Greetings and Merry Christmas! We hope all of you are well! It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here. The semester flew by. We're exhausted, but it's been a really good semester.
The last time I wrote, we were just heading into our Fall Western Slope Retreat. That went really well.
Christian Challenge students from the universities in Grand Junction and Gunnison made the drive down and joined us. We had my old high school buddy, Jimmy Arcisz, come out and share about the importance of discipleship and evangelism.
Speaking of discipleship, we've been able to continue discipling students, new and returning. We've got a really solid group this semester.
This past summer, the Lord connected us with a young lady from Colorado Springs. While my wife was there for a trip over the summer, she went over to visit her brother, sister-in-law, and our nieces, and nephews. While over there, our sister-in-law asked if it would be okay for her neighbor to stop by? Rachel said, "Of course." It turned out that the neighbor was going to be a freshman at Fort Lewis. They connected immediately. They now meet weekly for discipleship. This freshman has brought in many of her friends as well, and it's allowed us to build a really solid freshmen core.
I've been continuing to meet with some of our returning guys for discipleship. I've also met with a new student who has autism. He often leaves our family dinners thanking us for either helping him turn a bad day around or for what he is learning about Jesus and His disciples.
We met another young lady at our pizza party at the very beginning of the year. She mentioned that her boyfriend used to attend Challenge before leaving Fort Lewis and getting a job closer to home. Apparently, he has since become a believer in that time and encouraged her to get connected to Challenge. (It's awesome to hear that the Gospel seeds we were able to plant while her boyfriend was here have eventually produced fruit!)
Despite that encouragement, we didn't see her again for months. She, a pastor's daughter, wanted to try her own thing for awhile. All that time, though, she felt God telling her that she needed to get plugged into a good Christian community that would help her grow in her faith. With five weeks left in the semester, she finally decided to give us a chance. Since then, she has been pretty consistent in attending our family dinners and has shared how much it has helped her walk with Christ.
Speaking of family dinners, they have gone really well.
We've continued to grow in size throughout the semester. We've been doing our discussions around the Chosen Series. Our Christian students love it, and it stirs up a lot of good discussion with our non-Christian students as well. Before watching each episode, we read through the scriptures that are covered to get a good foundation of what the Bible actually says happened. After the episode, we dig deeper with group discussion questions.
I spent much time in prayer and wrestled a lot over the summer with what direction to go, topic-wise, for the coming year with Challenge. What I kept coming back to was the sentence, "Come and see." It was the title of a sermon I had listened to in the late spring. Then, later in the summer while Rachel and I were in Ireland hiking from village to village, I felt the Lord leading me to go with the Chosen Series.
It's no surprise, but it seems like the Lord knew what He was doing. He knew we'd have freshmen that love the series.
He knew it would allow our non-Christians students to see Jesus in a different light than how the mainstream media and Hollywood often portray Him. And it allows them to approach getting to know Jesus in a way that is similar to how the disciples did. They get to see Jesus' ministry in a way the disciples possibly saw it. They are invited to come and see.
And lastly, God knew we'd have a student on the spectrum start attending and really connect with the Matthew character, who the writers of the series also chose to have on the spectrum. All that said, it's really been cool to see God working at family dinner and thru the series!
With as well as family dinner has gone this semester, our worship nights have struggled. We're just not seeing a whole lot of interest, commitment, or consistency from the students when it comes to the night. There are three other worships nights students can attend throughout the week on campus. That makes us wonder if us putting on a worship night is really needed at this point in time?
Challenge has always aimed to be different than the other ministries on campus. If we're all doing the same thing, then we're all reaching the same students leaving a lot of students unreached on campus. If we're all doing similar worship nights, I think we run into that problem.
Discipling students one-on-one weekly, having lots of students in our home once (or sometimes twice) a week for dinner and discussion, and running weekend events to connect with students is already a good amount for a staff of two to have on our plate. And then add the adoption process in as well.
We have to be careful not to spread ourselves too thin. I often have to remind myself that a staff of two cannot do what our former staff of eight used to do. There's only so much time and energy to go around. Keeping all that in mind, we're praying about possibly shelving the worship night for now until it's more needed, and the Lord provides us with more staff or other help.
Overall though, the semester has gone really well.
Our outdoor events like waterfall jumping, hiking, and our mining ghost town adventure have seen new students come and eventually get plugged into family dinners and discipleship. We're seeing good fruit, lives changed, and students growing in their faith. We're very encouraged!
That encouragement not only comes from seeing what God is doing thru the ministry, but also from you all. 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, 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 or our adoption, please go to: Give Now.
Merry Christmas and God Bless,Mike and Rachel
www.challengeatthefort.org
- Pray for our students that God would continue growing them and keeping them strong in their faith over the 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.
- Some may be wondering, "Any mission trips coming up?" Yep, we'll have our Mexico spring break trip to Juarez as usual. We'd also like to do something over the summer. It's been driving us nuts not being able to go on a mission trip since 2019. COVID really threw a wrench into things. This summer, we're running into adoption uncertainties. Right now, we've got students who are interested in going, so we're going to do the best we can to make something happen if the Lord opens that door. If we don't end up traveling for the adoption, we don't want to waste another summer. We'd love to get back to Peru, but they just ousted another president and have been rioting in the streets. That's probably not an option. We've looked at Serbia possibly, but there are some issues with Kosovo at the moment that could make that trip iffy. There are a few other options, but the one that stands out is a mission trip back to Ireland, a country that is sadly, quickly turning toward atheism. We'd be working with Irish speakers in the area we just were over the summer. Seems like it would be a good fit for our students and us. And we already know the area and now have connections there. What's tricky is not knowing when we will actually get to pick up our boy in Thailand. There's a very small chance it could be during the time of the mission trip. But for now, there is still a chance. Pray that God would give us wisdom and clear guidance on if we should commit to the mission trip to Ireland, or if there is somewhere else He'd rather us go, or if we should go at all with us needing to travel for the adoption being a small possibility. Also pray that God would provide funding for us and our students if He does call us to go on a mission trip this summer.
- Being Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. When you do ministry, you become a bigger target in that battle. Keep praying for us 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. And with our small staff, sickness can grind the ministry to a halt. Thankfully, the last two times I've had COVID, it's been over Thanksgiving or Christmas break. That said, we'd prefer avoiding health issues at all if we can. Pray that God would keep us safe and healthy.
- We are still running very thin on full-time staff. We had a married couple interview with us this past fall. They were great and would have been a good fit, but they ended up taking a youth paster position up in Denver after feeling the Lord lead them in that direction. So we're still looking and praying God would provide other possible staff. Pray that God would provide us some new staff or volunteers that could step in to help us out with the ministry, and who would be a good fit for the ministry, us, and Durango.
- 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 give us wisdom to lead in a way that is fruitful for His kingdom.
- I mentioned a little about the adoption above. It's moving slow. We thought we'd possibly be traveling by now. That hasn't come to be. We thought maybe this summer. That may not happen either. At this point, we're learning there isn't really a way to predict when it will happen. There are a lot of families still in front of us waiting for approval. We may have to wait for all of those families to get approval or we may not. Even at our adoption agencies, nobody really knows at the moment. Please be praying that we'd have patience thru the process. That God would provide the funding for the adoption as it gets more expensive the longer it is drawn out. That we'd be able to pick up our boy in God's perfect timing. Pray for our boy that God would protect him from any traumas during this process, and that God would keep him healthy.
- Pray that God would open the door for us to partner with more churches and individuals. 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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