November 2008

Expanding Tents

In early October Leon travelled to northwestern Indiana to meet several pastors as part of a fund raising trip. During this trip he also had the chance to connect with several people in the area who want to be involved in growing Chi Alpha on campuses in their area. The Gary, IN area is quickly emerging as a second focus area for coaching future Chi Alpha ministries. There are 29,000 students spread between the 9 campuses of Lake and Porter County. They include Purdue - Calumet, IU - Northwest, Valparaiso University, and Purdue - North Central.

As we have considered the need we have to reach campuses in the northwestern Indiana, as well as west central Indiana, we've found it necessary to fine tune Leon’s role as a Chi Alpha coach. We have developed a basic 4-step approach to starting and coaching new ministries. It is to:

1. Recruit a team of volunteers and church staff people to work together to reach a specific campus and indentify a point person for that team.
2. Travel once monthly to meet face-to-face with this team to provide coaching and resourcing in reaching their campus.
3. Provide additional coaching between visits through on-line, e-mail, and phone coaching sessions.
4. Work with the state and area directors for Chi Alpha as the local outreach grows to raise up a full-time missionary team to continue the ministry on that campus.

Since our last newsletter we have received $590/month in new faith promises and now have $875/month yet to raise. Thank you to everyone who has already committed to invest in our ministry. If you have not yet made a faith promise to our work, please pray about joining our team and helping make up the remaining 22% of our budget so that we can be given the go ahead to begin mentoring teams to reach out on these campuses.

Prayer Requests

1. Pray that God helps us to raise the remaining $875/mon we need in faith promises to be at our full budget, so we are able to begin working with potential volunteers on the campuses of west central and northwest Indiana.
2. Pray for two upcoming informational/team building meetings (12/3 in Terre Haute, IN and 12/4 in Portage, IN). Pray that God would help us to begin to build the networks of relationships in these two areas to support on-going ministry on the campuses in these communities.
3. Pray for protection during all our travels, including Leon’s trip to Little Rock, AR Nov 16—19 for training to be a church planting assessor.

Meet Chris

Chris is a freshman at the University of Indianapolis who has become a key part of the Chi Alpha ministry there. Just prior to beginning school at U Indy, Chris participated in a Teen Mania missions trip. While in Teen Mania, he experienced a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in his life. He has been a great blessing to the ministry at U Indy with his passion for God, his desire to grow in faith, and his enthusiasm for seeing others reached for Christ.

Pray for Chris and the other Chi Alpha students at U Indy. Pray that God would continue to form them into a core of student leaders who want to be a positive influence on their campus.

Home Address & Contact Info:

Leon & Tina Longard
341 N Ellis St
Plainfield, IN 46168-1048

Home: (317) 838-0618
Office: (317) 837-7970
Cell: (317)306-9819
E-Mail: llongard@gmail.com
tklongard@gmail.com
Website: http://www.longardlog.com/

Financial Support Info:

Please mail all tax-deductible donations to:

Assembly of God US Missions
1445 Boonville Ave
Springfield, MO 65802

Make checks payable to A/G US Missions and include account #2642403 in the memo.