"The horse is made ready..."

"The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord." Proverbs 21:31

Quick update on the summer orientation sessions outreach.  They've gone great!  You can see me here in this great photo, so you know it's good...

As of now, we have 600+ names of incoming freshmen, and we project we'll have 800 or so by summer's end.
So positive things, so many possibilities for relationships and salvation to occur!

Here's a smattering of some of the summarized info so far:

Out of the 600 names, and on a 1-10 scale (10=highest)...

• "Interested in growing closer to God": 29% (174) said '10'.  
• An additional 38% put between 6-9 interested level.
• "Interested in gathering with others to learn about God": 17% (105) put a '10'
• An additional 34% put between 6-9.
• "Interested in considering the reasons you believe what you believe": 24% (146) said '10'!
• An additional 37% put between 6-9...notice a pattern?
• "Want to be contacted regarding the above interests?": 41%(247) said "yes!". 

What does this all mean?
        "Fruit!"  Well, maybe not.  We have clearly been granted an opportunity, and right now it means that God might indeed grant true, lasting gospel fruit from the 247+ students that have requested that someone follow-up with them.  Would you please pray that God would grant...

1. Wisdom and power to do what we ought. We only have 2 full-time staff (Brandon and I), and a few dozen students involved to varying degrees.  We desire to follow up with these students in a faithful way, a way that keeps mentorship/discipleship at the center, keeps local church at the center and so much more.  We want to be able to minister as effectively and qualitatively as possible.  We don't want to sacrifice this for a mass-appeal outreach that in the long run actually neglects the personal, intimate relational ministry that we have come to believe in so much.   
2. An amplified love of the core thing, the gospel of Christ.  Pray God would grow our heart not to grow our ministry, but to grow in our love of him that would spill over to more and more people who are still in their sin.

Brandon explaining Equip to a freshmen guy

Brooke,  Jon and Taylor volunteering

Jon and Karissa volunteering a couple weeks ago...who are now engaged!

Filling out one of the surveys

A Booby Trap in the Christian Budget | Desiring God

A Booby Trap in the Christian Budget | Desiring God:



A couple tid-bits from this very helpful article:

"Because of what the Bible warns about wealth, Christians quickly become some of the most vigilant about their incomes, investments, and donations — and that is a good and right trend as a whole. There is a brand of budgeting, though, that wears the heroic cape of Christianity, while masking a secret infatuation with money. A love for money can look like a love to have or a love to spend. A love for money might also reveal itself in an obsession with saving or even giving money away. Christian, have you fallen in love with the money you refuse to spend?"



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"We have a lot to say to the hoarders and spenders among us, but let’s remember money can seduce even the savers, those with the tightest fists and strictest budgets. A cheap lifestyle might be free from lots of things, but spending less is no guarantee of freedom from the love of money. Only a superior love for Jesus can buy you that."



I recommend reading the whole thing, it's not much longer than this.









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