This is me on campus earlier today with one of my sophomore gals, enjoying the sunshine on Leap Day! It’s been a beautiful one here.
Tomorrow won’t look quite as nice, I’m headed north to speak at Word of Life Assembly. The service should be great, but there is snow in the forecast–pray for safe driving! Sunday I’m on to International Christian Center in Oakland. These are both churches I’ve been to before and I am excited to go back and update them on what we’re up to here at Stanford.
Next week my mom is coming to visit. She’ll be here to head north with me to speak at a Ladies Conference next weekend. I’m looking forward to our time together.
That’s me above with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project and devout Christian. Chi Alpha co-sponsored a lecture and q&a session on campus with Dr. Collins last week. The event, entitled God and the Genome, was intended to encourage students that science and faith are not in opposition and it created a lot of interest on campus. We had between 2000-2300 in attendance. We had so many show up, in fact, that we had to create 5 overflow rooms with streaming video on the fly. You can watch his presentation below.
Since then, we’ve been involved in faciliating discussion groups on the topics Dr. Collins addressed and encouraging our students to follow up with their friends as well. As part of the event, we gave away 500 copies of the C.S. Lewis book “Mere Christianity” and it’s been interesting hearing students report on the conversations that the lecture, the q&a, and the book are bringing up with their friends on campus.
Tomorrow Chi Alpha is serving at New Creation Homes, a neat local ministry which provides assistance to unwed mothers and victims of domestic violence. We’ll be making dinner, serving it to the gals and their children and providing childcare while they attend a parenting class. Tonight, though, I’m headed back to campus for gal’s Bible study, we’re looking at the book of 1 John this quarter. I leave you with one of my favorite passages from the book, from chapter 3, which we’ll be discussing together tonight. It’s a big part of why we think serving others is so important:
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Go Giants! We had an exciting Sunday with our Chi Alpha students for our annual Super Bowl party. We packed it in to the apartment downstairs where my friends and co-missionaries live. It was a great time of being together, playing games and laughing a lot.
My sermon about the book of Jude from last week is online, you can watch it at the link below or check out the Stanford Chi Alpha website.
Tonight, on Super/Fat Tuesday, is the Francis Collins event Chi Alpha is sponsoring on campus. We’re really excited about the chance for students to interact with this world class scientist. Hope all is well where you are–don’t forget to vote!
That’s me (3rd from L) with some of my gals from Stanford Chi Alpha up in the Redwoods for our winter retreat last weekend. We were joined by Chi Alpha students from Southern and Northern California, Nevada, and Oregon for a three day weekend getaway. It was an awesome time of growing in relationship and learning together. Our speakers were Berkeley Church Planters Earl and Jan Creps and Sacramento Pastor Julian Newman. One of the main messages that I walked away from the weekend with is that the call to follow Jesus requires a laying down of self interest.
Back on campus life is full, week 4 of winter quarter starts on Monday and it’s been a busy one already. In addition to two small group Bible studies for undergrads, I am co-leading senior seminar with Glen this quarter about transitioning to life after college. We have a large group of students who are planning to graduate in the next few months and helping them prepare for their next steps is bittersweet.
In about 10 days, Chi Alpha at Stanford is co-sponsoring a lecture by Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project and a beleiver. We’ve been promoing the event where he will speak on why science and faith do not have to be mutually exclusive. Collins wrote the New York Times Bestselling book The Language of God, which I (and many of our students) have been reading in anticipation of his talk; I really reccommend it, it’s interesting even to a non-scientist. Please pray for Dr. Collins and the lecture, which will also include a time of question and answers with the students, faciliated by the chair of the Stanford neurobiology department. We are hoping to have more than 1000 in attendance.
Thank you for your prayers for me too. I have been traveling a bit this quarter, speaking up at a high school chapel in Marysville and a youth group in Cupertino. I’ve got a few more dates lined in the next couple months where I’ll be speaking on the road, as well as my responsibilities here on campus–including this afternoon’s project–my sermon for Chi Alpha this week on the lesser known book of Jude. I pray for you today as Jude prayed, that “…mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”
These are students enjoying their Thanksgiving meal at our annual Chi Alpha dinner. We fed 20 folks this year and had a great time. One gal, a student from Korea, brought her parents. It was the first American Thanksgiving for all three of them–it’s always interesting to introduce traditions and hear about other cultures.
Since then, we’ve been winding up fall quarter on campus. Last week was our last worship meeting until they return from the holiday break in January. I spoke about waiting for Christmas, how to learn from the stories we read in Scripture of Mary, the Magi, and Simeon.
On Friday night, we had our Chi Alpha Christmas Party, a yearly tradition complete with a graham cracker gingerbread house competition and found object white elephant gift exchange. We laughed a lot and celebrated together before everyone returned to their books–finals are this week!
Glen and I have been meeting one on one with each student, talking and praying with them as they prepare to leave campus for almost a month after they finish their exams. This week I finishing up some administrative work and theological study before heading up north for a week in Alaska with my family–I’m really excited for the time at home!
I leave you with a goofy group shot from last week–hope your season is filled with the peace and joy that comes from Jesus!
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