It has been a while, approximately one month since I've posted last and as you know, a lot can happen within the course of a month. It's a beautiful fall Sunday here at UofM and sadly I'll be doing homework, more homework, church, a meeting and then homework for the whole day. Alas, the life of a college student eh? It's time to update you guys on the busy, challenging and fruitful month of October. Thanks again for those of you who read this blog and are praying for me. That support is worth more than gold : )
So besides the game which I won't mention (MSU beating UofM), October was a fairly awesome month in regards to ministry. I'll start with some of the highlights:
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| Listening to a sermon at Fall Retreat |
One of the pastors shared this verse and then proceeded to issue a statement which really struck me to my core.
Romans 5:6-8, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."He posed this scenario. Think about the most shameful moment of your life. A moment that perhaps no one knows about, or you wish no one knew about. A moment you have repressed from sight and thought. Christ died for you in that moment, and in that particular moment, His love for you was so vast, and so deep, it's incomprehensible. How beautiful, scary and challenging is that?
So fall retreat was great. Tons of students, including myself were challenged and opened up to the gospel and life change occurred. Does it get better than that?
China: I believe in my last post I shared with you how I was fortunate enough to share the gospel with a recent transfer student from China. Let's call him Tim. Tim came to church, heard the gospel, started to come to my small group and after his second time attending the group he told me he wanted to accept Christ. I lead him in a prayer to do so and he now has accepted Christ as his Lord and savior. Well a couple weeks later Tim invited one of his friends, another transfer student from China to hang out at a small group gathering. Let's call Tim's friend Nick (for the sake of their privacy I'm using fake names as if you couldn't tell). Nick told me he was interested in Christianity and would like to know more. I mean, praise to God on that one, this opportunity basically fell into my lap. Last Wednesday Tim and Nick, both from China, one who had just accepted Christ, and the other who had never even heard of the bible, heard the gospel. It was beautiful. I could feel God speaking through me and helping me answer some difficult questions. Like I stated, he had never heard of the bible! Religion is not tolerated in China and Nick knew noting about Jesus, Christianity and God. Nick did not accept Christ that night, but pray that God may move in his heart. He looked extremely grateful that I shared him the Good News, and I'm excited to follow up with him.
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| Our Off Campus Community at the Fall Retreat! |
Anyways, pretty cool eh? Besides those interactions. October has been a busy month. I've felt overwhelmed about future decisions, school and present issues at times, but God has been good and has been teaching me a lot through His word and other people. I'm going to share what I think is a nugget of wisdom that a recent friend from church shared with me during a tough time.
Nugget of wisdom (or at least I think it is): If you're like me, you do not like to feel rejected. Yeah I'd say that's fairly universal. Well, if you're like me and you feel rejected by friends or just people you have a defense mechanism that looks like this. "Oh, you don't like me, well I don't like you then." Basically what I do when I feel rejected is to reject the other person. Just to clarify, I don't yell at them or never talk to them, but I basically I shut down emotionally in the relationship so that I can't feel that pain. Because rejection hurts, and who wants to feel hurt and not wanted by someone? I don't. Well I was recently feeling this from a relationship and I was challenged by a staff member. He said. "Cam, what if you could love this person despite feeling rejected. What if you could pursue them, love them and fight for them even if you feel rejected by them and are rejected by them? That's heroic love."
Now I've heard that before. To love your enemies and what not. But this statement really stuck with me. What if I could love this person, even though I was feeling hurt by them. That's not to say that we didn't have a heart to heart talk and work out our issues (I'm not saying to avoid this) but instead of becoming bitter and shutting off emotionally so as to protect myself, what if I came alongside them, helped them and loved them through this, even though they could reject me and it would hurt immensely. Obviously I am nowhere near perfect, but I just thought that advice was GOLD. I mean, what if I had that attitude with all my friends, with my family, with my future wife and kids. Because they will all hurt me at some point. What if I could have that attitude towards co-workers and strangers? That love can change the world. After all, didn't Jesus love us that way? Wasn't Jesus rejected by his friends? Wasn't Jesus betrayed? Don't we all reject Jesus even to this day? Yet He still pursues everyone of us, loves us and fights for us. That love will change the world people. I feel extremely blessed to be learning this (even though it is challenging and tough).
Ok, this has been a long post, if you're still reading, wow- thank you : )
It is almost time for church so I"m going to wrap up with a few prayer requests.
-Small group: Pray for the small group that I lead. It is Monday's at 8:00pm. We have about 8-10 guys who attend regularly. Pray that the spirit would move within our group and that these guys would experience God's love.
-Off Campus Community: Pray for our lead team, that God would envision us. Pray that more students would come. Pray that the gospel would be shared with unbelievers and that we would grow tight as a community.
-Myself: It's been a challenging and stressful month. Pray that I can balance relationships, school, my job and ministry. Pray that God would change my heart in some areas that only He can change.
-My family and grandparents: I love them. Pray that each one could experience God's love and grace.-Tim and Nick: These are the two Chinese transfer students- pray that Nick would accept Christ and God would help me to disciple Tim.
You guys are all wonderful. Thank you for reading and for your prayers. Take care and God bless.
ps. Michigan is 7-1. Just beat Purdue, looking solid. Excited for the final four games of the season : )
Oh, and Ann Arbor is beeeeeautiful during the fall. Here are some pics I've taken around campus!
Go Blue!
God Bless
-Cam
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