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End of 1st Semester

I've been doing this internship for 4 full months now. It is the end of the college semester and it went great! We had a big finals party night. This last friday on Dec 18th. Tons of stuff was happening. There were 140 college students. We had massage therapists, free food, movies on the big screen in the auditorium, video games in the student ministry room, silent study rooms for anyone who wanted to study and free coffee and espresso drinks. It was open from 6pm till 1am and it was a delight.

Tons of great conversations were had by man of the people on my team. We really loved to see community happening and relationships being made. Sometimes it can be a tough thing being a church and making sure that people feel welcome. There are so many stereotypes that we have to work around. But we just keep loving Jesus and people and it seems that people realize that it is a fun place to be.

John and I are getting ready for the next semester. We are trying to learn from the last semester and tweek the things that need to be tweeked in order to have a better and more productive 2nd semester with the college students. They all are on a much needed break and it gives John and I some time to pray for them and get ready for the next step. We are really excited about the things coming up this semester; John will be teaching a class on Worldviews we'll have some other discussion/lecture things, as well as the continuation of the coffee/info table, the small groups and a few come and have fun events.

Now I have to get back to work, filing some VLI information and getting ready for the next quarter of VLI. Hopefully all the VLI students are ready for a good quarter. I know I am.

Love ya.
-Mike

Organizing

So I bought a paper planner. I've been living off of it's electronic counterpart for a few months, and it has it's limitations. I like being able to write stuff down, it helps me remember. Now I have to get myself to actually look at it. I have been able to live thus far, but I needed to do a little better, I know that more stuff (ie. meetings and events) are coming, so I wanted to prepare for that.

A little bit of bad news. Then we'll get to then we'll get to the good news. So the accounting department gave me too much money, which at first was good. But I thought it was mine to spend, so you know I paid my bills had a little bit left and bought a little bit better food, and a birthday gift for someone, and then when I went to get my check for this month I found out that I was in the red in my account.

I prayed. To say the least. Someone called me the next day and said they had heard through the grapevine that I needed some money for rent, they gave me some and Jesus comes through again. I would be lying if I said I hadn't doubted it. But even with my bits of doubt, he came through again.

I got a root canal a couple of weeks back. Your probably asking, Michael how did you pay for that? Well I am glad you asked. Funny Story. So I had a tooth ache it kept me up for over 3 nights, and so someone called and got it worked out with this great dentist office that I could have a payment plan. So I went in got the work done and when I showed up back at the church, the executive pastor called me into her office. Casey told me that someone had given the church some money specifically for intern medical expenses and it was the exact amount I needed... they only gave it to the church about 3 weeks before I had the root canal. Jesus is AMAZING! It was over a thousand dollars. WOW God!

Over and over again Jesus keeps providing for me. Every need that comes up keeps getting met by Jesus. He is using everyone in my path to support and encourage me, financially and in every other way possible. It is an amazing thing, when you follow Jesus. When you trust him like your father, he treats you like his child.

Been Interning!

I write this sitting at a coffee table in the hallways and byways of the UMD campus, that is the University of Minnesota Duluth Campus. We come down here each tuesday for about 6 hours and handout info and coffee, absolutely free. This isn't some watered down cup of joe, no it is NOT! We brew the finest pura-vida coffee from shade grown trees in Costa Rica... but that's not the point.

When was the last time you were on a college campus? Do you remember the walking. About 500 people have passed me in the past couple of hours, and all of them are living the lives of 21st century pioneers. Every one comes and goes with the intensity of sure bred stallions, finding freedom in knowledge, knowledge in freedom. I can't help but want to join them. I want to walk the halls and remember what it was like to live that life. Pursuing knowledge in the halls of the up and coming, sorry to say in the halls of the elites. It isn't the elitism that draws me, but it is a truth of the American life.

So i've spent almost two months now coming to campus multiple times a week, handing out coffee or free food. Talking to students. Networking with students. Hearing their stories. Trying to share life as completely as I know how. There is room to grow, and it is tough doing ministry in this aspect, with people rarely very rarely do you see finished products. We are human beings. We are in flux, we are on a journey. The day your finished, your finished. Who wants to really be finished? But when your job is helping people, with every interaction you begin a relationship, you have created in your mind a loop. A beginning. Yet you are missing an end. It sits stored in the back of your mind, you unconciously think about it, pray about it, plan things around it and take it into consideration. I never want to approach people as products, or things to be worked. Even looking at ministry matrixs, you need to constantly remind yourself, every number having to do with stats and goals, every number is a life, it's a person. My life. My life has to do with people. Luckily my life isn't people, it just has to do with people.