After our first year of ministry to Stanford students and looking back, we have had an awesome year. We have both grown so much personally by engaging with God through the Word, prayer, and solitude, through practicing to walk alongside students, and through sharing life with an awesome community of believers. There were many highlights, but here are a few: (This first blog is kind of an outline/highlight of what we do on a weekly/monthly basis and the second blog is of what God has been teaching us this year. We hope you will read all of it)
1. Meeting one on one with students-We feel that this is the most important aspect and our favorite part of what we do. This is where the most authentic relationships develop because students feel more safe to open up. We are able to really listen and come alongside them in their walk with the Lord, wrestle through faith and life questions with them, and dig into the Word and other challenging material together. We have seen a lot of fruit and growth (for them and us) come out of this time. Most of my (Natalie) time is actually spent meeting one on one with about 20-25 girls per week, while Trent divides his time a little more evenly between planning 2nd mile and meeting with guys.
2. 2nd mile- For those of you who don't know what 2nd mile is, it was started by the couple we work with (Steve and Lori Stenstrom) a few years ago. While Jesus was on earth about to go to the cross, he did something we are told to both "show the extent of his love" and "set an example" (John 13:1, 15). He took the posture of a servant and he washed his disciples feet. Upon finishing, he told the twelve, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them," (John 13:17). The 2nd mile is awakening a church community around this area and on campus. It is not about a project but about a mindset and an approach to living. The 2nd mile is what He did for us, and how we in turn are called to love Him and love our neighbor as ourselves. We had three awesome 2nd mile projects this year. The last one in the spring was a complete rebuilding and rennovation of the Young Life house in East Palo Alto (there is a link to a slideshow of it in the right hand column). As always, there were some really cool relationships built and it was tear jerking to present it to the YL staff. We know this new house will be a huge blessing to the growing YL ministry there. We really experience the paradox of being blessed so much when we serve during 2nd mile!
3. Quarterly book studies- We often go through books with students one on one, but every quarter we have one or two specific books that we go through with groups of students who want to. This last year we went through Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias, The Great Omission by Dallas Willard, Stand Against the Wind by Erwin McManus, Following Jesus by NT Wright, Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, and Hearing God by Dallas Willard. These books sparked a lot of really good conversations and questions, and it was really neat to see how much we were all impacted by each book we read.
4. Having bbqs and game nights at our house throughout the year- It is neat to open our home and have a lot of students come who don't normally come to Cardinal Life. Trent and I got to know quite a few new students through these events. These nights were always a blast as we had some intense games like dodgeball, football, mafia, washoes, and polish golf (I bet you haven't heard of most of these:).
5. Weekly small group bible studies- This is a really neat time to study and discuss the Bible and how it applies to our life. It was cool for both of us to see a hunger in a lot of students to seriously engage with the Word and follow Jesus. It was also neat to see relationships within the group grow a lot stronger and people start to share more honestly this year.
6. SALT (student athlete leadership team) meetings- There are about 20 students on the leadership team who were invited to be apart of it because of their love for Jesus and people (especially their teammates), their desire to seriously be a follower of Him, and the leadership through Christ like character they show. We have meetings a few times each quarter and what an amazing group of students they are! We have some great discussions during these meetings of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, how we can be more of a light at Stanford, and how we can be a community of faith and love that is genuinely centered on Jesus and his Word. These students are invited to take leadership in different ways and have a voice in the direction of Cardinal Life. Trent and I (and Steve, Lori, and Jim Stump) are closely connected to this group and meet one on one or in small groups with all of them. It is awesome for Trent and I to be working alongside a team of students who share our vision and heart for Stanford. In addition to the students, it is a complete joy to work alongside Steve and Lori Stenstrom and Jim Stump. They have a fire to serve God and Stanford students, and we are so blessed to work alongside them. We are all very like minded and hearted in our approach to reaching students, and we have a blast working together.
7. Cardinal Life large group meetings each Wednesday- Once a month we have a speaker come, and this last year we had some really awesome, challenging teachers. The other Wednesday's of the month, we do something like worship, prayer, reading scripture, or just spending time in silence soaking in God's presence. We really appreciate that weekly time set apart to have fellowship and to worship and meet with God.
8. Hosting students at our house for dinner- we love to invite different groups of students over for dinner to get to know them more and serve them in a small way. We have grown to love cooking and hosting people at our house, and it makes us so happy to see students enjoy themselves. We desire our home to be a safe, welcoming, and comforting place for students, and we feel like it truly has become that to a lot of them.
9. In addition to all of this stuff, we hope to do more mission trips and conferences with students this school year and next summer. Last year we went to the Passion Conference in Atlanta with one student (I heart Katie Riley!!) which was an incredible time of worship, fellowship, and some of the best teaching we have ever heard. We are going to go again this year in LA and hopefully bring more students. (Also, since going to Passion last year where we first heard a guy named Francis Chan speak, we have really enjoyed listening to his sermons online at cornerstonesimi.com. He is an incredible teacher, so if you are looking for good sermons, you should definitely listen to him!)
As you can see, we love what we do and feel blessed to be in the position we are! To read more of what God has been specifically teaching us and reminding us of this year, you can read the next entry.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The last year: What God has been teaching us
We also want to share some things that God has been teaching and reminding us of this year:
1. Power is defined differently in God's Kingdom than the world's. It is amazing to think that when people looking on thought Jesus was a failure as he died on the cross, the most powerful moment in history was taking place. What good news that God was actually making all things new through Jesus. That He was reconciling the world to himself, taking sin upon himself, and defeating the powers and authorities of evil. Most of the Jews were hoping for a glorious earthly King, but his Kingship looked different than they thought. What is powerful in God's kingdom might often look like weakness and foolishness to the world. We are very comforted that we can trust God with the appearance and outcome of our work. Our task as his servants is to sacrificially love and serve those he has put before us and work for his approval, not man's. We truly believe that what is actually powerful and "makes things happen" in God's kingdom is sacrificial love, faith, prayer, submission to the total rule of Jesus in a life, and other things that often feel in opposition to the world and our flesh (like patiently waiting on God's timing and directive for things, turning the other cheek, forgiving, etc). We feel like God has really been transforming our minds and allowing us to really believe him in these areas. We see our perspective of the world changing a lot.
It is also sometimes tempting to water down and sugar coat the gospel to make it more popular in the world's eyes, but this is not following in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus often spoke in confusing parables and said really hard things to swallow when speaking to the masses. He spoke of taking up your cross, losing your life, humbling yourself, hating your own life and family in comparison to him, putting the misdeeds of the flesh to death no matter what the cost, blessing those who curse you and loving your enemies, seeking God before wealth, earthly power, success, or comfort, giving love at sufficient cost to others (ie loving neighbor as yourself), giving without expecting anything in return, rejoicing in suffering and persecution for Jesus' name, and ultimately surrendering control of every part of your life to the Lordship and rule of Christ. In short, Jesus was looking for people with ears to hear and good soil in their hearts who wanted to follow Jesus in the Way that Jesus was calling them to do so, even when that meant giving up their own agenda, suffering, and possibly even dying for his name's sake. We have been surprised by how many people have responded to some really challenging teaching this year. Instead of Cardinal Life getting smaller this year with each new challenging speaker and bible study, the room got more and more packed as the year went on. We also had more students who wanted to meet with us as the year progressed to either start a relationship with Jesus or because of their desire to follow Him more seriously and "work out their salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). We believe people everywhere long to live in the fulness of freedom, peace, and joy that Jesus brought, and we desire to display and invite people into this fulness.
2. It is very easy to subtly or obviously start relying on self and/or methods rather than God for how to go about engaging with students, bible studies, weekly meetings, etc. It is easy to want to be in control of the time with students to make sure they "experience God". That is so silly when we think about it. We have gotten better at spending more time soaking our meetings in prayer beforehand and letting go of what we think is best because God has often surprised us.
3. People long for a place to belong, a safe place to call home, to let down their guard and find a genuine community of love. If there was one theme that emerged from all my individual meetings with girls this year, there was a desire for more genuine community. So as summer approached, we were thrilled to find out that most of the students we meet with and are closely connected to were staying for the summer. We decided to have weekly dinners followed by a time to seek and worship God, pray for each other, and get to know one another. Even though it sounds simple, it was so powerful. We did different activities each week. Sometimes, we would have an agenda to start with two or three worship songs and end up worshiping for hours. Sometimes we would read and meditate on a passage of Scripture (like Psalm 19, 39, and Matthew 5-7) and then discuss it. A few times we wrote poems or made some form of creative art to reflect what was going on in our hearts and relationships with God. It ended up being one of the most powerful, genuine times of community for all of us. Other times, we read chapters from a book called Following Jesus (by NT Wright) and discussed it. It was intimate, real, bonding, and genuine. We have gotten a lot of emails from students who had a transforming experience at those dinners this summer and who can't wait to come back to school. We also notice a more confident desire in many of them to follow Jesus because they do not feel like they are going it alone. What a blessing and answer to our prayers!!
4. Our pure faith in Jesus has grown, as well as our admiration for him. Simply put, we are more in love with Jesus now than we were a year ago, and that is the most important work of the Spirit in us and answer to our prayers. Everything else seems futile and pointless without that relationship. God has continually reminded us that the secret, quiet meeting with him each day is where we are restored and filled with the love that we need to pour into others' lives. It is there that we go to develop intimacy with him; to remember that we live, move and have our being in him alone (Acts 17:28); to listen to his voice; to receive the transforming grace we desperately need to become more like Him; to surrender control of our lives and ask for his kingdom to come and his will to be done in our lives as it is in heaven; to remember that we are indwelt by his powerful spirit who is our counselor and who fills us with life and all the fruit of the spirit. Things feel hard when we are not close to Jesus and when we are forgetting to rely on him. Not even his goodies or blessings motivate us then. Only when we remain and abide in him do we bear much lasting fruit, for apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5).
5. It takes a great amount of prayer, discernment, love, and care to speak truth into people's lives. Most importantly, depth of relationship and trust must be established and developed before earning the right to be heard. Most of the time, our role is to come alongside, ask questions, PRAY, love, listen, and offer counsel when ears are eager to hear.
We absolutely love what we do! We get the priviledge of coming alongside and growing alongside students. College is such a critical, formative time in life when people really grow up, learn to think for themselves, and largely set the trajectory for the rest of their lives. We are very excited for the school year to start again with a year of "experience" under our belts. It feels good to already have established relationships to continue building on. We would love your continued prayers and to know how to pray for you as well! We are so thankful for your support and involvement in our ministry.
1. Power is defined differently in God's Kingdom than the world's. It is amazing to think that when people looking on thought Jesus was a failure as he died on the cross, the most powerful moment in history was taking place. What good news that God was actually making all things new through Jesus. That He was reconciling the world to himself, taking sin upon himself, and defeating the powers and authorities of evil. Most of the Jews were hoping for a glorious earthly King, but his Kingship looked different than they thought. What is powerful in God's kingdom might often look like weakness and foolishness to the world. We are very comforted that we can trust God with the appearance and outcome of our work. Our task as his servants is to sacrificially love and serve those he has put before us and work for his approval, not man's. We truly believe that what is actually powerful and "makes things happen" in God's kingdom is sacrificial love, faith, prayer, submission to the total rule of Jesus in a life, and other things that often feel in opposition to the world and our flesh (like patiently waiting on God's timing and directive for things, turning the other cheek, forgiving, etc). We feel like God has really been transforming our minds and allowing us to really believe him in these areas. We see our perspective of the world changing a lot.
It is also sometimes tempting to water down and sugar coat the gospel to make it more popular in the world's eyes, but this is not following in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus often spoke in confusing parables and said really hard things to swallow when speaking to the masses. He spoke of taking up your cross, losing your life, humbling yourself, hating your own life and family in comparison to him, putting the misdeeds of the flesh to death no matter what the cost, blessing those who curse you and loving your enemies, seeking God before wealth, earthly power, success, or comfort, giving love at sufficient cost to others (ie loving neighbor as yourself), giving without expecting anything in return, rejoicing in suffering and persecution for Jesus' name, and ultimately surrendering control of every part of your life to the Lordship and rule of Christ. In short, Jesus was looking for people with ears to hear and good soil in their hearts who wanted to follow Jesus in the Way that Jesus was calling them to do so, even when that meant giving up their own agenda, suffering, and possibly even dying for his name's sake. We have been surprised by how many people have responded to some really challenging teaching this year. Instead of Cardinal Life getting smaller this year with each new challenging speaker and bible study, the room got more and more packed as the year went on. We also had more students who wanted to meet with us as the year progressed to either start a relationship with Jesus or because of their desire to follow Him more seriously and "work out their salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). We believe people everywhere long to live in the fulness of freedom, peace, and joy that Jesus brought, and we desire to display and invite people into this fulness.
2. It is very easy to subtly or obviously start relying on self and/or methods rather than God for how to go about engaging with students, bible studies, weekly meetings, etc. It is easy to want to be in control of the time with students to make sure they "experience God". That is so silly when we think about it. We have gotten better at spending more time soaking our meetings in prayer beforehand and letting go of what we think is best because God has often surprised us.
3. People long for a place to belong, a safe place to call home, to let down their guard and find a genuine community of love. If there was one theme that emerged from all my individual meetings with girls this year, there was a desire for more genuine community. So as summer approached, we were thrilled to find out that most of the students we meet with and are closely connected to were staying for the summer. We decided to have weekly dinners followed by a time to seek and worship God, pray for each other, and get to know one another. Even though it sounds simple, it was so powerful. We did different activities each week. Sometimes, we would have an agenda to start with two or three worship songs and end up worshiping for hours. Sometimes we would read and meditate on a passage of Scripture (like Psalm 19, 39, and Matthew 5-7) and then discuss it. A few times we wrote poems or made some form of creative art to reflect what was going on in our hearts and relationships with God. It ended up being one of the most powerful, genuine times of community for all of us. Other times, we read chapters from a book called Following Jesus (by NT Wright) and discussed it. It was intimate, real, bonding, and genuine. We have gotten a lot of emails from students who had a transforming experience at those dinners this summer and who can't wait to come back to school. We also notice a more confident desire in many of them to follow Jesus because they do not feel like they are going it alone. What a blessing and answer to our prayers!!
4. Our pure faith in Jesus has grown, as well as our admiration for him. Simply put, we are more in love with Jesus now than we were a year ago, and that is the most important work of the Spirit in us and answer to our prayers. Everything else seems futile and pointless without that relationship. God has continually reminded us that the secret, quiet meeting with him each day is where we are restored and filled with the love that we need to pour into others' lives. It is there that we go to develop intimacy with him; to remember that we live, move and have our being in him alone (Acts 17:28); to listen to his voice; to receive the transforming grace we desperately need to become more like Him; to surrender control of our lives and ask for his kingdom to come and his will to be done in our lives as it is in heaven; to remember that we are indwelt by his powerful spirit who is our counselor and who fills us with life and all the fruit of the spirit. Things feel hard when we are not close to Jesus and when we are forgetting to rely on him. Not even his goodies or blessings motivate us then. Only when we remain and abide in him do we bear much lasting fruit, for apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5).
5. It takes a great amount of prayer, discernment, love, and care to speak truth into people's lives. Most importantly, depth of relationship and trust must be established and developed before earning the right to be heard. Most of the time, our role is to come alongside, ask questions, PRAY, love, listen, and offer counsel when ears are eager to hear.
We absolutely love what we do! We get the priviledge of coming alongside and growing alongside students. College is such a critical, formative time in life when people really grow up, learn to think for themselves, and largely set the trajectory for the rest of their lives. We are very excited for the school year to start again with a year of "experience" under our belts. It feels good to already have established relationships to continue building on. We would love your continued prayers and to know how to pray for you as well! We are so thankful for your support and involvement in our ministry.
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