A Busy Week

This last Saturday we had our fall retreat for the students. It was a one day retreat and we had it in our home town, Winchester, at a local church here. We didn't have as many students participate as we expected, but the day was very good. Our worship times were especially filled with the presence of God.

Last Tuesday we invited Patrick T. Smith from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to speak at our large group meeting. This was the first time we have had a guest speaker to do an outreach event at our meeting. Again, we didn't have as many students as we expected, but J. was there. He is a preChristian that  we have had a relationship with for a year now and it was a great time for him to hear the Gospel again.

Patrick Smith did a great job and our students loved him. His topic was "Human Dignity and the Gospel:With Some Implications for Social Justice and Bio Ethics". We will be inviting him back to do more with us.

So last week was very busy for me - planning and preparing for the retreat and our guest speaker. We also attended a missions conference on Wednesday for a local supporting church. We have two more events left this semester - Thanksgiving at our house (we are expecting ten or more students) - and our outreach Christmas party on campus. It's nice to have a break from events so that I can focus on the students I am discipling. I'll introduce them to you next time.

'First Things'

A couple of you have asked me if I got sleep on Saturday (We didn't get home until 3:30 am from cleaning the arena) and the answer is yes and no.

My life, as a campus pastor,  includes my family. I have three kids: Laura - 16, Patrick - 15 and Aaron - 6. So, no I didn't get a lot of sleep. Laura had her PSAT on Sat morning, so I got up at 7 am (I had 3 hours sleep) to drive her to her test (She thinks she did well). Aaron woke up at the same time and proceeded to wake me up every half hour as I napped after taking Laura to her test. Patrick wanted to play Seafarers of Cattan (Great game by the way!) so we spent the afternoon building trade routes and getting beat by Laura (she wins every game she plays :( ). I made a big Mexican feast for dinner and an apple tart for dessert. We watched a couple of our favorite TV shows we had missed that week and I went to bed at 9 pm. I got sleep on Saturday night.

As I minister to students I am constantly thinking of my kids. Especially when there are issues going on in their lives that need my attention - and I am fighting to find time to spend with both the students and my children. Balancing priorities, setting and moving boundaries, maintenance of relationships and putting energy into growing those relationships, daily rewriting of my schedule,  are all part of my ministry at BU. Both the students and my kids are important to me - 'first things' as Steven Covey says (7 Habits of Highly Effective People - a book I highly recommend).

'First Things' or Eternal Things. Every time I spend time with the students in the name of Jesus I am building something eternal, that will last forever. Every time I spend time with my children in the name of Jesus I am also building something eternal, that will last forever. Both are true worship, in spirit and truth, to God. There are only two things that are eternal in this world - God and people. I choose to spend my time with those things that will be here when the new earth and new heaven are revealed at the end of time.

I'll have plenty of time to sleep then.

Late Night Cleaning

We are about to leave for the Agganis Arena on campus. It is 9:30 pm and we won't be back until probably 1 or 2 am. We will be cleaning the arena after a concert to earn money for our outreach events next semester. We've done this twice last year and we are known for doing a quick and excellent job. I'm sure we will continue our reputation.

The exciting thing is we have a whole group of preChristians who are going to help us this evening. For some reason this is the only event that we do that they come to - to clean an arena. It's strange, but a wonderful way to be witnesses for Jesus. We hope they come to something else in the future, but until then we include them and love them.

Don't expect me to be up tomorrow writing another post  :) I'll be sleeping.

Plaza Encounter

This last Tuesday we were unable to have our weekly gathering where we usually have it, because our room was not available. We were able to get a room in the basement of Marsh Chapel at the last minute. As I was walking across Marsh Plaza to put signs up on the doors to direct people where to go, an Asian student stopped to ask me directions to the Warren Towers cafeteria. He could not speak English very well but I was able to direct him to where he needed to go.

He stopped me, after I gave him directions, and took notice of the flyers I had in my hand which said "Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship" across the top. He told me he was going to Warren Towers for a bible study. He also wondered what the difference was between our group and the bible study he was going to. He said "I have some questions about the bible."

DW,  (his name) wanted to know when we our meeting was and where it was. At 7pm, DW showed up at our meeting instead of going to the other bible study. Thomas and Edward gathered round him and sat with him during the meeting and invited him to come to their core the next night.

DW is a visiting scholar from China, studying systems engineering. He is very curious about Christianity and plans on coming to our meeting next week. If we hadn't moved our meeting place I would not have met him.

I haven't heard back from Naomi. Pray that she emails me and that we can get together. Maybe I will see her on campus soon. Thanks for your prayers.

Indonesia, Australia, Hungary

This morning Thomas, our campus ministry intern, and I went out to share on campus. We walked up to a student to engage her in a conversation. The first student said no, she was not interested, but the second student invited us to sit down.

Her name is N. and she is an international student. She is Indonesian, but lived in Australia, then Indonesia again and now is from Hungary. Her father works for a large bank and has lived all over the world for his work. N. speaks perfect English, is studying Spanish and Hebrew (she wants to learn five languages before she graduates) and is a freshmen.

She is part of a very large tribe in Indonesia. Her tribe is Lutheran, and she went through Lutheran confirmation this last summer. Her grandfather is Pentecostal and goes to an Assembly of God church in Indonesia. When N. told me that I knew that this was a divine appointment. She also told me that she is on Chi Alpha's email list! God put this meeting together!

N. is searching to know God and what he might mean to her life. She was confirmed this summer because she wants to learn more about God. She has also been attending a Catholic church because she wants to learn to pray and having written prayers helps her to know what to say to God.

I invited her to have coffee with me sometime next week and she said she was open to do that. She even let me pray for her before we left. Pray for N. that she would want to meet with me again and that I can begin a good friendship with her.

At The Office

Today I am in the GSU (George Sherman Union). The GSU is the student center on campus. There is a food court here, meeting rooms, offices, a ball room and game room. I use the GSU as my office on campus. I will find a table in the back of the food court, plug my computer in and sit and meet with students and work all day.

I love working here in the GSU because there are students all around me talking, studying, eating, sleeping :), and hanging out. The students are why I am here, and being with them reminds me of that. It's easy to forget what God has called me to do when I work at home and all I see are the dirty dishes and all I hear are my kids asking for help (they are part of my ministry, too). Here in the GSU I over hear the student's conversations, watch them interact and observe the intensity of their studies. I get to enter their world.

I spend a lot of my time praying for the students I see here, even though I do not know them or what they are going through. I know that God is doing everything in his power to reveal himself to these students. I pray that they would see his presence around them. I also pray that I would reveal his presence to them as I enter their world.

18 Apple Pies!

Wow! You should have seen our kitchen! We had ten Chi Alpha students at our home on Saturday baking apple pies. At least 4 people were in our kitchen all evening long baking pies. Some students baked their very first apple pie ever - thanks to our wonderful pie instructor - Kelly. We played games, baked pies, ate chicken soup and, of course, ate apple pie!

We had 2 new students come on Saturday - B. and R.. They are from France, but their parents immigrated to France from Taiwan. They spoke fluent french with an Asian accent! R. is a pre-med at Harvard and B. is studying at BU. Both of them are Christians and were involved in a Chi Alpha group in Paris at their university there! They had a wonderful time and will probably be part of our group all year long.

All the students loved this event. They were able to get off campus for a break from studies and do something totally different then the routine classes and studying. We will probably schedule a Christmas cookie bake our place in December, too. And we always host Thanksgiving at our place for students who can't go home. Our next event will be on Ocotber 15th - Oasis. More about that later. See you then!