A Week at Youth Camp

Each summer, the Louisiana District Youth Department hosts 3 week-long camps for teens in Woodworth, LA. Each week, Chi Alpha Louisiana sends a representative or two to hang out with the teenagers, get to know the youth leaders, and to get the word out about Chi Alpha for those juniors and seniors looking at making the transition into college.

Last week, Jen and I took our turn for the second year in a row. It can be quite an exhausting week with hundreds of teens! (Keep the District Youth Director, Allen Chapin, and his wife, Angela, in prayer this week as they recover from 3 straight weeks of it!) However, we had a great time playing wacky games, and cheering on the teens, just getting to know some great young people, praying with them during impactful services, and connecting with some amazing youth leaders, ministers, and volunteers.

Our week was quite successful along the lines of connecting with young people headed toward college. I don't know if we've ever met so many in one week, before, and I think several of them really had their interest piqued by the idea of Chi Alpha as they head toward the college campus.

What was icing on the cake for us was that we met students planning to attend university in New Orleans! This is usually quite rare, as the private schools in New Orleans are so expensive and selective, and usually only locals attend UNO, and not many teens from the New Orleans area make it to camp each year.

This year was different, though, and we met an incoming UNO freshman while reconnecting with a returning UNO student, both of whom are quite interested in connecting with the Chi Alpha community there. Also, we met two high schoolers (a junior and a senior) who plan to attend Tulane of all places!

That was exciting and fun for us. Even more than that was the honor of witnessing the Holy Spirit do some powerful work in the lives of teenagers.

Please pray with us as hundreds of thousands of Christian teenagers take the plunge into university life this fall for the first time. This is often a difficult transition for students in their life, and especially in their faith.

May/June 08 Newsletter

Here's our update: click on the images to zoom in 

[click here for a print quality download]

Campus Sex Talks

Over the past few weeks, I've had the privilege of leading a provocatively title discussion on sexuality and God on our three campuses: Tulane, Loyola, and UNO. "Why does God hate Sex" drew out a few new folks, some of whom were just curious, and a few who seemed to be expecting a fight.

At all three campuses, we were able to really break down some false objections to God and to Christianity, and give students, Christian and non, some food for thought regarding why God has rules about sexuality.

I really enjoy engaging students in this kind of an arena, and am grateful to God for the opportunity. I look forward to building on this in the near future.

Here's a copy of the notes that Jen so kindly typed up for me. She also used the talk for a Satellite Group for ladies that she leads at Loyola.

Graduations!

Saturday, we attended our first graduation of the year at Loyola. We celebrated with Jontue Jackson, Andrea Savickis, and Laura Post.

Laura joined us the moment we moved to New Orleans in July of 2007. She is from the New Orleans area, and felt that God wanted her to go to Loyola. She knew about Chi Alpha from several of her friends that attended Louisiana Tech and were involved with XA there. She wanted to know if Loyola had a Chi Alpha chapter, and we told her, "Yes, you're it!"

Laura plugged in immediately, and stepped into a leadership role. She's the first four year Chi Alphan we've seen all the way through. She has been such a blessing!

This coming Saturday, we will try to be in two places at once, as we see Brandane Smith graduate from UNO, and Annie Chung graduate from Tulane.

Reconciling students to Christ--transforming the University, the Marketplace, and the World!