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.

Christian Challenge New Fall Update!

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

Things are exciting on our end! We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary! We really didn't plan our wedding date very well. The end of August is a poor time to celebrate your anniversary when you're in college ministry. We ended up breaking our celebration up into two parts. We hiked up our favorite mountain and watched the sunset.

A week later, I rushed off campus from our slacklining event to meet Rachel at one of our favorite restaurants.

All together, we had a great time celebrating our 10-year anniversary!

We also had another visit from one of our former students! We always love it when former students come and visit us! It's a blessing and an encouragement to be able to catch up and reconnect with them. It's great to see where God has taken them and where He is leading them.

This time, our former student, Lucas, stopped by with his new wife, Marli. Lucas is now doing seminary in Texas. His wife works in the environmental science field. We've invited them to come on staff with us after he graduates. They'd be a great addition but we'll see where the Lord leads them a year or two from now.

So I'm guessing you're probably wondering what's going on with the coming semester? What's going on with COVID?

Well, at the moment, there is some good news. Campus is trying to get back to normal as much as possible. As what I suspected might happen, campus has the biggest freshmen class ever this year. We have the normal freshmen coming in plus those who took last year off due to COVID. They're literally putting students up in local hotels for the year because they don't have enough beds on campus.

Students and staff are still required to wear masks when inside. Outside, they are free to unmask if they want to. Students and staff are also required to be vaccinated unless they have a religious exemption.

The biggest development, though, is that we have been welcomed back on campus! We can do outreach and evangelism! We can go back to meeting with students on campus out in the open. We can have family dinners with the students at staff houses once again. We can do the worship night on campus. We even were able to reserve a room I've had my eye on since we started the worship night. Campus has always said no to us using the room but this year they said yes. It's a great location on the main floor of the Student Union. It's all pretty exciting!

With all that news, there will be some changes. Josh and Jen will be transitioning out. They will be moving to Oklahoma in January. Jen is taking a position with the Christian Challenge at OU. Josh will be taking a sabbatical to try to get his health in a better spot. He's had a really hard year medically, even for him, and doctors are recommending he drop elevation. He was actually just in the ER the other night due to another possible stroke.

So where does that leave our staff? Josh and Jen will be more part-time as they get things ready for their move. I say part-time but part-time easily turns into full-time in ministry even if that's not the plan. We'll have to see what Josh can actually do after this last possible stroke. Rachel will be helping out where she can when not working on our adoption. Aleksandr, now being a pastor, will be part-time this semester. He and his wife, Anna, will also be full-time parents in the next day or two depending on when you read this. So they'll have their plates full. That leaves me as the only full-time guy on staff.

We basically have as small of a staff as we've ever had. And the school apparently has more students than it has ever had. I think God's going to keep us pretty busy this year. Thankfully, we've got some students that are stepping up. These are the two guys who had been really involved in our student-leadership during their time at FLC but stepped back last semester due to hardships and tragedies in their personal lives. Well, they're back with a renewed excitement for the ministry and sharing Jesus with their fellow students!

So with a smaller staff, we're having to change some things up. We'll still be focused on discipleship. We'll be back to doing family dinners once a week on Thursday nights. The worship night will still happen but we're having to cut that back to once a month, the first Tuesday night of every month. Unfortunately, we just don't have the staff to pull that off well every week. We can always re-evaluate if God provides us with some more people to help out. That said, we'll have student-led Bible studies on Tuesday nights when not doing the worship night.

In other news, our international students are back. There are eight Japanese and one from Thailand. With us adopting from Thailand, we are pretty excited to have a student from there. We're praying we connect well with her.

It's going to be a tough year connecting with the international students. In years past, the students we had worked with would go back to Japan and tell their friends who were coming to FLC to connect with us. Due to the COVID gap, we've got no connection with the incoming Japanese students. To them, we're just some random friendly people to go along with all the other friendly people they are meeting. We're praying that God would open a door for us to connect with them.

By the time you read this, we'll probably be in our second week of classes. It's been a good semester so far. We were able to table not just one day but two days during the first couple of days freshmen were on campus. We got to meet a lot of students thru that. We met even more slacklining one of the nights after tabling.

And even more students at our annual block party in the middle of the freshmen dorms.

Many of them have showed up at other events we have done like family dinner, the worship night, and our night hike which included milkshakes at Denny's afterwards.

They also showed up for our coffee crawl where we take freshmen from coffee shop to coffee shop in town allowing them to sample the coffee at each shop and find their favorite.

We've got more events planned this September. Here are some of the big things:

Waterfall Jumping or tubing the river- Sept. 11th
Day Hike- Sept. 18th
Western Slope Retreat- Sept. 24th-26th

So that's the plan thru September but campus could always throw us a curveball if students start testing positive for COVID. It wouldn't surprise me to see campus clamp down again on student activities as we head into late fall and winter. We hope that doesn't happen but if it does, Lord willing, we'll already have a lot of contacts and students we can disciple online.

We just pray it's a fruitful year. In the past, we've had fruitful years with low numbers and fruitful years with high numbers. One of our most fruitful years was when we only had two students returning. Those two students were Aleksandr and Rachel Horton who eventually joined staff with us. So whatever happens, God is faithful! We're excited to see what He is going to do!

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. And we probably need prayer more than ever with COVID and our staff changes.

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.

If you're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, and up for an extra challenge, post the time, date and hashtag it #Praying4FLC and #Challenge4Challenge every time you pray for the ministry. This will remind our staff and students that we've got people praying for us when we get on social media. And hey, maybe it gets others who see it to pray for FLC as well. If you're not into the social media thing, no worries but still be praying.

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. I can only think of two or three left. Pray that campus 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 things big and small. 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, especially with COVID. We are 5th on the waitlist to be matched. That means we could be matched with our child within a month. If we don't get matched this month, it could be quite a long wait for our next chance. Even after getting matched, we will then proceed to the end of a line that puts around sixty families in front of us for the next step in the process. Pray that God would protect us from getting discouraged during this waiting process, and that He would connect us with the right kid in His timing.

- 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. By the end of September, we just sort of expect it. Pray that we would be good stewards with our time so that we don't fall into burnout.

- Throughout the year, the semester can wear on you, and it can be easy to find yourself discouraged at times. It happens in just about any ministry at one point or another. Pray that God would keep us and our staff 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 team 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 our staff safe and healthy.

- Pray that our team would adjust well to our staff transitions. We are looking to possibly bring new staff on if the right people emerge. Pray that God would give us wisdom on finding replacements to fill empty roles.

- 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 have an update on our former student, Rikako, who is hoping to join our staff. We have looked at all options and the most hopeful would seem to be the green card route. She will be applying this fall and hopes to hear back not too long after. It's a lottery system so it's no guarantee but certainly something God can make happen in His timing. Pray that God would give her favor in getting her green card so that she can get back to Durango to join our team.

- Rachel will be leading a retreat for college ladies in Texas in November. Running the whole thing is a little out of her comfort zone. Pray that the Lord would help her plan and speak thru her while she is leading the retreat in Texas.

- With our mission trip to Peru being postponed again and again due to COVID, it may now actually happen. The plan is to head down there just after Thanksgiving. We've got it scheduled but we'll find out at the end of September if it's actually going to happen. That's when Climbing for Christ will make the final call. Pray that Peru would open up more and more so that we can get down there and do ministry. If Peru falls thru, we are looking into possibly putting together a mission trip to Eastern Europe, where Rachel grew up, over the Christmas break. Parts of Eastern Europe have been a lot more open throughout everything so there may be less possibility of future closures. If Peru shuts back down, pray that we would have wisdom in planning an Eastern European mission trip.

- COVID unknowns have made support raising a little tricky. Lord willing, we are hoping to share at some churches 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 June Update!

I hope the start of summer is treating everyone well! At least in Durango, we're finally starting to get back to normal. And that's a very welcome change.

We are just getting back from Redstone, CO where I was able to preach at a church up there. It was a great time. It was nice to catch up with a church that has been faithful in supporting us since our early years with Challenge.

It's been an interesting start to the summer for us. Just before heading up to Redstone, we had a mountain lion in the neighborhood going after pets. It killed one cat and almost got another. I had to confront it and chase it off after it pinned down our neighbor's cat.

Rachel and I ended up spending the night searching for our cat who was outside when the attack happened. We also tried to find the cat who had been attacked. Both cats are alive, thankfully, but our neighbor's cat is missing a lot of fur and was pretty spooked by the near-death experience. Our cat is just unhappy that she can't go outside at night anymore.

After speaking in Redstone, we returned to a forest fire not far from our house. Thankfully, it looks like our firefighters have gotten it under control for the most part.

We're just praying we get some higher humidities, cooler temperatures, and that the winds stay calm. Rain would be nice too. Certainly never a dull moment around these parts.

Looking back over the past semester, it's been probably one of the toughest of my almost twenty years in college ministry. COVID has taken its toll on the ministry and on campus. We had a lot of momentum going into Christmas, and that all sort of ground to a halt when it was time to return.

Student numbers on campus hovered around 2,000 students second semester. When I was a student years ago, we had about 4,000 students at the college. It really felt like a summer semester with how quiet campus was. There were students around but many just stayed in their dorms almost like they had given up on any hope of having a normal social life due to restrictions. Campus also took away spring break due to COVID which didn't seem to help morale.

It's been tough on our students. Some didn't even come back to campus. Some went back home mid-semester. Our students who came back and stayed dealt with a lot. From relationship breakups to a parent nearly dying of a heart attack to even a parent dying of COVID. Some of our most dedicated students had really hard semesters.

Despite all of that, thankfully, the guys I disciple stayed pretty consistent. Though unable to meet on campus anymore due to COVID, we were able to meet one on one weekly at one of the local churches near campus.

Staff-wise, we struggled to keep our staff healthy. Josh was life-flighted and in the ICU up in the Denver area. Jen joined him up there. When they eventually returned, their boys got COVID and passed it on to Aleksandr and Anna who they had been staying with. That brought on a long quarantine. It seemed like we were running a patchwork crew of staff a good part of the semester. We finally started catching a rhythm just in time for the semester to come to an end.

This was a semester of just trying to be flexible. With the health issues, there were events we had to move or push back, and worship nights we had to move online at times. And even when our worship nights were in person, we also put them online. That allowed any students who didn't come back this past semester or ones who had to stay home due to illness to still stay connected and tune in. Though our in-person numbers dropped second semester, they actually stayed pretty consistent if you include those who viewed the nights online.

Towards the end of the semester, we were able to hold an alumni family dinner. It was a mix of new and old students. It was a great time having our former students there and having them be able to connect with our current students. It also gave a nice bump to our numbers that night which I think was really encouraging for our staff.

As for our events, the ones we had went well. We had a retreat where Randi, our former student and staff member, brought her Christian Challenge group from San Juan College in New Mexico up to join us. Our Super Bowl party that we held at our house was pretty successful as well. Though the outcome of the game was very questionable if you ask this Chiefs fan.

We also held our annual Easter Eve snowshoeing service up at a frozen lake in the mountains. The journey was probably in the toughest conditions we've ever done the event in.

There was a three inch crust on the top of the snow. Underneath, the snow was the equivalency of quicksand. Almost every step was breaking thru the crust into the snowy quicksand. As I broke trail for the group, I at one point sunk chest-deep in the snow.

Instead of us reaching the lake in the normal forty-five minutes, it took us an hour and a half due to the conditions. Thankfully, we had a very small group this year of hardy people who could just laugh off the terrible snow conditions.

Once we finally arrived at the lake, we built a campfire, cooked cheese brats over the fire, and roasted peeps to use for our s'mores.

As we finished up our delicious food, I shared an Easter message with everyone.

By the time we packed everything up, the temperatures had dropped and the snowpack had started to refreeze making the journey back to our vehicle much easier.

All in all, our Easter Eve adventure was a great picture of the semester as a whole. Small numbers, really tough, but really good. This whole past year feels like a lost year in a lot of ways but ministry-wise, I don't think it was a lost year at all. We got to walk thru a lot of hard times with students. We were faithful with the students God gave us, and we were able to pour the Gospel into those students.

After the semester ended, part of our staff headed to Nashville for a collegiate ministry conference.

Unfortunately, Josh could not join us due to health issues and Aleksandr had preaching obligations at his church. Our staff that was able to go joined staff from all over Colorado. Our state director, Bobby, decided to combine our state meetings with the conference.

It was really a great time of recharge and refreshment. I'm always encouraged getting to connect with other college ministry staff.

At our meetings, Bobby also announced his retirement. He's got two kids with special needs that are requiring more of his time at home. He's leaving the state collegiate ministry in good hands, though, with Kent and Derek, who have been directors in Colorado Challenge for years, in place to co-lead the state.

Another thing that came about thru the conference was getting to network. With us adopting, our Climbing for Christ mission trips may not be realistic for our family to do together. Young kids don't tend to do well backpacking ten miles a day above 14,000 feet in elevation. We may have to wait until the kid is older to get back into that kind of mission trip.

With that, we've been exploring other opportunities for summer missions that not only could our family serve together doing but also provide opportunities for our students to serve. At the conference, I was able to connect with some guys who may be able to open some doors in the future. I was pretty excited to make those connections.

After returning from the conference, it was time for our local staff retreat. We were able to plan out the semester and get some good time of fellowship. The college plans on being back to normal next semester as much as possible. So we're planning the same. We'll have much more freedom to be back on campus and do more outreach and evangelism. Of course, things can always change but we're hopeful...and flexible if need be.

When you do ministry for almost two decades, you meet a lot of people. They graduate and move on from Durango. We're always excited when they come back to town and visit us. These past few months, we've had many come back which is always fun when you get to catch up on life.

As things open back up, we're also hopeful that we can soon have Rikako, our former Japanese student my wife discipled, join us on staff. Now, there are a lot of things that have to fall in place to make a visa work for her but we've worked out a plan that just might work, Lord willing. Basically, the ministry is hoping to raise a salary for her. Eventually as she makes more connections in the States, the hope is that she'll take over support raising for herself. But for the initial visa, showing an offered salary will hopefully go a long way to getting the okay from the government.

On a personal note, we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary this summer. It actually falls at the end of August but that's not exactly the most convenient time to celebrate an anniversary when you're in college ministry. So we're going to try to celebrate it a few weeks before things get crazy with the semester. We're just trying to figure out someplace special to go for it. Anyone have a place in Hawaii we could stay at? I'm joking...unless you do have a place in Hawaii.

All joking aside, we appreciate each one of you, 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. And many have been supported in their journey. We are so thankful for all of that!

Thank you for all the support and encouragement you give! 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, please follow this link to our giving options:
http://thewallscall.blogspot.com/p/other-giving-options.html

Prayer Requests:

- Pray that God would continue to grow our student-leaders over the summer and bring us new ones as well. We would love to be able to hit the ground running next fall with campus fairly back to normal. We'll need our student-leaders to help us make that happen.

- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over the summer. Summer can be a hard time for the students. Many are going home to hard situations that aren't supportive of their faith journey. It can be a struggle without the community they find in Challenge.

- Due to COVID, the Peru mission trip has tentatively been pushed back to just after Thanksgiving. We are hoping that we don't have to push it back again. Pray that God would help Peru get COVID-19 under control and re-open the country. Pray that He would give their government leadership and doctors wisdom on how best to fight COVID. 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. For instance, Josh recently ended up in the hospital with another seizure or stroke. This was just in the last week or two. Pray that God would heal up our staff, and keep us 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.

- Pray that God would bring us more staff. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot more students this coming school year with things getting back to normal. It would be nice to have an extra male and female staff member to help out.

- 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 of 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. We are finally seeing movement at the moment. Right now as I write this, we are #11 on the waitlist to be matched. That means we could be matched by December. 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. With things getting 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 final 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.

Christian Challenge February Update!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! We're in some strange times these days but God is definitely still working.

We wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going and our semester plans. The name of the game this semester is flexibility.

This semester is looking a lot like this past semester. Students are on campus with a lot of regulations. Sadly, many students who were on campus last semester didn't return, including many in our ministry. They are putting their studies on pause and waiting for this COVID storm to pass.

Our plan is to run the ministry like this past semester, and if we need to go online, we’ll do that. We've actually already had to have a worship night fully online. This semester, we're better prepared for that. I've upgraded some of my musical equipment in order to boost sound quality during our online worship. Students are actually able to hear my voice while leading worship, not just my guitar drowning everything else out.

When we meet in person for our dinner and worship nights, we're now broadcasting on Facebook Live. This allows for our students who didn't come back this semester to still attend and be part of the community from their homes. This also allows students, who might be sick or quarantined, to watch from the comfort of their dorm rooms while they recover.

Of course, we're also still meeting one-on-one with students. With the weather colder and snowier, it's a lot harder to find places outside on campus to meet. Thankfully, we at least have coffee shops and some restaurants somewhat open to meet in. And there is always online meetings if needed. Again, we just have to be flexible.

We've planned some outdoor events as well this semester. We've got trips to the hot springs, sledding trips, and snowshoeing trips planned. We've got a retreat coming up also. With most of the events, we'll play it by ear. Health-wise, there are just a lot of unknowns. That's keeping us on our toes.

At the moment, we're basically working with a skeleton crew with our staff. I'm sort of the last man standing at this point...and I've been dealing with some pinched nerves in my neck, shoulders, and back which have been fairly painful since just after Christmas. (I've been to the chiropractor multiple times which brings temporary relief but at $50 a visit, that's just not realistic to do daily or every other day.) Sadly, my locked up vertebrae are the least of our staff issues at the moment.

Over break while Josh and Jen were visiting family in Oklahoma, Josh had an aneurysm in his nose. For days, they couldn't stop it. Being on blood thinners for his heart and stroke issues certainly didn't help. They tried cauterizing it. That didn't work. Then they tried to clamp it. That worked for a bit, at least long enough for him to get back to Durango...where it started bleeding again. With that, they life-flighted him and Jen up to Denver where he spent days in the ICU. After many blood transfusions and a lot of work done by some specialists, he should be okay. They were able to make it back to Durango.

While they were gone, their two teenage boys stayed with Aleksandr and Anna. Not long into their stay, the boys and Anna started feeling a little sick. Not wanting to take any chances, Aleksandr took them all to get tested for COVID. All but Aleksandr tested positive and the health worker thought Aleksandr's was a false negative.

Anyway, so now that Josh and Jen are back in town, their kids have to quarantine with Aleksandr and Anna for ten days or so. Asher, Josh and Jen's youngest, said, "It's like you guys are getting a thirty-day free trial having teenagers." And here, Aleksandr and Anna thought they were going to have to nine months to prepare for their new baby on the way. Surprise, you're having two teenagers...right now! Oh yeah, and surprise! Aleksandr and Anna are pregnant! So that's pretty awesome!

Needless to say, things have been a little crazy here to start the semester. I'm holding down the fort till everyone is back healthy. Then again, Rachel and I were in close contact with Aleksandr and the boys just before they all were tested so we'll see how that turns out. We're feeling good, though. Thankfully, I had COVID last year. Rachel would have been exposed to it then as well. Hopefully, that T-cell immunity is still holding strong from the beginning of last year.

In almost twenty years of ministry at Fort Lewis, this is certainly one of the toughest starts to the semester I've seen. We felt like we had a lot of momentum with the ministry last semester. This semester so far has been different. From the health issues to many of our students taking the semester off to how locked down campus is when it comes to outreach and evangelism, it's been much more difficult.

It's like our whole leadership team, from staff down to our students, is getting hit right now. And it's not just our ministry. These are just tough times for people in general.

I'm often reminded, though, that we rarely see real growth and strengthening in times of comfort. Where we see the most growth, the most strengthening are when we're uncomfortable. Just like muscles need to be stressed to grow back stronger, we often need to be taken out of our comfort zones to see growth. Sometimes, it's hard to see God working thru these tough times but He certainly is. We can trust that. I'm excited to see the growth that's going to come out of all of this. I'm praying for God to do big things and hope you guys are too.

We appreciate each one of you, 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!

Thank you for all the support and encouragement you give! 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, please follow this link to our giving options:
http://thewallscall.blogspot.com/p/other-giving-options.html

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. With the hard situations many of our students are facing, we don't want them to pull back from Jesus or our community.

- We are still hoping to be on mission in Peru in June or July. 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." That's what I wrote in our last update. Well, things did change pretty quickly. Pray that God would heal up our staff and keep us 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. The are no new updates as of this moment. We are still waiting to be matched and trying to be patient with COVID delays. 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.