Internet and Discipleship

Please pray for:

Internet: We went and filled out the paperwork to get internet in our apartments exactly one month ago today. They had said something about a 3 week wait for cable modems, but then 2 hours after we missed a text message at 6:30am (somewhere around week two, two and a half), the technician said he'd already installed the modems elsewhere and was once again out. I called the company a week later, and then finally went in and talked to them in the office a few days later (I think Tuesday of this last week). They took my information again and said we should be getting a call from the technician this week. We didn't, and so we are still without reliable internet in our apartment (I say reliable because we can get one 5-minute trial per day of one signal and can occasionally get other stray wifi connections, which probably aren't that secure). In any event, please pray that we'd hear from the technician this next week and have internet installed in our apartment by Friday at the latest.

Discipleship: we are finally starting some formal discipleship relationships. This last week I met with 3 different guys (Ingve, Samuel, and Gustavo) to try to nail down regular times to meet with them. Please pray for another few that I haven't been able to meet with and that I don't know yet if they want discipleship (Anthony, Deivids, and Alan). Also please pray for relevancy in the material we cover, that God would use these interactions to draw both them and me deeper into his love and plan, and that the guys would be able to take what we do and model it into discipleship relationships of their own in the future, hopefully before this STINT year is over (if you feel like asking for something seemingly ridiculous or on a level that only God can bring about, pray that they'd be ready by the start of classes in January after the Christmas vacation).

October Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,
Three Sundays ago, my alarm went off at 2:15 am, signaling the start of my part of the Fall Break Merida trip. Four hours later, I was in the Caracas airport, welcoming Christine and Ashley to Venezuela. Even though their trip had started Saturday morning, they still chose to go to church with us. It was the first of many instances in which these girls from University of Portland demonstrated their character and trusted God with the details. It made for a great week.
Later that day, we had “Christmas in October,” opening the suitcase of rare-to-Venezuela-goodies that my mom had sent down with the girls. We started our week-long study of Galatians, covered schedule details, and then spent some time together as one big team, eating dinner and talking. Monday, we went to Universidad de Carabobo here in Valencia and the girls got their first experience sharing in Venezuela, striking up spiritual conversations and presenting the gospel. During that time, Ashley saw a guy and a girl pray to receive Christ as their personal savior. That night Sarah, Ashley, Christine and I got on an overnight bus and embarked for Merida.
Once in Merida Tuesday, we went up to the humanities campus and met with Keren, one of the student directors of the Merida ministry. After a time of worship and fellowship with another Christian group on campus, we once again went out sharing. Christine paired up with Keren, and while sharing, saw another girl pray to receive Christ. We finished out our day with another student-led activity: a prayer walk around the university grounds. On Wednesday, the girls handed out weekly meeting flyers and continued to meet Merida students during the games, worship time, and teaching time of the meeting itself. That night at a fiesta, after playing games, dancing, and talking more with students, both girls were asked to give their testimonies. Even though it was really impromptu and hard to hear over the torrential rain outside, both did an awesome job of sharing their stories. After a typical round of Venezuelan goodbyes (hugs/cheek kisses to every girl and handshakes/hugs between guys) to everybody in the room, we ran through the pouring rain, crossed a few shallow rivers (aka streets), and finally caught a taxi back to our hostel. Thursday, after an early lunch of arepas with the student leaders (arepa: traditional Venezuelan cornmeal pocket/patty), we went sharing on the technical campus where, as I translated for Ashley, we saw one more girl accept Christ.
Friday morning we arrived back in Valencia, and the girls had a relaxed day as our STINT team met with the student leaders here to plan for a few weeks. Saturday we went to a nearby beach and a spent a little time debriefing about the week and a lot of time enjoying God’s creation. Then, early Sunday morning, we were once again in Caracas, this time to see the girls off to Oregon. As the girls left us to go through security, I felt a deep sense of affirmation that the trip went well. While there were a few learning moments for me, I felt like I engaged and initiated throughout the trip and did not hold anything back. In short, I would not change a thing, and I am incredibly encouraged by the fruit of the trip. Christine and Ashley felt accepted by our team, they connected with the students in Merida, and God changed lives through their being here. I feel like that is exactly what I had hoped to see, and God made it happen. To Him be the glory. In his grip, ~Eben

Please Pray:
-For wisdom and time for filling out reimbursements for Merida trip expenses; that it would process quickly.
-For God’s continued work in those we shared with, especially that they could connect with other Christians.
-For our STINT team as we start establishing discipleship relationships; that what we relay would be relevant, and that we would develop a fully functional method for us and for students to follow up with new believers.

Merida Trip

The two girls coming down from University of Portland (Christine and Ashley) to go help in Merida for the week arrived this morning. It's been a long first day, so please pray for their/our rest and energy for this week. Pray that God's vision would be cast in this trip, and for safety in all the traveling we'll be doing. We're overnight busing to Merida tomorrow (Monday) night, and coming back on another overnight bus on Thursday. Pray for a fruitful time in Merida, and for good connections to be made and for the student leaders to be able to follow them up. Also pray for Friday as we'll be meeting again with students here in Valencia to continue planning for the first 6 weeks of classes. Pray for our debrief activities for the UP girls Saturday, and their safe journey home Sunday, that they would return to their classes rested, ready, and radically met by God.

Apartment update

The apartment I mentioned in the last post fell through; the owner backed out and decided he didn't want to rent from us. His reasons weren't incredibly clear, but most likely a big part was the documentation we had available at the time to confirm us as good potential renters. We've slowly but surely been working on acquiring more of these such documents, and are finally starting to get them in hand. We looked at another apartment yesterday and found out about one today that is in the same building as the girls'. Please be praying that we would be able to get in and see this new apartment ASAP, that it would be affordable, and that we would be able to have adequate documentation to move in soon. (If you feel like asking for something really wild, pray that it will have a place to hang up a hammock...)

On a different note, a wart on my knuckle that I had frozen off while home in the US has returned in a substantial way. Please pray that it would either go away on its own, or that I would be able to find a doctor here soon that can treat it to eliminate it once and for all without causing any other lasting damage.

Arriving and Apartment

A few praises:
-I arrived to Valencia with my new team last Wednesday night (Sept 3).  All of our flights went smoothly, we didn't lose any baggage, everything was still in our luggage, we met up with our director without any trouble, and had an uneventful bus ride to our apartment in Valencia.
-So much was already set up and ready for us when we got here.  Summer project had rented a couple apartments, one of which we were able to keep for the year.  It's in a great location, close to the university with plenty of stores, etc nearby.  It also gives us a great head start instead of having to stay in hotels while we try to figure out housing (since we are the first STINT team to Valencia)
-Within 24 hours we found another apartment in the same complex for the same rent and are currently in the process of getting all the documentation set up.  In case you don't realize just how miraculous this is, the first team in Merida (a smaller city) spent several months trying to find apartments available near each other, and my team there last year spent over 4 months trying to find a new nearby apartment and ended up having to move across town.  Finding a second apartment that quickly, close by, and comparably priced is pretty much unheard of in Venezuela.

Prayer requests:
-Wisdom and discretion in finances as we transfer money and start buying additional appliances/furnishings for our apartments.  Pray that we would find good quality items for affordable prices.  Pray that all the details would work out so that the money transfers go through quickly so that we can move into the apartment and get money to live on.
-Pray for Christian Vivas, our city director.  Pray for him and his wife as they are expecting a baby early next year and are still trying to finish out their support.  Pray for health for him and his wife, as both have been experiencing some illnesses of late.  Pray that the details of our apartments and transfers would be resolved quickly so that he can finish his part in them and return home to his wife.  Pray for his safe travel.
-Pray that we would continue to start the year well.  So far, I feel like our team is bonding and getting along well.  Pray for our continued unity, especially as ministry will soon be starting in earnest.  Pray that we would continually deepen our relationships with God and each other and that we would be empowered to serve from an overflow of the love of Jesus Christ in our lives.

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Family Emergency

Please pray for Elissa Adams(a fellow STINTer this year in Maracaibo, Venezuela): she just found out that something severe happened to her mom. It sounds like a brain aneurysm, but last I heard they were transporting her to Greensborough, NC to larger medical facility to find out for sure. Elissa was up here in Merida for the Maracaibo project's mid-project retreat when she got the call from her sister this morning. She's currently in a taxi to Maracaibo (the fastest, most reliable method of getting there) where she might be trying to get a flight home tomorrow. Pray for safety and wisdom in travel, peace and provision for her family, and restoration and healing for her mother.

Merida = no dice, homeslice

So we were told a couple months ago that applicant numbers were way down this year for STINT, and at the time we weren't all that sure of how that would affect next year. After a long process of waiting, the news is finally official: the outcome of that shortage is there will not be a team next year here in Merida.

Please pray for two things:
1. Ministry: We shared the news with the students today, emphasizing that this is an opportunity to see God work and asked them to start praying about how God wants them to be seeking Him, and if and how he may be asking them to get more involved. We've been working on reshaping our servant team over the last month or so, and now that we know we won't be here, it allows us to be more intentional and specific in how we train the new leaders. Please pray for the whole process as the team will be gone at the end of July. Pray for God to bring the right people to the new servant team, and the hearts of all the students to be drawn closer to God in the change. Pray that they'd have a united vision of the ministry and not get caught in the loss of resources but rather focus on finding creative solutions.

2. Placement: As you may or may not know, I applied and was accepted to do another STINT year. Now that there's no team in Merida, I'm now in the process of trying to figure out where God's calling me. I pretty much have four options: Marcaibo, Venezuela; Valencia, Venezuela; Costa Rica; or Croatia. While I'm leaning more toward wanting to be back in Venezuela, I know from talking to our regional director that there is a felt need on both of the teams in Costa Rica and Croatia. Please pray for wisdom and clarity of calling, that God would make the "calling and election secure" (2 Peter 1:10)

p.s. I know the title of the post is odd, and maybe even flippant. I just liked how it sounded. Thank you again for your prayers, even if I am a bit of an oddball.

The end is in sight

So looking at the last post, we found an apartment through our exchange contact, moved, and I think I even caught up a little on the finances. There's always more to do in that arena, but God's been pretty gracious to pick up the slack on little oversights that I make.

I mentioned motivation in the last post as well, and I feel like it has improved a little. Coming off of a visa renewal trip and realizing the end of my year here is quickly approaching has helped me realize I have some things I'd still like to see happen before the year ends.

Here are the four:
1. Servant team- that the reorganization that is in process would result in a team that can more easily, specifically, passionately, and cohesively plan events and shape the direction of the ministry for the future.
2. Men's retreat- that we would be able to find a good date and venue, as well as that God would provide the ideas etc needed for a good program
3. Discipleship- that I'd have the initiative to seek out key students and meet with them to share resources to aid their growth so that they can in turn pass on the resources to other students after them
4. Apologetics study- I'd love to see a study happen on the technical campus that addresses apologetic questions. Pray that I'd know how to structure that well and involve others that are interested, both as potential leaders and participants.

We also have a major outreach planned for this Thursday and Friday in which several churches and ministries are partnering together to reach the university. I'll be giving a talk/lecture as part of that on Friday morning, and I'd greatly appreciate your prayers for preparation, content, and delivery. Please also pray that it doesn't rain here in Merida on Friday (we have the closing event in an outdoor amphitheater), and that students would be reached and receptive.

Post Congreso Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,
Three weeks ago yesterday (Saturday), the final two busses rumbled off into the night, taking with them the last moments and participants of Congreso Nacional 2008: Prueba de Fuego (National Conference 2008: Trial of Fire). I have sat down at least four times since then to try and write this letter, but every time the words either do not seem to come out right, or I end up otherwise occupied with other tasks. So at last, I hope to not only share about the conference, but about the busy weeks since. It’s enough that I need two pages…

CONGRESO FIRSTHAND:

From my perspective, Congreso is pretty well hyped by staff and students that have been before, and I think I went in subconsciously expecting to have an amazing ‘Congreso Experience,’ essentially to witness God work mightily in students lives and learn something profound myself alongside them. However, being there to help run it instead of just attending it (I was pretty much in charge of setting up the stage and supervising the technical aspects of the main program), I felt like did not have the chance to take in much of the content or do much interacting with the students. It actually left me a little frustrated, feeling like it had been busy and stressful work instead of the rewarding, inspiring time I had expected.

Since I knew that Congreso was much more than how I experienced it, I asked two guys in my bible study to share their experiences. Both wrote in English since they study foreign languages, but please forgive the grammatical errors as both are fairly early in their studies :

“In my opinion, I think that Congreso was WONDERFUL, AMAZING, MARVELOUS. I mean, it's an experience I'd never known before. I really, REALLY loved it. I must confess that, in the beginning, I was like "ok, I have NO idea of how it's gonna be like", and I actually got to think it was gonna be a little boring. But WOW! I couldn't ever imagine that it would be so great, even though the trip wasn't good at all, it worthed it! I never knew how really wonderful God was until that Congreso. The workshops, the talks, the time sharing with our friends, and of course, the praising time (that was the thing I LOVED the most).” - Leonardo

"I really learnt how to keep a good communication with God, how trust him. One of the most activities that I loved more was the [main sessions]”... “I really liked it because while we were singing those songs we could felt like God's love through us. I also like when we went to the beach to share with other people our faith. At the beginning I was really nervous and worried at the same time because I had not done that before. I mean, I had shared before but not like by myself , I always were the translator so it's easier”… “But when you trust in God you never are going to feel afraid of anything. Fortunately, with the guys that I was sharing, they were really good doing it, but I [prayed] and I talked to God in order to he could helped me of not feel any [fear] or insecurity of myself while I was sharing with other people. After I [prayed], I really felt good”… “I did it really natural. I could not believe that I had shared and I was not scared of it. But now I feel confident about share my faith with someone else. I really like that conference. I hope the next year I can go to the following one.”

    – Neuro (slightly condensed, some spelling corrected)

THIRDHAND CONGRESO:  During our staff retreat after Congreso, I learned that over 20 students had attended a lunch for those interested in either a 4 month or year long full-time ministry commitment. At church the following Sunday, one student, Jesús, talked about personally seeing 15 people make decisions to follow Christ during the 2 hours of sharing on the beach Friday of Congreso. Waleska shared about having her perspectives changed on missions, Yuliana shared how God established the path He wants her on in the future, and Angela shared that it was simply impactful to her that God provided to take her there and that she’d really been ministered to by a staff couple there. Saturday of that week we had time for students to share about Congreso, in which Darwin talked about being challenged to please God in the little things, Leonel said he was able to see how much he’s grown since last year’s Congreso, and Jatniel explained how a workshop helped him see how he can be distinct from the crowd to reflect Christ to them.

BY THE NUMBERS:
4 days, 3 nights (Mar 19-22)
180 Students
-30 from Merida
-9 from Santa Barbara
20 Ohio State Spring Breakers
26 National Staff (e.g. me)
9 Cities represented

SINCE CONGRESO:  So even though I didn’t necessarily enjoy my own experience at Congreso, in light of so many positive testimonies, I’m really beginning to see how much God used it. Even for myself, I’m seeing how He’s been leading me to scripture (like Psalm 91) about taking refuge in Him and His sufficiency, and as I consider how little I did so at Congreso, I’m relearning how vital it is. It is definitely a learning process, especially in the craziness of the past two weeks.

In three concepts, the last two weeks have been servant team, finances, and moving. As a team, we created a new model for our team of student leaders (aka servant team). Instead of the current model of a group of core students helping plan all aspects of ministry together, the new model has core students in smaller groups, each focused on a particular aspect of the ministry. It’s been a process of trying to specify those key aspects of ministry and trying to figure out what core students we should invite into the leadership roles. Please pray for the process as we are hoping to finalize who to ask this week and ask them for a decision by the beginning of May. In the finances department, Congreso costs along with upcoming events(including a trip next week to help jumpstart a movement in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital), made for enough financial details that I took all day last Thursday in my role as team administrator to organize them. Please pray for clarity and accuracy in that department as there is a lot to track, especially with the new apartment. Speaking of moving, our money exchange contact has an apartment we can use temporarily while we keep looking for something longer term. So Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the afternoons packing, and moved here to the new apartment Wednesday night. It is not close to the girl’s apartment and is a little on the expensive side, but it is a Godsend to have a comfortable apartment in a nice part of town in the timeline we needed that even includes good relations with the landlord. Please keep praying for long-term housing solutions for our whole team, seeing as I was told Friday that the girls need to move before the team ends its year here in July.

  Finally, thank you for your prayers. I recently looked at last month’s letter and realized that God provided a bus the same day as bus details appeared on the calendar. Your prayers are powerful and effective, and I love that I get to see Him answer them specifically. ~In his hands, Eben

Piling up

The Santa Barbara trip went well, and I'm ashamed to come back to this blog and realize I never posted any requests about Congreso or even my last prayer letter that did talk a little about it. I guess things have gotten crazy and I definitely haven't been the most diligent about posting requests.

In any event, I feel in need of a lot of prayer right now: stuff just feels like it's piling up. We still need an apartment. We've been making calls, checking the paper, talking to realtors, canvasing nearby apartment complexes with our information, and haven't found anything workable yet. We had an appointment to look at an apartment today, but the owner never came and didn't answer our calls. The cosigner on the apartment said he needs to talk to me urgently and I'll need to go talk to him tomorrow. I'm honestly afraid for that conversation because I fear it will basically be him passing on the pressure that the landlord is putting on him to get us out. There's just a lot in this situation that has me scared because I pretty much don't feel like I know what I'm doing or how to go about getting results or even what steps I need to be taking. In addition to the whole apartment mess, there's finances stressing me out too. Our exchange contact, while amiable, hasn't been very time-conscious, resulting in needing to not only wait extensively for him to arrive, but also in more meetings with him. Adding to it, I'm a little bit behind and need to get caught up on keeping the books for the team's finances. The icing on the cake is feeling a little lack of motivation for ministry activities, including finishing of my latest prayer letter. I know what I want to share, it just doesn't seem to want to come out on the screen.

Thank you here and now for trying to make sense of my ranting and lifting the stuff up in prayer. Ultimately I do know that God's in control of it all and will work it out; however I'm in the moment where I'm seeing for just how much I need to be trusting him and it doesn't seem like a small amount.

Santa Barbara Catalytic Trip

Tomorrow (Wednesday, March 12), I'll be taking a trip to a school in a relatively nearby city. We have occasional contact and visits with them, and try to encourage them in their ministry. Since we aren't there full-time, but rather try to help things along with short trips, we call it catalytic ministry. Anyway, it takes about 3 hours by bus to get there and we will be making the trip twice tomorrow. We'll be encouraging them about Congreso, and this will be my first trip out there. Please pray for safe and problem free travel, and for our time with the students there tomorrow.

"March" Prayer Letter

Apartment hunting

Please pray for apartment hunting tomorrow. We still have yet to find one, even having looked in the paper for the last few months. I've finally figured out how I can do something a little more proactive than just look in the paper though, so tomorrow I will go with a student named Jatniel to ask around all the apartment complexes nearby here to ask if they know of any availabilities and give them contact info in case they hear of any after we talk to them. After that, we will probably go visit various realtors to try and get them looking, since we've finally found out that they do not charge to look, but their fees are only assessed if you actually enter into a contract in an apartment they've found.

Please pray that we can move through the apartment complexes in a time-efficient manner.
Please pray that the search would be fruitful.
Overall, please pray that God would provide us with an apartment
1. nearby (important since we work as a team and the girls already have their apartment),
2. that is affordable (the market price I've seen in the newspapers for apartments like ours is double what we are currently paying),
3.and that has amiable landlords (we've had several issues with our current landlord being less than ethical or friendly)
4. soon (we legally have until April 15 to be in this apartment, but from the landlord's previous statements, I think he may begin hassling us if we aren't out by March 15).

Thank you all for your prayers.

Plane crash

Dear friends,
In case anybody else heard about the story below, let me assure you we weren't on that plane. We are on our visa renewal trip, so we were flying yesterday, but we flew from Merida to Maracaibo Wednesday and from there through to Caracas and to Port of Spain yesterday. So no Merida to Caracas for us. However we have several flights Monday through Wednesday, so prayers for that would be appreciated as well as for the families of those in the crash (none of the students in the ministry were on the plane, but we have no idea yet if there are any relations to the passengers).

Additionally, I would appreciate prayer for me as well as during this trip I need to make a final decision about whether or not to reSTINT (return for a second year). Please pray for God to speak clearly and for enough distraction free time to not only hear from him about the decision, but also just some good time of connection in general.

Thank you all for your prayers.

- quoted text -

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A commercial jetliner with 46 people on board was reported missing in western Venezuela on Thursday, officials said.

Noel Marquez, director of Venezuela's emergency management agency in the western city of Merida, said the twin-engine plane did not make contact with control towers in two cities as expected after it took off from Merida en route to Simon Bolivar International Airport outside of Caracas.

"It did not make contact with the control towers," Marquez said.

He said authorities were searching for the plane and confirmed it belonged to the company Santa Barbara, a small Venezuelan airline that covers domestic routes throughout the country.

Belated updates and requests

Well, so much for being better about keeping this blog current. Hooray for living under a covenant of grace.

The most immediate things I want to share are three current prayer requests (keep going past them and you'll get to the updates of past prayers):

1. Wisdom for my decision about whether or not to return for a second year of STINT. As I type this, we're embarking on our second visa renewal trip. Being gone for a week gives me some time away to step away from everything to really listen. Pray that I take advantage of that time, and that God speaks clearly. Pray also for peace and assurance/security in the decision as I've definitely felt the weight of the decision growing over the last few days as the time to decide is finally upon me.

2. Safety and refreshment for our team on the visa renewal trip that I just mentioned above. Sarah and Chelsea have both been under the weather and are in process of following doctor ordered treatments to get better. Pray that they will feel better and be able to enjoy the time to be refreshed and ready to return to ministry at week's end.

3. Our apartment. We are still in the process of looking. We have at most until April 15, but would really like to be out as soon as possible. Our looking in the newspapers has not been very fruitful, and we will need to look into hiring a realtor (a very expensive option) when we return from the visa renewal trip. Please continue praying for God's provision.

And now for some updates from previous posts:
Some Crusade staff were able to come down and help us better look at our team dynamics. I guess this update could also count as prayer request 4, as I feel like we've not quite resolved everything that originally surfaced.

The adventure company was contractually obligated to give us 50% back on Ivan's portion on the cancelled post-Christmas trip. They finally returned a little bit more than that.

The student leader retreat went well. All the details came together, and it was a great chance for student leaders from around the country to come together and be mutually encouraged and equipped.

As evidenced by my mentioning the visa renewal trip a few times, we did finally manage to get the tickets and the trip planned, all well within budget.

More updates and a different retreat

So I did go to the doctor Friday, but he wasn't available until 3 today (Monday). He looked at it and told me it was a ganglian (I think the technical name for a cyst, or pocket of fluid). Whatever word you use, it's not at all serious. He told me we could drain it or operate, but seeing as it's not causing me pain or inhibiting motion, we decided to leave it alone for now and see what happens.

The team meetings went well the last day or two, but you can be praying that God would be showing us how to better work as a team, seeing as we discussed at length today how everybody seems to feel like we are lacking.

Also, tomorrow Sarah, Ivan, and I will be going to talk to the adventure company that guided a trip for us after Christmas. Ivan got sick last second and wasn't able to go, and they seem to be constantly changing their story and not wanting to refund the portion of his money that they should. Pray for favor if you get a chance.

Finally, there's now another retreat this weekend for student leaders from the various cities in Venezuela that have Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade), and out team is tasked with the hosting duties of arranging lodging and food. Pray that we can make all the necessary arrangements and that the retreat goes well.

Ok, finally for real this time: another thing I forgot until just now is that Ivan and I need to buy plane tickets for our next visa renewal trip at the end of February. Pray that we find time to do that this week, and that we can find economic options.

"December" Prayer Letter

Dear friends,
The first two weeks of December flew by before students left for their three week break from classes. My parents visited the next week, and it was a lot of fun to show them around Merida and have family here to make it feel a little bit more like the holidays. They left the 23rd, and as my team celebrated Christmas and New Year’s together, we learned that both eves are fiercely celebrated with fireworks at midnight. Since the noise finally died down around 2am on the 1st, it’s been pretty peaceful around here, giving me a chance to reflect some on my time here and think about not so much New Year’s resolutions, but New Year’s hopes: things I desire to see from God this year. Whether they are somewhat vague notions without any idea of how he will accomplish them, or a little more concrete, I’d really appreciate you taking them to the Lord in prayer with me:

Vision Meeting: We had originally planned to meet with the students in the movement to see what vision God had set in their hearts and get them thinking bigger picture than simply maintaining what already exists. It never happened due to some miscommunication with the servant leaders. I would love to see it happen as we begin this semester and see where they want to strive after God, trusting Him for bigger things.

Men’s Ministry: I desire for the guys here to be instilled with an understanding of what it means to be men of God. I’m not entirely sure what that looks like, but I’m considering a series of guys’ nights that would lead up to a men’s retreat similar to CRUX (retreat back home incorporating shared adventure and talks). Ivan found a list of biblical masculinity topics, and I’d also like to look at the life of David, a man after God’s heart. Please pray for wisdom on how to proceed and how to make the adventure (CRUX is usually rafting) economically reasonable for the guys.

Initiative: Last semester I think I for some reason felt obligated to focus very heavily on evangelism or helping initiate others’ faith, and I somewhat neglected my greater passion to strengthen or deepen faith. Please pray that God would provide me with initiative to pursue individual time with involved students and wisdom of how to pour into their lives.

Returning: Coming in to this STINT year, I was considering it a one year commitment, after which I would enter law school and pursue a career in patent law. However, students began asking me in November if I’ll be returning, and I’m now wondering if God might be calling me back for a second year. My understanding is that the deadline for the decision is not until March 1, but it is definitely already on my mind. Your prayers for discernment are greatly appreciated.

Hoping your Christmas was merry, your New Year’s happy, and your 2008 blessed, ~Eben

Quick updates on last post

First off, we just postponed our team retreat until later this month when some additional staff will hopefully be able to come to provide some content and outside perspective. We'll still meet a couple times this weekend to spend some time as a team and get refocused to restart campus ministry.

Second, I didn't end up going to the doctor yesterday, but now have made more concrete plans to go tomorrow.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Health, Housing, Retreat, and Returning

First off, I'm sorry for not keeping this better updated. It is not a difficult or time-consuming task to jot down a couple prayer requests, and it's simply too important to ignore. Call it a resolution if you will, I'll strive to keep better updated.

So the prayer needs:

HEALTH: The first couple months went by relatively healthily, and for that thank you for praying. However, a few health problems have cropped up. The most ongoing of these has been that Sarah has been having trouble sleeping. She's been to the doctor numerous times and is still in the process of finding a medication that works consistently to give her sufficient quantity and quality of sleep to function well. Amanda had a few dental issues that are pretty much resolved, and seems to be almost fully recovered from a sudden eye infection that popped up almost a week ago. Ivan was not able to go on a 4 day trip with the rest of us since he woke up shivering and vomiting. He's feeling recovered from that but is in still in the midst of another occasional bout with stomach/digestive issues. Chelsea was having some back pain earlier this month and now is dealing with a lot of coughing and sore throat. On a plus note, Claudia's broken toe is fully healed. Finally, for myself, I've been waking up congested the last day or two and feel about on the edge of a cold. Also, last week I noticed a strange raised lump about the size of a dime on my wrist. It hasn't hurt or itched or turned funny colors but it's still pretty visible. I'll probably head into the doctor tomorrow to have it looked at. Prayer for additional wisdom in how to proceed there and in all these cases, as well as just healing and protection from additional illness would be greatly appreciated.

HOUSING: We are still in need of a new apartment for Ivan and me. Please keep praying that we would find one near our current location, and would have wisdom in how best to search.

RETREAT: As a team we will be going up to a retreat center this weekend to spend a little time regrouping/refocusing to be prepared to restart ministry with the restart of classes next Monday. Please pray for a relaxing time of good team interaction and learning.

RETURNING: Pray for safety and energy for students returning from Christmas break and wisdom in what to change and continue in ministry as we too return to campuses next week.