Tulane Recovery

This past fall we saw much smaller freshman classes at all the New Orleans universities. Many prospective students and parents where still very worried about the recovery and safety of New Orleans, and the universities themselves.

Two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, we helped move in nearly 1,700 freshmen to Tulane. This past fall, there were less than 1,000.

However, news was just released that the fall 2007 incoming freshmen at Tulane number nearly 1,400! And they don't just come from the USA, but Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, India, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well.

I have not found numbers for the incoming classes at the rest of the universities we minister to, but this is good, exciting news.

read the whole news story here: http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=7339

Spring Break Time

As Tulane gets ready for spring break next week, I should update this blog. I'm doing my best to keep new info up here at least weekly. I let time slip away a bit this time, but I should be back on schedule, now.

Last week, UNO hosted its first ever Chi Alpha New Orleans Gathering. We had a great turnout, including my dad, my uncle John, and 9 folks from Georgetown XA who were in town doing rebuilding work with our church. I didn't get an exact count, but there were close to 60 people there, which was exciting - lots of new UNO faces. And, above all that, God was truly present. We spent about 30 min just quietly praying and many students were praying together, as well as receiving prayer from staff members. The Holy Spirit did some work on hearts that night.

It was great to have some family in town. Next week, my good friend, Dan Johnson is coming to visit while I have a less busy schedule with Tulane on break. We enjoy having visitors - showing them our city (its highs and lows), sharing some laughs and good conversation, and opening our lives up, including an inside scoop on the ministry here.

This Saturday, we have the opportunity to work with churches from around the city to host a Convoy of Hope event. We (Jen, myself, Dan, and XA) look forward to the opportunity to minister to those in need. Please pray with us.

A little Video

Jen and I were at a wedding in Lafayette, LA this past Saturday. The groom was Mr. Eric Nida. I met Eric in September/October of 2002 when he was a freshman at UL-Lafayette. He began a fresh relationship with God that night at TNL, and became a part of my Life Group there. We had a great year together; then, Jen and I moved to New Orleans, and Eric joined my co-leader, Shawn Harvey (who was also a groomsman with me at the wedding), to lead the Life Group the next year.

congratulations to Eric and Jenny!

While we were away, Chi Alpha New Orleans joined up with LSU XA to do some work with Habitat for Humanity: check out the video

The Uprising

Tomorrow, the Uprising begins!

This is the annual regional conference Chi Alpha hosts as an opportunity for students to learn, grow closer to one another and form new friendships, and be challenged to draw closer to God and experience the life changing power of the Holy Spirit.

This year, the conference will be hosted in New Orleans!

I'll be getting up super early in the morning to help facilitate a team of students coming in early to work with Habitat for Humanity for the day. We'll be working on the Musician's Village project as part of rebuilding New Orleans.



The conference begins tomorrow (Friday the 29th) at 8:00pm Central Time.
I ask that you would pray that many students would encounter God in new and life changing ways. I also ask that you would pray for me as I teach a breakout session on encountering God in the books of the Minor Prophets, and properly interpreting those prophetic books.