1 Thes. 2:8 - Sharing Not Just the Gospel, But Our Lives as Well
This was a very memorable day of hiking at nearby Devil's Lake State Park about an hour north of Madison. We had the pleasure of meeting some new international students for the first time that day, and taking a walk together in the beautifully colored fall leaves provided a bonding experience and opportunity for good conversations. One highlight of this day was getting to spend time with Indonesian and Indian friends, but also meeting new Thai, Chinese, and Japanese friends for the first time.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:8b, Paul writes: "Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well" (NIV).
This is one of our key verses in international student minstry. In our experience, most students are not interested in someone sharing a spiritual message with them apart from a relationship of love and trust. For this reason, we open up our very lives to our students, sharing time together, and having the deeper conversations about spiritual matters while walking, eating, or having fun together.
Another highlight of this day was the fact that Joyah, our 14 year old daughter (far left in photo above), also came with us, as did our older daughter Trinia (age 17 - not pictured). Now that our kids are teenagers, for some reason they don't want to do everything with mom and dad anymore - strange! :-)
You can see why Devil's Lake State Park is one of the most popular state parks in Wisconsin! The rock formations are very beautiful and unique, a testament to God's creativity and design. I like to say it's the closest thing to mountains which we have in America's Dairyland.
