Approaching a Sense of Normal

Well, my life is finally starting to take some kind of a regular shape as different events begin to fall into place. This coming week will be the beginning of our Small Groups and GIGs (Groups Investigating God - essentially Bible study for interested non-Christians) as well as the prayer group. I'll be co-leading a Small Group going over the Truth Project, which is a series released by Focus on the Family to help teach the Christian worldview. I've been through the series before, and I'm really excited to be able to share it with others. Also, if all goes well, I'll be leading a GIG as well, getting together with a couple non-Christians weekly for about 4 weeks to look at the Bible and discuss what it says on various issues like how we can know God.

This past week has had some firsts as well, including my first time doing contact evangelism. Yes, I could say that I did essentially contact evangelism on numerous occasions while in Kenya this summer, but doing it in an American context is very different; I can't simply go up to people and ask them if they are Christians or if they would like to have a relationship with God. Instead, I went with my area director, Rod, and we would approach people to ask them if they would like to share their views with us, only sharing our side if they wanted to hear it. In any case, it was a good experience, and hopefully some fruit will come of it. Please keep the two people we shared with at length in your prayers.

We also started our regular Large Group sessions this week. We'll be studying God's missional heart by going through the book Salvation to the Ends of the Earth. It describes how the entire Bible displays God's desire for missions, and so every other week we're going to look at a different section and talk about what it means for missions. This last week was on the nation of Israel as a missional people versus a priestly people, and it was a cool way to look at them. We also had more people this week than the first week - something I've never seen happen before! Usually the numbers dwindle after the first week or two once people get more settled into their schedules or decide that they don't feel like they fit with IV, but I've never seen numbers increase, and it's definitely a testament to God's desire for us this semester and not a reflection of our own efforts. Praise God for his provision, and please pray that this pattern of growth will continue and that the new students we continue to meet will keep getting involved, as many of them already are.

I'm still trying to work on my fundraising. It's been really hard to find the time to call people and set up appointments, but I'm about 80% complete now. Please pray that I could finish the raising my support by the end of the month.

"How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands."
- Psalm 119:9-10