First Greek Women’s Bible Study Tonight!

Around here, we are pretty excited because tonight at 9 we kick off our vey first all women’s Greek Bible study!

Photographer: Franz Pfluegl | Agency: Dreamstime.com

About two months ago Nicole (on staff with me) and I began to pray for opening to build relationships with girls in the Greek system. A month ago, we went to all the Panhellenic sorority meeting to invite them to an event where the could learn how to leave a legacy as a sister in their sorority, and how they could leave a spiritual legacy as well. The Greek system here is  pretty crazy. Picture college movies, and you can picture what its like. To our surprise, we had 13 girls who were from 3 different sororities who are really interested in following Christ, and helping their sisters to know about God who came to the meeting! During the meeting, we also told them we would love to start an all Greek girls Bible study,  and left a sign up for anyone who was interested. To our shock, all 13 girls signed up! We are excited that for the first time in years we are meeting girls from the Greek world, and praying that God can use us!

So tonight, we are really pumped, and praying that the girls will come, and bring a sister so that they can hear about Christ!

If you are reading this before 9 tonight, please be praying that Nicole and I will be led by the Spirit, and share with the girls who come about the Lord, and the relationship He desires to have with each of them!

Thanks!

Friday Outreach

Every Friday we have what we call "Friday Outreach"...i know...creative name. But, we take this opportunity with some of our students to go out on campus and try to get into spiritual conversations with students hanging out during the afternoon. This has gone very well this year so far, have had the gospel shared a number of times, and have seen our students step out in faith to share what Christ has done for them.
Today I had a great conversation with three students I met sitting next to the Stephen F Austin statue. The goal was to get to know these students and to use some of the tools that we have to help us talk through life and spiritual things with them. 2 of the 3 students claimed to be believers, though they couldn't put a Biblical thought to it, so most of the conversation with them was a little difficult. But the 3rd guy was really open and honest about what he believes and about his life. It was really refreshing. He said he was agnostic and stuck to it. As we talked deeper about who Jesus said He was and about what Jesus was doing on the cross, this guy became more and more intrigued. It was the first time he had ever been told that Jesus was God, the Jesus was perfect, and that Jesus chose to die of the cross, and that He didn't have to. It was his first time to hear that he could know God in a personal way.
It was a great conversation, and I am getting together with him next week again to get to know him a little better, and to sort through what the Bible says. Please pray for him and for our appt next week, that Jesus would use that time to call him into a relationship. That the student would believe what the Bible says is true, and that he's place his faith in Christ.
thank!

Cru Coffee House

Can serving free coffee help lead students to Christ? Well, we'lll see. Last week was mid-terms for many students on campus at SFA, so that means the library will be crazy busy. We realized that this may be a good opportunity to meet some new students to share the Gospel with.
So, us and our leadership students pulled together a small outreach where we would hand out free coffee in front of the library late last Tuesday and Wednesday night. Each student who gets a coffee also fills out a short survey for us where they can indicate a desire to learn more about a relationship with God. We had never done this before, so my expectations were optimistic, but kinda low.
It went so well! We had around 150 people stop by to get some coffee and almost 100 of those indicated they wanted to get together to hear about a relationship with God. We are so excited! Please pray for me, Autumn, our other staff and students as we call through these new contacts and attempt to set up some appointments so that we can share our faith, and love on the students at SFA.

Life change

Life change. We all want to have it, but sometimes it is slow and hard to see. Other days, it unfolds right before our very eyes.  Last week, on Tuesday, I had a really cool day and got to see first hand God changing lives! I get to a chance to co-lead a women’s discipleship group for  our leadership girls. That Tuesday, one of my girls was late to our meeting, which was kind of frustrating. Once she got to our house, she explained it was because she had just gotten through sharing the gospel with a new friend, and the girl actually placed her faith in Christ this afternoon! Here’s the longer story. She had gotten a phone call from a girl she met early on this fall, and the girl had a friend who really needed to talk with someone! My sweet student dropped what she was doing, and hurried to meet and comfort this girl she had never met before! This takes courage, and is to cool to see how the Spirit was at work! Turns out, the girl was having a really hard semester, was questioning life, and really just was freaked out, and to top it all off,  it was her birthday, and things just were not going well. But talk about a day turning from bad to good! Her literal birthday became her spiritual birthday as she heard the gospel and placed her faith in Christ! Also, kinda cool, my girl did not have her materials with her, but because she had memorized the gospel for her mission trip this past summer, she was ready to share with the girl! Back to the girls discipleship, we could not even begin to be frustrated! What a great reason to be late! Our frustration turned to joy as we celebrated our new sister in Christ!

And then later that night  I got to share the gospel with a girl who had no idea who Jesus was, and she was incredibly open and curious about the Gospel! Please pray that God continues to bring to mind the things she heard, and that she would place her faith in Christ! Just getting to see God's hand at work on a daily basis is fantastic!

Exciting Cru coming up!

Cru this Thursday night is something I’m really looking forward to. Every Cru more or less looks similar. There are announcements, maybe a funny video or skit, the worship, and a short talk about the Bible. Nothing about that is changing, however it’s the talk I’m excited for.
One of the guys that I have been discipling, named Eric, expressed about a month ago interest in doing a talk at Cru. He had scripture that the Lord had been teaching him from and wanted to share that with the students at Cru.
This isn’t something that usually happens; the talks are typically staff, and experienced believers that we bring in to talk. But, Eric is a guy who has been walking with God for a few years and who demonstrates a mature relationship with the Lord where he makes great decisions based on God’s will for his life, so we are letting him go for it!
Eric has an atheistic background and is talking about the part of Matthews story when Jesus is answering questions from Pontius Pilate about who He is. Eric has a great heart for the Lord and I know he’s gonna do a great job on his talk Thursday night. I wanted to inform you first because I just think it’s cool, and second so you can be praying for him because he doesn’t naturally feel comfortable being upfront. Please pray that the Lord would speak through him, that Eric would prepare well, and that he would be calm and able to be himself.

Fall Retreat!!

Hey guys! Sorry it has taken so long! Actually, we are so excited about the things that the Lord did during Fall Retreat this year that we actually just sent you out a prayer letter about it! So be looking for that in your mailbox any day now, if you don't have it already!
For those of you who just can't wait, we had a great retreat!
We joined with 2 other campuses for our retreat this year, and we brought 30 students from SFA to get away from normal life, and to connect with God. The students got to hear from Erin O'Brein, the Campus Director for Campus Crusade for Christ for Texas State, and the whole southwest Texas region. We were blessed to get to hear him talk about God's will for our lives, and how we can please him, honor him, and make decisions that bring him the glory!
In addition to the great talks, we had retreat Olympics, and hoedown, coffee shop, and great time with students from our campus!
Some of the coolest things happen when its 2am. I have gotten to know a girl pretty well over the last few weeks on campus, and she had gotten to come on the retreat. The room where Vince and I were staying was having some problems with the shower draining, and so on Sat at 1am after the hoedown, I walked over to the girls bunks to borrow their shower. On my way, I ran into this sweet girl, and she was sitting alone outside. We got a chance to talk for the next hour about things that were going on in her life, and I got to challenge her to pursue Christ, and to allow Him to carry her burdens. It was a really wonderful conversation, and if we had not been on Fall Retreat, up crazy late, and had a shower that didn't drain, I would probably not have gotten the opportunity to have that conversation! Shortly after, I showered so fast, and fell sound asleep from exhaustion, but it was 100% worth the late night to get a chance to invest in this sweet woman's life!
Thanks for your prayers for the weekend! We are so encouraged by what God is doing, and literally we feel so blessed to be part of it!
Thanks guys!

Home again!

Just got back from fall retreat this weekend, and we have lots of cool stories to share about what we did, and the cool things the Lord taught us and our students!
Also, we had a really cool event that happened Sunday night with the Greek girls on campus, and we can't wait to share more about it with you! Check back tomorrow for the story!