Oh the Humidity!

I got to visit lots of friends in Houston this weekend. Thankfully, we got to catch up inside, because man, Houston is stinking hot. And it's not even full swing summer yet. Eek!

I met Steven '09 for Chipotle lunch, and I got to hear about Pioneer Bible Translators. He's thinking about becoming a linguist, living with a group of people who have never heard of Jesus, translating the Bible into a language we've never even heard of, and planting a church there.

Then I hung out with Prisca '09 at Starbucks, where we talked about family, church, and growing in your ethnicity and living cross-culturally.

I met Colin '07 for dinner at Thai Gourmet, where I got to know his new wife Sara better and hear about their honeymoon plans. Newlyweds are so fun! We shared pictures of recent adventures - me with the home remodel and traipsing around Europe, Colin climbing a mountain for his bachelor party, and he and Sara roughing it in Alaska on a family vacation a while back.

Rhys '08 and Rachel '09 kindly put me up for the night and fed me apple pie for dessert and oatmeal fruit crisp for breakfast. I got to hear about medical school and crazy bio lab building projects. And I got to share lots of stories about Jack, Kyle, my church, and InterVarsity.

Finally, I headed to Second Baptist Church with Sean '07 and Kathleen '07. I got to meet their sweet baby girl, eat some Sunday school potluck, and talk about being married, figuring out anger, parenting, and welcoming the 2 Chinese students who will be staying with them for 2 1/2 weeks in July.

It was an Aggie-filled weekend, one of the best kinds of weekends in my opinion. I actually asked all of them to pray and consider partnering with my ministry with InterVarsity at A&M in different ways, and everyone listened to what I said and was open to praying about it. It was really encouraging. Even if everyone decides they need to say no, I knew everyone was actually going to think about it. Thanks for praying for my fundraising this summer. God's at work!

RecWeek

The Holy Spirit definitely seemed to be moving among my 13 Aggies! They faced conflicts with each other, forgave family members who have abused them, and grew in passion for spreading grace and love at A&M. The speaker, Gideon Tsang from the Austin church Vox Veniae, talked about being afraid, being a part of stories of grace, and being a good Samaritan. I think his talks gave words to what the Holy Spirit was doing.

We made some risky, God-sized plans for New Student Outreach in August. As a whole fellowship, we'll be handing out icy pops to hot students, driving freshmen to church, and playing games at one of the dorms. The LaFe Small Group will be playing soccer and handing out horchata. The co-ed Small Group will be doing Ice Cream for Ideas, to find out what people think about Jesus. The men's Small Group will be grilling and watching a manly movie. And we may have a fourth Small Group on facing opposition in Acts, which would do an outreach on choices we make in college. With Large Group, football games, and helping freshmen move in, we'll be busy!

Ben Nelson is our new Aggie IV staff worker. It was amazing to partner together for 2 weeks, and I'm so excited to work with him next year. He loved meeting and getting to know the Aggies. Plus, he got to experience his first yell practice.

I also got to teach 120 new Small Group Leaders over both weeks. We "trained for adventure" as pirates on the high seas. Mostly, that meant we dressed up the first day in eye patches and head scarves, yelled "Argh!" a lot, and had students tell us pirate jokes throughout the week.

The first week, I talked about the cost and pitfalls of leadership and how new Small Group Leaders can stay healthy facing these costs. Of course, I was reminded of a few things I could do myself! The second week, I taught students the inductive Bible study method. We covered how to lead others to observe, interpret, and apply what they read. It was exhilarating to help students learn a skill that will last them a lifetime, and will impact the campus, too.

We agreed to fast and pray on every Tuesday and Thursday this summer. Join us in praying! We haven't landed on a vision statement yet, so please pray for a vision next year that will help us to focus on following God more. Please pray for protection and preparation for students over the summer. Please also pray for healthy partnership with Asian American InterVarsity, our sister fellowship, and for our new chapter plants, LaFe (Latino students) and a South Asian group. Thanks!

Praying

Praying, by J.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom, was a good primer on the subject. It covered: meditating, praising, being searched by God, asking, complaining, hanging on through hardship or delayed answers, and praying corporately. Plus, it touched on the beliefs you need to have to relate to God through prayer so you don't get stuck in lies about what prayer is and who God is.

Writing style-wise, the book suffered from the same problem I'm told I have. The writing felt like stilted conversation. There were too many long, complicated sentences and far too many lists of verbs or adjectives that I lost myself in. The authors seemed to be trying to throw a slight joke in occasionally, but they always kept their distance with big words. Nothing wrong with big words and big sentences - you just don't have to use them when something simple will do.

It sometimes felt like they were trying to pack in too many slightly connected thoughts into the same chapter. They spent a lot of time explaining why they were talking about a subject that didn't at first glance have much to do with the chapter title. There's just too much to talk about with prayer!

If you can push through the writing style and stay with their thought process, you're in for a treat. I was challenged about the heart of prayer and seeking after the Lord. I was called back to some basic prayer practices I desperately need. And I was introduced to a couple new ideas to freshen up my prayer life.

In the next couple months, I'm hoping to:

Start reading the Bible all the way through, and read more of it using lectio divina.

Ask God to search my heart, meditating on Psalm 139.

Ask God how I should be interceding for others.

Structure my intercessory prayer using Biblical prayers, such as Psalm 9:9-10, 1 Sam 2:1-10, 1 Chron 29:10-19, 2 Chron 6:14-42, Daniel 9:4-19, Habakkuk 3:17-19, Luke 1:46-55, Eph 3:14-21, Phil 1:3-11, Col 1:9-12, Jude 24-25, and Matt 6:9-13.

Bring to God in wordless prayer one of my major areas of suffering. Close with Psalm 55:22. Pray my response to God (with words).

Consider how my personal prayer can improve my corporate worship, and vice versa.

"Doesn't the prospect of gaining wisdom make meditation worth the effort? Sadly, there are couch-potato Christians just as there are couch-potato TV watchers, who look on at others' efforts but make no effort at anything themselves and so get nowhere (82)." I pray this isn't me - I don't want to look back and wonder, "Whatever happened to my decision to pray diligently?" Especially ironic, as I'm typing this while sitting on a couch.