Chattanooga Choo-choo....

That's right! We're headed north this weekend with a group of 30 students to Chattanooga! We'd love your prayers for safety and for life change. We will be partnering with a church in Chattanooga, North Shore, which is doing a great job in living out the gospel in their community. We are doing community work with them and getting some talks from their amazing pastor.

We are hoping that are students will see what it's like to be a part of a church that lives missionally and are need-seekers of the city. We want them to know that it's important to be involved in a gospel-centered church when they graduate!

And also, we just want to have some fun! :)

Three years ago yesterday...

...I said YES!

I will never forget that perfect day. Even though I was hardly surprised (I hate surprises) and Andrew did a great job of giving heavy hints, my expectations of our engagement were far exceeded. A crisp, cool but sunny October day in a Nashville park... the man that was created just for me down on one knee... a simple and perfect diamond on my hand... it could have been a scene on a movie. The picture above is not of that day. We have no pictures of it... and I like it that way. It's special to us and only we know how beautiful and perfect it was. I love my husband and am so grateful he wanted to marry ME!

In fact, he's so wonderful that he even took me to see Toy Story in 3D last night to celebrate. I know what you're thinking: LAME! Maybe for any other 25 year old girl... but I happen to be one of the largest fans of the movie. I don't think its wit and charisma has been matched yet! The 3D upgrades weren't that amazing... but it was priceless to see it on the big screen again. Thank you, hubby!!

Dear September, where did you go?

Andrew and I can't believe it's already October! The fall is quickly flying past us. We've had such a neat couple months of ministry. One of our favorite things has been speaking to new member classes of fraternities and sororities. The beauty of Greek houses is that you immediately have an audience of freshman from all walks of life who will most likely be some of the most influential leaders on campus in the future. What a great opportunity to speak truth into their life their freshman year!

Our hope for the talks is to either a) plug them each into a gospel-centered community group and/or b)have lunch/coffee with them individually and share the gospel with them.

I just had lunch today that resulted from one of these new member talks and it was a sweet reminder of who the Lord has called us to at Auburn. She's a believer but hasn't found a group of Christian friends yet to surround her and, thus, has found her self slipping back into her former life. What a privilege to point her back to the gospel and get her plugged into a group where she is consistently pointed to truth... that could change the whole course of her 4 years at college and, hopefully, her life.

Tonight we will be speaking to AOII, Chi Phi, Theta Chi, and ATO. Please pray with us that they would be supernaturally attentive and God would use tonight to change the course of their life.

In other news.... we are so ready for construction to be done in our neighborhood! When we moved in, Lundy Chase looked like this:


Now the only house they are working on in our street is, of course, the one right beside our bedroom window. We've had some fun stories with mishaps in our neighborhood but this past week it came to a climax and it is not funny anymore. We've had power outages, our phone line cut, our invisible fence destroyed (and a nasty note left on our door about a certain yellow lab marking his territory in other yards)... but I guess we knew what we were getting into!

Happy Monday!

For it's one... two.... three strikes...

Actually, there were far more than three strikes last night at my first ever Braves game! Our long-time friend, Aron, had three extra tickets to the Braves vs. Padres game last night and was kind enough to invite us to tag along. Knowing it would be a long night without a girl to chat with, I got to spend some sweet time with my dear friend Sarah Rhodes! (We had a lovely time guessing the ditties they played and making witty comments about each players cameo). The game in itself was a downer (only three runs the whole night), but the atmosphere was superb. We had a fantastic view of the ATL skyline and enjoyed an all-American hotdog. I think night games are the best. The last baseball game I went to was back in youth group... I saw the Cardinals vs. Cubs (The home run battle of McGwire and Sosa) and saw McGwire hit his 65th home run. I can't even remember the name of half the people on that trip, but I remember that random trivia. Anyway, that game was mid afternoon in summer, and about 30 innings in I made a covenant (now broken) that I would never attend another baseball game. I'm glad I did.

Here's some shots of us at the stadium....




On the way home I had a craving for some ice cream, so we pulled in a Wendy's where I continued walking on youth group memory lane and ordered a frosty and fries. Scoff not! The harmony of salty and sweet comes to crescendo in this perfect snack.



Today Andrew and I got the pleasure of visiting Grandmother and Grandaddy Harwell. They hosted us for lunch (a full menu of friend chicken and okra!) and we had a really pleasant visit with them. We love the two of them very much and are thankful for all the ways they encourage and inspire us. Grandmother reads this blog every day and you better believe she let's us know how long it has been since our last update! We love you two!!

The Great Convergence

Thursday night at our weekly meeting, our campus director Bill Boldt explained to the 300 students that showed up why we feel called to invest our lives into them. We believe that college students are the most significant people (the next leaders, movers and shakers) in the world at the most significant time (independence, deciding what to do w/ their life) time of their lives. It was such a moving reminder to Andrew and I of what we are called to: this great convergence. We hope to impact these students for Jesus, so that in turn they would impact their community and the world.

Thus, being the first week of school... we were rather busy this week! On Monday morning we handed out 1,000 cups with Crusade's information and the football schedule in 45 minutes! On Monday afternoon we hosted 40 students in the Crusade office who desire to have a personal ministry. We challenged them to think about what would happen if there were 100 gospel-centered (experiencing Christ, outward focused, relationally driven) communities on Auburn's campus.

On Wednesday night, me, Andrew, and our dear friends Hank & Anna had a craft night until midnight getting some new ambiance for our weekly meeting the next day.


Just call us Martha Stewarts! Anna recovered some lampshades while I made a table cloth for our "Connections Table."


Our manly men worked on some stands to drape cloth over for some ambiance behind the band.


This is how the hard work payed off for our connections table


A shot from our first weekly meeting

Our first weekly meeting was incredible. Not because of anything we did... you could just tell that God was moving in the hearts of these students. Our series this fall is called "The Essence of Christianity" and we are studying through the book of Acts. Bill gave a great challenge from Acts 1:8 that we should be actively pursuing ways to be God's witnesses in both the near and far places in our life.


On that note, I want to say that we are praying for our partners in the gospel who just arrived in East Asia a couple days ago to continue the ministry that Auburn Crusade has been a part of for years in this huge city. We are so excited to see what God is going to do through Chris & Anne Marie and the rest of the team!

Then.... on Friday night we headed to Sylacauga, Alabama to have a leadership retreat! It was so encouraging! We had 41 students show up with a heart to reach their campus for Jesus. Please join us in prayer that through these students God would sweep Auburn's campus with a great revival that would in turn impact our nation and world. We have great expectations for what the Lord is going to do this year!

Here are a couple pictures from the retreat:

Getting behind in posts is overwhelming. Africa feels like it was three years ago! Since we've been stateside, here are a few things that we've enjoyed:

Time at the lake... we especially love when we get to enjoy it with family. (My parents even got to come for the 4th of July!)






Speaking of my parents... we also got to make an ATL trip with them, so of course we checked out the Varsity's greasy burgers!


It was so sad to be away from our "son," Samford, this summer.... so we've enjoyed being around him again. He always provides a good laugh with his vibrant personality.


And finally, the thing I've enjoyed most is just being in our home! The older I get, the more of a homebody I become. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that we basically left our house as soon as we moved in. I realize that I neglected to put any finished pictures of our home on the blog... so here's a few:


This is our entry.... I have to brag on my hubby. He is an INCREDIBLE craftsman. I showed him a picture of a table I liked in Pottery Barn and he put this together from scratch. How lucky am I?! I also should add that I've been wanting a bonsai tree a couple years now... guess how long this one lasted with my any-shade-but-green thumb? A whopping two weeks.


We are already enjoying hosting in this room... I love the feeling of "home."


In case anyone who read my short-lived design blog wondered what happened with my beloved iron horse... he received the place of honor in our living room right smack dab on the coffee table. I love him even more today than the day I bought him.

Well, that's all for now folks! Tomorrow morning we are headed onto campus! First day of class is finally here! We'll be handing out Crusade cups with the football schedule to advertise for our ministry and hopefully get to meet some students. I love the fall! We wait in high expectation of what the Lord will do this year. I pray I am faithful to document it on this blog.

One Amazing Summer

I realize it has been quite some time since we have made an entry on this blog. Hopefully since we are all moved into our new home and are done traveling for awhile, we will be able to keep up with this blog more intentionally.

This summer we had the joy of spending six weeks in Durban, South Africa. We went with 11 college students from all over the South East region to spread the good news and good deeds of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The summer was essentially broken up into two parts.

Part One: Campus



During the first couple weeks we were on the University of Kwazulu Natal. This campus had its beginnings in the ugly history of the apartheid. It was originally created as a campus for the Indian population (surprisingly, South Africa has the largest population of Indians second only to India itself!) When the apartheid was over, the campuses started to be integrated (with much opposition.... there were several deaths and many riots that occurred on this campus in regards to the integration) and now KZN (the campus) is about half and half Indian and Black African students with only a very small percentage of whites.

During our days on campus we would initiate conversations with students about their spiritual life. At the end of almost every conversation, we shared the gospel with the students giving them a chance to respond. We had so many amazing conversations.... most of the black South African students had grown up around church, but many were living under the assumption that their good deeds would essentially be what earned them favor in God's sight. After sharing about what Jesus did for us through His perfect life and sacrificial death to one girl, she looked at us with wide eyes and said: "I had a dream last night that someone was going to tell me about this type of spiritual freedom." What a confirmation from God that He had already been at work and we were just stepping into what He was already doing.

In all, we shared the gospel with around 300 students and saw over 25 of them trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior. What was also really cool about this was that we were able to do follow up appointments with almost every student who accepted Christ so that we could teach them how to study the Bible on their own, have assurance in their faith, know the role of the Holy Spirit in their life, etc.

At the end of the summer we had a camp that we invited all the students we met (particularly those who accepted Christ) to come to. It was a two night affair at a beautiful camp ground. Those two days were probably my favorite of the whole summer, because we got to see the fruit of what God was doing on this campus. Students from KZN who had become believers with last year's summer project were actually the ones leading the camp.... sharing their testimonies and talking about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. During one emotional women's time at the camp, Rose (a student who had just accepted Christ that week) confessed that she had been outcast by so many friends and family because of her differences from them and she felt so alone. Another student told her that now she had a group of sisters around her that would never leave her because of their bond in Jesus Christ. This was her family. The fellowship of believers continued to be a theme for this camp as many students found a group of friends who they could be transparent with and still be loved.... a place where they could grow in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Part Two: Community



The second half of our summer was spent in the township of Ntuzuma (pronounced In-tuh-zoo-muh). There we partnered with two incredible people who have been called by God to start a hospice (which they have named Ugukanye, meaning "The Light") for HIV/AIDS victims in the area. Prince is a black African pastor who became homeless as a child, learned of Jesus through a ministry that he later went back to help out with. There God softened his heart to AIDS victims and he got a call on his life to bring healing and hope to those dying of this terrible disease. He later partnered with Penny, a Kansas native who lost her ex-husband to HIV/AIDS several years ago. She, too, received a call on her life to take care of those with this disease and thus God eventually called them to work together in Ntuzuma. (The story is far longer and far much more interesting than I have the ability to tell).

Our primary job at Ugukanye was to provide man power for all the physical labor that needed to be done to get their building ready to be a hospice. We spent most of our time their washing, priming, painting, and repairing the roof. We also sanded and painted beds that will hold the future patients, organized supplies, cleaned rooms, etc. We each also got the chance to go on several home visits with Prince and care givers that are hired by Ugukanye to check on those suffering in the community. What a humbling experience. Andrew met a man one day whose body was ravaged by this disease. He and prince picked up his fragile body in a sheet and had to transport him to a clinic. The next day we were told that he died over night. It is so tragic, but death is such a common place occurance around Ugukanye. 33% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. The prayer and mission of this hospice is not only to promote awareness, but also to provide comfort and the hope of the gospel to those in their last days before walking into eternity. It was a sobering experience to be a part of.

Needless to say, this was a life changing summer for the both of us. It is always so encouraging to travel to different parts of the world to be reminded that our God is truly a God of all nations who is mighty to save. We are continually amazed that we get to be a part of what He's doing.

For more pictures you can go to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112280&id=51800416&l=afaa954ad5