Day at IWU

Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity to spend the day with my family. Not only did we spend the day together we spent it with two other very special young ladies. We went to IWU, had lunch and spent the afternoon playing cards. After days like these, I am always in awe that God has allowed me to be blessed with so many wonderful people in my life.
Spending the day with students and just enjoying their life alongside them is a dream for me. I do enjoy studying, reading, working out and other stuff, but hanging out with students, especially with my family, is one great way to spend the day. I pray daily that God will continue to allow me play a part in so many students' lives and to be able to serve them in any way that God sees fit.

The Hole in our Gospel

The college Bible study that I have the wonderful blessing to lead on Sunday nights has been studying the book "The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. He is the President of World Vision, and has written a very powerful book about our role as Christians in the world of today. Last night at Bible study we talked very specifically about what the church should be doing to meet the needs of the poor and oppressed. Unfortunately we decided that perhaps the church isn't doing enough. There seem to be plenty of programs for congregations to attend, but what are we doing to help the poor around the world.
Which brought us to an exciting opportunity to help with the United Methodists Church's campaign to end malaria's death toll on the people of Africa. There is a local rally next week in Morton, and our students will be there to learn about the campaign. Then we will work to intertwine the Gospel of Jesus Christ along with it, so we can hopefully save lives both here on earth and for eternity.
www.imaginenomalaria.org

More or Less

This past weekend I had the opportunity to preach and lead our youth as we presented a mission report to the congregation. you can check out the message at www.pekingrace.org/Worship

Our lesson focus for the summer was More or Less. The theme coming from John 3:30, Jesus must become greater, I must become less. The students were challenged in a mighty way to begin this transformation in their lives. We are bombarded with so much in our lives and we live in a very selfish culture. Our students strive to get good grades, succeed in sports, or clubs and maybe even date and enjoy good friends. We talked alot this summer about putting those personal things aside and striving towards what God has planned for us. One thing that is for sure, this change probably won't happen overnight. It takes time to forge a lifestyle change and to allow God to come and transform our lives. These students are wanting this and I cannot tell you how excited I am. They are going to absolutely change the world, and many are already changing the atmosphere in their high schools.

A New Era

Leslie just posted some very similar thoughts that I am about to share: http://www.thejourneytojillian.blogspot.com/ But I feel compelled to share my thoughts as well, for whatever that is worth.

These past two weeks have been very hectic and stressful for many students and parents as the school year has begun again. Perhaps, the most anxiety comes for the families with students going away to college, and especially for those going away for the first time. It is is tremendous joy to be able to play a role in so many young people's lives and seeing them go off to college is a blessing, but also a little bit sad. These past two years it has been my tremendous honor to take one of our college kids to school and help her move in. Without fail, on my way home the tears just start coming down and I think about all the challenges she will face at school and how her faith will be tested. Selfishly, I also think about how much I am going to miss seeing her. Now that Leslie and I have been here awhile there are a lot of our students moving on and it is different around these parts of the world without them in it.

Praying with them and seeing them off, when we were able, has been a joy and something that we will continue to do with these students, and planning visits is also something we must do. As students go off to school, they continue to need our support, our prayers and they need to know that they are not forgotten back home. High school graduation seems like a finish line of sorts and we as a church must move that line back. Our students haven't finished anything yet, they are just moving onto something different, and they are still students and young people that need us. I am excited for this new school year and I can't wait to see all that God does in the coming year!

Challenged to live different

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to learn and grow at Gull Lake Ministries. God has blessed me and my family with this camp for the past three summers. We get to go with other families from our church, which gives me a great chance to hang out with my teenagers. The speakers for the week were both Godly men who have given their life to Christ and allow Him to direct their paths.
The teaching really challenged me to think differently about how I live, and exactly what I am doing here with my life and resources. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and a church full of teenagers that I absolutely love. However, I want to make sure that I am not missing out on the main reason why we are all here, and that is to praise Jesus Christ and share the Good News with all we come into contact with. I need to get back to that priority and I hope to help lead my youth in that endeavour also.