Desiring God Book study guys

So, as promised, here are the guys who are involved in the study of "Desiring God" that I've been leading this semester. Honestly, it has been just an amazingly blessed time so far, verychallenging and has caused a ton of great conversation and discussion over the Word of God. Piper is a gifted author, and he has helped me immensely in seeing some really important things in God's Word. He is doing the same thing for these guys so far, and it has been super cool to be able to serve them in this way.

Pray that the rest of the book, something like 4-5 chapters left, would be blessed, and that the guys would remain faithful to reading each week, producing very fruitful meeti

ngs with each other.

Preaching at Intervarsity Tonight

I'm preaching on Ephesians 6:13-14 tonight, serving the campus ministry group "Intervarsity", which most people are aware of. I had the opportunity to serve them last semester by speaking on Isaiah 61 (I think), and now I'm very excited to preach on Ephesians 6, which will mainly be "we are at war" and that we need to fight and fight rightly in order to win and not die! (hence Rom 8:13, for instance)

So please pray for me, that God would anoint my mouth to preach clearly and concisely, and most importantly that He would make my words more than my words, but would come with power and change hearts and minds, convicting of sin and bringing joy through Jesus Christ.

Also, I thought I'd throw up some pictures of my office, just for kicks. The top is the long shot of the office, the desk in the far end is mine, while Brandon (the newly added staff from this summer) sits in the near one...although, we spend maybe 15% of our time in the office, it is still incredibly useful).

The next picture is our DVD rack, which we loan out DVD's and watch them quite often with students for teaching purposes.

Finally, and obviously, is my bookshelf. The top left corner is full of some of the resources we buy to give out to students, while the rest are various books of mine, many of which I have not read, but the fuller the bookshelf is, the smarter I look...and I need all the help I can get (joking...sorta).

Thursday and Friday, here I come!

Saturday Night Leadership...done and done.

So, this weekend's leadership retreat was a super great time, relaxing & exhausting all at the same time.

Most importantly, we had a very productive time, and all the guys had a truly good time hanging out with each other. Although these students represent only a small amount of the friendships that exist within Equip, it was great to see the time of fellowship be good and fruitful. There are several more students involved in Equip that have a great amount of influence and leadership, including involvement and leadership in worship music, as well as several others who are just highly involved and make a huge impact. We are excited to add a few more next year, as there are some promising up-and-coming leaders.

But all these guys are truly on fire for the gospel, so pray that God would give us the ability to lead them well, serving them and building them up to make them as effective and fruitful in the 'work of ministry' as they possibly can be.

On a personal note, I am very excited to see the plans God has realized in my life as Equip grows.

Just btw, the retreat was at the "Blue Cloud Abbey", which is a Roman Catholic monastery up N.E. of Watertown. I have been going there for probably almost six years now, and it has proved to be an amazing place for private study, devotion, relaxing and reading. The atmosphere was just perfect for what we had intended this retreat to be.

First Night of Leadership Meeting

So, the Blue Cloud Abbey is a big hit, as I knew it would be. I love this place, and the students are certainly enjoying it as well. Just wanting to post a couple of pictures from our time tonight, and ask you to keep us in your prayers for tomorrow, that God would maximize our time together. Tonight was amazing, full of prayer, reflection about this year, and lots of excitement. The rest of the guys are busy playing "Monopoly Deal", and the rest playing a game of "Mafia".
So, God has been pleased to give us a great time of love and fellowship, everyone more than getting along and loving each other!

Leadership Meeting, yo-holla!

So....April is going to be a pretty crazy time:

• This weekend: Leadership meeting till early Sunday morning
• Next weekend (1st-2nd): Men's conference in Brookings we are participating in.
• Next-next weekend (8th-9th): Youth Retreat we are bringing some college students up near Redfield to minister to some youth, for a little 1.5 day type thing of learning, play and gospel teaching.
• Next-next-next weekend: Rock Climbing & Camping (RCC) retreat, in which is awesomeness, but lots of planning.
• Next-next-next-next weekend: Easter, yeah! Nothing this weakened, expect dyeing on my couch from the past four weekends, and also celebrating the risen Lord!
• Next-next-next-next-next weekend (29th): Summer Training Project prep weekend, which means a trip to Minneapolis for the majority of the weekend, which will undoubtedly be just a great time.

Needless to say, weekends during the Spring semester tend to get filled up with stuff. Praise God that I love what I do, and that he has given me people in my life to enable me to do it!

Most importantly right now, please pray for this weekend. It is our leadership retreat in which we are inducting (hopefully all of them) our new prospective student leaders. We have never had it in March before, and I think it might become our annual time. Pray that God would light passion and devotion in the leaders' lives to want to serve their peers and others next year.

And here is a picture from our RCC event last April, which we had something like 36 people show up to on the Saturday:

And I can't help myself, here are some super-sassy pictures of our o-so-stylish 'Booth Board':

This is one place that has had considerably more fruit come from it than I ever would have thought! We have met so many people at the booth, including a few of our current leaders, and some of those who we are considering this weekend (Emma, Hanna, Ryan, Tyler, Leah, Joe...wow, seriously, more than half of them!) Pray that God would continue to be pleased to send us amazing and solid students through this presence, as well as many more conversations with unbelievers.

Einstein Bros. Bagel

One place I have started to meet with students and hold Bible studies and whatnot is in the new (this year) eating area in the Student Union area, with an Einstein Bagels food joint in it. Virtually every single time I'm in here, it is incredibly busy.

Today, I'm meeting with Josh for discipleship and then meeting with four guys for a book study of "Desiring God", by John Piper.

This book has done a bunch to rock my world, incredibly challenging and insanely rewarding for my faith.

As would have been seen below, if I had remembered to take the picture, is Josh, Caleb, Evan and Brown, the guys in the book study.

They have all expressed that they have really enjoyed it, and at many times they have been very challenged by the truths taught in it. (btw, if you have never read Desiring God, I super highly recommend it.)

Today is chapter 5, "Scripture", which is of course just amazing.

Random Study Time

So this is Cottonwood, the coffee shop in Brookings which is essentially my second office. When I want to study but also enjoy an occasional break to interact with people, I usually go here.

It has proved to be a great place to meet new people, talk with students that I normally might not, and simply enjoy as well. Today, I am studying next to Carl, a Junior at SDSU and a guy I've known and met up with for the past couple of years. He is a great guy, and is seen here posing for my picture, in which I told him to look smart...jk, I didn't say that to him.

Today, I am finishing up my two papers for class, studying for my final exam in "Prophets" class that is tomorrow, and hopefully getting all sorts of little loose ends wrapped up.