Friends and family,
Since my last post a lot has happened both on campus and with our family. Here is a quick update and some new ways you could remember us in your prayers.
Joey's Doctor's appointment
Joey's doctor appointments on Monday went well. As we have reported previously the tumor continues to be stable and the doctors are encouraged. His MRI's are now scheduled to take place every 6 months and now more than anything we are praying for the sight in his right eye to be restored as the tumor shrinks.
The Fumigation
On Wednesday we moved out the rest of our food and all of the kids toys for the fumigation. This was a very costly time for our family and took me off campus for at least 20 hours during a week when a lot was going on. On Saturday we spent the entire day from morning until evening moving back in. Please pray that God would restore the time that the locusts (or in this case, the locust killing insecticides) have eaten - see Joel 2:25 for the allusion.
While the finding street parking in East Palo Alto was difficult I was glad to meet with a young man named Samuel who lived in the neighborhood. I saw him standing around and invited him to go for a walk with me to my car. He shared that he had recently been threatened at gun point in front of his two year old son. In our conversation I was able to explain the relationship that God invites us into by his mercy and invited him to pray. He prayed a simple prayer and expressed interested in going to church. While I was frustrated by the need to temporarily relocate if it was all for Samuel I know it was worth it. Please pray that God would continue to guide and protect him in these days.
Continued new life
On campus we have continued to see students experiencing new life. At the last meeting two more students who hadn't previously considered themselves Christians made public statements that they acknowledge that God has been initiating with them and they want to respond. Once again our fellowship through them a party!
Challenges on campus
Still we have begun to face some significant opposition on campus particularly from one of the faculty in the Geology department where our weekly fellowship meetings take place. The faculty was upset by the volume of our first meetings and petitioned with others on campus to have us removed from the room. As a result we are now prohibited from using amplified music during our weekly meetings unless we can find a new place to meet. Both of these options are difficult. Our group often has over 100 students participating on a weekly basis and finding another room that we can use on a consistent basis is extremely difficult. Having unamplified music is also less than ideal. The suggestion by the faculty to have only unamplified instruments (i.e. guitar) makes it more difficult engage with and reflect the range of musical traditions and cultures that make up our group. While we some time sing traditional hymns at other time we sing praise songs widely sung in the Black Churches. This has become part of our shared culture of InterVarisity at Stanford and is more difficult to sustain with merely guitars and voices.
To add to the difficulty we know that the room has built in amplification and projection and has been used for movies and other louder events. While we want to be respectful to our hosts, we also want to avoid setting a precedent of capitulation to those who might discriminate against us more for the content that we are amplifying and not merely the volume.
Please pray that we would be able to respond with wisdom and humility, patience and respect. Please pray that once again God would turn these challenges to blessing and that he would make Himself more widely known on campus.
For the Gospel,
Jon Paris – IVCF at Stanford
