I'm Goin To Kenya!

Bwana Asifiwe! ("Praise the Lord!" in Swahili)
Lindsey and I have been saying this over and over again for the things God has been doing in our lives this year. We had our first child, Ethan, in June and it has been a blast! As staff with Christian Student Fellowship, we’ve been praising God for how He continues to raise up more students to follow Him at UIS and Lincoln Land. Finally, as a current board member of Jump for Joel, I’ve been so blessed to be able to witness up close the ways God continues to provide for his children who are in need.

This year I have the opportunity to serve my family, and these excellent organizations in a really tangible, exciting way. This summer, I’ll be leading a group of students from Christian Student Fellowship to Kenya where we will be teaming up with Jump for Joel to love and serve the children of Gathiga Hope Children’s Home and Kibiria Slum. While in Gathiga we will continue to strengthen our relationships with the children and workers and will do a building project to meet some of the children’s practical needs. In Kibiria slum, we will be serving meals to the children who otherwise would go without food (some, up to 2 days at a time!). With the rest of our time, we’ll do some traveling, encourage members of the local church, and visit old friends.

As I said, this trip has implications in many areas for me. As a husband and father, my hope is that our family will always be about the work of loving and following Jesus. This trip is a way that I get to model that vision and share my experiences with them in a time when we all can’t go together. As a campus minister, I cannot understate the implications of this trip for our students. God has a way of shaping students in incredible ways while on mission trips. The CSF community is drawn closer together in love and purpose, and we as a staff have to say “bwana asifiwe!” For Jump for Joel, the stories of the children will always be its lifeblood. Whenever more people are introduced to the Kenyan children, more become invested in the ministry. Finally, this trip is a way that I get to encounter and serve God in a unique way. The last two trips I’ve taken to Kenya have been literally life changing for me. Hopefully, you get the picture as to why I’m so excited about this trip!

I believe strongly God is directing me to lead this trip. I’ve got to be honest though – I can’t make it there on my own. I need you. Before anything else, would you be willing to pray for this trip and for me? Your prayers are vital to the effectiveness of this trip. Please pray for the orphanage in Gathiga, the children in
Kibiria slum, our team, and for God to be glorified through our me on this trip. The trip cost is $3300, the majority of which is due by March 1 so that we can buy our plane tickets at the most affordable price.

This cost also includes our food, living, and vaccination expenses.

Though it is never comfortable for me to ask for financial support, I recognize that not everyone has been blessed with the flexibility to leave the country for two weeks. I also know that God has given other great gifts to you that He can use. Because of this, would you consider financially supporting my trip as well? It would be a privilege to have you as an equal partner in this ministry.

Thank you so much for taking the time to hear about what God is currently doing in my life. If you are interested in supporting my trip financially please make checks payable to “Jump for Joel” with my name in the memo line. Please contact me at the email listed below and I'll provide you with the address to send it to. Also, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me at the contact information listed below.

Thanks so much!
-David
david@uiscsf.org

Top 10 of 2010

It has been a long time since we have thought about blogging....mainly because we have had a whirlwind of a year! We were writing our Christmas cards this week and begin to brain storm about the best things that have happened to us this year. So, what better way to revive our blog than post our top 10 things of 2010!

Top 10 of 2010
10. We decided to stop buying frozen pizzas in order to prefect the art of home made pizza making...o, and also to be more healthy :)
9. David shaved his beard this November for the first time in 2 years. He promptly grew it back in 2 weeks.
8. Lindsey, with the help of her mom and grandmas, made Ethan’s first Halloween costume. He was a cute sack of taters!
7. David has continued to pursue his passion of song writing and is in the process of recording a CD on his MacBook.
6. David attended his first ever Vikings game in the MetroDome over Thanksgiving break.
5. Relationships with International Students. This fall, David begin meeting with Jun, a Korean student at UIS, to speak English for an hour every week on campus. Since then, we have been able to meet Jun’s wife and two children. We are so excited to continue having them over for dinner and learning about each other’s cultures. Also this fall, Lindsey was blessed with opportunity to disciple an exchange student from China who accepted Jesus while here!
4. Late this summer, we were able to open up our home and have our friend Derek move into our basement. It has been so much fun getting to know Derek better and having an extra set of hands around to rake our leaves.
3. David’s little brother, Scott moved to Springfield in August to begin college at UIS. It is great having someone in David’s family live so close to us.
2. We moved into our first house together this spring! It is crazy and weird that we are in a place in life to be home owners, we feel so grown up ;)
1. Our beautiful, wonderful son, Ethan Andrew’s birth!

We hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful Christmas season!

Maybe in 2011 we will be better bloggers :)

Sump Pump

Last night, at around 1:30 a.m. our sump pump alarm started going off. I went downstairs to see what the deal was. I ended up spending a half an hour standing in front of the sump pump alarm just staring at it as it blared its alarm over and over again because I didn't know how to fix it.

We're having a baby soon. The due date is in a little over a month. Last night as I stood there staring at the sump pump blaring in my face, all I could think about was how very soon I'm going to have another being in my life who will do things over which I'll have absolutely no control. I expect that there will be times when our child will cry and all I'll be able to do is sit there and endure the screaming. I'm so excited for the challenge, but last night really reminded me that this is real, and it's coming soon!

We can't wait!
-dave

Dreams Coming True

The last few months have been crazy in campus ministry. Hence why we haven't blogged much. Many apologies!

In the midst of this whirlwind, I felt like I needed to follow up on a previous post that talked about a direction God seemed to be guiding CSF toward. I feel like if there were ever a post that hits on what we wanted this blog to be about, -- "We hope this blog is a record of our encounters with our great God and the people He puts in our path." --- this is it.

After that previous blog post, crazy things began to happen. Check this out--

1. I have been given an amazing opportunity to meet with area High School Youth Group leaders on an almost monthly basis.
2. We scheduled an event where we essentially took our "Edge" service to the High School Youth service at our church (South Side Christian Church). We had the service February 28th. We brought lots of college students to the event and they did a great job of connecting with the high schoolers. During the service, Soebeck Song (the Youth Leader) initiated a time in which all the students (high school and college) prayed over the seniors. Afterward, we were able to get contact info for those coming to UIS and LLCC, and provided info for those not going to UIS & LLCC.
3. Without any prior knowledge, our friends the Blacks decided to bring the Lakeside Christian Church High schoolers to the Edge on March 12th to feed us dinner and to stay for the service, exposing each of them to campus ministry!
4. A student from Rochester Christian Church asked Todd to show him around campus. On March 8th(I think I got the date right) Todd and I gave him the tour and we were able to share how important a community of believers on campus can be. In addition, he just happened to run into 3 of our student leaders during the tour.
5. This Friday, one of our students' parents is cooking for the Edge and bringing their High School youth group along, exposing them to campus ministry.
6. We scheduled an event on April 23rd to bring the South Side High Schoolers out to campus for a Friday night service so that they could see what campus ministry is like actually on campus. Soebeck thought that this would give them several opportunities to really get exposed to campus ministry. The event has turned into something much bigger. After simply telling the student leaders this event was happening, they said they wanted to invite their youth groups as well. Without trying to make it happen at all, we now have several of their youth groups attending this event. We have had to try to find a bigger space. In addition to this, we got a call from a former student who is a rapper who just happened to have the 23rd available and wanted to see if we would like him to give a concert (not knowing this event was going on). So now, we will be having a concert after the Edge by a rapper who is a former student of CSF.

Pretty sweet. Can't wait to see what He does next!!!
-dave

Christmas

Just love the impact of these words...

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Praise Jesus for coming here to save us!

Baby!

Yup! That's right! We're having a baby!

Dreaming big

A couple of summers ago, John (a great friend of mine) and I embarked on an 8 week road trip. Our destinations were various CIY conferences across the country at which we would represent the National Association of Christian Campus Ministries (now, the ACM). Our goal was to make high school students aware of the fact that they could be Christians on their "secular" campus.

Perhaps one of our most startling discoveries for us was that while students were interested, their youth leaders were nearly oblivious to campus ministries. We had several leaders approach us and say they didn't know such things even existed on secular campuses.

This is tragic. Tragic and frightening.

Consider: An overwhelming majority of high school students in youth groups will NOT be attending Bible college.

As a new campus minister, one thing of which I am becoming increasingly aware is that college students have extremely specific needs. This is why Todd and Gretchen started CSF at UIS & LLCC and why my wife and I are working alongside them now. One of our main purposes is to guide students into a deeper relationship with God as they go through some extreme life changes. It requires intense amounts of time, attention and prayer.

Unfortunately, I'm repeatedly reminded that many high school students are not even exposed to campus ministries, and, for those who are, it is little more than advice given in passing.

What if this changed?
What if every high school student in Springfield planning on attending secular college was aware that campus ministry existed?
What if they were not only exposed to campus ministry, but had experienced it ahead of time?

How many more would transition well from H.S. to college and from college to full time lay service in a church community?
How many more believers would exist in the workplace?
How many more over-seas missionaries would Christ raise up? How many more pastors, teachers, etc?

This isn't meant to be an accusatory shout. It's meant to be the start of a brainstorming session among believers in Springfield interested in H.S. believers not dropping off the map once they hit the university. I want to dream big about this topic today. Pray with me about this...

thanks
-dave