Summer is winding down and we are getting really excited for all the students to return to campus. It has been a really rich summer! We had about 30-40 students around for the first two months of summer, and then summer school and a lot of internships ended around mid August, football players went into "hell month" of training where they are not allowed to leave campus, other sports got a few weeks off, etc. However, as some students left, others arrived for preseason training or other reasons, so we still have had a good amount of students around, which has been a blast! There have been ample opportunities to go do fun things, fellowship and worship later into the night at cross training, have bbq's, and enjoy some down time with one another. But of course we miss the students who are not here and the flurry of energy during the school year.



In Cross Training, we have been reading through some of Paul's letters to different churches. Last week we did Galatians and this week we did Ephesians. It has been really powerful to read the letter straight through, as they would have done upon receiving the letter, and to pretend that we are his target audience. It is crazy how something written to people 2000 years ago in a totally different culture can apply so much to us today! It has inspired great questions and discussion. This last week we talked a lot about the body. Trent and I really seek to create an environment where no one in our community (ourselves included) is a "superstar Christian," but rather that everyone is an equally important and vital part of the body with something necessary to offer. As Paul says, if someone thinks they are too important and don't need other parts, or if someone does not think they are important, the body is out of whack and the whole body suffers whether we feel it or not.

Random story: Trent and I watched the movie Phenomenon last night. At the end, John Travolta dies, and it is really sad. Now I usually will shed a few tears at a movie like this, but "shedding a few tears" would be a huge understatement. Something about the ending scenes reached deep into my heart and made death feel so real to me. I sobbed for about 20 minutes as hard as if someone near to me had just passed away. It caused me to reflect on how short and precious life is, how real and harsh death is, and what GOOD NEWS ressurrection, redemption, and eternity with our glorious Father in the new heavens and new earth truly is. It is funny how much God used a random movie to powerfully reach my heart and inspire me to live well for eternal things. It also reminded and inspired me to live with more of a sense of urgency to love and share the good news with people who do not know Jesus. I guess it goes to show that God can use whatever means he wants to reach people:).

Please pray for the upcoming school year: That Trent and I would be filled with God's love, energy, and passion for students to know him here at Stanford; that many more students would come to know Jesus personally this year; that our students would all grow in intimacy with Christ, in His wisdom and the renewing of their minds, and in love for the hurting world around them. Pray that God would do a mighty work on this campus, uniting and sanctifying all believers, and using all of us to be an accurate reflection of Himself to the world.