Student begins own ministry

Remember the basketball times the guys were having at the start of the year? It’s this post: (Newcomers invite friends to basketball). Anyway, Mike is a student from then that I’ve built a good relationship with. He was my highlight today. He sparked a whole new development in the recent method to connect with freshmen.

Until today, I’ve only been inviting Stillwaters students to accompany me. We’ve seen very positive responses from male freshmen with this new method. (I’ll tell you more about the method soon!) The next step to our success, partners, is if the students turn around and start doing the method on their own. I had brought Mike with me before, and this time I asked him to lead instead of just accompany. Now a challenge like that has often gone untouched. God must’ve been at work in Mike. He led, and started approaching freshmen left and right. He showed what evangelism should be like: no hesitations.

Mike caught the attention of one freshman, and they’ll be meeting again next week. Could he be Mike’s first disciple? Let’s see. Let’s pray. Let’s fan Mike’s fire with prayer.

Got to meet two freshmen who called themselves ambitious today. I’m actually looking for guys like these. My hope is that they’re ambitions would grow to the size the soul needs: God-sized. After an enjoyable discussion with these two who carried themselves well, I gave them a challenge. I asked if they wanted to know the greatest ambition imaginable. They immediately said yes.

I’m meeting them again this week. Pray for a gripping time.

Oh, we were brimming with joy in our staff meeting this morning! Flo and Sarj reported that for both house churches, the ladies have been taking ministry personally. Flo said it was contagious: evangelism and discipleship have become the norm! They have been seeing new contacts bring their friends to the tambayans. Stillwaters ladies instinctively build relationships with everyone else’s contacts. One woman leader has a passion everyone is noticing.

The men look like they’re on their way to this as well. There have been preachings, new Bible study groups and more frequent connection with freshmen. Please pray that wildfire would spread among the guys too!

At this rate, we might see a movement with a mind of its own. Hoorah! Thank you that we can share moments like these with you partner!

It’s inspiration all around.

For the UP services this past week, students took the task of preaching. We’re experimenting with dialogue preaching and for Tuesday it was Tim and Dee. Their styles clearly distinct, Tim did the intro and conclusion while Dee did the body. What a relief that it’s no longer up to a professional like me to preach! I tell you, there was energy in the congregation you can never buy or hire. It was the same with Thursday, as Marvin spoke to his siblings. He spoke on Philippians 2 and what a way to inspire humility: by example. You could sense that everybody was feeling very empowered to do great things for God. It was never meant to be contained by professionals.

Here’s a picture of Tim and Dee in the Tuesday service (upper right hand corner, grey long sleeves is Dee, Tim is beside him in white):

And here’s one of Marvin in the Thursday service (center, in black):

Thank you, dear partner, for being with us in this significant development. We love you and love how you help make this possible. May feelings of inferiority flee from students and may they accomplish far more than missionaries can on campus.

“The stuff they taught me in high school was b*lls#*|!”, said the freshman. He was surprised that his religious high school never told him that eternal life was a free gift. This was very refreshing for me; God was working in his heart! A sharp guy and a potential leader, he told me he was seeing things in a new way. We set a time for Bible study in 2 weeks (he’ll be competing abroad next week).

Please pray that we would continue to receive revelations from God and that this man would rise up to be a spiritual leader.