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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October...already?

So, it is October!?

I feel like September flew by oh so quickly.
Since I posted my September newsletter, some things have happened.

Christian Challenge took a group of about 66 students to our annual Fall Conference. It was a great time. Our speaker this year was Max Barnett and he shared lots of wisdom with us in regards to living A Life that Counts! He talked about some essentials that we need to get serious about. First off, we need to spend more time with God - since we are a "hang out" generation, we need to hang out with God rather than people all the time. We also need to read His Word! Get it memorized and in our hearts. Third, as we are growing into mature believers, we need to be influencing younger believers to be more Christ-like - MAKING DISCIPLES. He provided some really practical ways to do these things and lots of students were deeply affected. God was WAY at work throughout the entire weekend. We were also able to enjoy some great worship music from a band called Anthem. And of course, it would not be Fall Conference without some Ultimate playing :)

A group of us playing "catch" before our big Tournament!


OH! How could I forget. BLESSING of the month story:
So, there are these really great shoes called "TOMS". It is a campaign that donates one pair of shoes to a child in need of shoes for every pair that is purchased. They are pretty pricey, but very fashionable, and as mentioned before, a GREAT cause. I have been wanting a pair of these for quite sometime. Years to be exact. Lately, a LOT of my friends have been getting them and I have been trying to "rejoice with those who are rejoicing," but really have been quite envious. Well, my good friends knew how much I wanted these shoes (and that I was saving up for them) and decided to pool their moneys and buy me a pair. This started with two people. Then became about 15! I felt SO SUPER blessed. About 15 of my close friends all gave some dollars to buy me (and a shoeless child) a pair of shoes. How stinking sweet is that!? Seriously, I can't really tell you how loved I felt. So here they are, the shoes I chose:

One of the best things is - they gave them to me at fall conference when most of the people who pitched in were gathered around - and I was COMPLETELY surprised...I LOVE SURPRISES :D

In addition to Fall Conference, my current life consists of about 20 hours a week of Babysitting on top of Christian Challenge stuff. It is lots of fun, but I am trying to figure out a schedule that works for me. I have been quite tired lately, but I know that some of that is just laziness that needs to be ironed out of my day-to-day. Please pray that I would be super efficient in managing my time and energy to glorify the Lord.

I am learning the guitar these days. I actually have not practiced in about a week...so I need to get on that. It is relaxing and fun...and I'm sure it will be much more fun once I can play a whole song :)

Tomorrow I am going with Michelle Hood to Chicago to visit Daniel and Rachel! How exciting huh! We got our bus tickets for just $1 each way!!! So awesome.

One last thing...
I am reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, with Lisa (the wife of the Director of Christian Challenge) and two girls on staff (Michelle and Brandi). It has been talking a lot about how great God is and how it is SO important to get to know His character. How a lot of times Christians study what God has done rather than WHO He is. It is vital in a relationship to know another person for who they are, and what better way to grow my relationship with God than to get to know Him more personally. This book paired with the messages that Max Barnett shared has been really affecting me lately. I want to spend more time with God in order to learn more about His character - and a great way to do that is to read His Word and listen to Him. A verse that I really like that describes some cool things about Him is Numbers 14:17-19, "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 'The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of their fathers."