February 2014

It’s a new semester! 

Usually the spring semester is about discipling the students that we were able to reach in the fall semester. By this time, students are pretty set in their routine until summer. We are gaining new students like crazy, though. Here is one that posted on Facebook about Christian Challenge. 

"It has been over a week now since I moved on to the campus of GCU. I was VERY nervous because I did not know what to expect… I am still trying to meet new friends to hang out with, but that is not as easy for me as it sounds since i am not that out going, but God had his hand in that situation. Yesterday afternoon as my friend Vincent and I went to get some lunch we ran into a friend of his who runs this thing called GCU Challenge, which is basically a group of college students from my school getting together and hanging out and having Bible studies and thing like that. I got Invited to the one of their Bible studies last night and afterwards we played Ultimate Frisbee , and when and at dinner at Thunder Alley, which was fun. Today we all met up and had lunch together, and tonight we are going to do another Bible Study. I am glade God has brought me some friends that I can hangout with and also have Him hangout with us.... This is going to me an awesome semester for me at GCU."

After knowing Robert for two days, I was walking by him as he was talking to two people and he asked me to come over and explain what Christian Challenge is. As a self proclaimed not outgoing person, he has already been reaching out to others. 

His passion has already spread to others in our group and has sparked a desire to reach more students. Pray that we can keep these students because right now we have a group filled with very strong personalities. 

Please pray that the new students coming in will help balance our group out and that the new students going to the winter retreat will connect.       

Overturning Temple Tables

Over the years, I’ve worked with a few students who, to put it nicely, were difficult. I am working with one difficult student right now who at the very end of last semester, I felt called to be very forward with him. (To put it nicely. I was pretty harsh and combative, but not without reason.)

This student has made it a goal to make life miserable for his Christian roommate for his beliefs even though he claims to be a believer himself. He was swayed by the atheist who was also a roommate to double team him.   

He was in the lunch area, so I sat down and started talking to him, after building a relationship with him for a semester. He started talking about how he didn’t like reading the Bible because he felt like he knew it all. He talks like this because he thinks it will make me mad, which he likes to do. I asked when he stopped reading, and he said junior year, so I just launched back, “So, you have the equivalent of a high school dropout’s understanding of the Bible?” I haven’t let him get under my skin, but I will joke and jab him like he tries to do me. He had no real answer for that and we continued talking. I went on tell him since he found the Bible boring that he might not have the Holy Spirit, and on the spectrum of his super Christian roommate and his atheist one, he was far closer to the atheist one in his thoughts in actions. 

After the Holy Spirit started convicting him, we got to a point where I could ask, “Wouldn't it be a good thing to desire God more?” He couldn't disagree, and so I asked, “Would you be willing to give an hour a week to try to get there by going through some Scripture with me?”

I felt like I threw over his temple table, but he is now coming to Bible studies and we have a time set up to meet together once a week. Pray for “S” that he will follow through and meet with me and that he won’t try to shut God out.    

 Powers Update: Colton and Hendrix Ask Jesus to Forgive Their Sins

Well, we were blessed with a day that we have prayed for since God created Colton and Hendrix.   Sweet Colton bowed his head and said, "Jesus, please forgive me of all of my sins." And then his face LIT UP and he said excitedly, "ALL MY SINS ARE FORGIVEN!!!" Dallas and Hendrix came in and celebrated with us and then Dallas shared the whole Gospel w/ Hendrix and asked if he wanted to. He said, "Not now." Dall said, "well, when you're ready, tell us." 3 or 5 minutes later, he did.

Then we had a party!!! (That was really more like a laid back dinner, including homework for Dallas, but DID involve DQ icecream!) They were yelling, "We are CHRISTIANS!!!"

Colton asked me (Jamie) to "show me Jesus Christ" on an Evangecube that Dallas has and I did and walked him through the whole Truth and when I said, "He died so that our sins could be forgiven," he said, "But not ALL of my sins. I still have some." I said, "No, Baby.  ALL of our sins." and he said, "All of grownups sins, but not kids'." I said "ALL sins for ANYONE who asks Him." He bowed and asked Jesus to forgive him. 

Support that doesn't cost a penny: Choose Where Your State Tax Dollars Go

AZ residents, if you have State tax liability, PLEASE consider donating it and getting credit for paying it.  http://www.acsto.org/  If donated by 4/15/14, it can count dollar for dollar against your owed state tax dollars and help us with Dallas’ Christian education (please use his name and email for his school's name (jamiempowers@yahoo.com). 

All about what God did at Winter Retreat next newsletter, but here are some pictures: 

Bryan (with some of the band) sporting his “Winter Retreat mustache” (which made for endless jokes)

We took the boys for the first two days 

Pastor Byron Banta preached and God used him to speak into the hearts of students and leaders, convicting and inspiring

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…

- Colton and Hendrix surrendered to Christ!
- Brian at ASU Downtown
- Sarah at South Mountain CC. 
- Hallams serving in Alaska
- We need a new roof and new AC unit.
- 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?

November, 2013

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.

Easiest Way to Give…Online: Automatic giving through your bank's online bill-pay or through NAMB's giving site, Kintera (Link: Ministry Partner Page of C Bryan and Jamie Powers)

Making Strong Discipleship Stronger 

One of our students who is discipling another student. He just took his disciple to do ministry together for the weekend in Lake Havasu. He’s coming on staff with us soon

A large part of Christian Challenge’s success on multiple campuses has been following God’s call to disciple students. A large part of my time on campus has been meeting one on one with students giving advice and counseling where needed as well as encouragement and discipline. 

I am discipling more students than I usually take on, but the rewards of seeing past disciples investing spiritually in their students, becoming pastors and youth pastors and going on mission, has made it worth it. 

One student has been overcoming some issues of sin in his life and has been making huge strides this semester. Another is a future Christian Challenge missionary to a west valley campus. I have future ministers and husbands who God has given me to invest in. Some of them are at the level where they can invest in others as well. 

The new thing that we are doing on Wednesday nights is getting together as a group, and then breaking up into groups of 2 or 3 and having some of the stronger students join me in discipling other students. We have always hoped that this would happen and talked about it, and sometimes it did, but we are being deliberate about it now and we are seeing some real growth. So we have multiplied our efforts and the disciplers are still being watched over and cared for. 

This idea came to me driving home from a Bible study and God laid it on my heart that the Bible study we were doing was good, but we had others that were similar. It was so simple and Biblical that we had it implemented in two weeks time. It’s awesome that after seven years of collegiate ministry, God is still teaching me better ways to reach college students.       

Too Much to List!

God has been doing so much on our campuses this semester. He has provided a local mom of one of our students who is discipling the girls on Wednesday nights at GCU, a great need. As a result, we've had several new girls get plugged in. 

One of the girls in our college group at our church stepped up and did the Harvest Festival. We were proud of her for doing it and thought the she deserved a mention. 

Many have already seen the pictures from our worship night where we had 182 people. We were too excited to wait to put it in the newsletter and had to put it on Facebook. We even had three students drive four hours to get there! 

We took a regional director weekend and talked long term strategy. It was good to evaluate what we’ve been doing and how to improve on our strategy. This has been a dream for years to have all four regional directors in place so that we can best reach all 23 campuses in Metro Phoenix.



We had a guys camping trip with some college students and all three of our boys. Where we were camping, there was a drunk girl who kept screaming that she wanted to go home. The boys started praying for her and within seconds, she started crying out for God to forgive her. 

It’s amazing to get to work with students whose first thought is to pray, not to yell at her to shut up like the rest of the campsite. It’s been a great season of ministry with some great students. 

Powers Update

 This month the boys got to hang out with college students more than ever! They LOVED the camping trip with the college guys! They all said it was their “favorite thing ever.” We had an impromptu Veteran’s Day Party at our house that turned into a Nerf War for awhile, so they LOVED that and had some fun wrestling. Colton and Hendrix turned FOUR Sept. 25th and Dallas turned EIGHT Nov. 5th! 

AZ Partners: Giving That Doesn't Cost a Penny:  Instead of paying State Tax to the State, you can donate (for a tax credit, dollar for dollar) 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 at ______ School (Please email me for school; I don't want to post it on the internet! jamiempowers@yahoo.com .) You will receive a tax credit dollar for dollar against AZ State income tax. Please call me for more information or there is lots of information on their website: ACSTO.org 

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…

- One of our beloved former students and his wife 
lost their sweet baby girl. Please pray for healing 
as they grieve.
- Two Ministry Partners lost a parent.
- Brian at ASU Downtown

- Sean at Chandler Gilbert CC

- Aaron at Central Arizona College 

- Sarah at South Mountain CC and her support raising

- Tim at Paradise Valley CC 

- Hallams serving in Alaska

- We need a new roof and new AC unit. (PRAISE –it (34 yr. old unit) made it through the summer!)

- Orphans in Mexico 

- Chandler Gilbert Community College and the church partnership

- Healing with losing Madison 

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

- Our support ($350/month away from FULLY FUNDED!)

- Sanctuary Church 

Colton fell asleep while "helping daddy" on campus

September 2013

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. 

Easiest Way to Give…Online: Automatic giving through your bank's online bill-pay or through NAMB's giving site, Kintera (See link --> )

Full swing at Grand Canyon University 

This may be one of the most crazy semesters of the seven years of collegiate ministry we’ve been in. We came straight from a packed summer into new campuses and new staff. 

We have had more resistance from administration about setting up a Christian Challenge here than any other campus I’ve been on. It is not the Southern Baptist school that it used to be and it is attracting a different type of student. 

However, God has been at work on our campus. Several of our Christian Challenge leaders from other campuses have transferred to GCU, so the easy part was setting up a worship band and finding teachers. We have so many solid leaders at the campus that we have to rotate our teaching schedule to give everyone a chance. This is a real testament to our strategy of reaching all 23 campuses in Metro Phoenix. It is rare that we lose a student because they transfer to a school where there isn't a Christian Challenge. This year I got a student that came from a friend named Chris (he was in my youth ministry,  I discipled him in college, started a Christian Challenge Club at ASU-Poly with him and he is now a pastor). 

 We've already taken a retreat and we are working on partnering with the church next door to the campus. One of the leaders is considering switching his major from Criminal Justice to Christian Studies because he is praying about going into the ministry. Please pray for wisdom for him.

With all the students we have now, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, but I have loved being with this batch of students. This is a new era. I loved the group of student leaders that we started Christian Challenge at ASU Downtown with and the second group of leaders, and I am really excited about what God has already done in this time. 

One of our students posted on Facebook about how he was  excited to prep for our Bible study and that God was speaking to him through the passage.  

 The Need for Christian Challenge on GCU

College life on a Christian campus isn't always as Christ centered as students hope that it is. One of the girls came to our first Bible study and talked about how she came to GCU so that she wouldn't be around all the temptation. Within the first week she saw all three of her roommates drunk and they were inviting her to drinking parties.

Another student was asking for advice about how to deal with a girl who was texting him who was interested in him. He had heard that by the second week of school that she had already slept with three or four guys and wasn't sure what he should say to her. 

One of our student’s roommates came home drunk after the non-Christian one convinced the Christian one that going to a strip club would be a good idea. 

It’s great that there is a school sponsored worship and Bible studies in the dorm, but they are going to reach a certain type of student. We are reaching a different type of student. We have already been connecting really well with freshman and it’s been amazing being with the students that have transferred from our other campuses. Here’s a Facebook quote from one who is on my leadership team. “The fellowship and family that comes from Christian Challenge has been phenomenal these past two years. Glory be to Christ for using it to bring me closer to Him.”

Pray that God will let us reach these students that are not being reached.

Powers Update

We had a busy summer with Bryan speaking at/planning one youth camp and leading Christian Challenge students (who led the youth) at Zona Youth Camp.  There was also a ton of planning for the school year. 

We were so thankful to get to go on a vacation. Some generous friends let us stay in their house in Pinetop for a week. The kids played outside all week long! 

             Church College Party 

Dallas is back in school, 2nd grade. And the twins started PreK Four at their Christian preschool. God has blessed us with free Christian education, thanks to ACSTO and you and amazingly some State program for preschool! We are amazed by His provision and are so thankful for their schools and teachers! 

How God Used You; 

We could not do this ministry without our team:

- Two new campuses!

- Making disciples 

- Great worship community

Thank You for Your Prayers!

Please pray…

- Family member who hurt her leg very badly

- Brian A. at ASU Downtown

- Sean at Chandler Gilbert CC

- Aaron at Central Arizona College 

- Sarah Support Raising 

- Hallams serving in Alaska

- We need a new roof and new AC unit. 

- Orphans in Mexico 

- Chandler Gilbert Community College and the church partnership

- Healing with losing Madison 

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

- Our support ($706/month left to raise!)

- Sanctuary Church 

- More salvations

How can we pray for you?