Man or Rabbit

        The Dr. James White - Dan Barker debate is now going on! We had a hard time finding a babysitter (all of our normal ones are at the debate;), so I’m home with Liam trying to listen to the live audio stream.
     If you’re interested in listening in, here’s the link: http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=3265 . This will take you to Dr. White’s blog post today (with directions for the audio stream). . . if you read it, you’ll notice he mentions “the folks from The Navigators” - that’s us! Jeff, Liam, and I, along with some of the other staff and students, were privileged to eat lunch with him today. Liam was on his best behavior, and it was exciting to have a “pre-debate” discussion.

Tonight at 7PM, Christian Apologist James White <http://www.aomin.org/> will debate Atheist Activist Dan Barker <http://www.ffrf.org/about/bio_dan.php>. They’ll debate the topic “The Triune God of Scripture Lives.”

Please help James today with your prayers. Our hope is that the Lord will use tonight to advance the Gospel on campus and in the community.

As I look at my calendar, I can’t quite get over the fact that it is already the end of April! Spring semester always seems to fly all too quickly, but this spring is extra speedy.
1) Outreach night went well. We had a smaller than expected turnout since the Illini had an unexpected playoff game that night, but several students’ friends (including some international students) got to hear the Gospel clearly, some for the first time in their lives! We’re praying that God would continue to work through these relationships to work faith in students’ hearts.
2) We’re heading to Neenah, WI this weekend for a missions conference at Calvary Bible Church, where Jeff grew up. We look forward to connecting with ministry partners there, and sharing about collegiate missions to both the adult and youth Sunday School classes.  Liam is excited to play with his cousins!
3) It’s almost the end of the semester! This Thursday is our last NavNight of the spring semester, and finals will start on May 8. Please join us in praying for a strong end to the semester, so that students will prepare for and start well in the fall!
4) We’re planning for our region’s first ever summer training program at Spring Hill camp in Indiana. . . more details to come!

5) Liam is now speaking in sentences (sometimes - and only if ‘there is ball’ counts) and is having lots of fun gardening (otherwise known as playing in the dirt).

   As Jeff mentioned earlier this week, we’re trying something new for our weekly Thursday night large group meeting tonight. Usually we have some combination of worship, Bible teaching, small group discussion and hang out time. However, tonight will be our first “Outreach Night” - a meeting planned to be a time for Nav students to intentionally reach out to their friends, both individually and corporately.
     Why are we doing this? Two reasons. (1) We (the Illini Navs) love Jesus and are so grateful for the gospel. (2) We love our friends and want them to know Him.  Students have been challenging each other to consider their friendships and their role as a disciple of Jesus in introducing their friends to Him. They’ve planned the details of the night - room set-up, location change (to the University YMCA, instead of our usual meeting place in an on-campus church), message topic, publicity, etc. and Norman will be talking about who Jesus was (and is) and why it matters.
        Please join us in praying that students would come and see and hear the truth of the gospel, that it would spark gospel-filled conversations between Nav students and their friends, and that it would draw Nav students together as a community working together to advance the gospel.

“Who is Christ?  Who are Christians?  Who are we to say?”  The Navigators at the University of Illinois are hosting an outreach night (we’re still working on a better name).  Next Thursday night we’ll be meeting at the University YMCA to help interested friends know more about Jesus and The Navigators.

Could you please pray for our night?  That God would bring interested students and that we’d be loving, winsome ambassadors of Christ.

Liam cheering at the Illini Navs' Super Bowl 2009 Party! He has so much fun with the students and spent several hours running around and cheering!

Spring semester is now well under way, and God continues to surprise us by the unexpected ways He is working here at the U of I. That’s a good thing.

Here are a few snapshots of what’s been going on recently:
1) I’m currently facilitating an intense, inductive study of Colossians with some of the women on Tuesday nights. It’s so fun to watch how much the girls are enjoying analyzing Paul’s letter as a historical text and how we are all learning from what God is showing us each individually!

2) Jeff’s upperclass men’s study has recently finished studying 1 Thessalonians, and the guys have each prepared a ten minute talk about one thing they learned to give at our large group meetings (Nav Nights) on Thursdays. We are so proud of how they are sharing what they have learned and are stepping up to lead.

3) Jeff taught from 1 Thess. 5:11 (”Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”) at Nav Night last week and had the students discuss, in small groups, ways to intentionally pursue authentic Christian fellowship (encouraging and building up) in their daily lives. We are fervently praying for vibrant Christian community among the students involved with The Navigators and are encouraged by some of the steps they are making. For instance, one guy is having the men over for Chicago style hot dogs next weekend, while two of the girls are organizing a time for morning prayer. :) 

4) We also played a surprisingly rousing game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” (with a twist) as a group last Thursday, and Jeff came in second. If you’re even up against him, here’s a hint: he goes for paper first, every time.

It’s been 500 years since John Calvin was born in 1509.  Many are using this year to read through his Institutes of the Christian Religion.  Here’s a great quote from the prefatory address to King Francis:

Portrait of Calvin, John. 1509-1564

“For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him.”