The Mexican Connection

Tomorrow morning I'll be taking 6 American University students to Merida, Mexico. It's spring break and instead of lounging on the beach or sleeping in late they're going to share the love of Jesus by serving churches in the Yucatan.

It's a double blessing for me (no that's not a twin joke) that I also get to lead this team with my brother as the host missionary. We're breaking him in as the first short-term team he is bringing in (no pressure!).

Pray for us. We need energy from the Holy Spirit. All of the students are finishing up a hard week of mid-terms and late night study sessions. We need grace to put the last minute touches on our ministry presentation. We need God's protection in travel and His annointing as we minister.

And as you pray, remember the 2 other teams from AU Chi Alpha working in New Orleans and with AIDS patients right here in DC. Thanks for lifting us up. I can't wait to see what God will do with the sacrifice of college students devoted to him.

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I've moved to Wordpress!

I've made the switch to a different blog hosting site. If you get to the site using www.thegodzwas.com, you will be redirected automatically, but if you have this page bookmarked, here's the replacement. There are a few videos that have yet to be uploaded to my Wordpress site so if you want to reminisce, you can still get to this site by typing in http://collegiatechronicles.blogspot.com.

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Just one of the reasons I love the A/G!

In the front room of our apartment sits a little yellow plastic barrel that gets filled up with spare change. It's a Buddy Barrel from the Assemblies of God program called B.G.M.C. and the proceeds from those funds goes to supply missionaries with literature or office equipment they need to tell the world about Jesus.

It hard to imagine that spare change amounting to much, but because of a whole lot of donations from boy and girls from all over Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, we have a brand new Dell LCD projector! Thanks kids for helping us broadcast the widescreen gospel message @ AU and thanks for sending a check instead of all those quarters.

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That's what it's all about!

Sam just learned the "Hokey Pokey" at school this week and now he's going around singing "That's what it's all about!" Well, this week I'm reminded what campus ministry is all about.

One of our small group leaders told me about a conversation with Bill (not his real name). Bill had been turned off to organized religion a long time ago, by a grade school teacher. But because of the a number of different things that college life brought out, he began to explore Christianity for the first time. He got involved with a small group and became more excited about the Jesus he was reading about and experiencing in the relationships there. Last Tuesday night, Bill stayed after small group and talked with his leaders about taking the next step. After it was explained he said, "I would be glad to do that!" With that, Bill prayed to begin his relationship with Jesus. That is what it's all about!

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Pray for protection? Now, I always will.

When I'm home, I like to put Sam to bed @ night. We go through a normal routine, 2 stories (these days Sam's on a Rhyming Bible kick), 2 songs, prayer, and a hug and kiss good-night. I always try to focus during the prayer so that it doesn't become a mindless habit sometimes I get in a rut. One standard is asking God to protect our family.

Until yesterday it seemed kind of silly to pray for protection. We're not engaged in any physically dangerous work. We live in Washington, DC, but in a relatively crime free area in an apartment building amidst multi-million dollar homes. Safety is almost a given. Almost.

Yesterday, after cleaning up from a reception for parents on campus @ AU, the Godzwa family walked to our cars. We drove separately so Levi could finish his nap. I left Jen and the kids at the entrance to the parking lot thinking I would see them in a few minutes at the apartment. I drove home, put some things away, but they never arrived. I wasn't too worried, but I decided to call Jen's cell anyway, just for information. When she picked up I thought she would tell me they stopped for some milk. Instead, Jen told me she had been robbed.

A few minutes after I left the parking lot in our van, Jen was strapping the kids into their car seats. A man came up from behind her, said he had a knife, and demanded money. After rifling through her bag and finding her wallet, he pushed her inside the car, dropped the knife, and ran off. He took the wallet which contained Jen's ID, 2 credit cards and $7 in cash. Jen called 911 immediately and the police arrived within a few minutes. They fingerprinted our car and took the knife for evidence. After I talked to Jen on the phone I quickly called our bank and credit card company to cancel the cards. The thief had already tried to use Jen's card at a liquor store and a gas station where he was photographed. The police said they hope to have him in custody soon.

Except for a small bump on the head and the shock of being robbed, Jen is doing fine and the kids never even knew what was going on. The officer who took the report said they were really lucky. I had to disagree. God protected my family yesterday and I am utterly grateful. As I put Sam to bed tonight, we prayed for the safety of our family. I don't take it for granted anymore.

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October Newsletter is released!

Hot off the press! Here's our latest edition of the Collegiate Chronicles. Click the photo to download the electronic version














To open the PDF file you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. To get Acrobat, go here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

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Say it isn't so Joe

Those of you who know me well (all of you who read this blog) know I'm in pain. No, I haven't fallen down a flight of stairs. I don't even have a paper cut. It's my heart that hurts.

My team, the New York Yankees, were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday. The Detroit Tigers, one of last year's worst and a team that was just swept by the Kansas City Royals (this year's worst) dispatched the Yankees 3 games to 1. What made it more humiliating was the way the Yankees played. The most expensive team in the history of the game couldn't buy a hit! They fell apart in a way I haven't seen since they lost 4 games to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS.

I thought this was the year. This was the season I was going to introduce my sons to the thrill of being a fan of the World Series Champion. Instead, we've got to wait until next year. I'm beginning to understand a little of what it is like to be a Cubs or a Red Sox fan.

It's going to be a long winter this year. I'll be counting down the days until the pitchers and catcher report for spring training. That's approximately 132 days away.

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