Christmas Joy

It's finals week at UNM, and so InterVarsity is officially coming to a close for the semester. I've really enjoyed it; all of the new experiences of the internship have been wonderful, and I already can hardly wait till next semester when we start back up again. For the time being, though, it'll be nice to have a bit of a break, some time with family, and of course the Christmas season.

That's not to mention Urbana, which I'll be attending as a part of the internship. It's a huge Christian missions conference organized by InterVarsity and is going to be attended by over 18,000 students from around the nation for 5 days in St. Louis. It has some great speakers, music, seminars, and Bible study, and I've been looking forward to it ever since I went last in '06. (It only happens once every 3 years.) I'm going to help with the morning manuscript times, where over 200 students will come together to study different passages from John 1-4. I'll actually be helping Hans as his A/V tech, and we'll also be helped by his wife Jill and the previous IV president at UNM, Glory. In the afternoons I'll help with the seminars, so I'll be sitting in on some great presentations on all things missions-related. Plus, as an added bonus, there will be a mini reunion of the Kenya GP team, which will be really great. Needless to say, it'll be a great week. Please do pray, though, for the conference - for travel, safety, open hearts, and powerful movement of the Holy Spirit during that time. This will be a transformational time for many students, and they could use all your prayers for their time at Urbana. I ask that you pray also for me, that I would be able to do all I need to help these students grow close to God during their time there.

As IV has come to a close for the semester, it's been a time of mixed emotions. For some reason I've been feeling a mix of joy and melancholy. It really came into focus last Thursday with our last Large Group, which was a testimony night. We had two of the students who came to Christ come and speak about their conversions, which was really great. Then we opened up the floor to anyone else who wanted to share about what God has been doing in their lives. It was so great to hear those stories of God at work, and many of the students who spoke talked about how meaningful IV has been in their lives and exhortations to the others to not let the opportunities IV presents pass them by. We're saying goodbye to some of those students as they graduate this semester, and so those final messages were especially poignant, at least for me.

Yet as I went back home that night, as I thought about the friends we'll be missing at IV next semester, I couldn't help but think about what goodbyes mean to Christians. For us, there is no final goodbye. I know that this kind of thinking usually come around experiences of great loss - the loss of a family member or the final goodbye to a childhood friend - but it still holds true for these smaller farewells. I thought about the people that stepped up and talked about the work of God in their lives, and I thought these are the people I'll spend an eternity with. What a great priviledge! As Christmas approaches, I hope that you will see past the distractions of the season and remember the One Who made such hope possible for us. He is our joy.

"For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
- Luke 2:30-32