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.
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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
- 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.
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