My friends & team!
We're almost at the end of such a meaningful year of campus ministry and I'm beginning to notice a universal truth: God is full of surprises. It's bewildering to live in the midst of a "surprise" (miracle, phenomenon, revelation, etc.) currently happening in your life and even more so to reflect on one that happened and you may have completely missed!
Yesterday our Christian tradition celebrated Easter and we marveled at the hope & beauty found in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. It provides us with a hope looking forward to future "surprises" (mini-resurrections?) while still inviting us into our own crucifixions that we may be experiencing in our circumstances.
Fatherhood has been an experience full of surprises.
I was raised with an absent father and that, no doubt, has influenced the way I prepared (and projected) for what the experience of fatherhood would eventually be like for me. In short, fatherhood has been full of surprises! It's more fun than I ever could have expected! It's harder and tiring than I thought. It's more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and yet it is stretching me in ways that I could've never prepared for.
Isn't that how surprises work? No matter how well you plan for something...the nature of a surprises is the "aha!" moment that it gets you. Though you may never get it...
The healings, baptisms, miracles, sermons, and life of Christ leading up to Easter were all surprises! At least, they were surprises to us...
Maybe what a surprise is to us, is just the protocol & purposes of God. In fact, even after the resurrection Jesus is still busy surprising people (Luke 24 - "While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them..." - but they didn't recognize him!).
I want to have the kind of faith that lives in to the surprises! I hope the surprises of God never become normal or boring in any way. Should a mature follower of Jesus be surprised at God's faithfulness? Well...the answer is: yes! After all, what else could I (we) be? We serve a God that is anything but normal...or boring...
My prayer for us as we wrap up this wonderful school year is that we would be a people continually surprised and bewildered at the majesty and goodness of God - anticipating what he is up to next!
Thank you for your support and for believing in our mission to love college students :)
I look forward to catching up this summer :)
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| Happy Easter! Anaya loved her first family-easter (even though she frowned at most of everything - there's just so much to take in!) |
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| daddy & baby <3 |
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| She's eating all sorts of new foods! Sloan has done a great job introducing her to a wide variety of solids - Anaya is growing and loving life! |
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| A few weeks ago, Joey planned an scriptue-reading after-event and the students loved it! We read the Easter story together and prepared our hearts for Easter! |
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| Our Wednesday Night FOCUS meetings! We have had some of our most consistent weekly showings of students to connect with God and become more & more a part of our community! |
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| Our Richland FOCUS pastoral team! I'm so grateful to get to lead & work with these sharp folks :) |
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| Our weekly "Exploring My Strange Bible" group! Have loved getting to read through 1 Corinthians w/ these students. |
Thank you for you support and for believing in our mission to love college students :)
I am finishing my 11th year as a college pastor and I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you for walking with me as we love & invite students to surrender their lives to Christ.
Your brother & campus missionary,
Sirak
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