Seems like UWW students are thirsty, but haven't found the right place to drink. John 4:13-15.
Pray that they would!
-Noah
Found this while working in the University Center on campus. I think they're promoting this as good news. But look at some of the percentages!
Seems like UWW students are thirsty, but haven't found the right place to drink. John 4:13-15. Pray that they would! -Noah
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Super quick recap of the first week of class at UWW! Best part of the week:The best part of the week was seeing Almighty God at work. We made so many connections with students who are hungry for community and Christ. Thirty came to our first NavNight. The coolest part: 20ish were new! We're already starting to see a community of faithful freshmen join us. We designed new tshirts for our students this year, and five new people bought them. They're already excited to identify with the UWW Navs, and that's an exciting thing! We're working hard, but can see clearly that the Spirit of God is enabling these connections to actually happen. He's bringing the people around! Biggest challenge of the week:Go go go! The week was pretty much non-stop. We're planting a lot of seeds, and not sure which will grow. It's easy to get emotionally wrapped up in the process, with high points of excitement and encouragement and low points of fear and discouragement. In both, we've encouraged each other to turn to the Lord in prayer. Those moments have been some of the sweetest of the week. Top prayer of the week:FF! Faithful freshmen.
Ask the Lord on our behalf to bring a class of faithful freshmen to our ministry. We're eager to get started in helping them to grow in Christ. We just don't know yet who will stay around. Tonight's our first freshmen-only Freshmen Connection meeting. We're trusting the Lord will bring several freshmen to come. We long for a generational movement of the gospel to continue here. In order for that to happen, we need "faithful men" (and women) to join us. Thanks for praying that they will! -Noah
Things we didn't know about campus ministry life #23: StuffHello friends. My "Friday Updates" often haven't been on Fridays this summer. I'm all over the place! Hopefully we'll get a little more consistent when the semester starts :) Today is the debut of an occasional series, "Things we didn't know about campus ministry life." Every job has its perks and quirks. Katie and I often joke about the quirks we experience. Some are larger, some are smaller. Some are annoying. Some are just funny. From time to time, I hope to share some of the quirks of our works...the things we had no idea we'd experience when we were beginning a career in campus ministry. Today's quirk is STUFF. It's amazing how much stuff we accumulate in our work. Part of this is due to having an office at home (which is currently pending, as we put a guest bedroom/office in our basement). I have all my stuff there, plus other resources we'll need later in the year: bible studies, books, office supplies, etc. But there's other stuff too. When we left Illinois, I chuckled as I offloaded on the other staff a trunk-full of boxes, books, bags, volleyballs, you name it. There was a certain pleasure in getting that stuff out of our hands, and out of our basement! But sure enough, upon our arrival in Whitewater, we've inherited another load of STUFF. Tubs and boxes of sound equipment, banners, bibles, books, markers, nametags, giveaway bags, old candy, a water cooler/dispenser, and on and on. And we haven't received the huge box full of sound equipment yet! Oh, and some kazoos! Much of the stuff we'll put to good use in our fall recruiting and large group meetings. But I don't know about the kazoo. We'd appreciate your continued prayers as we plan and pray to get ready for the semester. Nick, our EDGE Corps staff, moves here later this week! We're so excited he'll be colaboring with us! Happy Monday, friends! -Noah Here we go! If you've ever been on a roller coaster before, especially one of those that goes crazy fast (for me, Wild Thing at Valleyfair in Minneapolis), at some point in the ride there comes apart where you slowly climb this HUGE hill, up and up to the peak where you pause for two eternal seconds, then *BOOM* you get over the peak and plunge down the other side at a million MPH. The anticipation before the plunge is exciting and maddening. This might describe how we're feeling right now. We're slowly settling in in a new house and community. We're trying to find a church. We've had some family vacation. In the past months, I've done quite a bit of initial planning and networking in preparation for a new season of ministry this fall. But the time to make final decisions has always been "later...in July and August." Suddenly, it is July! And getting quite close to August! Here we go! We find ourselves now having to make decisions about a ministry and campus we're largely unfamiliar with, and a small group of students we don't know very well yet. It's both maddening and exciting. Each day I find myself at each of these two poles. Whew. I have to stop and breathe and remember that our God is in charge. Not me. That's a comforting thought most of the time. And it's perspective that is essential for me to have.
Thanks for standing with us, friends! We're excited to see the mighty works of the Lord this fall! Love, -Noah See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. -1 John 3:1- I encountered this verse while reading the Word this morning. It seems easy to understand, and for me at least, easy to nod at and pass over. But upon further thought, I think I really love this verse. We know God loves us. We hear that all the time. We tell our girls that all the time. But here, John gives an example. "Look at this demonstration of God's love! He's called you his children!" If I take the time to remember my state without Christ, this is pretty incredible. Ephesians 2:12 says, "remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Earlier, I'm simply described as dead prior to Christ. Having grown up in a Christian home, these facts about me are easy to forget. But Paul makes it clear that this describes all people (2:3). Yesterday, the Lord gave me an interesting example of this spiritual truth. Yesterday morning I went down to the basement to get my running shoes. A book near our guest bed happened to catch my attention, so I walked over to pick it up. As I turned to leave the basement, I noticed that there was something at the bottom of our egress window -- a CAT! (I should've taken a picture, but the cat at right looks something like it). Somehow it must have fallen into the 3-4 foot deep window well. I had no idea how long it had been there. This cat's situation got me thinking: what if I hadn't gone down to the basement for a couple more days? Would the cat have starved to death? This cat was stuck in the window, and was completely helpless unless I intervened. It had fallen in there on its own accord, but was now stuck. It was dead unless I rescued it. And I was dead unless God rescued me. We made some phone calls and were able to rescue the cat. It was interesting to watch as we tried to get the cat out of the window well, it didn't want our help and tried to jump out of the window well on its own...unsuccessfully. Finally we were able to get it in the crate. Don't we do the same thing? Resisting the very Hand that reaches to save us? One of my solemn responsibilities as a campus minister is to pray for our work, but even this morning, I find myself lingering on small tasks, more practical tasks. (I trust some of you can relate). Even today I need to be reminded to continue asking, seeking, and knocking. Because God one-upped me in my cat illustration. He did something Katie and I weren't prepared to do with the cat. (Sorry animal lovers!) He didn't just rescue me. He made me a part of his family. -Noah "We're home!" These were Ellie's words just over a week ago as we pulled into our new home in Whitewater after visiting a local church. We all smiled, thankful that she's recognizing what's really happened. It still feels weird to call this place "home". But it is our home. And for the house itself, we couldn't be more thankful! God has placed in me a desire to trust Him for big things (at least in some areas of life). He's answered prayers too numerous to count over the last several years. I try to write at least some of them down. (I've done a pretty poor job of this). But every so often a story comes that I don't need to write down, because it's so memorable. This has been the case with this house. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! -Matthew 7:11- In the months preceding our move to Champaign, we prayed regularly specific prayers for a house to rent. The Lord provided incredibly above and beyond. We have truly loved life on Green Street! As we've prepared to move to Whitewater for a new season of life and ministry, I wondered if He'd provide again in a similar way. Katie and I have tried to prepare for the possibility of buying a house by saving up money for a small down payment. I called to mind the above verse as a reminder (to Him but mostly myself) that He would provide for our needs. Would He provide a house to buy? So what did we need? I asked God for a house that would provide three things:
I made a specific list of what this house might look like: I'd need space for an office, a guest room, bedrooms separate from the living area (so our girls can sleep during loud student gatherings at our home), close to campus, and many other specifics. I spent much of December-February scouring the internet for options (WW is a smaller town so options were limited). In the meantime, we qualified for a rural housing loan through the USDA with incredible terms, but some limits on value and square footage. If the house didn't qualify for this loan, it was unlikely we would be able to buy a house that fit our needs, so it was very important to us that the houses we were looking at fit the terms of the loan. Finding a house that fit "the list" and the limits of the loan was quite difficult. It was easy to think: maybe this prayer list was too ambitious. The Lord didn't have to provide anything we wanted. I was reminded that our God isn't a vending machine. Maybe He had something else in mind. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things. -Romans 8:32- Yet, this Scripture reminded us of the Lord's generous provision in every way. I continued to pray and research. And over-research. It was hard to keep this house search from becoming the focal point of everything else. And we weren't finding "the house."
Then one night in mid-February I got home late. Katie and I decided to check craigslist. This is how we found our Champaign house, but WW doesn't even have it's own craigslist, so we had rarely checked it at all. Only 5 houses came up for Whitewater and this one stood out to us. It was newer and seemed to fit "the list" very well. This was the first house Katie was excited about (a big plus for me, knowing this would be a difficult move). It all looked great until we saw the price and value, several thousand over the limit required by the loan for Walworth County, where Whitewater is located. Oh well, we thought! Back to the drawing board! But then I noticed the county listed on the information sheet: Jefferson. Turns out a small fraction of Whitewater is actually in Jefferson County. And as you might guess, Jefferson County has a higher limit for the loan ($20k higher!) This potential house fit easily into the limits! We sensed the Lord might be giving it to us. A friend from Katie's hometown offered to be our realtor and within 36 hours of seeing the house on craigslist we were headed up to visit it. On our way there I made the off-handed comment "if only it was near one of Whitewater's parks for the girls to play at." Wouldn't you know, an hour later as we drove in front of the house for the first time, we noticed a park that had been built in recent years a few houses down from us. We wrote an offer that day and received and accepted a counteroffer all before we were halfway back to Champaign. This house matches up perfectly to the list we'd been praying, and then some. It is simply an incredible gift from our good Father, and we are GRATEFUL. The house was for sale by owner and so we are blessed to have met the previous owners. They are gracious people and followers of Jesus. They hung brand new shower curtain liners before they left, filled the water softener, changed the furnace filter and numerous other really kind things. They even brought a bouquet of flowers to our closing. We have been abundantly provided for, beyond even what we could ask. I researched and obsessed way too much over this whole process and it was like the Lord said, "You do your research, but I'll provide for you when and how you least expect it." I write all this to point to HIM, who provides abundantly for His children. We don't deserve this, but we're incredibly thankful. And each night as we watch the beautiful sunset in our backyard, we are giving God the glory. Please join us in thanking the Lord for an abundant start to our time in Whitewater! -Noah All We NeedYesterday was an emotional day. Worshiping at the church we've grown to love and spending time with good friends made us realize what we're going to be losing as we move. Yet the Lord has met us, giving us all we need. The church service yesterday seemed custom-tailored by the Lord for us. Our staff supervisor, Norm Hubbard, was the guest preacher. One of the hymns was "Be Still My Soul". It's eerie melody and right-on lyrics brought tears to my eyes. Be still my soul: The LORD is on your side. And that's just one verse. It's been easy for me to focus on all that's exciting about our upcoming move and new ministry opportunities...and there's a lot to be excited about. I'm thankful the LORD isn't letting me get away without properly mourning the many losses we face as well. Should we have any reason to doubt or worry or fear as we leave Champaign, we only need to recall the verse of the month that Ellie received at that same church service, which couldn't be more timely or relevant. Yes, Lord. We will trust in You. Help us to do so!
Please continue to pray for us in this very exciting and very challenging time. Love, -Noah Ok, so updates are usually on Fridays. These are crazy times, so an update on Wednesday counts for last Friday and this upcoming Friday right? :) And probably the Friday after, since we move to our new house that day. So, the University of Illinois has a famous statue set near the Union on campus, Alma Mater. You'll notice her in the background of the picture to the left. She was cast in 1929 and has become an iconic symbol of the University. Old Alma has taken quite the beating by the weather over the decades, and the University decided to remove her and send her in for restoration, a 1.5 year process. She was a popular backdrop for pictures throughout the year and especially at graduation, so in her absence, the University created many opportunities for photo opps with Alma. I saw this free photo booth as I was working on campus during the last couple weeks of the semester, and decided that getting an Alma photo would be a sad but appropriate memoir of our time at Illinois, which is rapidly drawing to a close. We move to Whitewater a week from Friday! *sigh* Exciting possibilities ahead, watch for my next update on something we're calling LAUNCH. But for now, we'll miss you Illinois! And you too, Alma! -Noah MVP!We've updated you recently on some Navigator students who play on Fighting Illini sports teams.
We just found out that one of them, Justin Parr, was named Big Ten MVP in baseball! Check out the article here. It gives a nod to Justin's character as well. We're thankful for Justin and excited to see what the Lord has in store for him. Have a great weekend. In three weeks, we'll be in Whitewater! -Noah |
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