Passion: Boston

In January 2005, Justin and I took a road trip with some friends to Nashville, TN for the Passion conference. We knew it would be full of great speakers, worship bands, and tons of college students. But we didn't know that it would play a role in our future.

While we were there, the leadership talked about their recent stops through Boston and New York. They focused on the need for Christians and especially those interested in working with college students. I still remember the huge display in their "Go Center" with the Red Sox logo in the background. There were residents of Boston and NY available to talk to you if you were interested in going. I remember being very hesitant to walk up to them or fill anything out. I remember Justin being the brave one filling out the interest form. I thought, "We'll never move to Boston."

As you can see, I was soooo wrong. Just a year later, we were headed up for our let's-see-if-we-can-really-live-there trip. Yes, our main reason for moving was because Gordon-Conwell was the right school, but in the back of our minds, we knew that God was drawing us to Boston as he had put it in our minds years ago.

What was the appeal? Well, some interesting facts about how important Boston is to the heart of college ministry:

• 25% future heads of state being educated in Boston
  
• 250,000 college students in and around Boston
  
• 75-80 campuses in metro area

That's amazing.

So, we're here and we are working with college students. We both volunteer with a multi-campus ministry called The Hill. And, tonight and tomorrow, Passion is coming to us. Instead of one ginormous conference, they're going around the country this year. The first stop is Boston. Nice. So, we are really excited and looking forward to a weekend of challenge and renewal.

Please pray for the thousands of college students from the Northeast that will be coming. Even more, pray for those that don't know or care who Jesus is. We want to be used in God's plan to impact the lives of college students here.

Here's a link to the Passion blog and the video that we first saw about Boston.