Trip to Juneau

This last weekend I made a quick trip to Juneau, AK.  I spent last summer in Juneau helping lead a summer missions trip, which is termed a “summer project” by Crusade.  There has been a men’s only summer project in Juneau for the past four summers, and last summer was the first time women were invited along to minister to the girls in the city.  Along with two other women, I helped set direction to future summers in Juneau and tried to figure out what the addition of women to the Juneau project would mean.  This next summer I am going to take 11 other women with me (students from Nebraska, Minnesota, and New Mexico) to form a separate women’s project.  So, there will be both a men’s project and a women’s project in Juneau this summer.  We are trusting God to transform the city and our lives for eternity.

 Craig Johring, the director for the men’s project, Christina Dodson (who will be helping me lead this summer), and I met in Juneau to meet with church pastors, elders, and student leaders to plan and process how to most effectively work together this summer.  We had some great meetings and good time for planning. 

It snowed the whole time we were there.  It literally never stopped snowing.  It was like living inside a snow globe for 4 days, and it was absolutely beautiful.  It was fun to go around Juneau and visit places that I’ve only ever seen in summertime.  Juneau has a glacier right in town, and we got to walk on the now frozen lake that surrounds it and even go right up and touch the glacier.  In the summer, it’s never safe to kayak very close to the glacier (or climb on icebergs), so this was a real treat.

I also got the chance to connect with some of the girls I know from last summer, and it was a joy to hear how they are doing and what God is teaching them.  One of the girls, Kimberly, just turned 16 a couple of weeks ago, but her spiritual maturity is the level of a college student.  She’s an absolutely beautiful girl with a reflective spirit, and this year has been a real challenge for her.  Her best friends at school are non-believers, and she prays every day to be a light to them.  With little to no community around her, the battle alone can be long and hard.  But, God has encouraged her with small victories in her relationships, and I can only imagine what He is preparing her for in the future.  There is a spiritual war being fought for the high school and college students in Juneau, and girls like Kimberly are the mighty warriors God has placed there specifically for His name and glory.

Back in Nebraska

Well, I’ve been back in Lincoln for a few days now following two weeks of conferences in Colorado and Texas.  Our regional Christmas Conference in Denver was a great time with over 1,000 college students from the Great Plains region in attendance.  This was my first year working the conference, and I found that a great deal of work and care goes into making every part of the conference a positive experience for students.  I had an awesome time working with the stage production staff, staying up all night on security, and hanging out with students in the times in between.

Every year, one day of the conference is dedicated to going out and sharing the good news of Jesus.  All the students are mobilized and sent out to serve in various ways all over the city.  They are challenged to make themselves available to whatever God puts in their path, then watch to see the mighty ways He shows up.  When the students returned that night, we heard story after story about them stepping out in faith to share the Gospel, and the result was many people believing in Christ for the first time! 

One of these cases was a couple of students from Wayne State College, Jarah Gleim and Beth Blankers, sharing the Gospel with a 14-year-old girl named Anna at a laundromat.  They cleverly went into the bathroom and “spilled” water on a sweatshirt Beth was wearing so they would have to dry it, creating a natural way to approach this girl and engage her in a spiritual conversation.  They asked her questions, listened to the story of her life, and then shared with her the love that Christ has for her and how she could have a personal relationship with Him.  She responded to the pursuit of God for her heart and prayed with Jarah and Beth to receive Him as her Savior.  Praise the Lord for divine appointments and for these girls’ willingness to step out in faith!

After the week in Denver, I flew to San Antonio for a Summer Project Director’s Conference, and I was able to work with part of my leadership team on our project we’re leading in Juneau, AK this summer.  It was a productive time getting the calendar set, figuring out logistics, learning from staff who have led for years, and praying for vision.  While I was there, I really got a chance to hear from the Lord as to what He would have for this summer and submit my leadership to His sovereignty.  I am so incredibly excited to be in Juneau this summer with the women who will join me, and I am believing God to see a city transformed as we step out in obedience to share the Gospel.  It’s going to be amazing!

Now I’m getting back to real life, or trying to catch up with it.  Students have already been back on campus for a few weeks now,  and I’m anxious to see in what new ways God will move in the hearts of students this semester!

A New Year

I always love the end of the year — holiday activities, Christmas lights, thankful hearts for our salvation, the chance to spend time with family and friends, and the excitement that comes from starting a new year.  But one of the things I love most about this time is the chance I have to reflect on the year that has passed and pray over the one to come. 

One of the best ways I personally feel God’s love for me is experiencing refinement.  As I obediently follow God’s path for me, something challenging usually comes up.  A new job, a new place to live, the sometimes tiring mission to know myself better, or the frustration I have when God seems too unclear or too silent. 

It’s crazy to think of where I was last year at this time.  I had no idea what I was going into — my last semester of college, a summer full of growth in Juneau, and the challenge of raising support and starting an internship with Campus Crusade.  But how comforting is it to know that all of these events in this last year have refined me, enabling me to give more glory to God and live a life more worthy of the calling I have received?  The concept to me is incredible and humbling.  Obedience, refinement, reflection.  God desires to refine us so we can more clearly reflect Him.  Our spiritual lives grow, we experience the fullness of God and through that His unfaltering, unfailing love.  I can clearly see progress in my spiritual life from this past year of challenges — I have a bigger view of God, more faith (because I learned how to ask for it), and more confidence in how He uses me for His purposes.  I feel very loved.

Now as it’s time to continue the processes already at work within me and start new ones, I look forward to the new challenges ahead.  I’m praying for more changes in my heart so that I can more accurately display Christ wherever He sends me.  And whatever circumstances He chooses to make those changes happen, I pray that I have the courage and the humility to follow in faithful obedience.

The Need for Relationship

Living in Lincoln these past couple of months has been great — I live in the upstairs of my grandparents’ house where they’ve lived for over the past 50 years.  So, I’m living in the same room my mom and her siblings lived in while they were growing up.  It has been a huge blessing to have time with my grandparents (88 and 89 years young) on the days I’m actually in Lincoln (which isn’t many…).  They are so encouraging to my ministry and pray for me and my many counsins daily.  I also get homemade cookies and ice cream every once in awhile =).  I don’t know how I would’ve survived raising support if Grandma and Grandpa wouldn’t have opened their home to me, and I am truly thankful for them and learn from the way they model love and kindness.

I lived in the Wayne/Norfolk area for the past four years as I was going to college.  I had never been to northern Nebraska before I went to my first campus visit at Wayne State, but over the years the area became familiar.  I now find myself missing that part of Nebraska… maybe not for the thriving cities that populate the area… ha.. towns of about 100-2,000 people… but because I left some of my best friends there.  This last weekend over Thanksgiving I was able to go on a trip to the Grand Canyon with three of my closest friends.  It was an amazing chance to connect now that we’re in different places and stages of our lives.  On our trip we saw the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and even Four Corners USA (kind of.. who knew that four corners is actually a park that closes after dark? we sure didn’t).  This trip was a huge blessing as these friends are some of the biggest ways that God works in my life.

Opportunities to get together with old friends are rare, but in traveling to different campuses I get the chance to make new friends every time I leave Lincoln.  A couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to go to Chadron and spend some quality time with students there (until 3:30 in the morning quality time).  I absolutely love the girls at Chadron. They are so welcoming and honest about what God is doing in their lives.  So refreshing to be around! I am excited for our Christmas Conference in January where I will get more chances for developing solid frienships with these students.

 Thinking on all of these relationships, I feel very blessed and very thankful for God using these people in my life to show me more of Him and refine me to be more like Him.  The way we are created to need people and relationships is something I can sometimes find myself resentful of because it means I cannot function as an independent being.  That gets in the way of my pride.  But, the absolute blessing it is to trust and rely on each other to be effective as a body far outweighs any empty “satisfaction” I would get from only relying on myself.  It is a glorious thing to need people, and I am thankful that I need so many in my life.

(top picture is Kirbi Gall and me; middle picture is me with a group of Chadron girls; picture to the right is of Halie Hughes, Quinn Nisley, and me)

going deep

this last friday i had a blast with four students who came down to lincoln from columbus.   chris (the other intern who i work with on my team) had invited them to come down to see jeremy camp in concert, so we were provided with a fun opportunity to hang out with these all-star students who help lead the crusade group at columbus community college. 

maintaining a healthy ministry at a two-year school, where there is a high turnover rate in student leadership and often times more of commuter feel to campus than a community feel, can definitely be a challenge.  the students at columbus have accepted this challenge and have been moving forward all semester in steps of faith.  every weekly meeting new students come, and their group has grown to over 30 students!  many of them are planning to come to our christmas conference over break this winter.  that is definitely God at work.  these students are continually finding new ways to reach out and communicate the Gospel on their campus.  it is such an encouragement to see God at work, not just in the number of students involved, but in the personal lives of the four students who visited –skip, mike, kim, and jodi.  (skip and jodi are pictured above with me and chris)

i got a chance to really connect with kim and jodi, whose hearts for the Lord are so apparent.  they have different spiritual journeys and family backgrounds, but both testify to their need and love for our Savior.  working with 23 different campuses, my scope can seem too wide to be able to go deep with the girls who i work with.  but God is so faithful in that He knows i crave to be able to connect beyond the surface in relationships.  He knows because He created me that way!  I am so thankful for jodi and kim’s willingness to share with me who they are.  and i guarantee you that’s why the movement at columbus is growing.  with leaders who are willing to be vulnerable so that they can share who God is and what He has done in their lives, it’s hard to imagine how growth wouldn’t happen.

a month into ministry

it’s hard to believe that just over a month ago, i was raising the last of my support, anxious to come on staff with Campus Crusade.  i have learned so much in these last weeks in the context of full-time ministry, and i doubt it’s going to slow down anytime soon.  i work on a team of four who travel the state of Nebraska working with students on 23 campuses to spread the Gospel.  every day and every week looks different, but there has yet to be a day where i haven’t seen God at work.

at Columbus Community College there is a solid group of over 20 students who meet together and share the same vision of reaching their entire campus for Christ.  God is definitely moving at Wayne State College; there have been new believers in the last month, and upperclassmen are stepping up into spiritual leadership roles.  i have been absolutely blessed to meet with two girls at Concordia College in Seward and see their hearts for their Lord and their common desire to see fellow students experience Him.  the women’s ministry at Midland in Fremont is absolutely thriving with some stellar student leaders heading it up.  and new movements have been started on five campuses since the start of the school year.

there is so much to do, and the laborers are few.  i am humbled that God lets me in on what He’s doing in college students’ lives all over the state, and i pray His power is made perfect in my weakness.  if there’s anything i’ve learned at the beginning of this year of ministry, it’s to believe God can do immeasurably more than i can ask or imagine, and i need to expect Him to be at work long before i show up.