Today was an interesting Friday night ISI . The question as we went around the room as we were introducing oursevles was “What is your name? Where are you from? and Where were you and what affect has 9/11 had for you in your life?” I was touched by how many of the students remember the day so well. Many were as young a 8 years old and yet feelings of shock and sadness were all over. Probably one huge sentiment was that the worlds became a different place after 9/11. The USA, a place that all people felt was a safe haven was no longer safe. What does that mean for the rest of us. Wow. One student said that he just happened to be on lower Manhattan on the 4 days surrounding 9/11 and saw the burning of the buildings and the collapse of the towers with his own eyes. A Chinese student said that his best friend happened to be flying to the US around that time and they were concerned for their safety. A Taiwanese students felt like something had to be done to prevent this sort of thing from happening. A Saudi student was upset because she felt the world was blaming Islam and she didn’t feel that what happened accurately characterized the Islam that she new. The sharing was raw and real and almost all came away thankful that we talked about all this. 9/11 was truly an international affair. It really hit me when the first person that I talked to that lost someone close at the WTC was a Chinese UTA Student (who we happened to visit this last trip) whose friend was working for a Chinese company with offices in the towers. I know there were people from almost every continent if not country of the world that was killed that day.

On three other notes, this was a special day for Friday nights. Last week, I asked the students in the Discovery Bible study group if one of them might be willing to “facilitate” discovery bible study. A student from east Asia who isn’t a follower yet agreed. Wow! Of course facilitating Discovery study is not “teaching” the Bible. Rather it is asking the same questions every week to build community and to facilitate deep thinking and personal discovery by the students themselves. Anyone could do it because the questions are always the same but it is an honor and I was proud of him. He did a great job today on Genesis 2. Some really good statements came out of the group including great observations that he made about God’s sovereignty and about His care for us.

Second, Anish and Joanna, two young volunteers (Anish is originally from Nepal but grew up here and Joanna is Chinese American from Southern California) helped in leadership in leading music and discussion group respectively. It was really fun watching them and it reminded me of when Lisa and I (no they aren’t a couple) worked with some others our age to help in the leadership team back in CA.

Third and probably most joyful, while the “early group” we were a part of had its normal of late 40+ people, the “late group,” the new home group, which only had 7-8 students last week, its first week, had 28 people with 14 in discussion group and 14 in discovery Bible study. Wow! I do believe that starting a new group is getting people to step up in leadership over there and in our group. Also two “super volunteers” who are significant parts of other ministries were also a part of our Friday group and both have offered their homes to help. Praise the Lord for what he is doing!

So far, in our work with the new group, we have felt so blessed with the team God has given us. The Phillips, whose house we were at this week, have been a joy to work with on so many levels. The Baslers, Joanna, the Rittenhouses, the Johnson’s the Hensons and visitor team members (for this week) the Hodson’s and Neusses are an incredible team and we feel so blessed working together!

It is also cool that Cha* has a bunch of 6-9 year old international girls who she plays with every week, daugthers of students and volunteers and she sees that as her ministry.