Matt DeGier's Blog

News from Deanna at Xavier

2012-01-17T11:00:00.001-06:00

Great stuff from Deanna Ceasar and the fledgling Xavier University Chi Alpha crew. Read up here.

SALT Reports

2012-01-16T15:22:00.002-06:00

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.

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.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T13:48:00.001-06:00

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.

Fall Newsletter

2011-10-28T14:14:00.002-05:00

FRESHMEN!

Joseph and Laura are freshmen at Tulane:
Laura from Illinois

Freshman - English Major

During the second week of school, as I walked through one of those crazy beginning-of-year campus festivals where hungry college students line up for miles in the hope of getting free food before it runs out - completely by accident, I ran into the table for Chi Alpha. And eight weeks later, I am happy to say that it was one of the luckiest accidents that has ever happened to me.

In my first weeks of college, Chi Alpha has given me some amazing opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. I was able to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, go paddle-boating in City Park, and experience a different side of Louisiana at Fall Breakaway. As great as all these things are, the best thing Chi Alpha has done for me is connect me to other students who have strong faith in God. It has been wonderful for me to become part of a group that respects one other and builds each other up as Christians.

Joseph from California

Freshman - Architecture

Coming to a well known 'party' school, I knew I would need some Christian community to keep me growing in Christ. So, when I happened to discover Chi Alpha just passing by, I knew that God was telling me something. It also helped that I met some really cool people in Chi Alpha that would not only build me up but, were generally cool people to hang out with. Also, between prayer parties, Gatherings, satellite groups, and all the other events Chi Alpha does, I never feel alone but accepted and connected. I truly thank God he led me to Chi Alpha and am humbly grateful for the service they provide.

I read again, recently, how college students must make a connection early (within two weeks, this article said!), if they are going to continue actively in their faith in college! http://bit.ly/degier1

Building update: We continue to look for the right building in uptown near Tulane and Loyola to house a ministry center and city-wide office space. We are looking into a building on fraternity/sorority row that is over 5,000 square feet and nearly $600,000! The location is outstanding!

Clearly, we need a miracle, if this is the place God has for us. Please pray with us!

You can give to make this a reality: online
Mail: Chi Alpha New Orleans
PO Box 13997
New Orleans LA 70185

May you have a wonderful fall season!
Grace & Peace from New Orleans
-matt & jen

The Right Place?

2011-10-23T14:40:00.002-05:00

726 Broadway St.
On the end of Tulane's fraternity/sorority row. On one of the most trafficked off-campus corners for students in the area...

Could this be the property we have been prayerfully seeking since March? If it is, we need some miracles soon, because it's not going to sit on the market long... honestly, if we want it, we probably need to get an offer together within a week!

We have nearly $60,000 saved for obtaining property for ministry, meeting and office space. That won't get us far for this property. We need someone to invest in this property for us, or to lay down man thousands of dollars in giving for this project. Please pray with us. If you have some ideas in how to help us, please contact me. Send gifts to Chi Alpha, PO Box 13997, NO LA 70185 or use this link to give online.

Getting to Know Tulane

2011-10-10T12:09:00.003-05:00

This is the essay written by our Campus Missionary in Training (aka 'intern'), Lindsay Mula, in response to her assigned research to get to know the campus she would be working on, Tulane. It's a great introduction to the primary mission field Jen and I work on. Enjoy.

“Making a Difference”

Making a difference is something most people want, but fewpeople know how to do it. We all have opinions on how to make the world a betterplace. In the case of a university student or staff member, the university isthe change they want to see. I got the privilege of meeting with severalstudents and a couple of Tulane University staff members to ask them whatdifference they would like to make. With students, I wanted to know whatdifferences should be made within the religious life sect. I wanted a diversityof people to answer the questions, and I got just that. Among the staff, Iasked questions about the university itself and the needs of students withinTulane.

My first interview was held with Ms. Arnetha Tory who isthe Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs Executive Secretary. I realized herconcern for the students who do not have the financial means to either come toTulane or simply stay at Tulane for multiple years. Much like an organizationcalled The Posse that I discovered, Ms. Tory hopes to bring diversity to theuniversity. She wants people from different backgrounds, ethnic groups, andsexual orientations represented and appreciated. Like many other individuals onTulane’s campus, she wants students to be more open-minded and accepting ofpeople who may be different. I interviewed the next staff member out of purecuriosity for what he would have to say. Rabbi Yochanan Rivkan is religiouslife staff through Chabad, a Jewish community on Tulane’s campus. To mysurprise, he did not desire much change on the university campus. He would liketo see students engaging in more meaningful activities. The only change hecould imagine is seeing students with higher self-esteems.

Similar to Rabbi Rivkan, I found that students wantedsomething similar- meaningful activities. The students interviewed either foundit hard to make friends, or only made friends through joining a meaningfulorganization. The students who got involved in leadership roles, such asfraternities, Christian organizations, or Student Government, established moresignificant relationships. Surprisingly each student identified that they wouldlike to see more acceptance in the organizations. I immediately began to thinkof my vision for my small group. This is the key to unlocking meaningfulrelationships with individuals from other denominations. The question arises,“How do we execute this?” I think that Chi Alpha has already done anexceptional job at making people feel welcome, but there is always something tobe improved on. I personally would like to be more aware of how I talk. Am Iusing “Christian words” that a non-believer would understand me? This simplesurvey has opened my eyes to what non-Chi Alphans want and need to draw themcloser to God.

As I concluded this survey with researching informationabout Tulane University, I found that knowing the diversity of the campus wasboth intriguing and helpful. There are only 15% of students attending Tulanethat are from Louisiana. Forty-eight states and over forty-five countries arerepresented. These statistics show that unlike individuals in Louisiana, Tulanestudents are not all Roman Catholic. Not everyone has heard about having agenuine relationship with God. My eyes are definitely more open and aware ofhow the university runs now that I have gotten a chance to meet with adiversity of students and staff.

Two Weeks In ...

2011-09-13T14:39:00.002-05:00

We've already seen two full weeks fly by at Tulane and Loyola (three at UNO!) - what a wild ride this time of year is for campus missionaries and all of our student leaders.

First, please pray for our student leaders. They have been working hard, hosting fun events, meeting lots of new people and seeking to make meaningful connections with those new people. Plus, they've been going to class, too :) Assignments are beginning to come due and tests are on the schedule. Pray that they continue strong in loving others while putting the necessary time into their studies. Pray that God grants them efficient study time, and favor in sharing the Good News.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in beautiful Gulf Shores, AL soaking up some sun and playing in the waves with 58 students from UNO, Loyola and Tulane. Beach Bash is all about making friendships that will last, and introducing students to a Christian community that loves them as they are and to a God who is present. We spent most of the time playing and laughing, but had a couple of moments to pause and consider the Creator of the joy and beauty we experienced. We can't count the fruit of this event, yet, but the blossoms look good.

Thank you for your love and prayers and support.

We Were Merely Freshmen

2011-08-24T11:27:00.003-05:00

Giddy, a little awestruck, trying to keep up a front of looking put-gether, not-lost, and not-homesick, but more than anything, excited to start a brandnew adventure - that's what the first days on campus felt like for me (13 years ago!), and I'm feeling some of those emotions all over again.

I'm so excited--I can feel it in the pit of my stomach--to meet the incoming freshmen at Tulane this weekend! We have the privilege of loving and serving these new students who are in the midst of these conflicting emotions, as well as international students feeling a lot of the same things with a heightened sense of home-sickness and not doing nearly as well at the not-looking-lost bit. More than that, we have the privilege of introducing them to Jesus Christ. Seeing and meeting new students at UNO, Friday, I was acutely reminded of why I do what I do. The university campus is one of the most strategic mission fields on the planet, and I'm stoked to serve as an ambassador for Christ here.

Word is that 90% freshmen will connect with a social group in their first six weeks on campus and spend the next four years with that group. This means that we have six weeks to make contact with 90% of our mission field (we've got four years for the other 10%). Because of this, we burn the candle at both ends for those first weeks creating all sorts of unique and fun opportunities to make new friendships that will become venues for "making disciples of all nations."

Here are some of the events we've got coming up at Tulane. Please keep us in prayer!

Friday, Aug. 26: Servant Corps Advance (reconnecting and training student leaders all day long)
Satuday: Moving in the freshmen!
Saturday night: Chinese student Bible study
Mon - Thurs: contact tables to meet new students (We'll be rocking the chicken suit and using Angry Birds as a connecting point with students.)
Tues, Aug. 30: Cafe Chi Alpha: Wecome Party
Fri, Sep 2: something low key
Sun, Sep 4: Scavenge New Orleans
Week of Sep 5th: launching Satellite small groups
Tues, Sep 6: The Gathering: city-wide worship celebration
Fridays in September: all kinds of fun Freshmen Fridays events Jen and some students have cooked up
Sep 10-11: Beach Bash

Check out the calendar at nolaxa.com to see what's up on the other campuses too. We'll be at some of those events, and our team will be rocking all around the city.

PS: Chi Alpha at Xavier University had its first official meeting yesterday!!

Follow-up

2011-08-11T22:08:00.001-05:00

Helped "Zhang" get some new furniture this evening for his new place. And, he's planning to join our Chinese Bible study tomorrow night - awesome!

Here They Come

2011-08-11T13:11:00.005-05:00

Thousands of new students are headed to New Orleans in the next few weeks, and we will be there to meet them with love, service and the gospel!

In fact, we've already met several of them. We've met them at orientations over the summer; we've met local students through friends and at churches; and Jen and I met a new Chinese PhD candidate on the street last week, and he ended up staying in our home for three days.

Zhang* arrived in New Orleans last week with a backpack and one gigantic suitcase. He had one contact in New Orleans and no place lined up to live. Jen saw him pulling that huge suitcase on one of the main roads near Tulane around noon on Wednesday - in the sweltering heat. She saw him again at 5pm still pulling that huge suitcase and knew she needed to stop. She found out a little bit of his story and was compelled to offer him a place to stay at our home if he couldn't find anything else, as all the offices that might have been able to help him at Tulane were now closed for the day. She gave him the phone number of a recent Tulane graduate from China who knows us well, so he could get a reference on this stranger that just invited him into her home. Sure enough, just after 7pm, Zhang was on the phone asking for a place to stay.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to serve and host him for those few days, and we look forward to ongoing opportunities to serve and build a friendship with him (as his spoken English improves) - he will be living right around the corner from us now, and is still in need of help furnishing the small house he will be renting.

Please pray for Zhang and many other international students we will meet - that we can develop great relationships with them that will lead to transformational encounters with Christ.

Please pray for the incoming freshmen, as well. We'll send out another update shortly with a play by play of what we will be doing to reach out and connect with students as the new semester gets ready to launch.

Thank you for your prayers and support!
-Matt

*not his real name.

Reaching Young Adults Who Aren't On Campus

2011-07-14T16:31:00.000-05:00

“80-90% of teenagers leave the church after high school!”

How many times have you heard this frightening statistic? Ifyou’re like me, you’ve heard it too often, and it turns your stomach in knotsand your heart toward prayer. Good news, though: Chi Alpha is reaching morecollege students than ever before in Louisiana and around the nation, keepingAssemblies of God young people on the path of discipleship, winning andwelcoming repentant backsliders and rescuing the lost on university and collegecampuses. Also, those numbers (80-90%) are blown out of proportion. Two recent,high-quality studies I’ve read show the numbers to be closer to 60-70%.[i]Of course, losing two-thirds of our young people is not encouraging.

Something you may not be aware of is that the secularuniversity is not the cause of this appalling apostasy. In fact, young peoplewho matriculate through a four-year institution remain committed to their faithor return to it sooner than those who attend trade/vocational schools or do notattend post-secondary school at all. The type of four-year school (religious ornot) has little impact on these numbers.[ii]

How can your church reach young adults who have left thechurch, or maybe never were a part of the church?[iii]First, and this serves my bias, you can partner with a Chi Alpha missionary.Add some missionaries to your support list, send a special offering to theministry nearest you, or go visit the campus and ask your local missionarieshow your church might serve practically.

Second, aim for all those young people Chi Alpha is notreaching. Target those youngpeople who have skipped college and are walking away from faith at asignificantly higher rate than their peers in school. Target recent collegegraduates who are just getting started in their careers. Target communitycollege and vocational college students…

At this point, you are probably saying, “nice, but how?”This is where campus missionaries have the strategic advantage, our missionfield lives, goes to class, eats, and often works within a very smallgeographic area – they are all in one, easy to find place, and they all aresocially connected. The young people I am exhorting you to reach aredisconnected, spread out all over and very hard to find. But, they can be foundand they can and must be reached.

Two churches in my area have started initiatives to find,love and reach these young people. One (All Nations Fellowship) is moving theiryoung adult meetings to a local coffee shop where they know many un-churched orex-churched folks hang out. Their goal is to connect, as a community, with theregulars there. Another young adult ministry (Celebration Church) has started abeach volleyball team and joined a league at a local venue. Their team willcompete against dozens of other young adults in friendly tournaments, and‘fans’ from their ministry will surround their team. This is prime time formeeting new people, people who are not in church.

In a parable, Jesus speaks of going into the highways and bywaysand compelling all to come into the banquet. Jesus made friends with sinnersand spent a lot of time in unseemly places and parties. Pray! Be creative! Andbe courageous! The young people in your community may not be interested in yourchurch or even in your ‘relevant’ young adults ministry, but they are lookingfor loving relationships, real connections with real people (not facebookpeople), and they can be found, if you are willing to be found in new placeswith new people with the heart of Jesus.

[i] See BarnaGroup’s 2006 study at bit.ly/06study and Uecker,Regnerus and Vaaler’s 2007 study at bit.ly/uecker.

[ii] Uecker, etal.

[iii]Approximately 70 million Americans are “unchurched” today according to theBarna Group. bit.ly/unchurched

Summer Newsletter

2011-07-14T16:30:00.002-05:00

enjoy the online version here eepurl.com/eI58M
download a print version here http://db.tt/iwvq6ek

some hardware issues

2011-07-01T15:17:00.001-05:00

Hello friends, family and supporters: our staff is in need of a computer or two. These can be as awesome as desired by the giver. However, I'm thinking there may be a couple older laptops or desktops (PC or Mac ok for this request) that are mostly gathering dust. Two of our staff members have barely working laptops that need to be replaced. It would be great to get a computer for each of them, or at least a desktop they could share at home (they are roommates), and another to be shared by all at the XA office. Ideally, these computers would not be more than four years old, otherwise they probably won't help us out much more than the old computers currently in use. If you want to ship something, we can pay that bill. We can also work up a gift-in-kind receipt for tax purposes. Thanks!

Guatemala Trip and Reader Feedback

2011-06-30T09:02:00.001-05:00

Check out the news from Christine Thrower and the team of UNO, Loyola and Tulane students she led to Guatemala last month. Get it here.

Also, anyone who reads this have any input or feedback on the blog? What would you like to see more of? What do you see that you like? What do you see that you feel like you see too much of?

thanks!

Beau's Summary of our Haiti Trip

2011-06-11T13:23:00.008-05:00

Here's the unedited thank you letter from Beau Pritchett to those who helped him (and helped our team buy building materials) get to Port-au-Prince Hait for a mission trip May 15-21.

Check out our facebook group to see some pictures. Also, if you don't currently receive our email newsletters, please sign up today: sign up here.

First off, thank you all once again for your support of my team's trip to Haiti last week. We arrived in Port Au Prince early two Sundays ago and I arrived at Dulles airport at 8 pm this past Saturday. We stayed in Port Au Prince in the house of Bill and Dorothy Smith - two missionaries who have been in Haiti for the last 21 years! They hosted three groups, including ours, for a grand total of about 35 people! There was a group from a church in Michigan and a group from a church in Pennsylvania. Most were older men who had pretty extensive experience with construction, which was intimidating a bit at first but they were very helpful and encouraging and I came away with both a fair understanding of some building techniques and a sense of utility, that I made a substantial contribution to our efforts there. Other than on Monday, we split up into two groups - the PA group worked with concrete pouring at one church-building site, while my Tulane group worked with the Michigan group at a separate church-building site. In Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we erected the ENTIRE metal frame of a church, leaving only the siding and roofing to be done by the group there this week. I directed the lifting of trusses with a skid-steer (spelling?), climbed up the boom of the skid steer to unhook the trusses, drilled perlings (spelling?) to the trusses atop two stories of shaky scaffolding, and various other tasks which I will not enumerate further because I feel I've already done a poor job of communicating construction jargon.

In no uncertain terms, yall's donations helped greatly, as we would never have been able to do our work without financial contributions towards building materials generously donated from people like you. Haiti is a broken and desolate country. They can mix and pour concrete, have limitted amounts of rebar, and can use wood if they like, and that's about it. The equipment and materials that Builders International is able to bring in from the US is critical in accomplishing their building goals for the people of Haiti.

It's difficult to not feel cynical about Haiti, since it doesn't look like they'll ever be able to stand on their feet after a history of slavery and corruption combined with a series of natural disasters has crippled the nation. One thing that is certain, however, is that the Haitian people are some of the most loving and resilient people in the world. Builders International has a hired crew of about 8-10 locals who help out with the construction projects as their full time job. Some of them also work as the drivers of the trucks that shuttle us to and from the work sites (hour ish ride in super polluted traffic). There are three women who work in the kitchen at Bill and Dorothy's house and a group of about 40 neighborhood kids who spend most of their free time playing and sitting out front of the Smiths' home. These were just the locals who we came in close contact with, but it is evident that these people still have hope, and still firmly believe that they have a lot to live for.

It's amazing that a nation with over one million people living in tents, with very limitted access to clean water, with hazardous air pollution, and with essentially zero national infrastructure can collectively remain upbeat. God is certainly doing big things in the hearts of these people. My biggest regret/disappointment in the trip was the fact that I don't speak french. Many Haitians we interacted with were mostly conversant in English, but I would have loved to be able to talk to them in their language, seeing as it's their country. One way of interacting with people that knows no language barriers, however, is sports. After long days at the job site (woke up at about 4:45 every morning because the sun prevented you from working past 2 pm), me and some of the other Tulane guys would go hang out on the street with the local kids. They play soccer so we figured it'd be fun to play a few games. We got spanked up and down the street by these kids. They're playing with bare feet or tattered shoes on a gravel road and we're overrunning the ball and sliding on the gravel. They certainly got a good laugh for about half an hour every afternoon. One of the kids had an americal football, though, so I spent some time one day teaching them how to throw it. In return, they hosted a mini bootcamp for soccer skills on our last day. They took us on a walking tour through their neighborhood a few times. Several of the kids are orphans.

I left almost all of my clothes there, as well as three new soccer balls and pumps. I don't know if or when I'll return to Haiti, since I will try to make my next trip somewhere that I can use my spanish. But I had an amazing week down there and was glad to see what God is calling people to down there. And I want to say again thank you, since yalls support helped that trip happen.

WooHOO - Freshmen!

2011-06-08T17:00:00.003-05:00

Jen and I had our first shot at meeting incoming freshmen at Tulane's orientations today. It was so good to be on campus and meeting students, again. We made several great connections. Lot's of people are already pretty stoked about Beach Bash. Looking forward to O-Fest at UNO tomorrow!

taking it to another level

2011-05-10T10:25:00.000-05:00

Dreams and Reality

Campus Next: University students are the future of our society in every way, and we need to reach them with the Good News about Jesus - now! Our dream is to establish communities of worship, fellowship, discipleship, prayer and mission at every college and university campus in New Orleans, as God allows. We have had the great privilege of establishing growing communities that are beginnig the work of transforming the universities at Tulane, Loyola and UNO since 2003 - praise God!

This summer, Deanna Ceasar will join our Chi Alpha New Orleans team with the dream of launching a new Chi Alpha community at a Historically BlackCollege or University (HBCU) in New Orleans within the next two years! Our target will be either Dillard University or Xavier University. We will spend the next month or two prayerfully making that decision together. Then, in August, Deanna, with the help of our New Orleans team, will begin laying the foundations for a new Chi Alpha community - it's like having a new baby! We are so excited to be a part of this God-movement, and believe many will be won to the cause of Jesus Christ through Deanna's ministry. Please pray for her as she considers where the best fit for her ministry will be, and as she raises the financial support she needs. Click here to support her. Also, please pray for Jen and I as we continue leading the New Orlelans Chi Alpha team into all that God has for us!

Haiti or Bust

This Saturday, I leave with four Tulane guys to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We will be working to rebuild a church-school building that was destroyed by the earthquake in 2010. This is the first trip Chi Alpha New Orleans will make to Haiti since before that earthquake (we were there in 2007 and 2009), and are blessed to have this opportunity to serve. Please pray for our safety, our effectiveness, that we will bless many others and that our lives will be changed for the glory of God through this experience. We will be working with Builders International.

Subscribe to our online newsletter list, and receive updates like this in your inbox.

Staff update and more

2011-04-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

We have the privilege of developing Campus Missionaries in Training (sometimes called interns) here in New Orleans as part of The Diversity Project in Louisiana. This year, Ashley and Rob have been serving and growing with us. We are proud to announce that Ashley will be working with us next year, too, as a Campus Missionary Associate. This will only be a one year assignment for the time being.

Read her recent newsletter to see why :)

Rob is still deciding where God will have him next year, as he looks to make a 2-3 year commitment somewhere before, likely, launching off to start a new XA chapter somewhere, or maybe become director of an existing ministry.

In other staffing news, last week, Deanna Ceasar, who is a CMiT with the Diversity Project at UL-Lafayette this year, came to visit New Orleans. She wants to start Chi Alpha at an HBCU in Louisiana. We took her to visit Dillard and Xavier. This week, she will visit Southern in Baton Rouge. We would love to have her join our team in New Orleans as we seek to expand the reach of the Gospel on New Orleans' campuses.

Please pray for Rob and Deanna as they seek God's guidance for their campus ministry futures.

update on property pursuit

2011-04-11T18:01:00.001-05:00

The original facility we were pursuing has gone under contract for sale. We are monitoring the sale in case it falls through, so we can be ready to put in an alternate bid.

However, the similar building next door is still unoccupied, and actually has a small apartment on its property along with the main building. It appears that this property is in legal limbo based upon some Road Home funds fraud and the death of its previous owner last month. We are in a waiting game on this, most likely, as it will probably go up for auction at some point. However, we will make inquiries with the owner's estate and with Road Home.

Finally, there is a fraternity house on Broadway Ave that we investigate a few years ago that is also still empty. Tulane purchased the property, but has not yet done anything with it. we will contact them to see what opportunity might exist there.

We continue to pray for wisdom and for favor in this endeavor. If God is in this, the doors will open, and I believe Hi is.

In the meantime, we are pursuing opportunities to partner with a church plant that might open Church Planting funds to help us. And, we continue to seek to raise funds and monthly support for Chi Alpha New Orleans so that we will be in great standing to receive a loan when the time comes - or even pay in cash! Your prayers and contributions are greatly desired.

Thank you!

-matt

Real-Estate for Chi Alpha New Orleans?

2011-03-18T14:22:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to the online listing: http://www.latter-blum.com/863982

If you would like to give, you can give online via Paypal to xa@nolaxa.com or mail checks to

Chi Alpha

211 Cherokee St

New Orleans LA 70118

What is Chi Alpha? hear it from the students

2011-03-08T21:51:00.000-06:00

a video from several of our students

news

2011-03-02T08:44:00.000-06:00

Here's a link to a great newsletter from Campus Missionary in Training at Tulane, Ashley Brown.

This past weekend was exciting, to say the least! 8 students were baptized in the Holy Spirit!!
Here are a few (not so great) pictures :)

If you're praying for us, please pray for unity in the Tulane XA group. This weekend's events have stirred up some negative reactions.

Jan-Feb 2011 Newsletter Released!

2011-02-18T15:57:00.000-06:00

Click on the images to zoom in

or click here to see/download the print quality file.

Rob's January Newsletter

2011-02-12T14:19:00.000-06:00

Rob's one of our Campus Missionaries in Training at Tulane.

check out his news with fun pictures and some word on the Alpha Course - Rob's overseeing this endeavor for us at Tulane and helping the city-wide team with it.

Christine's January Newsletter

2011-01-27T15:44:00.001-06:00

Another great SALT testimony here.

Ashley's January Newsletter

2011-01-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

Ashley's (CMiT) newsletter has a great student story from the SALT conference. Check it out.

New Additions to Our Home

2011-01-15T13:34:00.000-06:00

Huge news in the DeGier household!!

This past summer, Jen and I went through training to become foster/adoptive parents with the state of Louisiana with the intention of investigating foster to adoption as a way to build a family, as Jen has had a desire to care for children left without the care they need since she was a teenager, and this seemed to be the best way for us to do that.

Monday, January 3rd, we accepted our first placement: one month old twins, Hope and Faith, have been with us for almost two weeks now and we are exhausted and joyful. They are growing well (they were born prematurely) and keeping us busy.

After a consultation with the foster care worker this past Thursday, it appears that the twins will be with us for 6-9 months, minimum. The current course of action is for the birth parents to get to a place where they can receive their babies back into their own home. If that course of action does not work out, we will begin the process of adoption. We ask for your prayers for Hope and Faith, for the birth parents and this whole process, and for us as we seek to care for these little ones in the best way possible.

Jen continues to be active in the campus ministry, as the girls spend three days a week in day care.

Finally, since they are not our own, we will not be posting pictures all over the internet. However, should they become ours, we will catch you all up on that.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T12:41:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas time with my family in Michigan, and then celebrated the New Year with some of our students at the annual SALT conference in Dallas where one Tulane student was baptized in the Holy Spirit, a UNO student rededicated his life to Christ, and many others were powerfully impacted by God's Spirit and challenged to pursue God's dream of reaching their campuses with the Gospel!

Now, we're gearing up for the spring semester, which starts Monday!

One thing we're excited about is running the Alpha Course on all three campuses this spring as the content for our small groups. This course introduces people to the basics of Christianity in a non-threatening manner where all questions are welcomed. We are looking to see many students come to understand their faith in a fresh and holistic manner, and introduce several others to Jesus for the very first time!

Ever heard of Man versus Wild? Bear Grylls' himself has something to say about Alpha.

Merry Christmas! - See us in Print.

2010-12-22T11:40:00.000-06:00

Some of you all go to Assemblies of God churches where they distribute the Pentecostal Evangel magazine each week. They had a little newsletter contest for Chi Alpha, and I won a category. Part of the prize is getting one of your stories abstracted in the Dec 26th issue. Check it out.

Christmas Card and Christmas Letter

2010-12-10T10:19:00.001-06:00

click to zoom in. click here for print quality.

Semester in Pictures

2010-11-30T16:22:00.002-06:00

Giving Thanks for Josh and Rachel Harvey

2010-11-25T13:34:00.000-06:00

Here's the most recent newsletter from our colleagues leading the Loyola Chi Alpha chapter. We are blessed. God is good.

Video for Cafe Chi Alpha outreach tomorrow

2010-11-15T15:09:00.000-06:00

We will show this video as part of the presentation for Tuesday's Cafe Chi Alpha at Tulane.
check out the facebook event.

Rob's Oct/Nov Newsletter

2010-10-28T21:14:00.001-05:00

Rob's a Campus Missionary in Training with us.
Read his newsletter here.

Christine's October Newsletter

2010-10-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

Check out Christine's news here.
(Christine is the Chi Alpha missionary at UNO)

Sep-Oct 2010 Newsletter

2010-10-15T14:57:00.001-05:00

click the images to zoom in.

click here to download print quality version.

http://db.tt/E20iNBH

A whole lot of Fall Breakaway Pictures!

2010-10-11T10:39:00.002-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=223394&id=519586335&page=3

newsletter will be out this week... hopefully today!

Newsletters from our Staff

2010-09-20T15:30:00.000-05:00

Christine Thrower is our colaborer at UNO. Check out her newsletter here.

Ashley Brown and Rob Rodriguez are Campus Missionaries in Training (sometimes called interns) at Tulane. Check out Ashley's news here, and Rob's here.

The Gathering: first one of 2010-11

2010-09-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last night was our first monthly, city-wide worship gathering, aptly called "The Gathering". Loyola Chi Alpha is hosting this year, and we had a great night with about 50 students from Loyola, Tulane and UNO - worshiping God in song and prayer and hearing a challenging message from God's Word by Josh Harvey.

This was our best attended Gathering since we restarted this monthly event last fall. I'm looking forward to outgrowing our digs at Satchmo's in Loyola's Danna Center soon :)

Scavenge New Orleans

2010-08-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

More fun pics here.

These are from Scavenge New Orleans at Tulane this past Saturday. Another great turnout by our volunteers! And, we met 33 new students.

first batch of Burger Bash Pictures

2010-08-25T18:19:00.000-05:00

That's John Ryan. He's a great griller of hot dogs :)

See the rest of the pics here.

Burger Bash 2010 - WooHOO!

2010-08-23T15:23:00.000-05:00

Pictures on the way...

Saturday night was our first big event for fall kick-off 2010, and what a great night it was. We met about 150 UNO students and fed them tons of burgers and hotdogs. In all of this, our students and staff were working the crowd, learning names and stories, creating new relationships and connecting with students from all over the world in meaningful and lasting ways. I had the privilege of making new friends with students from all over Louisiana, as well as Guatemala, China and New Jersey.

We had four amazing volunteers who helped make this possible - John and Eileen Ryan (long time friends, and members of the Chi Alpha New Orleans Advisory Board), and two great guys from New Orleans Teen Challenge. These four did almost all of the cooking and serving, so our students were totally free to be out and about among their peers. Instead of Chi Alpha students serving behind a table, they were able to shake hands and play games and lay the foundation for relationships that will bear much fruit for the Father's glory.

Thank you to our supporters and to our volunteers!

July-August 2010 Newsletter

2010-08-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

Download the printable pdf here.
Click the images to zoom in and view them full size.

Campus Missions Conference - A Chi Alpha Prayer

2010-07-14T21:29:00.001-05:00

Jen and I are enjoying a great time of refreshing, training and fun in Phoenix, AZ at Chi Alpha's Campus Missions Conference. We are here with Chi Alpha missionaries and staff from 150+ different campuses. It's been a great couple of days so far.

At the opening session, Monday night, we were given a card with some data on campus evangelism and such. On the back of the card was Matthew 9:35-38 in the "Chi Alpha Translation". This moved me, and speaks powerfully towards God's heart for the universities:

Jesus went through all the colleges and universities, teaching in the classrooms, student centers, dorm lounges, free speech zones, the campus quads, rec centers, computer labs and coffee cafes, preaching the good news of the Kingdom and healing students with depression, sexual sin, anger, drug and alcohol abuse, brokenness, and low self-esteem. When he saw the students, he had compassion on them, because they were morally confused, religiously ignorant, and spiritually lost. Then he said to campus missionaries, "The campus mission field is immense, and the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to raise up and send out more campus missionaries."

We are so blessed to have a growing team of campus missionaries in New Orleans after years of prayer. Josh and Rachel Harvey are serving with us at Loyola. Christine Thrower is joining us at UNO, and two new Campus Missionaries in Training will join us at Tulane this year!

Please pray with us for the students and the campus mission field, in general, and for more laborers in New Orleans and around the nation and the world. (And be prepared, God might ask you to be the answer to your prayer.)

July update

2010-07-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

Well, Orientations are complete at Tulane. We met lots of incoming freshmen, and even got contact info from about 30 of them. We and our students will stay in touch with them as time for school to start approaches. At UNO we've got contact info from more than 50, and we have two more Orientations to go in July!

Please pray for the incoming freshmen classes at Tulane, Loyola and UNO.

Last week, we had our first ever Chi Alpha New Orleans Support Banquet to raise funds for the upcoming year and cast vision for future growth and development. We raised $2500 and some monthly support for Chi Alpha. We are praying for more, but this was a good start for our first attempt.

Please pray for the financial provision of all we need for Chi Alpha, for our personal support, and especially for Josh and Rachel's personal support, Christine's personal support, and the personal support raising of our two incoming Campus Missionaries in Training (affectionately known as interns), Rob and Ashley.

Next week we head to Phoenix, AZ for National Chi Alpha's Campus Missions Conference, followed by an exciting week of vacation in Sedona (including a visit to the Grand Canyon!)

Today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary. God is good!

May-June 2010 News-card

2010-06-16T13:52:00.001-05:00

Here's the news from our news postcard hitting the mail this week:

So what do campus missionaries do during the summer?  
Besides Orientation at Tulane and UNO, we’ve been:

praying and prepping for the fall semester
keeping in touch with Chi Alpha students near and far
hosting a summer small group at UNO
sweatin’ it out with Chi Alpha alumni and current students as we serve our community...

check out Christine's newsletter

2010-06-15T09:38:00.002-05:00

Our newest team member, Christine Thrower, has just put out her latest newsletter. You can see it here.

Beach Bash 2010

2010-06-03T10:33:00.000-05:00

This is an ad for our planned event over Labor Day weekend to reach out to incoming freshmen. Please pray for our planning process this summer, including and beyond this event. Last year, it was a great success, and we believe it can be much better this year.

This brings up a great opportunity to request prayer for our region regarding the ongoing oil spill. We need a move of God to stop the oil flow from under the water, and to dry up the oil flowing around on top of the water. The Gulf is precious for so many reasons, including being the source of thousands and thousands of livelihoods.

Acts

2010-05-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

I just finished another class on my way to an MA from Global University. Here's the final paper for Acts as History and Theology for any interested in an informative, if slightly long, read (it's 26 pages).

link

March - April 2010 Newsletter

2010-04-23T15:19:00.001-05:00

Click on the images to view them full size.

Click here to download a print quality pdf.

See more pics of the Mexico trip, and from our fun with Jen's parents in San Diego after the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattdegier/sets/72157623917121990/

This is a video Christine made to greet the UNO Chi Alpha crew earlier this week.

Jan-Feb 2010 Newsletter

2010-03-05T10:39:00.002-06:00

for a printable version click here

click on images to view full-size

an update

2010-02-18T10:35:00.000-06:00

I just typed an email to one of our Tulane alumni from pre-Katrina days, Danny "Scout" Barnes, and realized it my be a good update for some blog readers, too, especially alumni and others who've seen our campuses and ministry up close and personal. Here's the pertinent text from that email (basically unedited, as I need that time to work on our next newsletter).:

We are doing pretty well down here. It's been a wild semester, and we are seeing lots of growth at UNO. Nikki' Gordy's legacy is bearing rich rewards. Last year's fruit is bearing new fruit, and new freshmen are catching the vision for their campus and running with it. Last spring, I felt we were on the cusp of a legitimate revival at UNO. It seems I was a little early on the timing, but that cusp is close. God is at work, and it's beautiful to see.

At Tulane, things move along slowly. We're smaller this year than last year, which is a first, but some good things are happening this semester. Our ability, as a community, to influence unbelievers is nearing its preKatrina levels, and that's huge! We have fewer solid Christians, but are making a deeper impact. I believe that bodes well for God's glory and for the future of Tulane XA.

Josh and Rachel Harvey are fitting in well at Loyola. They are facing real challenges, of course: one challenge is that the "I'm the only Christian on campus" disease still pervades students' minds beyond al natural reason. We are praying against that foolish stronghold of Bezelbub. The Harveys have been blessed to not only inherit the favor Jen and I had been given and earned, but seen that favor multiply through God's gift and their own faithfulness, as well.

Haiti Update

2010-02-03T16:45:00.000-06:00

from The Assemblies of God

HAITI: Relief efforts continue on several fronts. Convoy of Hope workers have distributed more than 1.7 million meals and installed dozens of water filters since a 7.0 earthquake rocked the nation January 12. U.S. Assemblies of God missionaries and national believers from Haiti and Dominican Republic are assisting in relief efforts and ministering to people’s emotional and physical needs.

Missionaries also are evaluating damages to churches and pastors’ homes. A number of AG pastors, along with Haiti’s AG general superintendent and one missionary family, are without housing. More than one-third of the nation is displaced. The U.S. Assemblies of God is committed to help provide assistance.

COH reports that more than 1 million pounds of food and supplies are headed for Haiti. “At this point many months, if not years, of long-term response will be needed,” says Greg Venturella, international operations director for Convoy of Hope. “Haiti was impoverished before the disaster; the earthquake only amplified the situation.”

go to www.convoyofhope.org to give

Announcement: The Veritas Forum at Tulane

2010-01-27T17:12:00.003-06:00

see more at www.veritas.org/tulane

Radical Marxist, Radical Womanist, Radical Love

What Mother Teresa Taught Me about Social Justice

Monday, February 1 @ 7:00 pm

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life: 1834 Club
--on the second floor, follow the signs

Dr. Mary Poplin

Professor in the School of Educational Studies

Claremont Graduate University

Having spent the majority of her academic career teaching and living by a range of worldviews, Mary Poplin now undergirds her academic vocation to improve education for the underprivileged with the radical change of worldview she wrestled with while she was Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. In her presentation, Professor Poplin will describe her unexpected encounter with Christ in her early 40s, and the impact that her experience of volunteering with Mother Teresa had on her professional and personal life. Students and professors will be challenged to think through the deep assumptions that shape their own lives and work and to consider the historic Christian faith as an intellectually credible and experientially satisfying basis for living in today's world.

God, Government or Me: Who Determines Moral Good?

Monday, February 8 @ 7:00 pm

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life: Kendall Cram Room

Prof. Marcus Cole

Wm. Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law

Stanford Law School

in dialogue with

Dr. Eric Mack

Professor of Philosophy

Tulane University

Dr. Eric Mack and Dr. Marcus Cole, after putting forth their individual arguments for political libertarianism, will engage in a discussion dealing with the foundation of morality from their respective secular and Christian perspectives. Free from the difficulties of crossing a political divide, these men will be able to address and critique each other’s fundamental principles that compel them to a common conclusion. Both Dr. Mack and Dr. Cole will also relate how morality in their personal lives is motivated by and rooted in their distinct worldviews and philosophies.

Dr. Eric Mack is Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University. His central philosophical interests are the basis of moral rights, property rights and distributive justice, and the legitimate scope of coercive institutions. Dr. Marcus Cole is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. His wide-ranging academic interests include classical liberal political theory, natural law, and the history of commercial law.

Sponsors Include: Tulane’s Division of Student Affairs, Newcomb-Tulane College Programs, Tulane University School of Social Work, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, Episcopal/ELCA Campus Ministry, InterVarsity Chrisitan Fellowship, The Impact Movement, Presbyterian Campus Fellowship, Tulane Catholic Center, Tulane Wesley Foundation

Christmas Letter 2009

2009-12-22T09:51:00.001-06:00

Printable versions are available here: letter / collage

Sending out Laborers

2009-12-09T14:36:00.001-06:00

1. New photos posted on my flickr account from our recent Christmas party - good times!

DSCF4335
Originally uploaded by mattdegier

2. We desire to develop students to be effective messengers of the transforming Good News of Jesus to the university, the marketplace, and the world. Part of that goal is to see students answer the call to campus ministry. Here's a story written by our current Campus Missionary in Training, Meg Powell, about one of our seniors, Liz Bowers. (Liz has shown up on this blog in the past.)

Elizabeth Bowers is a Senior at Tulane University. She has been attending Chi Alpha since her freshmen year. When Liz first came to Chi Alpha she was struggling with the idea of God. She began to explore all faiths. The big question she was trying to answer was, Who is the real God? Through a roommate and some research Liz found this group called Chi Alpha. As she continued her quest for answer the students of Chi Alpha invited Liz to be apart of their group. She began to attend the Chi Alpha services and became more and more apart of the Chi Alpha community. She began to live her life out with other students of like faith. One night at service, through worship and the message Liz had a revelation of Christ. She realized that she needed Christ in her life and that she didn’t have to live this crazy life alone. God had given her a community of believers. That night Liz accepted Christ into her life. She is now leading a bible study and is a leader in Chi Alpha. Liz graduates this coming May with a Bachelors of Science and Engineering. Liz is brilliant!! While the world says that she should go on to have an amazing career and a large paycheck, she feels God calling her down a different career path. As she comes to a close in her college career she is walking down a new avenue. Liz is choosing to follow the call of God in her life to serve with Chi Alpha and reach out to students the same way she was reached. Liz has a heart to see the engineering and science community reached for Christ. She is currently applying for a Campus Missionary Internship with Chi Alpha. Be in prayer for Liz as she chooses to follow the call of God in her life. She is truly an inspiration and passionate about reaching out to students.

The Veritas Forum at Tulane - Moving Forward for Spring 2010

2009-12-02T20:04:00.000-06:00

This is an email I sent out to students, staff, faculty, pastors, and campus ministers on my Veritas email lists:

Green Wave Greetings!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to thank all of you who have been a part of moving The Veritas Forum at Tulane along this year. We have big shoes to fill after last year's wonderful event with Dr. Francis Collins.

I want to keep you all up to date on where things are, now that we are moving from the idea stage towards reality.

As previous updates have mentioned, we are not trying to duplicate last year's event with Dr. Collins. This year, we are planning to have two smaller conversations on Feb 1st and Feb 8th, each following a general theme of what is good/right/just, and how do we arrive at those ideas and pursue them well. Also, each conversation will target a different niche of the campus.

Mon, Feb 1st with Dr. Mary Poplin ~ 7pm.

Currently scheduled for the LBC's 1834 Club, though other venues are being researched.

Dr. Poplin is a frequent guest for Veritas Forums, and has a compelling personal story.

Read her biography at Claremont Graduate University here

Browse her Veritas conversations here

We will look to partner closely with these and other segments of the university, especially, for this evening:

Newcomb Institute, School of Social Work, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and International Development.

Mon, Feb 8th with G. Marcus Cole ~ 7pm.

Currently scheduled for the LBC's Kendall-Cram Room.

Cole is a law professor at Stanford who is new to the fold of Veritas presenters. We look forward to being the first to host him.

This conversation will not only involve Q&A from the audience, but we hope to secure a dialogue partner for Prof. Cole to discuss issues relating to morality and law, and hopefully moving toward the areas of human rights, and where we secure legitimate grounding for our conception of those rights. Prof. Cole knows Dr. Eric Mack of Tulane's Philosophy Dept, and believes he would be a good partner for this dialogue. We will be contacting Dr. Mack with an invitation by the end of this week.

Read about Prof. Cole here

We will look to partner closely with these and other segments of the university, especially, for this evening: School of Business, School of Law, Philosophy Dept, Political Economy Dept, Social Policy and Practice Dept, Economics Dept, Murphy Institute.

We will also look to partner closely with these segments this spring; both conversations may connect well with them: Newcomb-Tulane College, School of Liberal Arts, History Dept, Religious Studies Dept, History Dept, Anthropology, Sociology, and Cognitive Studies...

As you can see, the niches we are aiming for are actually quite large. I believe we will find some strong partners in some of these entities, and look forward to developing those relationships.

What Now?

1. I'd love to be able to write a long email to you explaining the vision behind The Veritas Forum, and our vision here at Tulane, but that would be beyond our scope tonight. However, I do hope to type up something soon and share it with you, and hopefully accompany it with a video version. In the meantime, please take a moment to glance at www.veritas.org especially their mission and values.

There is so much more to this endeavor than hosting interesting programs. We are working to build bridges for the message of life in Jesus Christ to the whole university.

2. Please keep Veritas in mind (spread the word) and in prayer.

Join us for prayer at the Rogers Chapel Seminar Room tomorrow (Thursday) from 9:30-10:30am and/or Monday (the 7th) from 9-10am.

3. We will need help securing finances for this exciting endeavor. An estimated, generous, budget is set at $5,500. We will land somewhere between $4,500 - $6,000.

If you (yes individuals can give big or small) or your organization would like to partner with us financially, you can send gifts directly to Veritas, just be sure to indicate that the gift is for the Tulane Forum. Information on giving is located here.

Also, please pass this information along to others who might be interested, and to your churches.

4. We need help planning and pulling off these events in multiple areas. If you have connections with the university in areas that would be helpful (segments we hope to connect with or others not listed), or some ideas to share, or just a desire to help, please contact me right away.

There is so much more to share, but I will call it a night for this email. Be on the lookout for more information soon.

For Veritas!

-matt

People Should Not be Bought and Sold

2009-11-10T12:58:00.002-06:00

Human Trafficking Awareness week was sponsored at Tulane last week, and Chi Alpha helped to co-sponsor it. Together with the other sponsors, we hosted two documentary screenings, got the word out via info tables on campus, and held a car wash on Saturday to raise funds for International Justice Mission and to raise awareness in the city.

Did you know that there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today! More than 2 million are children in the sex industry!

This disgusting injustice in our world is something that motivates me to action. I was so glad to be a part of this week at Tulane, and look forward to continuing to make a difference in the modern abolitionist movement.

Learn more about what's happening in our world (even in your city!):
www.stopthetraffik.org
www.projectrescue.com
www.ijm.org

and, thanks to my friend, Jeffrey: www.notforsalecampaign.org

Be aware. Pray. Make a difference!

I got on the local news.

2009-10-27T17:15:00.000-05:00

Check out my moment of fame :) article at nola.com

The cool part is, that the day after this aired, the city's sewer and water board were out fixing both of the leaks on my street. That's how to get things done in New Orleans, it seems.

Sep/Oct 2009 Newsletter - Kickoff Edition

2009-10-07T17:15:00.000-05:00

Click the images to zoom in and read up on the great news.
Or, go to this link to download a print-quality version.

The Posse

2009-09-28T12:40:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while in the course of campus ministry you are given a gift, a student that chooses your group as the community through which they hope to not only continue following Jesus, but to make a lasting impact on campus -- a student comes ready to jump in with both feet to pursue the vision you are pursuing.

Enter Jasmin, a Tulane freshman who contact Jen this summer after she had researched, on her own, some of the different Christian communities active on Tulane's campus. She had decided that Chi Alpha was the group for her. And, when she got on campus, she followed through, and found us. It has been a blast getting to know Jasmin, who has become a regular part of the co-ed Satellite group I help lead.

Jasmin has been brining around her Posse, as well. So far, I've had the chance to meet Erick (who has also plugged into the co-ed Satellite group), Mae (who is looking into joining our fledgling music team), and Johnny (a self-proclaimed atheist who seemed to have an amazing time at Satellite group when he visited). Jasmin is already leading others toward Jesus at Tulane in just her first weeks on campus!

What is this talk about her Posse?

Jasmin is part of the first Posse of students at Tulane.
"The Posse Foundation identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. Posse’s partner colleges and universities award Posse Scholars four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships. These Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent and make a visible difference on campus and throughout their professional careers."

This group of twelve students at Tulane represents a move on the university's part to increase ethnic diversity on campus, and is the first step in the direction of establishing The Posse Foundation in New Orleans to help local public high school students toward their futures.

As Jasmin leads her Posse towards the truth of Jesus and the community of Chi Alpha, we are seeing an answer to a prayer we have prayed since beginning at Tulane in 2003 -- a diverse group of students worshiping the Savior and leading the way in breaking down walls of social segregation at Tulane. (Tulane is not institutionally segregated by any means; however, the student body has a long history of segregating itself, building walls between people groups that are difficult to get over.)

God is good!

Profile

2009-08-28T13:11:00.002-05:00

Link to an article, with video about me and my call to ministry, etc... link here

I'll do my best to get some actual news of the semester kickoff up here in the next few days.

Keep on praying; it's been a great first week, but it's just the beginning.
And, Loyola starts on Monday!

July - August 2009 Newsletter

2009-08-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

click to zoom in.
link here to the printable version.

follow a convesation

2009-07-27T17:31:00.002-05:00

here's a conversation I've been having with a friend, a semi-recent convert to atheism: link.

apologetics in the real world

2009-07-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

As I was wrapping up the Apologetics course I was working on last month, I had the opportunity to meet a new international student face-to-face for the first time. We had been introduced via email, as he is brand new to the States. He is at UNO currently, wrapping up an intensive English program (I thought his English was quite good), and will be moving into a graduate program at Tulane next month.

He asked me what I do, and that led to some discussion of religion and Christianity. As he began to understand what it is that I do (pastor/missionary to college students, plus some other stuff...), he asked if I talk to people who are not Christians about religion. I said, "That's one of my favorite things to do," which is 100% true. I love every opportunity to explain a little or a lot about Jesus and his Good News to people who don't yet know.

So, as we continue to dialogue, my current studies in apologetics comes up, and he asks me if I could share with him some thoughts that argue toward the belief in/reality of God. It turns out, he had to write a paper about the existence of God for his English class (I guess that would stretch your vocabulary a bit.), and growing up in China, he had NEVER heard an argument for the existence of God!

I was blown away by this opportunity to share some ideas very close to my heart with a new acquaintance (soon to be friend). I shared with him just two of my favorite theistic arguments, and he was fairly excited about them - it's always fun to meet someone truly interested in learning new things, encountering meaningful new ideas. We talked about the conundrum of the origins of life, and the moral argument. Of course, none of these arguments 'prove' the existence of God. They are merely openings into the pursuit of non-materialist knowledge, and possibly echoes of another world (to borrow an idea from C.S. Lewis, and a term from N.T. Wright).

Who would have thought an apologetics class would have such simple and direct usefulness in the real world?

update, research paper

2009-07-13T21:54:00.001-05:00

Josh & Rachel have successfully leased the house they own in Houston, and have found a great apartment here in New Orleans! They will be moving in in the next couple of weeks - praise God!

I (with Jen's help), had the privilege of officiating my first wedding this past Thursday at Disney World. It was great!

John and Jackie had a beautiful wedding, and a fun reception. I'll try to get some photos up on my flickr feed, shortly.

While in Orlando, Jen and I checked out the Cirque du Soliel show la Nouba, it was mind-blowing! This was our second Cirque show, and we can't recommend it highly enough. The tickets are costly, but it's something that has to be experienced live, and one of the few things these days that has value to match its cost.

Finally, I'm posting up the research paper I did to finish the Apologetics course. The first part is pretty informative - on the development of human rights. The second part is on the Christian ideological foundations for the rise of modern science. It's ok...

If you're interested, you can download it here.

More Haiti Pictures

2009-06-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

I've added a link on the right to my Flickr photostream. You can visit from time to time to see new pics from Chi Alpha and sometimes just from Jen and I.

Check it out today to see pictures from the final three days of the Haiti trip.

Jen's really good at sanding! :)

Star Trek & Time Travel

2009-06-23T17:52:00.000-05:00

There's not a lot of Chi Alpha news during the middle of the summer, but I'll have some soon enough. In the meantime, how about something random?

I had the opportunity to see the new Star Trek film last week, and was quite pleased. I enjoyed myself the whole time, and recommend it heartily.

The movie involves time travel, as does my one TV show: LOST (I still haven't seen the season finale!). The idea of time travel is wild, when one really thinks about it. I thought I'd share some thoughts on why I hope time travel is impossible. (I'm thinking primarily of travel back into time, though forward travel would fit into my ramblings as well, unless one was simply going to travel forward into time and stay there.)

Let's assume that free will does exist in the universe - human choices change the course of history.

Ok, first silly problem would be that we don't want anyone going back in time and killing our ancestors so we never exist, right? Well, that's a concern of sorts, but the concern I'm thinking about is a little different. I'm not a fan of the idea of an infinite number of worlds, many of which include you and me, many of which include you but not me, and many of which include me but not you. Where am I coming from? Let me show you.

i. Bob and Pam exist in our universe in 2007.
ii. Timmy the time traveler pops into our time from a future time. He knows Bob & Pam's grandchildren, and dislikes them very much for some odd reason. (Maybe they get better scores in physics courses than even he does.)
iii. Timmy doesn't know that his father was actually Bob's son, from a moral lapse with a young woman in 2008 who then gave up her son for adoption. For whatever reasons, Timmy's father either never finds out he was adopted, or never tells his wife and children that he was adopted, hence Timmy's ignorance. (I've got some interesting stories in mind for how this happened, but will spare you for the sake of brevity.)
iv. Timmy runs over Bob with his time travel ship to make sure his children and grandchildren are never born, and takes care of Pam in some similar violent fashion.
v. Timmy pops back to the future to what?

Well, if we take it that only one real universe exists, then Timmy has wiped himself out of existence. But, if his existence has been cancelled, then he never did the dirty deeds, and so he does still exist...

So, you can't change the past?

Here's how it looks to me. If Timmy really could travel back in time, then he really does exist in a potential future. The future that he is traveling from is a future with a past where Bob lives long enough to commit adultery and father Timmy's father.
However, by killing Bob with his time travel ship, Timmy has created an alternate future where there is no Timmy, and there are no descendants of Bob and Pam.
This alternate future is vastly different from Timmy's future, not just because of a dozen or fewer missing people, but because of the hundreds of thousands or millions (or more?) of actions and personal interactions Bob, Pam, their children and grandchildren would have made apart from Timmy's murderous doings.

This is a simple illustration. My point is made without resorting to such wild extremes as murder. For, we are all products of the experiences we have. Every choice is forming us into who we will be. I don't believe this is some kind of fixed process where our wills are chained to our experience (that would be fatalism), but I do believe that what we experience changes us, changes our available options and potentialities. If Timmy comes back to 2007 and interacts with other humans in kind and generous ways, then Timmy is producing an alternate future from that which he came from, same as if Timmy came back to knock off a few folk. Otherwise, Timmy is coming back to do what fate already decided he would do, for he had already come back and done those actions to create the future from which he came... It becomes an unending circle of fatalism.

The point is that every choice and action and response we make is forming our destiny and the destinies of those around us (to lesser or greater degrees). If time travelers come into our time and interact with us, they are creating new destinies for us and those who will come after us. These destinies may be minutely different from those we are currently headed toward, or drastically different (as in the case of Bob and Pam's progeny).

LOST and Star Trek take opposing perspectives on this (unless things do change in LOST). This whole idea of changing destinies is, so far, rejected by LOST, which has been enacting the endless fatalistic circle, while Star Trek's whole premise for building a new franchise of movies is based on the premise of altered destinies.

I don't like the idea of people from an infinite number of potential futures traveling through time to arrive in my present and mucking things up. Worse, I dislike the idea of these time geeks arriving in my past and changing things, for now they have created multiple Matt's. There is this one sitting here typing, and the others that have experienced time travelers sitting on my flowers and stealing books from my library. This one is happily enjoying flowers and favorite books, while the 'new' me is in an alternate universe stewing.

So, I don't like the idea of time travel, and think it is unlikely to be possible, beyond maybe skipping ahead a little ways, or slowing down time for yourself while others speed up. But in these scenarios, the timeline of the universe is not affected.

And, I believe we are making our destinies today, and affecting the destinies of those around us with every choice and action and interpersonal interaction. God is watching over the whole process, to be sure, and is intimately involved with every permutation, but He has given us will and responsibility.

As Ben Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility."

THE BIG NEWS!!!! Newsletter for May-June 2009

2009-06-09T17:21:00.001-05:00

p rint-quality version here

If you would like to join Josh & Rachel's financial support team, and get them up and running at Loyola, download this form.

Some more Apologetics course papers

2009-05-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

For those of you who can't get enough of my ~~stellar~~ writing skills, check out the new link on the right to essays and such I will share from time to time.

Here are links to three papers from the Apologetics course from AGTS that I have now nearly completed:

Theistic Doubts and Answers (utilizing To Everyone an Answer)
Post-Apologetics (help from A Primer on Postmodernism and unchristian)
Reflections on Os Guinness's Unspeakable

Haiti Days 7 & 8

2009-05-26T08:35:00.001-05:00

By Stephen Kaerwer

This will be a short summary of the past two days, because we have been too busy to write full entries for those days. On the 24th, we got the opportunity to go and worship in a Haitian church. The building was not much to look at, very simple and made of concrete, but the people there were enthusiastic, friendly, and genuine. When we came in, we heard a man giving a message in Creole. I couldn’t understand anything, but I enjoyed listening to the Creole language. After the fist message, we worshiped in Creole. Worshiping with them was an awesome experience, listening to the people sing their praises. Next, Lindsey and I gave short testimonies in English that pastor Cange translated for us into Creole. Next, Andrea gave her testimony, beginning in English until pastor Cange discovered that she spoke French, when he told her to do her testimony that way. She completed her testimony in French and the congregation clapped for her when she finished. Matt gave the main message on loving all people equally; regardless of whether they are like you and regardless of whether or not they can do anything for you. After the message, we did some more worship and then went to go get lunch at epidoor.
Epidoor is, according to Bill, “the closest thing to a fast food restaurant as you can get in Haiti. We had pizza, burgers, and po’boys. It was nice to have a taste of home. After food, we went to go do some shopping at a metal-work village. There, people made metal hangings and sculptures that they hung on the walls of their homes and allowed you in to see and purchase. Here, it was more wheeling and dealing, made especially difficult because of the language barrier. We picked up some cool things, and despite the fact that it was raining pretty hard off and on, I really enjoyed it.
After bargaining at the village, we went to a different church and Candice, who has a specialty in crisis management, gave a seminar on stress that was translated for the youth of the congregation that was again translated by pastor Cange. The seminar was just for general education for the youth, but more specifically because many of them were dealing with the effects of the past hurricanes. After that was done, we came back to the house, out dinner and then crashed for the night.

On the 25th we spent the beginning of the day split up at another local school. Matt and I worked on doing a tin roof for a building next to the school that will be used for cooking food for the kids. I always enjoy learning a new construction skill but it was a bit frustrating working with the Haitians because of the way that they tend to take their time to do everything. The rest of the group was in the school doing crafts and singing with the children. They also gave them some Mardi Gras beads, and that was a big hit.
We left the school at noon and came back to do some assorted tasks at the home. I went with Cristina and Bill to the Caribbean market where I purchased a large supply of Zuko (Haitian Kool-Aid) to take home. The rest of the team worked on making a table for a local school. After We got back to the market, some of us worked on making a bench for a school and some of us worked on preparing crafts for the next day…gotta go to work. To be continued.

Haiti Day 6: Sight-Seeing

2009-05-24T08:37:00.001-05:00

By Lindsey Shroff

This morning, another missionary couple named Carl and Ann joined us for a gift/souvenir shopping trip in a shop near downtown Port-au-Prince. We got there a little before it opened at ten, so we took a side trip to the Olaffson, one of the oldest hotels in the area. From the balcony, we could see a large part of the city, as well as beautiful ocean and mountains. Once shopping, we all got some practice converting gourdes (Haitian currency) to American dollars.

We went to the Baptist Mission for lunch, which also featured an amazing view of mountains spotted with agricultural plots. There were many vendors set up outside and we tried our luck with bartering (something which I am apparently absolutely terrible at, but Stephen made out like a bandit).

From the Mission, we went to His Home for Children, an orphanage for infants, toddlers, and older girls. It was really an eye-opening project. There were a lot of special needs children and it was moving to hear the stories of illness and abandonment. The lady in charge of the orphanage really had a heart for the children and takes care of them through surgeries, etc. We divided into two groups. The group working with the older girls made flower necklaces and told about how God cares for the lilies and for them. The group with the toddlers attempted to make bear puppets, but we found that they preferred climbing on us, scribbling on the floor, and stealing crayons from each other. It was definitely an example of kids being kids, no matter where in the world they’re from.

It was tough to leave the kids, but we proceeded on to a dinner of hamburgers and Haitian potato salad (with beets) at Carl and Ann’s house...

Haiti Day 5: Goat

2009-05-23T08:14:00.001-05:00

By Stephanie Bream

Imagine you’re at a petting zoo. Along with the possible lamb, llama, and piglet, there is a goat (goats are a petting zoo staple). Now, normally you would grab and handful of food and feed the goat…but not today. Today the goat fed us. That’s right, we all ate goat for lunch (6 platefuls if you’re Stephen) and it was delicious. Our Haitian cook Jaqueline prepared a wonderful meal of goat, beans and rice, sweet potatoes, and spicy coleslaw for us and we were all very grateful for her hard work.

Speaking of hard work, we had a very productive day. We built and varnished 7 cabinets for classrooms and they look fabulous. All we have left to do is put the doors on them. Lindsey and I even built one all by ourselves and felt very empowered by our accomplishment. I’m sure our dads will be proud. We also finished sharpening the entire box of 1,430 pencils today. That was a team effort if I ever saw one. While leaving the workspace for the day, Cristina was almost assassinated by a maliciously plummeting palm frond. Fortunately, it hit Stephen’s water bottle instead and left a nice dent. Tomorrow, we’ll give the varnished wood pieces some time to dry tomorrow while we go shopping and visit an orphanage in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to it.

Haiti Day 4: Carpentry

2009-05-22T13:14:00.002-05:00

Written by Jillian Winters

The bright Haitian sun awoke the team today at the luxurious hour of seven o’clock, quite different than our normal wake-up time of five or six. It was truly a fabulous start to the morning. The project for today was to build cupboards for a school on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

Unfortunately, the power saws were not working, so Matt and Stephen, as well as Abraham, Dieuness and Terek, manually sawed the pieces. This however, left we girls with little to do. Inspired by our visit to the school yesterday, however, we endeavored to create a little dance/handclap (after, of course, playing a few rounds of Concentration 54 and London Bridges for our own entertainment). I would say that overall, we are pretty much cooler than Soulja Boy and N*Sync combined. We taught it to the two kids who live at the house where we were working, Daniel and David, who mainly speak Spanish. They seemed to really enjoy it (and I learned how to count to eight in Spanish!).

Eventually, however, the dance reached a lull, and there could not have been a more convenient time for Dorothy to call us over to run some errands with Bill. Needless to say, we all but ran to the car, excited to get back into the streets of Haiti (and this time on cushioned seats). We first hit up the Haitian version of Staples, where Bill bought some supplies to make school supply kits to give to school children. While Bill made his purchases, Candice, Lindsey, Andrea, Stephanie and I entertained by “letting me passing the fine time with you” (found on a make-up kit within the store--reading the boxes was really fun).

After that, we went to the Caribbean Market, a grocery store where we exchanged our money—Haitian money is very colorful, by the way, very pretty—and then between the five of us, we bought out the stores entire stock of Zuko, a delicious Haitian kool-aid type drink. I don’t know if I normally like pomegranates, but I’m sure I love absolutely love pomegranate Zuko.

After our trip and yet another fabulous meal, we began putting together the cupboards. Matt and Stephen showed Cristina and I how to put together the cupboards while the others sharpened pencils. Ok, that sounds a little lame, but it was a vital part of the school supplies, since often the children are without pencil sharpeners (except for their knives). Jen, Candice, Stephanie, Lindsey and Andrea together sharpened nearly 700 pencils, a feat that earned them many a painful blister.

Eventually, though, everyone moved out to the cupboard factory, and we managed to sand, level, and nail one cupboard together and almost complete two others. Cristina and I are excited to finish our masterpiece tomorrow, as well as the whole team is pumped to get the rest of the cupboards finished. Rain set in towards the end of day, and we had a pencil sharpening party, because are 1,430 pencils total. I know, that’s a lot of pencils.

Now we are enjoying a game of mafia, except that I was the first person to die, and have been chilling in dead-land all by myself for the past half hour, now newly joined by Candice (mafia) and Stephanie (townsperson). Lindsey is the other mafia for the record. Yes, Lindsey killed me—I think she was jealous I got my kitten J-Lou and wants to steal her.

Haiti Day 3: Terre-Froide

2009-05-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

Today's post by Stephen Kaerwer

Today we had the opportunity to go and visit a small school in the mountain village of Terre-Froide. We got up early in the morning, ate and got everything ready for the day. We met up with a Haitian man named Makenzie that teaches math at a different school in the area. Our journey there was made much more interesting because one of the vehicles that we were going to ride in was not in working order and so we got to ride in a tap-tap. Tap-taps are pick-up trucks that are converted into taxis by removing the bed and adding a floor and cover. Seating consisted of wooden benches on either side of the inside of the covering in the back. Fortunately, we got a great deal to get to the top of the mountains by including a couple of pairs of shoes. The ride to the top of the mountain began through the busy streets of Port-au-Prince and then continued into the beautiful mountains of Haiti.

The view was amazing the entire 3-hour ride, although it was very bumpy. Most of the Haitians that saw us stared or called out, “blanc” for white, but almost all of them were very friendly. On the ride up, I also developed a new obsession with digital cameras because I promised a friend I would take some pictures. As we drove higher into the mountains, we eventually entered into the clouds, forming a thick foggy mist around us. We arrived at the school and after some set-up time went into the classroom to play games, sing songs, and do crafts.

There were 62 children in the classroom that I was in with a very friendly and enthusiastic teacher. First, we helped the children make puppets out of paper bags and paper cut into the shapes of a head and a body for the bear. They colored their pieces, a skill they recently acquired, and then we glued them together. Next, we sang two songs in Creole along with simple dances and then played some simple rhythm games. We distributed some food to the children, and then Candice did a seminar for the women of Haiti on Sexually Transmitted Diseases that was translated by our host, Bill. During this time, I was able to get a lot of awesome pictures of the Haitian people. The Haitians loved having their picture taken because they got to see themselves on the screen of the digital camera. Jen and Matt were exchanging Creole and English lessons with some of the Haitians, and all of us enjoyed interacting with the people there.

After the seminar finished, the children and their mothers left and we ate the lunch that we packed with our hosts, Bill and Dorothy, our tap-tap driver, and Makenzie. After lunch, or throughout different part s of the day, many of us had the opportunity to use a non-western toilet for the first time (a hole in the ground). I think that for most people it was not nearly so difficult as they expected, but I can only vouch for myself and I really wasn’t too worried to begin with.

Next, we took a short tour of the surrounding area on the mountain with our hosts and met some of the people that lived near the school. They also told us about some of the other programs that the organization was doing, such as lending seeds that the families would plant and then return once the harvest came in. After enjoying the landscape and meeting new people, we returned to our tap-tap for the ride home, which proved to be much shorter because it was downhill and because I managed to sleep for some small spurts on the smoother roads.

It was really nice to return to our temporary home and wash the mud and dried dirt off of ours feet. We spent the rest of the evening preparing dinner (although most of the work was done by Dorothy, who is a super-awesome cook) and playing Yahtzee. Unfortunately, we had a small tragedy because I again lost to Matt. I have made another personal goal for the trip, that I have to beat Matt at least once and I think that if we play enough games that should be a statistical probability (although I was never very good at statistics). All in all, it was a very full and exciting day and an awesome opportunity to see Haiti outside of Port-au-Prince.

Some pics from the Day (not by Stephen):

Haiti Day 2: Arrival

2009-05-19T21:21:00.002-05:00

Here in Haiti, we mostly settled in and worked on our schedule and preparing for what we will be doing tomorrow and a couple other days when we will visit some schools.

The pictures show the house where the majority of the team is staying (three are staying next door). Our hosts are great, and we ate some excellent Haitian cuisine for lunch!

Two fun notes:
1) We spent some time shaking and stirring more than a hundred bottles of Elmer's Glue that had separated in storage (big time fun!).
2) The pictures of walls are white walls our 2007 team painted. Sweet!

Tomorrow, we have a big day in store. Expect some exciting news tomorrow, and likely, another author.

haiti 2009

2009-05-18T22:52:00.002-05:00

Ok - I just got back from Denver with a great team from UNO, and I haven't said anything about it. I'll try to do so soon.

In the meanwhile, check out some fun posts from our Haiti Team. We are in Ft. Lauderdale, FL tonight. We hope to post each night something from a team member or two at tulaneinhaiti.blogspot.com You can check that out, or just stay tuned here, as I'll post those posts on this blog, too.

Here's tonights:

Welcome to our online journal of the Tulane Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship trip to Haiti 2009!

Today we got up nice and early and flew to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We will fly from here, tomorrow morning, to Port-Au-Prince.

Since we had the day in a beach town, we made the most of it. It was a blast topped off by a tasty dinner and a surprise birthday celebration for Lindsey, courtesy of her mom. Thanks!

Here are some pictures. Please pray for us as we finish our travels into Haiti, tomorrow.

My Google Reader

2009-05-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

If you follow many blogs, RSS is probably familiar to you. If you utilize RSS, you should check out Google's Reader. I'm a big fan.

If you look to the right ---> you will see a widget listing some of the items I've shared through my google reader. These are items from other bloggers, other RSS feeds I follow, or just news items from the web that I've found interesting or noteworthy in some fashion.

If you'd like to check my shared items regularly, get on google reader yourself and make sure my email address is in your inbox (ie, "friend me"), or go to this url.

writing assignment from N.T. Wright's Simply Christian

2009-05-02T20:19:00.000-05:00

Take the link, to check out the paper I wrote for an assignment in my AGTS course on Apologetics - professor, Dr. Charles Self. The assignment was to write a short apologetic for Christian faith utilizing two of the "echoes" Bishop Wright employs in his excellent book.

Baptism at UNO

2009-04-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

Kim, mechanical engineering freshman, made her confession of faith in Christ public. After a short sermon and Kim's testimony and baptism, two more students responded to the invitation to follow Jesus as Lord. What an exciting night.

Back from District Council

2009-04-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

I just returned from District Council with the Louisiana Assemblies of God. It was a good time. These kinds of meetings aren't on my favorites lists, but it was a good time in many ways. Maybe I'll comment on that later. Right now, I need to be getting ready for our worship service at Loyola, tonight.

But, I wanted to post the fact that The Veritas Forum at Tulane made it into the General Council of the Assemblies of God news! link here

Celebrating Jen

2009-04-10T13:23:00.001-05:00

This year, 2009, is a year of minor milestones for Jen and I.

This past Valentine's Day marked the 10th anniversary of our meeting. What a glorious day that was, on the snowy hills of northern Minnesota!

This past Sunday (April 5) marked Jen's 30th birthday!

We had a great time with a low-key gathering of some friends. Jen had a super busy weekend taking a class to continue her credentials as a group exercise instructor at Tulane, so I made my plans a bit more simple. I'm looking forward to surprising her with something big and crazy, in the next few years :)

Here's Jen showing off the pearl ring I got her for Christmas, and behind her hand, the matching pearl earrings I gave her for her birthday. I did pretty well, it seems. Yay!

I've posted the facebook photo album from the night on my facebook profile. Check it out, if you can.

The other "present" I got for Jen was a booklet of pictures and memories from the year, as well as notes from friends and relatives near and far regarding special memories they have of Jen, and/or ways Jen has made their world a little brighter. Let's see if I can pop a few quotes in here, as a celebration of this wonderful woman:

What if you didn’t care about bringing joy to people? What if you weren’t generous or fun to be with? Would I still love you if you weren’t trustworthy and dependable? I’ll never know, because you are all these things and more, my precious friend!

So I guess all I have to say is good things, and when it comes to Jen, there's A LOT of good things. She's a great listener, she's always full of energy, she's always willing to help out, you can talk with her about ANYTHING, and--best of all--she introduced me to $15 massages!

...you have become the most consistent and formative spiritual influence in my life since I became a Christian "for real." You've spent countless hours mentoring me, listening to me, praying for me, and ever-so-gently suggesting that my plans to hurl myself off many a metaphoric cliff might not be the best idea. You counseled me through a tumultuous relationship and the heartbreak of its ending. You pushed me to build my character and try new things, to grow in areas of leadership that I would have never have had the guts to try on my own. You have been involved, either directly through your friendship or indirectly through your example, in every major decision I've made in the past three years, and it is because of your obedience to God's calling and the incredible heart that He's given you that I have had the courage to pursue a life of reckless, unapologetic Christianity.

I think my greatest story about you, Jen, is the time we shared in Haiti, playing with kids at the orphanage. I was lucky to catch this wonderful moment when you and a little girl said, “I love you,” each in your own language. For me, it captured our purpose for the mission trip to Haiti but also our purpose here on Earth. As my campus pastor and my friend, you’ve given me a little clearer picture of what love looks like and I’m so thankful for you. Happy Birthday!!

I jumped at the opportunity to write about Jen for her birthday because she has meant so much in the lives of so many...and particularly in mine! I can't tell you what a gift it is to have a young, Holy Spirit filled woman as a model during your college years. When I first came to Tulane, I emailed Chi Alpha and got a reply back from Jen. Of course, having seen her facebook picture, I thought she was a student (yes Jen...you can't fool us with 30 years...we know you aren't really that old.) I remember she met me for salsa (with Jill, i think) and it was such an easy, fun way to meet a someone at Tulane. Jen has a gift with women, for connecting with them, for laughing with them, and for leading them deeper in Christ. God has used her at some very crucial moments in my life.

Those are just a few excerpts from the responses I received. Of course, if you know Jen, you have your own stories and memories. Please feel free to share them in the comments on this post. I'll be sure to pass them on to Jen. It's been a blast to see these notes encourage her, as we head towards the landing strip of a long academic year.

there is no dog

2009-04-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

happy April Fool's Day

A little write-up from the Veritas Forum

2009-03-20T14:11:00.004-05:00

How do you get a crowd of nearly 1,500 people together at Tulane University to consider the reality of the God of the Bible?

You engage the students and professors on a level they relate to on a topic they want to delve into with a speaker they respect. That’s how we did it this February.

Working together with several other campus ministries, we were able to host The Veritas Forum at Tulane with special guest, Dr. Francis Collins. Dr. Collins is the world-renowned geneticist who led the Human Genome Project to its completion: mapping the mystery of human DNA. He is also a devout follower of Jesus, a relationship he found as a medical student. In his recent book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, he details his story and his reasons for following Christ, and uniting the often incompatible fields of faith and biology.

Over the past couple of years, Dr. Collins has been the guest at several universities sharing his reasons for engaging in a living relationship with God, and how he sees the handiwork of God at the microscopic levels. He is a remarkably humble and personable servant of Christ, and engaged our audience with a message some of them had never seriously considered before: that the God of the Bible is alive and active in the world today.

Our local Assemblies of God churches underwrote nearly a third of the cost of this massive endeavor - thank you! Light for the Lost bought 120 copies of Mere Christianity, and more, that we gladly distributed after the talk - thank you!

This is just the beginning of an amazing work of God at Tulane that is building credibility for the Gospel, uniting God’s people from many traditions and organizations for His glory, emboldening students and faculty who follow Christ with the reality of the message they have to share, and opening exciting new doors for witness! Praise the Lord for this great work, and please pray for its completion!

Veritas

March/April 09 Newsletter

2009-03-18T11:08:00.003-05:00

for a printable version - download here

Call to Prayer: against rape

2009-03-15T22:47:00.002-05:00

Link to article

Back in Sep/Oct there was a rash of late night rapes on/near Tulane's campus of female students out by themselves and inebriated. These were horrible crimes, but not particularly scary for a couple of reasons: they were committed by one man who was caught, and they could have been avoided by the victims with a couple actions of simple wisdom; i.e., don't be out at 2am, drunk and alone.

However, the recent rapes last month have opened the door to a whole new level of aggression and potential fear: daylight abductions. The simple wisdom factor is not in play, anymore; Tulane/Loyola females are becoming prey. I'll let you describe the situation with your own emotions and adjectives; it is obviously evil.

Will you pray with us for the health and healing of the victims, for the capture of the new perps, and the safety of students and community members?

good words at Tulane

2009-03-10T18:24:00.003-05:00

Sunday night, we had our monthly leadership dinner with the Tulane Chi Alpha Servant Corps. We call this gathering Grubfluence: we get grub, and we develop our influence for Christ.

I've been doing the cooking this semester: baked rosemary chicken with steak fries (store was out of sweet potato fries) and steamed veggies, and extra gooey brownies to cap it off. Yum!

After dinner and some fun, I led an investigation into why Chi Alpha exists on campus, and Jen followed up with an exhortation to persevere through the tough times, to persevere through the rest of a busy semester - continuing to serve, to love, to speak the truth and proclaim the Gospel, and to mentor new students.

The investigation I led addressed why Chi Alpha matters. We encountered our vision again, and I encouraged the students that this work is worthwhile. The best part of the night was sharing testimonies, as students shared how Chi Alpha has played vital roles in their faith development, and how they have seen Chi Alpha introduce other students to Jesus and/or deepen their relationship with Christ. These stories are so exciting and invigorating!

Our March/April newsletter is on the way later this week - get ready for some of those exciting stories!

2009-03-04T10:29:00.002-06:00

New Video on my Youtube Channel

Veritas Photos, Finally

2009-03-03T14:29:00.001-06:00

Photo Updates

2009-02-17T19:10:00.006-06:00

Tulane: Friday Night Eats 2/13/09

Dating, Mating & Relating

Friday Night Eats is our weekly larger group gathering at Tulane. We have a meal, some fun, and then a message from God's Word. But, sometimes we mix it up. This past week, we had a Q & A session with some singles, a married couple, and an engaged couple regarding dating, mating, and relating from a Biblical perspective.

TU Know 2/11/09

This is part of our follow-up to The Veritas Forum

Likely, last Veritas news link

2009-02-07T21:07:00.001-06:00

from the Tulane newspaper: The Hullabaloo

More News

2009-02-06T10:25:00.001-06:00

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/020609_collins.cfm

post-Veritas Forum #1

2009-02-05T09:34:00.003-06:00

WOW - we did it. The Veritas Forum with Dr. Francis Collins was a smashing success last night!

We don't have official numbers, but the ~1800 seat auditorium was 80-90% full. I would estimate that we had 1300-1500 guests - a great turnout.

Dr. Collins is an excellent communicator, and a genuinely kind and humble man. I greatly enjoyed the conversation I was able to have with him while driving him around yesterday. In the coming days and weeks I should be posting pictures, more reflections, and hopefully the video to the event, but today, I just have one thought to put in your brains:

Dr. Collins receives thousands of emails from students and scientists, etc... regarding the supposed conflict between science and faith. He as a great concern for young people in the churches of America that are never prepared by the Church to encounter the kind of data they will encounter in the university regarding evolution and human origins. Too many young Christians are seeing their faith tailspin into crisis and worse as they struggle to reconcile the assertions of science and the strict literal interpretations of Genesis they are taught in Sunday School and youth group.

Dr. Collins is a devout follower of Jesus who also embraces the scientific theory of evolution with his mind. He acknowledges the contributions of Intelligent Design scientists, but sees the "gap" they hold on to for proving I.D. as ever shrinking and nearly gone. However, he is not out to convert Christians into believers in evolution. He is interested in helping youth leaders and others prepare Christian students with real investigation into the data in a supportive environment, so that their freshmen biology professor, who may well be an outspoken atheist, does not pound their faith into hiding, or worse.

This is part of our vision with Chi Alpha - to help students of faith work through the challenges they face in the university environment within the context of a supportive and loving Christian community.

I also hope and pray, with Dr. Collins, that our youth groups and churches will step up to the challenge of dealing with this difficult, but inescapable topic in intelligent and honest ways.

Maybe we can start a dialogue right here. Please, I encourage you, add your comments to this post, and let's see where the conversation goes.

Grace & Peace - and thank you to all who helped and prayed and gave to make The Veritas Forum a success.

The Seat of Power

2009-01-31T09:15:00.002-06:00

Why do Jen and I give our lives for the campus as a mission field of the Gospel?

This video by Curt Harlow and friends on the West Coast put together this video to help tell that story.

Seat of Power from Curt Harlow on Vimeo.

Chi Alpha "in the news"

2009-01-30T10:28:00.002-06:00

Chi Alpha in Loyola's student paper, The Maroon

The Veritas Forum in the local weekly put out by The Times Picayune

please pray for our work at Loyola, and that The Veritas Forum succeeds in opening real inquiry into the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life.

Amazing Chi Alpha Missions Video

2009-01-17T19:25:00.002-06:00

Want to know more about Chi Alpha's national vision for global missions? This video is great!

I hope to post some reflections on the recent World Missions Summit, as I haven't done that yet. Enjoy the video in the meantime

Expeditions: GO, GIVE, PRAY from XA Missions on Vimeo.

News from New Orleans Jan-Feb 2009

2009-01-15T12:48:00.003-06:00

printable pdf version

The World Missions Summit 2

2008-12-31T11:08:00.001-06:00

We just had a great time visiting my family, and some old friends in good ol' Grand Rapids, MI.

Yesterday, we drove down to Cincinnati to meet up some of our students at this amazing conference: twms.ag.org

Please pray that students from New Orleans, and around the world, will be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit as they are challenged with the responsibility of the Great Commission - the Gospel to every tongue, tribe, and nation!

I'm going to try to figure out "mobile blogging" and see if I can post some pics, notes, and maybe even videos during the next two days.

Christmas Thoughts - 2008

2008-12-22T14:06:00.002-06:00

One of the primary themes of Christmas lore is JOY. I mean, our primary Christmas greeting is an archaic wish for joy, Merry Christmas"

Joy to the World

tidings of great joy

Christmas cards are covered with the word

Joy is everywhere at Christmas - that is thoughts and words and images about joy, anyway. In reality, the holiday season is the most depressing for many Americans. Instead of joy and peace on earth, we have people trampled to death at black friday sales, crazy traffic jams, stressful shopping trips and gift list making, obligatory giving of gifts nobody wants or needs, obscene amounts of sugar and fat-laden food to keep us feeling holiday-bloated... yuck, I won't make this list any longer, though I could - just think about CNN for a minute... oh yeah, there's still a whole world out there that's dying and falling to pieces while we decorate trees and cookies.

Where's the Christmas joy?

The joy of Christmas is the story we're supposed to be celebrating. Think about joy for a minute...

What are the most joyous times in our lives?

When I think about this question, I can think of specific personal moments, of course. But, if I think about more universal experiences of joy - times when lots of people are all joyful together - there are two things that come to mind:

Weddings and Babies.

Now, think about the Nativity story: Mary and Joseph are celebrating their wedding night. Now, it's a bit of an awkward wedding with the whole virginal conception and angel visitations and third trimester donkey journeys... but, they're a newlywed couple, nonetheless. They are looking forward to a new life together. And, in the midst of that, their consummation is the birth of a son! A tiny bundle of joy gawking and gurgling at the world.

God wrote the story on Joy.

He didn't send angels to announce metaphysical positive feelings to the world, or send wise men from the east to pontificate on the legalities of peace with God. He sent a newborn to a newlywed couple to commence the salvation of the world. He announced His favor toward humanity with a bright-eyed baby. He announced peace on earth through the earnest love of newlyweds.

That is Christmas joy, and it's a joy strong enough to make it through the holidays with a heart alive, and probably even a smile or ten.

The joy goes even deeper when you set these beautiful realities (wedding and baby) against their historical backdrop of oppression, poverty, fear and risk and exclusion...

End of the Year Giving

2008-12-12T17:38:00.003-06:00

For those of you interested in supporting the ongoing service and outreach of Chi Alpha New Orleans with an end of the year gift, we want to let you know that your gifts are tax-deductible, and gratefully received.

You can give via paypal or snail mail.Chi Alpha New Orleans
211 Cherokee St
New Orleans LA 70118

Thank you to all of you who give to make this ministry a success