*RIng Ring* Good morning. This is your wakeup call...

The season of Christmas is over and we have been sprung unto a new year...A year of resolutions to lose that weight, and become more in tuned with God; a year of history in the making as Mr. Barack Obama takes his place as Commander in Chief; and a year full of unknown potential in the eyes of ministry.

I returned to Pittsburgh from Morgantown Monday morning, not really ready to get back into the swing of things. Dabney and I sat and talked about our breaks, all the news and excitement that happened, and the future of this semester at Pitt. We talked about the outreach, training, speaking engagements, and new small groups and GIGs (Groups Investigating God) forming. We prayed for each other, for the students, and for the outreach.

It wasn't until later that night as I was sitting in my room looking at my calender that I realized "There's only 2 1/2 weeks until the outreach!" Then I realized all that I had mentioned above (outreach, training, etc) is all happening this month!!! I felt like God has made my alarm go off telling me this is my wakeup call and I better get my my butt in gear and start working on this stuff. Don;t get me wrong I have been working on some of these things...but now as it's drawing closer, it's more urgent to get the nitty gritty things finished.

Even now, as I just wrote of a wakeup call, I still feel like these things are forever away; but I know they're not. It's the whole "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" thing.

Anyway, last night was out 1st large group of the semester. We had 15 students come (5 more than last semester), and we had a wonderful evening worshipping in spirit to God and hearing of the Great I AM. This was the begining of a series we will be doing in LG of "God is...". Last semster we focused on who we are in Christ, and this semester we are focusing on who God is. If last night was any indication of how the rest of the semester will go, then I am very excited of what is to come.

There are many transitions taking place this semester. We've gained 2 new staff from MI who are going to begin an Asian IV fellowship, our LG coordinator is studying abroad in Spain this semester, and 2 leaders are returning from Israel. We have a completely different group dynamic, we've been placed in a new room, and the first month of IV is going to be completely different than before due to the outreach. I am confident that God is going to show us many new things through these transitions, but I would like to ask that you would pray for us as we relearn how to opporate.

As I said before I am excited of what this semester will hold, and I will keep you posted on new developments.