Introducing . . .You may recall our last letter told the story of Esrael, a St. Mary’s alumnus I (Diana) met his freshman year who has been interning with InterVarsity at College Park.  At the time we were writing that letter, Esrael and his wife Jill (St. Mary’s ’09) were in the process of deciding whether Esrael would accept an appointment to St. Mary’s College.  We are delighted to formally announce that Esrael will be the new InterVarsity staff at St. Mary’s College beginning July 1.  When I came to St. Mary’s 7 years ago, I knew I didn’t want to leave until there was another staff to replace me.  In our own discerning process about leaving St. Mary’s, I felt God nudging her to leave the fellowship in His care – He was reminding me that He was here before me and will be here after I go.  Fortunately, it was only a couple of months after deciding to leave before we were fairly certain God was sending Esrael here.  He will be a great fit for St. Mary’s; not only does he already love the campus from his student days, but he also has the benefit of relationships with campus staff and faculty he worked with then.  Students are relieved to be getting a new staff and ecstatic that he is one of their own.  Esrael has already been involved in some of our leadership selection for the coming school year, and we’ve had some great meetings introducing him to local pastors and supporters.  Please pray with us for a smooth transition and for Esrael to finish fundraising before the school year begins.

Many of you have already expressed a desire to continue supporting the St. Mary’s account or to support me as I switch over to the area administrator role, and we thank you for that.  If you haven’t already, would you please start thinking and praying about how you would like to support InterVarsity through this season of change?  We are working to get in touch with all our supporters individually to talk about this before we leave this summer.

Meanwhile, exams are finishing on campus, and students are getting ready for camp, a week-long experience that wraps up the school year with a chance to build relationships and have fun, study Scripture and get leadership training, and dream for the coming year.  Please pray that the 11 students leaving this weekend will bond with each other and Esrael and will be changed by Jesus so that they can come back to St. Mary’s ready to see “lives transformed by Jesus impacting all of campus.”

In other news . . .Avery is 16 months old now, walking and babbling and bringing more joy each day as he becomes more curious and more active (although there are times we wish he would just sit still for 2 minutes!).  Gene has enjoyed the two graduate classes he has taken and is looking forward to being able to devote more time and attention to Community Planning (and less to driving 4 hours to and from College Park weekly).  We pray that this update finds you well and tides you over on St. Mary’s happenings until our last newsletter from here next month.

Gene and Diana Smith

301.518.4708 | diana_smith@ivstaff.org

610.554.3959 | gene_smith@ivstaff.org