have been preparing as a family for a trip to SE Asia.  A former student and his family are now serving full-time among students in this country.  They have seen God draw many students to Himself and have their hands full.  Several people have spent the last two years laboring alongside them and are in their last days and months of service. 

     We will be spending around 7-9 days in country.  During this time we will travel with a group of students who are involved in the ministry with the purpose of speaking into their lives and discipling them as we are able.  We will also be working at an orphanage alongside a mix of Christian and non-Christian students.  Our friend there says that this has been a very effective way of seeing new students move to accept Christ.  Another goal would also be to encourage and pray for our friends and the ministry God has given them.

     Finally, we hope to work out the timing so that we can travel to another SE Asian country close by and spend a day or two with a former associate and his family and our summer team from CU and then join them for the trip home.  This last hope is still very tentative, but is on our prayer list.

    The tentative dates for this trip are July 12-21.  Our estimated cost is $15,014.  We would like to invite and ask you to pray about partnering with us financially and prayerfully for this trip.  An undertaking of this size is far bigger than us and we would value anyway you can be part of this with us.  Contributions for this trip can be made to Christian Challenge and will be a missions contribution as this trip is part of our summer missions program.  Please send to 167 Cherokee Way, Boulder, CO 80303.

Thank you for your prayers.

If you haven’t ever read Oswald Chambers let me encourage you to find “My Utmost for His Highest” and work through it.  If you have spent time with his challenging insights in the past, maybe this would be a good year to do so again.  Here is a stout word from today’s entry:

“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 1:17

Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel; but remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” viz., the reality of Redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are apt to make sanctification the end-all of our preaching. Paul alludes to personal experience by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are nowhere commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification; we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (John 12:32). It is a travesty to say that Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to redeem the whole world, and place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God. The fact that Redemption can be experienced by us is an illustration of the power of the reality of Redemption, but that is not the end of Redemption. If God were human, how sick to the heart and weary He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation, for our sanctification. We tax His energies from morning till night for things for ourselves - some thing for me to be delivered from! When we touch the bedrock of the reality of the Gospel of God, we shall never bother God any further with little personal plaints.

The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heart-breaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.

I don’t know about you, but I would benefit from re-reading this every morning and keeping it at the front of my brain.

As most of you know, Christian Challenge, while operating as non-denominational of campus, is a part of the Southern Baptist family of collegiate ministries around the world.  This is a very large family and we are glad to be in this family for several reasons.  Ed Stetzer has a great post about why he is Southern Baptist which summarizes reasons very well.  Check out the comments also.

Spring Break - Vision Denver is officially over.  Spring break for us is not a break, but a week to spend more time with students, build their vision, and serve.  Last week we took our group down south - all the way to Denver!  The purpose of this trip was to build a vision for serving where we are and attempt to see Denver through Jesus’ eyes.  Both were accomplished!

Most of the time consisted of learning some of Denver’s history and spending time with people who are serving/ministering in the more unknown areas/peoples of Denver.   We were able to provide man power for a church planter in a downtown neighborhood and a man who is working among thousands of Russian speakers.  We also heard from a young man who spent a year on the streets of Denver and another pastor who ministers to many homeless.  We were able to give a day to serving (a.k.a. hard work that no one else wants to do) at the church which was our home for a week.  We also gave a half day to loading a shipping container with medical equipment and supplies bound for Nigeria.

A mindset seems to prevail among many students which says that real missions is spending lots of money to go to far away places.  Home is where you can return to your normal comforts.  This trip created a new category for students as meaningful, Kingdom-significant missions/serving right where God has them.  Seeing with Jesus’ eyes as opposed to tourist eyes was also a major shift for them.

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.