Notes from the Trail

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I had lunch Wednesday with a former student from my campus ministry days - Davy Nugent from Dewitt. He’s been serving in the Navy for the past five years, having traveled the world while serving my family and our country. I’m grateful. Truly.

For those of you who know Davy, he is the same fun-loving, animated Davy I remembered. While he was only at UAM for a year, he and his Dewitt friends made a lasting contribution to our campus ministry through their enthusiasm and participation. I laughed out loud as Davy described being on ABC News with his arm around Diane Sawyer who was in southeast Asia covering the tsunami relief effort, which the Navy was a part of.

The strange and surreal thing about lunch today is that the current campus minister, Tracy Reed, was there with his wife Candy. Tracy was my assistant the semester before Davy arrived at school. Also there was Jeremy Woodall who was in junior high at the time, I guess but is now Tracy’s assistant at the BCM. Tracy and Candy are some of our best friends, and we are so blessed to have them ministering on the UAM campus now.

As we talked about memories and current happenings, I kept getting confused about what students Davy would know and which ones he wouldn’t. He asked about Jill Parrack, and he remembered Jody Smotherman, as well as Ryan Morgan, but he didn’t remember others that I mentioned - mainly because they came after he had left.

After more than 20 years in ministry, eight of them at UAM, I get my ministry generations mixed up. That’s an especially significant factor for guys who do youth and college ministry, as students come and go so much. It’s sometimes hard to remember who “fits” where in the generations of students that we’ve had the privilege and blessing of ministering alongside.

As students graduate, transfer and move on, you don’t realize the significance of their dispersion until much later. However, today as I listened to Davey’s stories and realized the impact he’s been making on the world and his continued love for Christ, I was humbled to have been allowed to serve him during his freshman year at college.

These days, more often than not, the college students I worked with are married and most even have children. They’re serving all over the world, in churches, in the armed forces, in business and government. If you haven’t stopped to pray for youth and collegiate ministry today, I encourage you to do so. They are strategic opportunities to encourage, inspire, and set young people on a life direction that is beneficial and glorifying to God.

Suggested link: Arkansas College Ministries

I just submitted by chapter for the upcoming Age of Conversation - Why Don’t They Get It? book to be released in August. It was due today, and as I have been sorting out what I wanted to say in my little corner of the book, I quickly over-said my limit. It was 400 words or less. 

So I scrapped what I was writing and started over. However, I thought I’d post my first attempt and let you chew through it. Hope you’re ready to listen…

More »

These days of ever-soaring gas prices bring quite a relief when I motor up to the pump on Ghost. Not only is my checking account breathing easier, but I feel like I’m doing the world a favor by not unquestionably consuming gallons and gallons of gas when there are other options. Except for some mild inconveniences, I highly recommend the $600-$800 investment into a moped. If you’re like most SUV-addicted U.S. families, you’ll pay for the moped in saved gas in 2-3 months.

Here are some of the inconveniences over the past year in driving a moped:

1. Bad weather means you stay at home or hitch a ride
2. Hitching rides too often makes you feel bad 
3. Bugs hurt like Hades at 35 mph
4. Tobacco-stained teeth sneers from pickup truck windows (of course, most times, there’s only 3-4 teeth in the mouth anyway)
5. Not much luggage room
6. Gravel on streets becomes a hazard when turning (you don’t think about those things in a car)
7. Bird poo has no roof to hit first
8. Takes a little longer to get places (but a whole new world of back-street and parking-lot shortcuts opens to you)
9. Soccer mom snickers (it seems that driving a mini-van is more cool than a moped, so now I’m apparently low-man on the cool totem pole)
10. The smell of roadkill is intense (but you’re less likely to do second-hand smush)

I’ve been using this book for a while now in my personal devotional time, and I have to recommend it to anyone who is looking to “jump start” their Bible study. If you don’t have a plan or are in-between studies, this Following God Character Series is very good. I’ve done 2-3 in the series.

Life Principles for Following Christ is a 12-week interactive Bible study. There is material to read and respond to for five days in each of the chapters. The 12 chapters each take a deeper look at Christ’s roles in the following ways:

• The Last Adam
• The Seed
• The Angel of the Lord
•  Lawgiver and Judge
• The King
• The Prophet
• The High Priest
• The Son of Man
• Christ in Prayer
• The I AM
• Rabbi and Teacher
• Lamb of God

The one on the kings of the Old Testament was not only informative and helpful, but it also helped place into perspective a timeline of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel. Knowing the events of the Old Testament enables one to relish with gratitude God’s intervention through Christ in the New.

What Bible reading plan or study are you currently involved in?

Top ‘o the week t’ya!

I’m curious this morning… what do you have set for your homepage when your browser comes up?

Here’s mine: