Captivating Kingdom: Fall Update

Another school year has begun and the first few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. There are a lot of new freshmen who have gotten involved, as well as a surprising amount of new upper class as well. It has been exciting to see a packed house on Monday nights for our weekly meeting called Cross Training, and a lot of new students getting involved in small group bible studies. More importantly than an increase in numbers, there seems to be a greater hunger for Christ amongst new, old, and not yet believers, as well as a greater sense of need for Him. I feel like God is stirring in many non-believers hearts at Stanford right now, which is really exciting. I have had a lot of spiritual conversations with non-believers who are seeking God, feeling a heightened awareness of their emptiness, brokenness, sin, and their desire for something more than what the world offers. This is clearly the awesome work of the Holy Spirit! There are also a number of non-believers coming consistently to Cross Training to check things out, and we are praying for them to fall in love with Jesus and give their lives wholeheartedly to Him.

We had an awesome turnout for the freshmen dinner that we put on the second Friday of the quarter. There were about 17 freshmen and 13 upper class to serve them. We put unique get to know you questions under each of their plates that they went around answering. Then they had the opportunity to ask the upper class some of the same questions. It was really neat to hear some of the stories the upper class shared about what God has done in their lives since being at Stanford, how they have grown through Cardinal Life, and what fun times and adventures we have had as a family of believers over the years. It was also neat to see how comfortable the upper class were in their own skin compared to the understandable hints of nervousness evident in a lot of the freshmen. It made me realize that security comes from knowing you are loved and accepted, which is how the Christian community should be!

We have had a vision for a few years now of a one year internship program following graduation for any students who have been involved in our ministry. The full vision we have had entails part time work with a partner business or ministry, part time work with Kingdom First to serve as a leader to the student ministry on campus, an intensive spiritual formation curriculum covering a wide range of topics relevant to their life stage, and ideally living in a "community conducive" space right off campus that would serve as a hub for ministry to the campus. We have decided this year to experimentally move forward with an internship pilot year, which we are actually calling the missions project, and we decided to invite all recent grads and seniors to meet once a week. Our vision for this group is: 1. For these students to serve as leaders in the ministry, taking on various leadership roles and living missionally to the Stanford campus, 2. For these students to help us shape and reshape the spiritual growth curriculum for future years, 3. Most importantly for these students to fall more in love with Christ and be more devoted to Him by the end of the year, and 4. For these students to become a healthy, thriving body as defined in Scripture. We have about 20 students who have decided to commit to this group, and we have had some really incredible times together. We are very excited to see where God takes this particular group of students and this general vision in the future.

One neat thing about this "mission project" group is that a lot of them have taken ownership of the vision and movement on campus, and have taken initiative in creative ways. One thing that a few students have initiated is "Friday night Fun" activities. The vision of these nights is for the core group of students to intentionally invite non-believers to these regular fun activities so that these students can interface with the Cardinal Life community in a casual, non-intimidating setting. Our first event was a bonfire and it was really neat to see a lot of new faces there!

Last Friday we partnered with 2nd mile to put on a worship night, and it was incredible! Trent's brother Cody, who leads worship for Cardinal Life and is an awesome worship leader and singer, got a band together and they were absolutely amazing. I honestly felt like I was at a Hillsong concert! More than that, however, I felt like they were anointed to lead people into a time of authentic worship. They faded away and God was magnified and glorified! We also got to hear an incredible testimony of a man who grew up in the "badlands" of Philly. He was orpahned, abused, malnourished, run over three times at age five, homeless, addicted to drugs, shot in the back of the head, tried to commit suicide, and ended up getting saved through a powerful move of God at City Team Ministries. He is now the director of City Team Ministry in San Jose and has been healed and restored from his past. He challenged everyone to be faithful with what we have been given, which was very convicting coming from someone who was not given much to begin with!

The freshmen small groups are up and running and I (Natalie) am leading the women's group. I realized that we are almost ten years older than the freshmen this year, and especially since we have a baby, they must look at us as if we are so old:) ha! It does not feel so long ago that I was a freshmen! It is a really incredible group of girls who are all serious about following Christ, and our meetings so far have been very rich and edifying. I could barely sleep after our first meeting because I was so excited about a new year and a new awesome group of students who we get to pour into, love on, and serve.

Overall, it has been a great start to the school year, and we are excited about what God is doing. We covet your prayers for us, for the students within our ministry, and for the Stanford campus as a whole. We continue to feel great love and burden for the people at Stanford, and want to be faithful to pour into each student that God brings to us. Please pray that God would do a miraculous work of growing students to love Him above everything else and that He would unite this group of students to truly love and care for one another and function as a healthy thriving body, family, and bride of Christ. We want to trust Christ for greater things with this group, so please join us in that! We love and appreciate all of you and hope you are doing well.