Hi friends,
We have been busy over the past month with foster care meetings, mission teams, and prepping for a big college event. While I will give you an update on the requests for last month, I only have one prayer request for this post! I hope you will join Emily and I as we pray fervently for the Lord to work this week throughout the event we’ll have on Boston College’s campus.
But first, take a look at what God has done over the past month!
1. Preaching Opportunities
I have had the opportunity to preach twice over the last month. Once on Palm Sunday and then again on April 15. These opportunities are important not only for my own personal development, but also for the continued growth in our relationship with City on a Hill church. Emily and I have spent the last 8 months apprenticing with City on a Hill to learn the Boston culture, what church planting looks like in this context, and much more! For this and many other reasons, we value their partnership. Preaching is important because I can exercise the gifts and calling I feel like God has led me to and gives me an opportunity to receive feedback from a faithful congregation here in Boston.
2. April Colborne Community Night
Another great night with our neighbors in the books! While watching a movie with friends and freshly made popcorn is always fun, our main excitement from these nights are the developing friendships we have with our neighbors. This is exactly the type of community we hoped for when we moved here. We most enjoy spending time with our neighbors outside of these community nights where we can genuinely get to know them better. We are thankful that these community nights have afforded us that opportunity.
3. Parkwood Volunteer Team
From April 4-8, Parkwood sent a volunteer team to help us in the Brighton community. This team of people focused on developing goodwill within our specific neighborhood. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and we believe that we can accomplish that call through serving those around us without asking for anything in return. We had the opportunity to serve local businesses and the whole community by picking up trash along a main thoroughfare in the neighborhood. This may not seem like much, but it accomplishes more than you think! Most importantly, we show the love of Christ by doing whatever is needed for those around us without expecting anything in return. Also, it helps Emily and I to build goodwill with those in our community. We genuinely desire for the church to be known for its love for the area and its people. Volunteer teams, like the one from Parkwood, enable us to complete projects that would otherwise be left undone due to our lack of hands/manpower so we are always grateful for teams like these to show up and be willing to serve in any capacity needed. We also had the opportunity to share the gospel with local businesses and through granola outreach in the Boston Common area! Many great conversations stemmed from this team's service and we pray for the fruit that God will bring from those discussions.
JUST ONE REQUEST!
Please be praying for The God Question event taking place at Boston College tonight and tomorrow evening. City on a Hill via Emily and I are coming alongside of a Christian organization, InterVarsity, to put on this event on campus. Boston College has approximately 9,000 undergraduate students with most of them not knowing Jesus as their personal Savior.
We are praying that The God Question will draw in skeptics, seekers, and even those established in the Christian faith. This is our first big event on the college campus and we are praying for big things to happen!
The God Question event will answer two questions (one for each night):
1. If a good God exists, why does God allow evil, pain, and suffering?
2. If I believe in God, will the evil, suffering, and oppression end?
Our hope is that The God Question will be a part of a series to answer some of the biggest questions students have concerning the Christian faith. This event will not only answer these questions according to the good news of Jesus Christ but will also allow students to ask additional questions and discuss their personal views for an open dialogue about faith.
This specific event will be tonight, April 24 at 6:30pm and tomorrow, April 25 at 6:30pm.
Pray for the following with The God Question event:
1. The good news of Jesus will be clearly shared at the event
2. Boston College students will attend the event and hear the good news of Jesus
3. God would begin to work in students’ hearts to understand who He is and what He has done for them
4. We will receive helpful feedback at the end of the event as we determine potential next steps for this series
Thank you for joining alongside of us to pray! For updates on The God Question event, be sure to check out Instagram or Facebook this week (or wait until next month’s post where an update will be included as well!).