April, 2010

One of our Girls Accepted Christ!

We have been praying non-stop for this particular student since our first semester at ASU Poly. We’ve grown close as friends and done everything we could to be Christlike to her so that she would eventually come around and see the love and peace that Christ has for her. When I (Bryan) first shared the Gospel with her about three years ago, she told me not to do it again.

Over time though, she has softened, and has gone on mission trips to Mexico with us and after some time we became her primary friends because we would never give up on her. We’ve seen her go through several hard times, one huge time in her health and one very emotional time, and we saw God use it all.

Now, after three years, she finally accepted Christ and we are so happy for her. We know this is a thought out, genuine decision. Please pray that this will not just be a decision, but a foundation that she continues to build on.

A testimony from Kelsey

Kelsey is one of the best leaders I’ve ever had, and I wanted more people to get to hear from her how she has been impacted by Christian Challenge and the retreat.

“Booking two rooms, changing hotels, changing hotels again, what cars do we take, how much miles per gallon do they get, which beach is good, what do we talk about? These were all questions and concerns I had before ASU Christian Challenge Downtown went to San Diego California. Being a leader for this group I really just thought I would have to make sure the plans are finalized and everyone else has a meaningful trip. As I double checked my bags and threw my old duffle in the trunk of our car we headed out. That afternoon we went to the beach and as I was changing into my suit I glanced down and saw it. There at the bottom of my old gym bag was my rock. This past summer I had gone to a camp where we were to write down our biggest sins separating us from God and sometime over the summer we were to throw it in the lake symbolizing we were done with that sin. Well, my rock was different, I tried so many times to throw that thing in the lake, yet I couldn’t bring myself to do it. On that rock I had written down many things like staying silent, not having a community, being afraid, and stepping out. These things were all my own doing, things that I put between me and God. So I packed it in my duffle bag hoping I would forget about it. And there it was staring me down, I hadn’t thrown my rock yet. It had been almost a year and I was carrying around those sins, those burdens. I finally picked it up and read those sins. Those sins the ones holding me back from my Father, they were gone. God had hand picked San Diego, California to show me how far I have come, or better yet how far he had taken me. I had gone from no community, never speaking up for Christ, and letting fear overcome me, to being in California with an amazing community whom I was helping to lead. Looking at it I had finally realized that God had won the battle over these things and forgiven me for them. The only thing still standing in the way was me. I had held this rock for a year when all along I was forgiven. I took my rock and walked to the edge of the sand where the water just swept across my toes, shut my eyes tight and said out loud, “thank you God” then chucked my sin into the ocean. Leaving my sin behind and realizing that God has already forgiven me was my biggest triumph over break.”

Powers Update

Well, we had one of the most JOYFUL days of our lives as parents this summer when Dallas accepted Christ during Elevation Church’s VBS and after many more talks, Dallas went forward one Sunday and asked Pastor Mike if he could be baptized.

Bryan got to baptize Dallas on March 21^st and it was such a powerful moment to see our son profess his relationship with Christ and be obedient to Christ in baptism. He amazes us every day with his heart for the Lord, sincere prayers, sweet & innocent spirit and love for people, especially his family. We praise God for the gift of parenthood. Granny Dee flew in for it and we are always grateful to see her!

The little boys are growing like weeds! They are blessing us with lots and lots of smiles, sleeping through the night, rolling, trying to crawl, Hendrix has his first tooth and they still sleep basically ALL day, except four hours! I (Jamie) enjoy making their baby food, even though feeding it to them can get pretty messy!

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- Our Seminary President (GGBTS, AZ), Dr. Johnson’s son, Jeremiah, was killed on a mission trip in Mozambique.

- Valley-wide Christian Challenge Worship Night

- Follow up with all the new students.

- PRAISE & Prayer: New Phoenix Campus

- Healing with losing Madison Grace

- Our support

- Sanctuary Church

- Our leaders

- More salvations

- PRAISE: Growth and development of more leadership.

- PRAISE: 2 have accepted Christ on the new campus.

- God to use us to lead students to surrender to Christ

How can we pray for you?