Newsletters

December 2000

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have a great Christmas as we remember how God came as a little baby so that He might die for us as a man!

It’s amazing how having a son has given us new perspective on God and His love for us. As we think of Him sending His son to earth, we can better comprehend the vastness of His love for us. There are many times that, as we watch someone interacting with Andrew, our hearts smile and we are reminded about how blessed we are.

As we think about Christmas this year, we are continually reminded of how blessed we are because of God’s gift of His son.

We would like to share with you how God has continued to bless us as we have taken on new roles this year.

My role has changed a lot since this time last year. My main focus is Andrew, and I would not have it any other way. In addition to the small task of caring for him(?!) I am responsible for handling the team finances. This means I do all the paperwork for our local bank account and our accounts at headquarters, write all the checks, and deposit all the money given to us by students for various things like the fall retreat. This keeps me pretty busy!

I am also discipling a student, Jaci. She lives off campus and is leading a Bible study of other women who live off campus. Jaci really wants to reach out to more women and is making appointments to meet with women who want to know more about having a personal relationship with God. Please pray for her as she steps out in faith and pursues ways to reach out to all the women off campus

This year I have been able to do what I came on staff to do—help develop a group of men into disciples of Christ. There are ten men that I meet with every week. Each of these men helps lead the ministry on my area of campus. I help them develop their walk with the Lord and help them become more effective in evangelism and discipleship.

They are all young guys and are at various places in their walk with God. To one degree or another they are experiencing the growing pains that come during the transition to independence. They are working through what it means for God to be in charge of every area of their lives. They are continuing to learn who they are and how God has gifted them. They are also thinking though the direction their lives are going to take. It is a privilege to help them down this path!

Ann Arbor is an educated and affluent town. There are lots of unique places to shop and eat. It is also a relatively safe place to live.

On the other hand it has it’s quirks. There are a lot of dirt roads within this city of 100,000. You have to get an expert to declare a tree in your yard dead before you can cut it down. They have tried to prohibit “For Sale” signs in yards. You can go to the fanciest restaurant in jeans. Ann Arborites also drive like they are in Chicago.

In spite of all of this we like it here and now look at Ann Arbor as home. One thing that has helped make it home is our church. We are beginning to get to know the people there. Shelly has enjoyed participating in the ladies’ Bible study and caring for the babies in the nursery. Nate has had the opportunity to teach our Sunday School class.

Funny how a couple Buckeyes could feel at home in Ann Arbor!

I Agree With Scott

We wanted to give you an update on how Scott Week went. Overall the week was a success.

We had around 550 students and staff from 10 campus ministries wearing shirts on campus that said “I agree with Scott”. It was very encouraging to look around campus and see bright neon-green shirts all over the place! For the first time I can remember, most of the Christian organizations were working together for our common goal of sharing the gospel with students on campus.

Almost every student and staff who wore a shirt had multiple opportunities throughout the week to tell people about Christ. Many of them shared with their friends or classmates for the first time.

On the first day I had a graduate student named Brandon come and sit next to me. He asked me who Scott was and what he believed. I came to find out that he believes in some kind of supreme being but not a being that has anything to do with us directly. I talked to him about how God is a personal God, not an impersonal force, and that God desires a relationship with us. He had never really considered that God is personal and left realizing that he has a lot to think about.

One of our student leaders and I had a chance to talk to a philosophy major who had some very negative views of Christians. We had a very constructive discussion with him and he left realizing that Christianity is a more consistent belief system than he realized. He also began to see how his belief in a universe of random chance requires as much faith as our belief in a universe created by God.

One of the surprises was how apathetic the campus was. We knew that many students would not care about our message, but we thought that we would have some people protesting our presence and verbally challenging us to our face. This really did not happen. The most inspired disagreements came on an online forum set up for people to discuss the issues of the week. This led one of my guys to observe that Michigan students are “opinionated wimps”. A fair description!

Our students, especially the younger students, will never be the same after this week. They took a stand for their faith. They got lots of experience in sharing their faith. Some saw people come to Christ. Some lost “friends” because of the stand they took. They are no longer wearing a green t-shirt, but now people know that they are Christians.

Scott had a great week and certainly talked to more people than any of us. He did a great job representing Jesus Christ through his life, through his one-on-one conversations and through his speaking engagements on campus. Scott wore a shirt that said "I am Scott". The response he got most from people was, "Are you really the Scott?"

Thank you for all of your prayers for our students, for Shelly and me, and for Scott himself! God was glorified this week at U-M!

Andrew’s Update

Mommy has stopped taking me for walks because it’s getting cold. Maybe I’ll get to play in some of that stuff called snow if we get a bunch of it. I am almost 10 months old! I’m still crawling like I’m in the army, but I am thinking about starting to pull myself up on the furniture. I like to talk and it sure makes Mommy and Daddy excited. I am learning about Jesus’ birthday. I hear we’re having a big celebration for it!

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