Desiring Abundant Life

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." ~ Jesus (John 10:10)

In the last few days I have become increasingly aware of the attacks of the enemy. Conversations with students have consistently revealed how enemy is seeking to destroy them, to make them ineffective, depressed and to distract them from the Truth of the Gospel. It breaks my heart.

The good news is that they verse doesn't end with destruction, but rather the life that Jesus has to offer. In the midst of their struggling I have loved reminding the students of the beautiful mystery of the Gospel. I love bringing the truth that once we are "in Christ" God sees us as holy and blameless, He cannot love us any more or any less than He does at this moment. This is a wonder too beautiful for words!

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

~ In Christ Alone

Mexico Road Rally

Diana and I with just some of the food for our trip

This past weekend we took 151 people to Rocky Point, Mexico to build 3 houses and participate in a children's outreach. I was in charge of the food. I have never before shopped or cooked for 150 people...using a single camp stove. I am tempted to say it was quite a challenge, but really I had an amazing team of women that rose to the various dilemmas that faces us and made the food preparation a joy. Below are some pictures from the weekend.

some girls from my Bible study at their house site

preparing lunches for our hungry house builders

It was an amazing trip, full of precious faith-building moments. Everyday there seemed to be story after story of how God came through in incredible ways. We saw Him in providing tow trucks for 12 passenger vans stuck in the sand, giving us water at exactly the right moment, the much needed layer of stucco finished on all 3 houses just as the sun went down, no major injuries, cars protect, easy crossing of the border each way and the list goes on and on. I am so grateful to know and serve this God. I just love Him.

After a week in St. Louis for the Navigators National Conference and then camping in Mexico, I am exhausted, but God is good and I am thrilled to be His daughter.

Refreshment in the Midst of Chaos

It has been quite an interesting week. Our weekend was spent hosting a dessert and breakfast for our students' parents. I loved having the opportunity to get to know these parents and tell them how we are rooting for them in their kids lives.

Unfortunately Sunday also brought the realization that my car had been broken into the night before, leaving me without a c.d. player and most of my c.d's. On Thursday morning my house was woken up to two police officers informing us that my roommate Diana's car had also been broken into. No major damage was done to either of our cars, but it is still just scary that within 5 days 2 cars sitting directly in front of our house were robbed. We are trying to determine how we can improve the security for our house and be more conscientious of our surrounding environment.

In the midst of calling insurance companies and replacing windows we have also been getting ready to head out to St. Louis for the Navigators National Conference. As I have been preparing to go I have been reminded that it really is autumn in other parts of the country. Below is a picture of some fall leaves that were sent to my house from some dear friends in State college.

krista arranged them so beautifully on our kitchen table

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go swing dancing with some of the students that have become dear friends of mine. The dancing was almost as fun as listening to the live 12 piece band! Below is a picture of some of the seniors having a bit of fun :)

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

some of the freshman girls with their roses

Tonight our nav ministry had a men's/women's night instead of our normal large group meeting. We split the women into 5 groups and then sent each group out to 5 different restaurants around town while the men headed to Steven and Dustin's house for a barbeque and time of learning about how to honor the women in our ministry. It was a great time for women of various classes to connect with each other! After dinner the women headed back to the Strudel (my house!) for dessert and a dance party.

The guys surprised us by sneaking into our backyard, cutting our power and then inviting us to join them in the back yard. They then serenaded us with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and gave each of us a rose. Then they sang a special rendition of "My Girl" in which they re-wrote the lyrics to fit the Nav Girls. I have included some of their lyrics below:

Your God's sunshine on a cloudy day
Reflect Gods glory in the sweetest way
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
Nav girls (nav girls)
Talkin' bout my Nav girls (nav girls)

We don't need no half dressed women, thanks for dressing modestly
You're the greatest bunch of women, honestly
I guess you'd say
What can make you feel this way?
Nav girls (nave girls, nave girls)
Talkin' 'bout my nav girls (nav girls)

As you can tell, we've got a great group of men! They brought tears to a few of the girls eyes. Some of these women have never been treated sweetly by men and have no idea that they deserve to be treated as someone of great value. I am so grateful that the leaders of this ministry are committed to training men and women to live as God has created them.

Is it really October??

what is a road trip without a dance party in the car??
katrina and ashley are two sophomores that went with us on a camping trip to Sedona

I cannot believe that I have now been here for over 2 months! Let me briefly catch you up a bit on some things that have happened in the last two months on the campus and in our ministry. For the most part we had a great move-in week and first week of classes.

However, following that, the campus and our ministry had a really rough two weeks. It began with a suicide in one of the freshman dorms. Less than a week later, on our way to a camping trip in Sedona, a car-full of students in our ministry was in an accident and two students had to be lifeflighted to a hospital in Phoenix. Both students had been unconscious, but were conscious and communicating by the time they arrived at the hospital. They are both now doing fine and back in classes. The accident could have been so much worse and we were once again reminded of the goodness and sovereignty of God as the details of the accident were unfolded.
The Wednesday after we arrived back on campus, there was a stabbing in one of the dorms where many of our freshman girls live. By the end of that day, my roommates and I realized that the girl who had initiated the stabbing was someone that we had met as a result of our following up the surveys. She is now in the local prison, but God has orchestrated amazing ways for us to continue to have a presence in her life.

Those 10 days quickly made our staff team realize just how desperately the campus and our students needed and continues to need prayer! I am glad to say that we have not seen any more cases such as these in the last few weeks, but we are still very aware of the attacks on this campus. God is clearly moving here and Satan is desperate to thwart the good things that have been started in the hearts of these students.

In happier news, our ministry has gotten off to a great start. The freshman class is already starting to bond and to catch the vision of intentionally growing closer to God, each other and those around them. I have loved getting to know the 10 girls in my Bible study and see how God is weaving their hearts together. Each week I come home amazed at what He is doing in each of their lives. The last few weeks I have greatly enjoyed getting one-on-one time with each of them and hearing the stories of their lives as well as learning what it means to share my life with them.

Our Bible study has begun a study entitled "The Big 10," which has us looking at 11 key chapters of the Bible. This week we looked at Isaiah 53 and it was so fun to reflect on the previous weeks studies and see how the gospel is woven through each chapter. We got into a great discussion this week on why Jesus came if He knew what kind of life would be ahead of Him here on earth. I absolutely love watching these women, some with very new faith and some who have grown up knowing Jesus, really begin to grasp how wide and how deep and how long and how high is the love of God for them. And to watch them as they realize it is not a "whole-world" kind of love, but a love that is individual and tailored specifically to them. Isn't He a great God?

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His,
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture
Psalm 100: 1-3

Welcome to Life in Arizona

My two roommates have certainly rubbed off on me, which has led to the creation of this blog. There is so much I would love to update each of you on personally, but have found a lack of time and energy to complete all my desired phone calls and updates.

For this initial post I have compiled a list of things you should know about my new life in Arizona.


1. I love, love, love my roommates and our sweet home (affectionally called The Strudel)

(Krista, Lori, Me and Diana)

2. I love my staff team. They have been so welcoming and have truly become like family to me. (the whole staff, kids and all, at our staff retreat before the students arrived)

3. The students here are Amazing! The student leaders from the sophomore, junior and senior class did a great job of welcoming my teammate Diana and I into the community here. They are all so eager to learn and grow. While they desire for the ministry to maintain its "family feel," they are excited to love on each new person that comes to our events.

(some of the students on our camping trip to Sedona)

4. I am leading a freshman girls Bible study on Monday nights. We are using this semester to go through 11 key chapters in the Bible. Doing this study our first semester together, allows us to know where everyone is coming from and hopefully get us all on the same page. So far we have studied Genesis 3, Psalm 23 and Psalm 139. I am thrilled to say that we are all getting more comfortable with each other and so each Bible study has led to more opening of hearts to each other. And of course, we love having fun together! Below is a picture of my Bible study on an ice cream date with one of the freshman guy studies.

Overall, it has been a wonderful transition to life in Arizona. There have definitely been adjustments and times of extreme fatigue, but with each day I am more and more excited about the things that God has planned for this year. His hand is clearly heavy upon the staff and the students in the ministry. I will post an update soon on the things that God is revealing to our staff team and how this is impacting not only how we run the ministry, but also, our daily lives.