October Update

 It's been a while! What a fun and busy year it has been. We have experienced higher numbers of involvement than last year and that has been really neat to see all of our hard work being fufilled through the Spirit. We have about 180 students involved in our small groups throughout the week! This freshman class is larger than any other and so people are definately on campus more and are interested in friendship!

 

    One of the sweet things about new people is getting to build new friendships and see people encounter the love of Jesus for the first time or the first time in a long time. The downside of that is people are easily influenced by the world and get themselves in trouble or situations that aren't the most conductive towards growth. My prayer if for the students to come face to face with Jesus and encounter his love that changes everything for them.

    I lead core this year alone and we have a range of people who have grown up in the church their whole life to people who have no understanding or knowledge of the Bible. This last week we read Philippians 2 and the poem there.  "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, Who, being in nature God, did not consider equality with God to be something used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant..." We thought about how our family relationships would be transformed if everyone was looking out for the wellbeing of others and it was a neat though experiement. How refreshing would our lives be if we didn't have to strive after getting our needs met and could just be loved by the Lord? Cease striving and love on others. 

    As I think about this and other things in my life, I come face to face with the fact that I am in desperate need of a savior. The only things good in me have come from the Lord. I still have a long way to go in making myself a servant to others. I am in need of grace and love of the Lord and need to extend that to other people as well. Praise God for using us in our weakness because I have a lot of weakness.

    Pray for our students! I am praying for whoever find this post. Be encouraged to love and serve like a servant. Trust the Lord to take care of you wherever you are at. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and those who mourn. Draw near to him because he has drawn near to you!