Hey everybody!
I hope today finds you well and the weather lovely. Here is the report on the campus ministry events of March. We didn't have any really big events, but we did have a lot of smaller things that all worked together to make March a great month for us.
Our LST team is getting excited and we are almost done with our training for the trip. They are going on a 10-week mission trip to Natal, Brazil to teach English using the book of Luke. It is a wonderful thing to do all the way around! To help with their fund-raising, we hosted a Silent Dessert Auction at the church building during a potluck one day. Our kindhearted church folks made up loads of fancy desserts and brought them to potluck. Then we laid them all out and people bid on which desserts they wanted while we were all eating the meal. After lunch, we had a big count down and a dramatic drum roll and read off the winners for each of the desserts. It was a lot of fun.
I walked away with a tray of homemade “Coffee Cupcakes With Chocolate Ganache” and an entire cake made out of doughnuts and cream. It was glorious! I donated the doughnut cake to the college students while Sarah and I ate the cupcakes and we are all still trying to shake off our diabetic comas we got from the event. Next month we are going to have to have a church-sponsored period of fasting just to make up for all the calories, but it was well-worth it and we earned nearly $500 for the mission trip.
After that, we had a reasonably normal week and then “The Week Of Weeks.” It was rocking. We had something going just about every day and it was mostly area unity kinds of things. It reminded me of Philippians 2:1-2, which says:
“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
- Philippians 2:1-2
So the Sturgis Church of Christ, twenty minutes down the road, is in between preachers right now and we are helping out with their preaching once a month. Sarah and I went over there on the 12th and had a great time with those lovely people. Then we had our regular Monday night Bible study on Monday, our monthly “Church Leader Eatin' Meetin'” on Tuesday, and I went up to help with the Faith Church of Christ's youth night on Wednesday. It was a mile a minute!
Recently our preacher man, Thomas Pruett, organized a “Preacher Swap” with the area congregations for a couple times a year. It is a wonderful thing and even though we have only done it a handful of times, it is building some great connections within the area churches. So that following Sunday, the 19th, I participated in that one too. Sarah and I drove over to Rapid and I spoke at the West Main Church of Christ and enjoyed a lovely lunch with those bunch of sweeties. Then we had our Monday Night Bible Study again to round it all out.
For those keeping track at home, that was 6 events in 9 days, which is hopping, hopping, hopping.
Our monthly Church Leader Eatin' Meetin'
Incidentally, our monthly Church Leader Eatin' Meetin' is hitting its stride in a big way recently. We picked up a couple new guys from Rapid and it is just a very encouraging time for everyone involved. It is equal parts theology and therapy with a dash of area events thrown in for good measure and I can't talk it up enough.
Our college group also had a great surprise this month. One of our previous students, Corbin Sigle, came back and jumped in with both feet. He has been involved with our group on and off over the last couple of years as his schedule allows, but I have never seen him get this involved before. He has a fire under him now.
He showed up to one Monday Night Bible Study and then came over to hang out the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that he invited a bunch of the students over to hang out. And the day after that they decided to have a movie night. And he helped organize some sort of group event every day that weekend. And he has been a big part of everything we have done since. Everyone is excited and spending more time together as a group and I'm pretty happy about the whole thing.
There is even talk of starting a late night devotional time out on the campus green. I've always wanted to start a worship time with our group and never been able to get it together since the group hasn't been that interested yet. However, interest is growing and I think we just might be able to pull this off.
I asked Corbin the other day about what caused such a huge change in his behavior. He said a lot of things have been changing in his life lately and talked about everything that has been going on. He is a pretty private guy, so I'll leave out the details, but it boiled down to big changes in his schedule and a deep desire to be part of a good Christian community again. He just has God working on his heart and has to do something about it, plain and simple. How cool is that?
Anyway, thanks for reading! You have a great day!
-Silas