How God Works in a Student's Life

John 3:8 says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Jesus spoke these words describing the activity of God’s Holy Spirit at work in the hearts of people. We are often asked, “How does God work on campus?” It’s tempting to outline our strategies or our plans or our events, but the bottom line is this: God has always done His thing in His own way, and it’s no different here. Let me tell you the story of Kenny (pictured on the right).

One of our ministries, reGeneration, meets on Thursday nights. The first two meetings of this semester, however, were cancelled – one to a Student Union scheduling mistake, and the other to the weather – so we were really late getting that ministry off the ground. At that first meeting, I spoke on Nicodemus and outlined his faith journey as seen in John 3, 7, and 19.

One of the students that showed up was Kenny, a sophomore from Taiwan. He had heard about reGen by meeting some students at the activities fair the previous week. We had a table set up and we handed out information (and candy…can’t forget about the candy!). Curious, he decided to come to the first meeting.

Kenny heard the gospel that night as I told the story of Nicodemus. We talked afterward and he shared with me his background – he’s from a Taiwanese family with a very mixed religious upbringing. He said he was interested in basketball so we agreed to play the next week. So for two days that week we played ball together and just hit it off. A couple of weeks later, and Kenny decided to come to our men’s small group.

Even though he doesn’t know much about Christianity, he has a million questions. We’re studying the life of Jesus from various vignettes in the gospels and he is diving in headfirst. His testimony, should he eventually come to faith, will be phenomenal. But who would have imagined that a kid from Taiwan with no Christian upbringing whatsoever would end up in a small group Bible study looking at the life of Jesus! Please pray for Kenny as his journey continues!

WNBA Chaplaincy Coming Soon!

Soon, March Madness will be upon us, which reminds me anew to begin to think and pray in earnest for our upcoming WNBA season. The 2011 game schedule has already been put on my calendar and I am so looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do this season. More to follow in later prayer letters, but please be praying with me that the Lord would raise up another chaplain to join me in ministering to the women. My co-chaplain of 6 years has to cut back on her commitments and so we are looking for another woman to join our team as chaplains.

Student Venture Update

While we have spent most of this school year walking through the book of Proverbs with the kids, we decided to take a break and underscore the basics of Christianity with a 4-week series that explained the gospel. We also changed the set-up of our Friday times: we found that we had so many girls coming that the boys were less apt to show up (that will change soon enough!), so now we essentially have separate times for the boys and girls.

I was just reminded this past week that Student Venture’s presence at the middle school has a greater influence as well. While the kids were engaged with our college volunteers, two different teachers unexpectedly dropped by. I had a wonderful opportunity to encourage each one of them - one was overwhelmed by the demands of balancing work with his young family and the other is taking steps towards recovering the faith she enjoyed as a child. What a blessing to see God at work in a place that does not, at first glance, seem to be open to His presence.

Please pray:

- On Fridays, between 2:45-4:00pm, for kids to remember to come! And for God's peace to reign and that distractions would be minimal.

- For each child that comes to grow in his or her knowledge of God and His love for them.

- For the Lord to continue to work throughout the middle school community - adults and students alike.