The first weekend of spring quarter was Easter, where we packed the Stenstrom house with over 100 students! Since the rain decided not to stay away, the house was literally packed:) It brought such joy to my heart to see lots of new faces, students hanging out late into the afternoon, and just a true spirit of joy and community that filled the air!
most of the Easter Crew
Prayer time where we read all the names for Jesus in the NTOn Good Friday, one of our students, Liz Smith, spear headed a traditional Passover Seder dinner which is now becoming a Cardinal Life tradition. The Stenstrom house was yet again packed with about 25 students and the Stenstrom family around a very long dinner table. The highlight for me was when everyone gave their assigned person a blessing. The "blessee" would come and kneel by the "blesser" and the blesser would affirm that person, sharing the gifts they saw in that person, what their prayer was for them, and what they were proud of them for. It was truly a holy moment! Then of course the tears flowed when Steve gave each of his four kids a blessing, and the precious look on his kids faces while he was doing so was just beautiful. We are blessed to have their family as such an incredible example of a Godly, tight knit, loving family!
Seder Dinner at Stenstrom houseThe Monday after Easter was the first monthly Cardinal Life meeting on campus. We had the joy and priviledge of hearing from my father, Steve Foley! His testimony was really powerful, and it was such a joy to have my spiritual hero share to a group of people that I care about so deeply! I know a lot of people were really impacted by it, particularly one girl on the track team who indicated on the response card that she wanted to find out more about starting and having a personal relationship with God. I followed up with her shortly thereafter and had the joy of sharing the gospel with her, telling her about Jesus and what makes Him so unique and incredible. It was so ridiculously clear that the Holy Spirit was moving in power in her heart and my words were falling on good, fresh soil. As I left that meeting, I had to thank God for letting me play a part in His work, because it was so clear to me that He was doing it all and did not need me, but still lovingly allowed me to be apart of it. She has now invited Jesus into her life, joined one of my small groups, and is eagerly and excitedly reading through her new Bible and sending me emails constantly with joyful exclamations of how excited and alive she is to be apart of this amazing community and to have started this incredible journey with God. I LOVE seeing people come to know Jesus. It is the most exhilirating, joyful, addicting thing ever!
Cardinal LifeThe most recent Cross Training was amazing! The pastor who married Trent and I started a three week series on the Psalms. He incorporates his own story into his teaching on how the Psalms give us a voice to process every range of emotion from the deepest grief to the highest elation and praise. When we share that voice in the context of community, we connect with one another in a holy, heavenly way that is truly other worldly. His story is incredibly powerful. Because his own emotion is evident as he shares it, we were all drawn into it in a way that touched a very deep part of our hearts. I saw many people wiping away tears as his story gave them a voice for their own pain or praise. He will continue his teaching next week, and the third week we are going to have people share their own psalms and poems that they have written. I think it is going to rock people's worlds, connect them with one another in a way they might not have experienced, and bring forth so much beauty and heaven. I am prayerfully looking forward to that.
As I said at the beginning of this post, this quarter truly has been incredible so far!! All praise and honor to Him.
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