Slight change of plans...

So I had planned to put out an update on how our support raising trip back in May went.  Unfortunately, that will have to wait.  I had hoped to post it on here and get it to you tonight but we lost electricity for most of the night.  Now that we have it back, there just isn't time to get that update out before we head to the airport.  There will be the Pre-Trip Peru update coming out later tonight so be looking for that.  Thanks guys for the love and encouragement you give us and the ministry!  Keep praying!

Spring Graduation 2015!

Just wanted to post some pics of our students from graduation!  We're super proud of them and are excited for what God has next for them!  Keep praying for them as they move into their next chapter of life!

End of the Semester Ministry Update 2015!

     Happy 4th of July! Goodness, is it really already July? It's way past time for an update. My 8 year-old Mac Book Pro is on it's last legs and really struggling. Its constant freezing up has made getting this update out pretty difficult. When I talked to a couple of computer geniuses on our support trip about how to maybe fix it, they literally laughed at its age and told me to just get a new one. Easier said than done. Until then, updates will sometimes just have to come out a little slower.

     We'll actually have two more updates come out before our Peru mission trip starting the 13th of July. One will be on our support raising trip which included a tornado nearly touching down on us while we were camping. That update will be posted exclusively to our blog. The update on Peru will be posted to our blog and sent out through email. We just don't want to bombard you with too many emails at once.

     Onto the update of the semester. What a great semester it was! I'd say it was one of our most successful yet! Obviously, we credit that all to God. There were a lot of answered prayers.

     One of those answered prayers was having a healthy staff. Another answered prayer was having a really solid group of students. By the end of the semester, our students had begun discipling other students. It was awesome to see. I really think a great foundation was laid over the past two semesters that will impact the campus for years to come. It's really exciting for us.

     Another exciting thing has been the door God has opened for us to reach out and minister to the LGBT club on campus. Their former president accepted Christ this past year and just recently got baptized! Praise God!

     It's been such an exciting and blessed year for the ministry. By the end of the year, we had around forty people at our end of the year barbeque. God has brought the ministry a long way from back in August when we thought we might have two students returning. Sadly, we'll end up losing about half of the students by next year. It's expected when a big part of the ministry is working with international students who we only have for two semesters. And then there are our students who are graduating that will move on as well. It's sad for us but we're excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of our former students going forward.

 

     As we wrapped up the barbeque, we got everyone together and had those who will be returning pray for those who are moving on from Fort Lewis and Durango. It was a special time and one of my favorite of the semester being able to pray for them.

     Speaking of favorite times, another big highlight was our annual Easter Eve snowshoeing trip. This is where we snowshoe up to one of the high mountain frozen lakes in the area, have a campfire, eat peep s'mores, and have a church service out there under the stars.

     I remember leading up to the trip, I was really trying to figure out what God wanted me to share that night. I started in one direction, then went another direction. Then ended up scrapping everything and went in an entirely new direction after listening to a sermon a day before that sparked an idea. Still, when I preach, I like to give background on how I got to a topic. So as everyone sat around the campfire, I gave a brief overview of the two topics I was going to preach on and then went on to talk about Peter and his interactions with Jesus from walking on water to the crucifixion to sitting around a campfire with Jesus.

     Afterwards, we had a discussion about what I had preached. I asked for things that stood out, things they could relate with, maybe things they didn't quite understand. One of our Japanese students asked if I could expand a bit or explain a bit more one of the topics I had just given an overview on. The general idea was something God had been showing me over the past year. When you truly seek Jesus and His will for your life, God will get you to where He wants you. I feel like for so many Christians, that is such a big worry when it doesn't need to be if we truly seek Him. If Jonah ran away and God still eventually got him to where God wanted him, wouldn't God guide, even more so, someone who truly desires to be where God wants them?

     I shared about my experience in Peru last year on that mission trip. How God split the team up unexpectedly into two groups, one who went deeper in the mountains to minister and one who went back into the villages to minister. In that, He moved each team member to where He wanted them, where He could use them. I shared with the students that through that, we met people in our paths, encouraged them, distributed Bibles, and saw people put their trust in Christ...people that we would have never met had God not steered our steps.

     After sharing all of that, we packed up and started snowshoeing back to our vehicles. As we got close to the vehicles, I began talking with one of our Japanese students. He said that he had a great time that night. When I asked what was his favorite part or what stood out? He said that he really liked what I had to say about Peru and what happened there. I'll be honest, that wasn't exactly what I expected to hear. It was so encouraging and exciting. It was awesome to hear that had impacted him. I pray that he could take that seed with him back home, that it would grow and continue to impact him.

     I'm so thankful that God has called us work with college students and walk with them on their journey. We are blessed to work with the great students God brings us. We are also blessed to have people behind this ministry who faithfully give their time in prayer and give financially to make it happen. You're part of the team making an impact in the lives of students at FLC. So a huge thank you for getting behind us and what God is doing at Fort Lewis! It is appreciated greatly!

     Check out our ministry video from this past year and hear from our students what Challenge means to them! See how God is using Christian Challenge to impact the campus of Fort Lewis! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoqVqPPoRa4&sns=fb

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:

Students-

Pray for all of our students working at camps and going on mission trips this summer. Pray that God would grow them through their experiences and that they would be fruitful for the Kingdom.  Check out this article in the Durango Herald on one of our students and the ministry she created to rescue children out of sex slavery in Africa:  http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20150412/COLUMNISTS04/150419881

Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to grow our students in their faith and that they'd stay strong in it throughout the summer.

Pray that God would continue to reveal Himself to the students who have not yet put their trust in Him.

Rachel and Mike-

Praise that my nasal surgery went okay. It was more annoying than painful in the recovery process but I can now breathe through my nose at night which allows me to actually sleep. Being able to sleep is pretty nice.

Pray for our house. It's got issues. If you've been reading our updates, you know this. We make due but appreciate the prayers concerning it.

Pray that God would open doors for us support raising and that our efforts would be fruitful. We have lost some support this past year and really need to make that up.

Pray that our marriage would stay strong, keeping God always at the center of it.

Challenge at the Fort 2014-2015 Video!

Ministry Updates Coming Soon!

So it's been awhile since our last ministry update... Don't worry, we are still alive and well.  Things have been crazy with support raising trips and surgeries...and my computer running super slow.  We're talking frustratingly slow to where I forget what I'm even writing.  Not good for a guy with ADD.  My Mac is on it's last legs unfortunately.  So because my computer is slow, the updates are slow in coming out.  But they are coming!  So check back soon and there will be some more info...and maybe a new video if you play your cards right!

Guest Post by Kazu on the Mexico Mission Trip

I went to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, during spring break. Usually, I don't want to share my thoughts with others because someone can tease me if I talk about something important seriously. But this time, I'm willing to be made fun of. I hope someone can grasp a part of my opinions.

We were involved in building school there, for example painting, digging, and constructing wall. I belonged to the brick team and built wall there. Still, we cannot say the construction of school is completed, but I believe we could did a good job for Mexican children. I won't be able to partake in the trip next time, so I really want a lot of students to join in it till school is perfectly built.

Also, I was glad to have opportunities to think about the Christian religion through the assigned reading and discussion on the roof. Japanese people are often said to be kind and friendly, but I don't think so. I feel most Japanese including me pay attention to our personal space and don't go out of our comfort zone. I must be a person who can be more capable of sustaining others. I would like to say that this life is for others as well as for me.

In this trip, I decided to act instinctively rather than rationally. That's why I was much more active and talkative than I had been. Hence, I could get acquainted with a lot of people in short time although Ryo and Misae might get fed up with me. I was happy to absorb many kinds of things because of being crazy.

In the town, I saw a lot of differences in socioeconomic status and recognized the fact I have grown up in a favorable environment. I knew I had lived a happy life compared to people in developing countries, but the fact I saw was impacting me more strongly than I expected.

Of course, we cannot make everyone in this world happy easily. The thing we can do may be limited. But I just felt this world should be for all people's happiness. We cannot achieve this goal easily. However, we can walk into this goal. I hope my word will be the one step toward this goal. Let's start with changing our perception!

-Kazuaki Shimada
 

Christian Challenge Spring Break 2015 Update!

      This update is a little late but we wanted to update you on the mission trips our students went on this year over spring break. We sent teams to Denver and Juarez. Quite frankly, God did some pretty amazing things for those being ministered to and for our students as well.

      A little back story on how the mission trips came about. Josh has had a relationship with a school down in Juarez for years. The school is free private school for all kids in the area as long as the parents put in some hours helping the school out. It’s one of the few safe and positive places in Juarez for these kids. In safer times, the school would have lots of mission teams come down and work, with the kids and on building projects. After the cartel violence escalated, the mission teams disappeared.

      Despite what people see on the news, Juarez is safe as long as you don’t go into bad areas. We are now one of the only groups that heads down there to help the school out.

      We also sent a team to Denver to do ministry in the inner-city. We offer the Denver option because we know a lot of parents won’t allow their kids to go to a place like Juarez. That’s understandable but we don’t want students who have a passion to serve Christ losing out on a mission trip opportunity. Our Denver team worked in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and in low-income housing areas sharing the Gospel and serving those in need. It was eye opening our students in that they realized there are ministry opportunities right in their backyard. They didn’t have to go overseas to be used of God.

     Our Juarez team of eleven headed down to Mexico during that same time-frame. The team consisted of seven believers and four non-believers. Our days were filled with long hours of building projects and playing with kids as much as possible. The evenings consisted of assisting another team from a Christian high school in Denver with different ministry events for the community. We always ended the night on the roof top sharing highs and lows, as well as pondering and sharing thoughts on an assigned scripture for the day. All of our students, including our non-Christian ones, had good insight and opinions. On the last day, we weren’t going to have a scripture reading, due to us needing to pack and get on the road the next morning really early. Kazu, one of our Japanese, non-Christian students, requested that we have one anyways!

     There were so many things that I loved about the trip. We had an incredible team. The eleven of us got along very well all week. I credit that to God. He really made the team one. We loved one another well. It was really cool watching each student throughout the week. The way they loved on the children, the way they interacted with each other, how hard they worked. They took great interest in the local people and their way of life. I believe God was at work in each student’s life, from the believers to those who do not believe yet.

     I’ll leave you with a couple of short quotes from students on what they learned from the trip.

     Kazu: This trip opened my eyes to how selfish I’ve been. How good my life has been. But now I should focus on others and helping them.

     Lane: I didn’t use to see the point in humanitarian trips/mission trips. But I can see the need to help others now.

     Thank you for all the support and encouragement you give! We are super thankful for that! Keep FLC 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:

Housing-

     So we had a pretty good report in our last update. Unfortunately, a couple days after sending out the last update, the issues came back. So keep praying for our septic system. I'm going to try some more pipe hair remover soon and see if that fixes things again. Be praying for our well as that is dry again. Thankfully, there's been moisture in the area so that should help at least a little.

     Our new war is against an old enemy, mice and pack rats. They have come out of hibernation with the warmer temperatures. We plugged up all of their access points into the house but can now hear them throughout our walls clawing and biting trying to get through the drywall. We've got traps and poison set up under the house. The traps catch them every now and then. They are also eating the poison...and then dying in our walls making our house smell not so pleasant at times. When we moved in, it seemed the last owner clearly let them run rampant throughout the house. They seem very unhappy that they can't do that anymore. Pray that we can get the upper-hand on them and that their activity dies down.

Students-

     Praise that God kept everyone safe on the mission trips!

     Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to grow our students in their faith and that they'd stay strong in it.

     Pray that God would continue to reveal Himself to the students who have not yet put their trust in Him.

     Pray for Misae and her family. Misae was on the mission trip to Juarez. In mid-April, she got word that her dad had a stroke. She left Durango early to be at his side. Pray that her and her family would have strength and comfort to get through this tough time. As far as we understand, it was a very severe stroke. At the time, they didn't know if he was going to make it. Pray that God would do a big miracle and that her dad would have a complete recovery.

Rachel and Mike-

     Pray that we would get positive answers concerning our medical concerns. We may have some good leads but it's too early to tell just yet. (Include Josh with his medical stuff in those prayers as well.)

     Pray that we would make time to rest and not get burnt out by the busy nature of ministry.

     Pray that God would open doors for us after the semester as we begin the support raising process again and that it would be fruitful.

     Pray that our marriage would stay strong, keeping God always at the center of it.