I spent every spare minute last weekend doing house chores, especially cleaning up after the renovation in our third floor. It’s looking nice up there, and the office will be much improved when we’re able to move back in. I was up early Monday morning scrubbing the floor before I had to head up to Vermont.
The drive to Vermont is lovely, and I particularly enjoy driving through Vermont dairy country. Tuesday morning I had an early breakfast with John Meinen, then a break to take an important phone call, then lunch with a student, the president of RUF at the university. She is a very capable person, and we discussed the details of their upcoming retreat and other events.
I got some exercise before the Large Group meeting. John had a Large Group meeting once each month in the spring semester, but now it is weekly. It was solid. There is room to grow, of course, but they’ve only been doing it for a few weeks. I’ve seen worse! The music was solid, the overall meeting moved smoothly, and John’s sermon was amazing! He preached on the parable of the Prodigal Son, and applied it skillfully to Vermont students. After Large Group I had dinner with John and Megan. Their lives are packed, with an infant, four Bible studies, weekly Large Group, new leaders, and all that goes into developing a ministry. Nevertheless, they seem happy and appear to have everything under control.
RUF at Vermont is thriving, but fragile. Pray for God to continue using John and Megan to build this young group into a strong ministry.
I had breakfast with John Wednesday morning before heading to Connecticut, where I had dinner with Lucas and Maggie Dourado. Lucas and I discussed his ministry on Thursday, then I had pleasant meetings with each of his interns. Back to campus in the evening for Large Group, where Lucas preached from the Sermon on the Mount. Lucas is a skillful preacher, and the whole meeting was encouraging and uplifting.
It has been very hard to gather students at UConn, but Lucas has persevered admirably. Over the years several interns and seminary students have come from this ministry. Pray for God to bless our work and make RUF at UConn even more fruitful.
I spent all day Friday driving to Grove City in northwest Pennsylvania for Homecoming at Grove City College where Benjamin is a sophomore. Ruth rode there with friends and we had a delighful weekend together. We watched the Grove City football team almost win their first game of the season and got soaked in the process. This morning we enjoyed worship at Hillcrest Presbyterian Church where Benjamin attends, and had an amazing lunch at Rachel’s Roadhouse. Ruth dropped me off at the Pittsburgh airport and is now driving home. I will soon fly to Atlanta for the RUF national committee meeting this week.
David Green 