A Branch: October 2009

D-7: DISCIPLESHIP, 7 PEOPLE

My small group has started and it has been such a joy! The girls who have committed to coming are so quality. I entered into their lives last year in August when our freshmen small group, FasTrack, began. I was in charge of detail stuff that goes along with it and in investing in the lives of the women who came. It was a challenge at first, as most freshmen come in with little maturity, but as the year continued they kept coming to stuff and caring about owning their relationship with the Lord; I was much encouraged and impressed!
As I began thinking about my roles this year on staff, I wanted to continue investing in these girls that I grew to love so much, so I proposed setting up a sort of “exclusive” small group with them. New members are welcome to come, but I wanted to expand on the close relationships that were made last year and create an environment for deep sharing and growth. I also desire to train them in leadership – as sophomores they are expected to be transitioning into leadership soon so they can continue the investment cycle. This is a big prayer of mine – that they would mature in God and be able to lead younger students.
As a group we are studying Philippians
right now and loving it! This week we
memorized Philippians
2:14-15: “Do
everything without complaining and arguing, so that you may become
blameless and pure, children of God without fault in this crooked and
depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” The girls
have been very open about their current struggles and good at encouraging
each other to push onward for Christ. When we come together last week for
our fourth meeting we did a service project – Operation Christmas Child. This
is where you fill a shoebox full of toys for a child and the folks at
Samaritan’s Purse (a service organization) send it to a child who
would otherwise not experience a Christmas gift.


Ask God these things, please:

D-7 group: Please continue to pray for these girls as the year goes on and they get more busy with homework and other commitments – that above all their commitment would remain in Christ.

Support: As you know, I am raising my support to work with Christian Challenge. It has been a huge blessing to see God call His people to serve in this way. I am at about 50% of my monthly goal. Please ask the Lord to be speaking to those He wants to invest in this ministry and that He would show me how to raise more funds.

Life: In addition to Christian Challenge I am also babysitting about 20-hours per week. I really enjoy it, but it is time consuming. Please pray that I would be able to effectively manage my time and efforts.

PRAISE: I am very thankful for all the wonderful friends God has placed in my life. They are a constant encouragement to me. Praise Him for that!




FALL CONFERENCE
In addition to their commitment to our group and to God, almost all of my group went with Christian Challenge to our annual Fall Conference. University ministries form Kansas and Nebraska join together each year for a time of worship, learning and fun. This year a man named Max Barnett spoke about living A Life that Counts. To do this he suggested some very practical things: spending more time with God, reading the Bible and memorizing Scripture. All of these things have been vital in my walk with God and I am very excited that so many of our students got to hear about these important disciplines as well! As a whole group we took 66 students to Fall Conference, the biggest group we have ever taken; and praise God for how deeply He worked in those students. When we returned there were dozens of facebook statuses changed to raves about the weekend and how they were affected :)

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