Almost Official

I received word this morning via email that I will be officially employed by InterVarsity! This is wonderful news for me and Laura. It has only been 26 days since I received approval to begin fund development.

Earlier this month I began my reading list for seminary. Currently I am reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I was convicted after reading his chapter on prayer that too many of my prayers are vague and unspecific. I pray that God would bless, and guide, and fill and direct which are all great things, but at the end of the day I don't know whether or not they are answered. And so I have determined to pray with specificity. This morning I was thinking about fund development and prayed that I would receive 75% of my funding by the end of the day so that I could begin work with InterVarsity. I knew I was being quite bold and perhaps acting a little impatiently. I finished the day with only 70% of my support pledged but I have been appointed to employment regardless! It is awesome how God works even beyond our imagination.

Big News!

We received big news this week. After several weeks of waiting, I am now official with InterVarsity. This doesn't mean that I have a job yet. It means I am now clear to begin fund raising. Honestly, the whole process kind of intimidates me, but we are convinced that this is where God wants us, and so we will be faithful to His calling. I am excitied to reconnect with many people that I have not talked to much since college. I am still waiting on supplies from the national InterVarsity office, but I was able to send out a small set of prayer letters this week. Last night I ordered my business cards (it makes me feel so offical).

Provisional Appointment

We are now one step closer on our journey to InterVarsity staff work! I had my interview with the area directors a couple of Saturdays ago. Last week I was formally offered a provisional appointment to InterVarsity staff. This means they would like to offer me the job but we are still waiting on some paperwork. I am hoping that the paperwork will be completed this week. Once it is my very lengthy application and references will be sent off to Madison, Wisconsin, InterVarsity's national headquarters. They will set up an account in my name and send me many, many envelopes. I can then begin the monumental task of fundraising. We will be raising a lot more money than I originally anticipated ($68,356). Part of this is my salary and benefits and the rest covers the costs for ministry work. I will need to raise 75% ($51,267) of my support in order to begin work with IV in the fall. This will certainly be a work of God! We are hopeful now, but you can pray that we will not lose heart as the summer and our campaign progress.

Rough Draft of our First Prayer Letter

It has been long time since I have caught up with many of you. Laura and I have had a couple of big events in the past year. We are back in our house after spending a couple of months in a hotel because of a house flood. Laura is enjoying her time at home with our son Benjamin who is a year and half now. (It is amazing how much parenting changes your life!) I was accepted to seminary full time this winter. I will start work on my masters of divinity at Biblical Seminary in September. This is certainly a time of great excitement (and also nervousness) for us both.

The question we are grappling with now is “What does the Lord have for us next?” As we have prayed through this question, I have been presented with an opportunity to do full time ministry on the campus of the University of Delaware. This is much more than I could have hoped or imagined. For the past four years I have had a home at Kirk Middle School, investing daily in the lives of many teenagers and their families. Although leaving my ministry at the middle school will be painful, I am strongly persuaded that the Lord is calling us to move on.

I will be joining the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. InterVarsity for those of you who don’t know is an evangelical college ministry which seeks to transform the lives of students and faculty and equip them to change the world. Working on a diverse campus like the University of Delaware will give me the opportunity to have global contacts without having to leave my hometown. I am excited to not only put into practice what I will be learning in seminary, but to build relationships with the lost and hurting individuals on the campus.

As we begin this new adventure in our lives you can pray for us to be faithful in keeping in step with His Spirit. We want to be obedient to where it seems God is leading us, but at the same time we are a little apprehensive about what the future will look like. Specifically, we are responsible for raising 100% of our support to be able to do InterVarsity. I am hoping to start work with InterVarsity in August, so we have about six weeks to raise $69,000. This is a small mountain to climb, but God has encouraged us so much already in the process. In many ways, we are thankful to not have all of the resources in and of ourselves. We are forced to depend on others and allow others to be a part of our ministry with InterVarsity.

Thank you for reading this far. We are looking forward to hearing from you and sharing with you more the burden that has been placed on our hearts!