Welcome to Campus!

Freshman arrive today! We had our Leadership Retreat over the past 2 days and over 70 student leaders came to campus early! We are gearing up for the freshman outreach. Here is the schedule over the next week: 

Thursday: Survey Table in the Student Center to invite freshmen to fill out surveys about their spirituality and enter to win $100 Chipotle gift card! We'll Also be playing Ultimate Frisbee on campus this afternoon. I remember the first day I was in Fort Collins I played this game that was like football but with a frisbee. Incredible outreach tool!

Friday: We'll continue with the survey table and frisbee outreach. In the evening we'll have our 10th Annual Spaghetti Dinner where we feed over 250 students! We'll also have our drawing for the Chipotle giftcard.

Saturday: This is our big sports outreach day. We'll have plenty of frisbee going on w/ basketball, sand volleyball and football! This is very attractive to freshmen and is how we get lots of students to join on ministry. In the evening we'll bike to downtown Fort Collins from campus to enjoy ice-cream with some new students. 

Sunday: In the evening we'll do our survey follow up. Many of our student leaders will be calling students who filled out our surveys and meeting them in the dorms. We have Navigators draw string bags filled with New Testaments, info cards and lots of goodies. This is great to meet freshmen and have them feel welcomed by upperclassmen. 

Monday: We continue our Frisbee outreach and follow up on student's that we didn't reach the night before. 

Tuesday: We kick off our freshmen ministry night: NavBasic. We will have an Ice Cream Social that is for freshmen. We give them free ice cream sundaes and get to know them better and invite them to sign up for a bible study. Last year I remember playing frisbee in the afternoon and walking over to the ice cream social with 30+ students.

Wednesday: We will have our first Nav Night of the semester. They are typically on Friday nights but CSU scheduling conflicts forced us to have it on Wednesday for the first 2 weeks. Nav Night is the front door of the Navigators because this is where many students interact with us for the first time. We have all of our students come together for worship, fellowship, and speaker and time in the Word.  I'm the Nav Night "Director" this year and very excited to be creative with the evening. We will have pizza before the event and expect to have around 500 students for the first Nav Night of the semester. 

Wow, big week ahead and I'm excited to see God move and bring in the students who want to grow in their faith. Please be praying for this week and the incoming freshmen. 

This is it...

Well folks, it's been an hard, joyful, sanctifying, trusting, encouraging, and amazing summer. It started with EDGE Summit #1 in Colorado Springs at The Glen. I met 40+ new friends who I am excited to see God move in their lives and develop friendships over the next few years. Since the summit I've had to trust God for $31,000. Yeah I said it, 31K and you know what? He's provided. In God's economy, 31 grand is chump change; just consider Psalm 24:1. I traveled to Texas shortly after the Summit and I was quickly discouraged. I continued to look at my percentage raised, the number of people I had on my contact list, who I had met with, who I had planned on sending letters to and the pile gets higher and higher. I opened my sheath and I was pierced soon after. I have this small piece of leather that I use as a bookmark. I got it last summer at STP and have kept it in Proverbs and Psalms since I acquired it. I found it one day in my car and I threw it in the first page I opened to. Weeks later when I felt this FUNding discouragement I opened to it and there was my strength for the rest of the summer. As my friend David Weber (on EDGE at Purdue) commented, Psalm 20 is a battle Psalm. 

20:1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2  May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
3  May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

4 May he grant you your heart's desire
and fulfill all your plans!
5  May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
7  Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8  They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

9 O Lord, save the king!
May he answer us when we call.

This Psalm spoke volumes to me. Verse 7 cut me deep. How often do we put our trust circumstances? For me, my trust was in chariots and horses. I was relying on a ridiculously small percentage, a list of people who many I didn't contact this summer and in the brokenness of leaning on my own understanding. I honestly was freaking out and debating if God would get me on campus this fall. My mind wandered and I started thinking of what I would do for income if I didn't raise this support. God knew exactly what I needed to hear. He knew exactly what I was doing when I found my leather bookmark and "randomly" opened to Psalm 20 to throw it in there and slam it shut. God knew I was going to have this little freak out session and he knew I was going to trust in His name. It's the only thing to trust in. Anything else will disappoint us and not fulfill us. 

That's enough about that. I perservered on in Texas; I met with many people, ministered to my sister and other friends, prayed with and for countless amounts of friends and family, and overall I left encouraged. I asked some people to pray for me and I saw an increase in the financial support. When I got back to Colorado, I hit the ground running. By this time I was confortable with meeting with people and sharing what God called me to. I got more people on board praying and things were going well. I talked with other EDGErs about where their funding was in relation to mine and we were about the same. I kept meeting with people and sent out over 100 letters and just continued to be patient. I did follow up calls and many people joined my team. Others didn't financially but that didn't matter. What mattered is they said they would pray for me. 

I was hanging around 25% with about 2 weeks to go. I was coming back to Psalm 20:7 and prayed through 1 Cor. 15:58. "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

So I mini vanned up to STP, which made such an impact in my life last summer, and I got to hang out with some great friends. I got to talk with some CSU students that I'll get to minister to. I hung out with my good buddy Derrik Dewitt from UCCS and talked FUNding encouragement with him. It was a short yet impactful evening in the mountains that kept me focused on Him. From there I went to visit my parents in Steamboat. Pops and I went mountain biking and we only fell off a couple of times. It was great to get some good M2M (man to man) time w/ my Dad. 

When I returned to Fort Collins my support was still at 25% but I kept focusing on God. I talked with more friends but what really made a difference was the e-mails I sent out. I had a list of people who I specifically asked to be praying for me over the summer and I gave them their first update on July 26th. I asked if they would pray for a few specifics and my funding. Immediately after I sent that email, gifts starting coming in and my percentage jumped to 40%. I continued to pray and be led by Jesus to contact certain people and He continued to provide. On August 8th I sent out another update praising God. At this time I was up to 56% and just pumped. This was becoming a reality. Gifts came from people I hardly know and those who I have had great relationships with over the past 1, 2, 5, 10, & 24 years! Shortly after I sent that email I got the green light to process my verbal pledges (Around 14%). This whole summer I have been asking folks to pray for August 13th and well here we are. I just got off the phone with a friend who doesn't know Jesus but he's reading The Shack and he asked that I pray for direction for his life. His name is Kyle, please pray that Kyle will come to Jesus. Oh, and Kyle said he would support me monthly this year! 

Today is August 13th. I have been praying since mid May that God would provide me with 100% of my funds on August 13th. As I postage stamp this update, I'm at 82%. I feel encouraged and it's been such an awesome ride. I know God has provided these funds already and I will be patient for them to come and will continue to do His work. 

I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family who have supported in prayer and finances this summer. It have been a blessing to pray for each of you as well as share this experience with you. I also want to thank Jesus. You died for me, you died for us and it's because of You that I will be giving my life away. 

Not to us O Lord not to us but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. -Psalm 115:1

EDGE Corps guidelines state that in order for us to report to campus in the fall, we must be at 75%. Well, training starts tomorrow at 9AM. 

This is it...