Cars Equal Bad Luck for the Sauers

At one point the word “car trouble” gave me a slight twitch and many gray hairs. Today, I can laugh about it and share. About two months ago, Matt and I had a couple of weeks of nothing but bad luck with our cars. Let me sum it up quickly… It began with Matt totaling our Honda, a huge tree branch falling on my grandmother’s Highlander in our front yard, our Explorer’s transmission went out, on the way to get the Explorer fixed it was hit on the interstate, we rented a car, we bought another car, after getting fixed the Explorer’s transmission went out again on my way to school. (PS: I had to walk to school.) That exhausts me physically and mentally typing it.

Life is Hard, God is Sovereign, God is Good

Well, I don’t even know where to begin… It has been ages since I have been on here. So many things have changed in our life. This leads me to the verse in Isaiah “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” Thank goodness God is the one thing in this world and beyond that stays constant. He is my firm, steady foundation. I believe I would fall apart if this weren’t true. What a sweet hope (confidence) we have as believers. It was around November 2010 our journey with being on staff with Campus Outreach came to an end. This was definitely bitter sweet. I loved seeing God’s faithfulness through this time of transition. About a year before we made the decision to leave, Matt came to me and asked me to begin to start praying about whether we should leave staff or continue the next year. The thought of leaving staff devastated me. I remember the horrible feeling in my stomach when the words came out of his mouth. I began praying. Praying for peace, strength, understanding, really everything that I could think to pray I prayed. If I was really honest with myself I was terrified of leaving. I was terrified of the unknown. I was terrified of change. I HATE CHANGE! I remember one night finding the verse in 1 Peter 1:6-7 and coming to a sweet realization. God treasures my faith more than gold. Through this time of being uncomfortable, uncertain, and scared He was refining my faith so that I could share in the praise, honor, and glory of Christ. After leaving staff, it was sweet to see how the Lord quickly comforted my heart, brought me peace, and refined my faith.

Currently, Matt and I are in a place in our lives where we aren’t quite sure where the Lord is leading us. Surprisingly enough, I am at peace and don’t feel the need to make my own plans! PRAISE THE LORD! We are constantly reminded of the verse in Proverbs 19 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” I think the Lord is teaching us to trust His plans for our lives, and wait patiently constantly thinking on the verse in Psalms 46“Be still and know that I am God.” If anything through this whole process it has made me thankful. Thankful that God is faithful to His children, He is sovereign, and He is good even in the midst of this unstable world.

During this time of uncertainty and transition into the unknown, I have clung to the verse in Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Many people cling to this verse during hardship. I realized that for a long time I have clung to only part of the verse “All things work together for good.” What person does this happen to? The person who “loves” God. The greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This realization about this verse has reminded me of not only God’s commitment to me but my commitment to Him. Do I love God this much? My prayer is that during every moment of our lives good, bad, ugly, and currently Matt and I would love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

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