Fellow Hokies and friends of [nlcf],

As I was sitting in our student Leadership Community last Monday night, hearing all of the stories about the student’s spring break missions trips to Honduras, Dominican Republic, and New Orleans, my heart was encouraged, full of hope, and renewed with vigor to do the fund-raising work that God has me to do with [nlcf].

Story after story opened my eyes ever more to the amount of poverty and loss people are faced with around the world. I saw how it affected the students, and I saw the impact they had on the communities they were helping. To know that we have already sent over 130 students this year-to-date on short-term missions to help the less privileged made me proud—already breaking our number of missions workers sent in 2006.

I was telling Laurie (my wife) yesterday that this is the kind of church I always want to be a part of—a missional church. These students could have done other things during their break—whether it was to work or go somewhere warm, sunny, and relaxing for spring break. The students sacrificed making money for themselves, and instead raised money to do the work voluntarily. They saw something they were called to that was greater than a nice tan. They were exposed to the most extreme experiences of poverty that I’ve ever heard in our church. We hope to have some of those stories to share with you in the near future.

To update you with a few other highlights going on in [nlcf]:

1. We have just updated our website, www.nlcf.net, so take some time to check out the snazzy web-work by web engineer Dave Williams.
2. Matt Rogers, a pastor of [nlcf], has just landed an opportunity to publish his book approved by Inter Varsity Press- a well known and established publishing company.
3. We’ve just finished the first few weeks of launching the community congregation side of [nlcf] which is currently meeting in the Newman Community on campus. We’ve seen a strong leadership core team and committed congregation of over 60 people this past month, and things are going very well.
4. And to top things off we have seen just over $70,000 in pledges made towards the [nlcf] foundation. All of you have played an integral part in making this foundation work, and we appreciate your help in every way financially, prayerfully, and relationally. Please continue to pray for us as we still have a long way to go with raising funds and the downtown building process.

Please drop a line when you get the chance to keep in touch, and let us know if any of contact information has changed to stay in the loop. Take care and God bless!

Chris Dorsey

What seemed nearly impossible a year ago has today come true. A mountain has gone into the sea. A bit of the kingdom has come. Faith and hope have carried the day.

This afternoon, InterVarsity Press informed me of their intention to publish my first book (tentatively titled, Losing God—A Journey through Depression and Doubt). It will likely take days before I know exactly what I’m feeling, but I know something wonderful has happened.

January 1, 2006, I hiked the Andy Lane Trail to Tinker Cliffs and had a conversation with God along the way. That day I decided two things: I was not going to be a pastor, and I was finally going to write that book I’d been thinking about for years. By April I was ordained, and by May I had finished the rough draft of the book. (One out of two ain’t bad.)

Every day since that hike with God has been an adventure of faith. I have been challenged by the words of Jesus in Mark 11,

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours…”

Countless times in the last year I have made this passage my prayer. Today, the faith has become sight. Today, I celebrate the simple, beautiful truth that when God’s kids ask for gifts which are truly good, and for the good of the Kingdom, Jesus loves to say, “Yes!”

Perhaps later, once I’ve collected my thoughts, I’ll remember all the people who have believed with me over the last year and have offered their help toward the fulfillment of this dream. For now, a partial list:

Jim Pace, Chris Backert, Laura Hannum, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Greg Daniel, Don Pape, Dave Zimmerman…

If I failed to mention your name, throw a rock at me the next time you see me. And for all who offered even a single prayer for this book, thank you.

More later.

Matt Rogers
[nlcf] pastor

We have two groups this semester meeting on Wednesdays at the Graduate Life Center ABP from 11:15a – 12:30p and 1:20p – 2:40p. Both groups are reading through the NT in chronological order (the time that they were originally written). This is great for a number of reasons:

• Both groups will be on the same page, and we will all start fresh together. If an unexpected schedule change keeps you from your usual group one week, it will be easy for you to meet with the other group and join their discussion that day.
• Other people from NLCF can choose to join us throughout the semester… because they will be able to quickly jump in on whatever book we’re at. We’ll be able to pursue our goal of reading the NT together and still be open to adopting new members… which sounds an awful lot like Matt’s talk this Sunday
• Several NLCF members are taking a NT class this semester, and their reading schedule will be similar to ours (we got the list from their class schedule). That will make it possible for them to discuss with us as well as people in their class if they so choose.

Here is the chronological order of books that we will be reading through together…

• 1&2 Thessalonians
• Galatians
• 1 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians
• Philippians
• Philemon
• Romans
• Colossians
• Ephesians
• Mark (about the beginning of March)
• Matthew
• Luke
• Acts
• John
• 1&2&3 John
• Hebrews
• Revelation
• 1&2 Timothy
• Titus
• James
• 1&2 Peter
• Jude