Christian Challenge April Update!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Spring!

We are still finding ourselves with 3-4 feet of snow piled up outside our front door but are thankful God has provided just what our area has desperately needed.

There are three weeks left in the semester at this point, and we thought we would check in. We wanted you to share in our joy of answered prayers from the last letter and thank you for praying!

Victoria came to faith in Jesus! This is so exciting. She has been hanging out with us for the past three year taking it all in. She has seen and heard about Jesus and who He is in many of our lives. I love how God uses the body of Christ to minister in different ways for someone to get a fuller picture of who He is and ultimately to draw that person to Himself.

Days after sending the last letter, a connection was made with Rikako and Jenny, a Christian Challenge graduate from Grand Junction who is living in Japan as a missionary right now. The craziest part is that they had met years ago at our January Life Impact Conference at Glen Eyrie where 300 college students from all over the state and country gather, back when Rikako was in the states. During this conference, they break students up into prayer groups for the week with students from multiple campuses. Jenny and Rikako were in the same prayer group! You guys, this is not only an answer to prayer but it’s over and beyond! Japan has a lot of prefectures. Rikako lives twelve hours from Tokyo. Guess where Jenny is serving? In Rikako’s town! They have been meeting ever since and reading the Bible together. We are overjoyed with this news.

Another answered prayer is that the snowblower and camera sold to help pay off the past Peru mission trip and our taxes! God always takes care of us. The camera sold to a pastor up in Denver as a present for his wife and we were able to sell the snowblower to family in town. We were glad that we could help out our spiritual family and physical family. And it was nice to know that the snowblower was a big help to family with all the snow our area received this winter.

My Sabbatical is going well! I appreciate the love and support I have received from many of you. It means the world to me to know you all are praying and behind us in this season. I’m starting to slowly come out of burn out. I’m hearing the Lord. I am absolutely loving being at home. I find great joy in extended time with the Lord daily, planning/cooking healthy meals, cleaning the house, organizing, being creative, and finding my own rhythm. I actually have energy for date day adventures and connecting more intentionally with Mike. We have been able to do weekly dates and are just enjoying a more relaxed pace as we are not running in opposite directions, running on fumes.

These few months, God has been re-establishing my foundation; reminding, showing, teaching me, and anchoring me. I have sensed the shift has now come and I will be moving into the next phase, which is facing my losses and grieving, and walking through that with a counselor. The truth is that infertility is just part of a long line of significant loss throughout my life that’s been buried and unresolved. I am grateful for this beautiful gift of slowing down and hearing the Lord without deadlines or strict timelines. I have desired to live at a slower, more simpler pace, and this has given me that opportunity.

Mike has continued on campus and in January started up a Sunday night worship service. God has put this on his heart, and he’s faithfully stepped out to walk in it. I absolutely love and admire this about Mike. He hears the Lord and obeys, no matter how hard it can be and no matter the unknowns. He is doing a trial run before a full launch this coming fall. He has met new students and had opportunities to have deeper spiritual conversations. As you pray for Mike this week, send him a note of encouragement as a boost for the last 3 weeks of school. You can Facebook him, email him or send him snail mail.

In sad new unfortunately, our young and super sweet cat, Snowie, passed away. We believe that she contracted a fatal virus before we ever took her home from the shelter just under a year and a half ago. She was a great little ministry cat that our students loved...even those with bad cat allergies.

At the beginning of last month, we had spring break and a group of 10 headed off to Juarez, Mexico spending their break serving and loving at the James. R. Ganley Mission School. They spent their days building, loving the kids, and bringing encouragement and refreshment to the missionaries running it. I miss being able to partake.

After returning, one of our Japanese students who had been on the trip, Rinna, accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior! We are so excited! Her grandparents back in Japan are actually Christians and have been praying for her and planting seeds her whole life. We've been able to continue that after meeting her at the beginning of the year. She has been very interested in learning more about Jesus and the Bible during her time here. Turns out, when she returns to Japan, her college is mere blocks from a missionary we know there who is already discipling some of our past students. We're excited to see how God works in her life once she returns home!

This past weekend, we had our Christian Challenge Spring Getaway. It went really well. The focus was mental health from a Biblical perspective. We brought in Darrin Crow who runs Christian Challenge at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. He is also a professional counselor so he was able to tap into that background to share with our students. (If his last name sounds familiar to you, Darrin is also the father of one of our former students, Blythe, who is still running her ministry, She has a Name, in Africa to rescue women out of sex-slavery, and additionally now helping her dad lead Challenge in Junction.) Our students were able to take away a lot from the weekend.

Thank you for making all this possible and being part of God’s Kingdom advancement in the lives of college students. We don’t take for granted your sacrifice to entrust your resources to the Lord and His Kingdom.

We appreciate each one of you and the part you play 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 been supported in their journey. We are so thankful for that!

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

Cheers and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel

Prayer Requests:

- Praise God for the students we have seen come to salvation!Along with Rinna and Victoria coming to the Lord, we also had a third student come to the Lord recently. While our staff member, Ryan, was out starting up spiritual conversations with students around campus, he was able to share his faith with a student and that guy eventually accepted Jesus!

- Pray that God would continue to grow our current student-leaders and provide us with new ones to replace those graduating at the end of this year. It's so important to have student-leaders who buy in to what the ministry is doing.

- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith. On the surface, it wouldn't seem like Fort Lewis would be an easy place for that to happen but despite that, God is still working in our students lives.

- Pray that God would help us learn how to connect better with the new generation of students that are starting to arrive on campus. We are now seeing Generation Z show up and they are very different than students we have seen in the past. They are a generation that has grown up with technology. It influences how they ask questions, how they seek information, and how they interact with community.

- Praise God for a fruitful Life Impact Conference where our students were able to learn and grown in their faith!

- Pray for Rachel as she finishes up her sabbatical. Pray that she would find rest, healing, and growth in Christ as she finishes up her time away from the ministry.

- 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 the size of our staff, it's easy for personalities to bump into each other and rub each other the wrong way. Keep praying for our team that it would continue to mesh well.

- There are going to be a lot of changes in some of the ministries on campus. Some staff members are moving on and new ones are coming in. Please pray that despite the coming changes, the different ministries on campus would have unity, being team players, with the common goal reaching FLC with the Gospel.

- God seems to be narrowing down where He might want us with mission trips this summer. We plan on having a more finalized idea of that by our next update. Please be praying that God would give us wisdom and discernment as we listen for His plans for us this summer.

- 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.

- Praise God that our snowblower and camera sold! We're thankful that it helped us pay off the Peru trip.

- Pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. Rachel and I trust God to provide for us 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, please go to: Give Now.