Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

November 2011 Update

Posted 08 Nov 2011 — by nick
Category Friends, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for November 2011.

Download (PDF, 1.01MB)

October 2011 Update

Posted 06 Oct 2011 — by nick
Category Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for October 2011.

Download (PDF, 411KB)

August 2011 Update

Posted 08 Aug 2011 — by nick
Category Friends, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for August 2011.

Download (PDF, 337KB)

May 2011 Update

Posted 09 May 2011 — by nick
Category Creation, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for May 2011.

Download (PDF, 350KB)

Easter Sunday with Illini Life

Posted 27 Apr 2011 — by nick
Category Creation, Family, Friends, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, music, Photos, Spirituality

Being in campus ministry has it’s differences from being a community church. One of the obvious places we see this is during the holidays. Student and University schedules are built around being able to return home for Christmas, Thanksgiving and so on. At the University of Illinois some years Spring break falls at a time that allows students to celebrate Easter at home. Most often, though, it does not – leaving many on campus rather than travel quite a distance to visit family.

In this place we, Illini Life, get to step in and be a community that celebrates and remembers Christ’s death and resurrection together. It’s one of my favorite times of the year – we’re reminded that our God conquered the grave, the tomb was empty and in the same way we have been risen to new life in Him. A time worthy of celebrating such as this shouldn’t be contained behind the walls of a building nor in the solitude of loneliness.

Each year we gather those that are still on campus and celebrate the empty tomb together in an open air service right on the heart of campus – the Krannert Amphitheater. Afterwards we gather at a home in the community for a feast.

This past Sunday Amy and I enjoyed celebrating with our church home and our students. Early that morning I had gotten up to get on my bike and ride into the country. Enjoying the solitude and early morning sun I began singing the words of Charlie Hall’s “Marvelous light”

Sin has lost it’s power,
death has lost it’s sting.
From the grave you’ve risen
VICTORIOUSLY!

What a great God we serve!

April 2011 Update

Posted 08 Apr 2011 — by nick
Category Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Running, Scripture, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for April 2011.

Download (PDF, 382KB)

On Mission in Haiti and Memphis

As some of you may have noticed in our last update letter Illini Life sent off two different missions teams over Spring Break this week. Amy is currently in Memphis, TN with a team of 30 Students and 5 Adult leaders serving and sharing in the community there with SOS. They arrived on-sight Sunday afternoon.

Another small group of 15 headed to Haiti around 2:00AM CST today. They’re working with Mountain Top Ministries just outside Port-a-Prince. One of my ministry passions is helping engineering students find places to serve in the church and use their gifts. This trip allows quite a few of them to do just that. The 15 are divided into 3 groups:

  • One group will be helping to set up a school’s computer lab & provide training for the equipment.
  • One group will be working alongside a Haitian construction team to build a hospital.
  • One group will be partnering with a team from UIC-Chicago to run a medical clinic.

We’re excited to be providing 15 laptops and wireless internet in the computer lab. You can have a look at some pictures a few of my friends took as they prepared the computers for travel and lab installation. If you’d like to follow along with the Haiti trip subscribe to the trip blog.

January 2011 Update

Posted 05 Jan 2011 — by nick
Category Creation, Family, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality, Winter

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for January 2011.

Download (PDF, 297KB)

Merry Christmas!

Posted 18 Dec 2010 — by nick
Category Family, Friends, Fun, Winter

Amy and I head out for our holiday travels tomorrow morning. I’m not sure how much computer access we’ll have between now and then, so I thought I’d take a minute to wish you all a Merry Christmas now.

Merry Christmas!

December 2010 Update

Posted 16 Dec 2010 — by nick
Category Family, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality, Winter

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for December 2010.

Download (PDF, 281KB)