Couldn't Have Scripted it Better

Events happened two days ago...

Typical day. Wake up and head to campus. Except today, instead of hitting campus alone, my director called and invited me along on one of his appointments. When I get to campus, he informs me that the guy we were supposed to meet ended up having to reschedule. In my mind, I'm thinking...it's going to be one of those days. Things one after another are probably going to go wrong.

Oanh. We decide to catch up a little (I just returned from a week long conference in Colorado) and to spend some time prayer walking on campus - praying that God would raise up laborers and student leaders on this campus. After we prayed, before he had to run off for a conference call, we decided to approach some students and do a few spiritual interest surveys. We talked to this one girl, wasn't expecting a whole lot since we were a little short on time. Turns out, she seemed to be a pretty strong believer, a freshman, and very interested in being a part of epic!!!

Saul. I come back to UNO at 2 to meet up with the guy that we had to reschedule with, and proceeded to have the most "textbook" evangelistic appointment ever. He's a student from Honduras (UNO apparently has some kind of partnership with Honduras since there's an insane number of students at UNO from there). He tells us about his spiritual background - grew up going to church, but was never really "into" it. He even made a distinction that he believed in God, but didn't have a relationship with Him. He also tells us that his father became a believer a couple years ago, and has seen drastic life change, which has caused him to be a lot more open. We go through the gospel, and what do you know, he prays to receive Christ as His Lord and Savior!!!!

Demetris. After that appointment, me and Antonio (one of my teammates) meet up with another contact we made from when we tabled. We've been praying that we would find a key Impact (African American ministry partnered with CCC) student to lead at UNO...and as we met with her, it seemed very apparent that she was the leader we had been praying for. After we shared the vision for reaching the campus, we asked her if she would consider being a part of it, and possibly leading...to which she replied, "I'm glad you asked, cause as you were talking, I was already thinking of ideas"!!!

God is at work!!! It's such a privilege to be a part of what He's doing!

Thank You

The eye is doing a lot better. I'm still having to do eyedrops, but the doctor says it should all be cleared up by the beginning of next week. Thank you to everyone who called me, emailed me, and prayed for me.

But the battle continues. The original plan this week was to launch our ministry at Tulane and at Loyola. But we ran into road blocks at both schools. In fact, it doesn't look like we're going ot be able to be at Loyola at all this year. The administration has specifically stated it doesn't want Crusade presence at its school for now. Please continue to pray against the strongholds in the city. Please continue to pray for the lives on the students on these campuses, and that God will open the door somehow for us to bring the gospel to the campus.

I still can't believe that a uear has already passed since this city was hit with Katrina. The city is still devastated and there is so much work yet to be done. Click here for a perspective from one of my teammates (who is originally from Louisiana).

I had the opportunity to attend the Presidential address to New Orleans yesterday. And it accomplished two things. It caused me to develop a greater respect for our President, and more importantly a greater compassion for the people of New Orleans.

Strange Things...

strange things keep happening...

BUT before we get to those, here's an update on how our first week of launching on campus has been going. We spent the first two days passing out FSKs (Freshmen Survival Kits - laundry bags filled with a New Testament, a DVD, a CD, and a book...something like More than a Carpenter or Blue Like Jazz, etc) The purpose is two folds, we want to sow broadly (each kit also has a link to NOLAstudents.com), and to surface potential student leaders who have been called to reach their campus.

I have to be honest, as I've been praying this week, I've realized that I don't truly believe that God has raised up students who can start movements on these campuses. But as I've continued to pray, I sense the Lord giving me greater and greater faith.

Yesterday, we had a meeting for all those who were interested. We had 12 students show up to be potential leaders!!! I don't like to read into things, but as I was praying with one of the students who is interested in starting epic, the thought occured to me that Jesus started with 12 disciples!

But as we continue with our starting up on all the campuses, I'm continually reminded of the spiritual war that we're in. I'm not one to quickly attribute things to spiritual warfare, but I can't explain these things in any other way. In hte past couple weeks, we had two different people on our team fall down some stairs on different occasions. The little 2 year old girl of one of the families dislocated her arm. People are having technology problems with their computers and their cell phones. Monday night, both my roommate and I have really bad headaches. And then yesterday, halfway through the day, my eye started hurting really bad. I could barely keep it open. It was really sensitive to light, was really red, and kept tearing up. I managed to get an appointment with a doctor to find that somehow, I developed a really bad eye infection. And because of that, I had to miss being on campus today, and I won't be able to travel with the team to Southeastern Lousiana University (about an hour away) tomorrow...the doctor wants to see me again tomorrow afternoon.

Satan is trying to discourage us and will stop at nothing to keep us off campus and away from these students. PLEASE join with us in praying. We desperately need your prayers cause we must be doing something right, and satan is not excited.