the mustard seed power

I got really excited today just in thinking about how huge of an impact that even one Stanford student surrendered to Jesus can and will have on the world. At first I was saddened to think about how hard it is for a Stanford student to be set free from the values of the world system and to surrender their lives to Christ, aligning themselves with His values. There is so much pulling at them, so many promises the world is making to them, and so many enticements of wealth, fame, power, etc. Then I thought about some of the students we have seen fall in love with Jesus over their years at Stanford, and the beautiful freedom they have joyfully entered into. I get so excited thinking about what the Lord can do through even one surrendered person. Look at how dramatically the world was changed through the handful of disciples! Our God does not need vast numbers. His Kingdom will advance, and He will use those who are in love with Him and who are surrendered to Him. We desire to see students discover the life that is in Jesus, the adventure He has in store for them, and for them to wisely spend their lives on things that will last for eternity (and we desire this for ourselves too!) We are praying for God to bring the hungry and thirsty students our way. The good soil who will produce a crop thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold. Those with ears to hear.

Lots of Changes

There have been some recent, fairly significant changes within the staff of Kingdom First Ministries. Steve Stenstrom (founder of Kingdom First and our former "boss" and co-worker) has taken a new position as the President of Pro Athletes Outreach, a conference ministry for pro athletes, namely football and baseball players. Steve and Lori have been involved in PAO for twelve years, and Steve will be an incredible addition to their team. He is very excited about it, knows this is where the Lord is calling him, and we are also really excited for him. He started this new role on February 1st.

What this means for us is that Trent is now the official director of Kingdom First on the student ministry side, and my brother David is the director of Kingdom First on the 2nd mile side. We are so thrilled to work with David and his wife Tiffany. They will do an incredible job at running 2nd mile, and we are very excited for their partnership in student ministry as well. David actually spoke at the last Cardinal Life we had, and all the students really loved him and were greatly impacted by his talk. In addition to that, David and Tiffany come to Cross Training each week and are both very passionate about and gifted at men's and women's ministry. Steve and Lori have taken a seat on the board of directors of Kingdom First, and we now have the responsibility of overseeing and leading the direction of Kingdom First on the student ministry side. We are very excited to take on this new role, and we also know there will be new challenges which will cause us to grow a lot. We will miss working so closely with Steve and Lori, but we know they will still be involved, and we are still going to have Cross Training at their house every Monday night. One of the main responsibilities that we will be taking on with Steve leaving is raising the full budget for Kingdom First, while David and Tiffany will fundraise for 2nd mile. We know this too will be a challenge, but we are trusting the Lord for provision and to grow us in wisdom and knowledge in this area. We ask for your support and prayer as we enter into this new role.

We are also due to have our first baby, Elliana ("Ellie") Wiesen, on March 23, so there are a lot of changes coming up! We are so excited to meet our new baby girl and are praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby. We invite your prayers for all of these things.

Please let us know if you have any questions about these new changes. You can email us anytime at nwiesen@gmail.com or trentwiesen@gmail.com. Love, peace, and grace to you all! We hope 2010 has been a great year for all of you so far!

This is me at 37 weeks pregnant!