Some Place Like Utah (Part 2)
Joe told me,
“You should give this guy a call. He’s a church planter in Utah, not exactly sure where, but he’d be really cool to work with. Let me get his contact info.”
A couple of days later Joe had emailed me the contact info for the church planter. Joe is the Chi Alpha Director for North Arkansas College and had met this church planter at another missionary event.
For months, Noreen and I had been praying about three different campuses. Trying to discern God’s will, where to launch Chi Alpha. Remember there are no Chi Alpha ministries in the whole state. We could choose anywhere, but where was God lining things up? One of our responsibilities while in Arkansas was to lead a spring break missions trip. Where? Utah of course! But who should we work with? I could call an old college acquaintance that pastors one of the churches in Salt Lake. Or how about the church I grew up in during the 80’s? Then I remembered the seemingly random conversation I had with Joe about that church planter. I wasn’t even totally sure where he was launching new churches, or if they were close to any universities. Did he want any help?! While praying about it, I strongly felt I was to call the church planter first and see if there was anything we could to do to just be servants.
So I picked up the phone and called David Nicholson, the church planter. Guess what happened next? Yep, voicemail. David returned my call later that day, and was enthusiastic about hosting our small group. He shared his vision and what God was doing in their world, and how we could help. They were just about to launch their second church in the area, in Orem. From that phone call I knew that God’s providence was again at work. Orem, is home to Utah Valley University, the largest public university in Utah, a university that Noreen and I had been praying about. We were not ready to shut the door on the other schools yet, but it sure did seem like God was narrowing the list.
God wasn’t done yet, since we must have not been convinced yet, he had one more surprise for us…(to be continued.)
Notes
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