Slide Show from Chicago!

Spring Break Trip:

Above is a picture of our students that went on our Spring Break Trip to Chicago!

Overall...
Overall, I would say I came back really encouraged from this trip! There were many praises, many new experiences, and I felt closer to this group of students that any other time! We praised God for the awesome weather we experienced and safety while we traveled! Thanks for your prayers in that!

Serving...
We got the opportunity to serve with several different ministries during in Chicago and I wanted to share a few of those experiences with you. The 1st night I went with a group of students to serve a meal to some of the homeless in Chicago. It was a pretty cool setup in that we would serve the food to those that came instead of having them serve themselves. So we spent the afternoon preparing the food and then served them at their individual tables. We also tried to sit down with some of them and listen to their stories and share about Christ.

I would have to say that the most memorable moments from that night was watching our students serve the homeless and sit down and talk with them. I felt like a proud parent watching their kids. Our students worked so hard to cook the food and then did such a great job of sitting down and talking to the homeless. I was very proud of them and seeing Christ in them! A lot of them stepped out of their comfort zones!

Larry's Story...














Above and on the right is the picture of a guy named Larry Hope. Larry shared his story with us for 3 hours the first night we were in Chicago. Larry is now on staff with the Navigators, but before that was homeless for a couple years and a drug addict for a period of more than 10 years!

Larry shared an awesome story of how God has been healing him and freeing him from all the brokenness that had been a part of his life for so many years. Coming from a broken home, jail, and life on the streets he shared the story of how a young teenage girl was out on the street with her youth group handing out gospel bracelets and invited him to church. That started his journey in which he was able to recover from his dependency on drugs and surrender his life to Jesus. Since then, Larry spends most of his time ministering to homeless people on the streets. He also ministered to male prostitutes (this is a needed ministry in Chicago) for 6 years. It was an awesome testimony of how God can renew and restore lives that of people that have been in some serious bondage!

Most Challenging
I would say the most challenging part of this whole experience was that I let business keep me from meeting with God. Sometimes we would wake up and go from 6:30 in the morning till 11 at night! That is one regret I have from the trip: not taking time to get away from the business of the day and talk to Jesus.

Jacob, one of our student, saw snow for the 1s time! He wasn't the only one on the trip!



















Below is a picture of a warehouse that we helped clean out. One day it will be a community center for one of the most violent streets in Chicago!

Spring Conference:

Prayer, praise, teaching, paintball, and lots of fun! That pretty much sums up a lot of what happened this past weekend at our Spring Conference. We had such an awesome time! I can't say enough about how encouraged I was. I remember coming back and watching the SuperBowl and thinking "This is lame compared to the time with Jesus this weekend!" Thanks for your prayers! I think that most of us were really challenged in the area of prayer. Our speaker's theme was "Your God is too Small." I was definitely challenged the whole weekend in that area and walked away challenged to not put God in small box. The theme verse was Jeremiah 32:17 (NIV), 17 "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." If you think about this for long enough, you'll walk away wanting to pray big prayers and take big risks for God. One application for myself was making an "Impossible prayer list." That is thinking about desires that I have that may seem impossible, but that God could easily do!

Well, thanks again for your prayers. I know God showed up in a big way and reminded us of how Great He is!



















Paintball was definitely a highlight for some of us! They had two really nice fields and our students had a lot of fun. In fact, it was a girl from our campus that was the most excited about playing!














This is picture of all the students and staff from Florida State (And the main speaker!) There were twice as many students that came this year than last year. That was very encouraging as a lot of the students this year are eager to grow and learn.

Winter "Break"

Christmas Break was a blur of travel, but also a great time with family and spiritually refueling! I went to Iowa with my family and really enjoyed that! They had 6 inches of snow before we arrived and so we got to play in the snow and go sledding. It was also great to see my brother and get the know my sister, Nuch. She is a foreign exchange student from Thailand that my parents are hosting this year. After that I went to a New Years Conference in Atlanta with a college ministry called Campus Outreach. That was awesome! It was 5 days of hearing great talks, great workshops, and great worship! All among 1,000 college students who were hungry to know God! The theme this year was "The Love of God." Wow, I really needed to hear that! It was good for me spiritually to hear about how much God cares for me and is guiding my life as my Shepherd!

Well, here are some pictures from the break:














Here is a picture of Bryson I before one of the talks at the New Year's Conference. Bryson is a student in my Bible study and I really enjoyed going to the conference with him. I consider him a great friend and joy to be around. We both learned a ton and got to talk a lot!














This is a picture of the students from Florida State that came to the New Year's Conference. We had a lot of fun, got to know each other a lot better, and had some good fellowship!














This is Nuch (a foreign exchange student from Thailand) and I as we celebrate Christmas with my family. She has really enjoyed celebrating Christmas with us and gave us all presents from Thailand! I received a silk tie!














I wanted to show you a picture of the snow in Iowa! Ok, so this was a big drift, but it was still great to see the snow!

Football Game Day Activities:

Below are some pictures from our pre-game cook outs here at Florida State. We usually have around 40+ students that come to our house and tailgate (grill out) with us before the game. This is usually. Below are two guys playing a game called "ladder ball." We also set up a horse shoe pit in our backyard this year.














Here are a couple pictures from inside our house. The African American in the bottom, right picture is a student named Timothy who just became a Christian this past Friday night! God has been working in his heart since he arrived at Florida State. He came to one of our weekly meetings and asked for a Bible and has been reading it. Please pray for him, that he would grow up in his faith and that God would protect him from the attacks of the enemy.














Below are some pictures two students from my Bible Study, Shaun and Brandon. We all went to the shooting range one Friday afternoon and had a great time. I'm realizing that one of the things that is crucial for ministry is being genuine friends with those to whom you are ministering to!

The Shooting Range with Shaun and Brandon:

Brother's Wedding!

Stories of Grace:

A New Creation:
Doug (below) is one of two students that accepted Christ last week. After coming to our weekly meeting, he said when hearing about sin, he felt this weight upon him that wouldn't leave. Our director got to talk to him about forgiveness and about the gospel and Doug responded in faith. This has truly been a work of God and I'm excited to see what God will do in his life!



















More Men:
One of our prayers this year is that God would raise up more men. We are praying that God would raise up 10 men that would be Christian leaders of the next generation. Pictured below is Bryson, Nicki, and Skye at our weekly meeting. Bryson is a freshman that has come in with a true passion for God. I believe he definitely is an answer to prayer and has been very hungry to grow in his relationship with God. I have really enjoyed getting to know him as a friend and brother and am praying that God would use him greatly at Florida and for the rest of his life.