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