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.
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