Changing Gears

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving this past weekend. Mine was good. Not great, but still good. We went down to Silver City to see my Grandfather. It's generally the only time each year that I get to see him, and this year it was the first time in a while that the whole family had been together since my brother started going to NMSU down in Las Cruces. My Grandfather is certainly starting to show his age (and not really making much attempt to take care of himself), so he spent most of our time there asleep, but we were still able to interact with him a little and serve him by helping around his house doing yard work. It certainly wasn't as lively a Thanksgiving as we've had in years past, but it was still good, and I'm glad to have been able to go down there to see him. I would appreciate if you would pray for my Grandfather and my whole family as we'll likely need to make some decisions soon about how best to care for him.

These past few weeks have been a little strange due to both the Thanksgiving break and the short trip to the University of Arizona I took two weeks ago. No Large Groups, no Small Group, no meetings... it almost feels like I haven't been around IV people for like a month. I did really enjoy my trip to U of A. I was just there for a night to see how they run the Large Group at their chapter as part of a report I am supposed to write on best practices for Large Groups. I've never really interacted much with their chapter, though we do meet once a year for our regional end of the year retreat up in Colorado. It was a quick trip; landed at 5:30, dinner with their Large Group Coordinator at 5:45 to chat about what they do, Large Group from 6:30 to about 10:00, then sleep at the house of some guys in the chapter until 5:15 when I needed to get to my flight. My plane got back into Abq. at 8:15 the next morning - just enough time for me to have some breakfast and get to my other job. Whew! I was really glad to be there, though. They're really trying to be an outreach-based chapter, and it's definitely working for them. Everyone I interacted with told me about the 6 conversions they've had so far this year, and there was just an atmosphere of excitement about all that the chapter was doing. We're not quite there at UNM yet, but I think I got some good ideas from the U of A crowd, and I look forward to seeing how we can use some of them ourselves.

Speaking of looking ahead, we're now at the part of the semester where we need to start reflecting on how we've been doing as a chapter and start planning for next semester. This has meant a lot of reflection at our last few meetings and trying to make an honest assessment of things like worship, Small Groups, Large Group, etc. What have we been focusing on? What did or didn't work? How do the students need to grow? What do we feel like God is calling us into for the next year? I actually really enjoy this kind of planning and all of the energy that is generated as we come up with ideas of how we could do things even better next year.

One possible change that would really affect me would be the possibility of restructuring the Truth Project Small Group that I've been leading. I've really enjoyed leading the group, but my co-leader is... unreliable. He's generally missed about half of our planning times, leaders meetings, and even the actual Small Group, often without any forewarning unless I specifically call him up. It's not the best situation, and so I need to see what his desires are for this coming year and if he wants to stick it out with the group. The other side of the coin is that Rod, my internship "overseer", feels that I should try to do a manuscript Bible study instead. Manuscripting is kind of an IV trademark: an inductive Bible study that allows people to really analyze the text without much presupposition. I always like the method when I do it, and I think it could be really good, but I don't want to leave the Truth Project hanging mid-way through, especially since I feel so many people in the chapter need a strong grounding in what the Christian worldview is, which is the main focus of the Truth Project. I would really appreciate your prayers as I try to seek guidance in what I need to do for the next semester.

My Dad has started the next round of his chemo therapy, and thankfully he still seems really healthy. He hasn't even started loosing his hair yet, though apparently my Mom's Bible Study has started a pool on when that will happen. This is only the second round, and they will continue in 3-week intervals until about mid-February, so there is certainly still time for him to start sporting a wig, but for now he still retains a firm grip on his healthy head of hair. Thank you all so much for praying for him during this time, and please continue to remember him as we continue through this ordeal.

I get another chance to talk about Kenya tomorrow, this time at the Large Group. So excited! We're totally going over the top with a Kenya-style night, complete with chai and vigorous hand shaking. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes next week. In the meantime, please pray that it'll go well and that maybe we can inspire some of the students to try to get on a missions trip themselves this summer.

"For in him we live and move and have our being."
- Acts 17:28a