a good start

The work of planting Wash U Christian Fellowship is giving me
new reasons to appreciate all of the farming metaphors found in Scripture.

Classes at Wash U are in full swing and students are settling into their routines. I glanced at the calendar today and realized that I've been meeting new students for nearly three weeks! Each day I experience moments that convince me that I've been at this for much longer than that and then other moments when it feels like move-in day just happened.

I am quickly learning that starting something new is hard work: lots of new relationships, sharing and modeling the vision for this fellowship, and not knowing who will join me to reach out on campus. Yes, I am very much aware of my own stretching and growing as I've stepped into this planting adventure, yet I am also discovering that God has been working harder than I ever will! He's been preparing students to encounter Him. Each day I step on campus asking Him to show me where He is at work and how I can be a faithful partner, joining in what He's already been doing. Here are a few highlights from the last couple of weeks:

• I met Corrie in one of the residence halls on campus as I was knocking on her neighbor's door to invite her to our first outreach event, ice blocking. I invited Corrie to join us, too. She wasn't able to come, but when she ran into me on campus later in the week she asked if I would make sure to invite her to our next event. I decided to risk asking her about her spiritual background as we continued to chat. She said that she didn't have one, but that she was interested in exploring what that might look like. We met for lunch early last week and after hearing more of her story I asked if she would be interested in checking out Jesus for the next few weeks by looking at some stories about him from the Gospels. She agreed and said, "Yeah, I should figure out if this is for me."
  

• Kurt is a sophomore at Wash U who identifies as a Christian, but did not find a fellowship that was a good fit for him on campus last year. Howie, my planting coach, and I were visiting some other students in a residence hall when we met Kurt as he was posting some fliers for his acapella group. He asked why we are launching Wash U Christian Fellowship, but as I shared the vision and invited him to join us he said he was too busy to be a part of something new. Honestly, I didn't think much more about that interaction except that it highlighted my need for a good response to the question Kurt posed. Two days ago I received an email from Kurt. He wrote, "I just wanted to let you know that I'm still looking for a faith community at Wash U, and as I've though about it more, the prospect of being able to shape that community, even in some small way, since it's just in its formative time, has become more exciting to me." What a fun surprise to find in my inbox!
  

• I met Andrew on move-in day when he stopped by my table looking for information on another campus ministry and then asking about InterVarsity. He's a freshman from Hawaii and he plays on the football team. This year's InterVarsity interns from the Central Region had spent time praying on campus at Wash U as part of their summer training and they had a sense that God wanted to move in the athletic community. As soon as I met Andrew I thought, "I'm going to stalk that kid, but in a good way. I'll stalk him for Jesus." I visited his room multiple times, but I had not been able to reconnect with him. Yesterday I decided it would be worth inviting him to Cross Training - my attempt at gathering some potentially missional students for experiences in Scripture, missional prayer, and evangelism - via text message. He responded and indicated that he was interested in joining us. I am really excited to pursue helping him reach out to his teammates on the football team!

Whew! There are more stories to tell and this is just the beginning! God is at work!