Forgiveness

One thing that is true around this house is that we LOVE TobyMac! He is an awesome artist and great example of a musical artist that our sons can look up to! His new album, Eye on It, is amazing and there is one song on there that we all rock out to in the car on the way home from school. It is called Forgiveness ft. Lecrae. (If you haven't heard Lecrae, he is also an amazing Christian musical artist). I wanted to share it with you here. It has such a positive message about how we are never too far from forgiveness from the Lord. As we work on the college campus, we find ourselves sharing this concept with the students we meet. A lot of people want to have a relationship with the Lord, but feel like they have done too many bad things, that it just isn't possible. But, the great thing about God is that forgiveness is so easily given by Him, all we have to do is ask for it.

So, here you go! Enjoy the song:

September Newsletter

It was the first really cool day of fall as Tony met with Matt to pray. They bowed their heads as they asked the Lord to use them as they followed up some surveys from spiritually interested students. (Matt is one of our five full time interns this year at ISU) Just a few minutes later they were welcomed into Colby’s dorm room in Roberts hall. Colby said “I want to be a real Christian and go to heaven but I don’t know what the qualifications are!” Talk about an answer to prayer! Tony explained the Gospel to him by using the Would You Like To Know God Personally booklet and invited him to put his faith in Christ and to declare his decision by praying out loud. Colby gladly did, and just two days later Matt met a couple other guys on Colby’s floor and they said that Colby had been talking to them about their need for Jesus! Praise God for this changed life. Thank you for helping us to reach Colby and the other 12 students who have indicated a decision to receive Christ for the first time this year!  Please pray for us to capitalize on the momentum from our Fall Getaway Oct. 5-7, we will have almost 100 students total from three different campuses!

Fall Getaway

We had a great time at Fall Getaway this year! The kids always look forward to it! They love the camp, but most of all they love spending time with the college students. And, we love how much the college students love our kids! Fall Getaway was at Twin Lake Bible Camp in Manson, Ia. We had 6 campuses represented this year: Iowa State, Iowa Lakes Community College (Estherville, Emmettsburg, Spencer), UNI, and Indian Hills Community college in Ottumwa. We had around 100 students attend our retreat! We were really excited about those numbers!

 Our speaker this year was Kris Neider. He is a youth pastor at Grandview Baptist Church in Estherville, Ia. He also volunteers with CRU on the Iowa Lakes Community College campuses in Estherville and Emmettsburg. He spoke to the students about who God is and what the Gospel is, who we are in Christ, dating and what is our purpose.

  The students had a great time of connecting with one another, building community and connecting with the Lord. Along side our speaker and campus times, students were able to attend a seminar: How to Reach Your Campus, How to Share Your Faith, How to Multiply Your Life and How to Have A Quiet Time. Below is a picture of all that attended Fall Getaway (except for Clare and the kids as the kids were resting). 

A New Look!

We are giving many things a new look! You may have noticed that our newsletter is now a postcard. Our hope is that you will hang it on your fridge and remember to pray for us and our ministry with CRU. You can also come to our blog to get new stories and prayer requests all month long! We will also be posting our staff and intern newsletters here as well so you can get a bigger view of life on campus. We have a calendar to keep you connected to what is going on each month and a way to connect with us financially, a way to connect with our region and a way to connect with us world wide! We are excited about these changes and hope that you enjoy our new look! We look forward to hearing from you!