Out of Breath

The semester has definitely started! The past couple of weeks have included my first on-campus events as an InterVarsity intern, and we really hit the ground running. So far I've done 5 days of tabling (sitting at a table handing out info about IV), 2 days of evangelism, a game night, an ice cream social/snowball fight (yes, a snowball fight in the middle of August in New Mexico - good times), the first Large Group meeting of the year, and an early breakfast this morning at Denney's. Oh, and of course there were other events like glow-in-the-dark frisbee that I couldn't make it to; I'm only human! Needless to say, I've been a little busy lately....

Man has it been wonderful, though. We've been able to meet a lot of new students who want to get involved in IV and engaged even more. For the evangelism days, we ran an interactive display known as a proxe station, theming ours around the physical and spiritual thirsts people have and using those discussions as a jump-off point for sharing the Gospel with students. A lot of people stopped by, shared their views, and were even willing to listen to what we had to offer as Christians. We didn't see any conversions these two days, but we did have a few students interested in getting involved in learning more about the Bible with us!

We used the first Large Group meeting of the semester as a kind of follow-up event for the proxe station, and we tried something new this year. Usually, the first night is a fun time for people to hang out after a summer apart and to get to welcome new students with fun events, but we decided that we wanted to have an evangelistic focus right from the start, so we had our area director Rod Pauls come and give a message ending in a Gospel presentation. Honestly, I'm always a little skeptical when it comes to the effectiveness of alter calls after sermons, partially since I've seen many alter calls do little but suck the energy out of a room. No one is going to stand up, but we're all going to sit awkwardly waiting for something to happen. My trepidation was unwarranted, however, and we actually had 3 students that wanted to make professions of faith, praise the LORD! Not even a week into school, and we're already seeing conversions - I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store!

Besides that, my life has mainly consisted of trying to finish really moving into my new place. It's mostly odds and ends right now like getting a toaster, some knives, and the cables for my TV. Unfortunately, we don't have our internet configured yet, so I always need to go somewhere else to do anything online. That's part of the reason that I haven't updated as much as I wanted to, and also why I haven't been able to get more pictures up. It's nearly impossible apparently to find a computer with both internet access and a reader for my memory card with all the images. Oh well. In any case, I'll try to get more of them up as soon as I can, and hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly soon as well.

Please continue to pray for my fundraising to go well. I'm a little under 70% funded right now, and more support is slowly coming in, thank God! Also, praise that the IV stuff so far has been going well, and that we've been able to see students come to Christ already. Please pray for the students, though, that they would be able to get hooked into some good churches. Please also pray for the events we have coming up this next week: a movie night/discussion tonight, a water balloon fight tomorrow, two more days of tabling, the next Large Group, and lots of meetings. Such is the life of an intern.

"Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
- Psalm 118: 19

Runners, on your mark...

Well, the IV Internship has now started! I'm really excited to finally be able to work with the UNM Chapter. They're a really great, fun group, and I already feel like I'm part of the family around them. It'll certainly be a great year.

We've had our first event of the semester for UNM this weekend: our pre-fall retreat to let students know what will be going on and to help train them to be ready for the things we'll be doing. The retreat went really well, with about 13 students in attendance for the weekend. We got to play games, let the students know more about our chapter vision for the semester, talk to them about some of the events we plan on doing, and give them training so that they would be ready to help us carry out the vision in the coming weeks. This included learn how to share the Gospel with others through a proxe station (an evangelistic tool used to engage students), lead a GIG (Group Investigating God: small group for non-Christians), and be a welcoming community for new people. I'm excited to see how the students jumped into these things, and it will be especially great to watch them go out on campus equipped to draw in non-believers and introduce them to the joy of the Gospel.

This week we'll be starting our first events at UNM to welcome new students, especially freshmen. This will include having tables set up to get the word out about IV, having games for people to come play like ultimate frisbee, and having a low-key game night to let us have some fun time to just hang out and get to know the new students. Please keep these events in prayer, especially that through them we will be able to make good relationships with those whom God is leading to be a part of our chapter. Also, classes start the following week, and we'll have even more New Student Outreach (NSO) events to introduce ourselves to others, even some evangelistic events to start reaching out to non-Christians from the very beginning of the semester.

In other news, I recently acquired a house to stay in, praise the Lord! It's an amazing deal - really a gift from God. My friend Chris, who used to be my housemate at Tech a couple years ago, was able to find a really great place about 15-20 minutes' walk from campus for an amazing price. The two of us and my friend Heydon, another former Techie now on the UNM IV leadership team, are going to be moving in this week, and I'm "highly enthused" about the whole affair. God provides in big ways!

I hope to let you know more as we actually begin having some of our events this week, so stay tuned to stay up-to-date with all of the latest news from the frontlines.

Oh, and I intend on posting more of the pictures from Kenya this week, depending on when I get some free time. It takes a really long time to get that all together, so it's going to be a slower process than I had originally hoped. Don't forget that I'll be having my open house this Saturday, and please let me know if you plan on coming.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. "
- Hebrews 12:1-3

Orientation Week Pics

So here is the first set of pics including our arrival and orientation week. They're posted to photobucket, so if you would like, you can click on the pictures to get to the actual album and see them with better quality. I'll try to get other albums up as I have time, but it's a bit of work, so it may take a while. In the meantime, enjoy!

The Rundown

Well, here it is (finally) - my summary of the mission this summer that I promised two weeks ago or so now.... Yeah, getting back into life has been a little busy, so I apologize for taking so long to write this. In any case, here is the letter I wrote to thank my support team. Some of you will probably be getting this in the mail as well, but to save some postage, I'm posting here as well so that all of you who read the blog will be able to get the same overall message. So, without further ado, here's the over-advertised letter!

My dear friends and family,

What a summer it’s been! My time in Kenya through the InterVarsity Global Project was absolutely transformational. I learned so much about how living richly does not mean having lots of things, but having God. I feel like I went to Kenya trying to do what God wants me to do, but I came back trying to be who God wants me to be, soft clay in His hands to be molded as He sees fit.

I also experienced ministry in ways I have not before. The central feature of the mission trip was a 3-week assignment in which a Kenyan student named Ezekiel and I stayed with a Kenyan missionary, Pastor Samuel Ndung’u, ministering to the Maasai people. The Maasai are pastoralists, meaning that they depend on their flocks for a living – a difficult thing since the area is suffering from a prolonged drought. With the Pastor, Ezekiel and I participated in home-to-home evangelism (Kenyans love visitors!), preaching sermons, witnessing in primary schools, and leading some seminars on Gospel basics like missions or tithing. We were privileged to see people come to Christ, to develop close relationships with people in the church, and to share in the lives of the people we ministered to. One time we were almost chased by a wild elephant.

And that’s just the assignment; there was so much more that God used to change me this summer! How can I explain what it’s like to walk through a slum in Nairobi: 600,000 souls packed into only a few square miles? Or how can I describe playing with orphaned and abandoned children, some with scars from the barbarous ways their parents attempted to discard them? Witnessing Hindus bow in reverence to false idols? Seeing tourists waste money extravagantly while only a block away others are dying of hunger? Oh, the things we all saw! But we came as lights into dark places, bearing the image of Christ, acting as His hands and feet, His eyes and ears in those places. What a blessing!

I wish I could share more with you. I have chronicled many of my experiences on my blog, which you can view at http://orisonsandaccolades.blogspot.com. I would also like to invite you to an open house at my parents’ house at 11320 Paseo del Oso NE, Albuquerque, NM where I will share more stories and pictures from the summer. It will be on August 22^nd starting at 7:00 PM with some Kenyan chai. Please let me know if you would like to come. My cell number is (505) 328-3481. I have also included a CD with some pictures from my summer to let you see some of my experiences firsthand [Actually, I will have a link up soon so that you can view my photobucket album]. I hope you enjoy them.

None of this would have been possible without your support. I thank you so very, very much for being a part of this project, for sending your prayers and finances to serve the Kenyan people. It has made such a difference, and I pray you will be blessed for your service!

His servant,
Michael Siegrist

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
- Ephesians 2:10