Back in the Saddle

It was a great summer for us splitting time in Australia and Destin, Fl. Most people would say it was the summer of a lifetime for us, and honestly it was! To say it went by too fast is an understatement. Nonetheless, it was an experience we will thank the Lord for the rest of our lives. We learned so much about ourselves, saw too much sin to be comfortable with our lives, shared our faith with students all the way across the world, experienced the Lord moving in students hearts down at the Summer Beach Project and received a lack of sleep that I'm not sure we will ever recover from!

Well, the summer is behind us and I am grinding away at raising support for our ministry, meeting with men in my discipleship groups, cruising through the fraternity houses and sitting in my favorite coffee shop in Carrollton typing away. Bethany is back teaching 6th graders, meeting with girls on campus and doing her best to put up with me.

Life is happening,

Matt

Summer Beach Project

As many of you know our Summer Beach Project is currently taking place in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This summer there are one hundred and thirty students down at project. This is the largest beach project that Campus Outreach Birmingham has ever seen! This summer the theme of the project is “The Kingdom of God.” Students have been learning to gain a kingdom perspective and losing their selves for Christ. Please pray that these students would continue to grow in their own personal relationships with Christ and their desires to give their lives away when they return back to their campuses.




Student highlight: “Getting the chance to disciple girls and learning what true discipleship looks like…” (Maria~ West Georgia Graduate)

Student highlight: “I have learned that when I am making little of my sin, I am making little of Christ…” (Hamilton~ West Georgia Sophomore)

Our Summer at a Glance...

Well, our summer in Australia finally came to a close and the one word that comes to mind is “faithful.” As our team walked away from the summer we were reminded that God’s faithfulness to His people is real, deep, and non-changing. He is more committed to His Kingdom coming than we will ever imagine. This faithfulness is all performed out of the most selfless and pure love. His faithfulness is so vast and deep in not only the depths of our own hearts, but also in the hearts of people all over the world.

We saw this played out in a number of ways. One specific way we saw His faithfulness was through our answered prayers. As a team, we entered into the summer believing that building relationships with the students on campus would be quite difficult. Talking about spiritual things would be almost out of the question. Due to this, we immediately began to pray. We prayed that the Lord would open doors and give us favor in the eyes of the Aussie students. We quickly began to observe that this idea or misconception was not completely true. The girls and I were immediately introduced to some students that were involved in the campus ministry called, “Impact” (equivalent to Campus Outreach). After meeting just a few girls, the Lord began to not only open opportunities to meet others but opportunities to build friendships. It did not take long before the girls and I were spending quality and individual time with the female students discussing their lives and sharing our faith!

The highlight of my summer by far was being able to share the gospel with a South African girl that I had been praying for specifically all summer. As I was talking to her about how Christ came to give life, her eyes filled up with tears and she said, “Bethany, I have never heard this before and I am going to remember this.” Those were the sweetest words to me because in that moment I remembered all the prayers to my sweet God. Please pray for Micol that she would desire God and call on Christ as Savior! Matt’s summer and the guy’s summer was a bit more challenging than the girls in the area of building relationships. Aussie guys were a bit more skeptical of the guy’s purpose in being there. However, the guys continued to pursue the Aussie guys praying that they would trust them. Matt was able to build a relationship with an Australian student named Tim. For about five weeks, Matt’s time with Tim was very casual. It mostly consisted of Matt going to his dorm room and just hanging out. The last week we were in Australia Tim asked Matt if they could get coffee sometime and discuss God! They met and Matt was able to share the gospel! Tim desires to know Christ; however, he has many questions. Please pray that Tim would seek the answers to those questions and receive Christ!

All in all our summer in Australia was amazing! By doing ministry together, Matt and I were able to connect more on a spiritual level observing each other’s hearts for God and brokenness for our sin. The students were able to see a different side of ministry that pushed them to trust God even in the midst of hardship. We were all able to grow in our belief that if we are faithful to plant the seed then the Lord is faithful to water and grow that seed. Our continuous prayer is that He will use our work in Australia to increase and glorify His Kingdom. Please join us in this prayer.

Greetings from Australia!!

Hello from Australia!! Our time here has been really sweet. The Lord has shown us a lot of favor among the Aussie students. Last weekend, we were able to go on a retreat with many Aussie students. Here, we were able to talk about and discuss the bible. I was able to have a wonderful conversation one girl in particular which was really exciting! The team as a whole has been able to meet and spend time with many students! The guys have become pros at Rugby!(Ha ha not really) We have all become professionals at drinking tea and eating desserts! The Lord has been working in all of hearts to show us His love for all of His people. We are really excited to see what He will continue to reveal to us. Pray for these Aussie students that they would hear and receive the gospel. Pray for us that we would be bold and pursue people out of love.

Australia - Here we come!

If by some chance you didn't know, Bethany and I are leading a team of students to Brisbane Australia for 6 weeks this summer. We call it a "CCP" or a Cross Cultural Project. The purpose of the CCP is to expose the students to full time ministry. Through the process we want students to be stretched in the areas of sharing their faith and serving the lost. We will be partnering with our full time Campus Outreach staff in Brisbane. Most of our time will be spent on the campus of the University of Queensland meeting and building relationships with the students. U of Q has around 30,000 students; so there should be no lack of students to meet with!

A couple of Australia facts:

1. 95% of the country is Non-Christian
2. There is a 0.05% negative growth rate of Christianity

- Pray for our trip that we would be able to build relationships with students and plug them into the local "body of believers"
- Pray for safe travel
- Pray that we would grow in our relationship with Christ

Semester Comes To An End

Greetings from Carrollton!

Well the semester has come to an end and like usual it went by fast. Bethany and I have truly enjoyed seeing the Lord work on the campus at West Georgia and have been humbled to see the Lord work through our lives in sharing the gospel with students. All together I spent most of my time meeting with members of 2 fraternities; Kappa Sigma and Pi Kappa Phi. Bethany spent her free time with girls from the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. One thing we have realized is that it is a slow process for many of these students to grow in their relationship with Christ. Most of the students we meet with have become Christians through our ministry here. What does that mean for us? It means we are starting from scratch and that is fun in so many ways. It can also be frustrating because we are essentially nurturing "Baby Christians". Please pray for us and these students next semester as we continue in this "discipleship" process

Cookies on Thursdays

Every Thursday night is one I look forward to greatly! After a long day with sixth graders, it is fun to spend time with the girls and eat cookies! I have seen the Lord working so much through all of our lives in the area of contentment, either it’s me fighting to be content with folding laundry, or it’s one of them fighting to be content with another test to study for. All in all we are all fighting to glorify our Father in heaven! In just our little circle of six women, the suffering and hardship is great; however, these women are fighting to gaze at the cross and remember that their home is not on this earth. These women are not only seeking the Lord for themselves, but they are also taking the gospel and sharing their lives to other girls. Each woman in the group is leading a small group of their own. Between six women there are around fourteen women that are hearing the gospel!! I also meet with some other women throughout the week. We have been discussing some of the same things such as, contentment and what does it mean for your identity to be in Christ? Pray that all of these women continue to spend time in the Word and that they seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Weekly Meetings

One of the most encouraging things we do is our weekly meetings on Monday nights on the campus of West Georgia. Each week there is about eighty-five to a hundred students that attend. It is sweet to know that every week this many students are hearing the gospel. Each week, Matt and some students lead worship. This is always encouraging seeing this many college students singing and praising Christ together. Last week, Matt spoke to the students on the idol of success. He did a wonderful job explaining that an idol is something that we worship above Christ. Matt spoke on how the “American Dream” is one idol that many fall victim to, and as Christians we must continually fight against this idol. We pray that these students who come to the meetings will become rooted in the gospel and live lives in awe of Christ.

Pi Kappa Phi

Along with Kappa Sigs, Matt has been meeting with eight members of the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. They have been going through a four week study of the Gospel of John. Most of these guys are investigating the person of Christ for the first time. Our prayer is that these young men would surrender their lives to Christ and that the gospel would go forth with power in their fraternity.

Kappa Sigma

This semester, Matt has been meeting weekly with ten member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Together they are studying the Book of Romans as well as reading the book, Thoughts for Young Men by J.C. Ryle. We enjoy inviting the guys over for the “regular” spaghetti and video game dinner. It’s quite funny to watch Matt play video games with eighteen to twenty year olds. I think he might me a little too old for that! Ha ha! It is our prayer that the time that we spend together will grow these young men into mature believers.

Spending time with girls...

These are some of the girls that I am spending time with. It has been sweet to see all of the work that the Lord has done in their hearts over the last year. This semester some of us are studying contentment. We are asking the question,"What does it mean to be content?" Pray that the Lord reveals Himself to us more this semester. Pray that these woman trust and believe that He is good and that the portion that He has given is perfect. Psalm 16:5-6

"Contentment is a sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition."
~Jermiah Burroughs

Fall Semester at UWG

Our time at West Georgia this past semester has been such a blessing. Matt and I are so thankful and excited that the Lord has allowed us to be apart of His Kingdom building. We have been able to see many students over the course of the year come to know Christ personally. We have also been able to see many students grow deeper in their relationships with Christ. Our trip to New Years Conference was a wonderful experience. There was about ninety students from West Georgia that attended which is huge considering four years ago there was about six students that went! By the end of the week five students came to know Christ! The Lord is definitely working!

Since our wedding day...

I can't believe Matt and I have been married for about seven months! It seems like I was just getting engaged yesterday. Since our wedding, our lives have been filled with many wonderful moments. Many of those moments being laughter! Most of the time it is me laughing at Matt's silly antics. However, there has also been moments where Matt has been hysterically laughing at the crazy things I have done, like put liquid soap in the dishwasher and cry when the kitchen flooded! Yes, this really did happen. By far the best thing about being married has been being able to experience the gospel through one another. In these moments, I am so thankful that I was blessed not only with a husband, but a husband that loves God more than anything.