One of our house guests
We had just finished reading Genesis, chapter one, and I asked our house mates, “So, what do you find interesting about this chapter?” With little hesitation one replied, “I think God must be very powerful and very loving to create this world with so much order and to take care of us so well.” This insight came from someone who had just read the Genesis account for the very first time.
One of the true privileges Gwen and I have is to introduce international students to the truth of the Bible. For many, it is their first time to open the Book. I can’t tell you how much joy it gives us to sit and explore God’s truth and watch how, like a rising sun at dawn, it slowly begins to stream rays of light across their hearts. Week after week, as we simply share life together, we learn to love our friends more and more.
Another first time experience came for me, when on March 2, 2008, I ran and finished the Los Angeles Marathon! I had gone out last year and watched the race and was so inspired, I went home and wrote in my journal the following: “I have 365 days to prepare and I want to do this; to be part of something big (24,000 participants) and still something so personal (run 26.2 miles) with such a diverse throng. It reminds me of what the body of Christ is.”
marathon trio
Bethanee, our daughter, ran it too, (though she ran it much faster then I did) along with my friend and Chi Alpha colleague, Bill Snyder. I give all the credit to God and his people (thanks Winston Bui) who prayed and encouraged me to see the finish line. As the minutes passed with thousands of people cheering us all on, I thought of Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
We say thank you to each of you who, month by month, are “running with us” to love students.