Community/Valentines, The Great American Speedway, God is Touching Hearts

Roy February 19, 2014

The last few week featured a slew of activities, highlighted by the North Texas ISI Staff retreat and the UTA ISI Starbucks Group Valentines Dinner. The Valentines dinner (see pictures) was a dinner hosted by the guys for the gals. They went all out and cooked a three course dinner with several menu items, served them like at a 5 star restaurant, (okay maybe 3 but the effort was 5) and blessed them with flowers, candies, etc. It was amazing watching the guys acting sacrificially for the ladies to honor them. We also had a talent show where the talent was from the group. We had a singing, dancing, a yoga demonstration, a craft demonstration, violin, guitar and piano among other things. This is a very talented group. You ask what is the spiritual value of such an event. It allows students to learn how to serve and honor and feel honored. It also built community which will stick together when Bible studies start happening among people of peace. The main thing was modeling a loving (Biblical?) community. Here is a quote from one of the female students:

Thanks all my gentlemen for treating me and others very well on Valentine’s Day. I really appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart. You guys made my first Valentine in the U.S more meaningful and wonderful ever. Thank chef Ricardo (student) from Mexico and his assistants from different countries for their yummy Italian pasta + salad. Thank good-looking waiters Brantley (Deaf volunteer) and Shubham (student) and his company for their warm-hearted food serving. Thank photographer Bill (key volunteer) for his great skill of catching wonderful moments. Big thank to big leader Roy for his coordination and many thanks to all of guys but I can’t remember name for this special party.

The staff retreat (see pictures) went very well too. It was an honor to honor the North Texas staff and some key volunteers. I wish we could honor all the 100’s of volunteers and staff in the area but we can’t but at least we were able to treat this group and the goal here was to build again… community. We went to Texas Motor Speedway to tour this huge and amazing place together. We also visited the “Unique Food Capital of Texas,” Roanoke, TX and we had some… unique food.

Praises:

Praise the Lord for the special Valentines Celebration. Praise God that the goal of deeper community was achieved.
Praise God for a restful and encouraging staff retreat. Praise God that it all fell into place and people got to talk to each other and learn more about each other.
Praise that God is working in the TCU crew and they are growing closer as real community of Christ.
Praise God that Roy was able to meet with Matty, Yoon, Ricky & Tong, who volunteered to be small group leaders at Tejas. This is a big responsibility and the training is designed to do some discipling of them in kingdom living. There are more that 20 student from all the campuses ISI is on in the North Texas and Austin area who are also being trained with a common curriculum by local staff from the campuses they come from. Pray that God will really energize each of these in living out their faith.
Praise God for the M:28 Bible study that continues to meet weekly with Ricky, Tong, Tarn, Lindy, and Michael. Pray that God allows it to continue and allows the students to discover God.
Praise the both the Starbucks and Planetarium Home groups at UTA’s Bible studies have been flourishing of late. Pray that separate M:28 Discovering God Bible studies spin off from this group. Pray also that leaders develop in this group too.
Praise God for the many home group teams in North Texas who between all of them host 2-300 students every week in a comfortable “community” environment that showcases Jesus and helps tease out people who God is already working in.
Praise that C-10 is taking to her back brace.