Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Long-Belated Update and a Leap Forward



Perhaps you can take it as a good sign that it's been over a month since this blog has been updated - in that it means that days, nights, and weekends have all been busy and computer time has been limited. I also had some computer technical difficulties this month, which I'd like to assume contributed to this as well.

The winter quarter has not just flown but has jetted by at speeds fast enough to break the sound barrier (the Puget Sound barrier, if your pun senses were really tingling just then). Next week is the last week of classes and the following week is final exams just before Spring Break. Unreal to think we're nearly to the 2/3 mark on the year.

You'll hopefully find it encouraging to hear that there is more good to tell than I could possibly write in one post - the Lord has been at work in some truly beautiful and unbelievable ways.
  • We had an incredible RUF Winter Retreat near White Pass in the Cascade Mountains in January. About 20 students joined us for a weekend in the snow and in teaching on the concept of evangelism - how to love our friends and communities well and to show love and grace to them on a daily basis and how to intersect some hot-topics in our society with the beautiful truth of the Gospel. It was awesome to see students engage with these ideas and to think about them in practical and tangible ways.
  • Honestly, so much of the beauty of this quarter has been in the little things. It's been in seeing students love and care about one another and about their campus more and more. It's been conversations with students where they say "Wow, I had never seen that in the Gospel before!" It's in hearing from new believers the way they are seeing God at work in their lives. It's from seeing our attendance at large group increase and seeing new faces each week. It's laughing and crying with students and experiencing life with them. I wish that all of these things were measurable or that I could recount every time a student has been blown away by the truth of the Gospel or understanding Grace for the first time.
  • Two of our students - Kyle and Tom - have applied and interviewed to do the RUF internship next year! I am so excited and encouraged by this and am thrilled to know that they will be participating in this incredible work over the next two years. Please be in prayer for them as they prepare for this big change and as they wait to hear where they will be serving!
  • There's a group of alumni and grad students who have been getting together about twice or month and I have been so thankful for this source of Christian community! Praise God for providing these friends for me and pray that we will all be encouraged by one another and by our time together.
We have Large Group on Leap Day tonight - which won't happen for another 28 years!
Leap for Joy!