This Time Next Week...

I will have already been running around, feeding five guests in our home breakfast and probably checking to make sure everything else is going okay.

I (we) will be exhausted but running on event-type adrenalin so I probably won't feel it much. That and the gallon of coffee I'll be drinking. And when it's over and everyone leaves and I will collapse.

I will be creatively calling school for that day "College and career day" where we will even get to take a field trip to the campus and see a real live college.  I'll figure out some way to make it educational. And don't worry- we won't fall behind :)

We will be making sure the food will be ready, every detail from lanyards to layout is in order, giveaways packaged up, worship team equipment ready, and everything in place for the evening.

I will probably be more concerned than I need to be about the small details, one of which I am certain will not go as planned along the way.

I will be a little bit anxious but mostly excited to meet and spend time with one of the founders of Every Nation, Rice Broocks, and watch God do His thing through the undeniable gift of evangelism He has gifted Rice with. And still amazed like I am today at how it all happened and somehow he is coming to this.

We will be praying, like we are this week.  Praying, praying. That the spirit of God would flood this campus so much and a great awakening would begin to take place.

Because a week from today, (actually Wednesday and Thursday) we have our first big outreach to the University of Houston happening. It's called 48 (48 hours to turn the campus upside down). It's the first outreach of its kind (so we are gladly the guinea pig, if you will), gathering campus ministers from all over Texas to channel their amazing energy and heart for the campus into one concentrated place for two days. They will literally blitz the campus talking with as many students as they can, using an evangelism tool EN has created called the God Test and just getting to know students. And inviting them to come to the event at night where we will have free food, big giveaways (like iPad big), followed by praise and worship and then Rice speaking.

We have pretty much hit the pre-event ramp up already, starting to get really busy with the details and admin. end of it. It's one of those things that feels so overwhelming and big you have no choice but to trust God with it. U of H is a massive campus. It's extremely overwhelming to think that you could actually make a dent in a place like that (which we feel about Houston in general!), and yet God has ordered all of these little steps and details to make this happen.  With us only being here a few short months, there are a lot of reasons why we feel like we might not be ready, or if we just had this or that or more time...But you know what? None of that matters, because it's happening. God has a plan for this outreach, and we are just working our little tails off to make sure everything is in line for Him to execute that plan. We really do have a heart for the campus, and we believe that if God can use us to help disciple students on campus, we can literally be changing the world. These are tomorrow's leaders, movers and shakers, and influencers of the world as we will come to know it then. And the enemy is out for their souls. But so is God, and His army, His power, and His great love is unstoppable. We are just amazed that we get to take a small part in that.

So, pray for us would ya? I don't even have anything specific to ask you to pray for, because if you can think of any possible detail and area involved in an event like that we need prayer for it! We are so excited. And so thankful that many campus ministers and students are giving of their time, energy, resources, and giftings to come and partner with us on this, including some of our dear friends from Abilene so it's an extra treat to see them for this :)  You might not hear much from me between now and then, but I will keep you posted.

Peace (prayer for the peace part, please :) out from the Pate house.