Start of the Fall!

Last Friday nervous excitement filled the campus. The freshmen dorms opened up as parents brought their kids for move in time. It’s fun to watch the wide eyed, scared out of their mind freshmen try to figure stuff out.  As for us, this time is the starter gun that begins our busy week of 12 hour work days, and consistent events on campus. Our goal between move in day and the first Cru (which was last night, tuesday) is to meet as many students as possible. we did move in and met a handful, handed out ice cream (150 students), pancaked in a dorm (165 students), coffeehouse on campus (100 students), handed out free stuff for freshmen (100 people), and free dinner (100 people). Each of those students filled out a contact card and indicated wanting to be followed up with. It is so cool to see how the Lord has provided for us. We have now begun texting, facebooking, calling, all these students to sit down one on one to share the Gospel with them, and challenge them to walk with God in college. So far we’ve had the opportunity to share the Gospel with 7 people, had a guy trust in Christ, and we’ve had and electric weekly meeting in which I had the most fun I’ve had at a Cru in quite a while. We love the momentum that’s building, and pray the Lord sustains it for us that we may grow as a movement for the purpose of reaching the entire campus at SFA with the Gospel.

Inspiring

Before we went to Ethiopia, we got a chance to hear amazing stories about the student translators who would be joining us and serving during our summer project. We were looking forward to meeting them, but had no idea how much God would use these great teens and young adults in our lives.

It goes without saying that we literally could not have done ministry without the staff and student translators. We could hardly communicate, let alone figure out where to go or what would be a good way to share with people about the gospel. We had a fantastic group that helped us out, and even though it was during finals for most of the students, we had a faithful group that really loved the Lord and were eager to share about Christ!

One of the most significant things that we learned from our translator is that there is no fear in Christ, and no fear in sharing the Gospel. Most of the students that we were with were 15 or 16 years old. I just love the mentality, that these students have, which is every day might be your last, so why live for anything other than Christ? In fact, in a city that is 98% Orthodox, they really are almost the complete minority, and face persecution for their faith. For some, its minor, like being asked to leave a café. For others, they are physically removed, and sometimes physically hurt. Last school year, 2 high school students were actually put in jail for being Christians. And their response? Not fear, not fleeing, but to boldly proclaim Christ. In fact the ones in prison used their time to share the Gospel with over 1,000 people, and 31 came to know the Lord.  For us, it was hard to be asked to leave cafes, or to be yelled at, but in some ways, it was easy to swallow, since we know that we won’t likely return. But for these students, they are facing this persecution in the very place that they call home. We are so grateful for them, and all they taught us!

Here is a picture of our whole group and the translators on the last ministry day. Some of the translators were not able to make it that day, and are not pictured.

These particular students were incredibly special to me.

Please pray for them and their walks with the Lord, for continued boldness, and for many to come to know Christ as a result of them!

Thanks!

Our Guest house

When we were in Bahir Dar, which is the city where we spent most of the time, we stayed in a place that is called a guest house. It was a very nice place in Ethiopia that more than met our needs, while challenging us to really dive in to the Ethiopian lifestyle. Here are some pics of where we lived, hopefully it gives you a better idea of our trip.

Hanging out in the main room/guys bedroom.

also in the guys room.

this is also where we’d have Bible studies, and prayer.

Autumn doing laundry out in the front with our cook and her helper.

our students playing a game in the front by the gate.

Some of the girls on the front porch.

view from the front.

the girls room.

girls bathroom.

this is the back corridor at the guest house. the door on the left is the kitchen, then further on the left is the bathroom.

guys bathroom

top – shower   middle – toilet   bottom – bucket to flush toilet.

last night at the guest house.

Well there’s a picture of our living quarters. We loved the guest house, there are so many special memories made there. hope you enjoyed it.

Looong Traveling

When I first interned with CCC here at SFA 5 years ago, I could have never imagined the road God had ahead for me. If you would have told me that I would be going to Ethiopia, much less leading a project there, I would have probably just laughed and laughed. This is a recurring thought I had as we traveled around the world, and travel we did. This was a lot harder than just a quick flight to Colorado or Florida, this was 16-18 hours of flying plus hours of lay over. What a beating. All that travel gave me plenty of time. Time for watching corny in-flight movies, reading the Bible, reading The Hobbit, awkward sleeping, and plenty of time to think. Quite a few people have already asked about what my favorite part of the trip was. The travel doesn't make the top 5, but it is a huge part of my experience as a whole, which is one of the things I'll remember the most. The travel was challenging to me because for one, I was the guy in charge, I made the decisions, I lead, they followed, my demeanor would likely determine theirs. Here's a little secret, half the time I had no idea what was happening with the traveling, or where we were supposed to go next. Almost the entire time in Frankfurt Airport the first time was spent by me being paranoid about what to do, but making "calculated guesses" calmly and confidently. When we arrived in Addis Ababa, and had to go through customs, that was tough, but God used the talents and abilities He's given me, to hold the team together, and get them ready to move on through. When we arrived in the Bahir Dar Airport, it took everything within me not to yell out "Where the heck are we?" As we laid our eyes on the terminal being held up largely by some sort of bamboo stick + dirt. Or when we walk out the front where our driver is way late, there are chickens, goats, and Ethiopians with guns.
I am so thrilled that these are my memories. I'm pumped that God put me in a situation where I had to lead, had to take charge, and had to trust in Him and literally every turn. It was truly a blessing to lead our team of students. It is my hope that they felt safe and cared for the entire time, even when I felt like I had no idea what to do next, but praise God that I can boast in my weakness, because through those, God can be strong, and be glorified.

Travel Updates

During our time in Ethiopia we had limited internet access, and we decided the easiest way to keep in touch was via Facebook. These are updates we sent out along the way. Enjoy!

May 21- Vince

Well we finally feel like we are on our way. Autumn and I showed up at our hotel today for to begin briefing. Today was just staff, we looked over our projects finances, had a risk management session, and got a bunch of great materials to help our students assess how their experiencing their time in Ethiopia. Tomorrow morning our students will be arriving here at 11am. Please be praying for their safe travel, as some of them are coming from as far at south dakota. Please pray for patience and attentiveness as we have a lot of stuff to bombard their brains with, and then as soon as we are done with that we will fly for 18 hours. And pray that the Lord would intercede and gel our team together quickly. Also, today is the day we began taking our malaria meds, it gave autumn a sore shoulder and then she fell asleep, it made me feel a little shaky (however i was also watching the mavs), but please pray that us and our students don't have problems with that because we will be on it 24/7. Hopefully we will be able to hop on here tomorrow and Monday before our flight leaves, but if not then look for our updates. We'll post as often as we have internet access which looks to be spotty 56k at best....yeah you remember that noise.

May 22- Vince

Met our students today, they all got here safely and on time. We love our students, they get along great, are alot of fun, and are really excited to see what God is going to do. Thank you so much for praying for their support, every single student raised their amount and then some, which is the first time in 5 years that every student on a project did this. Praise God. Pretty much what we did today was cover all kinds of info from expectations to goals, and alot of get to know you stuff. We fly tomorrow. Please pray for safe traveling, and we'll update you in a couple days or more, whenever we have the chance.

May 23- Vince

We are waiting at the airport about to fly! Next post we will be in Ethiopia! Thanks for your prayers!!

May 25- Autumn

Hey friends! We are here! We right now it is 645 at night on Wednesday. We got in at 9:00 last night, after a full 24 hours of travel, and although we are all worn out, thankfully we made it with no problems, and everyone feeling good! Today we spent time with the Campus staff in the capitol city, Addis Ababa. We really enjoyed the day, and we had a complete variety of new experiences! We had some amazing coffee (and I don't even like coffee!) and we enjoyed the local food. We also spent most of the day getting some training on the culture, and adjusting the the 8 hour time difference. Little known fact that you might enjoy: today the date in Ethiopia is actually 2003. They have a different calendar with 13 months, and are obviously a few years behind!
Please pray for us as we are still adjusting to the jet lag, and we have another flight tomorrow morning that we have to leave the hotel for at 4:30 am. We will be heading to Bahir Dar which is our final place, and thankfully the end of our travel.
Thanks for your prayers, we literally feel them here! We will be sharing more as we can!

May 28- Autumn

Selam!That means peace and is a greeting in Amharic. Hello from Bahir Dar! We finally made it to our destination, and the whole team is relieved. We enjoyed Addis, but are very happy to be in Bahir Dar. The city is much smaller (244,000 in Bahir Dar to 4 million in Addis) and we feel very comfortable here. The staff from The Great Commission Ministry(Campus Crusade in Ethiopia) have been incredibly hospitable! We are so thankful for Dires and Kassahun who are staff that are making sure we feel welcome and safe. After a morning of prayer, today was our first day to go out and do ministry, and it was exciting, but very different than in America. We are excited to see how the Lord is at work here! In a city of 244,000 we have been told that only 4,000 are protestant Christians, so most people we meet do not understand a personal relationship with Jesus, though they know about him. Please pray for us to be able to explain the gospel clearly. Also, they are teaching us the language, but it is still hard to be able to communicate. I pretty much know how to say thank you, hello, bathroom, (which translates to toilet house! ha!) coffee, tea, and water. I am limited to say the least, but actually really enjoying learning a new language. As far as our team, everyone is doing fine, and recovering from jet lag finally, but this morning quite a few, myself included are a little under the weather- we think it is just adjusting to eating all kinds of new food. Please say a prayer for us to be entirely well, or at least to not be distracted by our tummies! We spent yesterday with the team, and prayed, trained, and got to hear each others stories. It was fantastic and God used that time to really develop good team unity. We are all clinging to the Lord, and that is a beautiful thing! Also, it is finals time here for the colleges and universities, so we have very few translators. Please pray that we God would provide more translators, brothers and sisters from the ministry, to help us be able to communicate clearly. Fortunately, many here also speak at least a limited amount of English, so we are able to communicate some.
We appreciate you taking time to pray for us on our journey. We are so thankful for you all in our lives!
And moms, we finally got working cell phones, so be expecting a quick call to day hello!!

May 30- Vince

Hello! We are having a great time in Barhir Dar. Today was our second day out sharing our faith. We had a good number of translators to helps us today and it seems that our students had a great time (we are still at an internet cafe and i haven't talked to them all). I have already heard a couple stories of people trusting in Christ which brings the total to like 7 or 8. We are experiencing just a different culture. The people here are open to talking about religion, and truly are seeking out the truth. They really like talking to Americans and want our email addresses so they can email us after we leave. It's exciting to see their reaction when they hear that you can can have eternal life by grace alone. Today we shared the Gospel with 2 coptic orthodox guys. They were very interested in what we were talking about, and we are hopeful to sit down with them again. The orthodox religion claims the Bible but never reads it, so when they hear us quoting the Bible they often want to go and read it for themselves. We also met an underground orthodox priest. This is basically an orthodox person who trusts in Christ, but stays in the orthodox church secretly so that others may know Him as well. Our team is getting along great, it seems like someone new is sick everyday with some sort of stomach issues or allergies. Please pray that we'll continue to share the Gospel boldly, and that we recover from feeling bad. We appreciate you and your prayers very much.

June 1- Autumn

Hey friends! We are seeing God do incredible things here! So far, as a team we have initiated 82 conversations about the gospel, and have 13 new brothers or sisters in Christ! Praise the Lord! That does not include the ministry we did today, and we will get to hear more from our students tonight about what the Lord did during our outreach time today! In addition, we have many many appointments with people for the coming few days who we got to share the Gospel with, but wanted time to consider or read the scripture in their own Bible. Please please pray that those students who we have appointments with in the coming days would place their faith in Christ. So many people here know so much about religion, even Jesus, but have never read a Bible, and believe that it is works that save you. My heart breaks every time that I ask someone if they think they will go to Heaven, and they shake their head no. But praise to our gracious Heavenly Father that His good news saves! Tomorrow I will meet with a girl at 3 pm our time that is a conversation just like that, she heard the Gospel for the first time, but needs to think about it. Please pray for her.
Our team is feeling better, but Vince has a sinus infection that is giving him a hard time. I wish you could know all our students, and the amazing staff that is here in Ethiopia. They truly shine Christ in all they do, and we are so blessed by them! I have gotten to build a special relationship with the woman who is our cook, and I spent an afternoon hand-washing and line drying laundry with her. She is a believer, and an incredible blessing in my life!
Vince also asked me to share that he is recording the Mavs back in Dallas, and would prefer to not know the game scores or updates... you know how he is.
Thank you again for your prayers! We will update again soon!

June 2- Vince

Today was an interesting day. We are seeing God do a lot of things in the lives of the Ethiopians and in our students. This morning at the guest house, which is where we are staying was a Bible Study morning. We are studying 2 Corinthians with our students and it is very applicable to what they are experiencing here. I went with one of our students, Derick, to an appointment early today and that appointment summed up my day. The overwhelming faith here is Orthodox, and basically they believe they can go to heaven by doing good, but they don't know how much good, and the don't know anything about what the believe. They only know what their priests tell them. They also aren't allowed to read the Bible so when we share with them, it's definitely the first time they've heard it. So today was a day full of sharing with Orthodox believers for the first time that the Bible says "its by grace that you are saved through faith, not from works....". It literally blows their mind bc they would say that they think the Bible is true. A couple of the guys I talked to wanted to go read in the Bible on their own, and I'll see them next week. Another guy wanted to see it in an orthodox bible, and a protestant bible so we ran around town trying to find an orthodox which included an interesting argument in Amharic with 2 priests about why they would let their own orthodox believer see an orthodox bible. We also got kicked out of a couple cafes today which is a lot of fun, that happens regularly....they are starting to catch on to the white people...they call us frenchies, which means white foreigner. Yesterday we had 2 people trust in Christ, and today I've already heard of a couple more. Everyone is feeling much better, just a couple cases of upset stomach but overall very well. Thanks for praying for us we appreciate you very much! As always, please don't tell me anything about the mavs i have it dvr'd.

June 5- Vince

We've had a great last couple of days in the city. I think our students are learning a lot about their culture and a lot about what the orthodox faith believes. Gaining knowledge and experience in these areas have really helped them when sharing the Gospel to know which questions to ask, and to better communicate the Bible. Yesterday Autumn and I sat down with a man outside of a cafe, and through our translator shared the Gospel with him. At one point the man was insisting that he believed he could get to heaven bc of God but didn't think the Jesus was anything special, and that He wasn't anything more than a man. There was another guy who happened to be sitting near by who took the liberty to butt in and in amharic tell the guy we were talking to that Jesus was Lord, and he believed him. Soon after that this man placed his faith in Christ. We have so many other stories of how God has divinely placed us, our students, and other in our path so that people may place their faith in Christ. To date we have had 33 people receive Christ, and have taken 45 others to the point of decision where they have to accept or reject Christ, and have either rejected or said they need to think of it. We are all mostly in good health, there seems to be a case of upset stomach or fever with a person or two everyday but nothing that bad. Today we took and break and went out on lake Tana, which is the biggest lake in Ethiopia. It's also the lake that feeds the beginning of the Blue Nile, so we went there too and it was awesome. We also went to another part of the lake where the orthodox monasteries are, and toured them. We saw building and paintings from the 12 century. It was very interesting, but sad to see such devotion to relics and things other than Christ. We have just a few more days of sharing n the before we head back to the US. Please continue to pray for us and our team, thanks!

June 6- Autumn

Hey guys! We had another awesome day today! I got to go out sharing, and I was with 2 of our students, and 2 translators. We began to talk with a tour guide, who spoke wonderful English, and he was so excited to talk with us. He was eager to talk about God, and asked us to share what we thought. He, like so many people, did not think he could possibly go to Heaven or have a relationship with God since he thought he was not a good person. We got to talk with him about the Gospel for nearly an hour, and he was so excited that Jesus had died on the cross for him, and he invited Christ into his life. We are going to meet with him again on Wed, and are going to give him a Bible. He wants one in English, which might be really hard to find, so please pray that we can get our hands on one. If not, he can always have mine! He was so thankful for us sharing with him, and we are so grateful that the Lord was a work in his life! During this time, his friend came and sat with us, and after 7 years of believing in God, he had hit a really hard time and decided that God wasn't real and didn't love him. We also got a chance to share with him about how much God does love him, and even stories from our own lives about how when we know from the Bible that God will always be with us, even in the hard times. He got a little choked up, but asked to keep the booklet with the verses that we shared with him. We are praying for him, that he would truly understand God's love. After that, we went to another cafe. I have been going to the same place nearly every day, and I have begun to build a relationship with the 2 waitresses and the 2 baristas. Though they don't speak English, we have always seemed to enjoy seeing each other. Today, I talked with them through a translator, and told them that I have really enjoyed seeing them. I told them that I am here because I love God, and I want everyone to know God. Since they were working I asked if I could leave a book with them, and then they could read it and we could talk the next day. They seemed excited, and 1 girl even started to read the booklet right away. Usually the cafe owners are not excited for us to be talking about God, and honestly we have been asked to leave many, so I was worried as the seeming owner walked up, but he just smiled and seemed to give the Ok. I am really hoping that the next time we share that the girls will be there, and that it wont be busy so I can have a chance to tall them about what has completely changed my life!
If you are still reading this, thanks, I am long-winded today! But honestly, this is just a tiny glimpse into what God has been doing here. I would love for each of you to sit around the table with us, and hear stories from each day. Of course not all want to know God, but we can see and feel Him at work.
We know you are praying and feel your prayers. Thank you so much!
Tomorrow we are going to get to see the Blue Nile Falls, which is the beginning of the river that used to be called the Gihon river, which is mentioned in Genesis. We are really looking forward to seeing a place that God created and talked about so many years ago!
Thanks again for your prayers!!!

June 9- Autumn

Hey! Thanks so much for being part of this journey with us, your prayers mean so much to us! Yesterday was our last day of outreaching, and it was a fantastic day. One of our girls got to share the gospel with 14 people, and 8 trusted in Christ! And that is just one person! We are so amazed to see God's hand at work, and to see how he has been working in the lives of our students. Today we have been de-briefing the experience that we have had here in Ethiopia, and preparing for the transition back to the US. We are flying back to Addis Ababa tomorrow, and the following day we will begin of 24 hour trek back home. We are all so very sad to be leaving, as we have built such deep relationships with people here, especially the student translators who have been with us every day. It may have only been a few weeks, but it feels in so many ways like we have been here forever. Last night a few of the translators came to the home we are staying in to honor us by doing a traditional coffee ceremony. They are such servants, and we were so blessed to get to celebrate what the Lord has done together, and to get to say goodbye. It was especially touching to see Vince interact with his translator Samuel. They have such an awesome relationship and have seen so much together. Please continue to pray for us as we say our goodbyes, and also for us as we travel home. We are looking forward to seeing you all soon!

June 13- Vince

Made it back yesterday evening safely to dfw! thanks so much for praying for us. After resting for a couple days we'll update you on all God did in Ethiopia. We are so thankful that we made it back, everyone healthy, and not only did God use us to change lives in Ethiopia, but He changed us and our students as well.

Students committing thier summers

Mid semester in the Fall we as a staff team began to turn our attention toward the summer time. With Campus Crusade for Christ, students have the opportunity to spend thier summer on an evangelical summer missions trip that is lead by staff called, Summer Project. As you probably already know, Autumn and I are leading one to Ethiopia.
As we began to think the summer over we decided to pray for God to raise up 6 students who would committ thier summer to serving the Lord around the globe. We prayed for this because it would be the most we had sent out during a summertime. We are so pumped now that the Lord has exceeded our hopes and prayers, and by the count off the top of my head, we have 8 students going somewhere this summer. So our ministry here at SFA will reach people in Ethiopia, Missouri, Florida, California, Colorado, the Middle East, and various places which other students will live for the summer.
Please be praying for our students as they each are undertaking the task of trusting in the Lord to provide thier money for this summer as they raise support. Many will be raising upwards of $4,000+ dollars. Its so cool to see God provide, and show us how He is in control, and how He own's everything.

Trying something new

This semester we are trying something new. We are planning our a curriculum for our students months ahead of time. During the break our staff team took inventory of our students and we realized that most of them are either new believers or young in thier faith. So we decided to do something new this semester.
A typical week for a Cru students may look like this. Bible study early in the week, Cru on Thurs, Outreach fri, maybe a random social, and none of these are linked by content. We decided to add some structure to that.
For the next 4 weeks we will be doing talks, and having themes at our weekly meeting. These themes are as follows, Eternal Perspective, Evangelism, Discipleship, Community. Typically once Cru is over the content just moves along, but not this semester. What we are doing goes like this. Tonight at Cru we are talking about having Eternal Perpective, as it relates to what we are living for and spiritual muliplication. Then at every Bible study next week they will be going through the same study, taking students deeper in the word and helping the talk through applying this in thier lives. Then, at 5pm before the next weeks Cru, students are inviting to a practical training time, where the students will be further equipped in the topic. That is the way it will go for each one!
We are so excited because we believe that our young in their faith group can grow tremendously by grasping these 4 foundational Biblical principals. Please pray for us throughout this process, and pray that our students get on board and love it as much and we think they will!

Preparing for Ethiopia

As many of you already know, this summer Autumn and I are leading a team of 15 students to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. We will be partnering with the Campus Crusade Ethiopian naitonals over there to share the Gospel with the students at the University in Bahir Dar.
Also, there are a number of new believers in Ethiopia who are willing to be leaders for Christ, but who have no training. It's my understanding that if you have gone to church for more that 6 months in you life, then you are qualified to pastor in Ethiopia. In light of this, we will also be training Ethiopians how to share thier faith, how to walk in the Spirit, and how to teach these things and other foundational principles to thier fellow Ethiopians.
We are at the point in out process where we are accepting applications from students from around the US, and evaluating and building our team.
We ask that you would pray that the Lord would give us wisdom in these decisions, and that we would take a team of mature believer who are willing to take bold steps to share thier faith in Africa. Thanks!

Back into the action!

Well the spring semester has started and we are 2 and a half weeks in. We are so encouraged by what God is doing in the lives of students. It is always interesting to see how students who attended the Winter Conference respond to the life changing week, and how they choose to live differently back at school. The biggest result of this that we have seen so far is at our outreaches.
On Monday and Friday afternoon we invite our students to meet us in the Students Center so that we can spend some time sharing our faith. We look to use some of the great tools that Crusade has for us, that help us begin a conversation with a random person, and turn that conversation into a spiritual one where, when to Spirit leads, we give them the opportunity to place thier faith in Christ.
Last semester's outreachs were great, we sometimes had even around 10 students show up. However this semester, almost everyone from Winter Conference is showing up. we are having upwards of 18-20 people show up to share with others about who Jesus is and how they can have a relationship with God!!
We are so excited and encouraged by this. After 4 days of outreach Autumn and I have probably shared the Gospel with 9-10 people and I was venture a guess that altogether our students have shared the Gospel or initiated a spiritual conversation with well over 30 people.
We rejoice in those numbers, but we measure our success by how often we step out in faith to begin a conversation with the purpose of sharing the Gospel, while leaving the results up to God.

Ready for Winter Conference

Autumn and I are all checked in and ready for the students to arrive at the hotel for Winter Conference this year! We arrived last night and worked til around 11 setting up.
We are expecting 30 students from SFA and 750 students from our region! The arrive today at 3pm and the conference goes thru the 5th. Please pray that the Lord would lead and guide this conference, and that we would move in the hearts of the students in mighty and life changing ways. We look forward to getting you more details later on!