Mamma Mia, Pizza Party

Quickly! Go outside and spend some time in the nice weather before Texas realizes it needs to change from a burning desert climate to the freezing tundra.

Personal Updates:

Well, I went to go see a neurologist about my incident over Labor Day Weekend and he told me that he suspected a combination of dehydration and extreme motion sickness. Which, if that's all that there is to it, then that would be great! The good news is that I'm starting to feel normal again - less headaches and tiredness (though I'm not sure if those are from that fateful day or just something that I experience from time to time). And I went to get an MRI done this past Monday. I'll get the results back in 2 weeks and discuss it with the doctor. Thank you all for the prayers! But let me tell you what, the MRI machine was so much louder than I thought it would be.. if you ever need to get an MRI, I highly recommend requesting the earplugs instead of the headphones.

I'm also finishing up my Old Testament class! By the end of this month I will have read the entire Old Testament within a span of a few months. What an experience that has been - learning more about God's unchanging nature and the relevancy of the Old Testament with regards to His new covenant with us! 

Ministry Updates:

We had our first major 'all-campus' event in Pizza Theology these past two weekends. For those that don't know what Pizza Theology is - it is (typically) two 2-hour lectures going deep into a theological topic with an hour of Cici's pizza in between. In the time of COVID, that means streaming two 2-hour lectures going deep into a theological topic with a week of break in between. If you're interested in what this looks like or want to listen in, our topic this season was, 'In It, Not Of It - How to Think Like a Christian in Society,' and you can find the recorded videos and notes handouts here!

As we continue our ministry in this time, we're slowly trying to open up avenues for which our students (at their respective campuses) can interact with each other as a whole and get to be a part of a larger community than their own cores (small groups). Of course, we ensure that the students stay distanced and wear masks! Praise God that we have not had any issues or outbreaks at this time and that our campuses have not experienced any major breakdowns either.

If you would, please pray about the following:

- That my MRI results would be so mundane that I have nothing to worry about moving forwards! As Brandon told me, the best results would have me thinking, 'what a waste of money,' in the end.

- That our students and staff would continue to be safe and alert as we reach out and begin to bring them together as a larger community.

We had a worship night for students that were comfortable coming to the church! It was awesome to see a congregation of students praising God despite the circumstances.

This is our Richland ministry meeting at the church on Thursdays. Richland is only allowing online classes and so the students typically do not have a chance to meet other students on their campus in person.

Some of our campuses are doing a 'Deep Dive' into a specific book of the Bible this year and streaming it for our students in lieu of our large group meetings. These streams are also projected outside at the church for students to gather and watch together if they want to!

Pizza Theology was streamed from inside the church! (Excuse my dirty laptop screen.) It was a concentrated group effort to have it run smoothly and my hats are off to those that assisted in this. If you're interested in listening to what we went over during Pizza Theology, please click here.