First post is up at tulaneinhaiti.blogspot.com
March 9, 2012
March 7, 2012
Headed to Haiti and More March Prayers
Today (Tuesday) we are fasting and praying as a team for Haiti and our upcoming trip there. Please pray with us and our six Tulane students (Mike, Jasmin, Jeana, Tim, Gracia and Sara), as we depart Thursday evening for a week of serving Jesus in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This is now the fourth team we have led to Haiti, and the second since the Jan 2010 earthquake. We will be working with schools and churches to love children, encourage pastors and teachers, and more. We will be building some furniture for a school recently rebuilt from the earthquake, and visiting a mountain village to help the children there fight parasites. We will also be building relationships with the kids that leave near the guest house, and loving on some orphans. It will be a busy week. Please pray for safety and provision, for unity among the team members, for wisdom and strength to make a meaningful and lasting impact in Haiti, and that the lives our students will be forever marked by this experience as they grow in Christ.
Check out our blog at www.degiers.com for more little updates and current prayer requests. Thanks!
-matt
PS: If you would like to help our team bring a good chunk of money for the building projects going on in Haiti, including the benches and such that we will be building, please give TODAY via bit.ly/xahaiti Thanks.
Follow our team in Haiti at http://tulaneinhaiti.blogspot.com/ for daily updates.
*photo courtesy of Maryse Holly ©
Check out our blog at www.degiers.com for more little updates and current prayer requests. Thanks!
-matt
PS: If you would like to help our team bring a good chunk of money for the building projects going on in Haiti, including the benches and such that we will be building, please give TODAY via bit.ly/xahaiti Thanks.
Follow our team in Haiti at http://tulaneinhaiti.blogspot.com/ for daily updates.
Evangelism at Tulane: We are expanding our reach in evangelism through two by two contact evangelism at Tulane: pairing up to meet new people on campus and start up conversations with them. We ask questions about what they believe about the ultimate questions like God and the meaning of life, and usually have the opportunity of sharing what we believe as well. We have had some great conversations so far, and more and more students are slowly grabbing on to this bold and exciting practice. Please pray with us for lasting connections, friendships that will go beyond one conversation, and for God's power to be made known as we proclaim His Truth (1 Cor 2:1-5).
Foster Parenting: Our hearts are in a painful place, as the case for our foster twins has taken a turn over the past four months that is leading ever closer to the reality of these precious girls returning to their birth family. We are concerned for their welfare; we love them deeply; they are deeply bonded to us as the only parents they have ever known. Please pray with us for the Lord's will to be accomplished, and that we can continue in the calling God has given us with all our hearts, despite how difficult this situation is for us.
January 17, 2012
News from Deanna at Xavier
Great stuff from Deanna Ceasar and the fledgling Xavier University Chi Alpha crew. Read up here.
January 16, 2012
SALT Reports
2012 is here, and we're ready for another great semester! God has done some great things over the break to prepare us and our students for a year for the history books! Over New Year, each year, we take students to the regional Chi Alpha SALT conference. This year, we were in Dallas, TX, and lives were changed, including mine. I was deeply challenged and refreshed in my devotion to Jesus first, and then reignited with desire to proclaim the good news about Jesus to students from all over the world on campus!
Here are some testimonies straight from students:
God really showed me that I can put my full trust in him for my future. I was also really encouraged about people that I have been praying for to come to know Christ. Salt was truly amazing. -Sean, Tulane Senior
We all see the problems in the world and hope we can contribute or do something about it. Politics, hunger, AIDS, terrorism, poverty, neglect, division, prostitution, these are all 'buzzwords' they dangle at you in the media but really have no power to act. At SALT, there were all these people who share the same heart with the same goal, to spread the Good News, coming from a privileged country where people have human rights and technology, that if we got serious we could feed the world 3 times over. We have the Gospel to take to the ends of the earth, and the Spirit who will be with us to do it.
As my relationship with God has matured since entering college, I have found myself recognizing my need for patience when it comes to waiting on the Lord. After receiving baptism in the Holy Spirit last year at SALT, I have been seeking to hear God's voice and to discover His long-term plan for my life. I realized after SALT this year that I have been impatiently seeking answers to my questions rather than focusing on strengthening my relationship with God while waiting on His perfect timing. Several of the sessions I attended focused on waiting on the Lord while sanctifying oneself in the process. I felt the Lord guiding me to examine some areas of my life in which I can grow deeper in relationship with Him, and I have already begun to put these things into practice as I wait for His guidance for my life after college. I look forward to 2012, because I know that this will be a year of renewal for my intimate relationship with my Father. -Bethany, Tulane Junior
Please keep us in your prayers as we start the new semester. We are looking for some bold and creative ways to engage a much wider audience with the Gospel at Tulane than ever before. And, let us know how we can be praying for you.
Here are some testimonies straight from students:
God really showed me that I can put my full trust in him for my future. I was also really encouraged about people that I have been praying for to come to know Christ. Salt was truly amazing. -Sean, Tulane Senior
We all see the problems in the world and hope we can contribute or do something about it. Politics, hunger, AIDS, terrorism, poverty, neglect, division, prostitution, these are all 'buzzwords' they dangle at you in the media but really have no power to act. At SALT, there were all these people who share the same heart with the same goal, to spread the Good News, coming from a privileged country where people have human rights and technology, that if we got serious we could feed the world 3 times over. We have the Gospel to take to the ends of the earth, and the Spirit who will be with us to do it.
At SALT I met people who are already doing these. I was encouraged. -Kevin, Tulane Senior
As my relationship with God has matured since entering college, I have found myself recognizing my need for patience when it comes to waiting on the Lord. After receiving baptism in the Holy Spirit last year at SALT, I have been seeking to hear God's voice and to discover His long-term plan for my life. I realized after SALT this year that I have been impatiently seeking answers to my questions rather than focusing on strengthening my relationship with God while waiting on His perfect timing. Several of the sessions I attended focused on waiting on the Lord while sanctifying oneself in the process. I felt the Lord guiding me to examine some areas of my life in which I can grow deeper in relationship with Him, and I have already begun to put these things into practice as I wait for His guidance for my life after college. I look forward to 2012, because I know that this will be a year of renewal for my intimate relationship with my Father. -Bethany, Tulane Junior
Please keep us in your prayers as we start the new semester. We are looking for some bold and creative ways to engage a much wider audience with the Gospel at Tulane than ever before. And, let us know how we can be praying for you.
November 28, 2011
Thanksgiving 2011
So much to be grateful for. Here's a quick overview of a few 2011 highlights, so far: why we are thankful.
Hope and Faith & 10 Years
These little beauties have changed our lives, so profoundly. They might return to their birth family in 2012, or maybe they'll stay with us forever. Either way, we are so thankful for the joy and love they have added to our lives since January 3rd. If you've met them, you know what we mean ;)
Jen and I also celebrated 10 years of marriage this past July - makes me feel old, a little. It is such a privilege to face life's joys and challenges together with Jen. So thankful for our life together!
Baptisms
We've had the privilege of seeing students at Tulane and UNO follow Jesus in water baptism this year. Praise God! (In this photo, you see Meiyu, who was baptized with Chi Alpha last year, helping baptize her friend, Alicia -- making disciples!)
We've also seen more students experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit in 2011 than in the previous seven years in New Orleans!
Expansion
Deanna Ceasar joined our staff team this year with the aim of launching a new Chi Alpha chapter at Xavier University in New Orleans. Xavier is a historically black college/university (HBCU), and is also a private, Catholic university. There are many challenges here, but we are excited for the opportunity to pursue God's goals there.
In the meantime, Deanna is also helping grow XA at Loyola.
Haiti
It was a joy to return to Haiti this past May. In our first visit since the 2010 earthquake, we had the privilege of helping to rebuild a church that was destroyed by the quake. Now, we are praying for a team to go again in March 2012 to continue the rebuilding with churches and schools and more.
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