How do we finish well?

Happy spring everyone! I hope that each of you has been enjoying the lovely change in weather here in Texas, it certainly has been a gift getting to soak in the sun lately. This month has brought with it so much of God’s joy, I cannot wait to share with you!

Last month, I had the opportunity to start studying the Bible with three new girls: Sarina, Alexis, and Mari and it has been going really well. Alexis and Mari, who are aunt and niece, came into core together and I have had the opportunity to get to know them as we spend time reading Scripture together. It has been a joyful experience getting to see God move in their hearts. For both of them, this is the first time they have spent extended time in Scripture. The eagerness with which they ask questions of things they don’t understand and stretch themselves to take in what God is trying to say through Scripture is so encouraging and a breath of fresh air. They thank me every week for taking the time to invest in them, but honestly I don’t know who is more thankful, me or them. It’s students like Alexis and Mari that remind me how precious our good God is and how He truly is the giver of life. Mari’s boyfriend Daniel has also started attending core and studying the Bible with Paul, one of our apprentices. Paul texts me occasionally expressing his excitement to be studying with Daniel, who has also been soaking in the word of God and who brings questions from what he read in Scripture on any given week. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Alexis, but below are some photos of Mari, Sarina, and a few other students I get to study the Bible with!

A few weeks ago in staff meeting, we watched a video from Pastor Oscar Muriu, who leads Nairobi Chapel and who spoke at the Global Leadership Summit a few years ago. In the video, he offers up some advice in how to raise leaders in ministry. The biggest one that has stuck with me was his idea to have a “hit list” of budding leaders that you can take to the Lord in prayer over a lengthy period of time. The pastor recalled the apostle Paul’s relationship to Timothy whom he calls his son in the faith, whom he trained and equipped to proclaim the gospel so that when Paul was absent, Timothy would carry on the mission of Christ. Since hearing this, I have been pushing myself to earnestly pray and pray and pray for the students that I feel God might be calling us to invest in as leaders. I have also been praying that the Lord would point out anybody that I may overlook based on my own bias and to lead us as a staff team towards students whose hearts are earnest and eager to serve him. Please join us in prayers as we start thinking and praying through student leaders for this next year, that the Lord would guide us and that the leaders would carry on the mission of spreading the gospel and developing disciples on our campuses. On Friday nights at The Grove, we have been going through a sermon series exploring the different false gospels we have observed in our culture. It has been so challenging to think through the different messages we are swimming in each day and how they differ from the gospel of Jesus Christ. So far we’ve had Paul Micus preach on the false gospel of safety, Siena on the false gospel of being myself, and I had the opportunity to preach on the false gospel of self confidence. Arianna will preach this coming Friday on the false gospel of the good life, I will preach on the false gospel of complete freedom, and Arianna will wrap our series by preaching the gospel of self care. Please pray alongside us as we prepare each of these sermons, that the Lord would be the one who would speak through us to point us to Jesus and transform us to look more like him.

As we enter into April we enter into the final stretch of the semester! Classes pretty much wrap up the first week of May, so this past week during our leader meeting we discussed the idea of “Finishing Well” and what that might look like for us in different areas of our lives and ministry. The axiom reminds us that how we end a certain chapter will be how we or others will remember it. We want to do our best to end well as we wrap up our cores, one on one Bible studies with students, and classes. As for me, I am thinking through how to end well with our Mi Gente ministry, my time with my current roommates, my time with students who are transferring after this semester, my time with students who will move back home for the summer, my time with my core co-leader who will be stepping out of leadership at the end of this year, etc. Please join us as we think through and pray what action steps need to be taken for each of our staff members and each of our students to end this semester well!

Thank you so much for your continued support. I am so honored to be someone who gets to see your prayers for lives turned to Jesus come to life every day. God truly is so good! Blessings, Andrea