I hope everyone is having a great Advent and Christmas season! I know it’s been a tough year for many but we pray you all are still doing well.
Despite it being the year of COVID-19, we’ve had a great semester. Though we’ve been greatly restricted by campus, God is still working in the lives of our students.
It’s been tricky navigating what we can and can’t do. There’s been no hanging out in the Student Union to meet new students. There’s been very little visible outreach on campus. Many of the things we normally do to meet students were nixed. It feels a lot like doing ministry in a closed country.
A big focus this semester has been doing outdoor events. We’ve done night hikes...
Had camp and climbs...
Climbed fourteeners...
And jumped waterfalls.
Since we can do very little inside, we might as well use the amazing creation God has placed us in. It’s been an excellent, safe way to build relationships with our newer students.
We also had a great retreat with our students just outside of town at one of the local camps. Students from San Juan College Christian Challenge (ran by Randi, our former student/staff member) from New Mexico came up and joined us.
Again, with COVID-19, it made the weekend fairly tricky but we made it work. We brought in our former pastor, Jeff Dobesh, as speaker.
Our students seemed to get a lot out of the retreat.
We’ve combined our family dinners with our worship night. Campus didn’t want students meeting in homes. We instead met at a local church. That gave us a place to do dinner and worship with plenty of space to social distance. (We also kept track of the temperature of those attending our events and were set up to do contact tracing if the need arose. Thankfully, it did not.) Though we’ve had less students than we normally have at our dinners, we’ve had more than we normally have at our worship nights. Numbers-wise, it’s been pretty good despite the small number of students on campus this year.
Unfortunately, a big thing we’ve lost out on this semester are non-Christians. Most semesters, we run about 75% non-Christian. With our Japanese students not on campus this semester and us not running our normal family dinners, we’re probably only about 25% non-Christian.
Thankfully, with the bigger influx of Christian students, we’ve been able to get all but maybe one of our students discipled one-on-one. Of those students being discipled, one is a guy named Andy. When we first met him, he and his twin brother were pretty well known around campus. They'd dress exactly the same. Sadly, Andy’s brother eventually moved schools to continue his studies closer to home. Andy stuck around though and continued to be discipled. This semester, we were able to baptize him!
As is true to form for us when we baptize in our local river, it was a cold and windy afternoon. We always offer a warm indoors baptismal but most of them choose the river. They want to do it the old school way. I'm always impressed that the conditions don't scare our students off from wanting to get baptized outside... even if that means rain, snow, or wind.
Another student we disciple in the ministry is a guy named Kyle. I met him at a joint ministry Easter service that was held on campus years ago. He happened to be in my breakout group. After talking a bit, he asked if I’d disciple him. It’s been encouraging to see him grow. This semester, he began sharing his faith with a guy he bumped into around town. The guy was going thru some hard times and Kyle was able to walk with the guy thru them. We’re always stoked to see students step out and share their faith with others!
Many of you remember our former Japanese student, Rikako. We’ve been praying about her coming on staff with us when COVID-19 travel restrictions finally die down. We’ve also been praying quite a bit for her family. Well, after years of praying, she was finally able to sit down with her mother and explain the Gospel. Rikako’s mother is now interested in reading the Bible with her. It’s exciting to see God work thru Rikako to reach her family!
We’ve got some great news adoption-wise. We are now on the adoption matching wait-list! That means that we are now waiting for a match. That’s a big step forward getting on the list. A match could happen within six months to a year. We’d then be bringing our kid home a year out from that. In the mean time, we’re just trying to get all of the classes we have to take out of the way now as things slow down ministry-wise over the holidays.
I am also doing a training our Christian Challenge boss at the state level wanted our staff to take part in. It goes thru July. With all of these classes and trainings we’ve been doing, I feel like I’m back in college... as an actual student.
Many of you may be wondering what our college is doing this next semester. Well, so are we. It sounds like it will look a lot like this past semester. Students will be on campus with a lot of regulations. We’ll probably find out more by Christmas.
We plan on running things like this past semester and if we need to go online, we’ll do that. I’m thankful that we also do one-on-one discipleship because that’s easy to move online. Many ministries that don’t do that just have to shut down until students can do things in person again. But we make it work and have even done our worship nights online when needed…though something is certainly lost when you can’t meet in person. So we’re hoping and praying that we can do in-person meetings this next semester.
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 it being the end of year, would you prayerfully consider giving a one-time end of 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.
- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders. Being that we can't be on campus a whole lot as a staff, we've really had to rely on our student-leaders to invite other students. They've done a great job with that and have stepped up in other areas as well.
- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over our break. Many are going home to hard situations. This year, our ministry is about 95% Native American. A lot of those students went home to full lockdowns on their reservations. They can't even leave the house. As we've seen, that's not good for spiritual health or mental health.
- Our mission trip to Peru has been pushed back once again. If you remember, we were supposed to go there this past July. Then it got pushed to October. And again, it was postponed to May. Now we're hoping for June or July. It's all COVID-19 dependent. 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 including protests and multiple presidents stepping down within a week. Hopefully, the country getting a vaccine will help ease fears and calm the political turmoil so that the country can open up, and our team can get into the areas we need to get into. 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. At the moment, we're all pretty healthy but that can change quickly with COVID-19, working with college students, and having staff members that are high-risk. Pray that God would keep our staff safe and healthy.
- Even though our staff is much smaller than it used to be, 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.
- 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 different 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.
- The adoption process is in full swing. 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. COVID-19 has made that tricky with a lot of churches not meeting in person and the unpredictability of that. It's hard to plan trips and line up speaking opportunities with the uncertainty. But when things get back closer to normal, that will need to be a focus of ours. With us, Lord willing, adding another person to the family, we'll need to raise extra support to provide for the needs of the child. Immigration also needs to see that we can provide for the child before they give their stamp of approval. And though we have already raised a good chunk and done many fundraisers, we also have a ways to go in order to pay for 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.
Had camp and climbs...
Climbed fourteeners...
And jumped waterfalls.
Since we can do very little inside, we might as well use the amazing creation God has placed us in. It’s been an excellent, safe way to build relationships with our newer students.
We also had a great retreat with our students just outside of town at one of the local camps. Students from San Juan College Christian Challenge (ran by Randi, our former student/staff member) from New Mexico came up and joined us.
Again, with COVID-19, it made the weekend fairly tricky but we made it work. We brought in our former pastor, Jeff Dobesh, as speaker.
Our students seemed to get a lot out of the retreat.
We’ve combined our family dinners with our worship night. Campus didn’t want students meeting in homes. We instead met at a local church. That gave us a place to do dinner and worship with plenty of space to social distance. (We also kept track of the temperature of those attending our events and were set up to do contact tracing if the need arose. Thankfully, it did not.) Though we’ve had less students than we normally have at our dinners, we’ve had more than we normally have at our worship nights. Numbers-wise, it’s been pretty good despite the small number of students on campus this year.
Unfortunately, a big thing we’ve lost out on this semester are non-Christians. Most semesters, we run about 75% non-Christian. With our Japanese students not on campus this semester and us not running our normal family dinners, we’re probably only about 25% non-Christian.
Thankfully, with the bigger influx of Christian students, we’ve been able to get all but maybe one of our students discipled one-on-one. Of those students being discipled, one is a guy named Andy. When we first met him, he and his twin brother were pretty well known around campus. They'd dress exactly the same. Sadly, Andy’s brother eventually moved schools to continue his studies closer to home. Andy stuck around though and continued to be discipled. This semester, we were able to baptize him!
As is true to form for us when we baptize in our local river, it was a cold and windy afternoon. We always offer a warm indoors baptismal but most of them choose the river. They want to do it the old school way. I'm always impressed that the conditions don't scare our students off from wanting to get baptized outside... even if that means rain, snow, or wind.
Another student we disciple in the ministry is a guy named Kyle. I met him at a joint ministry Easter service that was held on campus years ago. He happened to be in my breakout group. After talking a bit, he asked if I’d disciple him. It’s been encouraging to see him grow. This semester, he began sharing his faith with a guy he bumped into around town. The guy was going thru some hard times and Kyle was able to walk with the guy thru them. We’re always stoked to see students step out and share their faith with others!
Many of you remember our former Japanese student, Rikako. We’ve been praying about her coming on staff with us when COVID-19 travel restrictions finally die down. We’ve also been praying quite a bit for her family. Well, after years of praying, she was finally able to sit down with her mother and explain the Gospel. Rikako’s mother is now interested in reading the Bible with her. It’s exciting to see God work thru Rikako to reach her family!
We’ve got some great news adoption-wise. We are now on the adoption matching wait-list! That means that we are now waiting for a match. That’s a big step forward getting on the list. A match could happen within six months to a year. We’d then be bringing our kid home a year out from that. In the mean time, we’re just trying to get all of the classes we have to take out of the way now as things slow down ministry-wise over the holidays.
I am also doing a training our Christian Challenge boss at the state level wanted our staff to take part in. It goes thru July. With all of these classes and trainings we’ve been doing, I feel like I’m back in college... as an actual student.
Many of you may be wondering what our college is doing this next semester. Well, so are we. It sounds like it will look a lot like this past semester. Students will be on campus with a lot of regulations. We’ll probably find out more by Christmas.
We plan on running things like this past semester and if we need to go online, we’ll do that. I’m thankful that we also do one-on-one discipleship because that’s easy to move online. Many ministries that don’t do that just have to shut down until students can do things in person again. But we make it work and have even done our worship nights online when needed…though something is certainly lost when you can’t meet in person. So we’re hoping and praying that we can do in-person meetings this next semester.
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 it being the end of year, would you prayerfully consider giving a one-time end of 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.
Merry Christmas and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel
Mike and Rachel
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders. Being that we can't be on campus a whole lot as a staff, we've really had to rely on our student-leaders to invite other students. They've done a great job with that and have stepped up in other areas as well.
- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over our break. Many are going home to hard situations. This year, our ministry is about 95% Native American. A lot of those students went home to full lockdowns on their reservations. They can't even leave the house. As we've seen, that's not good for spiritual health or mental health.
- Our mission trip to Peru has been pushed back once again. If you remember, we were supposed to go there this past July. Then it got pushed to October. And again, it was postponed to May. Now we're hoping for June or July. It's all COVID-19 dependent. 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 including protests and multiple presidents stepping down within a week. Hopefully, the country getting a vaccine will help ease fears and calm the political turmoil so that the country can open up, and our team can get into the areas we need to get into. 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. At the moment, we're all pretty healthy but that can change quickly with COVID-19, working with college students, and having staff members that are high-risk. Pray that God would keep our staff safe and healthy.
- Even though our staff is much smaller than it used to be, 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.
- 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 different 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.
- The adoption process is in full swing. 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. COVID-19 has made that tricky with a lot of churches not meeting in person and the unpredictability of that. It's hard to plan trips and line up speaking opportunities with the uncertainty. But when things get back closer to normal, that will need to be a focus of ours. With us, Lord willing, adding another person to the family, we'll need to raise extra support to provide for the needs of the child. Immigration also needs to see that we can provide for the child before they give their stamp of approval. And though we have already raised a good chunk and done many fundraisers, we also have a ways to go in order to pay for 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.
