CurtHarlow.com

FYI,  No, I am not trying to advertise ebay. The email address I use to auto update this blog has been co-opted by a spammer. 

Emma has been having a bit of a hard time since the dog attack. Most of the time she is doing well but she has moments of sadness that are very uncharacteristic of her normal very upbeat personality. She has always loved school but is having a hard time being motivated to leave us right now. Having the staples out was painful and seems to have set her back a bit. We are praying that over the Thanksgiving break she will get some rest and she can rebound.

Thanks.

The Harlows

Here we are halfway through Nov. already. Things are moving fast. Here is a brief report on our major planting projects.

UCSD – One of the Top Campuses in the World
Our first ever group at UC San Diego, led by Brian and Cecilee Orme, already has 30 students meeting and the Ormes haven’t even moved to town full time. There have been at least two students who have made commitments to Christ, incredible open air worship services and major answers to prayer for students who are sick. Pray for the Ormes to sell their house in this tough market so they can get on site in San Diego.

campus ministers in training - 2008

UNLV – Difficult but Strategic Mission Field
We have been trying to get on campus at UNLV for over twenty years. Our team facilitator, Joel Adams, called me the first week in September to tell me simply, “We are official.” Joel is our first ever hybrid campus worker. He will get half the funding needed for our chapter from Trinity Life Center, and the other half by raising a missions budget from friends, family and churches. This historic partnership between Chi Alpha and the local church could pave the way for many more campus plants. Pray for the leaders and 15 students who have signed on the dotted line to start this new outreach on campus.

American River College and Sacramento City College
Two thirds of all college students in California attend community colleges. Through our Future History Sacramento project we have been casting vision for leaders and prayer for the commuter campuses of Sacramento. By creating a successful model here we hope to duplicate groups on commuter campuses all over the west coast. An incredible young man, Danielle Rollinskendell, has answered the call to start prayer meetings at ARC and SCC. For the past two months prayer has been going on campus. Twelve have committed to the noon time prayer gathering at ARC and 8 more are showing up for the SCC meeting. Pray for Danielle and all of these students at this highly unreached nexus of young adults.

There’s More
Berkeley students are emailing me, eager for Earl and Janet Creps to get on the ground there. This month they arranged housing in Berkeley and it looks like they will be on the ground soon. Pray!!! Also, San Jose students from Bethel Church are meeting for prayer for the first time ever at West Valley College.

There are several other major campus plants in that works but they are just too young to mention right now. Pray for all of them and we’ll keep you posted.

Also, pray for our family. Between all of this growth and the financial challenges of living on a missions budget in a downturned economy, it has been a very fun but eventful season. As you pray, ask God to give us faithful team members and favor on campus.

We had quite the weekend. Emma was attacked by an Akita while we attended our Chi Alpha state leaders Conference. She now has 23 staples in the back of her head. Kelly put this on her facebook today and I thought instead of rewriting I’d just pass on her account here. She writes…

Emma Recovering From the Akita Attack

ok, we’re home from san diego. emma is doing great. for everyone who doesn’t know…thursday night about 10 pm emma was walking back to our hotel with maddy, ana and victoria treuil when they came upon a man walking his dog. they asked him what kind of dog is that? Akita, he said. and before they could do any thing else the dog lunged for emma. thankfully she ducked her head down and covered her face and the dog’s jaws landed on the back of her head. the man could not pull the dog off and ana tried with all her might to pull emma away.

soon we heard screaming down the beach, “emma’s been bitten!” over and over. everyone began to run… many campus pastors. thankfully a couple of campus pastors wouldn’t let the man go… he was trying to leave the scene.

when i got there curt was “talking” to the dog owner. emma was huddled in a stairwell with victoria treuil. her neck and shoulders and hair were drenched in blood.

it was far beyond what i expected… i held her and people were offering rides to the hospital and 911 was called and and emt came out from the hotel and someone shoved a phone in my ear and it was animal control. they wanted me to know the dog was registered and had it’s rabies shots. then the next thing i know… an ambulance appears…

they come out and talk to emma…. she is shivering …and we get inside. they radio children’s hospital that they have a dog bite coming in. at this point everyone is thinking it is probably a puncture wound of some kind. no one lifts up emma’s blood soaked hair.

emma was being so brave… just holding on to my hand the whole way there.

once inside. we do the emergency waiting game. the triage nurse brings us in and takes a little look.surprise! there is a 3 to 5 inch gash to her skull in the back of her head.

a flood of anger rushes over me and curt worse than we were already swimming in… i can’t believe it. the triage nurse gauses the wound and sends us back out to the waiting room. to wait for the next doctor.

at about 1 am we go in to see the doctor. emma is falling asleep. the doctor lifts the hair and can’t believe it.she says she has to wash it off and that it will need staples. as she is doing that she finds another 3 inch gash to the skull. we are in such an utter state of disbelief and anger and shock.

the dr. leaves to go and talk to someone about what to do…

we wait.

emma is in blood soaked clothes and now soaked from the saline washing.

dr. comes back with extra stapling stuff. and begins to numb emma’s head… omg. finally she begins the stapling. 8 staples on one wound and 15 on the other.

we get home about 3:30 am… and put emma to bed. the next morning i bath her with out getting her head wet. the water is red.

what does emma say? “that stupid dog, why did it have to bite me?”

thank you for your prayers. emma kept saying over and over… “God is with me.” (thank you, victoria for telling her that.)

emma is doing well. not much pain and on antiboitics. we were all interviewed by “animal cops” and she was much photographed.

we have pics that we wont post but if you want to see tell me and i will email them to you.

oh yeah…the man said his dog just scratched her with her paw…yeah right.

I wrote this on the evening of the Obama victory in the Iowa Democratic primary. I thought it was relevant to post here today on the eve of this historic election. CH

In 2004 many predicted that the 25 and under crowd would sweep Kerry into office. Post election tabulations showed that college age people wanted to head bang with John at Bruce Springstein rallies but that they did not want to chad punch for his cause. After the votes where counted, twenty something came out to vote at the same level they always do. This did not surprise the tabulators. Twenty something have a long history of not following through at the voting booth.

Amazingly, in this election cycle something different has already happened. Almost 100,000 under 30 voters shattered turn out records in Iowa. In New Hampshire Hilary’s come from behind victory suppressed the story of record turnout but they to saw a wave of twenty somethings actually voting. In South Carolina a record one in five voters where under 30. The AP is reporting that the number of young voters registered in California for this primary is already greater than the total for the 2004 presidential election.

At this writing, even though Obama fever has taken a few team Clinton body blows it is still evoking messianic devotion at rallies and record breaking numbers at fund raisers.

In short, Obama my have be able to do what Springsteen and Kerry could not. He may ignite a generation to produce real change.

No one can say just yet if the early signs of young voter turn out will hold through the fall but the church should not be shocked if it does. What if this generation does more than rock? Like their boomer elders who found their voice in one historic summer of love, we might be in store for another 1967 revolution.

If it happens it will not be another hippie movement. Instead of LSD trips expanding minds we will see RSS trips mobilizing people. Instead of “turn on and tune out” as a message we’ll hear “iTune in and YouTube on” to get the message. What this revolution lacks in flowers and beads it will make up for in blazing technological. It will make the hippy movement appear like a blip on the green monochrome screen of history.

Let me be clear. I am not commenting on a candidate or a political cause or an issue. Whatever your personally feelings about Obama, this is about more than liberal vs. conservative. It is about the what, why and how of capturing the hearts of a generation.

And this is not just any generation. This is a group that may be the most talented and confident cohort to come along in 100 years. Whether it is the predictions of noted generational experts like Neil Howe and William Strauss, the trends reported in the UCLA freshmen study, the hard data of rising SAT scores or a simple observation of their internet savvy, make not mistake, this group has game.

Here’s the problem. According to Barna, this super skilled set of twenty-somethings are the least likely age group to go to church.

Some will argue that at this time of life young adults always leave the church. “When they become parents they will return.” I am not sure our attendance records would support this notion but even so, why wait. Would you let Charles Wesley, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, Lillian Thrasher, or Charles Spurgeon get away at age 20? These leaders set the course for their globally impacting lives in their early twenties. We can’t give up on this time of life. It is the season that forms greatness.

Right now, however the church is not succeeding. Whatever we are doing, whatever we are preaching, it is just not capturing the hearts of this group. Maybe we are not living the message we preach? Could it be that somehow the rhetoric of political change looks more attractive than the message of Christian change?

Maybe we are relying on techniques over substance? Maybe they are looking for more than a cool new slogan, smoke machines during worship, or a strong coffee in the foyer?

At the risk of sounding over dramatic, I wonder if it is too late. Maybe the lesson of this primary season is that a cause has already captured their hearts. Will they serve a political uprising only and never discover the higher calling of the kingdom? Is it too late to see a wave of college age believers break over the church flooding us with renewed faith and effectiveness?

I had a great day yesterday primarily becase I met with this man. For the last ten months, Danielle Rollinskendell has been gathering students on two commuter campuses in Sacramento for prayer. Our mutual friend Dean Degura first introduced us this summer. Dean works for a great local church and together we have been on a two year search for someone with a heart for the huge and unreached community colleges in town. Danielle has a heart for college age and was looking to be a part of a ministry that had real impact.

After hearing me cast some vision for these campuses he simply went out on the quads of American River CC and Sac City CC and started asking students if they wanted to help him pray. That was four weeks, four prayer meetings and about 18 students ago.pPray for him, his wife and the students who have responded to his call to pray. Over two thirds of students in California attend these two year campuses making this a very strategic mission field.

You’ll remember that we are launching a new N. Cal/Nev. wide Campus Missionaries in Training Program. Yesterday our new campus missionaries from Davis and, Stanislaus met together with our staff for a combined Learning Party day that was amazing. The cross pollination of different campus ministries is clearly going to be as big of a plus as we hoped. After the training when I asked Marc, one of the Davis CMITs, what he thought of his Stan State cohorts he simple said, “über smart.”

Kelly is in Springfield this week visiting Jayne Zickafoose and Curt is playing Mr. Mom. The girls are off track (year round school) so in between emails and phone calls, we are having a fun pancake morning with dogs in the bed on the side.

p class=”mobile-photo”a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AeoujJtdfZ8/SOI_AHkGtFI/AAAAAAAAADU/FPkMwAf19vU/s1600-h/photo-716085.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AeoujJtdfZ8/SOI_AHkGtFI/AAAAAAAAADU/FPkMwAf19vU/s320/photo-716085.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251829386730452050″ //a/pp class=”mobile-photo”Nothing challenges our trust of God like a financial meltdown. Last night as we sat around the dinner table Emma interrupted the conversation about the stock market and congress with this simple questions, “should we pray.”/pp class=”mobile-photo”The answer of course is yes. In fact we should pray a lot./p