Praying for courage

Friends & Ministry Partners,

As the Lord leads will you please be praying for our freshman friend at Northern Iowa? We met again today and he acknowledges that God is real and that he believes in him. We even clearly understand the gospel and God's offer to us, however, he still is yet to make a commitment for Christ. I asked how I could pray for him in the next two days before we get together again, his response, "pray for courage". Please do that for him, yes, but also for each one of us- that we would magnify and fear God so supremely that his worth would always be eminently greater than any and all risks that could ever be set before us. Please pray that as Jesus continues to knock on the hearts of the lost that the doors would be opened and He would be allowed in. (Rev. 3:20)

Yours for the Lost,
Ben

Another Update

Friends,

Got some news to report of God's provision and working!

On Monday I posted about our day of H's on Tuesday-- Heather, Hunter & Hannah. Here's a status report:

Hunter brought along another freshman to our meeting, Jake. Jake, Hunter & I ate supper in the Union and discussed the gospel further. The 3 of us had a great discussion talking about our sin problem (bad news) and Christ's redemption (Great news!). Hunter especially grew more interested as our time progressed. They both understood the message and said that it made sense. At the end of our time Hunter said, "I just want to read that book now and see what is in it." I encouraged that and the 3 of us are getting together again next Tuesday having read the 1st Chapter of John, with questions ready to talk about it. Praise Jesus!

Heather was in need of $390 for a deposit to get into an apartment here in town. This will enable her to flee her relationship that had gone south and start over. A couple local churches have agreed to pick up close to $300 of that expense and be a visible sign of Christ to her. So encouraging! We called and told her today that the money was taken care of and she said that God must be really looking out for her, or if not her, at least for her daughter! She told Angie (again) that she was excited to start meeting with her to dig into the bible study Angie put together for her. Here's the understatement of the year: GOD IS GOOD!

Hannah met with Angie at the park last Tuesday and they're going to get together every week! We don't know where Hannah is spiritually, yet. She's 18 and living here with her boyfriend after following him from HAWAII and really relishes a chance to have made a friend in town.

I've got no idea why God is deciding to use us, as we are probably the least qualified to do his work, but it is GREAT to see Him at work and building His kingdom! A-mazing.

Thanks for YOUR labor for Him. I can't wait to hear stories of how he continues to further His name & renown this year!!

For Jesus,

Ben (& Angie)

pray, pray, pray

Would you please be in prayer for the following lives Jesus is calling to himself? Would you please remember Rev. 3:19-20 for these lives today and tomorrow?

Tomorrow evening, I will be meeting with Hunter, to continue talking about Christ and the Gospel. Last Tuesday I shared the gospel with Hunter in his dorm room. He expressed interest in hearing more about Christianity. Pray that he would recognize the validity of Christianity apart from all other religions.

This morning we received a knock on our door from a young woman we met last year. God is clearly knocking on the door of her heart. She has accepted Christ and recognized her need, but there is a difficult road ahead as she turns from a life spent apart from God. Please pray that she would recognize that God disciplines those he loves and that even though painful, he is completely transforming her for her good. May God give her a humble heart to repent and earnestly seek him.

Praying with you for the Lost,

Ben

Thursday Prayer Request

If the Lord leads you to pray, tonight Brian (a student) & I will be on campus at UNI to share the Gospel with 3 students who desired to hear how they could be 100% certain that they are going to go to Heaven.

Please pray that God would ordain our meetings, clearing their schedules and making them available to hear His life giving Truth. Please also pray for clarity of speech and a compassionate heart for the lost!

Check out Caleb!

This was Caleb when he was first learning how to crawl. For some reason this young man loves the remote control! We'll have another ministry minute up in a couple days! Enjoy.

We're Back & Going to Campus!

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us on our recent trip to Chicago, Michigan & Ohio. It was a great time for us to see long lost family & friends, including a few new additions, & share about what God is doing here in Waverly through this ministry.

A few highlights included spending an afternoon at the Toledo Zoo last Thursday with Jeff & Gretchen & zipping around town in a sweet Corvette with a different Jeff. Holy Horsepower!
Caleb thoroughly enjoyed his sunscreen bottle at the zoo, only paying attention to the exhibit of gorillas out of all the animals we saw all day, but he did take his first steps crawling before we got back home. Our staircase is now barricaded effectively, I assure you!

In recent blog news, I've added a new slide show that will stick around where our old picture was. Almost all of the photos are from our recent trip, so be sure to check them out.

ALSO, make sure to take notice of God's provision by looking at our updated funding tracker! Now that we hit the 75% mark we have been cleared for campus this fall officially. We still need another $12,000 to take care of all of our need and we'd ask you to continue to pray for that in the next month, but the Lord has provided mightily for us thus far. God is most definitely good and we continue to trust Him for all that we need. Philippians 4:19 says, "and my God will meet ALL your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." We know this verse is true and work earnestly to see how He fulfills this promise. As we continue to do what must be done we begin to return our minds to reaching students with the life giving truth of the Gospel and that's something we're all excited about!

Opening Day, Applebee's & The Goodness of God

Here we are one day removed from, in my opinion, the 2nd greatest day of the year - Opening Day, the first day of a new baseball season. (I say 2nd greatest, but really it's like 5th with anniversaries and my wife's birthday, although I would rank it ahead of my own.) You heard it here first, the Reds will be over .500 this year, the 6 year skid of losing seasons will end. So now that it is conclusive that God is good...on to Applebee's :)

Had the priviledge of enjoying a boys night out over a nice slab of cow with a couple of guys from our Sunday School class tonight. Kyle & Joey really made my day, it was great to swap work stories and hear what life is like for Joey especially, outside of 2 hours on Sunday mornings. Hearing what people with "real" jobs go through M-F made me realize and appreciate again the agony and struggle we must bear as a result of sin. Most of my stories were from the longest 6 months of my life, aka while I worked at Dillard's (don't!). The goodness of God here is that He loved me enough to put me at Dillard's a year and a half ago. Through this my character would be built and tested and I would further steel my convictions to the desperate situation people are in away from Jesus. Without living through that I may not have the level of desire & want to do what I'm doing today. My only wish is that I can get to the end of my life look back and see very few opportunities that I missed to share the Gospel. If only I could live that out more and do more to reach more today!

So in summary, I can't express how much appreciation I have for what Jesus did on that cross. And how much I still don't get it and how much I live each day like it didn't happen!! I was so desperate for some peace at Dillard's- and can relate to the folks Joey works with and what he does day in and day out. All this just makes me marvel at how far from perfect we are-- how far from God we are, and how far He had to come how low He had to stoop to come to us. People ask why bad things happen and why God doesn't do something about it, something to show mercy and save us. He did, His name is Jesus.