Hello Blog!

Sorry all for the lack of updates! 2012 started off as a busy year. We celebrated the new year at our annual Christmas Conference. There, one of my girls, who I have been discipling for over a year, re-dedicated her life to Christ!! It was the perfect blessing to start the new year. Ministry has really taken off at in the greek system at UCSD. Please see my most recent update (link on the right) for more stories!

Student Accepts Christ at SDSU!

Last week, Francis and a student he disciples, Cameron, went out on campus to share their faith. It was nerve racking for Cameron because it was his first time doing evangelism. They approached Noah and started talking to him. Noah is a senior graduating at the end of the semester. He was interested in talking and hearing more about who God is. Cameron was able to share his testimony with Noah and Francis shared the "Knowing God Personally" (KGP) booklet with him. The KGP is a simply, clear, and concise way of sharing the gospel. After hearing it, Noah responded by asking how he can have a personal relationship with God. Then, with Cameron and Francis, Noah prayed to receive Christ!

SDSU/UCSD Dinner and Backyard Fun Social

A desire of ours is to see the students at UCSD and SDSU become a large community here in San Diego. To help doing so, about once a month we have shared social events together, including Fall Retreat. Our first social all together was a huge success! About 60 students split up and had dinner at a dozen host homes. Then, we all met at Joe and Allison's house for dessert, backyard games, and a bonfire. Here are a few photos from the night.

Student Reaching out to Roommate

One of our involved students at UCSD sent out a facebook message to ask us to pray for her roommate. Here is specifically what she would like us to pray for...

From Student:
So my roommate, Tiffany, doesn't really understand religion of any type and lately she's been asking me a lot of questions about my faith, especially the past 24 hours since I got back from Fall Retreat. Her boyfriend is a Catholic and she was asking me about my faith while he was here. Her boyfriend was being really quiet about his religion and would agree with me about some of my statements and then would say something that personally I wouldn't say followed my beliefs. Thankfully I knew enough about Catholicism because one of my best friends from high school was Catholic and I'd ask him about it all the time. Because of this I was able to better parrallel/answer her questions about my religion versus his.



Today she asked me to better explain my relationship with Christ even more. Basically she told me that she liked parts of Catholicism and parts of Christianity but she didn't think she could "subscribe" to only one at this time. She said that there were some things that she couldn't wrap her head around because of Christianity and she was also confused at how different some Christians could be from each other.



In the end, she said that she was just becoming aware of religion and that she just wanted a better understanding of it all. Hell and death has just become very real to her for some reason... I honestly don't know why and she want's to understand God's love and how He can be next to her at all times without her feeling it. Basically I told her that if she really wanted to understand God and how much He really loved her and was present beside her at all times, she should just ask him to reveal Himself to her. She seemed responsive to the idea, but said she needed time to consider it.



SO. The point of this note was to just ask you guys to pray for my roommate:

-That she will soon be ready to ask God to make Himself real to her

-That she will continue to be open to Him

-That she will find herself even more surrounded by strong Christians who can be a good witness.

-That God will use me even more to be a witness to her and that He will give me the words to explain His goodness, faithfullness, and love.

Thanks!
I"ll update you in my next newsletter about Fall Retreat!

Students at San Diego State

There is a lot of growing momentum at San Diego State. We have new students every week at our weekly meeting and have met so many interested just from being around campus. This year, our whole staff team is there every Thursday. It's been refreshing to be there once a week. During the middle of the day students will be just hanging out on campus: sleeping, napping, reading, or taking with friends. This is not uncommon at SDSU, but is very rare to see at UCSD.

Anyways, at SDSU there are a few students I'd love for you to join me in praying for:

Roney saw our sign and was interested in what we were all about. He grew up in a Christian family, but isn't quite sure what he believes. He's been meeting up with Francis, one of our staff members, on Thursdays to ask questions and continue to explore. He's also been coming to the guys bible study. He always mentions that he "has a lot of laundry to do" or something of sorts in case he finds him self wanting a way out. Haha. Pray that he continues to search for who God is, gets plugged into our community, and comes to Fall Retreat!

Ariel accepted Christ a week before school started. Her friend invited her to church and about a year later she asked Jesus into her life! We met her the beginning of the year and she's been actively involved. Ariel has not yet told her parents yet about her decision and is very nervous about it. Please pray for Ariel as she discerns when the right time to tell them is.

Francesca re-dedicated her life to Christ at the beginning of the school year! She was raised Catholic and knew that she had a decision to make when she came to SDSU: to follow Jesus or not. It's been great connecting with Francesca and getting to know her!

Freshmen Bible Study

Along with greek, I'm leading a combo freshmen bible study in two of the colleges here at UCSD. We've found that students are more likely to come to daytime studies because they're to bogged down my homework in the evenings. I'm leading a Chelsea, an awesome, fun, passionate student leader.

Our first study is today at 3! Many girls have showed interest. Please pray they would come, would want to grow and be challenged in their faith, and become friends with one another. Many of them live in the same dorms and have freshman classes together. Thanks!

Heart Changing, Eye Opening, Challenging and Indescribable: Summer Projects 2011

Since being back from project and interacting with all our UCSD students that attended, it's amazing to see how much God really did in their lives'. They literally come back changed students; we a new prospective on life and a heart for the campus. Students on our Facebook page are saying project was heart-changing, eye-opening, challenging and indescribable! Through the post-project survey done nationally by Cru, students also told us they are more confident in initiating spiritual conversations and sharing their faith than before project, as well as more certain of their sense of God’s calling on their lives.

By the numbers, here is a picture of what God did:

Students Sent: 3297

Total Projects: 224

Personal Evangelism: 40,817
Decisions: 2722

Group Evangelism: 28,388
Decisions: 2966

Media Evangelism: 50,505
Decisions: 2490

The first ever Fiji Summer Project saw 168 Fijians receive Christ!


What the numbers don’t say…

“From Day 1 I was immersed in the most loving community I've ever had” San Diego Summer Project

“I am excited to reach out to freshmen and show them what it looks like to have a flourishing relationship with God and what it looks like to be women of God.” Grand Traverse Bay

“We shared with Diana on project, and she met with us for all ten follow ups! Before we left project, she was sharing the Gospel with her friends and leading one of them through the follow ups. I mean you hear all the time about God using you if you let Him, but I actually saw it and experienced it and it was so cool to know that the Holy Spirit was working through me!” Guayaquil, Equador.

Praise God for all He did this summer in and through the lives of 3297 students sent around the world to share the good news!