Going Deeper

Wow. It has been a crazy week. In the last 9 days, all of the new freshmen moved on the campus, upperclassmen returned, the sororities had rush, there were a million.5 events and opportunities for Crusade to have tables set up to pass out contact cards, and classes began for all of the students. Thanks to everyone for praying, because despite the fact that some of our events that usually generate a lot of new contacts were denied by the new food service providers on campus, we were able to meet TONS of new freshmen and get a whole slew of contact cards, which we are now working on following up with. Our first weekly Cru meeting was held on Thursday night and we had a lot of students come out, at least half of which were new to Cru! We also held the first annual "Rocky Top Roundup" party, complete with horseshoes and cornhole games, hay bales, and a 4-man bluegrass band and caller for square dancing! It was a huge hit and tons of fun!

This next week we will begin to obtain some semblance of a normal schedule, for which I'm very grateful! It will hold a lot of appointments with new students. All of them will hear the gospel (even if they're obviously believers who are walking with the Lord, we take them through a simple gospel presentation which helps even then to begin training them to do the same with other students one day). There is a lot of potential for students to trust Christ and get plugged into a community of believers, so please be praying specifically for this!

On a personal note, I've recently fallen in love with the song, "You Won't Relent" (specifically the one performed by Kim Walker-Smith and Chris Quilala at Jesus Culture).

"I don't want to talk about You
Like You're not in the room.
I wanna look right at You,
Wanna sing right to You."

I feel like God has been gently drawing me in and calling me to go deeper with Him. I'm not sure what this will look like, but I can feel Him calling me to walk with Him. It's funny because that's what I've been doing, and learning to do more and more, for years now. But this feels like it has something new, somehow. I have no idea what is ahead, but He is calmly, quietly, and steadily calling me to walk with Him in the same manner - with a kind of quiet strength and peace. To know Him more deeply and intimately, with the kind of familiarity that is found in longtime friends and lovers.

And so I am learning, in a new way, to walk on...