bookshelf

so, here it is, our bookshelf. all of our walls are white, so i wanted something to add more color. and green it is. actually, it's called guacamole. though, now looking at a picture of it, i think the books add more color than the bookcase, but i like it.

we spent some time yesterday unloading boxes of books, so our office area is getting a bit less cluttered and looking more like an office/practice room. i'll be thankful when it's complete.

a brief summer update

summer conference -- ruf's national conference at laguna beach, florida -- was wonderful. there were over 900 students during the two weeks where their typical day looked like: breakfast; 2 seminar classes taught by campus ministers from all over the country on various topics from christianity and the arts to idolatry to evangelism to justification and everything in between; lunch; free time on the beautiful beaches of florida; dinner; a large group worship time of music and preaching by either Jeff Hatton, the pastor of redeemer PCA in waco, texas, or Rich Lambert, the pastor of new saint peters PCA in dallas; ending with small groups and a bit more free time. what a great time of fellowship and growth!

alex and i married in june and moved to waco, texas, mid-july after honeymooning and spending time with family. we have been settling in since -- our current project is building and painting a bookshelf to house all of our books.

because of our marriage, my work with ruf has transferred me from texas a&m to baylor university, my alma mater. the ruf staff at baylor includes the new campus minister Shaynor Newsome, previously the campus minister at new mexico state, and Tyler Hall, who has been working with baylor's ruf for the past year (he and i will be doing similar jobs -- though i will be directing my attention towards the girls and he towards the guys.) we are very excited about this upcoming fall, which is fast approaching.
- freshmen move in this wednesday and thursday
- our leadership retreat is from thursday to saturday
- we have a church fair for the freshmen on saturday
- classes begin the next monday (august 24)
- Shaynor, Tyler, and I will be on campus passing out water bottles and telling people about ruf the first week
- ruf's first large group is next wednesday (august 26)

please visit baylor ruf's website for more information: www.baylor.ruf.org

thank you for your continued prayer and support!

frozen custard

i'm within the final three weeks now at texas a&m and am amazed how quickly this semester has passed. and i know how these next 17 days will go by.

i was reminded today why i am here. i am an ear to listen, a hug to give, a marker to point to our Lord Jesus Christ. i don't have all of the answers, nor the wisdom, for these girls' problems. i am a fellow traveller who has come alongside to walk with them through the dark muck of sin that pulls upon them during their college years. i am to point them away from themselves that they may behold One who is greater than they, that they may be able to continue to walk, and to get back up when they fall, though covered with that sticky, smelly muck. i wish i could continue walking through that muck with these girls at a&m for another year, but i know i am being called away from bryan/college station that i would marry. and i look forward to that day.

and i know the muck in the lives of the girls at baylor university, in waco, texas, is just as prevalent, sticky, smelly, and burdensome as it is here. and so i look to keep on travelling until i meet with those girls at baylor that i may walk with them, beside them, in the muck that is our sin.

but until that day...

would you please pray that i will keep my eyes upon Jesus my Saviour that i would continue to work where He has called me this day.

would you please pray for these girls and guys at texas a&m -- they are hurting, they are burdened.

would you rejoice with me at the faithful work the Lord Jesus continues to do in these students' hearts and lives! i have been so encouraged to see the change that has happened even over the past eight months in their understanding of who they are and who God is.

about the title: i am pleased to know i have converted one of my girls to frozen custard : ) yum.

the last one

it's been a whirlwind of the past month and a half, and i realize i haven't stopped to give you all an update in more than a month...so, hopefully, i'll send out a more "updated" form of what is going on after this week.

i just wanted to let you all know that tonight is our last ruf large group of the semester. we have around five seniors who are graduating this december, so we are sad to see them leave. sometimes it feels like this semester has passed by so quickly, yet i also feels as though i've been in bryan/college station for some time. it feels more like home.

i would love it if you would be praying for these students here at a&m as they are trying to finish strong with their studies. the freshmen (more commonly referred to as "fish") are slightly anxious about what "finals" actually look like. everyone else sees the light at the end of the tunnel and are looking forward to the winter break.

i am still meeting with my girls and thankfully our conversations are becoming deeper than surface-level.

thank you for your prayers, your support, your kind e-mails, and your dear notes...they are appreciated more than you know.

sorry this is a bit scattered...my mind is bouncing to things that need to happen before 8 this evening.

is it really fall?

after hearing from my mom today that the temperature in nc sank as low as 35 last night/this morning, i'm am reminded that in other parts of the country fall really has set in. sometimes it's hard to tell the changing of seasons (which, to me, says that the days are passing) when it's steadily been in the upper-80s here in bryan/college station. but yesterday was october 1 and that means fall--not the changing of leaves and the smell of smoke from fires burning, but fall nonetheless...and that also means fall conference with ruf.

this year, we are actually doing a fall missions weekend to downtown houston. our focus has veered slightly since hurricane ike hit, so we will be doing some disaster-relief work and volunteering. i look forward to telling you more about it once we return (as i will then know more of the details). some exciting things about it, though, is WHO is going. we've got a great group of students who are going down with us. both ben and i are really excited. one thing that fall conferences can do is really plug the freshman into the group--and we have six who are coming with us, which is awesome!

please be praying for this weekend:
- we have a group leaving early to help set up (i'll be taking six students down with me around 2pm on friday) and then the later group will meet up with us (ben will be taking these students around 4pm on friday). please pray for safety as we travel.
- please pray for community both within our a&m group as well as with the other ruf's we are meeting up with (rice, smu, trinity, ut).
- please pray as we work on saturday in whatever we are doing--whether repairing buildings affected by ike or talking with people affected by ike.
- pray that these students, interns, and campus ministers will see how to better love these souls, for the sake of Jesus' name and His glory.

thank you in advance for your prayers. we do appreciate them.

an exciting couple weeks

well, we're heading into the 5th week of school! and it's hard for me to believe. the past two weeks have been quite busy and quite exciting...

this past week and this week have been the first round of tests/projects/papers/presentations for students, so we are finding that students are studying a bit longer (which is a good thing!) but normally when this happens, the first thing to go is their church/ministry commitment. i definitely remember the pressure to either study for a test/write a paper or go to ruf or Bible study--for some, it's a no brainer, others struggle with it and then struggle with the guilt of not doing the other. so we try to love them and remind them that their spirituality is based only and completely on the perfect work of Jesus Christ, not on their attendance or performance.

speaking of Bible studies: we have a freshman Bible study which meets on mondays--we're going through Jesus' parables and then having discussion questions--and thankfully the freshmen are talking : )
girls upperclassmen Bible study meets on monday nights at one of the core group girls' apartment. we're studying 1 John and two of the core group girls are leading--which has been an exciting time for me to witness them struggling over the text and really seeking to apply it to their lives. during meeting times, the discussions have come along way from the first--the girls are opening up more about how this truth impacts their lives and how they struggle to believe it.
guys upperclassmen Bible study meets monday nights also at some of the core group guys' house. two of the core group guys are leading this study on Galatians. many guys are meeting together to go through God's Word and i have been encouraged to see their faithfulness to studying it.
finally, we have an upperclassmen co-ed study on tim keller's book the reason for God. last week was our first time to meet (thanks to ike and determining schedule issues) and we had a great showing. we just did an introduction to the book, but it seems that many are excited about it!

over the course of these five weeks the girls are becoming more comfortable with me and i am thankful that we are starting to get below the surface level in our conversations. i'm meeting with girls normally over lunch or coffee--or a sonic drink : )

thank you for praying for us while hurricane ike was an issue--we are grateful that the extent we saw was some wind and rain--we even had electricity the whole time!

during that weekend, some other exciting events occurred--alex proposed and i said yes, so we will be getting married this summer : ) we're both very excited and are looking forward to how God will use us together for His glory and the extension of His kingdom.

prayer requests:
- praise that the Hailey's are fully recovered from their sickness!
- praise for God's faithfulness that His Word is going out and penetrating into the hearts and lives of these students
- please pray that these students will be open to hear the Truth and to wrestle with how God's Truth determines truth, as opposed to their own judgment
- please pray that i will have meaningful conversations with girls in 1-on-1's and that i would seek to and would be faithful in pointing them towards the One, Jesus Christ, who completely fulfills and satisfies more than their needs
- please pray for me as i budget my time in studying God's Word, prayer, meeting with students, doing administrative work, and doing "wedding stuff"
- please pray that i will be reminded of the Gospel each moment of the day and that i will look to my Saviour as i am pointing others to lay all at His feet

thank you for your faithfulness and your support. i pray this finds you all resting in God's grace.

sitting in my office

thank you all so much for your prayers--the Lord has been faithful and gracious in answering them. the church and students have been extremely warm, welcoming, and excited that i am here. people continue to introduce themselves and want me to know that if they can do anything for me, to let them know. i have been so blessed to see how the Body of Christ is reaching out to me in welcoming me in to this local body.

i do feel "settled" even though many boxes still remain in waco, where i left them during the summer months. i'll be getting them once i'm able to make a trip northward. i am continuing to learn the layout of the city, and am finding my way around pretty well. i was talking with a fellow intern at another university, and we were feeling this same sense that our transition has been remarkably smooth, and we thank God for His gracious hand in this.

the leadership retreat was incredible! the students were interested in getting to know me and we were able to go over the philosophy of ministry. there were many things to consider, but they grasped it and are ready to take hold of the ministry. along these lines, six of the eight on the leadership team will be graduating this year! so you may be praying for the rising leadership whom we need to identify. one thing ben reminded these students, me, and himself, that really sank into my heart and the students is that even "if ruf flops, it's okay--we still have Jesus."

our first large group was on august 27 and it was great to get started! we are in the process of figuring out how it will "look" but it went really well--we fellowshipped together, praised God through song and the reading of His Word, and heard the preaching of His Word. a&m averaged around 35 students at large group last year, and we had about 70 students that night! the most encouraging thing was for me to see the excitement on the faces of the leadership group and to hear them praising God for bringing these students to ruf! it was absolutely wonderful!

this past week was incredible as well--we figured out more of how large group should run and were able to spend more time getting to know new students who came. ben is preaching through mark and we were able to see (in mark 1:16-45) the call of Jesus, the power and authority He has, and how His love is manifested in what He does. ben showed the students our connection with the physically sick, lame, leprous person and how Jesus reached out to heal them with how we are spiritually sick, lame, and leprous and that Jesus reaches out to heal us. on this campus, students do not see that they are just like the leprous man in total need of healing. please pray that God's Word will convict their hearts to show them their need--and mine as well (for though i know this, i am prone to forget this Truth).

over the past nine days, i've been meeting with girls one-on-one (mainly freshman, though a few others too). this is one of my main focuses while i'm here. the girls have been very open to meeting with me and sharing themselves with me. generally, i grab lunch or coffee with them, so if it's around lunch time and you happen to think of me, please pray for me! i'll most likely be meeting with a student and you can pray that i will be seeking to point them towards Jesus and that He will direct me how i should do that.

this past week, we also started our small group Bible studies: freshman (mondays at 4), upperclassmen girls (mondays at 8), upperclassmen guys (mondays at 8), and upperclassmen co-ed (thursdays at 6). i'll update you more on these next week : )

i know this has been long and i appreciate you reading all the way through it. here's a recap for prayer:
- praise God for His faithfulness in getting me here and that i am settled!
- praise God for accomplishing His work with the leadership students and their beginning to understand what ministry is--it's all about Jesus and His work
- praise God for our first couple large groups and the response of interest
- pray for the small group Bible studies
- pray for my understanding of grace that i may better relay that to these students
- pray that i will be a true ambassador for God--living not for myself and my "mini-kingdom", but for the Lord and the true Kingdom
- please pray for ben and his family: their two children (hannah-4, nathan-2) have been sick this past week, and we believe are over it; but beth (ben's wife) now is sick. please pray for her healing and also for God's sustaining and keeping ben healthy during this time.

thank you, dear family and friends for your partnership in serving our Lord!

(and yes, i have an office! quite a pleasant surprise : ) )

so here i am

just wanted to let you all know that Alex and i safely made the drive from north carolina to college station, texas. i have moved in and am getting settled while trying to meet with some of the ruf students. it has been such a great time to see how God's people reach out to me and are supporting me.

the past few days i've been realizing that God has called me here, so here i am. now what do i do? that's the big question right now. but God is faithful and teaching me to trust Him. so i'm taking it moment by moment.

a few things to be praying for:
tonight (friday) through tomorrow (saturday) we are having our ministry team retreat (the ministry team is the core group of students leading ruf at a&m)--please be praying for this time as we are getting ready for this upcoming semester.
sunday we have college lunch at church (Westminster Presbyterian) and then for dinner we are having a cook-out at the Hailey's home--it will be a time to get students together before the rush of the new semester gets underway.
classes start on monday! pray for my time on campus as i'm getting to meet with and know students
the 1st ruf large group meets this wednesday : ) we're excited. Ben will be teaching through the book of Mark.
please pray for me--i am excited for this upcoming week, as well as nervous, not knowing what i'll be doing, while knowing that God has brought me here. so here i am.