I recently read Keith’s post about Causing Things to Happen, in which I was reminded about how God prompts us to pray for things that he wills to happen.
Last week, in our final week of campus for the year, I found myself with a spare hour to kill. Being that it was the last week on campus, I was pretty tired, and the last thing I wanted to do at that point was to go and do a “questionnaire about attitudes and beliefs” with someone (an approach we use on campus to get into spiritual conversations with people).
Still, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me that this is something I was meant to do. So I said, “God, I don’t want to do this right now, but since I feel it’s your will, please lead me to someone to talk to who’s ready to accept you.”
Sometimes when you start talking to someone, you just know that they’re ready to accept Christ. I started talking to a guy called Sefita, and the answers he gave to some of the questions I asked told me where he was at. I asked, “What do you think someone has to do to become a Christian?”, to which he said to me “You need to make a decision to accept Jesus into your heart.” He told me that he’d never done that though. I then asked “How would you rate your interest to know God in a personal way, out of 10?” He said “10″. We then talked through the Knowing God Personally Booklet, and when we got to the part about inviting Christ into your life, he invited Christ in!
Because of who God is, we can celebrate another brother coming into God’s kingdom! I’m grateful that God chose to use me in the way that he did!
A Committed Student Leader (CSL) is a student who steps up to the challenge of being a part of Student Life’s mission statement:
To see lost students turned into Christ-centered labourers through our movements on campus.
CSLs are one of the driving forces that keeps our movements going; they make disciples who make disciples. A CSL is committed to sharing their faith regularly and leading an Action Group (a group that meets for Bible study and sharing their faith on campus).
Next week we’ll be holding an event to say thank-you to those who have served as CSLs this year, and welcome those who are saying ‘yes’ to step up to this challenge for next year.
A CSL is both FAT and SIMPLE:
Faithful
Available
Teachable
Spirit Filled Life (understands and practices this).
Initiative Evangelism: Takes the initiative to
share their faith with people.
Methods and Materials: Familiar with, and
committed to our methods and materials.
Purity in Relationships: Clearly maintains and
promotes purity in all relationships.
Leadership Potential: Demonstrates the desire
and capacity to lead others.
Enthusiasm: Demonstrates enthusiasm in taking
on and holding the position of CSL.
Please pray especially for those who are planning to be CSLs next year, that they will rely on God’s strength to help them in these areas.
Please pray for those that I’ve seen come to know Christ this year: John, Dennis, Leon, Daryn, Nik, and Jack.
Being used by God to introduce someone to him is an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything! It’s such a privilege to be used by God in this way.
Pray that these guys will continue to grow in their faith, see God work in and through their lives and bring glory to him.
Please also pray for Jonathan and Meo. These two guys are both interested in what it means to know Christ, and I’ve been able to meet with them and talk about this (Jonathan especially is asking serious questions about what it would mean for him to accept Christ). Pray that God will work in their hearts to bring them to himself!
Pray that where God wills, I will be used by him to work in all of these guys’ lives.
I’ve launched the GCX community for discussion about a CCCI Planet website and feed for those of you who are interested. Search for ‘planet’ on the GCX community browse page to request an invite.
If you were wondering, a ‘planet’ in this case refers to an aggregation of blogs around a certain topic (in this case, CCC).
(This post for CCC staff again…) Forgot to mention earlier, but even if joining our Web MPD GCX community isn’t for you, please take a few minutes to fill out our (short, 9 questions only!) survey about how you do MPD. And please pass this on to other staff! Thanks!
Some of you may have heard me talk about the need for a web-based MPD application. After playing around with some code for a while and talking to Troy (TNTMPD creator) and others, I’ve finally launched a GCX community to further discussion and collaboration on the idea.
If you’re CCC staff, and have been looking for something like this - or just like the idea - then please consider joining this GCX community.
A few weeks ago I met Tom on campus. Tom wasn’t 100% sure about the basis of his faith, so we spent some time talking about how one can be sure of their salvation. Tom and I decided to meet each week to look through the “Knowing Jesus Personally” magazine, to learn more about how to grow in a relationship with God.
Today Tom brought a friend Dennis along to our meeting. I hadn’t met Dennis before, so I didn’t know what he thought about God. I asked Dennis what he thought, and he said he wasn’t really sure. He told me how he was looking for something to help him get on the “right path” in life, someone to turn to in times of need. I asked him if he’d heard about how someone can know God in a personal way. He said no, but he’d be interested in finding out more.
Tom and I talked through the “Knowing God Personally” booklet (a basic gospel presentation) with Dennis. When we got to the point about how to invite Christ into your life, Dennis said that he had never asked Jesus in, but he wanted to! Dennis then prayed to ask Jesus into his life right there!
Events like this make my day! It’s great to see people receive Christ into their lives. It’s even more exciting to see people like Tom wanting to share with their friends! Had Tom not brought Dennis along, the chances of me meeting him would have been slim to none. Tom is still learning how to share about God with his friends, but the fact that he’s eager and taking steps to do so is encouraging!
This is what gets me out of bed in the morning! Please pray that Tom and Dennis would continue to grow in their relationships with God!
Tune In is one of the biggest opportunities we have each year to connect with lost students on campus! Through short questionnaires, we have a chance find students who are searching for something more in life, and talk with them about God. One of the questions asks, “Would you like to find out how tune into in to a personal relationship with God?” In Auckland, we’ve collected about 4,000 completed questionnaires, and have followed up the 2000 odd of those who answered “yes” or “maybe” to the above question!
Some of those people have prayed to receive Christ in their lives! Still others we’ve met are Christians already, and we challenge them to become multiplying disciples of Christ! One way in which we do this is through Action Groups, a chance not only to study God’s word and grow in faith through doing so, but also a time to learn how to share about God with others and put that into action!
Please pray both for those students who have received Christ into their lives, as well as those who we meet that already know Him; that they will continue to grow in their faith and become multiplying disciples; that is, making disciples who make disciples!
I never quite got around to posting this earlier, but you may have noticed that the “Student Life/CCC” category has been renamed “Student Life/Tandem”. From my latest newsletter:
In moving forward for the future, Campus Crusade for Christ NZ is now known as Tandem Ministries. The names of the core ministries have not changed (Student Life, Athletes in Action, etc), but the new organisational name represents the fact that we want to be working together as a unified whole, both for the ministries within the Tandem umbrella, and alongside those who aren’t!
If you’re interested, don’t forget to check out the Tandem Website!
I recently read Keith’s post about Causing Things to Happen, in which I was reminded about how God prompts us to pray for things that he wills to happen.