That’s a wrap!

As promised, the wrap up. The staff team got a chance to sit down with our student leaders this past Sunday for lunch to talk about take-aways from Journey (our fall conference). Since being on staff, I am beginning to understand why students are always asked to share. When I was a student, I think I just assumed it was because it was one of the few times I had something good to say, but as staff it is so encouraging hearing how all these students we are working with are beginning to catch the vision and mission of what we are doing. The phrase “catch the vision” may be somewhat of a Navigator phrase, but I think that it is something everyone knows instinctively. It explains why you are more likely to enjoy a subject with a teacher that wants to teach, or why a good sports coach can change the entire mentality of a team. When a leader is doing their job well, the people following them are going to become personally invested in what the leader is doing. This is communicated in the phrase “more is caught than taught”. Seeing our student leaders putting good ideas into practice is, I imagine, something like what a proud parent feels with their kid (though obviously I feel it to a much smaller degree than a parent).

Thinking back on the conference the thought that keeps running through my head is: What a job!? Because of the responsibilities that I had as staff and because I also wanted to participate in all the activities that I could, I was averaging 5 hours of sleep 3 nights in a row. I did not quite see that coming, maybe it’s good practice for shift work in the future. In light of the short sleep, and the long drive, and the many other less glorious part of the conference, my biggest take-away would have to be that it was worth it. I got the chance to see students make great strides in their faith, renew their commitment to making Jesus lord of their life, and even had the opportunity to co-lead a workshop. It is such a blessing and encouragement to be part of students growth and development. It was especially good to get a chance to sit down with my brother and share together how God has been working in our lives.

Thanks to everyone that prayed, God heard and answered in big ways. We had a safe and very fun road trip. It was a great time for students to connect with one another and to share take-aways on the ride home. I was very encouraged to hear how some of our student leaders stepped into small group leading roles with great success and were able to foster good discussions. One last exciting thing to mention, we had five students sign up on interest sheets for our Summer Training Program and two students sign up for summer missions trips. As someone who has experience with both of these I am extremely excited for the students that will get to participate in either of these programs. I am sure that I was not able to cover even the major things that happened at Journey, but I hope this gives you a glimpse into the weekend and I will be sure to share other exciting things in the coming weeks.

All 20 of the students that came, plus staff (Not quite the picturesque backdrop like last year).

The Journey of a Life Time

Ask yourself: Would you drive 20+ hours to spend the weekend with 600 other college students learning about Jesus?

This is not only something we are asking of our students, it happens every year. As the geographic outlier in our region, the UNM Navigators group makes a trip like this not once, but twice a year. As our annual fall conference is approaching this weekend (10/18-20) I wanted to write a quick update to ask for prayer for our journey (road trip) to Journey (the name of our fall conference).

Please pray for:

1. Last minute/ unexpected details to work out, especially for our students
2. Safety driving as we are taking the “scenic” route to avoid the flood damage in Colorado
3. Fun bonding time during the long drives up and back
4. Open ears and learner’s hearts for the students attending Journey
5. Wisdom for all those speaking and leading workshops this weekend (especially myself)
6. Smooth and uncomplicated operations for us at the YMCA conference center that is hosting us

I am excited to be returning this year to Estes Park, Colorado and cannot wait to see what God is going to do this year. My experience at Journey as a student was incredibly impactful and I always left challenge and with a renewed excitement about my faith. This year going back as staff will surely see a different experience, and I would appreciate your prayers in adapting to this new role. I know that God is going to use this conference to teach me (likely more than He will use me to teach others). I look forward to updating you all after the conference sharing what God did there.

The UNM Navs at last year's (2012) Fall Conference.

On seeking, seeing, and serving in Faith

So in case you don’t know this already, I’m a nerd. Maybe you can’t tell because I don’t wear pocket protectors, but without a  doubt I am a full-on, self-described geek. Maybe, you think nerds and geeks are different, but basically I think a nerd is someone who geeks out over stuff, basically the same thing. Well now that I’ve told you, how about Exhibit A to really drive home the point. This past week I spoke at our Nav Night (weekly large group meeting) and I was assigned/ chose to speak on faith. This semester we are going through the armor of God, so more specifically I was talking about the Shield of Faith (Eph 6:16). Now, when most people talking about faith would rely heavily on anecdotal stories about using prayer or the Bible to shield yourself from attack. This can be a great approach and I did use some fun stories like the story that most informs my mental image of a shield. This is a story from when my dad was younger and they had an angry rooster that liked to attack, so the bold young boy would equip himself with a garbage can lid (shield) and baseball bat (sword?) to venture into the lair of his fearsome opponent. However, my main illustration did not come from one of these stories, but was in the form of a graph. Yes, that’s right: points, lines, axises (axes), a sweet title, even an equation. Really, what more could you want from a graph? I have included it below for your viewing pleasure, ... or to print and burn depending on your feelings about math.

In my talk, I took several minutes to explain the graph that included many confusing hand motions, some excited pointing, and pathetic attempts at math related humor that drew some very strong pity laughter (at least that’s what I assuming it was). Regardless, due to these factors I probably will not be able to explain it as well through writing, but I will try to communicate the main point. Faith, as seen below is the result of repetitive confirmation over time that leads to confident predictions about the future. This allows us to face boldly the situations that arise that do not seem to align with our expectations, being fully convinced that what we have seen in the past is an accurate representation of what will continue to happen in the future. In addition to this explanation I included some short thoughts below the graph that correspond with the it and will hopefully help those of you non-math-minded people to see what the graph will not be able to communicate.

Interpretations or graph for the "word" people:

Faith is only blinds as it concerns the future, it sees clearly and is informed by the evidence, experience, and extrapolation of the past.
Experience -> Evidence -> Expectation
Faith does not operate in spite of evidence, but in light of evidence.
Faith works because our God never-changes.
Faith is always rooted in truth: in who God is, who we are in Him, His work in our life. This is why faith is a shield, because the offensive weapons of the enemy are always trying to attack the truth and its relevance in our lives, but faith allows us to resist those attacks

At this point I hope you are encouraged, not just wondering why you are still even reading this blog, which at this point probably just feels like a sermon. I hope that seeing faith as something that is justifiable and reasonable strengthens your faith and allows it to grow as a better shield. Also, I hope this serves as a reminder that the object of faith (Jesus) is what makes our faith work. As the famous theologian A.W. Tozer explains, “For it is not enough that we believe; we must believe the right thing about the right One.

This topic of faith is very pertinent this time of year as students at UNM are already heading into midterms and by the end of Wednesday will be halfway done with the semester! I know that during my years as an undergraduate these were times when the tiredness, stress, and just plain exhaustion would pile up into a mountain of reasons to not seek God first and rely on Him for strength. Would you join me in praying Colossians 1:9-14 over these students? I really love Paul’s prayer in the introduction to this letter and it has become a go-to prayer I pray for myself, people I’m leading or am being led by, friends, and pretty much anyone I want to pray for. I would encourage you to look it up and pray it, substituting in names or personal pronouns. It is a fantastic prayer for wisdom, strength, endurance, and patience, as well as having a clear reminder of the Gospel tucked in at the end.

Thank you again to those of you that already lift me up in prayer, it’s working! God continues to bless our Nav Nights, small group Bible studies, and building relationships with students, helping them to grow in their faith and relationship with Him. I promise the next update will have more pictures (that are not graphs) and hopefully less words. Thanks for reading!

P.S. Always attempt adding additional alliteration **see title

P.P.S. If you want to receive an email whenever I add a new blog post, send an email explaining this predicament to: macinniscameron@gmail.com , and I will remedy the situation.

Unintentional Breakfast: Breaking the Unintentional (Blogging) Fast

“So what exactly is it that you do?” This question has been rattling around in my head since a friend from the biology department asked when I was out to dinner with a group a couple weeks ago. Granted it was much harder to explain to them because they are not a Christians, so even what I told them doesn’t explain much. However, I had been a little frustrated because it seemed like I couldn’t even answer the question for myself. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m staying plenty busy. I’ve had no problem at all finding enough activities to keep a full schedule and them some, but it doesn’t always feel like much is going on because I’ve always been looking for the big story.

This has been part of the reason for my radio silence, or “blog silence”, as it were. Coming off 16 years of schooling where there are definitive markers for progress and success, setting my own schedule has not come easy. Also, in the midst of this frustration of not feeling productive, I got sick. Not the kind of sick where you sound sick, but can function. No, this was the kind of sick where you sleep through the night, wake up feeling like going back to bed, sleep through the day, get up because you know you should eat something, and sleep through the whole next night... and are still somehow tired the next day. That kind of sick. And even though that gives you a pass to do nothing, talk about feeling unproductive.

A couple days ago I was spending time in the Word and I was reading in Philippians 4:6-7 which says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God really used this passage to convict and encourage me because I realized the more I wanted done the more I was trying do on my own, rather than trusting that God will work in me to accomplish what is supposed to happen. It also means spending more time in prayer, which is something that I’m not great at when my schedule gets busy. I would ask that you would join me in making prayer more intentional in your life as well, and I would appreciate it you would include me as one of the people you are praying for.

It’s amazing how, looking back, God is always doing big things even when we fail to see it. We have consistently had 40+ people at our Nav Nights (large group meeting), which is big compared to what we have had in the past. In addition, all of our Bible study groups have filled up, even if it has taken a bit longer than expected. I’m thankful that our success depends only on our Lord and Savior who loves to bless us above and beyond what we could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Also, for His reminders that He saved us not so that we could earn our salvation, but because of His mercy and He alone is the One that can rescue us from our sin. We serve a big powerful God, who loves us, and loves to do good things for us. These  are some great truths that we have been examining in our small group Bible studies that are so important to remember daily or it is easy to lose focus and think that it all depends on us.

PS. I’ve included some pictures below that show some of the ways we have been connecting with students during these past few weeks.

Line Dancing in the backyard during a southern themed outreach dinner. We hosted about 35 students for a dinner of chicken and waffles. 

Yes, I did lose to a girl in a skirt (I'm going to say I let her win). Don't tell my old coaches.

The two guys on the left (from left Aaron and Lucas) are part of my Bible study and are enjoying Sunday Morning Breakfast at our house. Amazingly, about 20 college students will show up for food even at 8am in the morning. Luckily, we have a wonderful volunteer who cooks for this meal.

Concerning Current and Future Updates

Hello!

As I was thinking about how I wanted to do regular updates, I faced a dilemma. I don’t want to clutter people’s inboxes with email (and let’s be real, who actually reads all their emails anyways) and regular mail is mostly reserved for special occasions these days. I thought back on last summer and the success of using a blog to update people while I was in Nepal. I like blogs as a reader because you can read as often as you would like and it allows me as the author to include fun things like pictures and videos should the desire emerge. If you would like to subscribe to receive update emails for new posts follow the instructions at the bottom of the page or ‘follow’ my blog. I hope that you enjoy the stories I will share through this blog and I intend to set it up in such a way that I would be able to continue posting even after this year.

First, I want to thank each of you that have joined my team as I minister to student. I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to work with college students, especially at a school that I have come to love so much over the past four years. I am excited to see what God has for this campus and to see what He does through me and the Navigators as we represent Him on campus. This leads naturally into another topic that I would like to make a part of these updates, prayer requests. I would appreciate the prayers of any of you that are willing to join me this year. Having been on campus for two weeks now I see that one of the most immediate and obvious needs is to maintain the energy level needed for collegiate ministry. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember college ever being so intense while I was a student. That said, I have found great joy in working full time with students and have great joy being on campus reaching out to all the new students. Also, please pray for our staff team (myself and two other guys), that we would be an example to the students with whom we are meeting. Pray that God would continue to lead us to students that are interested in learning about Him.

One of the outreach dinners we have done at the house where I live with my fellow staff guys.

Lastly, I want to leave you with an encouraging story from my first weeks on campus. The Tuesday before classes start is when my job on campus officially began, as it was the first day students could move into the dorms. As a group the Navigators joined several other Christian ministries volunteering to help students with move-in on that day. One of the students we met that day was a transfer student living in one of the traditional style dorms. We invited him to come play ultimate frisbee with us and afterward he came over to hang out with several other students at our house. One of the students in our ministry gave him a ride back to campus that night and when he got in the car the first thing he asked was, “Why doesn’t anybody in your group swear?” Without telling him anything about who we are or what we are about, he saw a difference in our group. What a great reminder it was about the impact of our actions on those around us. This guy enjoys hanging out with us, has joined us several more times, and after every time he seems to be baffled by our group. Each of the conversations have led to an opportunities to share who we are and why we behave in such a unique way. Pray that we are able to continue having interactions with curious students like him, and that we would have opportunities to share the gospel with them!

One of the ways we meet students is through a spiritual interest survey conducted on campus. This year we met over 500 students!

Thanks for your prayers,

Cameron

Please comment below with questions, comments, or encouragement.

P.S. I have titled this blog, On the edge: For future practice, because I feel an internal obligation to utilize every chance I have at word play when blogging

If you want to partner in my ministry or learn more click the link or paste it into your web browser: http://www.navigators.org/us/staff/macinnis