A Baptism and an Ordination

Last Friday, we celebrated our second ever baptismal service at Tulane's outdoor pool. This time around, there was only one to be baptized, but it was great!

Liz Bowers made her public proclamation of faith in the presence of the Tulane Chi Alpha community, and a lifeguard. 

I don't have any pictures, currently, as Jen and I couldn't find the camera that evening, but hope to have some soon. In the meantime check out Liz's testimony.

Then, on Monday, I was ordained by the Assemblies of God. I'm not too big on formal occasions or for titles, but the service was still quite meaningful. Superintendent Doug Fulenwider preached a deeply challenging address on keeping the Kingdom of God first.

The night was even more meaningful as my dad, and his brother, John, were in attendance. I didn't even know they were coming to town until I discovered them in my dining room Sunday after church! Thank God for family.

Speaking of family, I'm looking forward to a non-surprise visit from my mom, tomorrow. This will be here first time to Louisiana.

Jan/Feb Newsletter

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If you would like a printable version, click here.

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!

April Newsletter

Click on the image to zoom in.Click here to read the unabridged version of Elizabeth's Story.
Click here to read my version of the story from September.

Wow!

Monday nights' Gathering went amazingly well. God did all the work.
The music team was wonderful, and we had a great time of musical worship. My message seemed a bit rough. Half the time, I wasn't sure I was really communicating, but God made great things happen nonetheless:

one student received the gift of speaking in tongues, as a sign of the infilling of the Holy Spirit! Praise the Lord!

...in other news.
1) newsletter should be out next week sometime.
2) our leads for potential staff next year have all run out, at this point. Please continue to pray that God would send laborers. We're in a good place: the realm of human impossibility.

Spring Semester '07 Begins

Wow!

The beginning of a new semester is always a busy time. Sometimes, like the past week or so, my head gets to spinning, and all but the most rudimentary of short term memory ceases to function. Example:

I'm on campus with a student on a Monday, and another student comes by to say hello.
"Hey Matt, how was your weekend?"
I get a blank, confused look on my face, "I can't remember."
"That bad, already?"

Yea, it's kind of weird. Of course, students expect to feel like that at the end of the semester when projects, papers, and finals are looming over them like the apocalypse. The end of the semester is fairly low key for campus ministers, as many of our students disappear from the land of the living for a week or two.

Of course, I get to experience both ends this semester, as I take on my second course in pursuit of a masters degree in sociology at UNO. Karl Marx is heavy reading.

Besides being a little frazzled, and nursing Jen back to health (the busyness rewarded her with a nasty sinus & chest infection), some really great things have been happening around here.

There's new vitality in the leadership team at Loyola.
There are new leaders, and a new Satellite group at Tulane.
There is focus and desire to reach out at UNO.
We have some new contacts at Xavier.

Stay tuned, you don't want to miss what God's got going this semester at Chi Alpha New Orleans!

The Diversity Project

It wasn't long after I finally decided to truly be a Jesus follower, at 16, that I began to feel the 'call' to ministry. I didn't know what this would look like, only that I should go to Bible college and prepare to do some form of Christian ministry as my primary vocation. The 'call' took on a bit more shape as time progressed, and I found a definite direction during my first year at NCU. If you would have asked me what I was going to do, I would have told you that I was going to train missionaries. Of course, I realized that I should probably do some missionary work myself, first, and still didn't know what I would actually be doing...

Skipping ahead a few years: here Jen and I are as Chi Alpha missionaries to the campuses of New Orleans. We have been teaching and mentoring students to be ambassadors of the Good News on their campuses, but I sensed that there was more to the call to 'train missionaries'.

One of the most influential experiences for both Jen and I was the Campus Missionary in Training (CMiT) internship that we participated in the year after graduation (2002-3). At UL-Lafayette we learned much of the how of being a campus missionary, as well as growing in character and knowledge.

The CMiT program at UL has long been widely respected as one of the best Chi Alpha internships in the nation. On an average year there are about a dozen nationally approved, active internship programs. Louisiana decided to take what was great at UL and expand it to be even better state-wide.

Enter the Diversity Project.

With this program, CMiTs continue to receive the excellent teaching in theology, Bible interpretation, and much more, and are able to participate in their practical ministry experience and mentoring at different campuses around Louisiana. This is the first year of the project, and we have 9 interns total: 4 at UL-Lafayette, 1 at LSU, 1 at LA Tech, and 3 in New Orleans.

I have the great opportunity to oversee the theology and Bible interpretation classes (I love teaching, especially teaching about Jesus!). And, Jen and I are working with and mentoring three interns here: Marshal and Stephanie Pilgreen (recent LA Tech grads), and Laura Adkins (recent UL-Lafayette grad). They are learning and growing as missionaries, and also making a difference here in New Orleans.

I am blessed to see this opportunity to fulfill God's call on my life so early in life, and to have some extra help in reaching the university students in this amazing city.

This is the first ever Diversity Project class. Our New Orleans interns are on the right: Laura Adkins is in front, in red; Stephanie Pilgreen is next to her on the end, in pink, and her husband, Marshal, stands behind her.

Please pray for them, as they learn and grow, and minister to students, and trust God for their financial support.

Salvation Story of a Tulane Freshman

Last Monday was the first Gathering of the semester here in New Orleans. The Gathering is our monthly worship gathering, and it is a city-wide celebration. This one was hosted at Tulane University, and we had a pretty good turnout-lots of new people! Close to 40 students from Tulane, Loyola, UNO, and Delgado came out to encounter God.

One student in attendance, a freshman at Tulane from Tennessee had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ!

Student musicians led the group in a living worship experience, and then I had the great privilege to step up and share from God's Word! I wanted to challenge the students to live by faith, and not to merely exist according to the patterns of the world around us. When I concluded, I challenged students that may not yet have a faith relationship with God to talk to someone about how they might start one, and then I prayed that everyone in attendance would have courage to live by faith every day.

After an offering for Cry Africa, and a challenge from one our Tulane seniors to go out and make a difference for God, we dismissed. I was whirling around unplugging computers and projectors, and helping take down the sound equipment when this student asked to talk to me.

She said that she wanted to start a relationship with God, and would like my help with that! Well, I was more than happy to put down the speaker cables, and give her my undivided attention.

Before I go on, you've got to hear a little background on this freshman: We already knew her, because she had indicated on her 'Religious Preference Card' that she did not know what her religious beliefs were, but she was interested in the religious life on campus. Wow!

Jen had that preference card for a week, but hadn't contacted the student yet, because she wasn't sure exactly what to say. Well, we met her in person when she showed up to an ice-cream social we were hosting. Her roommate is a committed follower of Jesus from Texas who got involved with the Chi Alpha community from day one! God had this girl's number.

As I spoke with her, she said that she had grown up in church, but had been angry at God since age three when her father died. However, the Holy Spirit grabbed her heart at the Gathering, and she realized God's care for her, and that God has so much more for her life than bitterness. She prayed to confess her sins to God, and make Jesus the Lord of her life!

Heaven has one more citizen, and she is quickly starting on the road of following Jesus!