Hello

We’ve all been very happy to see the days getting longer here in River Falls. It’s been wonderful starting our evening gatherings while the sun is still out, rather than in darkness. As summer approaches we are beginning to wind down Street Level and are preparing for the best weather of the year.

Semester Winding Down

Upon writing this, we only have three remaining Street Level meetings this semester. Our Tuesday meetings have primarily remained in our “The Story” series, with the 2nd half of the semester almost exclusively looking at the New Testament idea of “church”. We’ve defined what a church should look like, discussed the church’s mission, and it’s necessity in the life of believers. It’s clearly been a challenging topic to broach, as there are many misconceptions in concerning the reality, role, and importance of “church”. The struggle to live a “Christian” life while at the same time actively disengaging from the local body is something that we are finding all too common.

Guest Teachers

We’ve been please to have recent visitors from the other Street Level chapters join us as guest teachers over the past few weeks. Brittany of Street Level Cebu joined us during her time back in the US, and Ben and Sasha of Menomonie were also with us recently. It good to have these people with us so they can share what their groups are doing, and also help paint a clearer picture of God’s work through Street Level abroad. We have also recently been enjoying some “local” connections also. Our advisor David visited a few weeks ago us to say hello to the students and sit in on a Bible study. Additionally, we are gearing up to attend a campus event at which a Christian professor will be speaking on the topic of intelligent design. Several campus ministries are praying and advertising for this event.

Soon, many of the individuals were are engaged with weekly will be leaving for the summer. Although we will miss these them and the familiarity of our weekly gatherings, we are turning our attention to the next three summer months. The specifics are yet to be finalized, but we are praying, discussing, and keeping our eyes open to see what God has waiting over the next hill.

Have you see us online?

River Falls Ministry Website

JFBelievers River Falls Outreach Facebook

Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook

Second Semester

Since our last report, we’ve begun the new Spring 2018 semester with Street Level. We’ve been pleased to see many of the students back. We’ve also had several new visitors who have come to see who we are. We never know who may come to visit on any given week, so we plan accordingly and are oftentimes surprised. It’s an incrementally slow, but noticeable increase in overall consistency and stability within the ministry. If we don’t stop to consider it, it’s easy to not even notice. We are thankful for God’s continued presence and leading along the journey.

Changes

We’ve made a few logistical changes. We are doing a meal every Tuesday proceeding the Street Level meeting (Meal 6:30pm, Bible study 7pm). This has been good for the conversational aspect as we seek to build relationships within the group. It’s also been a doorway of opportunity for getting people involved. Each week, we take on volunteer to come in early the following week to help with setting up and serving the meal.

Involvement such as this has been a focus for us during the last few months. Aside from the meal assistance, we have opened up a few poster routes. These are done on a first-come first served basis. The stipulation is that the route must be done as a pair, and at least one person must have had done it before. We’ve also, for the first time, had a few of the students do a table on campus for Street Level without direct assistance. Finally, we opened up the opportunity to “shadow” on the most recent issue of Word on the Street Magazine. One of the students who has been very participatory has chosen to step up and to write for our River Falls edition, this is also a first for us.

Sunday Study

Our Sunday JFBelievers meetings continue at 5pm each week. We’ve ended our study of the Gospel of Matthew, and are now turning to the Epistle Letters. The goal is to cover one chapter each week, which keeps us moving through the material fairly quickly, addressing the big topics of Scripture. We are currently in letters of 1/2/3 John. We split an hour right down the middle: 30 minutes of teaching and 30 minutes of discussion. The discussions are have been helpful in getting the group to grasp the meaning of the text and encourage each other to respond in practical ways.

As we reflect with gratitude on what God has done and is doing, we look forward to what the coming months will bring, and are prayerfully considering what God would lead us into next.