I have taken some time to allow what happened this weekend to sink in. The party went very well and we could really see God’s hands throughout as He made it work. One statement that remains, and it was evident on Saturday, by Gary, the BSM director, is that for many of the students, their first Big Howdy stands out as the highlight of their time in the US. They never felt as accepted or appreciated as at that moment. Wow… That is both an testimony as the power of the Howdy to touch students hearts and allow them to smell the aroma of Christ but also a indictment on how far we still have  to go in continuing to touch their lives with the love of Christ afterwords.

The set up team, made up of mainly college students from the BSM and Lake Arlington Baptist church came 2 hours early and did a tremendous job of setting up the place to help the students celebrate. I’ve never seen college students work so hard. It was a REAL testimony.

The food came in late and there were some nervous moments as the time for the party to start came and all we had was fruit and one casserole. It reminded us of the fish and the loaves that the Disciples knew something about. With some tight muscles, we chose to trust and God seemed to bring just the right food at the right time. Even our Gnocci crew had a problem and came late… but that was perfect timing. If they came on time with what they planned on bringing, I believe it would have been gone much sooner and so the people who came late would not have had anything… God knows what He is doing.

The registration was brisk and yet we got all kinds of information from the students. The tables with all the different Christian orgainizations on campus had brisk traffic throughout and the serving lines were wonderfully staffed by an amazing army of volunteer from I don’t know how many churches. We had one Japanese American man come all the way from California (visiting his friends here) to make a stir fry dish for the students. Wow! Between Pizza boxes, there were home made pasta, Chinese dishes, rice, curry, you name it. Many student even contributed much. Further, since many of the students are vegetarian, there were tall signs carried by beautiful volunteers (Lisa included) indicating which foods were “green” and which ones had meat.

After lots of food and talk… Line dancing and Indian dancing commenced. Two days before the party we found out there was a mix up on dates with our usual, line dance instructor and so we were hard pressed. We sent out a request to the rest of our team and the UTD team shared the older lady to teaches their kids… Again God intervenes… It was a blast. She did a tremendous job. It was wonderful too, to see, some of our retired volunteers doing western line dancing with the “hip” young indians and chinese and others on the dance floor.

Finally, the students were allowed to let loose a little when we allowed them to control the DJ. It was good to see them release some of the stress that had built up in the last month in moving to America in a clean way. To many that was a testimony of grace and hopefully, it broke down some misconceptions about Christians that could lead to other opportunities to share Christ’s love in other ways in the future.

All in all. It was a wonderful evening. We also got over 130 sign ups for the next event, the Tour of Arlington, September 1. Please pray for this. We are very short on drivers to take students around Arlington, Fort Worth to see things in the area. It is probably the time when we get closest to the students of all the Big Howdy events.

Thanks ALL of you who were praying so fervently. It made a difference.

Check out more pics from all Big Howdy Events!