Pre-Fall Wrap-Up

I never cease to be amazed by the fact that the longer it takes to plan events, the quicker those events tend to fly by. My staff partner, Esther, and I spent weeks planning our Pre-Fall Retreat and it is now officially over. The students headed back around 1pm this afternoon and, after cleaning up the church where we stayed, I promptly crashed on a couch at my parents' house here in rainy Marion, IL. I'll give you a brief overview of how these last few days have been (including some pictures):

Tuesday
Esther and I, along with our supervisor, Tammy, arrived early at Third Baptist to put together last minute details and pray for our students as they traveled. The retreat is geared to prepare our leadership team (The Edge) for the upcoming two weeks of New Student Outreach, where we will meet dozens of new freshmen and transfer students to love and serve as they step on to campus for the first time. It is also a great time to reconnect and process our summers together. Tuesday had a little bit of both as we spent time sharing stories, studying Scripture together, and casting vision for the new year. Esther and I shared the vision that we felt God had laid on our hearts for the campus at SLU in our desire that every student and faculty member know that they are "loved by God and sent with purpose" to take that love to a broken world. We ate at one of my favorite Marion restaurants (Tequila's) and concluded the evening with a tour of some Marion highlights, including the high school, the house I grew up in, and the country's fourth-largest Wal-Mart. We had a blast and it was so refreshing to see our core group so motivated by reaching out to their friends on campus with the Gospel of Jesus.

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, Patty Mitchell, our guest devotional leader, took us through Isaiah 6, inspiring us to embrace the path along which God sends us and to listen closely to hear His voice as we go. This was quite timely as we were preparing to head to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale that afternoon to share the Gospel with students that we met on campus. Our team of 8 split into pairs and ended up sharing Jesus with about 10 SIU-C students. My partner, Robert, and I met several interesting people, including an Indian grad student who, though he was raised Hindu, expressed interest in learning more about Christianity and who Jesus is. We had a great conversation with him and passed his information on to the IV Staff at SIU. Who knows what amazing things might happen at SIU this year simply because 8 college students and staff were willing to give up an hour to share the Gospel on campus? God is so good! We arrived back (much later than expected) to find an incredible spread of food cooked up for us by Quetta Karcher, another amazing woman of God. After a pretty intense morning and afternoon, this was well met and quite refreshing. We concluded our day by planning some of our New Student Outreach and attending the Pastor's Wednesday night Bible Study. A great day overall.

Thursday
On our last morning of Pre-Fall Retreat, we began with a devotional led by Rob Jones, youth minster at TBC. He took us back through John 4 and reminded us of our call to go beyond stereotypes in reaching every corner of campus. I was inspired and I know the students were as well. We concluded our time together by finishing up some logistics and spending time in prayer for the upcoming year. All in all, we had a great time at Pre-Fall Retreat. Several incredible stories from Wednesday afternoon (write me for more if you are interested!) and a few incredible meals shared along with a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with each other under the umbrella of the wonderful hospitality shown to us by the members and staff of Third Baptist. Thanks to everyone who was involved and has helped us along the way. We are gearing up for New Student Outreach tomorrow and we desperately need your prayers. I will update as I can.

IV Leaders @ Tequila's in Marion, IL

Pre-Fall Retreat 2009

Today I'm working at Latta Java in my hometown of Marion, IL. It's a day of logistics and last minute details as it is now 25 hours until students from SLU arrive here for our annual Pre-Fall Retreat. We will spend Tuesday through Thursday processing our summers together, planning for the year of ministry, and praying after the heart of God as we seek to be His hands and feet on campus at SLU. I am excited to share this piece of my history and relationships with my students. Marion has been a kind of refuge for me in my years in college and the idea of being "home" is one of the most powerful metaphors through which God speaks to me, as evidenced by the title of this ministry blog. In just over a day from now, this place of rest will offer its hospitality to students from a variety of backgrounds and ways of life; students who may have had wonderful summers and be in places of great peace and joy, as well as students who may have had terrible summers of hopes disappointed and family strife. The tragic beauty of being in ministry with other human beings is that we all bring to the table what we have to offer, as beautiful or broken (usually both) as it may be.

Please pray for us this week. Pray that Esther and I maintain a level of enthusiasm and a countenance of servant leadership as we seek to bless our students and motivate them toward the vision God has given us for SLU. Pray for both a spirit of rest and a spirit of excitement as our students come from their summers and prepare for the coming year. Pray for the members and staff of Third Baptist as the interact with my students and staff partner for the first time. May this only be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship of love and hospitality. As always, thanks for reading and for your love and support of me and of the ministry of IV at SLU. I will keep you posted as I can throughout the week.