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Can Anything Good Come From the Net?
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Brian and I had a fruitful first discussion, after which he had me overwhelmingly convinced to visit UCO. I attended a fall party, met some members, and began showing my face more and more regularly. This heightened involvement led me directly to the one thing I had yearned for most in a fellowship: a strong, committed men's group.
I began meeting weekly with a group of guys; we prayed and worshipped collectively and discussed our faith and lives as Christian men. We have continued successfully into the new semester, and our organization and accountability to one another continue to improve. We are actively strengthening one another and truly growing together as men of the Lord.
-Zach Mabee
Zach has been a wonderful addition to our life in UCO. He is a man with many gifts and talents who has clearly made using them to glorify God his priority.
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I expected my arrival at U of M to be the commencement of a search for knowledge, truth, and understanding of kinds that I could not grasp from the confines of my Jesuit high school in Toledo. I was decidedly eager and willing to heave myself fully into this community of learning and take from it all that I possibly could. Who would have thought that my efforts to embrace this secular institution would compel me into a relationship with the Lord?
I spent my first year here working diligently, focusing on academics and an excessive number of extracirriculars, but generally neglecting my spiritual life. I was pleased with my performance inside and outside the classroom, but all the while, I doubted seriously my personal relationships and their potential for growth. This led me to focus more on my close friendships from high school--one of the smartest moves I've ever made.
I began talking more with my two closest friends from the previous four years. They told me how central a role their Christian faith played in their lives, and they inspired me to begin a
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search for the Lord--not a lackadaisical effort like I had shown in the past, but a sincere and devout pursuit of a relationship with God.
We studied scripture together for an entire summer and became even closer friends. That experience with them filled me with a passion for the Lord that was unlike anything I had ever before known. I knew, without even the slightest doubt, that the relationships I had forged with the Lord and with two friends and fellow Christians were priceless and life-altering.
After this phenomenal summer, finding an intimate, focused fellowship on campus became my next goal. I did not know where to begin my search, however, so I turned conveniently to the World Wide Web. I scanned the U of M website for resources and eventually found a directory of Christian organizations that listed, among other groups, UCO. Unsure of which group to investigate, I sent emails to several contact people, and of them, only Brian LaLonde responded.
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UCO's own giants, Andrew Davingon and Zach Mabee, towering in at 6'6'' and 6'8'' respectively.
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Joel and Shelley Greene at a UCO activity, brother and sister-- recent grad and newly accepted wolverine!
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Wanna help? All donations are greatly appreciated and tax deductible. Gifts can be sent to the address below; checks should be made payable to UCO-UM. Address or name changes can be sent to Brian Laba at the same address or via e-mail (blaba@umich.edu)
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Please give thanks with us for the testimonies contained in this newsletter - God is definitely alive and at work among us! Also, please pray with us for the following areas:
1. Generous Responses: Pray that all the UCOers would take up Christ's radical call to life-long discipleship and be able to respond generously with a whole-hearted, "Yes Lord!" Pray that they might do this by investing well in small groups, summer mission opportunities, and the daily disciplines of prayer and study.
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2. Communication: Despite all our new technological links, we feel UCO could use prayer to establish and protect open, real, and sustained communication among the members, staff, alumni, and other chapters around the globe.
3. Staff: The UCO staff members (the Brians, Amy Birk, Sarah Flanagan, and Joel Greene) are all currently experiencing life transitions. Please ask that the Lord pour out his grace on us, and guide our steps along his way. Also, pray that he would soon make clear any new staff he would
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want to continue his work through in the coming year, and provide for them those things (part-time work and supportive living situations) that will enable them to invest in serving students on campus.
May God be glorified in your lives! May God be glorified in UCO! And may God be glorified in all that we do!
-Brian LaLonde
UCO Co-Chapter Director
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University Christian Outreach Alumni Association
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716 Catherine Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1506
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