This weekend my team will have the opportunity to be together with the undergraduate staff in our four-state area. Pray for our time together in scripture, prayer and team-building. Undergrad InterVarsity are more plenteous than their GFM (Graduate Faculty Ministry) counterparts. That means our grad and faculty work is more focused on R-1 universities (large schools with large research budgets and numerous PhD programs. Think University of Nebraska at Lincoln (R-1) and Creighton University (R-2). Our staff teams are on many of the same campuses. We are in separate ministry steams organizationally – sometimes we miss out on the kind of team-work we’d like to bring to faculty and students.

We’ll be together this coming weekend! Schedule is above. Please pray for us! We’ll be spending time in the Gospel of John in those rich chapters 15-17! Here’s a wish-list of ways we hope we see God work:

• Friendships enriched and incubated by time together.
• Spiritual input from scripture that feeds our missionary/pastor hearts.
• Sharing stories of God’s work from each stream (celebration and awareness).
• Refreshed vision for mission and identity.
• Pathways to more effective collaboration on the campuses we share.
• Fun and enjoyment. Spontaneous conversations. Meals. Laughter. Games.
• Sharpening each others gifts and confirming our callings.
• Opening new paths of being colleagues
• Fresh ideas for better outreach to faculty and students
• Renewed appreciation for our alumni and ministry partnerships

Pray for me and my co-director, Kathy Haug, Regional Director of undergrad ministries in NE, KS, MO, IA. On the undergrad side it’s called the Central Region. My team is the GFM Central Area. So we decided to call this thing the Central Staff Retreat (CSR). Kathy is a terrific leader – its been a delight to work with her. She’ll be co-leading the sessions with me and she’ll be teaching our MSS study sessions in John. I’ll be doing a couple of workshops (and coordinating one of the evening fun adventures). There are 42 or so people attending in all. I’ll send some pics from the weekend!

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Just another reminder about year end finances. See the details from the past post. Let me know what you need as you think about your year-end giving or your plans for 2025! Thanks so much!

Our Christmas Progressive Dinner last Friday. Got the chance to talk about Advent – one of my favorite subjects! Great fun back at our place with dessert, Tenzi and LCR!