Ending My Internship

The semester has now come to an end, but my life feels like it is moving at an insane speed. I couldn't have asked for a more amazing year. I learned so much, and was stretched an equal amount (that sounds so cliche doesn't it?) If you receive my prayer letters, you know that God has been moving on our campus, lives of near 20 students have been changed for all eternity, and I have made relationships with people that I will never forget. This year had so many accomplishments, as well as failures. Our team suffered severe grief and loss, but because of Christ, we had joy and peace to cling to. We closed out this semester by saying goodbye to the Peltons, who will be leaving NMSU's staff, and hello to the Robinsons, who will be joining. It has just been a year of transitioning. I have also transitioned from a girlfriend to a fiance, which is pretty stinkin cool! :)

So what's next on my agenda? Well, besides planning a wedding, I am preparing for my final Summer Project with Cru, in Kake, Alaska. More to come on that though. :)

Missional Communities

This semester our main focus for our students as well as the interns is on missional communities, meaning, finding a group of people on campus that we are somewhat involved in or interested in them, and then intentionally hang out with them. If you are wondering what the purpose of this is, well than I will tell you. At NMSU there are 19,000 students, roughly, and about 400 of those are Christians that are involved in some type of fellowship (church or college ministry). Each year each college ministry (RUF, AFC, Cru, BSU, etc...all of them) fight over those 400 people...which is only 2% of our college population. We really want to reach out, get to know, and do life with that 98%. So by immersing ourselves in the community that is already going on around us, gaining their trust and then being intentional with them by starting up a Bible Study or a weekly forum to talk about spiritual things, we will reach that 98%.

It is a little unprecedented, and a little unscripted since we haven't really done this before, but we are excited and fully faithful that this is where God is calling us. So we have students who are going to be missional in the: drama and theatre department, graphic design department, fraternity and sorority, the Stonewall Coalition (Queer and Straight Alliance), international students, and the CA/RA departments in the dorms. We are giving the missional community leaders a little bit of spending money each month that they can use to spend time with people within their community, to plan a get together, etc... We are so excited to see how God is going to move! Could you please keep our students in your prayers?

DCC 2011-Going "All In"

From December 27-January 5th I was up in Denver, Colorado with 40 students from NMSU, and about 1500 students from other Universities! We all had one mission, to see God move in our hearts and help prepare us to "go all in" for the plans He has for us. Our students were encouraged, challenged and absolutely flourished during this time. Each day there were a myriad of speakers covering different topics, preparing our students for the following semester. There definitely were some highlights of the Denver Christmas Conference as well...and those were Outreaches.

Our students had a chance to spark up Spiritual conversations with their friends, family or acquaintances over social media (facebook). They also had the opportunity to go out on the 16th street mall and serve/minister/bless the large homeless population. Finally, on New Years Eve, 1500 students went out into the 16th and "Tebowed" ( a reference to a position Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, makes after a touchdown) for 7 whole minutes. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of attention from everyone around them. The students, after rising and walking around like normal, were able to start spiritual conversations with random strangers about Tebow's faith in God and by asking them how they felt about it. At the end of the night, it was reported that 15 people came to Christ. How awesome is God!?! The students then spent the next few hours singing in the New Year by worshipping the Lord. 

Now that we are back at school, you can see the effects that the conference had on the students and just how much God is working in their lives. Please continue to pray for our students' grow and maturity in their faith, and pray for the students who came who are not yet believers in Christ...that He would continue to draw them closer to Him.