Busy Times On The Coast...

It's been a crazy week, here on the coast. The weather is trying to change into spring, slowly, but trying to change none the least. Things are getting super busy on the campus. Seems like each of the professors are keeping our students overwhelmed for the remainder of our semester. I understand the need for the 'sense of urgency' for the class requirements, I'm just sad that it seems to occupy so much of our student's thought processes that they don't have time (or think they have the time) to slow down and spend a few quality moments with the Creator of the Universe. Pray for our students. God has so much planned for them.

Thursday night was insane at h2o! We hosted The Mighty Underdoggs, a 'somewhat' local Christian band in concert. They were very good, and our students loved them! We had our highest attendance yet at our h2o worship gatherings! And afterwards, the guys in the band just wanted to hang out with our students for a while...great night!

Friday night, was a needed night of relaxation. Denise and I watched some of the NCAA games on the tube, in the meantime, I was doing some research & studying for the weekends Bible Study and messages. It ended up being a very late night...after 2am before I made it to bed.

Saturday was definitely not our normal Saturday. Spent the day studying and working on PowerPoint for Sunday night's church service. But that night was fabulous! Denise and I attended the World Student Association's International Dinner at TU. I stood in amazement! We have a very large international population on campus, and this is our way of celebrating with their native food, dress and entertainment. Tabitha and the Concert Choir performed, along with numerous international performances. The food was fabulous. And it was great to spend some time with several of our international students that are a part of our h2o campus ministry. During this time, the Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity was having their annual Silent Auction. Yes, we got in on some of that too. But, I DID get a new coffee maker...an MP3 player...and a few other goodies out the deal. What was funny, was that our h2o students that were part of the KKPsi, was calling me during the International Dinner, keeping me informed of the bidding! Too Funny. Afterward, the Student Government Association put on a casino night for the campus, and for the guests of the International Dinner. Under normal circumstances I would have stayed away from that stuff. But the SGA designed this so that NO ONE spent any money...NO ONE won any money. Everyone was given free chips and tokens to play the different games. Everyone was also given tickets to put into drawings for free gift packages. We had a great time...and I hadn't played Black Jack in YEARS! In addition, this gave me phenomenal opportunities to begin relationships with students that I had never met before. Another 2am night!

Sunday was chalked full of stuff! The day started off with the beginning of our new Sunday Morning Small Group. We had 8 in attendance! We followed that be having lunch with several of our students in the cafeteria on campus. We then attended a Martial Arts Competition that was held on campus. Several of our students were entered in the different type matches. Services for The River Church got started at 6pm, and again, we had our largest attendance yet. God is truly amazing.

If you can't tell by now, we love our students...

After work tomorrow, I've got to speak at Heidelberg College, beginning at 9pm at their collegiate ministry. This is a great opportunity for me to share with their students and to also tell them about our new church plant.

Oh, and I really can't forget to share this...last Sunday, Easter Sunday, we were the guests at Lakeshore Community Church in Huron, Ohio. The pastor had an emergency trip out of state, and I filled in for him in the Sunday morning service. We were overwhelmed with how warm their congregation was...it was a great, great day...and the most exciting part, was that 2 ladies accepted Christ as their personal Savior. Now that's how I like to spend Easter.

OK, time to go for now...hopefully, we'll get some extra rest this week...in the meantime, Denise is keeping the coffee hot...