Want me to coach your students this Summer?  With Mission Summer, I am helping folks around the world go on a “Stay-at-Home Mission Trip” and live missionally with their coworkers, friends and family through weekly webcast meetings, videos and ministry tools.

SungMin is one of our “stay-at-home missionaries.”  An international student from South Korea, she accepted Jesus 2 months ago through Cru.  She’s back home for the summer without local support for walking with Jesus.  This is what she writes: “Through (Mission Summer), I hope I can grow in Christ personally as I set firm foundation in God. I hope I can be prepared to disciple others who have not heard about God. I am hoping to learn how to start off the conversation with the unreached without offending them. Also, I hope I can meet different Christians, build strong relationships with them and ultimately encourage and pray for them as they walk their lives with the Lord.”  You can read more about Sung Min and other students attending Mission Summer by visiting GCX.org/Partners/looking-forward-to-mission-summer.  Pray for her, and for all the students I’ll coach too.

    Mission Summer can also be used as a drag-and-drop resource to make your  church’s whole college/career ministry for the Summer, or supplement what you’ve already got going.  I’d love to help you set it up!

So, the Holy Spirit totally hijacked my day.  My friend, Brian, and I went to Full Sail (a university that pumps graduates into major film, music and video game industries every month) to try to meet with a pastor and some students there.  Instead, we met a comic book professor and his student daughter then took a tour of the campus and met just about every Christian there, including Aldania (below) who is an admissions representative.  She talks to students as they consider enrolling in the school and she said that a large number of students and their parents ask whether there is any kind of spiritual community on the campus.  Now, she can finally say “yes” and point them to us!

I will get to flex my creative muscles as we share the gospel through film festivals and discussions on spiritual topics based on the major themes of story.  Best of all, we can help these students shine a light in one of the darkest areas of culture: the media. Please pray for us and these brave students!

 

Karen is still slowly recovering from last month’s concussion and, on top of that, our  Katherine got pneumonia for 2 weeks!  The poor little thing was coughing herself silly all the time with temperatures up to 104.  It was tough to stand outside her door at night and just hear her moaning with every breath.  Still, the trooper never complained about it.  If you asked her how she was doing she would say, “Grrreat!”  (She’s working on her “r” sounds :).  She was still energetic enough to wrestle us over the vaporizer mask we had to give her several times a day as well.  In spite of the challenges, though, we had some super sweet times with her too.  Perhaps the illness slowed her down enough to get cuddly, but we’ve gotten some of the best hugs and quiet times together.

 

Arthur, however, has not been quiet.  He just turned 6 this month, and he has been reading just about every book and cereal box  he can get his hands on.  He’s also  fascinated by every ninja and dangerous creature he can find (from wolves to dragons).  He seems drawn to dangerous and scary things, perhaps to compensate for his own fearfulness.  For whatever reason, however, it’s provided endless playtime for daddy.

One of the neat things that has come about from our board game night is a relationship with Alex and Katie.  They are on STINT this year, the temporary program that we took part in last year.  They were some of our most consistent gamers each month, and we got to know them very well.  They babysat our children from time to time and we even got to counsel them a bit.  The big question on their minds, like a lot of STINTers, was “where are we going next?”

Alex and Jeff spent hours talking and praying and exploring what God had for them.  They have finally decided to help with  the campus ministry in Syracuse, NY.  We were disappointed to say goodbye, but Jeff told Alex, “The wilderness will refresh your souls, the culture needs your harvest labor and the traditional campus feel will be rewarding even as it needs your entrepreneurial spirit.”  Alex replied, “That’s one of the most encouraging things I’ve heard since making the decision.  Thanks for taking the time to get to know me this year.”

In a team meeting the other day, we had a guest from our JESUS Film folks who shared stories that we’re just not allowed to tell about things happening in closed countries. I heard things that will stick with me for the rest of my life about the bravery and sacrifice of people we know. I also heard that Jesus is physically wandering the hills of some Muslim countries healing people and leading small group!
One thing I can share, though is a lesson this guy told us he has gleaned from the hundreds of stories he’s collected, and I think this would bless you as well! He said that he’s always taught his kids to see themselves as God sees them, but wondered exactly how to explain what that means. “God is timeless,” he said. “Therefore, He sees the whole span of our relationship at once. While He is interacting with the ‘right-now’ you who is constantly sinning and falling away He is (at the same time) interacting with the ‘10k-years-from-now you’ who has been fully glorified and walking with Him for age upon age.”

I don’t know about you, but I find a lot of encouragement in that idea. It reminds me to give myself the right balance of Grace, Truth and Time just like He does. In this marathon, Aslan (Jesus) will meet us at the end of this life and say, “the dream is over. THIS is the morning!”

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