Victory Chapel

Well, yesterday was my second week of teaching 5 year olds and under.... It went really well. My friend, Bao, helped me by trying to get all the kids to stay in their seats. The kids that were in my group mostly come from homes where they don't get much attention, so they try to get it by getting in trouble. It's really neat when after class when they are about to go home they come up to you and give you a hug and don't want to leave. It makes you want to take them home with you. I can use all the prayers that you can send this way for creativity and wisdom on how to occupy their time for 1 1/2 -2 hours. Victory Inner-City Ministries is making a DVD and they took some shots of us, and we were supposed to sing for them. Well, these children can barely talk, so it was me and Bao and one or two of the children singing... oh well...

Butler

Saturday (9/8) I went on a second outreach. We went to Butler University. This outreach was more for a different class, but the Christian Service class could go along. This time we went up to people and asked if we could ask them a few questions, and then we asked them what they thought about God, Jesus, the Bible and some other questions. Then we asked them what they thought the basic message of the Bible was. Then we asked them if they wanted to see what we believed the basic message of the bible was. Then we would show them a diagram as we told them the basic message. It was a lot harder than in downtown Indy. I didn't get to share with anyone, but my partner got into a long conversation with a guy that was sort of New Age/ Christian/Catholic/??? It was very interesting.

Inner-City Outreach

For Christian service class we are supposed to go on an outreach trip. Friday night was the first one for the year, and I was ready and excited. God has given me an inner excitement about reaching out to these people down in Indy. It's hard to describe, but it's great. So we set out and Brother Gibson(the pastor of Victory Chapel) started talking about some of the issues of working in the inner-city. Poverty, drugs, homelessness, etc. are all everyday life for some of these people (probably most of them). Ministry takes a different form for these people. For the first outreach we just passed out flyers, inviting them to come to Victory Chapel and if they were interested we could share the Basic Message of the Bible with them. I went with Heather, Ethan, and Win for the first street. We didn't have a lot of contact with people because a lot of the houses were empty, for rent or for sale, but we did get to talk with a few people. Then we went to a new location. I went with two other guys, Tommy and Nolan. This time we were just talking to the people who were out. We got to talk to a lot of groups. Some of them were interested and some weren't. I was able to talk to a couple of young girls that were out and some older men, who sounded interested in coming. I am really excited about being a part of something like this. On the way back we reviewed some of our experiences, which were all different and sang some choruses. One song sums it all up: "Heartaches, broken pieces, ruined lives is why He died on Calvary..." May God give us a greater burden for the lost.

The Interesting Life I Lead in College

College life is very interesting. It's a lot better than I thought it would ever be. I am taking 18 credit hours this semester. It's a pretty good load, plus I am working 12 hours on campus, to assist in taking care of any spare time that I might have. My classes are Pentateuch, Old Testament Literature, Christian Service, General Psychology, Intro to Computers, Manual Skills for Ministry, and Orientation/Practice of Prayer. I am really enjoying the Christian Service class. It's about evangelism and ministering in the local church that you are in. I am going to Victory Chapel on Sundays, and God's Holiness Church on Thursdays. Victory Chapel is in downtown Indy, and is sort of a mission church. We go out in buses and vans and pick people up and take them to the church, and then after service we have a meal together. It's been really good. I am excited about helping out there. I will be helping with the children there. God's Holiness Church is just getting started, so most of the members are from the school. We are going to go out calling and try to get some kids together and minister to them- sort of like a little Bible club. Tonight I am going to downtown Indy to do some street outreach. I am really excited about it. We have learned the basic message of the Bible, and so I am looking forward to sharing that method with someone. That's the update on school and church news!