Holy Spirit Discipleship

We’re so close to wrapping up the school year. It has really been such an amazing year of ministry. A lot of our staff think that this has been one of if not our favorite year of ministry that we’ve had. It amazes me how much change the Lord can bring in just one year, both on an individual level and on a community wide level. I hope hearing some of these stories from the end of the year can be an encouragement to you that you are playing an active role in God’s work in the world!

Discipleship Class

The last couple of years we’ve been doing a Discipleship Class in the Spring to provide our students an opportunity to dive deeper into specific topics relating to their walk with God. This year we offered one on the Holy Spirit, and had the class be way less lecture style and more discussion and investigation in groups and pairs in order for them to learn how to learn about things like this. It was really cool seeing them sort through the scriptures and learn about them and have healthy debate with one another on things. It was so fun to lead the group since they were all so eager to learn and I loved not letting them settle for easy answers but to really dig deep and think through things. Students were coming from all over the spectrum with their view of the Holy Spirit, but it was so encouraging when one of the guys said something to the effect of “There’s so much more to the Spirit than I ever knew, I’m excited to keep looking into it more.”

End of Year Sharing

We just wrapped up our end of year party for our student leaders last night. It’s always one of the sweetest and saddest moments of the year, as we both celebrate all that God has done, and also say goodbye to some of our seniors who have been on the team for years. We spent some time sharing stories of how we’ve seen God working this year and I wanted to share a few here:

We’ve had multiple guys and girls, notably Donovan and Francisco, who came into the year not believing in Jesus. One was Buddhist and the other agnostic, and both have completely given over their lives to Christ, and more than that are looking for ways to serve and also inviting their friends into the ministry.

On a similar note, we’ve had two international students from Thailand both give their lives to Christ this year. They are both going back home soon and we’re hoping they can produce great fruit back in Thailand!

There were a ton of other stories of people coming to Christ this year, and a lot of ones of students who came in lukewarm about their faith at best, who are now on fire for Jesus and inviting others into relationship with Him as well.

We’ve had multiple people find freedom from their addictions this year, as well as many people who have gone through losses of loved ones or others close to them that have found a lot of healing and comfort through Christ and the body of believers.

We’ve experienced faster growth this year than we’ve seen in years, and we’re sending more people to our leadership conference than we’ve ever sent before.

Suffice it to say that although most years are fun and meaningful, this year has been an absolute highlight of my time in ministry. As we were wrapping up our sharing time with our leaders I left them with the same encouragement that I’ll end this update with. As good as this year has been, let’s be praying that God one ups himself, and that He is far from finished yet, and has more in store for us this next year!