David’s Dialogues

June- First Updates from NY!

Dear Friend,

I must say, there have been a lot of exciting things going on over the month of June.  The first part of the month, I was busy preparing for the rest of the summer that I would spend in Silver Bay, New York, as part of the Adirondacks Leadership Training (ADKLT, or simply LT) program.  While still in Blacksburg I helped with our Summer Engage Group Family, which met weekly for Bible study and fellowship.  On June 15^th, I said my goodbyes to Blacksburg and headed north for LT!

What is LT?  LT is a challenging 8-10 week program designed to push students to grow in their walk with Christ and share their love of Christ with others.  The ADKLT program has a heavy focus on evangelism and sharing our testimonies.  Each student has a 40-hr/week job, and the LT staff volunteer in various roles, simply to show Christ’s love to the people around us.

One of my biggest roles is simply to serve as an example to our LT students by building relationships with others outside of the LT program.  In today’s culture, people usually aren’t willing to hear about Jesus until a solid friendship has been established over the course of time.  That’s not only the case in upstate New York, but on the college campus as well.

Each week, we have what we call Leadership Community Day.  All the LT students are divided into 4 groups based on their days off from working at the YMCA.  I co-lead the Wednesday Community Day, which is packed from 9a-5p with various challenging content.  Community days usually consist of deeper discussion of the Sunday sermons, life sharing and accountability, as well as practical equipping times in order to be more prepared to share our faith with others.

Besides building relationships and being a Community Day leader, I also help with the execution of our Sunday service, leading the setup and tear-down processes.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been up here for 2 weeks and there are 6 weeks left in the program!  Thank you for your continued support, allowing me to spend the summer doing ministry with students up here in New York, preparing the ground for the Fall back at Virginia Tech.  I am confident that the lessons our Virginia Tech students are learning now about evangelism will shape their approach to outreach when we get back to Blacksburg in August.  Thank you for helping make that happen!

In Christ,
David

PS- I was recently featured in the Reliant Annual Ministry Report for 2015!  If you’ve partnered with Reliant financially, you should be getting a condensed version in the mail soon (where I’m featured again!)

PPS- In case you have missed any of my prayer letters, check out this link for a collection of every one I’ve sent!