One Last Free Week

So this is probably going to be the last update for June, and this is why.

The next two weeks I have camp! But before we get to that, I want to talk about the previous week to let you know what's been going on.

Overall the past week has just been planning for stuff. I'm awaiting my syllabus to arrive so that I can begin work for class. I also have two weeks of camp coming up, one of which I'm the mission so I have an hour every day that I have to have something for, and the week after that I'm deaning a week of video game camp. Both of these require a good amount of work, which I'm attempting to prep for. So this past week and this coming week have been/will be devoted to that.

Other than that not much has gone on this week. I've been trying to send out newletters via email, but the email I was using isn't working for some reason so it's back to ol' reliable Gmail!

This week has had a good number of church activities though. Tuesday was Bible study were the conversation stuck with, "People get mad at me for sharing the gospel with them and I don't know how to fight back." It seemed at times as if we were making progress with the person that was having trouble with that, but time will tell. Friday we had a free community dinner for Greenfield, where the church is located. We had a good turnout for our first, about 30 people. We had noodles with some different sauces, both red and white, and some chicken to go with it. For our first one it went well! Sunday (yesterday) the city of Pittsburgh started its summer movie nights, where they show a movie in parks for free. Last night was the Sandlot, one of my top five favorite movies, and we had a good sized group there, even having one of our students that's in town this summer come out to join us.

This week is looking busy with getting ready for camps, planning, writing, packing, finishing laundry, and all that. I would appreciate your prayers for the coming weeks as I'm going to be pretty stressed and busy.

This coming Thursday I have my interview for Altoona, which I'm excited for. I'm sure it'll go well but prayers would still be appreciated.

For Altoona, I've been having some idea's rolling around in my head about themes for the year, possible events, and whatever else campus ministry would entail. I'm thinking for the year of just looking at who Jesus is, and building that foundation that can be built upon. I know that the students know who Jesus is, but I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2.2, "I know nothing but Christ and him crucified." Wherever I go, whenever I preach, whenever I teach, I know nothing but the Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead. That is what my hope is in, that is the reason I'm here today and do what God has called me to do. Without the foundation of who Jesus is and what it means that he is the Christ, we will never truly understand our hope.

But that's just thoughts rolling around in my head right now. I do have to get through these next three weeks first before I really start tackling that.

But overall that's all that's really going on. I know that's not a lot, but I'm still working out a lot with God as to future plans for the ministry I'm going to be a part of. I also have a packed summer that I have to continually get prepared for.

As always, thank you for your support and prayers, and I'll attempt to update in the coming weeks, but if not be looking for an update June 29th at the latest!

And Here's June!

Well one final week of being busy and May has come to a close.

Last week I wrote on Sunday and detailed some plans as to how I'm going to be keeping everyone up to date with the ministry that you're supporting. I was going to put out a newsletter last week, but I thought is to write them the first Monday of the month and send them out that week. Well today is that first Monday, so I plan on getting it written today!

As for this past week, I've been doing a good number of things! Not all ministry related, but a couple have been. Monday was Memorial Day, and marked 11 1/2 months in Pittsburgh and I noticed I haven't done anything Pittsburgh-y since I've been here. So I went and explored the town a bit. And by explored the town I mean Greg took me up Mt. Washington on the incline and we had lunch up there. Then after that we went back down the incline, tried to find a place to park to go see the point, which didn't work, so we went to the Carnegie Museum and wandered around a bit. Greg's wife works there and gets us in for free which is awesome. I feel like I could spend an entire day there and still feel like I haven't seen everything. We'll see if that's true in July!

Tuesday we ended up going to a Pirates game with some students and their friends/family/significant others. 8 of us in total went, sitting in the Left Field bleachers right behind Marte. The girls that went with us kept trying to get him to toss a ball to them but they didn't want to get too loud. It was a really fun time with the students, hanging out, watching the game, yelling at Yelich. I'm hoping that the students will be up for another game in the near future since it went off so well. 

Throughout the week I've been doing stuff around the house, nothing too exciting. Prep for video game camp has begun. I've been thinking about how I'm going to be having things set up, trying to figure out what games to play, how to incorporate them into lessons and Christianity, and trying to find systems and controllers. We'll see how all that works out, hopefully well. 

As for this week, my summer semester "officially" starts. I put that in quotes because I haven't received a syllabus yet, but I also don't have by book yet either, so that's cool. This week will hopefully be full of productivity for camp, ministry, and fundraising. But I'll let you know how that goes next week!

Until then, thank you for your support, and be expecting letters from me soon!

Your minister in the field, 

Mike

And so summer begins

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I hope that it's sun filled with lot's of fun, cook outs, and great time with family.

I apologize for the delay in postings, I've been busy with quite a few things.

The last full week in April was when Pitt finished up for the school year, almost a month ago. During that week I got to meet with a couple students, have coffee and donuts which are always great and just talk. That week we had our final CSF where we had a Super Smash Bros. Brawl party. Greg brought his Wii, I brought my game and come controllers, and we had a really good time. We had food, drinks, gifts for the graduating seniors and I passed out some random toys to all the students just to have something to give them. I actually got a shirt as well that everyone signed for me. So it took almost a year, but I finally got a Pitt shirt!

The weeks following that I got busy with my school work. I spent about 2 weeks working on a paper for my ethics class with a really interesting topic, Ethical foundations across cultures in human nature. Unfortunately I didn't get to do as much research as I would have liked, but it was still a good paper.

The first weekend in May I went on a tri-state trip, going from Pittsburgh to Columbus to help my brother move. Then from Columbus down to Kentucky/West Virginia so I could do some work on my paper, visit a church that is currently supporting me, and also visit friends and Rachael (girlfriend). While I was in Columbus/Grove City I got to meet with the minister of my home church, Stan, and we got to have breakfast together and some really good conversation. We set a date of July 26th where I'll get to preach at Buckeye and I'm hoping to have a meeting afterwards with some of the congregation to talk about support for my ministry.

Speaking of ministry, next month I have an interview with CSFPA to take over a campus ministry in Altoona, PA. The school that is there is a Penn State branch, so a 2 year school with some 4 year degrees. I know for me this will be challenging but I'm excited to have a campus of my own to work with. During the past couple weeks I drove out to Altoona to meet the students, see how they do things, meet with our Director Buzz, the current campus minister there, and the church that the ministry will be partnered with. Given my summer plans are going to be a bit hectic, I'm not entirely sure when I'll be moving out there, but by August for sure.

This past weekend (May 14th-17th) the camp that we're associated with had their college retreat which Greg leads every year. I ended up going down as well as the main speaker. The focus of the week was From Enemies to Heirs. I started off by looking at Psalm 15, and how it is friends that come up the hill and into God's house. But looking through Romans 1-7 we see that we are not friends of God, but instead enemies. Then we looked at what it's like being children of God, how there's excitement for his return and our union, and we find in him a place of refuge and safety. We looked at how God is the ultimate Father, and how we're adopted into his family yet loved as if we were his own. And being children of God makes us heirs with Christ (Rom. 8) and we talked about what that means, which led to some great discussion. From there we turned to Galatians 5 and how as Children of God we are to live according to the Spirit, not the flesh. We read and discussed what it means to live according to the flesh and what the Fruit of the Spirit really means.

Some of the activities we did that weekend were a bit of a service project where the students helped fix up the pool (I had to make a Walmart run then so I missed out). We got to play paintball on Friday, and I still have a couple bruises. On Saturday we were hoping to shoot guns, but then rain kept coming and going, but eventually it cleared up and we got to have some fun with guns. And no one got hurt! That night we had some free time so we ended up playing minute to win it games and afterwards played some old school super smash bros. on the Nintendo 64. Reigning champ! Went undefeated! Then finally Sunday we had breakfast then gathered around the table for a time of communion. From there we all parted ways to head home. That weekend we had about 9 students from different churches and schools all come. Some came for just a night, others the whole weekend, and some just for a few hours. Either way we had a good turn out and I think a difference was made in the students.

Then come this weekend I get to clean the house and relax mostly. Tomorrow I get to go out on the town and see the sights, for the first time since being here. Tuesday 8 of us are going to a pirates game because, why not?

As for other things that are going on, this week I'll be working on a news letter to send out, so be on the look out for it late this week or early next. Also be expecting calls about continuing support!
To give you a heads up, with me having my own ministry and with your support you will receive a monthly news letter, written every last Monday (except holidays). Every Monday will be a weekly blog talking about the previous week on this blog. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be a devotional blog on my other blog, themandrews.blogspot.com, for encouragement and to help you in your walk with God. And throughout the year there will be phone calls to catch up, discuss prayer needs and whatever else we want to talk about! And (hopefully) there will be a yearly visit. This one is still in the works.

If you're still reading this far, Thanks! I hope you have a great weekend and shortened work week. If you would like a news letter and aren't currently supporting me, please send me an email (mandrews909@gmail.com) with your email address and/or home address with which you would prefer. As always, for those supporting me, thank your for your continual support both spiritually and financially. I pray that God blesses you for your help and I look forward to getting in contact with everyone!

Wrapping up...

It's been a little over a month since I last posted, and for that I apologize.

This past month has been pretty busy for me. We had spring break, then I had class in Kentucky, then trying to get back into the groove here at Pitt, plus get a research paper done, and now this is the last week of classes at Pitt. I know, they end super early.

Last week I preached at Turtle Creek, the church that's letting me use their parsonage. With it being the week after Easter, and it's still a part of the 40 days Jesus was alive I decided to use some work from a class I had called Resurrection Narratives and preached on the majority of John 20. What was interesting was I called the elder at the church, asking what the preacher spoke on the week before as to not cover the same thing, and he told me that he used John 20.1-18. I intended to preach on John 20.19-29. That definitely was a God thing. But during that time I noticed that there were some running themes in the texts I was using. There was the Emotion, fear from the apostles and anger from Thomas. Then there was an Encounter between Jesus and the apostles, and later between Jesus and Thomas. Finally there was the Effect of the Encounter. The Effect was always the same; go and tell people about Jesus being risen from the dead.

Three days before that I led CSF, the last one with a Bible study. We looked at Ephesians 4.11-16 which are the verses we were hoping to focus on during spring break, but that didn't happen. So I went through the passage and pulled out different points from each verse. I'll just list them really quick.

11-What God gave

12- Why

13- For the purpose of

14- So that we will not be

15- But we should be

16- Relation to the Church

I made a chart for the students, then showed them how that chart can be applied to different passages, particularly those about the Resurrection. For the example I went through Luke 24 and the Acts to show how these six points fit into the story. Then I paired them up to go through John 20 and do the same thing. The first team done won a Starbucks gift card with the purpose of them going together and getting to know each other. It was a really good and fun exercise. 

A few weeks before that (sorry I'm jumping all over the place) we went to Greg's house for a Seder meal, abridged. Heavily. Like 10 minutes. But it was a good time of fellowship with the students, having them out our way for food and fun. 

The week before that our director came out from State College for evaluations. I guess I did pretty well on mine because I actually got offered a campus with our organization. We're losing two campus ministers this year, one at our Lockhaven campus north of State College and another at our Altoona campus about two hours east of here. I was offered both, but the more pressing campus is the one at Altoona. So now I'm stuck between attempting to plant a campus ministry at Marshall in Huntington, WV or going into Altoona and fixing a ministry. This is a tough decision for me and is one I've been praying through for weeks now. I'd appreciate your prayers on helping me make this decision as well. 

Last Tuesday I actually went to Altoona for the day to meet with the leadership there and see the campus. I was unsure if I was going to be able to make it because the weekend before I girlfriend came up and had some car troubles, so I had to help with that which took a big bite out of my funds. But God blessed that trip. The day before I left I got a care package from my home church, Buckeye Christian, and in it was a $25 gas card! Then on my way there I got superb mileage, not even having to fill up there or back. I could tell all about the visit to the campus, but that'll take a while so I'll just say this: It was a good visit and there is a lot of potential with that ministry. 

Last week there was a carnival at CMU which opened Thursday with food, rides, games, and displays made by different organizations with the school that we went to as a group. We had a pretty good turnout for it. 

This past weekend we were supposed to go paintballing, but that fell through. And this week is finals so we're spending time on campus just to be there for the students. 

Thursday is our last meeting, not entirely sure what the plan is, but my internship is coming to a close now. It's been a fast paced school year that I greatly enjoyed. I'll keep updating this blog as I continue on my journey.

And here's where my beard has gotten thus far!

And I can even chew on it!

This thing has a mind of it's own. I even found food in it a couple nights ago! My uncle Butch would be proud!

#SpringBreak2015 #CSFPGHmeetsCSFKNX #nomakeup #hashtag

So this week I'm in Kentucky for class. 

Last week I was in Tennessee for our Spring Break mission trip.

I need a vacation.

At the bottom of this particular blog I have a few pictures chronicling our trip. We left Saturday at 2:Freaking Early AM and got to Knoxville, TN about 4ish. It was a heck of a long drive there, but luckily I got to ride shotgun the entire way. It's because I'm such a good copilot because my dad taught me well.

During the week we focused on Ephesians 4.11-16, though time and distance between the guys and girls housing made it a bit hard for us to get together for a Bible study/devo every day. But the goal was to teach the students about being equipped and equipping others for ministry.

While there we did a lot of work, met a lot of cool people, and had some great times. Here's a quick bit about what we did.

Saturday: Drove down, stopped in Ashland, KY for lunch and gas. Met up with my girlfriend Rachael who was in Grayson, all of 20 minutes away. Got down to Knoxville, TN and the CSF at the University of Tennessee. We hung out a bit, met the campus minister there, Glenn, and had dinner. They have a campus house, a house owned by the ministry right there on campus by apartments and some frats.

Sunday: Church in the morning at the campus house. We had lunch afterwards, but for the life of me I can't remember where. Maybe I'm getting old. Or need some time off. Anyways, after that we went to a garden type place, or national park, called Ijam's (Iyam's is how it's pronounced). There we went for a hike, about a mile or so. On the walk we  got to walk along a river, or lake, or something, and got to see a geological fold. It was mind blowing! Then that night starting about 8, since the weather was about a million degrees warmer than it has been in Pittsburgh, we (both CSFs) cooked and handed out pancakes to anyone who wanted to come by. We ended up serving about 40 students and had some really good conversations with them, it was a great way to do some out reach!

Monday: Monday we went down to Newport, KY to help out a new ministry that's popping up there. It there to help the community, full of poverty and drug abuse, and trying to equip the community to break free of their sin with different classes and giving the youth a place to go and stay out of trouble. They acquired an old hardware store and our task was to help with some demo. With two hammers, a crowbar, and some pry bars three of us and two of our girls took out an entire room, including the walls. We also got to load up a big dump truck twice and trashed lumber. We got to the point where we were throwing a lot of the trash out of the windows from the top floor. There may have been a couple vehicles that got hit...

That night the CSF we were with had their weekly meeting. We had a time of worship and after that looked at 2 John and talked a bit about it. Afterwards we had time to hang out with a lot of the students, and I got to throw down on some Super Smash Bros. Ike's my bro. (Get it? Mike n' Ike?) But it was great getting to hang out, talk, and bond with students from our own group and a group in a completely different state. It's amazing to me how God brings us together and makes it so easy to have a relationship with these people.

Tuesday: We worked at the same place as Monday, though that day we tore down the ceiling tiles. I only took down a few, but I was running errands with another volunteer that day so apparently I'm a girl scout now and don't work, as I was constantly reminded. But I worked hard all day too!

That night we went to an alum's house from Pitt for dinner. We hung out there with her family (husband, son, daughter, father and mother). What was cool was in talking with the father I found out he lived in Grove City at one time (that's GC Ohio, not PA). So we got to talk a bit about the town we both lived in, though at different times. After that we made our way back to Knoxville to finally sleep.

Here's the link for the group that we worked with Monday and Tuesday. http://empowercockecounty.com/

Wednesday: Wednesday we went to a town right around Knoxville. To best describe this place it's more hood. Gang activity, drug abuse, cycles and cycles of sin as one of the workers described to us. The point of this program is to work with children of this town or neighborhood. It was a Christian program and their main focus was helping the poverty of those around them. We were taught there were four areas of poverty: Physical, Academic, Emotional, and Spiritual. Many churches work on the physical and academic poverty of people, which is needed, but many don't work for enriching those in their community with programs for the emotional and spiritual poverty, so this was their main focus. That afternoon we had students come, and we got to work with them. The program was very rigid, and the teachers were very strict and held to the rules, which I think the students needed in their lives. During this time they started with worship, went over the rules, worked on homework, spent time reading together, and eventually did a Bible study. It was great seeing this program focus on the spiritual poverty of the kids, making that their highest priority. 

That night we went out to eat for $5 burgers at a really popular restaurant in town. The reason I mention this little fact is this: I hate Wednesdays. I'm sure you all know the Geico Hump Day/Camel commercial. Well I woke up Wednesday morning with texts from our four girls with my name and camel emojis. Well while we're waiting outside of the restaurant I feel my phone going off. "Eh, just must be a text" I think. Then it keeps vibrating. "Is someone calling me?" I pull out my phone and check it. Not getting a call. I'm getting 40 TEXT MESSAGES THAT ALL SAY "MIKE! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!" Needless to say, I am not a fan of Wednesday's now. But from there I felt that the students are finally seeing me as a Mike, not the intern.

Here's the link for the group with worked with Wednesday. http://thrivelonsdale.com/#about

Thursday: Thursday we got a bit touristy. That day we went to Gatlinburg, TN and also took a hike on a trail in the National Park. Other than that there wasn't much that went on during the day.

That night we cooked for the TN group. They do a dinner together and then separate Bible studies for men and women. I tried to help with the cooking, but I'm not too good in the kitchen, but we had perogies and Pittsburgh salad (a salad with fries on it n'at). Then during the men's Bible study Greg led it and I helped out a bit. But we went over the main text we were using for the week (Eph. 4.11-16) and had some good conversation about the text, calling for maturity of Christians, the purpose of those who claim to be in Christ, and more. I'm hoping to use this text for a lesson for our weekly Bible study this semester. We'll see though.

Friday: Friday was the day we left. Again not much went on other than driving back. On the way back to Pittsburgh we stopped in West Virginia and everyone tried Tudor's Biscuit World for the first time. While there we prayed for our meal, and there was a group of older ladies there. When they left they gave a note for us with a $50 bill in it (see picture below). After we finished eating we took a big group picture even with the people that worked there and then continued on our journey home.

Now: Well after Friday I crashed at my aunt's for the night. Saturday I woke up early, we had breakfast and a good time just talking then I made my way back to Columbus. Once there I hung out, got ready for class, and did a ton of laundry! Finally Sunday I made my way down to the Blue Grass State for class. This week we're talking ethics and I'm looking forward to later in the week so I can lovingly humble some people in ethical discussions. 

During my time in Kentucky I've been doing some work with some possibilities of future ministry. As I've written before I may be moving to Huntington to do campus ministry at Marshall. Well There happens to be a ministry that's wanting to expand there, and I had a conversation with them and we are planning to take it to the next step. It's a baby step, but it's a step towards that. But either way, if Marshall works out or if I stay in Pennsylvania I plan on sticking with campus ministry. I feel this is what God is calling me to do for a career, and I'm incredibly excited about that. Be looking for letters from me soon, if you would like a news letter let me know. If you would prefer it through snail mail I'll probably need your address, and email (which would be easier on my part) I'll need you email.

As always feel free to contact me any way at any time about anything!

Stopped in Ashland, KY for lunch. 
All the girls were begging for Waffle House.
Even got to see Rachael! She took the picture for us 

The day we got there we walked around campus, trying to uncramp our legs from being in the van for 8+ hours. Ended up finding this, what they call "The Hill."
All our students agreed, "That's no hill."

Sunday night we did free pancakes for campus!
This is Greg, he's special. 
This is a marshmallow filled pancake with whipped cream, a peep, and sprinkles.

Spent Sunday afternoon at Ijam's (Iam's).
A garden type place with some trails to walk. 
We gotta walk along some river and found caves.

Got down Right Indiana Jones!

Thursday we went to go be tourists!
Went to the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg.
Further down we took a hike and scaled a waterfall.

This is the beginning of our path to the waterfall.

Here we are at the top of it 
(or as high as we could get on it).
It was a heck of a climb. 
JEANS WERE A BAD CHOICE!

After we got down off the mountain.
Felt like a champ!

The note and bill that we got!

On our way back home!
Stopped in WV to treat these kids to some good ol' Tudor's!
(Only in WV except for one store in Grayson, KY)

Thawing Out

I hope this finds all of you warm and safe. Currently I'm trying to unfreeze myself from the subzero temperatures that have been all over Pittsburgh the past week and will continue into this next week. It's not often that I wish to live in Florida because I can't stand the heat, but this week has brought that out in me.

As for things going on in the Burgh, I've been keeping busy!

This semester thus far I've been trying to get a Men's Bible study going, but the big problem is that the guys I'm trying to work with all have different schedules so it's hard to find a time to get them all together. But the overall idea of the Bible study is to lead us to think critically about situations so that our actions in all areas of life will reflect that of the title "Christian" which we identify as. The first week we talked about our identity and what that has to do with our decision making process. Last week we talked about why we should think critically, and this week we were unable to meet. We'll see if it continues though. My full study is the topic of me devo blog (themandrews.blogspot.com) 

This semester we are focusing on "Witness." Last time I updated my blog I wrote that I was leading that weeks CSF meeting and that I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to talk about with it being so early in the week. Well since it's been two weeks, I think I know what I'm going to walk about. Or did talk about. Whatever. Anyways, we looked at Luke 1.1-4 and the purpose of Luke writing his gospel. Much of my schooling got me always looking for objectives or goals in writing and in these four verses we find Luke's entire purpose for writing this. That the recipient (be it a single person or many people) be certain of the things they were taught about Jesus. What Luke says here in these first four verses of his entire Gospel is that many people have written about Jesus, and the recipient has learned about Jesus. So Luke decided to do a detailed account, a witness, a testimony, about this Jesus person. So he researched, talked with eyewitnesses and those who served this message, and he wrote an orderly account. All this, so that the person(s) who received this could be certain about what they have been taught about Jesus. We then took this in our own lives, talking about how we are ambassadors of God here on earth, and we need to make sure people are certain about what they have been taught about Christ with our testimony. You heard he doesn't exist? Let me tell you what he's done in my life. You heard we're hypocrites? Let me tell you what that really means and our thoughts on it. You heard God is a bully with a magnifying glass? Let's see what he's really like. Overall the discussion went incredibly well and I feel the students feel like I'm actually useful now instead of just an intern. 

More about what's going on...

This week we were planning a ski trip to the Blue Knob resort on Friday, but looking at the weather the high is only supposed to be 12, and personally I'd rather not be in single digits most of the day. The reasons for going Friday are so that it'll be less crowded and a lot cheaper. There are closer resorts here, but they're a lot more expensive ($77 at 7 Springs for the day). So since the weather isn't going to be too good, we're pushing it back a week. Hopefully It'll be a lot better that day.

In other news, not to jump the gun at all, but I am beginning to enter into talks with a board of a Morehead State University campus ministry that's interested in doing a ministry plant on Marshall University's campus in Huntington, West Virginia. This is an opportunity that I'm incredibly excited for and feel like this is where God is leading me for the foreseeable future (Which I know with me is usually like a year at most, but this one would be considerably longer than that). More information on this will be given in the coming weeks or months, so keep an eye out and please keep this in prayer. 

More things in my life, I'm doing well! My cat's doing alright, he's a bundle of psychotic energy, but it's alright. I got to watch him chase his tail and go face first into a wall doing so, then continue to chase his tail. Overall I'm staying warm, house hasn't burned down and the pipes haven't froze, and my truck makes driving up hills in the snow loads of fun. Had an episode last night where I was trying to get up one hill and got stuck behind a line of cars because a charger was having problems going up. Once I made my turn onto another inclined road I too had problems, going up the hill at a 30 degree angle. It took a few to get up it, but I made it! School is going well for now. I took an exam for a class last week and got a 90/100 which was I was pleased with. Currently I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to get $650 for my thesis fee which I plan on starting in the summer.

Well I hope things are going well for you all, as always keep my in your prayers, and if you ever have prayer concerns, comments, or just want to let me know you're thinking about me or whatever feel free to comment on this blog, send me an email, or give me a call!

And so February begins!

Well January has flown by for me, and it was a good month! Hope it was great for you as well.
Recently I sent out support letters, and will begin starting to send them out monthly.

I don't know about you, but we've gotten a good bit of snow the past week, getting about five inches last Sunday and with more on the way. It's also starting to get a lot colder which makes walking across campus tons of fun. As you can see in the picture my beard for the year is coming in gloriously and I'm excited to see what it looks like in May. I'm debating if I want to shave it and shock the students at the end of the semester, but we'll see.

As for things that have been going on in the Burgh, we have been doing our usual meetings, Thursday's at 8:30 on campus. This semester we are looking at the idea of witness based on Acts 1.8 which reads, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judah and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The first week, we introduced the topic, the past two weeks we went through the first three chapters of Ecclesiastes. This week we'll be looking at the introduction of Luke and how the Gospel is something that we have examined, and have come away with the feeling that it is truth and how that plays in our witness. With me leading this one, I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to completely talk about, but I got a few days to get ready!

This is the 4th week of the semester, and only my 3rd week back thus far. I had class the first week of classes so I was down in good old Kentucky. My personal classes are keeping me busy, but I have been spending a lot of time on campus.

This past week I got have a really interesting conversation with a couple of students from China. It was great just sitting and talking with some students from different nations and cultures. We talked a bit about where we were from, what they were studying, what they do in their free time and what they do on breaks. It turns out that they only go home once a year, so my hope is that while I'm here I can meet them again and will be able to form a good relationship with them and show them come American culture. A recent study shows that ~80% of international students never set foot in an American home, and I don't want to be one of those that keeps them away. So please keep that in your prayers.

Something else that we have been doing in the ministry is meeting Friday afternoons with students just to talk about whatever may come up. So far we have talked about the issue of abortion, and that was the only time we've met so far (mainly because of scheduling issues). We are also trying to plan for the week of Easter a week we are calling "Witness Week" with the goal of witnessing to campus and showing that all are welcome to any group on campus. Our hope is to partner with other Christian groups on campus for worship, a Seder, and maybe a day of prayer.

In other news, while I was in Kentucky for my class a man that I know and respect came to me and told me about a big opportunity at Marshall University. He used to preach at a church in Huntington, WV and knows that many churches are wanting to partner with a campus ministry, but there isn't one there that they are willing to work with or that they know of (something along those lines, he keeps saying that there's nothing there). He told me of a church that is just a few blocks away from Marshall's stadium, and that they would be more than willing to work with a ministry. Recently I had to go to state college and was talking with our minister up at Lock Haven and he told me that the campus ministry at Morehead State, just 30 minutes west of KCU, was looking to plant onto Marshall's campus, and that one of the professors that I had and really respect was trying to help with that plant. Currently I'm praying through if this is what God has in store for me next, and I ask that you join me in that prayer. It definitely seems as if this is lining up perfectly, and I plan on making some contacts with churches in the Tri-State Area soon.

Well that's all that's been going on around here. I hope you all have had a wonderful week, and feel free to contact me at any time!