Valor at Tulane

For months now I've been praying about starting up a ministry for the ROTC students at Tulane. When we were at the Staff conference in Colorado I met with a few of the Military Ministry leaders and talked with them about starting something when I arrived in New Orleans. Valor is the ministry designed specifically for ROTC students and, of course, it has a great military theme in all it does. It falls under both the Military Ministry and Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, so I get to e-mail all kinds of people! They got me started with a kit that included surveys, a video from your favorite preacher and mine...Tommy Nelson, and cards to hand out to the Cadets and Midshipmen.
Pete Kelly-my director- and I went to all the leaders of the ROTC Battalions and talked with them about launching this ministry as a way to serve those that serve our country. Our first visit was to the Naval building and as we walked up we prayed that the Lord would give us "a person of peace" that would have compassion on us and our desire to serve and give us a foot in the door to get this started. Sure enough as we walked in we met one of the professors who himself was thinking about starting a Bible study! We talked with him about what we were hoping to do and he said, "Well let's go talk to the skipper." When we left we had permission, an approximate time and place established and the understanding that God was behind this! Our visits to the other Battalions were encouraging as well. We made it clear to all of them that in no way would we make it seem that this was sanctioned by the military and that our desire was to assist them in helping their students spiritually.
A couple days later I was sitting behind a "Campus Crusade for Christ" table handing out free books and planners when a woman stopped by the table wearing military fatigues. "Are you in ROTC?" I asked (always one to state the obvious). "Yes, I am." she replied. "I'm looking to start up a Bible study for ROTC students, who would I talk to about doing that?" "That would be me. I'm a senior and one of the leaders." "Fantastic," I replied "give us your info and we'll get in touch with you." A week later Pete and I met with Alicia and began casting the vision of what it would look like if ten years from now there was a thriving ministry among the ROTC students and that every cadet that came through had the chance to hear the Gospel clearly and recieve Christ before they graduated. She began e-mailing people and reserving rooms and before I could say Heavily Armored Vehicle we had a Bible study!
Our first study was Wednesday the 19th and 6 people came. It was a good introductory meeting and we're looking forward to seeing what else God has in store. Thank you for praying with us for this!