Monthly Prayer Update from Rachel

Dear friends and family,

How are you?  Hope everyone is staying safe during this hot and dry summer.

Mike and I just wanted to give a brief update of what's going on.  We returned May 3^rd from our ministry partner training in Phoenix encouraged and excited! The Lord is really growing our faith as he continues to answer his promise of providing where he leads. He is reminding us daily that it is HE who provides. After Phoenix, we headed to the Front Range to present at some churches and meet with individuals interested in partnering with us.  We were blessed by the amazing people we met with.  It was a very fruitful trip.

The rest of the summer, we will be in Durango and traveling back to the Front Range and to Missouri to meet with potential financial ministry partners. Mike will also be raft guiding to pull in some extra income. Our goal is to be on campus this fall! Be praying that all the funding comes in so that we can.

Prayer Requests:

• For the students this summer, that God would protect them from the enemy's scheme to pull them away from Him.
• For open hearts of those we share and present this opportunity with, to join in on God’s work to reach the campus of Fort Lewis with the good news.
• That God would continue growing our marriage and help us not neglect each other as we delve into full time ministry.
• For rain over all of Colorado.  It is so dry here and fires have been breaking out all over the place.  Pray for the safety of the firefighters, our students, our family and our friends who live near the many fires.

Thank you for joining with us to reach Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO!

Nudges

This was a continuation of my last blog entry but I felt like the last entry was getting way too long so I figured I could give this part it's own post...and release it a few days later.  Don't want to overwhelm people with too much reading because then people won't read the updates at all.  I know how it works.  I understand.  I'll try and keep this shorter.

I just wanted to put this out there.  It's something that's been on my heart.  It's something that is as much for me as anyone else.  This isn't to rag on people at all or call people out.  My hope is that it can be an encouragement for folks, something that spurns them on to do more for others.  Here we go.

If God ever gives you a nudge to do something or bless someone, please do it.  Don't rationalize your way out of it.  This is about when God lays someone on your heart.  You may not know why He wants you to do that and it may not even seem like a big deal, but if the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart to do something, it is a big deal.  It can make a big difference in someone's life.

Rachel and I have had the blessing of seeing the fruit that can come from that recently.  It was something as easy as dropping off some cookies we had made on someone's doorstep we knew.  I just had a nudging.  I didn't know why that person had come to mind but we did it anyway.  It turned out that the person we left them for had just lost someone very close to them.  It was a huge encouragement to them when they opened the box up to find cookies.  We didn't find out the back story until months later.  Sometimes, it may take longer than that to see God's big picture.  Still other times, you may not find out at all and that's okay.  It's not about finding out why.

Now, I'm not telling that story to brag but to encourage about how simple it can be.  You can really make a positive impact on someone's life by listening and obeying that leading.  I think all too often, we get that nudging but cast it aside for a multitude of reasons.  A favorite excuse of mine is "What if they think I'm weird?"  I use that one a lot in my head.

Man, we really miss out on opportunities to bless others.  We miss out on opportunities to make a difference, to make an impact in someone's life who may really need it at that moment.  There are way too many people in this world hurting to miss out on a chance to love and encourage them.  Let's not cast aside those leadings anymore and miss opportunities to build people up.  Let's make an impact for a better world by focusing on the people right in front of us.  It starts there but obviously and hopefully, it won't end there.  What you do locally can have ripple effect throughout the whole world given time.  In the end, it may seem small or like no big deal but if you feel God nudging you, it's a big deal.  He has a reason for it, a purpose.  He is giving you a chance to make a difference in the world.

Exciting Times and Staying Busy

The Wall household has been staying extremely busy of late.  This past weekend, we had a staff retreat to plan out the coming year for Christian Challenge and FCA.  Both days, we went overtime by about...a couple of hours or so.  It was good though.  We are jam packed for the coming year with tons of activities and opportunities to connect with students.  We are pretty stoked about it.

We just pray that the Lord helps us raise our full support so that we can be on campus this fall in time to get the ministry rolling for the semester.  If not, we will probably have to cut back a lot of the things planned out.  We also pray that Josh, our ministry team member, will have a clean bill of health and not require surgery on his heart late this summer.  If he ends up needing surgery, he will be bed ridden for possibly 3 months.  That will also change things up if that happens.  In the end, we just have to be flexible to the circumstances that play out and flexible to how the Lord leads us.

Speaking of medical stuff, Rachel and I have a huge praise report.  As many of you know, this past February, I had my appendix out.  It was quite a surprise to us.  I guess nobody ever really plans on having it out.  Sparing you all of the details, after being sick for a day and a night, I had Rachel google appendicitis.  Turned out that my self-diagnosis was right.

I knew something was up because I never have flu like symptoms.  I might have had the flu once when I was 5 or so but other than that, I've been immune to it, thank the Lord.  Plus, the flu is not extremely painful that I know of.  After looking it up, Rachel came back to me and told me we needed to head to the ER.

Hours later, I was without my appendix and stuck with a big hospital bill.  Now, Rachel and I have insurance but it's more the kind that protects you from going in huge debt if something catastrophic happens to you.  That means we have a very high deductible in the thousands but everything after that is covered.  Well, when you are transitioning from seasonal jobs to a job in ministry that requires fundraising, even thousands can be a huge burden.

We have been praying for months that we might be able to work something out with the hospital.  It has been a long stressful process to say the least in trying to work something out.  I guess the length of the ordeal just gave us more time to pray about it.  Technically speaking, they don't have to help anyone out.  They can charge whatever they see fit for the most part.  We just hoped that we could work something out whether it was a lengthy payment plan or maybe, they would take some off the price.  Today, we received out answer.  Instead of having a bill of $3,000, they knocked it down to $300.  Praise God!  What an answer to prayer!  We are so thankful we serve a good God!  We are also thankful for all of those who covered us in prayer during this time.  Wow, I just feel so blessed.

So what's up next for us?  Well, I will soon be heading off to a director's conference with collegiate minsters from all over the state.  I'm not really sure what to expect from it.  When I return, Rachel's parents come to town for a few days.  We then will head back with them up to Colorado Springs for awhile to focus on raising support up there.  We already are lining up appointments and dinner meetings with people and churches up there.  We hope to have more set up by the time we leave so if your interested in meeting up with us to hear our presentation, please let us know.

After Colorado Springs, we are back to Durango for a bit.  We are praying about me having another surgery to fix some major sleep apnea problems I have been dealing with.  I guess Rachel probably deals with them also at night with my snoring keeping her up.  With our deductible already met from my last surgery, I may be able to have the surgery pretty much free.  They would just have to fix my deviated septum and cut out my uvula and possibly tonsils.  Not a huge surgery but still want to pray about it and make sure it's a good decision.  From what we've found, it doesn't always fix things and has some downsides.  It's something to think about.  Please be praying that God gives us discernment concerning the procedure.

Following that, we head back up to Colorado Springs to meet with more folks if possible.  On the tail end of that trip, there is a conference on discipleship I will be attending with Rachel.  From there, we'll to head to Kansas City for a couple of weeks in hopes of connecting with some folks from my old stomping grounds.  We don't have any support presentation meetings set up just yet but we know that the Lord will provide.  While there, we hope to not just meet with individuals but also churches, Sunday school classes, small groups or even dinner party groups.  If you're interested in setting something like that up, please let us know.  We would love it!

From KC, we head back to Durango just in time for the athletes to start arriving.  Soon after that, the new freshmen start arriving and moving into the dorms.  It's an exciting time.  There are so many ministry opportunities to be had!  Keep praying for Fort Lewis College!

New Blog Address

Alright, so Rachel and I decided to change things up a bit...just to keep everyone on their toes.  As we were creating materials for our support raising, we realized that frommountainpathstoheavenlyplaces was way too long for a blog site address especially when you tag blogspot.com onto the end of it.  Quite frankly, it didn't fit on anything we were making.  It was just too big.  Plus, we realized that with an address that long, nobody could remember it or even stay focused long enough to type it in without making mistakes including us.

So with that, we have moved the blog to thewallscall.blogspot.com.  We figure this will be much easier to remember and type.  Hey, it even rhymes.  It's catchy and yes, a bit cheesy but hopefully, that will help people remember it.  Our blog's name will still be named From Mountain Paths to Heavenly Places because, well, it took me a long time to come up with that name and I still like it.  What we are doing is simply changing the address.  Hopefully, this makes it easier and doesn't confuse anyone.

Thank you for your understanding with this major change.  I know everyone is probably very concerned.  We will make it through this...together.

Back Safe and Sound from Phoenix

Got back late last night from a road trip down to Phoenix.  I know, who goes on a road trip to Phoenix?  Especially a person like me who has a strong distaste for the desert and heat...  But we did have a purpose to it.  Rachel and I had a support raising seminar down there this past week.  Our ministry director, Josh Story, also wanted to head down there to meet a married couple, Sean and Kim, who are possibly coming on board with the ministry as well.  Sean is a wildland firefighter down in Phoenix during the summer and Kim was in town to attend the seminar as well.  It worked out pretty well getting to know them and their hearts for the Lord having everyone meet up down there.  So with Josh heading down there as well, we decided we better just carpool.  Save some money and have a lot of time for fellowship as we journeyed down.

Before heading down to Phoenix, we had a pretty cool "God Story" happen.  Knowing that the seminar was coming up, we had been trying to find a place to stay down in Phoenix for months.  Rachel's parents have some friends in Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix, so we figured we would just stay with them.  They were gracious enough to offer us a place to stay for free.  We waited and waited for word on where the seminar would actually be located but were always told, "We'll let you know when we get it figured out."  Finally, three weeks before our trip, we found out it would be in Peoria...at least 30 minutes to an hour away from Scottsdale.  Well, that would be quite a drive everyday gas wise.  We prayed for weeks that God would open the door to someplace closer.  Still, we had no luck.  Even the nearest hostel was about 30 minutes away and just as expensive as a hotel.  We finally settled with staying in Scottsdale and just putting up with the rush hour drives.  Then five days before we were supposed to leave, we received word from Jennifer, Josh's wife, that they had found a place closer.

Jennifer had been meeting with a girl that she was discipling and mentioned that Josh was heading to Phoenix for almost a week.  The girl said, "My parents have a second home in Phoenix.  They were just praying last night asking how they could use the place to bless people with.  Would Josh want to stay there?"  And with that, we had a three bedroom house less than five minutes from the church the seminar was being held at, one room for Josh, one for Rachel and I, and one for Sean and Kim.  Praise God!  (The church the seminar was at was actually the church the owners of the house attend when they are in town.)  Man, it's awesome to see how God provides!  It's encouraging as well when you get the difficult and daunting task of fundraising/support raising your position in the ministry.  The only way it can be done is by God providing.

The seminar itself was a great encouragement.  First off, it was awesome to see the hearts of all the people who were there.  Seeing all the ministries they were involved with was very cool.  One can't help be be excited and encouraged about what God is doing in their lives.

Second off, the seminar was extremely informative as well.  The first part focused on biblical principles of giving and receiving, that giving and receiving should always be in the vertical, going to and through God.  It was great stuff.  The next part focussed on overcoming a lot of fears that most people who raise support have.  The last parts were a crash course in marketing and networking.  Intertwined with all of that were a lot of workshops putting everything into practice.  The days were long and certainly a grind with a few breaks thrown in here and there.  It was good though.  It really helped lay out a game plan.  It's nice to have that this time around instead of being thrown to the wolves and being told good luck.  If anyone is praying about going into ministry full-time and getting to support raise, I definitely recommend going to one of these seminars before you ever even start.

By the time the seminar was over, our brains had turned to mush and we were ready to head home.  We had been there just long enough for allergies to start kicking in.  Runny noses and heat just aren't a great combination.  Thankfully, our bodies hadn't melted or been burned to a crisp in that desert heat.  Every time we drove around the area, I kept expecting to eventually smell the salt of the ocean or see a great expanse of blue off in the distance...but sadly, there was only more hazy sky and desert with no ocean to cool off in.  I think people dig Phoenix because they have air conditioning.  If you go inside anywhere, they keep it nice and chilled.  By the time you walk out, you're freezing and the plus 100 degree heat feels great...for about a minute and then you start sweating and looking for the next place with freezing AC to cool off.  It's a freeze/thaw cycle that must be great for the muscles.

All joking aside, we had a great time in Phoenix but it was time to get back to Durango.  We had a long drive ahead of us.  We ended up taking a detour to meet with a possible supporter up by Marble Canyon.  Sadly, we were never taught at the seminar how to give a presentation to a waitress who is on the clock.  "Yes, I would like fries with my burger and we are working with international students and student-athletes and I'll fill you in on some more after you take those other people's order."  Strange, I know, that they didn't cover that kind of presentation at the seminar.  Thankfully, God worked everything out and it went well.  It's one of those situations where you just look back on and laugh...and thank God of course.

After a great meal and another long stretch of road, we finally arrived back home just before 2 a.m.  We were ready for bed and a good night's sleep.  I'm sure Josh was ready to get back to his wife and kids also.  Looking back, we had a great trip.  We met some great people.  We gained some confidence and were encouraged.  Now, it's time to put everything we learned into action.  If you are interested in hearing Rachel and my presentation, please let us know.  We'd love to share it with you and let you know how you can get involved.  Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey to build up a network of ministry partners interested in reaching college students for Christ.

Great End to the Semester

What a great end to the semester!  We started out this past Saturday with our last weekend event.  We decided that the students could use a de-stresser before finals week so we planned out a BBQ in the park and trip to the hot springs in Pagosa Springs.  We figured it would be a cool experience for the international students as well.

We all met up at the bus stop on campus at early in the afternoon.  After figuring out the ride situation, we all piled into the vehicles and headed east.  The drive was about an hour and we arrived to Pagosa with hungry stomachs.  We set everything up and got to grilling as fast as possible.  Thankfully, there was some football and frisbee throwing around to take our minds off hunger as the food cooked.

There, we also met Pastor Andrew and Rhonda.  They run a church in Pagosa.  We were able to talk to them about the ministry and possible speaking at their church about what we are doing.  And small world, Josh, the director of Christian Challenge at FLC had actually met Andrew before back during their time doing different ministry on the Front Range.

Anyway, eventually the hot dogs were done grilling and ready for human consumption.  Sadly, the hamburgers hadn't quite thawed out yet.  The dogs would keep us busy until then...and they tasted fantastic!  I probably had way too much.  I finished them off with a bunch of oreos.

Then, we got everyone together for a game of ultimate frisbee.  This was not a great idea after stuffing our bellies with food.  Thankfully, nobody threw up.  I think my team took it easy to make sure that didn't happen...because we got crushed.  We did not have a good showing.  I blame the hot dogs.

Soon, we were finished with the game and ready for the hot springs.  We all slowly trickled on over.  It seemed a bit hot at first for hot water.  Eventually, we got used to it.  The hot springs was right on the river so every now and then, it was nice to take a cool off swim in the snow melt.

photo courtesy of Mizuki Matsubara

Eventually, the sun made it's way behind the clouds or maybe I just found a pool with some shade.  it was finally cooling off though.  The pool was perfect temperature.  By that time, the international students had had enough sun and sulfur.  They were ready to get back to campus...and study, right?  They all piled in with Josh in his SUV and they headed back.

The rest of the group eventually joined me in the perfect pool I had discovered.  We had some really good conversation and relaxation as the sun started going done.  It was so nice!

Around 8 p.m. or so, our bellies began grumbling again.  It was time to head out and find some food.  Some of us settled on McDonald's milkshakes.  You got to have some sugar in you if you're going to stay awake for the hour drive home after spending the day at the hot springs.

Rachel and I finally arrived home around 10:30 or 11 p.m. that night.  We were exhausted but knew it was worth it.  The students had a great time and so did we!

Moving forward to tonight, we had the last Christian Challenge of the semester.  The students came over and we had navajo tacos for dinner which were mighty tasty...and a crazy costume photoshoot for the students much like the one we had at Rachel and my wedding.  It was a blast.  We even had some students we hadn't seen in awhile come on over.  It was awesome to see them.

We started out the night baking the tacos or fry bread.  It took me back to being overseas and having a friend bring that home from the store.  While Rachel, Jennifer and some of the girls were baking, Josh and I moved a couch out onto their driveway.  The weather was beautiful so we just kicked back outside greeting people as they came.  Some would join us, some would head inside.

Eventually, we all moved inside.  It was time to eat.  Throughout the night, we ate, talked, played games and took crazy pictures.  It was a great ending to the end of the school year.  It was certainly an awesome time of fellowship before the students head home.  Before they headed out, we got the students' contact info and arranged time to catch up with them during the summer.  We are going to definitely miss these students over summer but hope to catch up with them when we come to their areas to support raise.

We'll, I guess this is the last Christian Challenge of the season.  What a successful first year we have had, thank the Lord!  The Lord opened up a lot of doors for the ministry and brought us a lot of great students.  Please keep the leaders in your prayers as we support raise and plan out the next year over the summer.  Also, keep the awesome students we have had that God continues to build their faith and that they can get plugged into a solid church or ministry in their home town.  I want to see students coming back more on fire for Christ than when they left.  I'm super excited to see what God is going to do next year!

Rachel and I have more adventures to come later this week but for now, we are just going to enjoy having her family in town for the next few days.  We will fill you in in the next few days about what is happening and how God is already working in that.  Stay tuned.

New ministry info and how you can get involved!

Ministry Info:

Hello everyone!  Hope this letter finds you all doing well!  There have been some big, life changing events in the Wall household.

Rachel and I, after getting married, have been praying about where God wants us and has called us.  Through a lot of prayer and consideration, God opened up doors for us to work with Christian Challenge and Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) doing collegiate ministry at Fort Lewis College in Southwest Colorado.  We are extremely excited for the opportunity God has opened up for us.

This will be a ministry based on reaching the lost and one-on-one discipleship encouraging students who are already Christians.  Studies have shown that 80-90% percent of children growing up in the church leave the faith after going off to college.  Those numbers are heartbreaking.  Our goal is to change those numbers drastically.

Our ministry's focus will be on some of the least reached student groups on the campus.  Obviously, working with FCA, part of it will involve working with student-athletes.  Our plans are to have Bible studies for them and encourage/disciple them in a one-on-one setting.  This group sees very little evangelism due to the tough training and game schedules the athletes have.  Instead of trying to fit their schedule into our ministry schedules, we plan to fit our ministry schedule into their schedules to make it work for them.

Another mostly unreached group we will minister to are the international students who come to Fort Lewis.  They come from Africa, Europe, and Asia.  The exciting thing about this is that we don't even have to go all the way across the world to meet them.  They come right to us.  They come to FLC looking for the American experience but are only introduced to a culture of binge-drinking and drugs.  We aim to counter that culture and introduce them to Christ, many of them which come from cultures where they have never even heard the name of Jesus.  Our hope is that they not only are introduced to Christ but can also take Him back with them to their own country to share with their friends and family.

More and more, we are also finding that there are FLC students who have never heard about Jesus... not even His name.  When you think of unreached people groups, you think of places where there are no roads to in far off countries.  We have American students who come to Fort Lewis who have never heard the Gospel in any way, shape, or form.  This was jaw-dropping to me when we first started running into these students.  It's becoming more and more common.  It just goes to show how much of a need there is for us to share Christ with the students on campus.

Last but not least, we want to reach out to the rest of the students on campus as well, especially those who may not be comfortable with traditional ministries.  There are plenty of students who end up falling away from the Christian faith not because they get sucked into the party lifestyle or have a professor destroy their faith but simply because they don't feel they fit in with other Christians.

Whether their work or class schedule doesn't line up with ministry events, or maybe they are afraid of being around big groups, maybe they have learning disabilities where traditional ministries don't teach to their learning style.  These students slowly fall away with the feeling of a Christianity that is empty, as if they are wandering through the wilderness alone.  Our goal is to find those students and not let them fall through the cracks, to reach out and encourage those students in their walks with Christ letting them know they're not alone.

During our summers, our plan is to take students on mission trips domestically and overseas.  This will allow them to step out of their comfort zones and put their faith into action.  The summer is also an important time to keep in touch with our students.  A lot can happen in a student's life over the summer and we want to continue to be part of that.  Our goal is to do retreats and weekend get-together's for our students still in the area also.

Prayer and Financial Support:

That said, we cannot do this without you.  I hope and pray that you will partner with us, prayerfully and financially.  If the Lord moves you to team-up with our ministry  financially and prayerfully, please send us an email and we can get you more info on how you can do that.  For more info on giving, you can also go to:
http://MSC.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1023666&lis=1&kntae1023666=F706BA83CA4641A290E3E01D327441FE&supId=356879789

Again, thank you so much for your time and consideration!  You all are awesome and such a blessing! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at: mikerachelwall@gmail.com.