CRUSH FEAR - May Newsletter 2013

 

“When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?”

Psalm 56:3-4

 

  CRUSH FEAR 2013

 

This year God presented us with a new challenge: to direct our first summer project! Though we faced many challenges leading up to Crush Fear (including whether or not to even do it) May 19^th arrived with 6 students at Cascade Lodge for 2 weeks of fear crushing adventures!! The students got to face physical challenges (like rappelling, rock climbing, backpacking, rafting, zip lining and others) along with personal and ministry challenges (confronting a store manager about inappropriate magazines, street evangelism, sharing their testimony in front of a church and on the radio and MANY more). Needless to say that when June 2^nd came for them to go home, they were EXHAUSTED (along with the staff)!!! Though we as staff learned so much from the experience, we thought we would let the students share what they got from the project.

“God [these] past 2 weeks has shown me that with him he makes me stronger physically, mentally and spiritually.”

“God has worked in me a lot during this and shown me things I didn’t realize I had trouble with before. I was also forced to step out of my comfort zone during a lot of the activities, which was really awesome and necessary. It’s been so fun and challenging and I hope we can do a Crush Fear 2 or something else that we can all get back together to crush some more fear!”

“This was such an incredible experience and I was blessed in so many ways by it. I feel like my walk has been strengthened and like I have grown a ton.”

“I feel more at peace with my life, and feel as though I can conquer any trial I face if I let Christ have the throne.”

“I’ve realized my value in Him exists because of His grace and not my actions. I am less afraid to pursue what He calls me to because I know I can trust Him.”

“Before coming to Crush Fear, I was continually doubting myself and running away from who God wanted me to be. By confronting my fears and weaknesses, I feel as though I am more willing to step out in faith and take action to be where God is leading me.”

“Going into town to share the gospel and telling cashiers Jesus loves them helped me conquer my fears in that there is no reason to be afraid to share your faith.”

“Before, I wasn’t sure who God has made me to be… He has revealed [who I am] to me and how I am called to share God with others and to be His faithful servant.”

We can’t help but thank God for all that He did these two weeks!!! He has been so faithful to show up when we needed, to provide the energy and strength to keep going, and to help each person walk away more confident and courageous to live the life that He has called them to. We’re excited to see what He will do next in each of their lives!! Thank you so much for praying for us, the rest of the staff, and the students. Please continue to pray that these students will live the rest of their lives dedicated to the Great Commission without fear holding them back!!!

 

Prayer Requests

 

-       Please pray for healing for Leah: This semester we discovered that I (Leah) have a large cyst on my left ovary and a couple smaller ones on my right – all of which are due to endometriosis. We decided to go ahead and get them surgically removed June 12^th. Pray that God would bring healing in His timing and way!

-       We desire to raise an additional $700 in monthly support – prayer for the funds to be met and the time to ask people to partner with us would be greatly appreciated.

-       Continue to pray for Fort Lewis College to be won for Christ, and the students to have a summer glorifying to Him  and encouraging to their spiritual growth.

-       We are SO SO SO thankful for each and every one of you!! Thank you for your faithfulness to pray, serve and give. Let us know how we can be praying for you as well!!

 

Crush Fear Staff 2013

Eating Crickets and Mealworms (Don't worry, they ARE FDA approved!)

White Water Rafting

Setting out on the 6 hrs + of hiking

Tired, but none the worse

24 hour solo

Evagelism downtown Durango

The Ladies

The men

Our fearless students (From left to right): Casey, Lori, Kensey, Alex, Rachael (also our intern) and Shawnee

A New Season - August 2012 Newsletter

 

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

 

A New Season

 

Thank you to all who prayed for our trip. We had a WONDERFUL time!! We traveled through 5 different states, visited 6 different national parks, and enjoyed the last 13 days of summer vacation.

Many of you may have had to go buy pencils, notebooks, rulers, and all the other supplies to get ready for school. Some of you may have had to pack up childhood rooms in cars and see your kids off to college. While others of you may be simply enjoying these last days of summer, and looking forward to changes that fall brings. For us, we have prepared our hearts, minds, and schedules for our favorite time of the year – the beginning of the academic school year!!

We returned from our vacation to sprint into ministry. What a blast we have had! Getting to hear stories from the summer, meeting new students from all over the place, and being able to share the Gospel with people – we are thoroughly enjoying being back in the swing of things!!

We’re only a week in, and so far we have had over 15 people indicate decisions to follow Christ!! PRAISE GOD!!! Many of those were indicated on cards after our first Connect meeting. One guy met with a staff member before classes even began to talk about Jesus, and made a decision at the end of their meeting! God is doing amazing things before our eyes, and it has only been one week.

Another great story was at our first Thursday dinner of the year. We had a great open discussion, with a handful of students being fully honest that they were there investigating Christianity. After the big discussion, one student said he didn’t know the Gospel to one of our student leaders. The leader shared the Gospel, and though the student was very interested he didn’t make a decision yet as far as we know to follow Christ. Please pray for him to make a decision soon!!

First Thursday Dinner!!

Prayer Requests

 

We are so excited to see all that God is doing! For this reason, we really wanted to share this with all of you. These praises have come with their fair share of pressure. As we have faced some obstacles in meeting students. And as a couple, small things have come up this week to distract us from ministry and getting time together. But thanks be to God as He continues to give us the strength to persevere!

-       Pray for opposition to cease so we can continue to meet students to share the Good News with Fort Lewis College.

-       Pray for our student leaders to have the time and heart to serve this year.

-       Pray that we can be faithful to follow up with the students who we have met so far this year. We both have packed our schedules with appointments with new students to learn about and share Jesus with!!

-       Pray that both Malcolm and I can stay refreshed and energized to keep going. We will be leaving for another wedding (this one in Idaho) for another good friend of ours this month. Pray for safety for our trip, and for us to return ready to keep running the race in Durango!!

-       Thank you for your prayers, and for sharing your prayers and praises with us!

Swimming in the pond at the Ranch fun day

Paintball fight!!

 

Never Will I Leave You

Malcolm got to write the newsletter this time around (which he did a great job, I can't wait to post it)! We had a great time this last month and God has been showing us both a lot. I (Leah, if you couldn't guess) really wanted to share something that God showed me this past month.

When we were up in Denver, God really put on my heart to reach out to a couple friends of mine from childhood. They have both been on my "Most Wanted" list for a long time. When we were in middle school, I took both of them to Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je west where one did pray to receive Christ (though I do remember she was very afraid of hell, so I'm not sure if it was actual surrender to Christ or not - I'm not judging her decision, but she definitely is not living for Christ needless to say). The other I remember loved her experience at camp, but not sure she really made any commitments to Jesus. Regardless, they both have been exposed to the Gospel, but neither are living for Christ. In fact, I have seen them both go through very hard things since leaving high school. I don't want to share their personal lives here.

Anyway, with one friend, it took almost all week just to set down a time to see her. She kept changing times, bailing on our set time, etc. It was becoming a little discouraging. But God kept encouraging my heart saying, "Keep pursuing her. Show her how I won't give up pursuing her." So I kept pressing! Finally, we set down to have dinner after her work. Malcolm and I went to her work, and asked if we were still on for dinner. "Oh, I have to go to Boulder for something tonight!" she replied. AH! All this work, and I got 15 minutes of chat time! I wanted so badly to share the Gospel with her, to remind her of how good God is and how much He loves her! But God (and Malcolm) reminded me as we drove away - HE is in control! It's not my job to change hearts. It's my job to be obedient. And that's what I did. Gosh, even now my heart hurts for this friend of mine! How badly she needs Christ's healing in her life! How much hope she could have!! 

God keeps reminding me of one thing she said to me as we were hugging, "You are such a light to my life." How good is God! I barely did anything, and yet I did exactly what God wanted me to do - be obedient - and He did all the rest of the work!

My other friend is at a whole different place than my other friend. We got a whole hour to catch up, but I also didn't get to share the Gospel with her. But while I used the restroom, Malcolm got to share his testimony with her! (May I just say, I love that man I married!) 

I really desired to open up these relationships again, and to show these ladies just how much I love them and care for them, and ultimately how much God loves them. Pray for them please! And pray that I can be more bold next time to share the Gospel - or really, just be faithful to be obedient to what God wants me to do. 

God has really put this on my heart to encourage anyone who is reading this that it is never too late to reach out to those around you! Whenever I think of these friends, He has brought these scriptures to mind:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" Hebrews 13:5

"...if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

2 Timothy 2:13

God doesn't give up! God is relentless in His pursuit of people! We don't have to give up either. There are 2 times in which it's too late to keep reaching out to other people: if they die, or if you die. Sharing the Gospel with nonbelievers is one thing you can't do in heaven. Let's pray for each other in this!! Let's be persistent to show how persistent God is!!

Fellowship

At Connect this year, we decided to take words that we say all the time and look at what the Bible says about them. I (Leah) had the chance to speak on fellowship a couple weeks and thought you all might enjoy learning more about what it really is as well!! Please pray for us and the students this weekend as we head off to a retreat. I'm giving another talk on being an eternal citizen, which I get to use as another avenue to share the Gospel to those who may not have heard it yet!!

 

When Christians talk about fellowship, I notice a couple things happen.

1.    We say that fellowship more than just hanging out

2.    We treat fellowship like it’s just hanging out

This bothers me, because I have done these two things time and time again. I wanted quit getting into the same pattern of saying one thing and doing another, so I was stoked to finally get the time to study what fellowship truly means.

There are 5 words in the Greek that have been translated into fellowship. And between these words, fellowship means association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse, a sharing, a partner, associate, comrade, companion, sharer in anything, to become a partaker together with others, or to have fellowship with a thing.

That was a whole lot of words, but what I have found is that fellowship can be boiled down to these main points:

1.    Fellowship starts with communion with God

o      What is communion? Having in common, sharing anything. The Lord's Supper is so called communion because in it there is fellowship between Christ and his disciples, and of the disciples with one another. It’s identifying and sharing in Christ’s death.

o      Jesus is who we have in common with God, and when we spend time with God – reading His word, talking to Him in prayer, praising His name – that’s communion.

o      Realistically, as in anything else we do, the point of fellowship is to give glory to God. So true, Christian fellowship can’t happen if you’re not a Christian.

o      1 John 1:3 says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

o      Our ultimate fellowship is with God, and we share the Gospel so that others can also have the same fellowship!

2.    Fellowship involves community

o      The difference between hanging out and community is a key to understanding fellowship. You can hangout with just about anyone, but community involves a special interest or connection.

o      My freshman year of college, I was in Soc 100, and there was a group of about 8 students that were in a learning community that sat right by me. They were a little obnoxious because they all had the same ideas, all had the same stories and jokes from the weekends that they spent together – and none of them agreed with me on how electric trains were not going to catch on in the U.S.! I really liked them, please don’t get me wrong, but that is community! They shared the same ideals and dedicated time to each other.

o      We have an even better bonding agent than ideals or interests! We have Jesus Christ!! As the body of Christ, we love each other, take care of each other, and want to be around each other because we all have the same foundation of Christ.

o      Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

o      We need each other, and do better together as a unit than we do alone! Which brings me to the final point that…

3.    Fellowship needs participation

o      This part is HUGE because it includes action on our part! What makes fellowship so much more than hanging out is that there are specific things needs to happen in our time together.

o      I could go on all night talking about all the things we get to do together as the body of Christ and how they benefit us, but I’m going to highlight a few things. (If you would like the Bible references for these, come up and look at my notes afterwards and you can get them.)

§       Encourage each other daily (Hebrews 3:13)

§       Build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

§       Carry each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

§       Share in each other’s sufferings (2 Corinthians 1:7, Philippians 4:14)

§       Stand side by side in one another’s persecution (Hebrews 10:33)

§       Call out sin in each other’s lives – gently (Galatians 6:1)

§       Confess our sins to one another (James 5:16)

§       Consider each other better than yourself (Philippians 2:3)

§       Look out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4)

§       Give to those who have need – whether that is with money, food, time (Romans 12:13, 15:27, 2 Corinthians 8:4, 9:13 Hebrews 13:16)

§       Provoke one another on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)

§       We need to continue to meet together – and we should meet with each other the closer we are to seeing Jesus face to face (Hebrews 10:25)

§       And, together, we need to have the same goal to seek Jesus and to share Jesus with others who don’t have a relationship with Him (Philippians 1:5, Philemon 6)

One thing I love about God’s Word, is that it not only tells us what to do, but gives us examples of what we should do. And there is an amazing example is Acts 2:42-47.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Isn’t that cool?! And that can happen today too among us here in Durango, Colorado! So my challenge to you is get connected in true, real fellowship with your brothers and sisters. Here at Connect, we would love for you to get involved and participate with us in Bible Studies, in sharing your faith, in looking out for each other – we desire to practice true fellowship. If not with us here at Connect, then with others – but don’t neglect fellowship!

Here are pictures of Cascade Lodge at our Fall Retreat last year.