Compelling 08 Updated

Compelling was a great conference for both students and staff. It was the Fall Conference for the Michigan Division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. There were nearly 400 people in attendance. The schools represented were:

Grand Valley
Western Michigan University
Hope College
Kalamazoo College
Grand Rapids Community College
Delta College
Central Michigan University
Michigan State University
Albion College
Hillsdale College
UM Flint
UM Dearborn
UM Ann Arbor
Oakland University
Wayne State University

During the conference, I was a part of "Sexy on the Inside" (a seminar). Each student chose a track/seminar that they were to be a part of...
Sexy on the Inside
Windows to the World---learning the Christian Worldview
Philippians--- inductive study of the book of Philippians
Missional Prayer
Leadership Essentials
The Joy of Following Jesus
Finding God

Duing the Sexy on the Inside track, we learned about God's design of human sexuality, and unfortunately it has been broken. Many students had a chance to come before the Lord, and admit past mistakes, and hurts, in their lives, including sexual promiscuity, sexual abuse, temptations, etc. It was a joy to watch them seek the Lord, and to pray over these students.

Picture to the right....a cross. Students had a chance to write down their hurts, sins, things done to them....anything that they needed healing from. They wrote them down, and tacked them to the cross, signifying that Jesus has control of their situation, and they no longer need to hold onto it.



The 9 Albion Students that are so excited to be a part of the conference! It is exciting for me to see that this group exists of students that are seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen!!!








Students had a chance to worship God through artwork










Learning to arm wrestle? Really, they were having a great time!


Some of my favorite moments:
-Students are committing to prayer!
-Relationships were built!
-Students began to see the truth in the kingdom of God and were excited about telling people about it on campus.
-Saturday night we had chapter time. I arrived at chapter time late, but only a few minutes, and one of the seniors had started leading it. It was so encouraging to see leadership development work!!! This leader asked students what they would like to see in the chapter back on campus. They all shared and then spent lots of time in prayer. Then, this leader shared his concerns with the chapter, that he feels that students are not committed and therefore we will always lack growth. This leader challenged them to make a commitment to the chapter and being a part of its growth. And then...this leader had us meet in our campus small groups to evaluate how we were doing and what we could do to better reach the campus!!! WHAT???? This made my heart swell with joy, encouragement, as I thought....this is why I do what I do---to help students develop their own leadership. These students are going to be leaders in YOUR churches!

Thank you so much for making this possible. It is because of your prayers and financial support that this is possible. Thank you.

It is early in the month, and already I am failing on my commitment to blog everyday. Feels like that a lot lately....not so much failing.....just lots of commitments and trying to see which ones to keep....

Speaking of commitments, I spoke at Albion's chapel service last night. It is a place where about 40 students come to worship, and hear a message. My message was called "Seeing your campus as a Mission Field." I asked all of the students to commit to a list of things.....many committed to praying for their lost friends, many committed to being a missional Christian on campus and some even said that they wanted to learn more about Jesus! I am hoping to do some great follow up and meet with each of these students. Pray that they would want to meet with me, and that I can start forming a relationship with even more students!

N or S?

For all of you Meyers Briggs fans, you know what I mean, when I say that I am an ISFJ. However, my husband is convinced that I am an INFJ. I think he might convinced me of that today as well.

You see, I have to give a talk on campus this week, and I have the big picture all planned out, but am having trouble plugging in the details....yes, miss detail is having trouble filling in the details.

Today was spent mostly at home....getting lots of prep work done for Small Group, Compelling (Fall Conference) a talk I am doing on campus, phone calls, emails, etc. A good day with lots of coffee.

And...I still want to buy the house.....please pray that God blesses us!

Sunday Home Cooked Meals

This morning in church, a couple invited us over for an old fashioned Sunday meal. It was a grand meat and potatoes meal.....and it was delicious!!! It was great to be in fellowship with other people and of course.....hold a baby. Jon and I definitely have the baby bug, so if anyone has a baby that they want to donate.....errr... have us babysit, that would be great!!!

Jon's parents came and visited today. It was great to see them. We took them through the "potential house." The house that we really would like to buy. Pray that we do!

So what would you guys like to hear about this month...as I blog everyday?

UPS drama

This past Monday was the Monday of all Mondays :)

I was driving and out of nowhere a UPS truck ran through a stop sign..result a totaled car, but absolutely NO INJURIES! Praise the Lord for protecting, both myself and the UPS driver. I do not take safety lightly at all. It was all God!

It is national blogging month.....that means, I am going to try to post one post each day for the month....and today counts as Nov 1, because I still haven't gone to sleep yet!

"How do we talk to our friends about Jesus?"

Tonight was one of my favorite nights on campus so far. I went to campus for my usual Monday night, Freshmen Small Group Bible Study. I was crabby, because it was 9:oo, and all I wanted to do was stay home with the hubster and the cats, and chill out. When I got there only, four girls showed up, and I was really discouraged.

We studied Mark 4:1-25, the passage that talks about the 4 Soils. We were talking about good soil bearing fruit and what that would really look like. Somehow, all of the girls started asking similiar questions or making statements like.... "I am not afraid to say I am a christian, but I am afraid to talk about Jesus." "How can I tell someone that Jesus is the only way?" "How can I get into a conversation about Jesus?" "What if I miss the opportunity? Will God bring another one?"

What a treat to a) have real conversation b) to have people who really have a desire to see their friends come to faith but have no idea how to do it c) it gives me a place to start with them as far as discipleship and training.

Ministry Update...

Here are some highlights---

-Meeting new freshmen
-new freshmen in Small Group Bible Studies
-Training leaders, and watching them develop and use their leadership skills
-3 Small Group Bible Studies!
-Starting a Greek ministry