Catalyst 2009 - Day Five

Wow what a week it has been. From the worship team to the Catalyst Cup competition to the nine students that SLU brought this week, it's been a little hectic. The worship team has been going pretty well. We had a few issues with folks (including myself) showing up late to meetings and not respecting each other's time, but it has wrapped up beautifully. I am pretty impressed with how far we have come and I am blown away by how God has used the musical experience to build community between the team members. There is nothing like common experience that is bigger than the individuals involved to build community on a team. I have had a lot of fun playing guitar this week and watching 180 college students and staff sing their hearts out to God together.

On Wednesday evening, during the time we are allotted to meet in our campus groups (as opposed to the one large multi-campus group). our nine SLU students were asked to reflect on their experience thus far and share a story of how Jesus had impacted them over the course of the week. I was amazed by the stories that were shared! Each student could trace the specific ways in which Jesus had connected the events of the week to form an intentional and personal message just for them. It was incredible to realize that every single one of them had individually encountered Jesus in a very significant way in just the first few days at Catalyst. All of the sudden, all the stress of the worship team and some of the trainings that I had to do melted away and I was reminded why it is that I felt so compelled by the call to campus ministry in the first place. I love watching God move in the hearts of people that seem so far from Him, watching their eyes light up when they talk about how they felt His presence or heard Him speak to them. It is simply incredible.

Tomorrow is our last morning here at Camp Windermere. Thank you for your prayers this week. Please pray that God would use our last few hours together to continue calling people to mission at SLU and on campuses throughout our region.

Catalyst 2009 - Day One

There is something very surreal about sitting in the midst of an event for which months of planning have come and gone. We are now about 15 hours away from the first students arriving here at Camp Windermere, a beautiful Baptist camp on the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. Catalyst is the InterVarsity Central Region summer student conference, focusing on processing the year past and visioning for the year to come. It allows our students to unwind from final exams and get one last chance to hang out with friends and staff before heading home for the summer. It also provides a space for students to hear from Jesus regarding areas of sin in their lives, areas where they need to accept His love and lordship, and even areas where He is calling them to follow Him in a deeper or different manner. Catalyst was actually my very first InterVarsity event and one of the places where I first discovered what it meant to love and serve Jesus from within other cultural contexts than the one in which I grew up. Here, students will worship in multiple languages alongside students from various ethnic, geographical, and socio-economic backgrounds as we come together to form a fuller mosaic of the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus taught us in the Gospels.

My primary role this week is to serve as co-director of the Catalyst Worship Team. Our team is made up of students from around Saint Louis, myself, and another InterVarsity staff worker. We have rehearsed a handful of times over the past few months and are starting to feel comfortable around each other. It has been great watching the chemistry between band members forming even in the past 24 hours. Please pray that the sound system and all of the technical details come together so that the Team can focus on worshiping God and not on the inevitable glitches, mishaps, and shortcomings that are inherent in being human.

The staff gathered this evening to prepare for the students' arrival and the presence of the Holy Spirit was quite noticeable in the room. This is an amazing group of people - I am humbled to hold be surrounded by some of the staff workers who have had such a monumental impact on my own life. In this very room where I write sits my own staff worker (and now supervisor), a woman whose direction and constant support kept me sane in college and keep me floating through the unpredictable world of college ministry. Also in the room is the first person I heard speak at Catalyst in 2006. I have no idea what he spoke on but I remember that during his message was the first time I ever considered that maybe God was calling me to missionary work at SLU. It is interesting how men pick certain people to hold up as "heroes" or even models to look to when weighing great decisions. We have actually only been around each other a few times but he consistently goes out of his way to speak words of encouragement to me and make me feel important and included in ministry. Please pray that God would bring me students this week who need to be encouraged and included. May the love of Christ flow through our staff team as the students arrive safely tomorrow. I will keep you posted.

The Changing Tide

I have been on the campus of Saint Louis University since the beginning of my freshman year in the Fall of 2005. I joined a small Bible study within the few first weeks of school and ended up parting ways due to involvement in SLU's Student Government Association. While involved with SGA, I became a member of the Social Justice Committee, which sought to plan SGA-sponsored events highlighting various justice and mercy causes around the area and world. I had a very small outlook on the world at the time and the committee was mostly tedious for me.

However, the fruit of God's timing is always remarkable when we are allowed to see it. From above the room in which the SJ Committee met, I could hear the faint sounds of praise and worship music every week. My growing frustration with SGA and simultaneous longing for Christ-centered community led me to turning in my Senate resignation for the Spring of 2006. The first week back from Christmas vacation, I wandered into the mysterious room on the 3rd floor of SLU's Student Center to discover the source of those faint worship sounds. This is where my journey with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship began. In the midst of a good deal of personal turmoil over the course of my freshman year, InterVarsity was my port in the storm. The staff and students involved became some of my closest friends and (now) partners on campus. The next few years would find me becoming more involved in a ministry that took me everywhere from the heart of Saint Louis to the slums of Cairo, Egypt.

I share my story for the sake of testimony to the work of Jesus, both in my life and in the life of SLU. I have been with SLU's IV for a while and I have been blessed to watch it grow. From a handful of students at Fall Conference 06 to 17 in 2008. From 2 students at our Summer leadership retreat in 2008 to the already 9 signed up for Catalyst 2009 with more to come (God-willing). The Kingdom is coming in Midtown - the laborers are being called to the vineyard.

In March, my staff partners and I took 7 students to realHOPE 2009 - a week of evangelism at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. The goal of the week was two-fold: (1) to aid in the process of a new InterVarsity chapter being planted on campus through meeting students, doing conversation evangelism, and praying around the clock; (2) to train students from around the region in evangelism on a campus-wide and interpersonal level so that they could return home to be evangelism leaders on their own campuses. Though evidences of the first objective were many (80 UMKC students interested in joining IV, 15 significant decisions for Christ), the fruit of the second objective would take time to be revealed.

On Friday afternoon, I met with a student from my small group and a friend of hers (from a Hindu background) whom she invited to investigate Jesus for the first time. Opening the Word with a student honestly seeking to understand Jesus was a shot in the arm for me. It is easy to become comfortable going through the motions in ministry - we get into routines of meeting with the same students and planning events for the sake of having events. Evangelism is the cold water on the face of my status quo ministry. realHOPE has given our students and staff the boost that we needed to begin affecting real change on campus at SLU. Before UMKC, I was hard-pressed to find a non-believer among us. In the wake of our return, I am running out of time in my week to meet with the students that SLU leaders meet in their weekly conversations on campus. We are rushing to train new leaders in investigative Bible studies and conversational evangelism. The tide is changing at SLU...we are not satisfied to be a Jesus Bubble anymore. Please pray for us and for the students seeking Jesus that we run into every week. We need you.

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." - Matthew 9:35-38

Welcome!

Hey there! Thanks for stopping in to check out my little prayer blog here on the world wide web. This is the best place to find recent news and prayer requests for the ministry of InterVarsity at Saint Louis University. I'll be posting pictures, financial updates, and probably some long-winded explanations of how God has been working in my life and ministry as of late. Thank you for your prayers - stay tuned to see how God is using them!

Peace,
Kale