July Update 1 – Summertime

We are now well into the summer, and last Saturday had our final Summer English Club/ RUF activity in Tlalpan Forest just to the south of University City. Our outing included high altitude capture the flag, a game largely unknown here, but liked when learned.

Because of all of the swine flu scare, everything was pushed back a week, and we finished in mid-June with a final all-ministries get together where Jared led the music and I preached on Hebrews 12 and what it means to fix our eyes on Christ. Then students got back to the grindstone for another week of finals, we began our summer English Clubs with the help of Ruth Anderson, and we met with folks that were interested in joining our student servant team next semester.

So far in July, we have met with the 10 students who have committed to the service team and worked on catching up with last semester and getting ready for the one to come. Today was a big day, because the Baptist Student Union folks agreed to let us use their space again for large group the coming semester, alleviating pressure to get a place to rent or buy in the weeks before August 10 and classes roll around. Right now I’m working on talks for a youth/university retreat in Monterrey next week, and then for staff training and two church visits in the Atlanta area the week after that.

So, no rest for the weary, really, and we continue to be behind on communicating with our faithful supporters and looking for more folks to support our ministry (Ruth and I each currently have about half of our budgets raised). Sorry this website has been pretty much the main update mechanism for the ministry!

Things you can pray for:

*Praise the Lord for allowing us to have a place for next semester. Please pray for a building to become available next to campus to rent or own, and for us to be able to get into it!
*Praise the Lord for a good finish to the semester and a group of students committed to serving next year. We were surprised that so many of our students signed up to be a part of the servant team; please pray for our pre-semester retreat and freshmen outreach with them in July and August.
*Praise the Lord for students that are on the brink of faith in Christ; pray for them to get and respond to the gospel as we move toward the new semester.
*Praise the Lord that we have enough income to barely stay afloat; pray for increased and new givers so that we can meet our budgets and have a financial foundation for next semester.
*Praise the Lord for new beginnings and new semesters; pray for students that are finding out today and next week whether they have been accepted by the UNAM; pray that we would have many contacts, both Christian and non-Christian, among the 35,000 entering students; pray for the new ways we are trying to contact and serve freshmen this coming semester (things are not quite the same as in the US!).

Thanks for your support and for reading this far!