Imagine being in a place that is so humid that as soon as you walk outside, you are immediately wet all over.

Imagine it being so humid that your glasses have a continual misty film on the lenses.

Imagine a humidity that is so thick that at any moment, you can get rained on by a wicked thunderstorm.

Imagine it being so hot and sticky, that you run your air conditioner 24 hours a day, every day.

For Jennifer and me, we didn't have to imagine this scenario at all because this was exactly what it was like in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina all summer.

When we arrived in mid-May, we were greeted to our 7-week motel home, "The Islander".

The Islander doesn't inspire comparisons to the Residence Inn and it probably wouldn't make it in the AAA tour book.

About the only thing the Islander had going for it was a working air conditioner, which we ran constantly for 7 straight weeks.

The Islander was definitely not the ideal living situation. It wasn't too uncommon to be awakened in the middle of the night by noisy neighbors who were drinking a little too much, or by the smell of second hand smoke that was seeping under the door that separated our room from the neighbor's.

Though the weather wasn't the most pleasant, and our accommodations weren't "first-class", Jennifer and I still had a great summer.

The reason is because we both feel that we've received some excellent training that has better prepared us for our new roles as directors.

We've learned a lot about leadership and planning; about the importance of casting a vision to those who work for and with you; about the importance of motivating people and believing in them. And we've learned more about how important it is to trust God for things that transcend our own human ability.

Our desire at UC Davis is to reach each and every student with the gospel. Certainly that is not something that we can do on our own. There are 18,000 students at UC Davis, most of whom do not know Jesus Christ. The idea that we ourselves can somehow take the message of Christ to each student is kind of ridiculous. We don't have the manpower to do that.

However, we believe that God desires for us to trust Him to reach out to every student.

Reaching every student will require that we think of new and creative ways to reach out. It will require more than just doing things the same way.

We don't know what will happen or how God may choose to use us, but we want to trust Him for things that are bigger than we can accomplish on our own.

Where do we start? That's a good question. We are starting from scratch. Our plan is to focus nearly all of our energy this first year on two things:

1. Getting Freshman involved.

We believe that targeting freshman is the most strategic use of our time because freshman are the most open to the gospel. Freshman are also the most likely to get involved in a group when they arrive. Also, freshman are the best source of a future leadership base because they have the most time to offer in terms of future involvement.

2. Acquiring Resources.

In order to do the things that we would like to do to reach students at UC Davis, we will need certain resources. Some of these resources are very basic things that we need to purchase, like evangelistic materials, Bible study materials, an overhead projector, etc. However, in order to reach out to students in a relevant way, we will also need money. I sometimes hesitate to mention this because we also are responsible for raising the finances to cover our personal needs. But the reality is that evangelism costs money.

We would like to run ads in our school newspaper. We would like to purchase "Freshman Survival Kits" (boxes that contain a New Testament, an evangelistic video, and some other cool freebies) to hand out to every freshman. These things cost money. Therefore, we need to raise money to begin to put together an operating budget.

I would like to ask that you focus your prayers for us primarily on these two things: getting freshman involved (pray for openness to the gospel and availability to be involved), and acquiring the resources we will need to effectively minister on campus.

Your prayers are foundational to the success of this ministry. Thank you so much for your partnership with us. Together, we will be used by God to reach out to those who do not know Him personally. To Him be the glory!