Upcoming Developments

Welcome back, friends. Many of you got your first look at www.nolaxa.com last week, as I accidentally pointed you there with my newsletter email. Feel free to check that site on a regular basis if you like, or just check the headlines listed to the right. That'll help all you praying types to know how you might pray more specifically - thanks!

Some of you, then, already know that Chi Alpha in New Orleans has been chosen as the US Missions focus for The World Missions Summit next winter. This means there will be a targeted call for finances on a large scale, but more than that, a call for laborers - students to "give a year and pray about a lifetime" of service in the Great Commission with us here! Wow!

I'll keep you updated as that develops.

Also, we have a Campus Missionary in Training (CMiT) coming our way for next school year! We are excited to be a part of the Diversity Project internship, training the next generation of campus missionaries.

by the way, I'm getting ordained on Monday in Houma, LA at the Louisiana District Council. Some folks think that's a big deal, so I thought I'd let y'all know.

DC Updates from the Other Side

Mike and Jen Godzwa are the lead missionaries for Chi Alpha at American University. Here are links to their thoughts on our recent spring break trip their way:

Mike -from www.thegodzwas.com

Jen -from godzwafam.blogspot.com

DC Reflections.

Our trip to Washington D.C. was a blur, in a lot of ways, but a good blur.

I can't recount all of it, but plan to have a student story or two from the trip in our Mar/April newsletter that should show up within 2 weeks (that's called a teaser).

One of the most impactful experiences for me was the Seven Last Words of Christ service we visited at Georgetown University on Tuesday evening, the day we arrived.

Chi Alpha at Georgetown is one of several Protestant ministries affiliated with Georgetown's University Ministry. Like Loyola, Georgetown is a Jesuit Catholic university, however, their structure for Protestant student ministry is much more developed. As part of that affiliation, each of the Protestant groups are required to be a part of occasional meetings and special services. This Seven Words service was one of those required meetings.

My expectations were low: required cooperation in religious services tends to not go so well many times. However, I was moved and challenged, and really encountered God's presence in the remembrance of Jesus crucified.

The Gospel Choir led us in some hymns and spirituals, and each ministry had a representative share for 5-7 min on one of Christ's final words. Each representative had something truly powerful to share. I was especially blessed by and proud of Randy Demary. Randy was a student at UL-Lafayette when Jen and I were interns there, and is now a Chi Alpha missionary to Georgetown. He had to share on "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!" not an easy assignment, but he did it well, and challenged all of us to see the hope tied up in that statement, as it connects to the whole of Psalm 22.

The trip got better from there.

Wed & Thursday: Daytime advertising for Holy Week activities and engaging American University students in conversations about Easter, spirituality, etc... good times!
Wed Evening: hosted a program on the origins of Easter
Thurs Evening: participated in and spoke at AU XA's Thursday Night Worship
Fri: touring and sight seeing - we weren't very good at this.
Sat: helped Godzwa's clean around their house and headed home.

Spring Plans = Money

As we move into the heart of the Spring Semester, we have some exciting events in the works.

1) Next weekend (8-11 Feb) we're bringing in a friend of Chi Alpha, Philip Babineaux (myspace, purevolume) to do some leadership in worship for our community, as well as conduct some teaching and training for our musicians. Philip is a gifted, Spirit-empowered musician and worship leader.

2) Student Leadership class starts on the 10th of Feb, and will run 90min each Sunday for four weeks. We're looking for some great students to step into their leadership potential on campus, and beyond. This will culminate with the Louisiana Leadership Summit in early March.

3) Spring Break in March is our outreach trip to D.C. The end of this week is our deadline for applications. It looks like we have reached our minimum number to make the trip a 'go', so I'm excited. I'm still praying for 2 of 3 more students to join us.

4) One of my favorite Chi Alpha guys, and hilarious yet powerful public speakers, Curt Harlow, will likely be coming to New Orleans around April Fool's Day. It's not 100% finalized, yet, but just about. Curt is a gifted communicator, and does great stand-up comedy. We're looking to employ him in drawing in some students to encounter Chi Alpha, maybe for the first time, and to hear the Good News about Jesus.

Please keep all of this in prayer.

Also, please pray over the financial needs of Chi Alpha. Our ministry account is beginning to run low, and we have some large expenses coming up with some of these events. Please pray that God's provision will come through, and whether or not God might be calling on you to be a part of that.

If you would like more details on specific costs, and so on, please feel free to email me or call me 504.708.2339

You can give via PayPal

or send a check to Chi Alpha at 211 Cherokee St, New Orleans, LA 70118

prayer for Spring Break

Hey there friends, Jen and I would like to ask for some specific prayer.

We are planning a trip to American University and the Washington D.C. metro Chi Alpha to engage in some on-campus faith sharing and more. AU Chi Alpha is sending a team down here to share their time between rebuilding New Orleans and on-campus engagement the week before. It works out nicely that their spring break is the 2nd week of March, while ours (Tulane, Loyola, and UNO!) is the 3rd week of March.

Will you pray that the details work out, and work out cheaply?
Will you PRAY that we are able to clearly communicate the vision of this trip to students, and that they will respond to this amazing opportunity?

Thanks a bundle.

Christmas Letter

Merry post-Christmas!
In all of our holiday traveling, I forgot to post our Christmas letter. It's more of a photo-review than an actual letter, but I hope you enjoy it none-the-less.

If you have a moment, post a comment here with your best 2007 memory before you go.

Happy New Year!
click the image to see it full-size

Recap

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us this week!
Monday night turned out quite well.

At 6:30pm we had a Albanian style dinner with missionary Mark Orfila with some of our Chi Alpha group. Mark shared some stories from his time on the field, and we prayed for him and his family. more pictures

At 8:00pm we welcomed the Tulane community to our counterpoint to Ann Coulter. Typical to Tulane, the response was small. However, Mark's talk, and the subsequent Q & A time was definitely beneficial to our students, and the handful of guests.

The Good News about Jesus was shared, and Mark presented a coherent Christian response to religious hatred, and the trend of tolerance. I hope we can build on this, as our students gain boldness to speak up for the love and truth of God, and as we search out creative ways to share the Good News to wider audiences.

Also, last night I was a part of a panel discussion hosted by the GLBT Caucus of the Tulane College Democrats. I'm not sure why they chose to invite Jen and/or I to represent the Christian Perspective on homesexuality and gay rights in America, but I, with a bit of fear and trembling, accepted the invitation. All in all, the discussion went pretty well. Two of the other panelists (a Reformed Jewish rabbi, and a young Philosophy & Ethics professor) were not particularly happy with my answers to questions about the morality of homosexual behavior, but otherwise the students asked me several questions, and gave my dissenting opinion a fair hearing. I only hope my demeanor, and the bits of God's Truth I was able to share were a small glimmer of light.

Finally, our last monthly Gathering of the Fall semester is next week. Please continue to pray for us and our students!

June Newsletter

News from New Orleans

from Matt & Jen DeGier and Chi Alpha Campus Ministries – June 2007

211 Cherokee St.
New Orleans LA 70118

www.nolaxa.com

Summertime Travels and Hijinks…

Jen and I are rapidly approaching the three-decade threshold in our

lives, yet we still live on the American academic calendar, which means our summers take on a unique pace, including many different activities than the rest of the year.

Last week, we went to Woodworth, LA to join the Louisiana Assemblies of God Youth Camp. As campus missionaries, we want to increase the fame of Jesus among those who do not yet

know him, and disciple young people who already name him Lord. Unfortunately, statistics say that too many Christian high school graduates walk away from faith during their college years; many of them never return to the faith of their youth.

There are many causes for this alarming statistic; one is the transition from the local youth group to a community of believers in the new college setting. We went to youth camp to spread the word about Chi Alpha to Christian teens, as well as to build relationships with youth group leaders, and pastors. It was a successful week.

Jen connected with Deanna, a senior from Slidell, LA who

is heading to college next year on a volleyball scholarship. Jen got to tell Deanna all about Chi Alpha, as well as pray with her during the evening worship services.

I met Alex playing soccer.

Alex just finished high school a year early, and plans to head to college in Texas this coming January. Alex is obviously a leader in his youth group. It’s my prayer that he won’t just survive in college, but truly thrive, making a powerful impact for Christ. We’ll help him connect with a Chi Alpha group in Texas so he can do just that.

Bonjou! Komon Ou Ye?

Hello! How are you? (Haitian Creole)

Our trip to Haiti was great. There were three main goals for our trip: 1) serve and bless those who lead

and work in the churches and schools and orphanages of Haiti, 2) get a general feeling for the way of life, and the general security of Haiti for potential trips with larger teams in the future, and 3) give God praise with our lives and service. With God’s help, some great hosts, and

hard work, I’d say we succeeded at all three goals, and I hope we will be returning again soon.

In this space, I’d like to share just a bit from our last day in the country. We had run out of work to do with Pastor Cange, our primary host. So we asked the couple we stayed with if they knew of anything we could help with as we spoke over dinner Wednesday night. (Bob and Carole work with many orphanages and churches all over Haiti, and host missions teams regularly.) They invited us to help with an urgent need: finish some ceiling construction on a new house for disabled orphans, and help move in children from
an orphanage that was closing that day.

Bill and I worked on the ceiling with Bob and two Haitian teens. It was hot, but we accomplished a lot. It was almost too rewarding to think that several children who had been discarded by society would rest securely under the ceiling we helped build.

I’ll let Laura share an experience she and Jen had that day:

The team traveled across town this morning with our host Bob to help at an orphanage for mentally and physically disabled children. While Matt and Bill helped with construction, Jen and I had a little free time to play with the kids. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do on this trip. Screaming and crying everywhere. Kids with an enormous variety of obstacles, without the constant supervision and attention they crave. None of them could speak English, but in the midst of chaos and frustration in the struggle to communicate with the children, I experienced a single, beautiful moment. Nearby the swingset where a little boy and I were laughing and swinging together, I could hear a little girl repeat a phrase over and over to Jen. Jen politely smiled, not knowing what the girl was saying or how to respond, then a caretaker walked past with a little laugh and said, "She says 'I love you.'" Life and joy appeared on their faces as they finally understood this universally precious and sacred phrase. Jen pointed to herself and then her heart and then the little girl, and they sounded out together in English, "I Love You."

Haiti Trip Photo Journal part 2

Most of our work was done around Pastor Cange's office. This office is the office for the Haitian Assemblies of God, Latin American Child Care, and Missionaries Bill and Dorothy Smith. Bill and Dorothy are currently state-side itinerating, and hope to be back in Haiti later this summer.
This particular room was a giant mess of storage junk. We really cleaned it up. It was dusty, but rewarding.

We spent a good chunk of the second week painting a couple rooms in the office building. What a difference a couple coats of paint can make! Pastor Cange was thrilled, which made us grateful -- our primary goal on this trip was to bless those leading and serving in Haiti.

Because of the concrete walls, the high humidity, and the inaccessibility of primer, we were forced to use oil based paint...a sticky situation

Haiti Trip Photo Journal part 1

Here are a few pics of the happenings of our first 4 days in Haiti.


Laura and Matt take some time to reflect on their initial impressions of Haiti in the dining room of the guest house we all stayed in.





A couple shots of the view from the guest house balcony. Obviously, we stayed in one of the more well-to-do areas of town.


We visited a few schools that are connected to churches and are a part of the Latin American Child Care ministry that sponsors children to help them get an education. At this particular location, the younger children learn outside. However, a brand new building began construction for them the day we left.


We got to try some fresh coconut!
Pastor Cange, our host on the right treated us on our trip to the beach with his family, and many youth from churches around Port-au-Prince. Yum!

Back Home

We had a great time in Haiti, and a splendid vacation in South Florida.

I will post pictures and stories soon.

fixing the house and leaving the country

Wow, the house is nearly complete! After several weeks of entertaining workmen in our home, while trying to work out of it at the same time, we are thankful to see them go :) The job foreman is the only one here today, as he does a little touch up paint, and prepares the rear exterior wall for its paint job. All the major repairs (hole in the wall, new roof, new siding, new windows and doors...) are complete! Let's pray for no more natural disasters in the neighborhood this year.

So, by the time we return from our trips on the 9th of June, our house should be 100% complete!

We leave tomorrow morning with Bill and Laura from Loyola for our 10 day missions excursion to Port-au-Prince Haiti. Please pray for us!

After that exciting trip, Jen and I will celebrate with a week of vacation on the beach in Florida--praise the Lord!

We'll post some pictures and stories of everything when we return.

Getting Ready to Visit Haiti

The Nation of Haiti is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. It has a history of oppression, slave trading, racial violence, and is the home of the religious amalgamation known as voodoo.

It is located on the island known as Hispaniola, sharing this spot of land in the Caribbean Sea with the Dominican Republic. Hispaniola is south of the Bahamas and east of Cuba.

The nation has been wracked by political turmoil in recent years in response to years of gross exploitation by government leaders. The people have needs of all kinds.

Jen and I are getting ready to take a 9 day trip to this nation at the end of the month. We will be accompanied by two Loyola students, and we hope that this trip might be the first of several the Chi Alpha New Orleans will take in the future. In some ways, it's a scouting trip.

While we are there, we will likely be working with children in an orphanage, serving, and possibly teaching about Jesus at schools, serving those who serve the people of Haiti (pastors, missionaries, teachers, orphanage workers), and praying at the University in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Please pray for us as we prepare for this spiritually intense trip. We need special grace with passport applications that have been delayed, especially.