Our Generous Students
Hey friends,
We hope you all are well. For today's update, I wanted to share a bit about what some may see as a paradox. You may or may not have heard the phrase "poor college student", but it gets thrown around quite a bit here on campus. Compared to the rest of the world, I suppose our students aren't poor- this is a costly university to attend! Yet, lacking a regular paycheck, our students still find ways to be very generous. They want to give when they can and serve in ways that they're able.
Three examples:
1) You may have heard of our legendary yard on our beautiful street: wonderful old trees...but tons of leaves and sticks in our yard every fall! (See here and here to see what we mean). Especially in this busy season of conferences and preparations for the baby, the truth is that I cannot tackle our yard alone. On two occasions students joined me in helping to rake. It's a great time to share "everyday" life with them, and such a tremendous blessing to us! And they don't mind the free dinner we offer them :)
2) You may have read about our recent fall conference, Journey 2012. During the conference, we had the chance to hear from a dear staff couple who is leaving their role on campus to serve overseas, beginning a campus ministry in a challenging context in eastern Europe. Their call from the Lord was clear, and their need, great! Our faith goal was that our students and staff would pledge and give $21,000 to help this couple move and get settled overseas. On Sunday morning, when the numbers were tallied, we discovered that 220 pledged and gave a total of ~$27,000! This is from a group of mostly college students and a few campus staff! Incredible. Many tears of gratitude were shed for our faithful God and students who chose to trust Him so greatly.
3) As our family and ministry responsibilities continue to grow, we've been working to invite some new people to join many of you in investing in our work on campus. In particular, we prayed and planned to invite one recent graduate and her husband to join our support team. At the very moment we were preparing to send them something in the mail, Katie received a text message from this very person, sharing their desire and excitement to support this work. God used this to encourage our hearts greatly!
We're reminded too, of many of you who have been faithfully giving and praying over the past years. We're tremendously grateful! The Lord's done so many great things and He continues to work. We'll keep you posted on what He's doing here, and we pray He continues to display His glory mightily in your life as well. Have a great weekend.
-Noah
PS: No baby yet! We'll keep you posted!
Hey friends,
We hope you all are well. For today's update, I wanted to share a bit about what some may see as a paradox. You may or may not have heard the phrase "poor college student", but it gets thrown around quite a bit here on campus. Compared to the rest of the world, I suppose our students aren't poor- this is a costly university to attend! Yet, lacking a regular paycheck, our students still find ways to be very generous. They want to give when they can and serve in ways that they're able.
Three examples:
1) You may have heard of our legendary yard on our beautiful street: wonderful old trees...but tons of leaves and sticks in our yard every fall! (See here and here to see what we mean). Especially in this busy season of conferences and preparations for the baby, the truth is that I cannot tackle our yard alone. On two occasions students joined me in helping to rake. It's a great time to share "everyday" life with them, and such a tremendous blessing to us! And they don't mind the free dinner we offer them :)
2) You may have read about our recent fall conference, Journey 2012. During the conference, we had the chance to hear from a dear staff couple who is leaving their role on campus to serve overseas, beginning a campus ministry in a challenging context in eastern Europe. Their call from the Lord was clear, and their need, great! Our faith goal was that our students and staff would pledge and give $21,000 to help this couple move and get settled overseas. On Sunday morning, when the numbers were tallied, we discovered that 220 pledged and gave a total of ~$27,000! This is from a group of mostly college students and a few campus staff! Incredible. Many tears of gratitude were shed for our faithful God and students who chose to trust Him so greatly.
3) As our family and ministry responsibilities continue to grow, we've been working to invite some new people to join many of you in investing in our work on campus. In particular, we prayed and planned to invite one recent graduate and her husband to join our support team. At the very moment we were preparing to send them something in the mail, Katie received a text message from this very person, sharing their desire and excitement to support this work. God used this to encourage our hearts greatly!
We're reminded too, of many of you who have been faithfully giving and praying over the past years. We're tremendously grateful! The Lord's done so many great things and He continues to work. We'll keep you posted on what He's doing here, and we pray He continues to display His glory mightily in your life as well. Have a great weekend.
-Noah
PS: No baby yet! We'll keep you posted!
