This has already been a pretty amazing week for The Gathering.  And it’s only Wednesday morning!!

These last 48 sleep deprived hours have shown all of us what The Gathering looks like when we’re at our best.  Just think about this with me for a minute.  On Monday afternoon, Gathering students at UMD sponsored a major outreach on campus seeking to raise awareness about child slavery issues in West Africa.  At noon on Monday, American University kicked off their SeeSaws Against Slavery marathon.  AU wasn’t going to be limited to a 24 hour marathon; 30 hours seemed to work better for them!  Mason got into the SeeSaws action at 8PM on Monday and went for 24 hours.  By the way, in case you think Mason wimped out, I would like to point out they had multiple SeeSaws in motion at all times!

That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.  In the last 48 hours, God used us to raise thousands of dollars to fight the commercial sex trade, raise significant amounts of awareness on campus and, best of all, have dozens if not hundreds of conversations with university students answering the question “why are you doing this?” We were able to tell them we do it all because our God loves the poor, the broken, the widow, the orphan, “the least of these.”  And, oh by the way, He loves you too and that’s what we want you to know.

That’s us at our best.

I love being on campuses for nights of worship.  Last night in the Kay Center was amazing and I’m believing God for the same tonight at Mason and tomorrow at UMD.  But God smiled every bit as much, if not more, watching us stand for Him in the middle of the Quad.

Oh, and just one last, small thought, if I could – go get some sleep!!