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!

Septiembre Ministry Minute!

We hope that the first few days of September have treated you well. Our schedules have gotten a lot busier with UNI coming back to school a couple of weeks ago and Wartburg starting yesterday! We are so excited to dive back in with students we know from last year and ones we have just met this year. Thanks for your continued prayers. Here are some specifics to help guide you as you think of us:

Praises

• The Panther Party on 8/19 and Bowling Bonanza on 8/24 were successes. At the Panther Party, even after the rain started God still provided new contacts that we were able to meet and we (and the student leaders) are now following up with many who expressed interest.
• Our first NavNight at UNI brought about 250 students together to worship and hear about the Navigators calling to "advance the gospel of Jesus". Over half of these were freshmen, it is a HUGE blessing to have such interest from first year students.
• The other half of our Wartburg team (The Nelson's) returned safely from Colorado. Angie & Katie have really enjoyed some quality fellowship time with one another. We are so excited to be united with them again as we minister to students together for God's glory at Wartburg.
• Over 200 students took a Spiritual Survey at UNI in the past two weeks, and over NINETY of them have indicated interest in hearing about the main theme of the Bible. Student leaders and staff have been following up with them this past week.

Requests

• For the 90+ students who will clearly hear the Gospel presented to them in the coming days that they would eagerly grasp its Truth and gain new life in Christ! (John 3:5-7, 1 John 5:11,12)
• That the students we invest in would be faithful, available, and teachable so that the Word could penetrate their hearts. Hebrews 4:12
• That we would be a living example to the students we work with as to what it means to know Christ and make him known in our community, our church, and everyday lives and that it would be written on their hearts to live that way as well. 2 Corinthians 3:3
• That as our schedules become busier that we would not forsake our first Love and run to Jesus first thing each day. Revelation 2:4

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.

August Ministry Minute

Wait a second...August? August ministry minute? Nah, that can't be right...
In spite of my disbelief of what the calendar tells me here is an update of how God has been good in the last month and how we pray He will bring glory to Himself in the next one:

Praises:

• We were able to spend a few hours with another one of the guys in our ministry that has been home for summer but returned for a couple days. God is on the move in Brent's life and shining light on the places that will, by His grace, show themselves to be strength's in his growing faith.
• We had zero trouble gallivanting around the Midwest visiting friends & family the second week of the July. It is encouraging to be reminded how big God is--He's working in Iowa, Illinois, Ohio AND Michigan :) (Sorry, Indiana...we didn't stop there!)
  
• We're hovering around the 80% mark of our funding for next year and have been cleared to report to campus if we finish the next three weeks strong!
  

Requests:

• The Panther Party August 19th at Northern Iowa. This is our biggest and best chance to reach students- especially freshmen. Would you pray that He would add students to His Kingdom on this day and not just our ministry?
• A rekindling of relationships with students at Wartburg. While they don't return to campus until September, please pray that they would know that they are valued and that we're excited to see them again! "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thess. 2:8
  
• That our heart, soul, mind and strength would, "in humility consider others better than ourselves." Phil 2:3
  
• We have $11,000 of need before school starts. While this seems to be a big deal to us; this is small potatoes for the God of the universe. Please pray that God would show himself to be the God of Ephesians 3:20 & that through His work all would know that only God is capable and recognize Him for who He is.
• For a strengthened relationship with the churches in Waverly, that we would together reach students for Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12
  

James 4:2 has been challenging me the last few days, "You do not have, because you do not ask God." We pray that this would never be true in any of our lives. God Bless.

Ben & Angie
319.481.0010

"Hey, self, listen up!"

The Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney

PREACH TO YOURSELF

Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed.

In his book The Discipline of Grace Jerry Bridges calls this "preaching the gospel to yourself." Don't worry- even if you don't consider yourself a public speaker, you can do this. Your audience is your own heart. And the message is simple: Christ died for your sins. "To preach the gospel to yourself, "Bridges explains, "means that you continually own up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life."

It's a matter of sitting yourself down, grabbing your own attention, and saying, "Hey, self, listen up! This is what matters most: You're forgiven! You have hope! Your hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus. So let's not view this day any other way. Let this day be governed by this one defining truth."