Embarking on a new semester with the BSM

This semester has been such a new experience (well, they all are) but it feels different and I don't know how to put words on it. We have had lots of new students and they are hard-core seeking. Some are believers with a hunger to know Him more, and some are not believers and they are trying to figure this whole thing out.

On Saturday night after the outreach for Focus, we went to another church who was having a 'college night'. Kevin spoke about Christ being our treasure. Afterwards we went outside and they had a 'party on the patio' with tons of fajitas. We ate and then played games with the kids. Red Rover, Duck,Duck, Goose and Freeze tag. It was fun running around with the kids and as being the 'mom' of our group, I am really proud that the students aren't too cool to get down and play with the kids, and they actually really enjoyed it.

Then after a bit we all migrated to the parking lot on the other side of the church where some guys were playing basketball. We started playing knockout [or bump as we refer to it in Ohio ;)] there were like 30 people playing and this little ten year old kid kept getting us all out. :( It was really fun anyways.

After I got out of the game, I was sitting on the sidelines talking to a few of the students and one of them was talking about playing another game and said that we should do a sports/game night for BSM. It was really cool hearing that from him because he is not one of our core members, and he is not even a believer, yet he put himself as one of us.

And there are times that I feel that maybe we are not doing enough. We are not seeing hundreds of kids come to Christ, maybe we are doing something wrong, and then I realize that is very arrogant thinking. God will do whatever He wants and He may even use us, but maybe we will never see to what extent He uses us and that might be for the sole purpose that we do not become proud and think that we could do this all by ourselves.

Our theme this semester has been, "We will do nothing that we can take credit for". God does the work, we simply make ourselves available. And when we have done that, we believe that God will do things.

And we pray.

We pray for God to work in the lives of the students, to grow them, that they might seek to glorify Him through their lives. That we would love them with His love, with no strings attached, but that our love for them would be genuine and an outpouring of our love for Him.

So this is the BSM in a nutshell.

We appreciate your prayers for us that we would be open to God's leading, that He would open doors for us and that we would go serve Him with all of our hearts.

Concerning Christ

"But whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:7-8

I pray that this becomes my heartbeat. That nothing else matters.
Sometimes we want to do what is easiest, or what is expected of us, but what about HIM? He has great desires and plans for us and so often we miss the blessing because we want the easy way out. We don't want to be uncomfortable or to come upon any difficulties because of Him. We want the blessings, but not the struggles. We just forget that the greater blessings come from the struggles. He didn't promise us that it would be easy or even like we expected, He is bigger and has greater plans that we don't even know.



I think of AL Johnson. He was a student at UTSA up until last spring. He felt that God was calling him to go to Africa. He gave up his position on the track and cross-country team to go to Africa-- i.e. success. He experienced many crazy and difficult things, but he would tell you that it is the most amazing time of his life. God has taught him so much but that is out of his surrendering his will, his success, his 'happiness', and he received JOY and the peace of knowing that he is right in the middle of God's will for his life. When I receive the updates on AL's trip, I am blessed to no end to see his heart for God--I wish we all had his love. It is so encouraging to hear all the things that he has seen and learned since being there and it changes my heart too.



I guess he looks kind of mean in this pic, but he's not and he loves God with all of his heart, probably more than most people. So, continue to pray for Al as he's in Kenya serving God and continue to pray for us all that we seek to become more like Christ every day.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=107337507936&ref=ts
(this is the prayer network for Al and he also posted on the discussions a blog about his calling, it is a great encouragement and inspired this note)
If I gave up all of my dreams and my plans for my life, God would use me in ways that I could never imagine. Can I give it all up? Will I?