Greenville University Trip (October 22-25) --
I am sharing my testimony in chapel at Greenville University (IL) on Wednesday, October 24, as well as sharing about Avance in different classes throughout the week. This will be a really exciting trip, and I ask that you would pray for me that God would help me to share well, and also that He would bring the people across my path who should consider the Avance program. (For that matter, if any of you are interested in serving in Mexico or know of someone who might be, I would love to talk with you/them!)
Wisdom
With each passing month, it becomes more soberingly clear to me the level of impact that I can have as a leader in this program. Young adults who come with us are trying to discern God's calling for their lives, and are learning many basic life skills, as well as ministry and cross-cultural adaptation skills. And the average age is between 22-25. I am always being asked if I can help people with everything from medical concerns to relationship concerns to how best to share the Gospel, among scads of other topics. Sometimes the concerns are deepers, such as dealing with depression and anxiety. I often feel like I am in over my head ... and I just desperately want to offer wise input into these lives.
Capacity Decisions and Staffing
We have been having a good "problem" in that Avance has seen a huge increase in participants on the year and semester programs. For the past almost 10 years that I have been involved in the ministry, five or six people would have been considered a "big" group during the year. Lately we have been holding steady around ten people for the past couple of years, and that number looks like it will be increasing. While this is an answer to prayers, in many ways, it can still present a challenge as we currently don't have the capacity to handle a group of 15 or 20 participants during the year. Please pray that God would bring the right people alongside us as long-term staff and that we would be able to meet this exciting new challenge at full capacity.
Reworking the Program
Another exciting challenge that we face is that, for the first time in many years, it seems that we are in a good position to not only manage the daily working of the Avance program, but also look at making changes and streamlining aspects of the program, such as the curriculum and trainings that we are doing. This should hopefully create more helpful learning objectives for the young adults in the program and will also make us more organized as leaders. That said, it will be a lot of work, so please pray for us!
My Relationship with God
Basically, anytime you think of me and wonder what to pray for, you can always pray for this! May I grow closer to the Lord everyday and live a life of faithfulness! Over the past year, it became abundantly clear to me that no matter how despairing, numb, or disconnected I felt, God was always holding me and drawing me back to Him. While this is such a delight and a place of security for me, I also know that I would prefer to live in a place of passion and blessing to others. :-) So, I appreciate your prayers on my behalf that all of my ministry would flow out of a place of deep rootedness in Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment