Last Sunday was a great day (most are for that matter) as we saw two students who are a part of Christian Challenge get baptized.  It was a fun celebration with lots of challenge students around the pool (or hot tub in this case).   Another student also received Christ in the last two weeks and just hasn’t been baptized yet.  Praise God for what He is doing!!  Please be praying for several other students who are in the process of deciding on becoming a follower of Jesus.

The retreat went very well.  Thirty-eight (38) attended which was the most ever for Challenge.  Several international students (from Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Japan) also came.  The man from Brazil had just received Christ (”said the big yes”) just two days before and shared his “history” with everyone.  He said this was why he had come to the US.

We had a very good time on Saturday morning.  Everyone had around 45 minutes to read through the story of the rich young man and then we discussed it during the session.  That story was a challenge for everyone there.

Thank you for your prayers!

Please be praying for us as we have our first retreat of the Fall this weekend.  At the moment we have 39 signed up, which is the most we have ever had since I’ve been at CU.  Pray that nothing will hinder these from coming.  We will be looking at making the most of our time so as to grow spiritually.

This will be a mix of Christians and non-Christians, so we are looking forward the time.  Generally, this retreat has been a great time and those who attend stick with Christian Challenge.

A group from Oklahoma State came in this week for their Spring Break.  The purpose of the trip was to serve a like-hearted Christian Challenge (BCM).  We had a great time with them.  They were able to do a lot of landscaping work at the Pruett’s house (which was a huge blessing as they will be gone all summer) and a thorough house-cleaning and retaining wall construction plus yard work at the home of one of our church small group members.  He recently lost his wife to ALS and has four children to care for.  This was an even huger blessing.

The group was fantastic.  They displayed servant hearts as well as grateful and humble attitudes.  I would take that group of students anywhere.  And props to Tony and Melissa who led the team as servant-leaders.  

Well, we thought it would be good to invite Murphy to Thanksgiving last week.  I’m sure he doesn’t get many invites, so to apply “if your enemy is hungry, feed him…”…  On Sunday before Thanksgiving I figured I would take advantage of a black friday sale and pick up an external hard drive to back up both our computers.  I found just the one.  On Tuesday, as Kylee fired up the laptop, it didn’t fire.  Oh, it turned on.  It just never made it any further.  Tests all said - “Replace hard drive”.  Well, we didn’t know Murphy had accepted our invitation, but SUPRISE.  He had made it.  So I cooked the turkey upside down.  That ought to show him.

I bought the hard drive.  Now the computer guys will let me know if I have anything to back up.  Oh well, God is good and my next one will be backed up sooner.

We have just wrapped up our end of the year frenzyflurry.  Wow!  Things don’t wind down, they wind up and up and up and then drop off suddenly.  Last Wednesday we had our last meeting, which for us is a Spring Banquet.  It was very encouraging.  The seniors graduating were honored by their peers, our Japanese friends were recognized and given special gifts, a slide show recapped the whole year, and we had really good food at a great restaurant in the foothills.

Following the banquet were 2 days of staff meetings to evaluate, organize, and plan.  And then 3 days of meetings with all the Challenge directors and staff from around the state.  This is also a very encouraging time as we are with like-hearted laborers and able to reconnect.

So now we take a deep breath and then get after it during the summer.

Tonight we begin our weekly meetings for the spring.  We meet on campus at 7 pm and students generally leave by 10.  This semester we will focus on 4 main topics.  The first will be ‘Christianity Makes Sense’ which we will discuss for three weeks from different angles. Please be praying for us as we kick off the semester tonight.

Last weekend we had separate retreats for the guys and gals.  And what a time we had.  The guys stayed at a ranch about 2 hours north of Boulder.  We had a great time discussing what it means to be a Christian man, playing paintball in the National forest, shooting other more dangerous guns, eating meat, building a massive fire, laughing, and more.  Pictures have been withheld to protect the innocent.

I think the girls talked about Jesus, watched movies, and knitted, and ate chocolate.  Sounds a little sedated, but they all said it was wonderful. Then they made dinner for us guys when we returned from our wild, man time.  The guys did have flower for each girl at the dinner, so we’re not just uncouth, meat eaters.

Friday Night Japanese

Originally uploaded by cedarledar
On Friday nights we have an informal, yet regularly planned event called the Friday Night Thing (FNT). Our group also has a connection with several Japanese students who are at CU for the year. Challenge students got to know a group from the same university last year (and even visited them in Japan last summer) and so made a quick connection with this year’s group.

All that to say that our Japanese friends wanted to make the food for the FNT and they wanted to make ‘their’ food to remind them of home. So we had 60+ students in the house for the Japanese style FNT. And,WOW, was it good and a good time. We had some kind of pancake things, rice balls with little sweet blankets, lots of noodles with veggies and some meat, California rolls and more. Many of our other Asian students also helped out in the kitchen and added their cooking expertise. So it was a very Asian night and we loved it.

Click on the picture to take you to the Friday Night Japanese set. Just click on the slideshow screen icon for a whole slide show of pics from that night.

Crazy pic

Originally uploaded by cedarledar
We attended our State Christian Challenge retreat at the end of September. John Strappazon, the state director in Oklahoma, shared some stories from his life and how God has shaped his story. The students enjoyed it immensely and learned from this time. They also enjoyed being together in a different setting than the campus.

God seems to always work deeply in students hearts during these times when they are less distracted with school, dorm life, job, etc. So they are profitable times.

Click on the picture to take you to more retreat pictures. Look for Christian Challenge State Retreat set and click on the screen icon for a slide show.