What a Day! (Well maybe two days...)

Here's a story of God doing some amazing things in East Asia from Ann Marie. Nine students placed their faith in Jesus Christ beginning a life transforming relationship with Him. I hope this encourages you wherever you are.

From Ann Marie:

We spent the majority of September meeting as many new freshmen as we could. Now we are taking the month of October to focus on finding out which ones of them are interested in spiritual things, and when appropriate, sharing the Gospel with them. In light of this, our schedules have been packed with appointments.

10 a.m. yesterday, my friend Kat, who I had met once before, came over to watch the Jesus Film (a movie about the life of Jesus). Her response when it was over was, “that really shook me”. We spent the next hour discussing the Gospel and ended up putting her faith in Christ.

2 p.m. I met with two girls for the first time named Alys and Joan. We immediately began talking about spiritual things and they were so interested that they asked to come back to my place and watch the Jesus Film. Alys said, “I think everyone should believe this!” Both girls ultimately accepted the Gospel as truth in their life.

4:30 p.m. two friends who I have met once before, Mimi and Olive, came over to watch the Jesus Film. The first time we met we had spiritual conversation. They said that they have heard a little about God and think it is something they would want to believe in, but they had no way of learning more about it. After showing them the Jesus Film and talking more about Christ’s work in our lives (namely His birth, death, and resurrection on our behalf) they too decided to believe and trust in Him.

Today I met a girl for the first time who asked me if I was a Christian. After I replied, “yes”, she said, “I think that God sent you to me!” She began telling me that she feels like “God has been calling her”, but that she does not know what to do. We had a limited time to talk at the time, but she came over later and brought three of her roommates who were also interested in knowing God. After watching the movie and discussing the Gospel more in depth for about an hour, all four put their faith in Christ!

I wanted to tell you the stories above not in order to bring glory to anything we are doing here, but rather to show you what God is doing here so we can celebrate together! While this isn’t necessarily a normal 24 hour period of ministry, it is a glimpse into how God is currently working in this country. Please pray in the coming weeks as we follow up with these 5 girls that they would continue to grow closer to Christ and understand more and more of his Word.

STINT Briefing 2009

Hello STINTers!

By now no doubt you all are either overseas or making final preparations to head that way. Be sure to have chips and salsa one more time, or queso.

One thing we need you to do is complete the 2009 STINT Briefing Evaulation. This will help us make next years briefing even more awesome. You may ask, "Can it get more awesome?" Oh yes it can, but only if you help us by filling out the eval.

So what is this page? This is the Wordwide Student Network blog. Here you will find amazing stories of God moving in amazing ways on campuses around the world. You may pick up a cool idea to try, see someone you know to pray for, or just be encouraged.

This is your site. These are your stories. Keep an eye on the links on the right. You can email your stories to wsnstories@gmail.com. Share what God is doing in your life, on your campus.

Check back soon for more...

Welcome STINTers!

Welcome 2009 STINTers! I'm sitting here in the meeting room at Copper. Kevin just finished a great talk on the love of the Lord, and I'm listening along with you to Deb talking about Loving Your Team. (She had ringworm!) On behalf of the whole WSN leadership team, we are so excited about God's work in your life and the fact that we, together, are going to the world. There are about 250 of you going to about 50 different strategic location, with about 2 millions students. The Mission you've accepted: help bring the reality of Jesus to as many as students as possible. Trust God to plant spiritual movements among those who have never heard of Jesus. Raise up national leaders who will demonstrate and preach the gospel for a lifetime. Be a blessing to the nation and people that you will live among this year.

This is all impossible, without the Lord. But with God, all things are possible. He is choosing the ridiculous - you! - to make His glory known. Isn't it cool to be not only rescued by God, but to be given the role to be involved in rescuing others from darkness into light. Obviously, He does the rescuing, but you are His ambassador of the truth of the light of the gospel.

We hope this blog will be a place for you to gain encouragement from the stories of God at work around the world from your teams, to pray for those fellow stinters who are trusting God for audacious faith filled dreams, to laugh at some of the funny things that Matt Mikalatos (Greater Northwest WSN RD) seems to randomly pull off of youtube or out of his wacky brain, and also to get information that we think could be helpful, sometimes even essential, for you on STINT. So, you might want to set this up to come to your email automatically when we post, or just make it your 5th L, Look at the STINT blog. For now, if you have a cool story you want to post or a prayer request for everyone to hear, send it to Colin.Bready@uscm.org.

And in honor of Deb's great video clip on working as a team:



We look forward to staying in touch this year.
Keith Bubalo
WSN National Director

I finally know that I belong....

For those of you who started your stint year in August or September, you're finally reaching that time of year where you might find that you're starting to "normalize" in your new culture. Maybe you hit bottom around the holidays and now you're discovering that you have good and bad days... just like... like, uh... like home.

What's more, as the end of the (stint) year rapidly approaches you'll start realizing that there are things about this culture that are YOURS and you want to take it home with you. Or maybe you realize that this is home more than the good Ol' US of A.

As for me, I like songs that put a smile on my face and remind me of how I'm feeling today. And so, allow me to introduce you to Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele and "Oh, Paris!"

Remember

At this time of year, I typically find myself thinking about what I would like for the next year to look like. I long ago gave up New Year's resolutions, not being able to make most of them last past about 2 weeks. But I'm still a future thinker more than a reflective one. I look down the road far easier and more often than reflect upon where I've come from. But in that, I am missing something important.

I was reading a few days ago from a devotional book by Charles Spurgeon, where he mentions 1 Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us".

Maybe you've sung the phrase before from the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and wondered about that phrase, "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come." There are 2 words we don't often use anymore - "Ebenezer" and "hither".

The Ebenezer is literally "a stone of help".

It's Samuel's version of the more familiar memorial stones that Joshua pulled from the Red Sea to celebrate God's faithful provision to Israel as they made it through the 40 year journey and crossed into the Promised Land to a new life, a new beginning. Samuel raises the stone and says to all Israel, remember how God has worked in your midst up until this very moment.

As you start the New Year, before you think about what you want 2009 to look like, take some time by yourself and with your team, and raise your own Ebenezer. Like a giant road marker/monument, recount to yourself and one another all the various ways that God has shown Himself to be your provider, shepherd, warrior, lover, redeemer, and more.

While there is always much to anticipate and plan for in the future - goals to achieve, trips to take, decisions to make - these markers, this "stone of help", will provide the spiritual context you and I need to move forward with gratitude and hope in our hearts for the journey God has us for us in the days ahead. Stopping in our present, to remember our past, helps us make more sense out of our future. It forces us to hear and learn from God where He fits in this picture, and how He is the one who is watches over our ways.

There, now you can add "Ebenezer" to your vocabulary. I still wouldn't use "hither". Just leave it alone.

May the road for 2009 bring you a richer experience of the mercy and grace of God.

STINT Survey and the Christmas Conference

I've been thinking alot about you stinters scattered around the world. I know that the Christmas season is often a great time for sharing the hope that you have in Jesus, and I pray that you have seen God revealing Himself to friends that you have been making over the past weeks and months.

I'm sure you are all praying as well for the 10,000+ students who are attending Christmas Conferences beginning tomorrow. Did you know the Bridges Conference has over 800 international students attending, their largest conference ever. Imagine the impact of that as they return to their campuses, and to their nations in the years ahead.

As you pray for all of those who are attending conferences, I know you are hopeful that God will touch the hearts of hundreds and thousands of students with a passion for God and His heart for the nations. You might remember that the first night of the Briefing Conference I shared about Moses and his encounter with God in the burning bush. Well, your surveys about why you came on STINT were evidence of the reality of the burning bush experiences of which you shared that night. 93% of you said that one of the most important factors in deciding to come on STINT was hearing from God in His word and prayer. A friend's counsel, a summer project trip, and vision for your campuses' partnership location were all very significant as well.

It seems to me that the Christmas and Winter conference environment is where a lot of these factors intersect. Meeting with God, hearing about the mission, encouragement from friends, and a chance to go overseas for a summer are all part of the conference environment.

But here is what the stint survey also revealed; only about 5% of you made the decision to STINT while at the conference. 28% made that decision after the conference in January and February. At first I was surprised, but then I realize how good this really is. It shows a reflective process is occurring. There is also the fact that 65% of you said the challenge of raising support was one of your biggest barriers to stinting. The specter of raising $40,000 in 3 months tends to cause one to check a few times if that was really God they heard in the bush, or was it just passing emotionalism.

I pass this along though so that we put our hope in God for what He wants to do in raising up additional stinters. No doubt your experience is proving what Jesus told his disciples 2000 years ago: "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." Wherever you are on STINT, and regardless of the current results, one message always cries out: We Need More Help!

Jesus' solution was to "pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His Harvest." Put into the example of Moses from Exodus, let's pray that 10,000 students will be "turn aside" to see, listen to, and respond to God as He reveals Himself, and His heart for each one of them to be fulfilled in His Kingdom purpose for their lives. If that happens, I'm sure God will call many to labor alongside of you as STINTers this coming year. (And the rest who don't can support you!)

And my prayer for you is that you will experience God's refreshing touch upon your life in the days ahead, with hope in your heart for how He wants to work in your life this coming year.

Lessons from the Wild II (Devotion)

The rhino, as any fan of The Gods must be Crazy, knows is the self-appointed fire prevention officer of the jungle.   But maybe there are a few facts of the Rhinoceros that you might not be aware of and can apply to live & ministry on STINT. 

A group of Rhinos is called a crash.  The reason is because a Rhino runs 30 miles an hour but can only see 30 feet in front of them.  (Props to Erwin McManus for this insight.) This propensity for running into things is perhaps why God created Rhinos with thick skin and gave them one or two horns depending on the species.  

Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:18  says, 'we fix our eyes on what is unseen rather than what we can see' and in the next chapter adds 'we live by faith and not by sight'.  What if we charged through life like Paul and his buddies, like a crash of Rhinos - full force, break-neck speed, by faith, not worrying about what we can see with our limited eyesight?   We don't have a horn and we're not pachyderms (though some of us are thick-skinned & some thick-sculled) but we have the same promise that enabled Paul to live & minister this way.  It's a promise of the coming resurrection; a promise that while this measly aging body will waste away its not the end.  

We can be pressed down but we are not crushed.  We can be perplexed but we are never in despair.  We might be persecuted but we will not be abandoned.  We possibly could be struck down but we will not be destroyed.  Life, eternal life, real life is guaranteed so we can charge ahead like Rhinos - full of faith.

Another little tidbit about Rhinos is their symbiotic relationship with the oxpecker.  The oxpecker feeds off of parasites that live on the Rhino.  And it seems like they get the best of them because they get a little of the Rhino's blood when they remove ticks or whatnot.  But with the Rhino's myopia, he knows that danger is near when the oxpeckers fly away.  (The rhino also has amazing sense of smell and hearing but those facts blur my analogy so ignore them.) 

It's teamwork in action.  Where the Rhino is limited, the oxpecker is strong.  When the Rhino might not even know there are little guys beneath the thick skin slowing sucking life away, the oxpecker shows up for a groom and a snack.  For the Rhino, while sacrificing a little blood in the process, this relationship saves his hide.  For the oxpecker he gets lunch and a free wild ride.

 In the same way of God's created order in the wild, He has placed you together as a team for a purpose.  It's no accident you are together. Everyone has a role.  Sometimes the role is defined: team leader, person who handles finances, team prayer leader, buyer of snacks for socials, etc.  But sometimes the roles are undefined.  Maybe one of you is the team encourager speaking life into others.  Perhaps you are the one God has gifted with humor who brings light moments to heavy ones.  Perhaps you are the team servant joyfully serving others and not wanting to draw attention to yourself. Maybe you're 'the team mom' caring for others when they are sick or 'big brother' looking out for others and making sure folks are safe.

Do you really believe that God has uniquely made everyone on your team and brought you together for a purpose?  Everyone!   Do you just accept each other's differences or do you appreciate them?  Or maybe you are just still back at the stage of being aware that you are not alike or acknowledging these differences but just trying to tolerate one another.  How often do you say, "God I am so thankful that this person is on my team and that you made them different than me.  They might even bug me at times but I need them... I need those who are thick-skinned.  I need the bloodsuckers, too.  I need every person on this team and they need me."   

We need each other to forge ahead by faith as a crash of Rhinos.