It will all be OK!

After an awkward first dinner together, we kicked off the summer by heading out to on College of the Ozarks, overlooking the Taneycomo Lake. For these students, this was an adventure, but still a little bit overwhelming. They shared no history together, and they were unsure of what the next 12 weeks would look like. At this point, they had not even gotten to hear everyones name yet. But God had a plan that was bigger than strangers living together in Branson at a hotel for the summer- the planned for a life-changing summer for us- and everyone there.
While the fog was rolling in from off the water, and the sun was slowly setting, our Project Director, Dan Boone, and Assistant Project Director, Ali Enos, shared with the students about what the summer in Branson means to them. They challenged them to really own the summer- to invest in their walk with the Lord, to invest in the community of believers that surrounded them on project, to invest in their jobs and coworkers, and to invest for eternity in the city of Branson. Then we all worshiped our creator and King together! And as the last of the sunset turned to darkness, and we all grabbed our things and were headed back to the Honey, a peace overwhelmed me, and I realized that it was all going to be ok, and that even more than that- God had a plan for all of us! Praying together for the project

Dan Boone sharing with the Project

Ali Enos sharing about her summer project as a students in Branson, and how God changed her life that summer. Dan and Ali and thier families have been staffing this project for years and are extremely passionate about it after seeing God change students hearts over and over again every summer!

Autumn's growth team girls. These are the girls she was going to lead a Bible study with, disciple, and invest in their lives! This was their first pictures together!

Praise the Lord that He brought us here this summer!

- Autumn

First day move in

Autumn and I reported to project in Branson with the rest of our wonderful staff team a week and a half before the students. We spent that time engaging with the other staff, and working our tails off to get ready for the students. We planned for growth teams, which were our small groups we'd lead, we planned for our servant teams, which were larger groups our students would serve in, we planned for the socials, outreaches, and prepared all the rooms for the students.
It was a lot of work but it was so worth it the day the students showed up. The atmosphere on the project was one of excitement at the Honeysuckle Inn (where we stayed for the summer). So starting at 1 pm the students began to arrive one by one sometimes, and by the car loads at other times. It was so exciting to meet the people we'd be spending the next 7 weeks investing in. They each were filled with excitement, a little bit of fear, and they all had tons of questions.
Autumn and I will never forget those exciting and anxious feelings when we met the guys and girls that would be in our growth teams. I remember wondering if they'd be awkward, cool, quite, loud, or if we'd have anything in common at all. It all worked out great, as we ended up loving our students.
This first day was filled with so much fun and excitement as the students moved into their rooms for the summer. It set a great tone for the summer as things were just getting started.

We're Back!

We are back to actually writing on our blog, and back from summer project! We had great intentions of filling you in along the way about how things were progressing on summer project, but we didn't have internet access in our hotel room! So... we are going to be filling you in over the next few weeks of the things that God did during the summer, and the things that He taught us! It was such an exciting 8 weeks, and we are looking forward to sharing it with you!
Thanks for understanding, and keep coming back- this time there will be something to read and see!

Ending the year strong

This semester has been so great. We've seen students trust in Christ, students grow in thier faith, we've seen God raise up a great group of students and put them in our lives, and its been so great to see them grow. The semester is coming to an end, but its not over yet. Right now we are stressing to our students, and ourselves, the importance of finishing strong.
Autumn had wrote about our leadership retreat, which went great. At that retreat we had a mens time where the guys talked about our ministry, what we do well, and what we can do better to more effectively reach the guys on campus with the Gospel. God did some really cool things with that time as he stirred the hearts of our guys to begin praying for the Fall now!
Us as staff are so proud, and so excited for thier heart to reach the lost men at SFA. Our 4 leadership guys have now started meeting weekly, and have included a few others already, and have began praying for the men at SFA and how God can use them to reach the entire population. Lets keep this in mind and see what God does.
I was chatting with another staff guy this week about the semester. One of our big goals was to begin to reach the fraternity system with the Gospel. We've tried big events, treating them like regular students, and many other things which have failed in the past. The frat guys have to trust you. So we have been praying and set a goal to have good relationships developed within the Greek system so that in the Fall we would be able to pick back up. I considered this setting low standards but I never figured it would work so well that we have a growing relationship with 1 or more guys in 2 fraternities. It may seem like a small thing, but to me its not. I believe its the begining of something big in those two particular houses. They are really cool guys who I believe God will use to build His Kingdom in a tough place.
Thats all for now.

Leadership Retreat

Hey guys! We just got back from an amazing weekend pouring into our leadership students for the coming year. What an awesome group! The time was jamm-packed but it was great. We spent time evaluating the past year, brainstorming for the future, and training on ministry basics like leading a Bible Study and Discipleship. We are so encouraged to see this group of 10 students who really desire to see the campus changed by the gospel.
Quick cool story, to help prepare our hearts for the weekend, our staff team fast together leading up to the retreat. We asked our leadership students to fast with starting Wed. night and break the fast on Friday evening dinner together when our retreat started. It was cool to see how they responded. All of them fasted together with us. Many fasted from food, some from all media, one girl in addition to food fasted from her bed (and she said she really was up all night praying!)! We even had one student feel called to fast for things in his life, and then we asked him to also be fasting for the retreat, and so he decided to fast for 10 days! We had a group of devotionals to help encourage us to be intentional with our fast and spend time in prayer and in the word. As our students pulled up to our retreat, the first things out of their mind was- so we eat now? Mind you its 4:30! But it was really cool to see how God used the fast in the lives of us, and the students, and was an especially awesome way to begin our time together!
Thank you for your prayers, they mean more than you know.

Also, please pray tomorrow as the supreme court reviews a case about campus ministry on college campuses- to my best understanding they are in the process of deciding if the college has the right to refuse Christian ministries the right to have an on campus organization. Obviously this could one day have a huge potential impact on college ministry, and we ask you to pray that campus ministry is allowed to maintain full rights.

Take care!

How the previous post turned out

We got the chance to sit down with our leadership students last night and debreif with them about last week (see last post). We are so proud of them and the things they accomplished through stepping out in faith. The two things they were working hard on were the basketball outreach and the weekly meeting.
The outreach went very well. They ended up chatting with alot of students, as they had a basketball goal out in the middle of campus to attract students for two days. There is now over 50 students who filled out a contact card indicating that they would like to be followed up with, for out students to engage in a conversation with the purpose to share the Gospel! We are pumped to see what God will do.
The weekly meeting went off very good as well. The students planned the announcement, an ice breaker game, worship, and the speaker. This plan is not too far off a regular meeting. A few minutes before we started our leadership students were having, what I'll call, learning moments, as they begin to figure out what all actually went into planning an event. After ironing out a few last minute details the night went great. I feel like the important things were a success. People felt welcomed, we were able to worship God, and people were given the opportunity to hearing the Gospel and grow in thier faith.
The was a great step for our leadership students, and I am looking forward to seeing them follow up with students, and to continue to grow from some things they've learned.

Exciting week for our students...

This week is an exciting week for not only our students, but for us as staff. As a part of running our ministry on campus, and a part of training students to lead a ministy in "the real world" we have a team of students we have hand picked called the "Leadership Team".
This is something we've had in the past, and have put it back into place at the begining of this semester. Therefore we have had alot of training and learning. They are doing great!
This week we have put these students completely in charge of stuff. Tomorrow and Thursday they are running an outreach that they planned, and are carrying out. They are putting a basketball goal in the middle of campus and inviting students to shoots hoops for some prizes, after they fill out a short survey. Very simple, very good idea. They then are taking these short surveys, we call contact cards, and are calling through the students who indicate interest in meeting, to set up a time to meet, and share the Gospel with them. We are so excited to see them do this.
Also, if that wasn't enough, we gave them complete control of the weekly meeting. So Thursday night will be completely student ran. They found a speaker, organized the band, and the whole thing.
We are praying for them that it goes well, that they are encouraged by the things that God will do, and that they will be encouraged to grow in their leadership skills for the sake of the Gospel.