Thursday, September 29, 2011

Wow

God is truly amazing! I know people say this a lot, but seriously, He is!!! Every week we've had more and more people come check out CSF. Last night we had the most that any of the longtime members can remember come check it out, 44. It was pretty crowded but that's a good problem to have I guess, haha. Last night was also the first Wednesday night that I haven't preached since the school year began. Instead we had a night of worship experience. We had various stations set up around the room where people could go to and interact with God in their own way. I was sitting on a side of the room and had multiple students come to me wanting to talk about stuff going on in their lives and I was able to pray with them. There are times in this position of Campus Minister where I definitely don't feel like I have the qualifications to do this job because there are somethings that I don't know the answers to right away. But the cool thing is, as Brian Baldwin once told me, I can't do this on my own and I'm not going to know all the answers. It's in situations like this where I feel the most used by God because there's no way that I can do anything on my own to help these students. I'm really excited about this school year. There have already been so many things that have happened and I'm sure that there will be many, MANY more things to happen! I'm also excited about something I'm doing in my personal walk. I just recently completed a 90-day chronological Bible reading plan. I've already started it, and let me tell you, I'm REALLY enjoying it! My hope is that every 90 days, I will have read through the entire Bible, chronologically. This way I can learn more about the historical progression of how everything happened and I will be able to piece together and tie in Scripture in my sermons and in my own understanding. This way, I'll be reading through the entire Bible 4 times every year! If any of you are interested in something like this or maybe you are just curious as to the chronological order of things, feel free to message me and I can send it to you! Well, I'm off to work on some Master's homework and take a test. Love you guys! Till next time!

Pat

Monday, September 19, 2011

Update

I'm SO sorry for not being up on this posting thing, haha. But a lot has happened since that last post. I kicked off the guys' d-group last Thursday! We only had about 4 guys show up for the first one, but it still went very well. Emily is kicking off the girls' d-group this Thursday night. I've gotten a few more people to join Emily and I in this ministry through supporting us, but I'm still looking for about 42 people who would support us with only $20 a month. If I can reach my goal of finding 50 people who would do that, I would jump to 89% funded. Last Wednesday Lock Haven had a club fair. A local CMA church, Commonplace Church, partnered with us and provided us with an ice cream cart and about 9 gallons of ice cream to pass out to people who came by and to help promote CSF. That night we had about 33 students show up, which was the most in a LONG time! Hopefully more people will be interested in coming out and checking out what CSF is and joining the community that we have here at Lock Haven. This week I'm going to be starting the 2nd unit in the curriculum that I have for "Like Jesus". I'm pretty excited about it and my hope is that the students will get a lot out of it and will encounter Jesus in a new, life changing way! Life's going well for Emily and I and we certainly appreciate the prayers that you all are offering up for us! We would ask that you continue to pray that God would use Emily and I to work with the students here and work to change lives! Till next time!

Pat

Thursday, September 1, 2011

And So It Begins... =)

Well school has finally started! YAY!!! =) It seemed like it would never get here, but alas it has. The past few days I've gotten to 'set up' my 'office' in lower Bentley. In other words, hang out in the cafeteria so I'm where the students are. Yesterday was the first CSF service for the year! I spent the middle part of my day standing out in the middle of campus with a few of our students passing out flyers and candy, inviting students to come check CSF out. It was a pretty impressive turnout, with almost 30 people showing up!!! God sure is amazing! I began the semester-long series that we're simply calling "Like Jesus". It seemed to be a big hit and go over well! I've even had some students come up to me already asking deep questions about the Bible and about life and I absolutely love it! I appreciate the prayers that you all are giving and encourage you all to continue to pray for Emily and I and the students here at Lock Haven University. I should be able to update you all more frequently now that I'm all set up, have internet access, and the school years off to a start. I should be finishing up the first newsletter here within the next week or so. I'm going to be sending it out to people who's information I already have, but I still might not have yours. If you're interested in receiving the newsletter mailings either digitally or by hard copy, send me an email with your email address and/or mailing address. Thanks! Till next time!


Patrick