a good start

It's been a busy week+ getting the new semester underway. But, it's been a good start.

The first week at Loyola, saw a pretty nice response at our information/contact table. Some of the new folks even came out to visit our co-ed Satellite last week, already, and we hope to see them tonight at Loyola Prayer.

Last week, we had the first Gathering of the semester at Tulane. We had a great turnout, investigating "Why Follow Jesus?" We had a few student testimonies with some commentary and testimony from Jen and I, and some good time for response. It was one of the most spiritually open and responsive Gatherings we've had in a long time.

That spiritual sensitivity and responsiveness continued at Tulane prayer on Friday night, and our Leadership get-together Sunday night. God is moving, and we are catching His wave! Halelujah!

On Saturday, we took a group out in the rain and cold to help build a playground in the city. The weather was less than ideal, but we did some good work, and had some great fun.

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.

Today

As I make final preparations for the Gathering tonight, my heart is heavy for the students and families of Virginia Tech University. Please pray with me.

-notes for tonight's message

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.

Monday Night at the Gathering

a photo montage from Monday's gathering at Tulane:












the music team: curtis (uno), nikki (uno), annie (tulane), joe (tulane alumn), bill (loyola), brian (tulane)

marshal (CMiT) and matt thomas (tulane): our tech team - matt dislocated his shoulder playing football on campus last weekend, hence the sling

elizabeth (tulane) shared a story of God's grace in her life regarding her mother's health - a rare form of cancer she has been battling for nearly 20 years that has receded 60% in the past few months! elizabeth has a great story this school year.























some during and after 'action' shots

the message:
What is JUSTICE?
What makes GOD ANGRY?
What is GENEROSITY?
What does it mean to be a 'CHRISTIAN'?

James 1:19-2:17
Amos 5:4-24

with a little help from nooma #13 Rich

A New Semester

A new semester is already underway at Loyola - they started classes up yesterday! The rest of our campuses here in New Orleans kick-off the spring semester next Tuesday following the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

Chi Alpha New Orleans kicks of the semester in a big way on MLK day, Monday the 15th at 8pm with the Gathering. This Gathering will be special, however. This will be the 2nd annual Reconciliation Celebration!

The focus of the evening will be to remember and celebrate the reconciliation Christ purchased for us: reconciliation to God, and to one another.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

The Uprising:

We had a great time at The Uprising. Students were challenged to live in the freedom that the Holy Spirit brings: freedom from sin, freedom from intimidation, freedom from law and societal burdens, freedom to love...everyone!

The New Orleans students that came expressed enjoying themselves, of course - we always have fun, but also expressed greater desire for the power of God to be at work in their lives, and for greater holiness in life and thought. Some powerful seeds were planted. I'm excited to see that fruit of those seeds.

The Gathering

Hello, again friends!
I've gotten word that there are at least a couple readers of this blogsite, so I'll keep the updates rolling out.

Thanksgiving weekend just went by, and that was pretty great. Actually, I didn't eat too much! ...well, maybe a little too much, but not painfully too much that's for sure. I could share some about Thanksgiving, but I'd like to go back a couple weeks to Monday the 13th, and tell you about November's monthly gathering.

Each month Chi Alpha New Orleans hosts a worship gathering on one of the area campuses. This gathering is for students from all around the city, which currently means Tulane, Loyola, and UNO primarily, as those campuses have active XA chapters. This semester, we've averaged around 35-40 students for September and October.

November's gathering was hosted at Loyola in a cafe area known as the Underground. We had special guests, as well: the Tulane Gospel Choir. They brought about 15 students and some great energy in praise. We had a blast listening and singing with them.

We also had a great turnout from Loyola students, as it was on their campus, and UNO turned out in XA record numbers. All together, there were about 65 people praising the Lord together.

Later on, we broke up into groups of 5-8 to discuss hope. Together with a few students, I put together a few notes to share, invited some students to share life stories, and then gave out questions for the groups to discuss. Several students were encouraged with this message of hope, as they get ready for end-of-the-semester projects and final exams.

I was encouraged by the diversity of students from different campuses, and different ethnicities. We want Chi Alpha New Orleans to look a little bit like heaven: people from every nation, tribe, and tongue worshiping God together!

Praise the Lord.