Christian Challenge March Update!

Greetings! We hope all of you are well! Spring break has arrived, and we wanted to give everyone a short update. We've got some big things to share!

Things have been going well with the ministry since the beginning of the new year. We were in Colorado Springs at our Life Impact Conference in early January. For the students that couldn't attend, we hosted a pie night as an opportunity to connect with them and encourage them over the break.

Upon returning to Durango to start the new semester, we really didn't know how many students would actually return. We knew our student president was moving to Florida. We found out our student vice president was transferring to another school in Colorado. Another one of our student leaders was stepping away from school to take care of his family. And our last student leader is dating the guy who stepped away to take care of his family. With him stepping away, we didn't know if she would step away as well.

But thank the Lord, God provided us with new student leaders! Along with one of our returning students, many of our freshmen stepped up into those roles as well. Having these student leaders allows us to be a registered student organization, which gives us access to club fairs, tabling, and the use of rooms and other facilities on campus. It gives us a foot in the door to reach students on campus.

This year, we got back to helping out with Night to Shine. It was great having N2S, a prom for people with special needs, back in person for the first time since COVID.

It was cold, and our students had a lot on their plates that weekend, but still made the time to serve our community.

We've also had a good semester of family dinners! The Chosen Series has brought about an opportunity to dig into scripture and have a lot of good discussions. It's been fun seeing the Lord work thru the video series and our discussions!

All in all, it's been a good semester so far. Despite us losing some students to moves and transfers, we've picked up new students as the semester has rolled along. We also have former students pop in from time to time, which is always fun.

Next on the schedule is our annual spring break mission trip to Mexico. Our team headed out today. They'll again be working with the missionary-run school we've been working with for over a decade. There will be a lot of manual labor, but our students will also get to share their testimonies with the kids at the school.

Last year, we were able to join up with Challenges from San Juan College and Colorado Mesa University. Unfortunately this year, SJC's spring break didn't line up so they went down a week earlier. CMU's Challenge will still be joining us, though, which is awesome!

Our last big update is on the adoption front. Things have been moving like crazy. After waiting for a year, we finally received our first approval! We also received our tentative travel dates! We hope to be traveling to pick up our boy May 30th-June 21st. That will be here before we know it! If those dates hold together, it would be really good timing as we wouldn't miss any of the school year ministry-wise, and it would give us plenty of time to bond with Matias before the school year starts. Needless to say, we're really excited!

Overall, life is good. The adoption is moving. The semester has gone really well. We're seeing good fruit, lives changed, and students growing in their faith. We're very encouraged!

That encouragement not only comes from seeing what God is doing thru the ministry, but also from you all. We've got a lot of great folks who love us, and support us and the ministry.

We appreciate each one of you, and the part you play in our lives and in reaching college students with the Good News of Christ! Because of you, many have heard for the first time. Many have come into the Kingdom. Many have gotten serious about their faith. Many have been supported in their journey. We are so thankful for all of that!

Keep us, the ministry, and the FLC campus in your prayers!

Cheers and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel

www.challengeatthefort.org

If the Lord is leading you to partner with the ongoing ministry at Fort Lewis College or to give to our adoption, follow this link: Giving Options.

Prayer Requests:

- We've got a whole new group of student-leaders: Grace, Anja, John, and Selah. Please pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders spiritually and protect them from burnout.

- We are currently looking for a new faculty/staff advisor for our registered student organization. Our last one no longer works at FLC, and we need to have one to be an RSO on campus. Please pray that God would bring us someone willing to step into the role of faculty/staff advisor.

- Please pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keep them strong in their faith as they finish up the semester.

- With our adoption moving slowly, we thought we might be able to sneak in one more summer mission trip overseas before traveling to Thailand to pick up our boy. And then things with our adoption started moving surprisingly fast. So we won't be able to get one last overseas mission trip in, but we do have our spring break mission trip to Mexico happening. That will need plenty of prayer. Mexico has made the news recently due to some cartel violence against Americans. Though our team will be in an area with a different cartel and far away from where that incident occurred, border towns are still border towns. We take as many precautions as possible to keep our teams safe including covering them in prayer. Please pray for team unity, safety, health, and endurance for our team heading to Mexico. Pray that it would be a transformative experience for them, and a blessing and encouragement for those at the school they will be serving at.

- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us that God would protect us from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength and encouragement to endure. Also pray for everyone praying for our ministry, because when you pray for the ministry, you become a bigger target as well.

- Over the years, our staff has had a lot of health issues that can really be a discouragement. And with our small staff, sickness can grind the ministry to a halt. Obviously, we'd prefer avoiding health issues at all if we can. Please pray that God would keep us safe and healthy.

- We are still running very thin on full-time staff. We're looking and praying God would provide other possible staff. Please pray that God would provide us some new staff or volunteers that could step in to help us out with the ministry, and who would be a good fit for the ministry, us, and Durango.

- For years, Challenge has done everything possible to preserve unity on campus between us and other ministries knowing that division opens the door for the enemy to attack and try to tear down what God is doing. When Challenge was started at FLC, there were only one or two other ministries on campus, each reaching different student groups. We now have seven ministries on campus, a campus church plant coming next fall, and another possible ministry starting up as well. That makes things pretty crowded on a campus of just 3,500 students, and can easily cause friction. Please pray that the ministries on campus would work well together, avoid doing things that cause friction, and not lose sight of our common goal of reaching FLC with the Gospel.

- Please pray that Rachel and I would not neglect the ministry that is our marriage. We can be much more successful in our college ministry if our marriage is in a good place, but it's easy to put that on the back burner when things get busy.

- Please pray that God would give us wisdom to lead in a way that is fruitful for His kingdom.

- I mentioned a little about the adoption above. Things are finally moving...and quickly! Praise God! Please be praying that God would protect the adoption process from attacks from the enemy. Pray that our paperwork would not get lost in the mail again. Pray that God would be preparing us as parents. That God would provide the rest of the funding for the adoption as more payments are coming due now that the process is moving again, and plane tickets to and from Thailand, which we need to purchase soon, are skyrocketing in price. Pray that we'd be able to pick up our boy in God's perfect timing. Pray for our boy that God would protect him from any traumas during this process, and that God would keep him healthy.

- Please pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. We've had some pretty massive expenses between keeping our vehicles running and the adoption. Rachel and I trust God to provide for our family and the ministry but we'd appreciate you praying as well that the funding needs would be met. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or the adoption, please go to: Give Now.

Christian Challenge Christmas Update!

Greetings and Merry Christmas! We hope all of you are well! It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here. The semester flew by. We're exhausted, but it's been a really good semester.

The last time I wrote, we were just heading into our Fall Western Slope Retreat. That went really well.

Christian Challenge students from the universities in Grand Junction and Gunnison made the drive down and joined us. We had my old high school buddy, Jimmy Arcisz, come out and share about the importance of discipleship and evangelism.

Students were challenged to share their faith with their friends and given tools to do that. Within a week, one of the students had already shared their faith with a friend and led them to the Lord!

Speaking of discipleship, we've been able to continue discipling students, new and returning. We've got a really solid group this semester.

This past summer, the Lord connected us with a young lady from Colorado Springs. While my wife was there for a trip over the summer, she went over to visit her brother, sister-in-law, and our nieces, and nephews. While over there, our sister-in-law asked if it would be okay for her neighbor to stop by? Rachel said, "Of course." It turned out that the neighbor was going to be a freshman at Fort Lewis. They connected immediately. They now meet weekly for discipleship. This freshman has brought in many of her friends as well, and it's allowed us to build a really solid freshmen core.

I've been continuing to meet with some of our returning guys for discipleship. I've also met with a new student who has autism. He often leaves our family dinners thanking us for either helping him turn a bad day around or for what he is learning about Jesus and His disciples.

We met another young lady at our pizza party at the very beginning of the year. She mentioned that her boyfriend used to attend Challenge before leaving Fort Lewis and getting a job closer to home. Apparently, he has since become a believer in that time and encouraged her to get connected to Challenge. (It's awesome to hear that the Gospel seeds we were able to plant while her boyfriend was here have eventually produced fruit!)

Despite that encouragement, we didn't see her again for months. She, a pastor's daughter, wanted to try her own thing for awhile. All that time, though, she felt God telling her that she needed to get plugged into a good Christian community that would help her grow in her faith. With five weeks left in the semester, she finally decided to give us a chance. Since then, she has been pretty consistent in attending our family dinners and has shared how much it has helped her walk with Christ.

Speaking of family dinners, they have gone really well.

We've continued to grow in size throughout the semester. We've been doing our discussions around the Chosen Series. Our Christian students love it, and it stirs up a lot of good discussion with our non-Christian students as well. Before watching each episode, we read through the scriptures that are covered to get a good foundation of what the Bible actually says happened. After the episode, we dig deeper with group discussion questions.

I spent much time in prayer and wrestled a lot over the summer with what direction to go, topic-wise, for the coming year with Challenge. What I kept coming back to was the sentence, "Come and see." It was the title of a sermon I had listened to in the late spring. Then, later in the summer while Rachel and I were in Ireland hiking from village to village, I felt the Lord leading me to go with the Chosen Series.

It's no surprise, but it seems like the Lord knew what He was doing. He knew we'd have freshmen that love the series.

He knew it would allow our non-Christians students to see Jesus in a different light than how the mainstream media and Hollywood often portray Him. And it allows them to approach getting to know Jesus in a way that is similar to how the disciples did. They get to see Jesus' ministry in a way the disciples possibly saw it. They are invited to come and see.

And lastly, God knew we'd have a student on the spectrum start attending and really connect with the Matthew character, who the writers of the series also chose to have on the spectrum. All that said, it's really been cool to see God working at family dinner and thru the series!

With as well as family dinner has gone this semester, our worship nights have struggled. We're just not seeing a whole lot of interest, commitment, or consistency from the students when it comes to the night. There are three other worships nights students can attend throughout the week on campus. That makes us wonder if us putting on a worship night is really needed at this point in time?

Challenge has always aimed to be different than the other ministries on campus. If we're all doing the same thing, then we're all reaching the same students leaving a lot of students unreached on campus. If we're all doing similar worship nights, I think we run into that problem.

Discipling students one-on-one weekly, having lots of students in our home once (or sometimes twice) a week for dinner and discussion, and running weekend events to connect with students is already a good amount for a staff of two to have on our plate. And then add the adoption process in as well.

We have to be careful not to spread ourselves too thin. I often have to remind myself that a staff of two cannot do what our former staff of eight used to do. There's only so much time and energy to go around. Keeping all that in mind, we're praying about possibly shelving the worship night for now until it's more needed, and the Lord provides us with more staff or other help.

Overall though, the semester has gone really well.

Our outdoor events like waterfall jumping, hiking, and our mining ghost town adventure have seen new students come and eventually get plugged into family dinners and discipleship. We're seeing good fruit, lives changed, and students growing in their faith. We're very encouraged!

That encouragement not only comes from seeing what God is doing thru the ministry, but also from you all. We've got a lot of great folks who love us, and support us and the ministry.

We appreciate each one of you, and the part you play in our lives and in reaching college students with the Good News of Christ! Because of you, many have heard for the first time. Many have come into the Kingdom. Many have gotten serious about their faith. Many have been supported in their journey. We are so thankful for all of that!

With the end of the year coming soon, would you prayerfully consider giving a one-time end of the year gift? It helps us continue on in this ministry and is tax-deductible. Or perhaps you are led to start giving monthly. Almost everything we have goes into this ministry. We pay the bills, daily living expenses, and the rest is invested back into the ministry. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or our adoption, please go to: Give Now.

Merry Christmas and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel
www.challengeatthefort.org

Prayer Requests:

- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders spiritually and protect them from burnout. Amanda, our student-president is stepping down and moving to Florida. Peyton, one of our other student-leaders is taking some time off from college to work and take care of his family. This means that we have a new student-president, Grace, and Anja will be stepping up as well.

- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over the Christmas break. Going home can be hard on a student's faith. Many go home to families and friends that aren't always supportive of that faith. Sadly, the long break can often stunt a student's spiritual growth.

- Some may be wondering, "Any mission trips coming up?" Yep, we'll have our Mexico spring break trip to Juarez as usual. We'd also like to do something over the summer. It's been driving us nuts not being able to go on a mission trip since 2019. COVID really threw a wrench into things. This summer, we're running into adoption uncertainties. Right now, we've got students who are interested in going, so we're going to do the best we can to make something happen if the Lord opens that door. If we don't end up traveling for the adoption, we don't want to waste another summer. We'd love to get back to Peru, but they just ousted another president and have been rioting in the streets. That's probably not an option. We've looked at Serbia possibly, but there are some issues with Kosovo at the moment that could make that trip iffy. There are a few other options, but the one that stands out is a mission trip back to Ireland, a country that is sadly, quickly turning toward atheism. We'd be working with Irish speakers in the area we just were over the summer. Seems like it would be a good fit for our students and us. And we already know the area and now have connections there. What's tricky is not knowing when we will actually get to pick up our boy in Thailand. There's a very small chance it could be during the time of the mission trip. But for now, there is still a chance. Pray that God would give us wisdom and clear guidance on if we should commit to the mission trip to Ireland, or if there is somewhere else He'd rather us go, or if we should go at all with us needing to travel for the adoption being a small possibility. Also pray that God would provide funding for us and our students if He does call us to go on a mission trip this summer.

- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us that God would protect us from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength and encouragement to endure. Also pray for everyone praying for our ministry, because when you pray for the ministry, you become a bigger target as well.

- Over the years, our staff has had a lot of health issues that can really be a discouragement. And with our small staff, sickness can grind the ministry to a halt. Thankfully, the last two times I've had COVID, it's been over Thanksgiving or Christmas break. That said, we'd prefer avoiding health issues at all if we can. Pray that God would keep us safe and healthy.

- We are still running very thin on full-time staff. We had a married couple interview with us this past fall. They were great and would have been a good fit, but they ended up taking a youth paster position up in Denver after feeling the Lord lead them in that direction. So we're still looking and praying God would provide other possible staff. Pray that God would provide us some new staff or volunteers that could step in to help us out with the ministry, and who would be a good fit for the ministry, us, and Durango.

- For years, Challenge has done everything possible to preserve unity on campus between us and other ministries knowing that division opens the door for the enemy to attack and try to tear down what God is doing. Please pray that the ministries on campus would have unity, being team players, with the common goal reaching FLC with the Gospel.

- Pray that Rachel and I would not neglect the ministry that is our marriage. We can be much more successful in our college ministry if our marriage is in a good place, but it's easy to put that on the back burner when things get busy.

- Pray that God would give us wisdom to lead in a way that is fruitful for His kingdom.

- I mentioned a little about the adoption above. It's moving slow. We thought we'd possibly be traveling by now. That hasn't come to be. We thought maybe this summer. That may not happen either. At this point, we're learning there isn't really a way to predict when it will happen. There are a lot of families still in front of us waiting for approval. We may have to wait for all of those families to get approval or we may not. Even at our adoption agencies, nobody really knows at the moment. Please be praying that we'd have patience thru the process. That God would provide the funding for the adoption as it gets more expensive the longer it is drawn out. That we'd be able to pick up our boy in God's perfect timing. Pray for our boy that God would protect him from any traumas during this process, and that God would keep him healthy.

- Pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. Rachel and I trust God to provide for our family and the ministry but we'd appreciate you praying as well that the funding needs would be met. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or the adoption, please go to: Give Now.

Christian Challenge Fall Semester Update!

Wow, the beginning of the semester is upon us already! It's always an extremely exciting time for us in collegiate ministry! Christ is doing amazing things on the campus of Fort Lewis College!

This past summer has been a summer of transition. That has certainly kept us busy. After having a staff of eight not too many years ago, it's just Rachel and me.  All of those skills and strengths that we had on staff have moved on. There is no task delegation based on strengths anymore. I basically learn it or it doesn't get done. And there has been quite a bit to learn.

We've somewhat rebranded so I made a new logo. But first, I had to learn how to make a logo that actually looked professional and wasn't made of stick figures. With that created, I then built a new website for Challenge (www.challengeatthefort.org). That was another big learning experience.

I also made a new Challenge promo video (Challenge '21-'22). Thankfully, video editing is something I've been doing since high school, but I've kept up with the new technology over the years, so though time-consuming, there isn't much to learn. I say I keep up with the tech, but come to think of it, I do still edit the videos on an old 2008 MacBook Pro. Maybe a better way to put it is that I just keep the old tech running which helps lessen the learning need.

Rachel has stayed busy with adoption things. There have been more grants to fill out, and we had our yearly home study meeting with our social worker again. As you may have read in some of our last updates, we are matched! Our next step is waiting on something called first approval. That can still take some time, but we have heard that they are at least going over our file in Thailand. It's nice to know it's not just sitting on some desk somewhere buried in other files.

In other adoption news, we also had a baby shower over the summer. It might be a little early, as we may still not travel to pick up our son until late spring or summer, but once the school year hits, it's hard to schedule anything that isn't ministry related. Some have asked if we have a baby shower registry, and we do. Here is a link if you are interested: Registry.

Two days after the baby shower, we took the first real vacation of our marriage and relationship. We snuck off to Ireland. Two summers ago, we spoke at a church. A man attending approached us afterwards and basically told us he wanted to give some money for us to go on a vacation. The funny thing was that with our 10-year anniversary coming up at the time, we'd been praying about going on vacation to celebrate. Due to timing, it didn't work out for us to go that summer, but we figured we'd maybe be able to go somewhere this past summer.

We had pretty much settled on going to the Pacific Northwest when I got a call from my uncle. He told us the family was having a reunion in Ireland, and we were invited. Thinking we could never afford something like that, we unfortunately had to decline. And then on a whim, I decided to check tickets to Ireland just in case. I found a ridiculously cheap deal. It was going to be much cheaper for Rachel and I to fly out of notoriously expensive Durango than Philadelphia where my Uncle and Aunt were flying out of. After adding things up, it was also going to be about the same price-wise overall as our planned Pacific Northwest trip.

The funny thing is that we never actually made the family reunion. We were disappointed but after booking non-refundable tickets, we found out that there was nowhere to stay within a reasonable distance to family. Due to a huge music festival and the Irish government housing thousands and thousands of refugees from the Ukrainian war in hotels, everything was booked.

It was a bummer to not be able to connect with family, but we made the best of it. We may not have been able to see anyone, but at least it got us to Ireland. We had a great time trekking from village to village on the Dingle Peninsula.

We did almost 140 miles on foot while on the trip and got to experience some of the most beautiful landscapes we've ever seen.

Though there were certainly some really hard parts to the trip, overall, it was a great time of refreshment and recharge for us where we were able to pour into our marriage.

And we were able to use the trip to celebrate a lot of things like our 10-year anniversary late, our 11-year anniversary a bit early, our 15-year anniversary as a couple, Rachel's birthday, our getting matched in our adoption journey, and my 40th birthday early as well. That's a lot, but we certainly weren't going to waste the vacation. Had to get it all in.

Now, we're back, and the ministry is in full swing. Returning students are stepping up into student-leader roles. We're meeting and connecting with new students. Things are going well despite having the smallest staff numbers we've ever had. In a way, it's going to be somewhat of a rebuilding year. Our numbers may be smaller than years past as we try to rebuild, not just the amount of students coming but also the size of our staff. We pray that God gives us the perfect amount of students for what we can handle at this point.

We've done tabling on campus, a pizza party in front of all the freshmen dorms, a night hike followed up with milkshakes at Denny's, a coffee crawl for freshmen so they can sample some of the many coffee shops in town, waterfall jumping, and more hiking. Thru all of that, we've had many new faces at family dinner. It's been encouraging. We hope that will translate into being able to disciple them one-on-one.

With our tabling, we were able to set up our first one of the year to meet new students! It was an indoor tabling fair, but unfortunately, the only space they had for us to set up was outside in the rain.

Despite the bad weather, our students kept their spirits up and were able to connect with many new students who, thankfully, weren't scared off by the rain either.

We also had another successful adventure jumping waterfalls and building relationships with students! We've had a lot of rain this summer so the water was a little high this year, and everything was a bit slicker than normal making climbing and bouldering definitely tougher. Due to that, it took us a little longer to get the students thru the small canyon filled with waterfalls.

Thankfully, we decided to require the students to wear lifejackets and wetsuits this year which kept the students much more comfortable in the cold water.

With our worship night, we're still struggling to gain any traction with the students. It's been tough since we started it up. We tend to have a small group of seniors get involved every year and then graduate leaving us to start over every year. Our most fruitful year was during COVID when we combined family dinner and the worship night. We averaged thirteen students a night that year but the structure seemed to really scare away any students that didn't have a relationship with Jesus. All that said, we're praying about what to do with the worship night.

In that past, we have also done conversational English classes for our international students. Unfortunately, we just don't have the capacity to run those at the moment until we bring on more staff.

Despite that, we have still been able to connect with a couple of Japanese students. It turns out they are from the college and city where our former student, Rikako, is from. We are hoping that we can connect them in the near future.

Rikako has, for a long time, had a heart to return to Durango, join our staff, and minister to the Japanese students that come to Fort Lewis. Even if she hasn't been able to get a green card yet, this would still give her the opportunity to reach and disciple Japanese students at the Fort, not in person but online.

Going forward, we are settling into the normal rhythms of the semester. Family dinners will be weekly on Thursday nights. Our worship night will be on the first Tuesday of every month. We're hoping to get a student-led Bible study going on the Tuesday nights we don't have the worship night.

We also have our Western Slope Retreat this weekend. Colorado Mesa University and Western State University Christian Challenges will be joining us. We're brining in an a good friend of mine from high school, Jimmy Arcisz, who will be sharing about the importance of evangelism and discipleship. The Tyler Murphy Band will be joining us as well to lead worship. We're excited to see how God is going to grow our students over the weekend!

With that, we're also really excited to see how God is going to work on campus this semester! It's not the easiest campus to do ministry on but despite that, God continues to work and transform the lives of students year after year!

We just pray it's a fruitful year. In the past, we've had fruitful times with low numbers and fruitful times with high numbers. One of our most fruitful seasons was when we only had two students returning. Those two students eventually joined staff with us. So whatever happens, God is faithful!

Over the years, God has really challenged me to be in prayer more for our ministry and to challenge our supporters to be in prayer more for the ministry. We've seen huge fruit when we've focused on that. This year, that challenge hasn't changed.

So without further delay, I give you our annual Christian Challenge Prayer Challenge...or The Challenge for Challenge. I want to challenge you again to give 5-10 minutes a day praying for the ministry. If that sounds like not much, go for more. I suggest praying for it during your mornings so you don't forget. If the ministry comes to mind later in the day, pray for it then too. I'm challenging you to do it for 14 days.  If you can make it that far, take it another 14 days. I know I might be asking a lot but it's so important and so worth it.

Thank you for all the support and encouragement you give! We are super thankful for that! Keep us, the ministry, and the FLC campus in your prayers!

Cheers and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel

If the Lord is leading you to give, follow this link to our giving options:
http://thewallscall.blogspot.com/p/other-giving-options.html

Prayer Requests:

- We've got some solid student-leaders returning which is an answered prayer. Pray that God would protect our student-leaders this year spiritually and keep them from burnout.

- The school has a very small amount of Christian professors on campus. Pray that the college would hire believing professors who would be bold about sharing their faith with their students.

- As the semester gets busier, it's easy to neglect important things. We get so focused on ministry that we lose track of the things that help keep us going. We lose track of taking care of ourselves. Pray we have energy and get good sleep throughout the busy semester.

- Though our adoption is moving forward, it's moving slowly. We are thankful to be matched and know our file is being looked at, but we're now waiting for first approval. With other adoption programs having been created within our international agency, our program has ground to a near standstill. They seem to be, for the most part, only granting first approvals to the other program now. Pray that God would protect us from getting discouraged and help us stay positive during this waiting process.

- With as many things as the ministry does, it's easy to take on way too much and get burnt out. This is especially true in the first month or two. By the end of September, we just sort of expect it. We have to remind ourselves that we can't do all of the things we used to do when we had a staff of eight. Pray that we would be good stewards with our time, and have the wisdom and discernment to slow down a bit when needed so that we don't fall into burnout.

- Throughout the year, the semester can wear on us, and it can be easy to find ourselves discouraged at times. It happens in just about any ministry at one point or another. Pray that God would keep us encouraged throughout the year.

- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us and our student-leaders that God would protect us this year from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength and encouragement to endure. Also pray for everyone praying for our ministry because when you pray for the ministry, you become a bigger target as well.

- Atheism is a big belief system at FLC. On any given year, about half of the students we work with are atheists or non-believers. Pray that God would open doors for the Gospel to be received and understood. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be working on the hearts and minds of the students we meet.

- Over the years, our staff has had a lot of health issues that can really be a discouragement. Our most successful years have been when we have good health. Pray that God would keep us safe and healthy.

- Since Josh and Jen stepped away, we've been looking and praying for new staff and volunteers. This becomes more and more important as our possible travel for the adoption comes closer. Sadly, we really haven't had any success. That could change quickly, though, as we have a couple we've been interviewing over the past month or two. They're currently in Durango visiting and praying about if this is where God wants them. It would be great to have them, but they are also interviewing with a local church for a youth pastor position which is fully funded. So we'll see where God leads them. Our prayer for this couple is that God gets them to where He wants them, wherever that may be. Pray also that God would give us wisdom to find new staff and volunteers, whether it's this couple or someone else.

- Pray that ministries on campus would be team players and work with each other to reach the campus for Christ. When ministries bulldoze other ministries on a small campus, it causes rifting and division which can hinder a campus from being reached effectively. Pray that the different ministries on campus would guard against that.

- We've got some students who are working thru some pretty heavy things lately. Unfortunately, I can't really go into details but God knows. Pray that God would be working thru each individual situation and drawing the students closer to Jesus thru all of it.

- Lord willing, we are hoping to share at some new churches and small groups in the near future. If you know of a church or small group that might be interested in having us share, please let us know. We trust God to provide but would appreciate you praying as well that funding needs would be met. If you would like to give to support the ministry happening at Fort Lewis or our adoption, please click the following: Give Now.

Christian Challenge April Update!

Greetings! We hope all of you are well! The school year is flying by! Spring break has come and gone. So has Easter. The end of the school year will be here before we know it.

We've got some big news but first, I'll give a quick update on how the ministry is going.

Our conference in Colorado Springs over Christmas break was great. We had around 300 students there. It was awesome for them to hear from Nik Ripken, author of Insanity of God and Insanity of Obedience.

He spoke on living a resurrected life amongst crucifixion. Basically, how do you live for the Gospel in a world that will bring persecution against Christians? And is Jesus worth it to live the Gospel under persecution?

In American Christianity, many often live a somewhat sheltered life when it comes to what Christians are enduring in the rest of the world. It was very eye-opening and challenging for our students to hear personal stories from Nik about his time working with persecuted Christians in closed countries.

Upon returning to Durango, Rachel and I both came down with Omicron. Rachel was mostly over it in 48 hours. I got it a little worse with a 104 degree fever that eventually came down but hovered around 101-102 for about five days. Then there was just a lot of coughing over the next week or two.

Thankfully, Fort Lewis pushed the start of the semester back a week at the last minute. It was perfect timing. I healed up just in time to get back on campus.

The semester thus far has gone really well. Our numbers are a little smaller than last semester but that tends to happen in the spring. The students we have coming and the students we meet with weekly are very committed.

One of the students I've been meeting with is Joseph. He's one of our leaders and has really stepped up this year. He's been a huge help. We're currently going thru James at the moment. As a senior, he's praying about what God wants for his future. He will graduate with a degree in education. We've offered him a spot on our staff but it sounds like he may go the teaching route at this point. He's open to volunteering with us if he stays in the area, though.

Andy is another of our students who is graduating. Aleksandr has been meeting with him. Andy's been one of our most consistent over the years and we, as a ministry, even got to baptize him last year. We'll be sad to see him go, but we're excited to see where God takes him after college. 

Despite us losing some really committed students to graduation, God has provided us with new students who are already stepping up. Amanda is one such student Jen met with last semester. Due to her job, we unfortunately didn't see much of Amanda last semester at our group events.

This semester, Amanda worked it out so that she wasn't working the nights when we do things. She's been great at inviting new people. She's also taken over our social media which was sorely needed. It's been a struggle to keep those things updated since students migrated away from Facebook into other apps. When I asked her if she really wanted to do it, she replied, "I'm a yearbook kid. I love this stuff!" It's awesome to have her help, and I'm excited to see how God is going to use her in the ministry going forward!

Speaking of students, we had some former ones come in town to help out at our retreat. William and Chelsea were able to share with our current students about the importance discipleship has had in their lives and what that looks like now that they're in the work world.

We're very thankful for how God continues to work in William and Chelsea's lives!

In other news, we just had spring break recently. It's become a Challenge tradition to take students on a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico during the break. This year, Aleksandr took five of our students down there. Colorado Mesa University Challenge and San Juan College Challenge joined them on the mission trip bringing their own students. In total, they had 16 people on the team including our former students, Randi who is the director of Challenge at SJC and Rachel who is on staff with Challenge at CMU.

The team worked at a school in Juarez helping it rebuild after a recent fire. The school is run by missionaries and provides free eduction for the kids in the area. Having such a big team, they made a lot of progress and even got to share the Gospel with the local students!

By all accounts, it was a great trip and some of our students are even praying about serving down there after they graduate.

While Aleksandr was with students in Mexico, Rachel and I were back in Colorado speaking at churches. We were able to report on what God is doing on campus. We had such a great time sharing and getting to meet new people. It was a blessing and an encouragement!

Now, onto some more exciting news. Most of you know Rachel and I have been in the adoption process for over two and a half years patiently (or sometimes maybe impatiently) waiting for God's timing to be matched. Well, we were finally matched! Our boy is almost eighteen months old.

Though it could be sooner, we're most likely looking at another year and a half before we can pick him up from Thailand. Compared to the time we've already been waiting, it feels like a year and a half is going to fly by, especially with us staying busy filling out grants to cover the last bit of funding we'll need for travel. We praise God for our boy and that He has provided funding to cover both of the agencies we're working with!

Overall, we're excited for what God is doing in our lives and on campus! He has been very good to us. Despite Christmas break bouts with COVID and a torn tricep during my hockey season, we're in fairly good health.

The ministry is going well. We've got a lot of great folks who love us, and support us and the ministry. We feel very blessed!

We appreciate each one of you, and the part you play in our lives and in reaching college students with the Good News of Christ! Because of you, many have heard for the first time. Many have come into the Kingdom. Many have gotten serious about their faith. Many have been supported in their faith journey. We are so thankful for all of that!

If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or our adoption, please go to: Give Now.

God Bless,
Mike and Rachel

Prayer Requests:

- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders. They have really stepped up this school year, and we hope to keep that momentum going forward.

-As students finish up their last projects and take their finals, it can be a stressful and time-consuming part of the year. Unfortunately, time spent growing in their faith can wane. Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith as they head into summer break.

- Unfortunately, the Peru mission trip has once again been pushed back due to COVID restrictions down there. It's now planned to occur in October possibly. In becoming the Challenge director, it's going to be extremely difficult to make the trip happen for us. Rachel and I getting matched in our adoption earlier than we were expecting also makes things tricky as, though unlikely, we could need to be traveling to Thailand to pick up our boy by then. So for now, it looks like we'll be needing to hold off on any international mission trips. We leave the door open for God to surprise us but we'd need some pretty clear leading on that if an opportunity were to arise and work schedule-wise. Pray for the friends we've worked with in Peru over the years that God would provide for them thru the drastic lockdowns they have seen, and that God would use them to be lights to their communities in any way they can be despite restrictions.

- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us and our team that God would protect us from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength and encouragement to endure. Also pray for everyone praying for our ministry because when you pray for the ministry, you become a bigger target as well.

- In the past, our staff has had a lot of health issues that can really be a discouragement in trying to do ministry. It's hard to do ministry when your health isn't well. Thankfully, COVID hit us at a good time while we were still on break. My tricep tear didn't keep me from playing guitar at our worship nights either...or playing hockey.

Miraculously, the Lord healed it up quickly in less than a month despite my arm being black and blue, and the tricep being visibly balled up near my armpit. Now, it's almost good as new, no surgery needed, and we praise God for that! Sometimes, illness and injuries are just going to happen but if we can avoid them, we'd prefer that. Pray that God would keep our us safe and healthy going forward.

- Over the years, my wife has continued to disciple Rikako, one of our former Japanese students, who is now back in Japan. They still video chat every week or two going over scripture together. Recently, Rikako filled out the paperwork to apply for a green card for America. The hope is that if she can get it, she can join us on staff and reach the Japanese foreign exchange students who come to campus. She will find out in May if she can continue the process of applying for the green card. It would be great to ask God for favor for Rikako with the American government but we also just want her to be wherever God can use her the most, whether in America or in Japan.

- Unfortunately, Aleksandr will be shifting out of his staff role at the end of this semester. With that, he'll have more time to focus on the church he is pastoring, have more time for his family, and be able to take more seminary classes online. Thankfully, he's still going to help out with our worship nights. But with him stepping away for the most part and Josh and Jen now in Oklahoma, we're pretty thin when it come to staff. It will just be Rachel and me. I've been brainstorming how to make the ministry work if Rachel and I end up needing to go to Thailand to pick up our boy during the school year. Thankfully, we have some time to figure that out. Rebuilding our staff would really help, though. Pray that God would provide us some new staff or volunteers that could step in to help us out with the ministry.

- For years, Challenge has done everything possible to preserve unity on campus between us and other ministries knowing that division opens the door for the enemy to attack and try to tear down what God is doing. Please pray that the ministries on campus would continue to have unity, being team players, with the common goal reaching FLC with the Gospel.

- Pray that Rachel and I would not neglect the ministry that is our marriage. We can be much more successful in our college ministry if our marriage is in a good place but it's easy to put that on the back burner when things get busy.

- Pray that God would give me wisdom to lead in a way that is fruitful for His kingdom.

- The adoption process is in full swing, and after being matched, we now see a light at the end of the tunnel. Please be praying that things would run smoothly. That God would provide the final funding for the adoption. That there would be no snags or surprises with the adoption process. Pray that God gives us favor throughout the process, and that God would already be working on our little boy's heart stirring a passion for Him.

- Pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. In the past, Josh and Jen have raised a big portion of our ministry budget. With me stepping into the director position, that's now going to be up to me to raise that budget. Rachel and I trust God to provide for our family and the ministry but we'd appreciate you praying as well that the funding needs would be met. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or the adoption, please go to: Give Now.

Christian Challenge Thanksgiving Update!

Greetings! We hope all of you are well! It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is almost here. Rachel, my mother, and I will be doing a quick trip up to Colorado Springs for a day or so to visit family.

This will be Rachel's second road trip in as many weeks. She just arrived home from leading a retreat in Amarillo, Texas with some college ladies from Lubbock.

The weekend was certainly out of her normal comfort zone. Of course, she has helped out with the retreats we do here, though, this was the first time everything was on her. She took care of the food, the activities, and the talks and discussions. By all accounts, it was a pretty amazing weekend and God was really working!

God has really been working on campus too! We've had a lot more freedom as a ministry. It actually feels like the administration wants us up there. I think that campus came to realize how important community and groups that build community are for the students after seeing how many students struggled last year with all of the strict COVID regulations that were community crushing.

This year, most of those regulations are gone. The biggest regs still in place are the requirement of masks inside buildings and mandatory vaccinations for students unless they have a religious exemption.

Beyond that, we've pretty much had complete freedom. I can meet students on campus. I can hangout on campus. We can host events on campus. It's been encouraging and really nice to get back to some form of normalcy.

We've been able to do Bible studies on campus. Our worship night has gone well averaging similar numbers to what we had last year during the first semester.

It's been great being able to host that in the Student Union for the first time.

We're also back to hosting family dinners in our homes with the students again.

We've had some great discussions led not only by staff but by our student-leaders as well. It's been great seeing them step up.

It was also great seeing one of our students get baptized. She is a freshman. We met her at the block party we hold on campus every fall to welcome the freshmen. She's gotten really involved with the group thru our outdoor events, worship nights, and family dinners.

She got baptized in our local river, literally named The River of Lost Souls, that flows thru town. It was encouraging seeing how stoked she was to make that public profession of faith and get baptized.

In other outdoor activities, our events have gone really well this semester. We have jumped waterfalls, done multiple hikes, swam in high mountain lakes, and even ziplined.

The ziplining was at our Western Slope Retreat. Colorado Mesa University's Challenge joined us at one of our local camps. We tapped into the giftings of our staffs to bring the messages, and Tyler Murphy came up from Texas to lead worship again.

It was also fun seeing two of our former leaders, Rachel Horton and Blythe Crow, who are now on staff with Challenge at CMU.

Speaking of former FLC Challenge folks, Lexi dropped in to say hi while she was visiting from Texas.

If you remember from past updates, Lexi came on two of our Climbing for Christ mission trips to Peru. It's always fun catching up with not only past students but past mission team members.

Now, it's time for a staff update as we've had some big changes in the lives of our staff.

I'll start off with Rikako who we have offered a staff position to if things work out with immigration. She pre-applied for her green card a couple of months ago. She should hear back in May if she is qualified to actually apply for the green card. The earliest she could be in the States is 2023.

While she waits, it sounds like God is opening the door for her to disciple a couple of ladies in Japan. One is from her work. Her co-worker overheard Rikako mention that she had gone to church. The co-worker is very interested and really wants to know more about Christianity. So they are going to start reading the Bible together.

The other woman she is going to start discipling is one of our former students. That student just moved to Rikako's city for work. She reached out to Rikako and asked if they could read the Bible together. It's so awesome seeing God work even years after we were able to plant seeds!

Closer to home, Aleksandr, Anna, and little Emryk are doing well. Aleksandr and Anna are enjoying adjusting to parenthood. Emryk may be a little confused as Josh refuses to call him that. Josh will only call him Sacha which he feels better ties the boy to his Serbian heritage on Aleksandr's side.

This semester has been another tough one for Josh. While still somewhat recovering from his past medical issues, he had a reoccurrence of mono which he originally had while he was in high school. He's been trying to do as much as he can ministry-wise during his last semester here in Durango but can only do so much.

Jen has been back and forth between Durango and Oklahoma this semester. She's juggling meeting with our college girls, getting things ready for her family's move, and making sure their house purchase in Oklahoma goes well. As of this week, they've both pretty much stepped away from the ministry to focus full-time on the move.

With that, I've been named director going forward. I'll be taking over those duties officially after Thanksgiving Break. Though I'm sad to see Josh and Jen go, after having been co-workers and friends for ten years, I'm excited to see what God is going to do thru them in Oklahoma. I'm also excited to see what God is going to do with the ministry here.

Personally, I don't see a lot of major changes to the way we do ministry going forward. What Josh and Jen established when they started things at Fort Lewis will always be part of the DNA of the ministry.

With me taking over as director, we will forgo the mission trip in December. Peru ended up getting pushed back to this coming summer due to COVID restrictions again. We were pretty bummed about that.

We had also talked about doing a mission trip in Eastern Europe if Peru fell thru, but COVID travel restrictions have made that tough to plan as well. In the end after praying about it, we figured it was probably better to stay in the States as I make the transition to director. With us not getting matched yet in our adoption, that allows us an opportunity to go to Peru if the trip happens this summer.

Concerning the adoption, we didn't get matched when we thought we would early in the fall. We were number five on the waitlist. Nobody in front of us got matched either so we are still number five. Three boys were in the match group. Being that we know three of the families in front of us are only open to being matched with a girl, it seemed likely that we were going to be matched. Unfortunately, the kids most likely had needs that medical facilities in Durango couldn't meet.

So we'll continue to wait on the Lord's timing. We've always prayed for not just any kid, but the right kid in the Lord's wisdom. Our next good chance of getting matched will come in the late spring. If matched, we'd be able to travel and pick them up a year or so after that.

Overall, though we've had to be patient, we're at a place where we have peace whatever happens. That's not to say we haven't done some grieving, but we're excited for where God has us. He has been good to us. We're in fairly good health. The ministry is going well. We've got a lot of great folks who love us, and support us and the ministry.

We appreciate each one of you, and the part you play in our lives and in reaching college students with the Good News of Christ! Because of you, many have heard for the first time. Many have come into the Kingdom. Many have gotten serious about their faith. Many have been supported in their journey. We are so thankful for all of that!

With the end of the year coming soon, would you prayerfully consider giving a one-time end of the year gift? It helps us continue on in this ministry and is tax-deductible. Or perhaps you are led to start giving monthly. Almost everything we have goes into this ministry. We pay the bills and daily living expenses, and the rest is invested back into the ministry. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis, please go to: Give Now.

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel

Prayer Requests:

- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders. They have really stepped up this semester, and we hope to keep that momentum going forward.

- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over the coming Christmas break. Going home can be hard on a student's faith. Many go home to families and friends that aren't always supportive of that faith. Sadly, the long break can often stunt a student's spiritual growth.

- As mentioned in the above update, our mission trip to Peru has been pushed back once again. If you remember, we were supposed to go there in July of 2020. Then it got pushed to October of 2020. And again, it was postponed to May of 2021, then July, no December. Well, no, maybe this summer. It's been frustrating to say the least, but it's out of our hands. Despite being one of the strictest countries in the world when it came to masks and lockdowns, they have some of the highest cases and deaths per capita. This has caused them to also have a lot of political turmoil which brings uncertainty to any future restrictions. All we can do is wait patiently and be ready to go if or when God opens that door. Pray that God would help Peru get COVID-19 under control and re-open the country. Pray that He would provide for our friends down there who haven't been able to work, and also allow us to have access to the areas we work in.

- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us and our team that God would protect us from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength and encouragement to endure. Also pray for everyone praying for our ministry because when you pray for the ministry, you become a bigger target as well.

- Over the years, our staff has had a lot of health issues that can really be a discouragement. Pray that God would keep our staff safe and healthy.

- With Josh and Jen transitioning to Oklahoma for Josh's health, pray that Josh could get to a much better place of health where he can get back to his passion of full-time ministry. Also be praying that their family's move and adjustment to Oklahoma is a smooth one.

- With Josh and Jen leaving, we are running very thin on full-time staff. Pray that God would provide us some new staff or volunteers that could step in to help us out with the ministry.

- For years, Challenge has done everything possible to preserve unity on campus between us and other ministries knowing that division opens the door for the enemy to attack and try to tear down what God is doing. Please pray that the ministries on campus would have unity, being team players, with the common goal reaching FLC with the Gospel.

- Pray that Rachel and I would not neglect the ministry that is our marriage. We can be much more successful in our college ministry if our marriage is in a good place but it's easy to put that on the back burner when things get busy.

- Pray that God would help us transition into our new roles with the ministry, and that God would give me wisdom to lead in a way that is fruitful for His kingdom.

- The adoption process is in full swing, though sometimes it feels like that swing is in slow motion. Please be praying that things would run smoothly. That God would provide the funding for the adoption. That there would be no snags or surprises with the adoption process. Pray that God gives us favor throughout the process, and that He gives us a kid who is a great fit for our family.

- Pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. In the past, Josh and Jen have raised a big portion of our ministry budget. With me stepping into the director position, that's now going to be up to me to raise that budget. Rachel and I trust God to provide for our family and the ministry but we'd appreciate you praying as well that the funding needs would be met. If you would like to give for the on-going ministry happening at Fort Lewis or the adoption, please go to: Give Now.