Legacy Letter

There is always and excitement and energy when the newness of life breaks forth in spring. That is certainly the way we are feeling at Legacy these days. It has been an exciting and wonderful year already, and as we enter March, we are excited about what God is doing through Legacy and how He has called you to be a part of it.
I talked last month about our ongoing partnerships with the old and the new. God did great things though our evaluation and follow up meetings in February. I was able to spend a couple of days doing a review and strategy session with one of our oldest partners from Smith’s Station, Alabama. We focused on simplifying his ministry structure in order to allow him to delegate more efficiently, and do a better job with assimilation and partnering with parents. I will be speaking to the youth group at Smith’s Station Baptist on March 5th.
I am also excited about what God is doing through our newest partnership with St. James United Methodist in Montgomery, Alabama. Already this year, we have completed the evaluation and implementation strategy for a new ministry structure at St. James. It has been a blessing to help take their vision for small groups and community service and implement it in a way that connects with the rest of their ministry and simplifies their overall strategy. It has also been fun to challenge them to find ways to partner with parents and incorporate their student ministry into the life of the larger church family. I look forward to working with their ministry as we begin to put these strategy elements into place on March 17th, when I meet with more of the Student Ministry Team in Montgomery.
We are also excited that we continue to have the opportunity to bring God’s word through many other venues. I will be speaking this month at Jesus Jam, a first year youth event in Brundidge, Alabama and at the Troy University BCM, where Rayanne and I have both been speaking on relationships this semester.
One venue that we are particularly excited about is the new writing project that I mentioned last month. At our annual board meeting, the Board of Directors approved that we go forward with a book project I have been working on for some time. We have entered into agreement with Booksurge Publishing to publish and distribute Legacy Leadership: Principles for Leaving a Spiritual Legacy. The project should be finished in April and available for purchase through the Legacy office, Amazon.com, abebooks.com and other limited online avenues.
We also continue to plan and prepare for our Student Leaders Conference in August and one of our big fundraising events, the annual Boston Butt Sale on April 26th. We are excited about these and many other things that God is doing in and through Legacy Ministries. You are a big part of each one of these as God calls you to prayerfully support Legacy. Without you prayers and continued financial support the extent to which we could do what God has called us to do would be limited. You are the means by which he supplies our need so that we can serve His kingdom.

Our thoughts and Prayers are with our many friends at Union University

51 students injured, 9 hospitalized after tornado hits Union University
Posted on Feb 5, 2008 by Mark Kelly
UPDATED 9:36 A.M. February 6, 2008.JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--

Fifty-one students were treated for injuries and nine were kept overnight in a local hospital after a tornado wreaked havoc on the campus of Union University Feb. 5.All students have been accounted for and, while some of the injuries were serious, none were life threatening, Union President David Dockery said in a press conference early the next morning.The men's and women's residential complexes were almost completely destroyed, and the roof was torn off a main academic building, Dockery said. He recalled a 2002 tornado that struck the campus, causing $2.6 million in damage, and said this one was "15 times worse than that."Twelve students were trapped in residence halls by storm damage, but the vast majority of the estimated 1,000 students on campus followed the school's emergency plan and escaped serious injury."It's a miracle of the Lord more people weren't injured," Union professor Michael Chute told Baptist Press. "The damage to the residence halls looks as bad as the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City when it was bombed. Walls were just ripped off."As many as 3,300 students had been on campus earlier in the day before classes dismissed, Chute said. The tornado struck about 7 p.m.Faculty and staff met students at a shopping center across from the campus to register them as safe and match them with volunteers in the community who were willing to take them in, Chute said. Local churches mobilized buses to take students to host homes.Classes initially were cancelled for the remainder of the week, but university officials have now announced that they will not resume before Feb. 18.--30--