Refreshment and Life

Do you ever have moments where you feel like life is buzzing all around you and you seem to be standing still?

I don't know if that makes sense, but for me that is somewhat how I am feeling. I can get so busy or so tired that I can't find energy to keep up with life and it feels as if life is passing me by.

But the cool thing is when I get into these states, I usually notice it is because I haven't been spending as much quality time with Jesus. Once I sit and spend some one on one time sitting with Jesus and listening to Him I all of a sudden feel this life and energy and peace flood back into my soul.

It is amazing how Jesus can pour so much life into you, especially when we are spending time with Him. So lately this week I have been escaping to places to go on little dates with Jesus and they have been amazing. I love that when I take time to spend with Him, He will always meet me and talk to me. He is so faithful and so loving!

Leeland - Beautiful Lord

I just love this song right now! :) Thought I would share with you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs9NXNLCs-M

Community

I think this week I have been overwhelmed at the community and love within our movement out here. It is so encouraging being a part of a deep community/family that surrounds people when they are hurting, rejoices with people when things are awesome, and supports people with their different events they are a part of.

It has been amazing to share life with the Student Life community and to even invite others into our group. We now have to push two tables together for coffee hour when we sit and chat about life with each other. There are quite a few people who don't know Jesus that are coming along to these different events on campus as well and have said they just love hanging out with such a great community.

A student yesterday said, everyone I meet within your group is so nice. It isn't something I have ever seen or experienced before.

It has been such a blessing being surrounded by my team and the students involved in our movement. They have been such an encouragement to me.

Discipleship

I know I have written about this before, but I seriously love discipleship and living life with the uni students. This week I feel like I have been able to meet up with amazing girls and be there for them when things are going crazy in their lives. So yeah, it has been fun to encourage them and build them up.

A couple nights ago Hannah, Briony and I took three students out for dinner and coffee. It was so much fun to hang out with them and be able to reflect Jesus to them. :) The three girls were from Laos, Malaysia, and Japan.

Exciting News...

So I don't know if you remember a girl named Elizabeth from last year. This is a girl I met about 2 weeks before I was going to leave for the states to begin support raising for the second year of STINT.

I met Elizabeth at church. The service was over and one of the church pastors asked me to go pray with a girl that was standing at the front of the church. When I walked up to her she told me she wanted to receive Christ and walk a life with him. It was incredible, we were able to sit and chat for awhile and she totally gave her life over to Christ. It was such an amazing experience to witness someone completely turning their life to walk with God.

I met up with her one more time before leaving for the states and she was looking at getting involved in a small group and was really seeking growing in her faith. She was already wanting to share Jesus' love with her family and friends and be a witness in life.

Well, a couple days ago I was told that Elizabeth had led her sister to Christ. I just want to praise God for such a cool experience to witness multiplication within Newcastle and how God is working in people's hearts.

David's Baptism

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to one of our students baptisms. We met David beginning of second semester last year (10 months ago) and he was someone who was searching for answers, but did not know who Jesus was. As he continued to meet up with people and hang out with us as Student Life he made a decision to follow Christ and got extremely involved for the rest of the semester.

At the start of this year David has been so passionate about going out and sharing Jesus with others. He is leading a CE (Christianity Explained) course with a few guys. This is a study that goes through the book of Mark and discusses the basics of Christianity and who Jesus is.

This weekend David made the decision to get baptized and it was so fun to be a part of it. As well, today David's friend Francisco made the decision to follow Christ. It has been awesome to see David growing in his faith as well as leading his friends to Christ as well.

Here are a couple pictures from the baptism....