One of the more interesting parts of my job in the international students ministry is the meetings that I have the privilege of being a part of. The last two weeks I took part in several very important meetings. Among the things we met about were:

• Charting the course of a new ministry initiative for ISI in developing a new discipleship and outreach ministry strategy
• Meeting to help look at sites for our ISI national conference in June of 2012 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
• taking students furniture
• Sharing at a national conference of South Asian (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) Christians about the possibilities for them doing ministry with international students
• Picnic meeting with our family and our friendship partner students and their friends and families from China
• Meeting with students to share the Bridge illustration.
• Meeting to share at a seminary class about helping with ministry with international students
• Meeting with our friends from Central Asia to discover what the Bible says
• Meeting with a staff friend in New York over the phone to encourage each other in ministry
• Meeting with a church friend about the possibility of working together on a special project
• Meeting with some seminary students who have decided to focus on serving Indians at UTA and doing some pioneer work there
• Meeting to prayer walk with a couple of people
• Meeting with a man who wants to volunteer and share about our ministry for a mobilization effort called Perspectives
• Meeting to talk and plan for Friday nights with several individuals
• Meeting with another couple to talk about how to help with international students
• Meeting with a national speaker, who wrote the book Death of a Guru on Hindu ministry

Okay, I think you get the message. Honestly, each of these things were energizing and invigorating… It reminds me that God is at work right now. Continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more people for the harvest. Also pray that he will take these that He has risen up already that He will empower them to share with the 18,000 international students in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area the love and message of Christ.

The original purpose of the Friday group going to two different locations was to alleviate pressure in the homes that we meet in. There were just too many people for our homes. We are praising the Lord because while the late group is growing and developing a regular following and a level of stability, the early group is still bursting at the seams with as many as 50 people still coming. God is working in different ways in each group and he is able to touch different types of people in different ways because of the different natures of the groups. Praise the Lord. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers (and maybe more and bigger houses to host) Pray also that the students will still feel like while we meet at different locations, we are still “one group” following one Lord.