Our church--Missio Dei Church-- is joining up with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Montreat College to bring in Victor Butros of International Justice Mission to present his work.
Here is Lily with her mom Kelly, and siblings Lindsey and Luke!
God is so good to use our efforts in this conference each year. This morning when we met with the students to debrief what they learned this weekend, it was awesome to hear students experiencing the Lord and considering how to bring the Gospel to their campuses. Above is me with Heather, a senior at Western Carolina University at Fall Getaway. She has been so faithful, and is excited about growing in her faith. She's been especially teachable, which has been so encouraging!! It's so special to see God at work in our students.
this is me realizing how hot babies are....I was burning up while holding her!
Yep, that's right...she's a cutie too! Jeremy will have his hands full with these two beauties!
Stephanie and I both feel like the Lord used us in spite of us this summer. We had a great team of staff and students to lead. I feel like God pushed us to the limits this summer and taught us so much (a lot of which I’m still figuring out).
He taught me a lot about leading others, about speaking truth and sharing my faith. Our team was able to share the Gospel with over 100 people and saw 2 people make the decision to begin following Jesus!
God taught me a lot about relying on Him and not on myself and about finding significance in Him and not in the job I’m doing or in what others think about me. It was such a temptation to base my self worth on the popularity of my decisions and not on the fact that I’ve been adopted in to the family of God.
We learned a lot about seeking the shalom of the city (Jeremiah 29) this summer and what it should look like for a Christian to be a part of a community. In Jeremiah 29 God calls the Israelites to not set up a camp outside the city of Babylon and to separate themselves, but to move in to the city, to marry, have children, plant gardens and become a part of the city, not use it only for what they could get out of it, but to seek the prosperity of it and add to it. This is how God’s people were to be a blessing to the city of
These are some of the things that have been on my mind since NYC. Please pray for us and our students as we all continue to process through what God taught us this summer and how to bring it back with
us. Here are a couple more pictures from NYC.
Yeah we ate at the original Nathan's on Coney Island. I'd still rather have a Bright Leaf hotdog with mustard, chili and slaw any day!
This is in front of the Queensboro Bridge on a double date with the Woods.
This is the view we had from the roof of our apartment building (Carl's), not bad at all. Thanks for the memories Carl!
It was pretty stuffy in there, so we stuck our heads out. We realized that we looked pretty funny in the process.
...on the campus of Columbia University
1 1/2 hours and 27 subway stops was the time it took us to get to our campus today. We traveled from the student housing in Queens to Brooklyn College. I never imagined that it would take that long to get around this city! Although it was a long commute, the rewards of being on campus were great. Like yesterday, I experienced so much diversity. When we arrived on campus, we paired up to do different surveys to help us learn about the campus...what things students care about, what people enjoy being involved in, and why they chose to come to Brooklyn College. Although the surveys are structured to provide practical information to help us do what we call "decoding a campus," almost always the conversation turns to spiritual things. It's so interesting how that happens, and the conversations we've had with people the last two days has been eye-opening.
Here we are eating Gimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Here is us at the Top of the Rockafeller Center...the view of Central Park was my favorite!
From left to right: Eden-- on staff at University of Tennessee, Erik--on staff at Syracuse University and Jonathan--on staff in Albany, NY
Above are Hobie and Hannah Wood, who are on staff at Appalachian State University. We also spent last summer with this WONDERFUL couple, and are sharing our apartment in Queens this summer with them.
at we had to clean up--dirty dishes in the sink (with no dishwasher other than us), dirty towels hanging in the bathroom, and--as shown in the picture-- shoes on the floor! After getting our apartment ready for someone to live in it while we were gone, this was definitely a surprise...but, needless to say cleaning up a little bit didn't kill us, so we'll be ok.
entral Station and had to roll the shelves to take the train. Well it was late, and we were tired so we started doing acrobatics in the middle of Grand Central Station using our shelves...here are some pictures:
f the directors went up to the Bronx to the Bronx Zoo! It was really fun, and amazing to see all the animals. We saw some pretty strange things as well. A gorilla threw up in his hands twice and proceeded to eat his own throw up both times. I know I'm probably weird, but that was my favorite part.
Here is Reece with the sandwich shop in the background...it was named 'Wich Craft. I definitely recommend it. We're excited for another day tomorrow!
So yeah we woke up late to catch our train to
As we started running from our car I was dragging 2 large rolling suitcases, a backpack, a duffle bag, 2 squishy pillows, a back roll, and a bottle of aloe vera (we got a little too much sun at the lake yesterday) and Love with a large rolling suitcase, backpack, 2 Nalgenes, a blanket, and food for the trip. At this moment, I thought, “I survived a much worse fiasco getting on a train in
A few steps later and I’m on the sidewalk, I have dropped the red squishy pillow and run over it with one of the suitcases. It’s a casualty at this point, I’m not going back to get it. The ticket agent helps us to get on to an escalator to get up to the train. As soon as we get off the escalator and step on the platform, the train blows its whistle and begins rolling. The porter on the side of the train shook her head and said that it was too late.
The stages of mourning presented themselves quickly. Immediate disbelief, following quickly by rage, made me want to hurl my Nalgene bottle as hard as I could at the wall. Then followed a long period of strategy. I turned to the ticket agent to ask where the next stop was and if we could drive there and beat the train. He said we couldn’t make it and told us the next train to NYC left at 9:21. It was 4am.
Back downstairs in the ticket office, we found out that we would have to pay $180 extra to t
ake that 9:21 train on top of the $160 that the tickets to NYC already cost us. After my awesome wife called Amtrak “customer service” (she said she would be more determined than me and not back down) without really getting much service, we decided to try to see if we could get a cheap flight. Going to the airport ticket counter was the wrong thing to do because the agent at the
Then we called Mrs. Love (sorry we kept you up!) and she looked on discount airline sites and bus sites for alternatives while we drove to Panera to use their internet connection to do the same.
After seeing
nothing for less than $400, the next mourning phase set in, acceptance followed by delirium (due to the lack of sleep). We drove back toward the train station to check in wait for the 9:21 train. The same ticket agent was there, bless his heart. He checked our bags in for us, 3 hours early and then wisely asked if we were going to hang around there or if we were going to go anywhere and then told us what time we should be there to not miss the train. The following events including quite an excursion in downtown
We have made it to New York now though and are chillin at the La Quinta (Queens).
Nik and Lindsay during their vows!
