New Baby Pics

We had another ultrasound today. Everything checked out ok with the baby. He or She was very active (as usual). We got a few more pictures for you to look at.
Profile of our baby. His or her mouth is open in this picture (if you can see it).

This is our shy baby, hiding his or her face in the wall of the uterus

And this is just a normal shot of the face

Pregnancy 27 weeks

I am 27 weeks pregnant today! This is the last week of my 2nd trimester, and we have approximately 13 weeks left. Charlie and I both are having fun reading to the baby and feeling him or her kick! We'll keep the pictures coming.

Questions

I (Charlie) am leading a group of 3 sophomore guys along with another student named Jack. Pat, Pete, and Corey are sophomores that are growing in their walks with God. They all have tons of theological questions about things in scripture and what they mean for our lives today. In my 5 years on staff, I have never led a group of guys that had so many questions. This semester we are focusing on a Bible study called foundations. Each week we are studying a different topic (i.e. God, Jesus, the gospel, discipleship, community, etc.) and learning what the Bible says about each topic. As I am thinking, praying, and planning for these guys, I am realizing that the best thing for them in getting their questions answered is to go back to what the Bible says about these foundational topics. When we are left to what we think about different aspects of Christianity, questions and doubts arise. My hope and prayer is that, as these guys learn more about God, Jesus, the gospel, etc., many of their questions will be answered.

Older D-Group

Last night, I met with my older guys (James, Roman, and Drew). This semester we are studying about characters in the Old Testament. As we study, we ask ourselves the questions: What do we learn about the character?, What do we learn about God?, and How does this point to Jesus and the gospel? We started studying Abraham last week. We had good discussion on what it means that Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. We also talked about the story of Sarai and Hagar (Genesis 16) and how that reflects the gospel. We have a tendency to look at old testament characters and view them as good role models and moral people that we should follow. In that story, we see that they are flawed sinners just like us. We learned that the old testament is stories about God showing His grace to those who deserve it least (much like us today). I am praying that through this semester and study of these characters that we will have a better understanding of who God is and what He has done (and is doing) for us.

First Tailgate

Today we had our first tailgate for students at Northwestern. We had around 70-80 students show up for hamburgers and hot dogs before the football game. These are great opportunities to meet new students and engage them in conversation. They are also good events for our student leaders to invite students they are hoping to minister to in order to get them around other people involved with our ministry. James and Drew brought 5 guys from their hall to the tailgate. It is exciting for me to think of all the students that are now leaders in our ministry that we met at our first tailgate 2 years ago. That is where I first met Drew, so it is cool to see how God has used that meeting to form the relationship that we have today. We are praying for more relationships like that to come from all of our "social" events. The guys and girls in the pictures above are some of the people that could be impacted by the gospel through relationships with people in our ministry in the years to come.