Myrtle Beach, SC

After about 24 hours of driving the past two days, I am not finally in SC! Myrtle Beach is beautiful so far, although we spent the last several hours building lofts, moving furniture, moving refridgerators around the project site.

Lots of work, and been getting to meet and get to know dozens of new people, and that has been just great.

Keep me in prayer, as we prepare for the next 2.5 days for the rest of the students (150-ish) who will be showing up on Thursday in the afternoon. Lots to do before then!

(Above is one of the palm trees outside my door)

Leaving!

In 15 minutes, I take off for Minneapolis, then tomorrow morning will leave for South Carolina for Summer Training Project. I'll be in SC till about July 2 or so, and so would love your prayers!

Also, I'll be blogging on (hopefully) a regular basis, so if you are interested in keeping up, check often. (Emma DeJong, an Equip student leader, will also be down there, and she has got an internship with the project, ans so will be updating the STP blog on a regular basis, which will likely have way more information than my blog.

Hope to see you in July!

Additions for 2011-12 & June!

So, I have two quick things:

1) Please pray for our Fall 2011 preparations...yes, preparations even now! Specifically (for now), please pray for the construction and implementation of what I'm calling Equip "U", U= University. In a nutshell, what we are wanting to do is categorize the things we do that most specifically fall under the category of 'Christian Education'. One of these things is the Reasons Class that we have taught for the last three years (mostly). But, and this is the prayer request, the addition for this Fall is going to be what we are calling "Mini-Seminar Saturdays" (MSS). The basic thrust is going to be a certain number of hours (5-8ish) on a given Saturday during the semester, in which we will have lectures, small group interaction, Q&A, and just as much jam-packed learning as we can do on a given subject. In effect, we want to further our equipping to SDSU students, and this is one way that we are very hopeful will help us do just that.

The topic list is large and growing, and I'm hoping to get some serious clarity soon as to what we focus on. The plan is have two of these MSS's (I know, we might need a different name), one in October and then in November. If the Lord wills, I'm very confident that we will be able to do some serious education to the glory of God, that students would be further enabled to humbly and passionately proclaim, explain and defend the gospel!

(the pictures are from our Reasons class this past year)

2) I leave for South Carolina in 7 days! Yikes. I'm very much looking forward to it, for I think both the (6) Equip students coming will benefit from it greatly, as well as myself. I'm looking forward to learning as much as possible from the COM (Camus Outreach Minneapolis) staff guys as possible. Please pray for me while I'm there, that my fundraising, Seminary work, and planning for next year would thrive the whole time as well! If you want to keep updated with what is going on during the project, follow it on this blog: http://stp.cominneapolis.org/blog/blog

There isn't anything there yet, but soon there will be.

Anyways, hope to see you guys soon, especially since I'll be gone for June!

[Fun]draising!!!

Okay, so it isn't actually [fun] raising, I just love the way that works.

But, I am now fully engaged in FUNDRAISING for the summer! For whomever of you keeps up with my blog postings on my ministry life, you may or may not know how big a part of my life that fundraising is...especially in the summer. all of this is to say, please pray for my fundraising efforts this summer!

Specifically, pray that fundraising would be more than simply raising funds, but that God would bless me with financial and prayer partners that are excited and moved by the vision of Equip, and want to see more and more college students reached and equipped to proclaim and spread the gospel of Christ, during their college years, and especially the rest of their life. When people who are passionate about that support me, it makes all the difference in the world in how I go about doing ministry with their support.

So, this afternoon and all evening I've been writing thank you letters and organizing a bunch of stuff on my computer to start calling and meeting with people this summer. Shown here is Mike Berhow, the recent returnee to Brookings, along with his wife Becky. Mike, if you didn't know, was a staff member two years ago, and will be volunteering some of his time to teach and help do some ministry this next year and more to come, hopefully! Please pray that Mike and Becky would get involved and be blessed as they transition back to life here in Brookings.

Meagan's Testimony

On my newsletter I have a small excerpt of Meagan's testimony, and would like to share the whole thing here:

"February 17, 2011 was the first night I had entered the doors of 1st Baptist Church for Equip. I had no idea what to expect. A couple of friends had invited me to go along with them that Wednesday night. Everyone I met was very friendly and something about that place just felt homey. We sat in a small room and sang a few songs, prayed, and then Brandon spoke about Christ for a while. When Brandon was done he asked us all to bow our heads for prayer. Right then the room became warm and what seemed like every single sin I had ever done in my life had flashed right in front of me. My heart began to beat really fast and just felt heavy. My whole body was heavy, like someone was sitting on my shoulders and I was desperately trying to stand up with them forcing me down. Tears fell from my eyes at a rapid pace I had never seen before. Every time I wiped them away on my sleeve another ten drops were ready to fall. I didn’t quite understand exactly what was happening to me, but when we went back to my dorm room my friends Michelle and Tom, both amazing Christian friends of mine, came up to my room and talked me through what had happen to me. I remember every time I would say something Tom would flip through his Bible so fast to show me a verse that proved that God had made me new that night. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to go to sleep and wake up the next day living my life a complete 180 from what it had used to be. The change was so drastic that all of my friends tell me they don’t even know who I am anymore.

I’m a completely new creation! I had grown up sitting in a pew every Sunday calling myself a Christian. How ignorant I was to believe that I was a Christian just because I went to church on Sunday, ate the bread and drank the wine, sang the songs they asked, and tried to stay awake as my Pastor went on and on. Every now and then I would get a slight idea about opening my Bible, but it never lasted long. I would compare myself to my friends and the choices they were making and tell myself, “I’m a good person.” But until that night at Equip I had never noticed how disgusting my sin truly was. I give God all the credit for what He did to me that night at Equip!

Equip has helped me so much since that night. I have made many new wonderful friends who make great accountability partners to keep me on track with reading my bible and staying in worship. Luke gave me a helpful perspective on how as a Christian I am in a constant spiritual war with my own sins. We want to kill and defeat our sins so we can be closer to God and try to be like Jesus. I’m discovering what it means to be a Christian and making those changes in my life, defeating my sin and making a better relationship with God. Equip has been a great tool that God has given me to becoming a better Christian."

First and Last Bonfire of Spring 2011

The end is here...bitter sweet.

It is always a difficult time for me that past three years at the end of the year. On the one hand, having this time to prepare for next year and to take some time 'off' is incredibly needed. On the other hand, the students all (mostly) take off for four months, and it is hard. I have so much fellowship and time with them throughout the year, that it makes it a very hard time.

So, please pray that:

1) the Lord would bless my fundraising endeavors this summer

2) That all the necessary preparations would be made for next year

3) That I would draw near to the Lord and trust in his grace, feeling the truths that I profess in a deeper way

Our last event was fun, even though we got all rained-out for the most of it, we had a great time in the garage of one of the married couples in Equip. They volunteered the place for the party, and it was a great way to end the year!