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?
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| Jamie and Sarah at the Women's Retreat |
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| Colton cuddling with Bryan during Challenge Church |
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| The boys and I met the Chick fil a cow on GCU's campus! |
