First days @ Mizzou

I'm currently sitting in a little coffee shop in downtown Columbia, MO right next to Mizzou, the campus where we are planting a new chapter. There are over 25k students at Mizzou and not many of them know Christ. This past weekend I spent two whole days hanging out with students in AAA (MU's Asian American Association) and volunteering with their Unificasian (Unification & Asian -- clever huh?) event that helps to connect Asian minorities to each other in the huge rush of incoming freshmen the school sees every year.
I met a bunch of great people and we had many sign up to come to our Bible Study that InterVarsity recently started here with the help of IV volunteer Andrew Moon (a philosophy grad student). Many who signed up aren't Christian but ARE very much interested in learning about Jesus and what the Bible / Christianity is really all about. It's amazing to see such openness in them, especially considering that not far from this coffee shop today an old school 'evangelist' named Brother Jed is bringing the 'fire and brimstone' message. I am blown away that despite that the Holy Spirit is moving in people around the campus that I have met who honestly want to know Jesus. One guy named Wataro the other day who opened up to me about his spiritual journey and how he almost became a Christian before learning that I worked with InterVarsity- then he said "wow, it must have been fate that I ran into you because I don't normally talk about faith and spirituality".
Please continue to pray as we have our first GiG tonight of the semester (GiG = Group investigating God -- a Bible Study for non-believers). Thanks!

~31 new followers of Christ @ SD Conference

~31 people either made first time decisions or re-commitments to follow Christ during "Pursuit" in South Dakota. Daryl and I are at the airport waiting to catch our flight back from leading worship there this week. It was a great time of not only praising God but getting to know a lot of great students with a passion for sharing Christ with others. We met a lot of new friends but also met a lot of people who are interested in being mentored through UNTIED - the worship ministry Daryl and I are founding. Thank you all for your prayers and God bless!

Michael - Moving from Worship Leader to Team Leader

Michael is a more experienced and skilled worship leader than the others I am working with in Iowa. I enjoy working with him as it is a great place to push the envelope but also readjust the focus of growth to developing the worship team around him. Michael is approaching the point where in order to maximize his own development he needs to start thinking about raising up those around him. I also think this will also help him to grow as a worship leader who's influence goes beyond the short time he spends in the spotlight on stage. Please pray for Michael as he has a lot to think about in terms of time managment and beginning to draw his team together as a real team and not just a group of people serving together.

Leah - William Penn Worship Leader

Just met with Leah this morning here in Pella, IA. Leah is currently a Junior at William Penn University and passionate about worship. Specifically, Leah was telling me this morning how she God has changed her through her time at college to be less focused on herself and to see her ministry as caring for others. He has also given her a heart for justice & restoring joy and purpose in our times of worship. Please pray for Leah, that God will give her strength as one of the few Christians in her school and that He will continue to reveal to her His plans for how He will use her at William Penn.

As a side note - William Penn has recently placed some very difficult requirements on campus ministries mandating that they collectively only have one time of ministry during specific time that is overseen by the campus ministry department. Please be praying for that also.

Leading Worship @ IV Conference in SD

This is a sneak peek at the conference Daryl and I will be leading worship @ next week. Currently, I'm still in Iowa but will be leaving Thursday back to STL after meeting with Leah and Michael on Wed. Tomorrow I'm going to be doing some reflecting on today's meeting with Morgan and preparing for Wednesday. Please continue to pray for these busy next two weeks.

Meeting with Morgan goes extremely well

Thank you all for your prayers! I just wanted to post a quick update to say that I finished my first meeting here in Pella with Morgan and was blessed by her desire to develop her team and her openness in talking about things in general. We did a lot of work this morning and met for about 2.5 hrs and I feel like she no longer feels like she is in over her head which but instead is excited about trying out some of the things we talked about which is great. Please continue to pray for her as she is actually moving to Cedar Rapids later this week to start her internship at Coe College where she will be leading worship and developing the worship leaders there.

Meeting with students & staff in Iowa

Next week I'll be leaving for a few days to different parts of IA to continue to grow United's ministry. I'll be meeting with a few student leaders who do worship at William Penn University & Drake University as well as a staff who will be in charge of a worship team at Coe-College for the first time. I plan to meet with them all individually to oversee both their individual development as worship leaders & their development of their respective worship teams.

While I'm in Pella, IA I'll also be helping Central College to redesign their sound equipment setup for their large group which has over 200 students attending weekly! Please keep us all in your prayers next week.

Here's a little about each of the leaders I will be meeting with:

Leah is trying to start a worship team at William Penn. She has a heart for diversity and reaching those different from her (around 1/2 of the chapter at WP is made up of ethnic minorities). Leah is also concerned about leading worship for the first time in college and getting others to help her at WP.

Michael is an experienced worship leader at Drake University. He is also extremely passionate about worship and reaching others through his music. He is currently undergoing difficulty with getting the rest of the team as on board with a holistic approach to music and not just being a member of the band / playing out of a service aspect.

Morgan is coming on staff this next year at Coe College and was asked to lead the worship team there since she plays guitar. She is a little anxious about leading worship as well as developing her team but is excited for the school year to start.

Please keep all of them in your prayers as well. Thanks again!

First Visit to Mizzou!

This past Tuesday was my first trip out to Mizzou to meet Andrew Moon, our IV volunteer out there, for the first time. Jean and I got there around 3pm and hung out with Andrew all afternoon, just the three of us. He was extremely excited to see us and really needed another mature believer to talk to about a lot of challenges he was facing in leading his GiG (Group investigating God).

Some of the students from Mizzou came over around 5pm to go swimming & dinner and then we had a Bible Study with them from 8-9:30pm. There were seven non-believers that showed up that night and they all stayed from 5- 11 (we played some games afterwards). A couple of them even came to AABS for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Personally, Jean and I were both very impressed with the kind of non-believers that Andrew had coming to AABS. They had already made the mental switch from Cynics to Seekers* and were some of the most open minded non-believers we'd ever met before! What's more is that quite a few of them aren't in the original study which means that the group is continuing to grow in the summer.

The best part is that I met a couple of non-believers there that I hope to meet up with continually over the year to help them get more time to dig into specific questions & issues they have about Christianity and God. Please pray especially for Vince and Will, two of the people I hope to start meeting with regularly.

*Cynics to Seekers is one of the "conversion points" that we think of in InterVaristy. The complete picture is:
Cynic → Seeker → Follower → Minister → Leader → World Changer