Students Arrive

Sorry for the somewhat infrequent updates. Internet access is somewhat spotty. Tonight's an exciting night so I wanted to make sure to I got some time to post.

I've been meeting with some of the student leaders and tonight we have a gathering for all returning students. The student leaders have been on the phones all week encouraging people to attend and we're hoping for a big response. After dinner the student chapter president will give a testimony and describe the vision we have for what God will do at Wayne State University through InterVarsity this fall. Luke will then give a spoken word performance that dramatically communicates that. Finally, I'll lead a scriptural lesson illustrating what we can learn from Christ's ministry model.

Along with all of this students will be recruited for activities, specifically New Student Outreach. This is a critical time to connect with freshman and transfer students as they arrive at WSU.

I do want to describe some of how we're doing in the neighborhood. We're looking into some prospects for our final house and learning a lot along the way. Please pray for that. Pray specifically that we can find a place where students will eventually be able to be plugged in that they might learn and serve. Detroit has also been the sight of two major industrial fires recently. The one on Monday made national news. I'm not sure yet about the fire today. This is a city already in great need. Big industrial fires, however, are not on that list. Finally, we had a fun surprise on Tuesday. The mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, and other VIPs had a press conference on neighborhood produce stores and distribution in the empty lot directly next to our house.

Included are some pictures of the neighborhood.

Some Pictures!

Our sad can opening methods.


Dinner Still comes out great though!

The House on Hazelwood

Welcome to the first post from Detroit. Sorry for the delay but internet access has been limited.

A few highlights as I try to keep things short:

Luke and I have met with the student exec team and are excited for all that is coming up on campus. Following that meeting yesterday, we went to our supervisor's house with the other new staff member to meet together and get some work done.

Check out the video tour of our house on youtube.com by searching "The House on Hazelwood"
If it's not up yet, try back later once it has time to process. We're looking forward to visitors to take the real tour!

Coming up:
This weekend I'll be attending a conference on fund development followed by an area staff meeting on Monday.

Preparations

In exactly one week Luke, Matt, and I will be living together in Detroit. We've been preparing for the move in a number of ways lately. It is certainly an exciting time.

August 4th-6th Luke and I spent at our Intervarsity regional conference. It was a helpful time to get together with staff from Michigan, Western PA, Ohio, and West Virginia to discuss the coming semester. Equally valuable was time Luke and I had to meet with Ann, our supervisor and discuss the specific roles each of us will have on campus. More on that in the future.

As the moving date approaches, we're also getting details worked out for the move. The Hebron Church Blessing Board has been incredibly generous, meeting a number of our needs. Now we're down to packing and loading the U-Haul.

As for housing, we've settled on a temporary place offered to us. We all agreed that more time was needed to make our final decision on exact neighborhoods and houses. We hope to have that figured out once we have more time to look around.