Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #29

 November Blog 

    Hey everyone! Hope y'all are heading into Thanksgiving with high spirits! This is a great time to meet up with family and to stop worrying about our day to day routines. As I am about to head into the break for Thanksgiving, I want to invite y'all in on what has been going on in our ministry this past month!

    Pizza Theology:

    Pizza theology is an once a semester event where we allow students to take a college level deep dive into a specific theology topic while also eating Cici's pizza. This year we invited a renowned, professor from Regent School of Theology, Dr. Rikk Watts, to come and teach us about the book of 1 & 2 Samuel. It is an honor to have this man come and expound all of his learnings and research unto us. He is a scholar of the Bible and we could not have been any more blessed to have him teach us a book from the Old Testament. 

    I was enamored with how Dr. Watts talked about prayer. He highlighted specific areas in 1 & 2 Samuel where prayer played a vital role in the story, much like most the stories in the Bible. Then he challenged us on the way we prayed about things. I remember him saying in his Australian accent, "Have you prayed for a leader of our country? Have you prayed that God will give you your desires? Have you prayed for peace in any where in the world? Do you pray that God will help you with your homework?" He reminded us that prayer should be an integral part of our lives. It should be thought of like removing a single card from a house cards, the whole thing will crash down if even one card is taken away. Our prayer life should be connected to our daily activities. We need to pray about every aspect of our lives consistently and often. It really stuck with me as I do forget to pray about everything. Here are some pictures from our Fall 2024 Pizza Theo with Rikk Watts!

    

TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship):

    TNF is going well, almost too well I should say! We are now over capacity in our new room, even with adding more chairs at the front near the stage! This is such a huge blessing to us as that room holds about 85 people with the stock chairs in there which means we are hosting about 95 people at the moment which is amazing! We only have about 3 returning students from last year, as all the other students graduated or transferred school, and God has provided us with an entirely new community! 

    We are about to finish up with our sermon series on 1 Corinthians which I have mentioned we were doing, I will be giving the final sermon on our series soon which I'm excited for. Sermon writing is really fun to me as I have always enjoyed writing and it is a creative outlet for me. Here are a couple of pictures from our last TNF's:

    Ministry Update:

    My one on one Bible studies with my students has been very fruitful recently. I believe that the Lord is working in these students and helping them see that God's way is much better than the world's. One of my most recent Bible studies started from a guy who signed up online and randomly showed up to our Bible study. He just got through a break up and was seeking out friendships that were centered on the Lord. He's never been super invested in church and doesn't really care to know more but has recently had the feeling to get more invested in community. And now for the past couple of months, he has been super involved in our ministry, showing up to all our events, asking tons of questions during our Bible study, and wants to seriously devote his life to Jesus. It has been super cool to be his mentor and help him along his journey. I always get so excited to meet up with him. 

    Prayer Requests:

    Please be praying for all of the men in my small groups and Bible studies to take a deep interest in knowing the Bible and God. I think a lot of them just show up at the moment, which is good, but we want our students to be deeply intrigued by Jesus and following his lifestyle so that when they leave college, they won't fall away from their faith but continue to find new places and people to build connections with. 

    Also, be praying for some of our students as they go back to live with their families for Thanksgiving. Some of them do not have stable or loving families and the holidays are stressful for them.

    Thank You:

     With a heart full of gratitude, I want to sincerely thank you for your generous support of our college campus Christian ministry. Your faithfulness and kindness help us to continue sharing the love of Christ, fostering community, and providing spiritual guidance to students navigating this pivotal season of life. Your donations are more than financial gifts; they are acts of faith that enable us to plant seeds of hope, truth, and transformation on campus. We are deeply humbled and encouraged by your partnership in this mission, and we pray that God richly blesses you for your generosity and unwavering support. Thank you for standing with us as we strive to make an eternal impact in the lives of students!