Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! You have all been a great blessing for me, and I am so thankful that you have been a part of what God has been doing in my life this semester through InterVarsity. I hope that you all have a wonderful time with your friends and family and that you are constantly reminded of the blessings God has bestowed upon you as well.

God bless,
Michael

Technotopia

Not much has happened since my last update, so I thought I would post something a little different this week. I hope you enjoy reading it!

In the past few weeks, I have accrued a great deal of new technology in my life. It started with an invitation to be a part of Google Wave. Google is attempting to use Wave as a new way of communicating online, combining the concepts of email, instant messaging, blogging, online collaboration, and a variety of other internet technologies into a single tool. It promises (at least, Google wants to promise) that it'll be the next great thing in using the internet since it'll let people collaborate simultaneously. Interesting.

Later that same week, I got a new cell phone. My old one was pretty much dead; wouldn't always answer calls, had problems with the screen, and would occasionally decided to reboot and not get any signal. I went with my family to the Verizon store to see what they had available as a replacement (I was due for an upgrade), and was a little blown away with some of the options. Only one of the phones didn't have a camera on it. Many of them, including the extravagant new Droid phone, had touch screens. I had to actually search for one that didn't charge extra for having a full keyboard. I ended up with probably the least sophisticated one there, a simple flip phone. It had the camera, but no other frills.

Finally, as of last week, I am the proud new owner of an HP tablet PC. Tablet PCs have full touch screens, and this one allows for both finger (touch-based) and pen input on its screen. I can literally draw or write directly on the screen using either my fingers or the included tablet pen. It comes with Windows 7, which runs excellently so far and provides special features like gestures so that with a flick I can copy or paste items, scroll around the screen, or manipulate pictures. It's a really slick bit of hardware, and I'm still excited to see what it'll be able to do.

All of this new technology really made me think about the way that we as a culture think about innovation. I couldn't help, as I looked forward to experiencing these new acquisitions, that through them my life would become in some way better. I wouldn't be stuck any longer with a phone that turns itself off, with juggling 4 or 5 different types of online communication, with a slow and unreliable laptop. I would be more productive, quicker, less stressed, maybe even more satisfied with life. Technology was all I needed for my life to be better!

It sounds a little ridiculous when I put it like that, but I think in a lot of ways that is what our society has turned to. Science and technology are our saviors, and the future is where all of our dreams will finally be fulfilled. Because in the future, everything will be faster. Our green technology will help us cleanse the earth of any malady. Diseases will be cured. Everyone will have what they need as we get better at producing it, so there will be no more squabbling over resources. As Americans, we seem to be enabling ourselves to solve all of our problems, and there is no need for God to save us, because it seems like we'll make it alright without Him.

I really like my new tablet. My phone is great. Google Wave will be a fun experiment. But I'm far happier to know God - that He loves me and wants to care for me, that He has forgiven me and not just skirted around the issue of what's wrong in the world, and that even if I lose everything else, He'll still be there for me in the end. As we prepare for this coming Thanksgiving and for the Christmas season as well, I hope you all can be thankful for the way God has blessed you materially. But I hope that you will be filled with an even greater joy of God's love for you.

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Matthew 6:31-34

Back to Breathing

Well, my crazy week has finally ended. Though the last few weeks have been full of activity leading up to this one, all of the frantic activity is behind me, and I can start to get back to what might even be called a normal life. Not that I didn't have a good time; all of the hard work really paid off in the end, and I'm so glad to have had these opportunities the past few weeks.

In case I've lost you, I'm talking about the close-packed series of IV events I was helping out with this week. The first of these was the evangelism table we did in the UNM Student Union Building. We decided to try a slightly unorthodox form of evangelism. For a few hours each day, we had a display board set up with the prompt "What do you hate about Christianity?" with space for students to come by and add their responses. Honestly, I was a little worried going in that the event would result in a lot of heated arguments, but by God's grace we were able avoid anything like that, though there was a lot of discussion on some controversial topics. We had great, honest responses from Christians and non-Christians alike, including frustration with hypocrisy, anger toward the hateful attitude Christians often have for people "under sin", and heartfelt requests that Christians return to the heat of the Gospel:the love God shows to sinners in spite of their sin. We then would interact with the students, asking them follow-up questions like what their religions background was and what experiences they have had with Christians to lead to their responses. Some really great conversations came out of these interactions, and though none of the students we talked to expressed an interest in becoming a follow of Christ, I'm sure that God softened some heats though what we did those two days.

Another major event this week was my talk at the IV Large Group this week. I spoke on John 9, where Jesus heals a man born blind, and tried to emphasize the way Jesus provided not only physical sight but spiritual sight as well. It was designed as an evangelistic talk - kind of a follow-up to the table - but unfortunately, even though we passed out more than 70 fliers at the table (wow!), no new students showed up except for one guy who knew one of the girls from the worship team. It was a little discouraging giver all of the students who seemed interested in showing up. I'm also not sure how well the talk itself went. I spent a fair amount of time preparing for it, but all the same it felt really unpolished, and think I could have done a much better job with it. I've never really felt like a fantastic orator, though I can get by when needed, and I think the talk solidified for me the notion that speaking from the Word is something God will need to continue to help me with. All the same, I'm glad I was able to have the opportunity even if my expectations happened to be a little different from God's.

Finally, on Friday we had the IV guys' and girls' nights out. I can't really speak for the girls, but the guys' night was awesome. We decided to go all-out with masculine activities, so we had a meat-only BBQ, fought with form swords (drawing only a little blood), and watched Braveheart. We then finished the night by watching Lady in the Water and having a serious discussion on how we find our identity though Christ. Oh, and the whole night we were all shirtless and were "tribal paint".

My Dad's chemo therapy continues to go well; thank you so much for the prayer support! He's had almost no adverse reaction to the medicine, has been staying active, and still even has all his hair.God has been so faithful to us during this trying time. The next round of chemo won't bee for a while still, but I'll be sure to keep you updated as things progress. Have a blessed week, and l'll have my next update this Wednesday as usual.

"Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever."
- Psalm 23

Hiatus

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say that this week's update will be postponed till this weekend, probably Saturday. There's been a lot going on, and I'd love to tell you all about it, but I'm a little busy still to really tell you what's been happening. I would also like to be able to tell "the rest of the story" of what happens after the talk I'm going to give at the Large Group next week; I'm really excited to see what God has in store! Thank you for your prayers for this week, and please keep praying that God would be at work through what IV is doing at UNM. Talk to you all later!

"In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
John 1:4-5

Revving Up

And now the semester starts to get really busy. I had thought that graduating from Tech would mean that I wouldn't have an end-of-semester rush to get everything done, but apparently I was mistaken. Once again November is proving to be the busiest month of the term, and while the pressure isn't nearly as high as at Tech, there is certainly a lot going on.

The majority of the work is actually in preparation for next week. As I mentioned last week, I'm going to design and run an evangelistic event next Tuesday and Wednesday, then I'm giving the message at the Large Group that Thursday. Having done neither of those things before, it's been an interesting experience trying to get them together. Everything is starting to fall into place, thankfully. For the event, we're putting on a table with the prompt "What I hate about Christianity..." and allowing students to write their responses on the board. We'll then ask them questions like what their personal religious background is, what experience they've had with Christians, and how they think God reacts to Christianity as a religion. Our hope is that we can then tell them more about who God is, not how he is sometimes portrayed through Christians. The talk, meanwhile, will be on John 9, when Jesus heals a man born blind. It speaks a lot about how Jesus has come to bring light to us all, and my hope is that some non-Christians will want to come after meeting us at the table and have Jesus heal their spiritual blindness that night. Please pray for both of those events. It certainly won't be by my efforts that either of these things will be successful. I really hope that we can reach out to some non-Christians and invite them to join us in following Christ, so please pray for open hearts and minds and that we would encounter the right students.

Another source of busyness coming down the turnpike is some upcoming visits to other chapters that I'll be making. So far I'll be going to the New Mexico Tech chapter (tonight, actually) and the University of Arizona in a couple weeks. I might also visit one or two more. The idea is that I would be able to get a better understanding of how other chapters run their Large Groups, then compare them to determine some best practices to help UNM make their Large Groups better. I'm really excited to do this, especially to be back at the Tech chapter since I haven't been able to see those guys all semester. Keep those trips in your prayers as well, please.

I've really been blown away by the way that God has been moving people to generosity lately. Last week we had an AIDS awareness night for Large Group, which involved telling students about the severity of the AIDS epidemic worldwide. We took up an offering for World Vision, which helps fight AIDS in different needy areas, and we managed to raise about $340! We also had our work day for Urbana scholarships last Saturday, and though the final total isn't in yet, we know that we managed to make over $4,000 to share between us and Tech! That totally blows our previous record of $1,800 out of the water, and it's really a testament to the way that God provides event in this bad economic climate. He is a God of provision!

It's less than a week until my Dad starts his chemotherapy treatment. We aren't really sure to expect, so please keep him in your prayers as well. My family is in good spirits about it, and we know that we rest in God's care. Thank you once again for your support during this time. Have a blessed week!

"When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?"
- Psalm 8:3-4