Planning Weekend 2007

Friday and Saturday, myself, Pastor John and 6 other students spent the weekend seeking the Lord for His heart for the campus and developing plans for the next semester. We spent time in prayer, Bible Study, learning God's heart. We cast a vision and developed plans to reach the campus (and enjoyed lots of food:) )

A brief recap....
FRIDAY:

-Discussed who we were and what we were called to do. We believe that God has called us to be witnesses on the campus to influence the campus for Christ.

-Studied Jonah 3:10-4:14. We saw God's heart was for Ninevah to repent from their evil ways and for Jonah to be used as an instrument of repentance. We saw that this could be God's heart for Albion as well. That we should desire to see repentance, and like Jonah, challenged to be obedient with that call.

-Spent time in prayer for our campus. We prayed for our influence and our plans. We also prayed for those in our lives who do not yet know Christ.

-Discussed our niche in the Christian community.

-Came up with our mission statement for the year:

ALBION COLLEGE IVCF 2007-2008 MISSION:

"The purpose of seeking out Christians and encouraging them to join a community where they will be spiritually challenged, as well as establishing a body that is a welcoming, wtinessing community to reach out to the unbelievers on our campus."

We all signed our mission statement as a representation for our commitment to the campus and our desire to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed and world changers developed!

SATURDAY:

Spent most of the day making plans for the year.

-We are praying for 3 Small Group Bible Studies. We currently have 2. We are thinking and praying about the idea of having a pre-med Bible study, asking questions about medical ethics. As we were sitting around the table planning, it was a clear direction that we should be praying, with 4 premed students on our vision team.

-High emphasis on freshmen outreach. We desire to see the Christian freshmen plugged in and having a place for evangelistic outreach.

-We will be having a weekly leadership team, that I will lead, continue to develop a vision for the campus, train in leadership skills, discipleship. Together we will be praying for the campus.

-We will have one fellowship event a month that is designed for us to spend time in outreach!

-In October we want to have a speaker come in from the community to talk about racisim. "The Issue of Racism: The Role of the Local Church." I am very excited for this event!!!

-We want to have some events that we can invite high school students to be a part of. It was brought up this week that it is a high need in the community to have high schools students plugged in with older students.

Here are some pictures of the weekend!

This is Elizabeth, our chapter president making some goals for us!

Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but I wanted to give you all a picture of what Pastor John looks like. He has been a great blessing to me and an amazing liason for me and the community!

This is Jon, a religion major, a junior, and Elizabeth's boyfriend. I am not sure if he is hiding from the picture, or engrossed in scripture!

This is Kwame (his name means "Saturday") He is a junior from Ghana. He is an amazing man after God's own heart and has been a blessing to me. He is an RA this year, which will be great for us to have someone who knows a lot of freshmen and have connections with Residential Life!

This is William and he is DEFINITLY hiding from this picture!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-That the students would continue to develop a heart for unbelievers and a vision to reach the campus

-A possible pre-med bible study?

-1 more small group leader

-students would grow over the summer in their walk with God

-I am leaving for Madison, WI on Monday the 18th and will be gone for 10 days. Pray for safe travel, good fellowship and that I would retain all that I learn. I am there for New Staff Orientation.

-My continued funding process. I am currently at 35%.

Peace out!

Hey Guys,

It was pointed out to me that you could not post comments, well it should be working now. Let me know if it isn't. That means, I should be getting comments from all!

CHAPTER FOCUS WEEK '07

I am finally back at home in Albion! It has been a while and have missed Jon and Kaya, so much (Kaya is our baby---our CAT baby!)

For the past three weeks I have been back at home in St. Clair doing some fund development and then in beautiful Cedar Campus for our Annual "Chapter Focus Week." Fund development has been going fairly well. I trust that God will provide, because He cares for these students and this ministry more than I do. I am currently at 21%.

Chapter Focus Week was very different for me. There were 3 Albion students that came with me and God was really moving. I was able to clearly share the Gospel with one student. We had a great conversation. He is having a hard time grappling with the concept of evangelism. As we talked I had told him that if Jesus is really who we believe He is, the savior of the world, the giver of life, Redeemer, Reconciler and Life Giver, why would we not want to share that with other people? He did not make a desicion to follow Christ, but I believe it was a big step. He is living with a God-fearing Christian this summer and I am excited to see what comes out of their time together. Please pray for his salvation and his growing relationship with the Lord.

Another student has been numb from emotion for years. She hasn't allowed herself to feel feelings, or to be real to herself, or anyone else for that matter. For the first time in a long time, she broke down in tears and was able to share some real emotion. Please pray for her to continue to feel emotion, to be honest with herself and before the Lord as she begins to process some things.

And yet another student is heavily dealing with his past, concerning sexual sin. I valued and appreciated his openness throughout the week.

Throughout the week I was able to talk to several staff that were so encouraging and insightful. I talked staff at small schools, and those who have done chapter plants. When I decided to come to Albion, I thought that I would be building a small chapter up, but i believe that God is leading me to rid the chapter of the things that are dead and to start over. Please pray for me in this process. I need a lot of wisdom!!!!

Until next time.... I will leave you with some pictures of BEAUTIFUL CEDAR CAMPUS!

They Will Know We are Christian By Our Love

This was the closing song at Crossroads Community Church (my home church) this weekend. It was a great encouragement for me. As we were singing, God gave me pictures of how we as Christians do work together hand in hand for the glory of God.

We have a partnership!!! Those of you who are praying for me and Albion College, as well as those who are giving financially, we are partners! We are working together, working side by side, walking hand in hand to watch the Gospel spread on the campus to make a difference in the world. So here is the song. Read it. Picture us being partners in the Gospel together.

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord And we pray that all unity may one day be restored And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love
We will work with each other, we will work side by side We will work with each other, we will work side by side And we'll guard each one's dignity and save each one's pride And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love
By our love, by our love
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love
By our love, by our love
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love

April 24th

It is the end of the semester which means students are busy getting ready for finals. I am not doing much, just meeting with some of them, trying to cast a vision, and plan for next year.

Prayer Points
-There is still time for students to sign up for Chapter Focus Week (our student leader training, the week after finals)
-Possible Summer Bible Study and outreaches with students
-Chapter Planning for next year

AWAKEN

Last night, a group called AWAKEN came to Albion College to promote unity among the Christian groups, to lead us in worship and to give us a message. After, we had a great night of fellowship. Some of the students came over to our house, and Jon and I were able to get to know some of them and have some fun conversation. This is the first of many nights at our house, I am sure! Here are some pics :)

To the left, Kwamme, an amazing small group leader!~

Jon and I (Don't pay attention to my CMU IV shirt)

On the right is a pic of Kristi, Corrie and Elaine.

Next time I move, I am hiring help!

We did it! We are officially "moved" into our house in Albion. Our duplex house that is. On Thursday, after a night of no sleep, we fearlessly moved to Albion, Jon with the U-Haul and the crazy winds. We didn't have very many people and it made for a very very long two days of packing and unpacking and led to many many sore body parts. I have still not fully recovered!

I will post pictures of the house when it starts looking presentable, when I can actually see the floor instead of millions and millions of boxes!

In the next few weeks I will be unpacking and making our place like a home, getting to know some the Albion students, attend Chapter Focus Week (our leadership retreat at the end of the semester), and be active in the fundraising process. Please be in prayer for all of these things!

Praise God for a safe move!