We'll actually have two more updates come out before our Peru mission trip starting the 13th of July. One will be on our support raising trip which included a tornado nearly touching down on us while we were camping. That update will be posted exclusively to our blog. The update on Peru will be posted to our blog and sent out through email. We just don't want to bombard you with too many emails at once.
Onto the update of the semester. What a great semester it was! I'd say it was one of our most successful yet! Obviously, we credit that all to God. There were a lot of answered prayers.
One of those answered prayers was having a healthy staff. Another answered prayer was having a really solid group of students. By the end of the semester, our students had begun discipling other students. It was awesome to see. I really think a great foundation was laid over the past two semesters that will impact the campus for years to come. It's really exciting for us.
Another exciting thing has been the door God has opened for us to reach out and minister to the LGBT club on campus. Their former president accepted Christ this past year and just recently got baptized! Praise God!
It's been such an exciting and blessed year for the ministry. By the end of the year, we had around forty people at our end of the year barbeque. God has brought the ministry a long way from back in August when we thought we might have two students returning. Sadly, we'll end up losing about half of the students by next year. It's expected when a big part of the ministry is working with international students who we only have for two semesters. And then there are our students who are graduating that will move on as well. It's sad for us but we're excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of our former students going forward.
As we wrapped up the barbeque, we got everyone together and had those who will be returning pray for those who are moving on from Fort Lewis and Durango. It was a special time and one of my favorite of the semester being able to pray for them.
Speaking of favorite times, another big highlight was our annual Easter Eve snowshoeing trip. This is where we snowshoe up to one of the high mountain frozen lakes in the area, have a campfire, eat peep s'mores, and have a church service out there under the stars.
I remember leading up to the trip, I was really trying to figure out what God wanted me to share that night. I started in one direction, then went another direction. Then ended up scrapping everything and went in an entirely new direction after listening to a sermon a day before that sparked an idea. Still, when I preach, I like to give background on how I got to a topic. So as everyone sat around the campfire, I gave a brief overview of the two topics I was going to preach on and then went on to talk about Peter and his interactions with Jesus from walking on water to the crucifixion to sitting around a campfire with Jesus.
Afterwards, we had a discussion about what I had preached. I asked for things that stood out, things they could relate with, maybe things they didn't quite understand. One of our Japanese students asked if I could expand a bit or explain a bit more one of the topics I had just given an overview on. The general idea was something God had been showing me over the past year. When you truly seek Jesus and His will for your life, God will get you to where He wants you. I feel like for so many Christians, that is such a big worry when it doesn't need to be if we truly seek Him. If Jonah ran away and God still eventually got him to where God wanted him, wouldn't God guide, even more so, someone who truly desires to be where God wants them?
I shared about my experience in Peru last year on that mission trip. How God split the team up unexpectedly into two groups, one who went deeper in the mountains to minister and one who went back into the villages to minister. In that, He moved each team member to where He wanted them, where He could use them. I shared with the students that through that, we met people in our paths, encouraged them, distributed Bibles, and saw people put their trust in Christ...people that we would have never met had God not steered our steps.
After sharing all of that, we packed up and started snowshoeing back to our vehicles. As we got close to the vehicles, I began talking with one of our Japanese students. He said that he had a great time that night. When I asked what was his favorite part or what stood out? He said that he really liked what I had to say about Peru and what happened there. I'll be honest, that wasn't exactly what I expected to hear. It was so encouraging and exciting. It was awesome to hear that had impacted him. I pray that he could take that seed with him back home, that it would grow and continue to impact him.
I'm so thankful that God has called us work with college students and walk with them on their journey. We are blessed to work with the great students God brings us. We are also blessed to have people behind this ministry who faithfully give their time in prayer and give financially to make it happen. You're part of the team making an impact in the lives of students at FLC. So a huge thank you for getting behind us and what God is doing at Fort Lewis! It is appreciated greatly!
Check out our ministry video from this past year and hear from our students what Challenge means to them! See how God is using Christian Challenge to impact the campus of Fort Lewis! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoqVqPPoRa4&sns=fb
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:
Pray for all of our students working at camps and going on mission trips this summer. Pray that God would grow them through their experiences and that they would be fruitful for the Kingdom. Check out this article in the Durango Herald on one of our students and the ministry she created to rescue children out of sex slavery in Africa: http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20150412/COLUMNISTS04/150419881
Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to grow our students in their faith and that they'd stay strong in it throughout the summer.
Pray that God would continue to reveal Himself to the students who have not yet put their trust in Him.
Rachel and Mike-
Praise that my nasal surgery went okay. It was more annoying than painful in the recovery process but I can now breathe through my nose at night which allows me to actually sleep. Being able to sleep is pretty nice.
Pray for our house. It's got issues. If you've been reading our updates, you know this. We make due but appreciate the prayers concerning it.
Pray that God would open doors for us support raising and that our efforts would be fruitful. We have lost some support this past year and really need to make that up.
Pray that our marriage would stay strong, keeping God always at the center of it.
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