December 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

- Missionary from Peru came to be a guest speaker at Sanctuary
-Peru mission trip being planned for Spring Break

-Bible Studies and discipleship keep getting better!

-Events each weekend for community

- Church attendance is staying strong even with midterms and holidays.

-Sanctuary and Christian Challenge students’ eyes are opened to human trafficking and we are taking action.

-Lots of students are being met through ASU events.

-We have been able to have a lot of great one-on-one time with our students & new and/or unchurched students.

-We’ve been praying for you.

Made possible by God’s mighty power and your prayers & giving: thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a great time with your family on Thanksgiving. We were pleased to have ours with two people from Sanctuary who weren’t able to be home for the holidays.

Student Spotlight!

It’s surprising that it took us so long to find this out, but we have a student named Jeremiah who was one of the top students in the nation for physics who also scored a perfect score on his S.A.T.’s for math. Needless to say, he is incredibly smart and had planned to go to MIT for quite some time before coming to Poly.

MIT did not accept his application and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do because his dream had been crushed. He actually considered not going to college because of the cost and not getting to go to MIT, but ASU Poly accepted him on a full scholarship.

Although this was great news, Jeremiah was still depressed when he got to Poly because he wasn’t where he thought God had wanted him to be, at his dream school. So after a week being at Poly, Jeremiah sat down to pray. He came to the conclusion that God had put him at Poly for a reason, and although he didn’t know what it was, he committed to God that he would do it.

Within MINUTES, Jamie called him and asked him to be the president of Christian Challenge at Poly so we could be an official organization. He agreed and has been an incredible blessing to us ever since.

He shared this story when I asked him to lead the Man Clan Bible study after my knee surgery. I was amazed by this story and by his natural teaching ability.

We are truly blessed to have Jeremiah, and amazed that God would work to bring us together in a way that only He can do. Pray that God will bring us more leaders like Jeremiah and that we can raise up leaders from our church.

Jeremiah at Christian Challenge's AZ Fuzion event

Purity

For New Readers (to catch you up): I (Bryan) got a heart for Church Planting while Jamie and I were commissioned as missionaries by the North American Mission Board. They shared that Church Planting is the most effective way of reaching college students and where Christian Challenge, nationwide, will be heading. God has provided a co-planter/co-pastor, Jason Robinson, student leaders, a FREE place to meet ON CAMPUS and a serious passion to reach the unchurched on the campus.

Jason and Bryan just finished up a 5 week sermon series on purity. It’s still amazing that we get to work together and how great it is for the students to get two different perspectives from people with two different life experiences.

But it has been a great time for our church, and even with the extreme busyness (end of semester projects, finals) of the students, we are staying steady and even seeing some new faces.

Powers Update

The ACL surgery went well! Thanks for praying. I (Bryan) had never broken a bone or had surgery; so I really didn’t know what to expect. The pain was tolerable, and I am walking around normally now. There are still times in the morning or when I’ve been sitting for too long that it will get stiff and sore, but it is much better than I expected it to be.

Dallas is now 3! He had a great time at his dinosaur-themed party. He is such an amazing blessing to us each day. As usual, he is busy entertaining everyone and cracking us up!

Please pray, our support is not meeting our bills. We are praying for faith and provision.

Prayer Needs

One of the students who has been coming less and less finally stopped coming and we found out that he had been baptized into the Mormon “church.” Please pray that God will direct him back. Also pray that he will be able to see the deep lack of Truth, freedom, Christ as Savior, etc. in that religion and be able to get out of it.

Also, another student’s young sister, age six. Was taken by their addict father (who has custody L) and he has disappeared with her. Please pray for her safety and peace for the distraught family.

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- Student to return to Christ
- Missing 6 year old
- Our support is insufficient to pay our bills
- Healing with losing Madison Grace –it has been especially difficult for Jamie
- Bryan’s recovery
- Kim as she starts MSC
- PRAISE – Sanctuary’s amazing student leaders
- Mission trip plans to Peru for Spring Break.
- That students, especially unchurched/unsaved will continue to be drawn to CC & Sanctuary
- Prayer and PRAISE: In-vitro and surrogacy
- PRAISE: New church plant
-16 have accepted Christ
- C., G., S. & M. to accept Christ
-Sharing the Gospel on campus

How can we pray for you?

November, 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

- Bible Studies keep getting better!

-Events each weekend for community
-Game night
-Movie night
-Boo Bash for ASU

- Sanctuary is staying strong with lots of unchurched/unsaved visitors

-Sanctuary and Christian Challenge students’ eyes are opened to human trafficking and we are taking action.

-Lots of students are being met through ASU events.

-We have been able to have a lot of great one-on-one time with our students & new and/or unchurched students.

-We’ve been praying for you.

Made possible by God’s mighty power and your prayers & giving...thank you!





Peru Mission Trip

We are planning a mission trip to Peru during Spring Break and are excited to get to meet the missionary stationed there. He is even preaching at Sanctuary one Sunday. It’s been wonderful to see God already at work in the trip. We had no idea that this missionary was going to come to Arizona for a conference. We just prayed that God would lead us to the right mission opportunity and this is obviously where He wanted us. We have already had a huge response from our congregation who want to go on the trip, even with few details available.

What we do know is that we will be during Arizona State’s Spring Break, so that our students who don’t live in Arizona during the summer will be able to go. We will also be going to a remote area to a people group who have had little to no gospel exposure.

Recession?

Well some analysts say it’s not and some say it is…either way, it’s been hard for a lot of people. As our support team struggles, we also struggle. We have lost $2250 a month in support and are almost through our savings. We are asking you to please pray about an extra one-time gift or beginning or increasing your monthly support if you are able. God has always provided and we wait knowing that He will provide! Every trip to the mail box has been one of anticipation (expecting a check down to the dollar of the money we need for a bill)!! We are truly, truly in awe of the way God provides for our needs through His people.

I (Jamie) have been reading a lot of Isaiah as I am in need of verses of promise and comfort as and grieve the loss of and miss my Madison. This verse has been a comfort to me as well as reminding me to stay focused on Heaven and remain faithful and fruitful while in this “mist” of a life. I pray it ministers to you as well.

“They will enter Zion with singing;
Everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
Isaiah 35:10

Many dreams have been lost this year for many people: financial security or comfort and the life they expected with that and for Bryan and me, our life on earth parenting both of our children, watching our daughter grow up and marry and hold her hand and guide her as she has her own children, even to just know her personality. This life comes with joy and sorrow, but we are not living for here…join us in keeping our eyes on Heaven.

Intramurals

We have discovered a new way to meet students who would never come to the Christian Challenge table that we set up in the student union. We are now putting teams together for the intramural sports. ASU’s intramural program is just getting off the ground at Poly, so they have been extremely happy to see club involvement.

We just finished a co-ed flag football season, coming in 2nd place, (out of three teamsJ) and we’re getting ready to start in on a softball season. We have met so many new students that we haven’t even seen on campus before, and are getting to form some great relationships with the staff, which is crucial to a Christian club that has to have support from the college.

Please be praying for the students that we meet through sports. We have met some that said they had gotten fliers on their door and would have liked to come to something, but didn’t know anyone who was going, so they didn’t; now they know us. God is using sports in a big way on this campus. Please pray that softball will be a success like football.

Powers Update

While playing flag football with the students, I (Bryan) collapsed in excruciating pain. I have dealt with a knee injury before, but never had conclusive word on what was wrong from my doctor. This time we found out that I tore my ACL in my knee about 7 years ago while wakeboarding. We didn’t know because this injury doesn’t show up on X-ray, only on MRI’s. During the game, the bones in the leg collided into each other because there was no ligament there to stop them from sliding over each other. So I will have to have surgery on the 13th of this month. The
surgeon also looked at the other knee and said that it is also loose and we should do an MRI to see if it was torn as well. Please pray for the surgery, bills and pain.





Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

-Bryan’s knee surgery

-Kim as she starts MSC

-PRAISE - Fall semester has been amazing reaching new freshman.

-Mission trip plans to Peru for Spring Break.

-That students, especially unchurched/unsaved, will continue to be drawn to CC & Sanctuary

-Our healing with losing Madison Grace

-Prayer and PRAISE: In-vitro and surrogacy

-PRAISE: New church plant
-16 have accepted Christ

- C., G., S. & M. to accept Christ

-Sharing the Gospel on campus

- For our support needs to reach 100%.

How can we pray for you?

October, 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

- Bible Studies are awesome!

-Events each weekend for community
-Over 100 people at Dodgeball!!!
-Movie night
-Party hosted by one of our sweet families
-Hiking Humphrey’s Peak

-Kick-off Sanctuary service was a HUGE success! Over 50 people came!
-Lots of unchurched/unsaved visitors

-Bryan was able to serve Hurricane victims.

-Sanctuary and Christian Challenge students’ eyes are opened to human trafficking and we are taking action.

-We have been able to have a lot of great one-on-one time with our students & new and/or unchurched students.

We’ve been praying for you.

Made possible by God’s mighty power and your prayers & giving: thank you!

Louisiana Mission Trip

This was an interesting month because we’ve been teaching about missions and reaching out to all places and people groups. After Gustav hit, there was a plea sent out to all the Christian Challenge directors to come to Louisiana to help with hurricane relief.

I (Bryan) prayed about going and really felt led, so he went for a week (planned five days, but ended up being six because Hurricane Ike hit while he was helping with Gustav). It was a great experience. I got to meet another Christian Challenge director and become friends with him. I passed out food stamps in the coliseum and helped remove trees from some houses, including a widow’s house.

It was amazing that God brought everything together, because this trip could have easily been a deleted email.




Taking on the Highest Peak in Arizona

We took some of the guys from our group to hike Humphrey’s Peak, which is almost 13,000 ft at the top. We joked later that the first hiking trip that our church picked to do was the highest one in Arizona. It turned out that going from about 1000 feet above sea level in Phoenix to almost 13,000 in Flagstaff in about a day’s time was pretty hard, so hard that Bryan and one of the other guys got altitude sickness. We got to about 12,000 ft with about 2 miles left of hiking and had to turn around.

Hopefully we’ll get a chance to do this again at the beginning of the summer next year so we can conquer the Peak. However, it was a great time for fellowship and bonding. We now have a new person who is most likely permanently bonded to the group. It was also a good time to get out with just the guys and to have an example of taking on a task that God calls us to, something we’ve been learning on Wednesday nights in guy’s Bible study.

Bible Studies

We have several Bible studies that meet on campus right now, and it’s been really exciting to see what’s going on.

Monday night, we have a group that is led by a first time Bible study leader, which is so exciting to see. He approached us to say that he had something he wanted to do, and he’s been doing it, and even has some new, unchurched people involved.

Our Tuesday night group is also awesome; it’s about growing much deeper in relationship with Christ. We were excited to have a new student who said he came because he googled “ASU Poly Bible Study” and pulled up our website! He has also been coming to Sanctuary.

Wednesday’s “Man Clan” is led by me (Bryan) and has been great. We’ve had some new guys, and they’ve really meshed well.

Thursdays is a ladies group that is co-led by Kim Kelly (one of our core students) and Jamie. They are studying Women of Faith’s: “Discovering God’s Will for Your Life.”

In addition to the Ladies’ Group, another first-time Bible Study leader hosts a coed group at his on campus house that focuses on prayer and discussion. It’s been amazing as well.

Please be praying that we continue to have more people come to each Bible study and for the leaders to be encouraged as they seek to make disciples on the ASU Poly Campus.. We are truly blessed with our student leaders and their dedication.

Dodgeball and Party!

We had just over 100 students come to our Dodgeball event! This has been a wonderful way to meet students and get our name out there.

Two of our students and their parents generously opened their home and hosted a party for Christian Challenge. We have learned that students love to go to a home and parties in a home have been the most successful way of meeting unchurched students that eventually accept Christ. We are excited about what God will do in the lives of the new students we met. Please be praying for them. And we are so thankful for this sweet family not only opening their home, but also providing all of the food, etc. for the party. Praise God!

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

-Small groups and their leaders
-Kim as she starts MSC
-PRAISE - Fall semester has been amazing reaching new freshman.
-Mission trip plans to Peru for Spring Break.
-That students, especially unchurched/unsaved will continue to be drawn to CC & Sanctuary
-Our healing with losing Madison Grace
-Prayer and PRAISE: In-vitro and surrogacy
-PRAISE: New church plant
-16 have accepted Christ
-C., G., S. & M. to accept Christ
-Sharing the Gospel on campus
-For our support needs to reach 100%

How can we pray for you?

September, 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

- Each attendee changed in profound ways by Collegiate Week.
-Bryan raises awareness and encourages involvement in stopping sex trafficking.

-Amazed by God at ASU Move-In! Helped and met dozens of ASU freshman

-Seven Bible studies this semester: six of which are on campus. Several newcomers

-Last Sanctuary service of the summer and first Sanctuary service of the semester were a HUGE success!
-Lots of unchurched/ unsaved visitors
-Kick off service is coming up
-VBS students continue to attend Sanctuary

-2nd Annual Christian Challenge Dodge-ball coming up as well as parties, etc. to meet freshman & other students

Made possible by God’s mighty power and your prayers & giving: thank you!

Glorieta 2008

God moved mightily through National Collegiate Week this year in Glorieta, NM. The theme was “His World, Our Response” and the speaker, David Platt, is a favorite to all that went with us. He speaks Truth, without apology. He is passionate about Christ and His gift and mission and Dr. Platt speaks from experience, having done all that he convicts us to do: he has been to dangerous Sudan, risked his life to teach in China and has memorized ¾ of the New Testament.; however he still preaches with humility.

Our co-pastor’s wife, Kim Robinson (also our soon-to-be surrogate, Lord willing) felt a call to become a North American Mission Board missionary, raising her support to go into full-time ministry helping the Sanctuary church plant! Praise the Lord!!! How exciting! Please pray for her as she begins this step. One of our students got a call to a semester-long mission to possibly Asia. One student got a call to help end sex trafficking, something Bryan has a strong passion for. Two of the people who went with us had life changing experiences that can’t be shared publicly by us, but is a huge blessing from God and shows His love and provision. Each of us left New Mexico profoundly changed by Christ and His convicting Spirit. Our faith was strengthened and we all left ready to make a Kingdom difference.

Bryan Teaches at Glorieta

Bryan was excited to have the honor to teach three sessions at Collegiate Week. He taught on sex trafficking, which is epidemic around the world (27 million) and even in the United States, where there are currently 200,000 slaves.

Many students were not aware of all the thousands of children who are currently help captive as sex slaves: some as young as eight years old, forced to do unthinkable things to men, up to 30 times a day. Before Bryan even shared the action points students could take, they were begging: “what can we do?!” God definitely used these sessions to help His children across the world. For more information on the sex trade, check out: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org or www.freetheslaves.net .

Praise the Lord! ASU Poly Move In ‘08

We were very encouraged that fourteen of our students/church members went with us out in the 110° heat to help students move in. Most were wearing our Christian Challenge or Sanctuary shirts! It was such a blessing to think about last year, our first year on Poly, when we did not know one student on campus. We had two Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) students with us, Dallas, a tent and a Christian Challenge banner. We did not even know where the freshman dorms were since we’d been to the campus for the first time just the day before (looking for a gym for the dodge-ball event for CGCC!) Bryan knew we had to have Christian Challenge at ASU-Poly too, so we showed up for move in the next day.)

What an amazing change from one year ago. We have three Community Assistants (like R.A.’s), two Poly Events Team members, and a tutor. We know several ASU Poly staff members, and dozens, if not more, students. God has truly used Christian Challenge. The stark changes from last year to this year brought tears of joy & thankfulness to my eyes.

We came to ASU Poly to serve the students, lead them to Christ, disciple them and start a church. And we got to do all of this, but when we lost our Madison Grace, the students served us, prayed for us, brought us meals in the hospital, in our home, made memorial gifts for us to remember Baby Madison and they carried our burden with us. We came last year as strangers to this campus. This year, we return to our family.

Powers Family Update

We were so excited to get to go to Kentucky for Bryan’s sister, Mary Audrey’s wedding. Bryan was their minister and Dallas (who Uncle Michael used in the proposal) was the ring bearer. It was so good to be with family.

Our amazing Granny Dee (Bryan’s mom) flew home with us for the beginning of Fall semester kick-off (our busiest time), so that Dallas wouldn’t have to be out in the heat all day and we could focus on the students. THANK YOU, Granny Dee!

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

-PRAISE –Collegiate Week and all the things God did
-Kim as she starts MSC

-PRAISE - Fall semester is off to a great start reaching new freshman.
-2nd week is coming up and it’s huge, too. Pray that God continues to bless the efforts.
-That students, especially unchurched/unsaved will continue to be drawn to CC & Sanctuary
-Our healing with losing Madison Grace

-Prayer and PRAISE: In-vitro and surrogacy

-PRAISE: New church plant
-16 have accepted Christ

-C., G., DJ, S.M. & M. to accept Christ

-Sharing the Gospel on campus

-For our support needs to reach 100%.

How can we pray for you?

August, 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

-God provides a surrogate mother!

-Day mission trip to Migrant Workers was great! People in Sanctuary are showing love to hurting people.

-Kid’s Camp was amazing, and we know better how to reach this part of our campus.

-Two of the Kids Camp students accepted Christ!

-Two other Sanctuary attendees accepted Christ!

- Sanctuary is a huge success
- Our numbers are coming up even without the fall semester starting yet.
- 4 salvations this month!!!!

- Glorieta (College Camp) was amazing. More to come next month.

-Kid’s Camp kids are still coming to church.


Made possible by your prayers and giving: thank you!



Dallas’ insights about the church

Dallas was riding in the car with us as we passed by the ASU Poly campus to go to dinner with Jason and Kim, and he noticed his surroundings and said “church.”

As you know, we have a very non-traditional church with no building or plan for one, no steeple, and very few people over 30. That’s not for every church, but that’s who we are.

What was so astounding was that Dallas recognized the secular ASU campus and identified it as church. He knew that was where people loved him and where he learned about Jonah and Moses. That is his church.

It almost made us cry and was very exciting to see that our little one may not be hindered by tradition as much when God uses him in whatever He calls him to.



SALVATIONS!!!

We’ve been reaching out to a community around ASU called the House of Refuge East. This is an area with about 80 homes that are used to house people who were once homeless. Fifty percent of the people in the housing are women who have come from domestic abuse. It’s a government run program and is within walking distance from where we have our services. Needless to say, it’s a great place to do ministry.

We reached out to them by doing a VBS, which we called Kid’s Camp… which we should have called a Sports Camp. We had a bunch of junior high students come, and a couple of younger kids. We had so much fun with the kids, and all of them had a lot of one on one attention since we had Sanctuary folks and eight summer missionaries, thanks to Chris Baker and Apache Junction Baptist Church (our sponsor church).

We had two goals for the kids we were reaching out to: for them to have fun and to share Christ with them. We played football, pool, foosball, everything that we could do, and we did Bible stories, which they were actually asking for at the end of the week. We shared the Gospel and it seemed like it just didn’t click with them until the next Sunday when they came and Jason gave an amazing sermon, and two of the boys accepted Christ! Praise the Lord!



MORE SALVATIONS!!!

We had our second person come to Sanctuary that has been on a Mormon mission. He actually may be open to the Gospel, but will have some huge road blocks with the differences in the Mormon religion. Still it’s exciting to know that we have people in our area of influence that are seeking (slowly) to maybe come into a relationship with Christ.

The good news is God brings some people quickly and we actually had two college students accept Christ this month. And when you add the House of Refuge kids, that makes four this month! God is working through Sanctuary! THANK YOU for being a huge part of that!

Powers Family Update

Praise God! He has provided the perfect surrogate mother, Kim Robinson, the wife of Sanctuary’s other co-pastor. We had a meeting with the in-vitro doctor with both couples. The doctor/geneticist said that this was going to be a perfect combination. We need to fill out some legal papers and do a couple of months of testing and we will hopefully be expecting! Kim told us that she longs to be our surrogate and even has dreams about it because God laid it on her heart after Madison died.

Her example of faith has brought new meaning to Romans 12:1: “offer your body as a living sacrifice.” This is an offering she is making to God and that God is giving to us. It’s amazing how the Body of Christ works and how He motivates His followers. We feel so amazingly loved by Jehovah Jireh, our Provider and Jehovah Rapha, Who is using this in our healing process. As we told you, we had a very strong desire to have more biological children before we begin the adoption process, but no way to do that on our own. Please keep praying for all to go well.

Co-wives and Co-moms!

Dallas got to sit on a fire truck

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- Fall semester is going to be a huge opportunity this year, and we are hoping we can reach some new freshman. Pray that God blesses the efforts.
- That students, especially unchurched/unsaved will be drawn to Christian Challenge and Sanctuary
- Our healing with losing Madison Grace
- Prayer and PRAISE: In-vitro and surrogacy
- PRAISE: New church plant
-16 have accepted Christ
- C., G., DJ, S.M. & M. to accept Christ
- Sharing the Gospel on campus
- For our support needs to reach 100%.

How can we pray for you?

July 2008

How God Used You:

Read more about most in the sections below

-Student – led mission trip to Guatemala a success!

-Bryan, Jamie & Dallas have felt very loved and blessed by your outpouring of love with the loss of our Madison.

- Sanctuary is a huge success
- The unchurched and/or unsaved students are still coming
- Students are stepping up to serve at the new church

- Our leadership group is taking charge of our day mission trip. More next month.

- Students are more aware of the needs of “the least of these” and God is giving each person at Sanctuary a heart for the mission that God’s calling them to.

-Students are learning to share Christ as a natural part of their life.

Made possible by your prayers and giving, thank you!

The Team is Back from the Student Led Mission Trip to Guatemala!

This was our church’s first out of country mission trip. Our team came back exhausted, but refreshed by God. They put on a camp for missionaries kids. Their parents have given up everything to minister to the Guatemalans, including things that we take for granted, like being able to send their kids to a Christian camp where they have all those great memories of the fun they had, and decisions they make for God. This mission trip created that experience for those who couldn’t get it otherwise.
Since Guatemala is such a dangerous country, many of the kids have seen murders and people lying dead in the street. One little girl had actually been kidnapped during a carjacking and was later left in the city after the carjacker thought that there were no longer cops or guards following him.

The team shared cabins with the kids, and were able to have discussions with them since they all spoke English.

Our group formed the main part of a worship band that God brought together on the spot. They said that they sounded horrible the first night, but all the kids enjoyed it and were thankful that they were there. By the second night, they came together and God was using them to make an impact through music. Whitney, one of the team members, had been learning to play guitar, but had never played in front of anyone or with anyone, was the guitar player for the band.

Chris Baker, the team leader, was the most tired coming back. He actually went three nights without sleeping because it was so packed. Apparently he had some boys who weren’t making it to the restroom, so he had a lot of clean up to do as well. He said that these types of things made the trip hard, but worth it. God taught him so much about serving and just being a Christ-follower.

Like on every mission trip, our team came back feeling like the trip had as big an impact on them as it did on the people they went to serve.

Pray that this continues to be an inspiration for our missionaries and that we will continue to be able to reach out to the world through international mission work.

Baptism!

We were able to baptize one of our students, Ryan, who accepted Christ at Sanctuary. We went out to the Salt River and some of our students and leaders came out, along with Ryan’s Family.

Mike Jacobson and Bryan baptized Ryan, something they he really felt he was ready to do. Ryan asked Mike about Baptism after Mike led a sermon about the Holy Spirit. He is obviously moving!

Powers Family Update

Please be praying that God answers our prayers for another biological child. Three friends have offered to be a surrogate mother for Jamie, something that absolutely humbles and amazes us. Please pray that this is a medical possibility. This has been a huge beacon of hope after Madison as we have such a strong desire for another biological child (but no way of doing that on our own), as well as adopted children. It just makes us more amazed at God and how He puts such love in people’s heart for one another that someone, let alone three, would even consider giving such an amazing gift.

Thank You for Your Prayers!
Please pray…

-Day mission trip to migrant workers
-Kids Camp (VBS) – Our church will be reaching out to the families on campus, focusing on the people in the House of Refuge.
-Member going through a divorce
-PRAISE: mission trip to Guatemala. Cont’d prayer for the children ministered to & our missionaries.
-Praise and cont’d prayer for God to provide for our overwhelming medical bills & cemetery/mortuary costs
-PRAISE: New church plant
-8 have accepted Christ
-C., G., D. & S. to accept Christ
-Sharing the Gospel on campus
-For our support needs to reach 100%.

How can we pray for you?

June 2008

How God Used You:
Read more about most in the sections below

-Student – led mission trip to Guatemala June 13-22

-Bryan, Jamie & Dallas have felt very loved and blessed by your outpouring of love with the loss of our Madison.

- Sanctuary is a huge success
- The unchurched and/or unsaved students are still coming
- Students are stepping up to serve at the new church

- We have a leadership group that will meet over the summer.

- Students are more aware of the needs of “the least of these” and God is giving each person at Sanctuary a heart for the mission that God’s calling them to.

-Students are learning to share Christ as a natural part of their life
-2 led students to Christ last month

Made possible by your prayers and giving, thank you!

Student Led Mission Trip to Guatemala: June 13-22

This will be our church’s first out of country mission trip. We are so excited to send out some missionaries and to pray for God’s work in Guatemala.

God has already been using the students that are going. Chris Baker, the trip leader, has done everything leading up to this trip and has worked very hard to fundraise, encourage people to go, pray, and seek God’s direction. Pray this month for the team to see some fruit from their labor, and for God to be glorified through it all. Next month we’ll have the updates of everything that happened.

Leadership

For New Readers (to catch you up): I (Bryan) got a heart for Church Planting while Jamie and I were commissioned as missionaries by the North American Mission Board. They shared that Church Planting is the most effective way of reaching college students and where Christian Challenge nationwide will be heading. God has provided a co-planter/co-pastor, Jason Robinson, student leaders, a FREE place to meet ON CAMPUS and a serious passion to reach the people on the campus. The first preview service had 35 people, including at least five unchurched students.

We started a leadership group to meet over the summer and we are going through a book called Irresistible Revelation by Shane Claiborne. It has been a tremendously interesting book to launch discussions and how we as individuals can step up into leadership following the vision of reaching our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth.

I (Bryan) have been personally inspired by reading about how Shane Claiborne has stood up for the homeless and hurting people all over the world. He’s even been arrested for obeying Jesus through feeding the homeless. As we were deciding how to be a part of God’s work with the homeless, we discovered that there is a ministry on ASU Poly’s campus that provides homes for people in need of help (about half of them are women and children coming from domestic abuse), so we sent toilet paper, a huge need, to them on Mother’s day. That is just the start; we see a partnership forming where we can minister.

Spending Time Investing in Students

Our life verse is I Thess. 2:7-8:

“We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

Our love for college students involves sharing our lives with them. We are so grateful to serve with people of the same ministry mind, Sanctuary’s co-pastor and his wife: Jason and Kim. We love to spend time with the students, meet their unchurched friends and love on them as the Lord leads.

We got to do that this month through paintballing, a student’s graduation from ASU and his party, another student’s MMA fight, going to Applebees each week after Sanctuary to fellowship, doing pre-marital counseling with two of our students and a couple hang outs at our house.

Powers Family Update

We had a huge answer to prayer and blessing this month. We have been overwhelmed by the quantity of medical bills that has come in after we lost Madison and their huge total (even with insurance). We have been so blessed by family and supporters’ extra gifts to help us with our cemetery & medical bills. We have been very encouraged by each one. We also received an extremely generous gift from the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention from the Pastors in Crisis fund that helped us so much. We are blessed to be a part of a loving network. Another surprising blessing came after calling our high risk OB practice; they agreed to cancel the $1400 worth of bills we owed them. Thank you, Lord.

Shortly after we lost Madison, Jamie’s parents planned a trip for us to help us have something good to look forward to. We had a wonderful time and it was nice to get away and not think for awhile!

Madison’s plaque has been placed on her Memorial Boulder at a waterfall at the cemetery (picture). And below is a picture of her “Treasure Box,” which we chose instead of an urn to keep her ashes. It says just about the same as the plaque: “II Samuel 12:23, Madison Grace Powers, March 12, 2008, From Our Arms Into Jesus’ ”

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

-Mission trip! June 13-22
-Healing, comfort and peace for us as we deal with the loss of Madison
-Praise and cont’d prayer for God to provide for our overwhelming medical bills & cemetery/mortuary costs
-Adoption plans and costs
-Sam’s (prayer minister of Sanctuary) close friend died in a car accident
-PRAISE: New church plant
-have accepted Christ
-PRAISE: Students drawing nearer to God
-C., G., D. & S. to accept Christ
-Sharing the Gospel on campus
-For our support needs to reach 100%.

How can we pray for you?