Merry Christmas! End of the Semester Update

Please consider this ministry for end of the year giving and AZ residents: if you're thinking about taxes, please see the last section for a way to donate instead of pay your AZ taxes and get dollar for dollar credit.  It is a HUGE way to help us that doesn't cost penny. See below or contact Jamie. 

How are my donations used in Christian Challenge?

- You are creating a position in ministry that would not be there without you. 

- You become part of a team that reaches students for Christ who are not being reached by a typical church. 

- You allow there to be light on five spiritually dark campuses of more than 70,000 students!  

What type of donations are the most helpful?

- A regular monthly donation helps provide a consistent salary for this huge ministry task.   

- One prompted by God. He is the Provider, and He does so through His people. 
         
- One which you want to see make a difference all over Arizona. 

Discipleship

There have been so many amazing things happening this semester with students having their lives changed. T came into our ministry really unaware what it meant to be a believer. She is now being discipled by Jamie who has taken a bigger role in the ministry. Talia said that while she was a Christian before college, she is just now really seeking to follow Christ.  Another student told Jamie on a Women’s retreat that she’d like to be baptized.  Jamie’s Community Group is growing and she feels such purpose being used by God. 

Justin, a new freshman, is being discipled by one of my disciples. He was the textbook example of working together. One of the youth pastors we work with brought him to Zona and we were able to have a hand-off where he wouldn't be one of the 90% who dropped out of church. He is now one of our leaders, playing drums for worship. He is also known as Uncle Justin in our house because the boys have grown really close to him. (He’s over a lot.) He was the first freshman that I can remember who gave us a Christmas card where he thanked us for being such a big part of his life.   

I have another student I am discipling who is walking away from homosexuality. I have another that I spent a semester with who is now moving to accept an internship to help a church planter out of state focusing on collegiate ministry. Another we walked through a seriously broken relationship, another just reached his 100% in support to do ministry with us. 

It has been going so well here that we were actually invited to participate in the ground level on a national discipleship push which we attended in Atlanta. It was an honor to be grouped in with some people I would consider rockstars of collegiate ministry. My conviction to disciple was strengthened and I’m excited be involved in God’s ministry He has given me.    
  

It has been my goal for some time to disciple 12 men as to follow the methods of Jesus, and it has been difficult to get there but I am getting closer.  Please pray for this milestone in our ministry and that I can continue to disciple students who will be ones who will disciple others who disciple others. I am praying that the spring semester is the time I’m going to reach my goal.   

God at Work

Part of the reason it’s hard to pick what to put here is because it’s been too long since our last newsletter (sorry!) but the bigger reason is God has done so much this semester. 

 It has been a conviction to bring more excellence to our worship music, which we have done and I feel like we are making strides to becoming something that we can be proud to say that we are honoring God with. 

We also took a group of students through the New Testament in a weekend. We read aloud for two days straight through nearly the entire New Testament. It was an awesome experience to kick off the semester. 

Our outreach efforts have been awesome as well. They aren't exactly traditional, but they have been effective. We sent people on campus wearing hotdog suits inviting students to worship which has brought us some recognition on campus and people show up. We have also started a Biker Gang. We send people on campus on wild looking custom bikes and it breaks down walls for us to talk to students and allows us to cover more ground across the whole campus. Six new students came the first week of the Biker Gang!


I feel like we have opened up a can of worms though because as we’ve grown, we have more to do, which has been a great problem to have, but we still need prayer to pursue excellence and rest.         

Powers Update

Huge Support that doesn’t cost a penny…

AZ Partners: Instead of paying State Tax to the State, you can donate (for a dollar for dollar tax CREDIT) that money to be used for Christian education, specifically to benefit a missionary family. You can bless us tremendously by using some of your owed Arizona State income tax dollars to donate to ACSTO (Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, Inc.) designated for Dallas Powers (if donating in Dec. If donating after Jan. 1st, it can be for Dallas, Hendrix or Colton Powers). You'll need school name, but we don't want it on the blog. Please email Jamie.You will receive a tax credit dollar for dollar against AZ State income tax. Pls. call me for more information or there is lots of information on their website: ACSTO.org . Donations for 2014 tax year are not due until April 15, 2015! 

God has led us to send our children to Christian school and where He leads, He provides. Thanks to donors for us to ACSTO, Dallas’ kindergarten, first and second grade were paid in full and we're praying for third to be as well! We Praise and Thank God! Thank you for your help. This school has been AMAZING! Dallas is learning and growing academically and Spiritually.  Next year he will be in 4th and the twins will be in Kindergarten.

So again, it’s money that has to be paid either way. It can be paid to the State or donated to a School Tuition Organization and used for Christian education. The tax form(s)  used to get the credit are available at ACSTO.org.

Please tell us if you do, because we would like to thank you and they cannot tell us who donated (Taxpayer Privacy). 

How God Used You; 

We could not do this ministry without our team:

- Making disciples who are making disciples  

- Great worship community

- Students’ roommates getting involved 

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- New Salvations!

- New freshman leadership 

- Hallams serving in Alaska

- The international athletes who need Christ.

- The rugby team

- Ryan as he comes on staff 

- Orphans in Mexico 

- Us to train our boys up in a Godly way. 

- Our support

- Sanctuary Church 

- More salvations

How can we pray for you?

Jamie and Sarah at the Women's Retreat

Colton cuddling with Bryan during Challenge Church

The boys and I met the Chick fil a cow on GCU's campus!

September, 2014 New Collegiate Church Plant!

Article for Fuel

I was able to write an article about what is happening at GCU for an AZ SBC blog (http://www.azsbc.org/blog/?p=1125) and I wanted to share it here:

Grand Canyon University is no longer a story of what was lost by the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention but a story of what is gained. Although the college was sold and has become a for-profit entity, it is still a place of ministry for Arizona Southern Baptists. In fact, it is a strategic launching point for a brand new strategy.

GCU has five other strategic colleges within a 17 mile-radius, making it the perfect location for our strategy. But this can only happen due to a collaboration between two different ministries.

First Southern Baptist Church of Phoenix is right next door to the campus — so close that GCU holds classes in the buildings. They have been able to provide space for a large worship gathering as well as the encouragement of a loving, kingdom-minded pastor, Steve Hayes.

Christian Challenge is a ministry to college students able to put campus missionaries on the ground on campuses all over the Valley. In many cases in metro Phoenix, it is the only official Christian witness on campus.

In an effort to break through the glass ceiling of 50 students, which seems to be the limit of students that a single staff member can reach, these two ministries have come together to form a Collaborative Seasonal Church. We are collaborative because Christian Challenge is part of the body truly valuing the other members. We are seasonal because we want to stay focused on college students, so we know when students graduate they are going to be attending churches with childcare for their new families or becoming youth pastors and pastors, something we’ve seen all over the Valley. We are a church because students need the church and that is God’s plan.

Over the last few months, I have been encouraged by a true partnership. There is a sense of community and a desire to struggle and fight together for the kingdom and its impact on students who are so lost. There is no claim to who “owns” the students, but there is an open-handed approach to reach God’s students whom he desires to come to repentance.

On Aug. 24, more than 175 students attended the worship concert at our fall kickoff. We are expecting great things from God with this new church.

Thank you, Arizona Southern Baptists, for giving through the Cooperative Program to help support the ministry of Christian Challenge on campuses throughout our state. Thank you for investing in students.   

Planting a Collegiate Church

I’m sure many of you have been keeping up on Facebook with what is going on, but we are at full throttle. I have tried to come up with a good analogy, and I am telling people that fall semester is like throwing a grenade and catching all the pieces as they fly at you. 

We had a welcome back cookout for students which was a God given success. We had over 180 in worship with us, which essentially DOUBLED the entire Metro Phoenix ministry of Christian Challenge.  

It is really a movement of God what is going on at this church plant. Students are starting to move into servant roles as the workload to set up and tear down and do things with excellence and organization have dramatically increased. 

The evangelism efforts have increased as well because GCU has moved up to Division One, which means they are bringing in athletes from all over the world. I have spoken to people from Nigeria, Ukraine, Serbia and France. Many of these students are coming from non-Christian backgrounds and are in dire need Christ. Please pray as we are trying to reach them.  

 

Christian Challenge Leadership Retreat in Flagstaff

How God Used You; 

We could not do this ministry without our team:

- Making disciples who are making disciples  

- Great worship community

- Students’ roommates getting involved 

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- New Church plant

- New Salvations!

- New freshman leadership 

- Hallams serving in Alaska

- The international athletes who need Christ.

- The rugby team

- Ryan as he comes on staff 

- Orphans in Mexico 

- Us to train our boys up in a Godly way. 

- Our support

- Sanctuary Church 

- More salvations

July, 2014

71 Salvations!

         Zona youth camp was an amazing camp. I was on the planning team this year and will continue to be because of the camp’s great impact.  

          The best part was seeing our college students who had never led anyone to Christ doing it for the first time, and then a day or two later, a second time. I saw Alice’s face beam when she was able to talk to her student and see her come to Christ. 

         One of the nights we had 205 students come forward, mostly believers dealing with sin or needing to talk through some issues. It was an amazing night where each college staffer with us was meeting with (on average) 5 students. God moved. 

        The day started at 7am with a meeting and did not stop until about 1am, so we were working 18 hour days, which is just what it takes. Our college students know what they are getting into though and they are paying to serve. We truly have some great leaders.

   

Alaska Mission Trip

          Alaska was an amazing time to do missions together as a family. Thank you to everyone who contributed. We were able to see our friends the Hallams and minister side by side with them.

         The school was in need of snow awnings that had a possibility of 500 pounds of snow hitting them. We were able to build three so that during the winter they would be able to enter their buildings. Also, we spent a lot of the trip splitting wood, several cords, which is a life or death need in Alaska. 

While we were there the kids were able to see God’s creation and help with a VBS. It was great that they were able to have an impact, too. 

 

One of the 71 Salvations 

          This is an amazing Facebook quote from one of our leaders. 

          "I had the chance to pray with a girl who decided to accept God as her personal Lord and Savior for the first time ever! However, the happy news doesn't end there... Last year Bethany and I encountered a girl on the tennis courts after evening worship who was so broken. She was very angry at the world and anti God. Her uncle was a Satanist and she was heading down that path. It broke my heart to speak with her because she seemed like she never learned what love was, it was like she had never experienced it before in her life. 

           "Well, I saw her this year at ZONA go out onto the tennis courts on the last night with her friend because she was supporting her friend who was coming to Christ. I had heard that she was already a Christian and helped encourage her friend to take the next step. As soon as I heard that she had come to Christ I broke down in years of joy. I found her later that evening and told her who I was and asked what changed in her and when she came to Christ. It was one year ago yesterday when I talked with her on the tennis courts, she went back to her dorm afterwards and she felt... Different, she felt that gentle tug on her heart and she knew she was just being stubborn so on that same night a year ago she gave her life to Christ. There is nothing more amazing than being used by God. 

           "I am overjoyed to have been able to see him at work all around us this year at camp and to know a conversation I had with a girl last year that left me heart broken, that me and Bethany prayed for every single day for the past year, came to know Christ. It's been an amazing year and an amazing week and I can't wait to see how God continues to move as we all go back to school and we are able to start evangelizing on campus again. God is so amazing, there are just no words. But I am so blessed that he chose to use me."

 A special visit: Bryan’s sister, Mary Audrey came to see us at Zona! 

Powers Update

A long term prayer request has been answered and as I write this we are having new AC units put on! They should help lower monthly bills too. God blessed us with a guy who gave us a minister’s discount who is the husband of Hendrix’s old preschool teacher.  THANK YOU, Ministry Partners who helped financially and prayerfully with this and Praise God our old AC units worked as long as we needed them to!

Several students served as Summer Missionaries in Arizona. We are SO proud of them. This is their Farewell Party.

May 2014

Help Needed:
Mission Alaska: Frozen Chosen

Our former Christian Challenge co-workers, Steven and Lindsay Hallam answered a call to become missionaries to Natives in Kenai, Alaska at Alaska Christian College. They told us of the school’s need for a team of workers to come do various updating/maintenance projects that will enable the college to continue reaching students all over the state of Alaska . We are very excited because we get to lead a mission trip of college students from Arizona to bless college students in Alaska. 

Alaska Christian College seeks to: Empower Alaska Natives through biblically-based education and Christian formation to pursue excellence in character, learning, and service as followers of Christ. We have the amazing opportunity to train, inspire and disciple Christian Challenge students, while serving Alaskan Natives. Many A.C.C. students have had very rough backgrounds and A.C.C. can literally change and in some cases, save their lives. 

We cannot do it alone and we  would like to ask you to consider partnering with us by praying and/or giving. The total support needed is $5500.00.  This money will go for our whole family’s airfare, food, room on the college campus for Bryan (Jamie and kids will stay at the Hallam’s house) and for some supplies for A.C.C work projects. We prayed a lot before making the decision to include the boys in the trip and feel like it’s important for them to serve on missions with us (as at home with Christian Challenge and church activities) and our missionaries set up a Vacation Bible School for the children to serve at! They will be helping run a Vacation Bible School for Native children and other missionary kids while the Christian Challenge team does the work projects at the college!!! The boys are very excited to tell people in Alaska about Jesus, pull weeds and work at the college  (if safe with work projects going on) and serve in the Vacation Bible School, passing out flyers for the church, or serve any other way that is needed. They are also excited to get to see their friends since birth: Noah and Gracie Hallam (Dallas and Gracie spent many hours each week on the Mesa Community College campus with Christian Challenge!). We need your prayers and, if you feel led, support. 

Thank you so much for your prayers! I look forward to seeing what the Lord does in Alaska through Christian Challenge.

Our monthly support is handled through the North American Mission Board, but donations for Alaska are being handled by the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention. If you feel led to donate, please make check to: ASBC and mail them to us (please email jamiempowers@yahoo.com) for address. 

Salvations and more!

This month is really exciting to write about because in spite of some difficulty, God has been doing some major work. Two girls who are on Paradise Valley Community College accepted Christ! The cool thing about it was that it wasn’t me who invited them or shared the gospel with them.  Tim, one of my disciples who will be on staff with us next year had invited them to a Christian Challenge worship gathering.  I meet with him once a week going over Scripture and accountability and ministry development. PVCC is his campus. I pour into him, and he pours into other students. It is truly a multiplication effort.  He’s become part of our family as we minister together, pray for him as he follows up with these two girls and for a lady to really step on this campus. 

If that wasn’t uplifting enough, one student that I shared about months ago that isn’t even on campus anymore at GCU texted me and said, “I think I found God.”  He was an atheist who was assigned community service hours and I was able to give him the hours. We talked about wood working, cars, family and the Gospel. It was all very natural, but I thought that all that had come of it was a seed.  

Thank God that He lets us plant, but He makes it grow. Recently this guy watched “God’s Not Dead” and saw the logic in there being a God. He may not be a Christian yet, but he wants to experience the God he said so long wasn’t there. Pray for us as we meet again and talk about what is next. He’s already in Scripture! 

A Cool Facebook status from Chasen 

We have loved Chasen as he has become part of the family. He’s played bass in worship for us and shared Christ with non-Christians after our outreach games of ultimate Frisbee. He just puts his experience with Christian Challenge better than I could.  

        “As my freshman year of college concludes, it’s time to say goodbye. As happy as I am to return home, I am reluctant to leave this place…I feel that there have been many things left unsaid. So, here it goes.

I began this semester with no friends, no connections, and no idea what to do. I was a brand new man in a foreign land, surrounded by strangers. This was just as expected-I knew going from homeschool to college was going to be a culture shock. I had to put down roots-I just wished I knew where to start.

Then I met an old friend. Old face, new place. He introduced me to a group called Christian Challenge. At the time I was involved in many groups at GCU, testing the waters. Little did I know just how much impact that fateful meeting would have. 

This semester has been an awesome time of growth and renewal for me. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some pretty awesome people, and made some fantastic friends. I’d like to give a shoutout to Christian Challenge in particular-without you guys, I might still be in my room, wondering why I feel so alone. I can’t thank you guys enough for the impact you’ve had on my life this semester-I’ve made many good friends, been introduced to a thriving church community that extends far beyond Phoenix, and grown closer to God through CC. I look forward to getting involved in the ministry of Christian Challenge, and drawing closer to God and my brothers and sisters in Christ because of it. 

Time to say goodbye…but I’m reluctant to leave. While I may be going home to family, I know that I’m leaving family behind. This has been one of the greatest and most fruitful years of my life, and I wish it didn’t have to end. Leaving will be hard, but I look forward to the coming fall semester. Goodbye, GCU-I wish you all a fantastic summer.”

Winter Retreat

This was the first year that we have had no snow in Pinetop, AZ for the retreat.  It didn’t slow us down though. God moved like He always has at our Winter Retreats. Our staff came together and improvised and it was so good that the students who had paid for and expected a winter weren’t disappointed nor did they ever complain.  

Every year we come back and students say that it was the best one they have ever been to. I was proud to have my team make up a bulk of the worship team, especially since it was the highlight for many of the students. 

That wasn’t the only highlight though. We were able to get Byron Banta to join us as the speaker. I made sure to ask him nearly a year in advance because we had actually tried to get him the year before and he was booked. He was absolutely amazing. The students were deeply impacted by him. They were gleaning knowledge from someone 60 years older than them, not judging him for “not being able to understand them.”

Largest Spring Night of Worship we have ever had. Ryan and I did an intro video which has sparked a desire for some media people to step up and do more media in our events. 

Facebook post from Tim, who is “Uncle Tim” to our boys. When we couldn’t take the twins to their tee ball game, he and Uncle Ryan and Uncle Patrick took them for us. 

“You know I spend a lot of time with Bryan and Jamie Powers and their family, when their son makes it into my profile picture. I really do love this family and how much they pour into my life. I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you so much, you and your family have been such a tremendous blessing. I'm sure Ryan Storch and Patrick Fry completely agree with me. — feeling grateful.”

Thank you, Partners, for enabling us to give our lives to these students in 

His Name.

GCU Leaders dinner, planning, learning and fellowship at our house

How God Used You; 

We could not do this ministry without our team:

- Making disciples who are making disciples  

- Great worship community

- Students’ roommates getting involved 

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- New Salvations!

- Tim at Paradise Valley CC

- Sarah at South Mountain CC

- That we can keep the leadership team together as we are now spread all over the country for the summer. 

- Hallams serving in Alaska

- CC Mission to Alaska

- Our guys group 

- The strong personalities to be soft to God and new people.

- Ryan as he comes on staff 

- Orphans in Mexico 

- Us to train our boys up in a Godly way. 

- Our support

- Sanctuary Church 

- More salvations

How can we pray for you?