National Conference summary.

Ugh, I really need to get better at this whole blogging thing. I know I fail at updating this in a timely manner, and considering it's apparently been since October that I last updated it, there is a lots to update you on. Today will be just a brief overview (compared to everything I could say) of our second EDGE summit/National Staff Conference in Louisville, KY. To begin, a picture montage of some highlights, then to talk about the substance of the summit/conference.

Visiting the Louisville Slugger Factory/Museum where I was able to hold a bat used by Micky Mantle and see a bat used by Babe Ruth for 21 of his home runs. Fun fact: it only takes 30 seconds to make a bat used by a major league baseball player.

Staff picture on the Belle of Louisville where we all ate dinner for a night. It didn't leave the harbor, but it was still fun! Can you tell it is cold/windy outside though?!

We also had a dance party that night! A tradition that will probably be held every time my EDGE class is together.

Our hotel was located on the Ohio River, so we were able to take walks by the river and play Ultimate Frisbee during some down time in a park nearby.

The Robbie Seay Band played a small concert for us one night of the conference. Soo great! Here is Jenny and I with him after the concert, when he thought we were twins.

One of the last nights, part of my staff went out for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe in a little dining district close by. Always a good time with them! 

My beautiful roommates that I was blessed to share not only my room with, but also my life with for the whole ten days! I love these girls so very much!

Now for the substance part of the ten days. As Navigator staff I am very blessed/privileged to be able to hear from some great speakers: Norm Hubbard, Jerry Bridges, Tom Yeakley, Gary Haugen and many others. You may or may not know all of those names, but trust me when I say they are talented and very heartfelt speakers. They are passionate for what they talk about which just spreads to those listening! 

We got to wake up every morning of our EDGE summit to have worship led by one of our own and to listen to Norm talk about the Gospel, specifically Acts 11, 13, 14. In Acts 11 Norm talked about the first intentional outreach to Greeks and the principal of "do whatever you can, with whatever you have, anywhere you are." This saying you don't have to be this extraordinary Christian to share Jesus; you can have "common boldness." The passage also reminded us that our purpose is to bring people to Jesus, not church. 

Acts 13 passage was about keeping our eyes/focus on the Lord. Many good points from this:

• Don't try doing great things for God until you are caught up in the greatness of God.
• Can you joyfully endure the loss of ALL things?
• Bloom where you are planted. Be fruitful right where God put you. Focus.
• He calls people not just overseas, but also home.
• God will never call us to do what He won't equip us to do. 
• Three things could be the center of our life: Jesus, self effort, or self deception.

SO much goodness to talk about; I'm trying to summarize most of it. I could write about all of theses separately in other blog posts so if you want to know more just ask! On to Acts 14....Norm posed five questions to us to think about:

1. Will you allow opposition to divert you from the mission God has sent you on?
2. Will you seek glory from men?
3. Is the Gospel worth the surrender of your life?
4. Do I live with an unaccountable confidence in the presence, power, and purposes of God?
5. Is it my aim to raise up disciples?

Our mission is not a spectator sport!

We had so many other great speakers and workshops that I could go on and on about I will choose to only talk about one other. My favorite session was from a man by the name of Gary Haugen. You may have heard his name or seen his face on national news channels talking about his organization, International Justice Mission, which helps rescue people from situations such as those in the sex slave trade and helps to rehabilitate them and show them Jesus. He spoke to us about the unfamiliar passions of God, posing three questions (passion may be my favorite word, but it really was the content that made this my favorite):

1. Are Jesus and I really interested in the same things?
2. From my life, can people see the passions of Jesus?
3. Do I have a passion for the world or do I send others?

Gary shared with us some of the atrocities he has witnessed in his line of work to show that the most difficult thing people can't understand about God is how He is good when they are in so much pain. This poses the question of what is God's plan to show He is good to these people? Answer: we are the plan. Matt. 5:14, 16 & 2 Cor. 5:20. "Injustice is the abuse of power that takes things from people that God wanted for them." God's call to us from this, Micah 6:8 and Matt. 23:23: do justice, love mercy, walk with God. Those suffering should be able to see God's goodness through God's people!

If you are interested in learning more about what Gary Haugen and his organization does, I would encourage you to check out the IJM website: http://www.ijm.org/  Pretty powerful stuff.

Okay! I think I'm done with this looooong post for now. Maybe my new years resolution should be to update this more...we will see how that goes! :)

Focus.

As I was talking to a fellow EDGEr about a week ago about her experience on campus the topic of honesty came up. How we needed to share the struggles as well as the joyous moments on campus. That the struggles is what makes us stronger and may be able to be improved if shared and prayed about. October is now the month of honesty. So here goes...

Setting my own schedule; motivating myself to get off my bed and do things is hard. It's not that I lack passion or motivation for what I do. I absolutely love my job, don't get me wrong there, but I feel as though Satan has really been plaguing me with distractions. I don't have a set desk or office area so my "office" is my bed, but that doesn't feel like work. It feels like relaxing time. So I go to a coffee shop, but then I run into people I know. Then there is also the distractions of social networking. It's a never ending cycle.

William Borden, a gentlemen who radically changed the eternal destination of so many on his college campus and was called to missions in the early 1900s, wrote in the back of his Bible "No reserves, no retreats, no regrets." I ask that you boldly pray this for me. Pray that these students on campus become my unchanging focus. That this is my undying passion, rather then just my passion. That everything I do is to further the Kingdom and that "everything else is considered loss." (Phil. 3:8). That I am able to leave my comfort zone for the sake of the Gospel.

This is where God has called me and I have been reflecting on how this year is already a quarter of the way done. Wow. I don't want to reflect and have regrets that I didn't do enough. That I held back part of myself. That I was unwilling or too distracted to do something. This is where I want to be and I want to give everything I am to this cause. Please pray. Boldly.

And so it begins.

Wow. It's been awhile since my last post. Shows how busy I've been?! Since then, my job from this summer ended and I went home to fundraise full time for a few weeks before the start of school. Let me share a few things God showed me while I was home.

If you didn't know, my hometown is in a semi drought. We have water restrictions and the rain showers always seem to split right around our town. This has caused quite a bit of stress around my house and things  get tense at times. So driving home for those two weeks, I prayed that God would let it rain just twice. That's once a week. I know God can do that! Meanwhile when I was home, I had a feeling of  semi anxiousness/ helplessness because I didn't have as many appointments that I had thought I needed and felt like I wasn't doing enough to fundraise. I felt like God wasn't listening. Think again, Elizabeth! Well, not only did it rain twice while I was home, it rained four times in those two weeks. It was so great just to have rain that had it not been lightning outside, I probably would have gone and danced in the rain. God was listening to me, and answered in fine form!

Another way he had shown me he was listening to me and would provide all I needed was at the very beginning of those two weeks. A woman at my church had the great idea of having a garage sale that took place the first Saturday back in town. Friday night when I went to go help my mother set up, I was overwhelmed with the amount of donations that were given. With all the stuff that was there, I had prayed that God would provide $1000 from the garage sale including a matching donation from a church organization. Never thinking that a garage sale could actually bring in that much, I guess it didn't cross my mind "wait, God can bring in that much." It was almost as if God was like "watch this!" After the day was done and the money was counted, it actually turned out to be just a few dollars over $1000. Praise the Lord!! I was speechless, humbled, and overwhelmed!

After the two weeks, I was able to go to campus at 66% funded. I was still a little discouraged because I wouldn't have time to really fundraise while on campus for two weeks while we were doing all the welcome to campus activities and I knew I wouldn't want to leave after starting on campus. More on the beginning of school after this, but for now a large announcement: drumroll...........I am 75% funded and haven't had an appointment in the last two weeks, which means I am able to start full time on campus!!!!! It also means, more importantly that God has done everything. I came home this weekend for one appointment. After making a little more than 30 phone calls, I got one appointment . Feeling dejected Friday night I was talking to my parents, and the comment was made by my father "how are we going to get you to 75%?" Cue God again with his "watch this, you don't do anything!" Through a series of blessings the next 24 hours the funding came in! Thank. You. Lord.

Now for being on campus. I. love. these. people. That pretty much sums up my experience so far! I love my staff that I work with, the returning students who are so passionate about our ministry, and the freshman who have shared their heart with me these last two weeks.

God has been working in people, just by observing the response we have gotten from the many outreach activities we have done: handing out freshman bags, giving away free popsicles, and several other get to know you events. We had a good turn out for our first NavNite (sorry Tim if you read this, that's how everyone spells it). It was encouraging to see the number of freshman looking into our ministry.

 However, numbers is not the basis of the ministry. A community of love, grace, and fellowship is what I would say is. And boy, do we have a great community!! Returners wanting to welcome new brothers and sisters to the ministry, wanting to show them what a relationship with Christ looks like, and also just the passion that they have for each other and Jesus. The openness of newcomers to sharing their lives with us. I have gotten such good time with old friends and new ones that at times I was so overjoyed and at rest with the Spirit! I wish you all could experience these people in our community!

Our staff: is great! God definitely had plans when he put us all together. We all think differently, but mesh well together. The four EDGErs had an especially great time bonding while learning a dance for an introduction video we played at the first NavNite. It was a hit! I don't have the final cut of the video with interviews beforehand, but I can show you the video that was recorded. I will apologize for the quality, there are times when you hear the amazingly cute three year old son of some of our EDGErs. The original video is by OK Go, A million ways. Here is our version (you only get the link until I figure out how to embed the video on here):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8afuAdSxCVM

After that little gem I don't know if there is much to say to capture your attention again, but I will leave you with a piece of some fellowship time I had recently. We were discussing how nothing in this life matters without Jesus. How nothing is certain; no absolute safeplace. It sounds like a scary thought, but it was actually comforting to know that Jesus is the ultimate safeplace; the only thing that matters. No anxiety, no worry, and no care matters. In the words of The Message translation: 

"It's all smoke, nothing but smoke. The Quester says that everything is smoke." Ecc. 12:8

More to come on being on campus soon!

Just a few things I've been learning....

Well friends, the last month has definitely been a crazy, hectic busy one. I'm working full time at my job I've had all year in Manhattan and then fundraising every night/weekend. One would think I'm used to this schedule from studio, but this is almost a different busy.

 I felt I just got started with raising support when I went on my family vacation for 10 days. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my vacation and enjoyed the time with my family as we drove through 10 states to/around the east coast and back for a family reunion. I had every intention of fundraising while there and sending out letters. I even had an entire duffle bag full of supplies that we took with us. However, God apparently decided I needed a break already. I was able to get on my computer the first night of our excursion, but when I went to turn on my computer the 2nd day I only got a black screen no matter how many times I tried turning it on and off. Ummmmm...needless to say I freaked out. I tried day in and day out to get my computer screen to turn on (it would have been the 3rd time I had to have my computer fixed within the last semester). So I went through the next 9 days without the use of my computer that held all my addresses I needed. (Lukily, I had backed it up on my external hard drive...that I left at home). My mom even let me download the TntMPD software I needed onto her computer in case I needed it when we got home. I was frustrated and upset. How did God expect me to be able to fundraise without my computer and database? Well, as soon as we hit the KS border on our way home, I texted my best friend's husband, who has built his own computer, to practically beg him to help me fix my computer when I got home. As he was telling me what I needed to do, I tried turning on my computer one last time.....Guess what worked!!! Really?!! I could just hear Jesus telling me I needed to rest and actually enjoy vacation. Thank you!

Another thing that Jesus started showing me on vacation was what it meant to have faith like a child: simply knowing and trusting He is there, no questions asked. My three yr. old cousin was in the car with us many times during our adventures, and by adventures I mean just that. We will just say that driving in new places is stressful in my family even with a GPS. Well in the middle of one of these "stressful" moments my cousin, who doesn't like stressful moments, decided to start singing "Jesus loves you" at the top of her lungs. My family just stopped and listened. This only adds to the list of reasons why she brings joy to my life no matter what mood I'm in or what has happened. She brings smiles!

The other way that Jesus showed me the faith of a child recently is by two girls at my church. I spoke at my church a week or so ago to try to gather interest in what I will be doing and to schedule some appointments and only three people responded. Two of which were the sisters, probably around the ages of 6 and 13. The older one came right up and handed me her interest card because she was interested in being a part of my prayer support team, which I couldn't be more excited about because children oftentimes pray big, and just believe its going to happen! Her younger sister came up to tell me how excited she was for me because "she had tried to share Jesus with a boy at her school and he didn't believe her" Say what?! This six year old is sharing Jesus with people at her school, and I am semi nervous about how people will react on campus?! Talk about convicting! The third I'm also excited to add to my prayer team because we so often talk about the BIG number of funds that we are raising, but what about the BIG goals we have for our campus'? They can only be reached through prayer!

Since returning from vacation, I have found it harder and harder to get back into the swing of making calls and meeting with people. I find the thought of calling people uncomfortable, and finding the courage is barely available. God also had something to say about that...The other night on my way to get coffee with a good friend, I was flipping through radio stations trying to find something to listen to when a sermon caught my attention. It was a gentleman (I didn't catch his name) talking about Deut. 20.

"When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: 'Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.The officers shall say to the army: 'Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it. Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.' Then the officers shall add, 'Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too.'"

The Officer wants all of the soldiers going into battle. No half way. If their mind will be elsewhere, back in their comfort zone, they should just go back. The speaker then went on to say: We can not accomplish the great plans God has for us, unless we leave our comfort zones. I need to leave my comfort zone in order to bring Jesus to those around me. I am less.

The First Few Steps.

Well friends, it has begun. Nine days staying at a castle in the middle of the Rocky Mts. with 66 of some of the coolest cats around all with the same passion for Jesus that I have!

I had never been to Glen Erie (Navigator headquarters) before, but always wanted to go. It's seriously such a great place to just be with God and lose track of time! (For real, check out the picture)! 

Isn't it amazing?! (Sorry, designer nerd moment). Anyways, among hiking, slack lining and jumping into a freezing cold basin of water, I learned not only a lot about my job for next year, but God really showed me a lot as well. Where to even begin?!

I think the biggest thing that happened while I was there was a perspective change. A perspective change about who I am and more importantly who I am to the Lord. I went to the summit with my heart and head in a completely different place, struggling with my worth (as most women do) and dealing with a lot of things especially in my heart. I felt inadequate and found myself comparing myself to others there. Like I have said before, I also don't do things alone, so I was questioning why God had me do this: alone, the only one from my school/not knowing anyone there.

God didn't let me feel alone for long! I rode out to CO with two amazing girls that I had never met before. These girls were great! They were very inviting and really sweet even though they didn't know me! We definitely were close by the end of two eight hr. car rides and nine days together going through the same experiences! One is even my prayer partner for our funding adventures this summer! God really gave me companionship with these girls so I wouldn't feel as alone going into a new situation. Love these girls and I am privileged to work with them in my region (more on that later) all year!!

Even within the first few days, God wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear: "You are worth it!" We studied how Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene (who used to be possessed by 7 demons) after He rose from the dead. The FIRST person, out of everyone who may have been more righteous than she, He decided to use her to tell everyone else. This sparked conversations among us about God using the least of these for his good works. Small, shepherd David not only killed a giant but was the next king of Israel. Esther was used to save an entire people. Mary, a mere teenager, bore the living Son of God. If these Biblical characters were worthy to be used, why couldn't I be used as well? This is my calling; God is going to use me; I am worthy to be used!

Another amazing thing that God did in CO was give each one of us on EDGE the encouragement to be able to get through our experiences together. Did I mention we have the largest EDGE class EVER!!! Staff have been praying for years that they have a class of 100. We are the closest with 86ish people. These people are amazing. Seriously. They are all great brothers and sisters in Christ, who were so open and vulnerable with each other that I felt like we all were pretty close by the end of just nine days. We will now all walk together towards the same goal: Jesus, on different campuses lifting each other in prayer. This year is going to be great!

KSU will have a great staff in and of itself. We will have four women on our staff this year. We haven't had a woman on staff for at least 2 1/2 years. How great is that?! We also will have five great Godly men on our staff to be great examples of brothers in Christ. This staff includes our full time staff, staff in training, and other EDGErs. The Heartland region (KSU, KU, UNL, ISU, NWMO) has one of the biggest team of EDGErs as well, which is great. I can't wait to work and walk with all these amazing people this year and to see how God uses each of us on our campus'! This picture doesn't even include the 2nd year EDGErs we will be working with!

Will you please pray that we remain encouraged and positive about funding our ministries for next year and that we continue to trust that God has a plan for us and will provide what we need for his plan?

I will leave you with something to think about. A quote from a NAVS staff wife, "We are ordinary people in love with an extraordinary God!"

New Beginnings...

Hi friends! It's hard to believe that college is pretty much over for me. The last four years have gone by so fast and have been some of the greatest years of my life! 


Coming to college I thought I had the whole Christian life figured out. I went to church, believed in God, and was always known as the "good Christian girl." God wasn't satisfied with me being just that though. Thankfully! Starting with my first painful break up at the beginning of college, Jesus began to break me, mold me, and pursue my heart. I was desperately lost and searching for something more in my life. In walks a girl, I will call her Dawn, into my life. (Ironic that this Dawn was the beginning of my new life in Christ as dawn is the beginning of the day). What a pairing we were; a friendship definitely from God! So much alike it was scary at times! Through this friendship I was shown what a true relationship with Jesus looked like. I learned that my worth was in God, not earthly men and that God's love for me was incomprehensible! What joy I was finding in my Lord!


Dawn was just the beginning of many, many friendships with others in The Navigators, who showed me what it meant to be a brother or sister in Christ. The Navigators quickly became my community of believers in Manhattan. I was in a freshman Bible study with other freshman girls and went to NAVnites every week. I started reading my Bible on a semi-regular basis and learned a lot about Jesus. Then, in the middle of my sophomore year, God decided to shake my world again. The leaders of the then Navigators decided that their vision was aligning more with a ministry called Student Mobilization, so they were going to start a ministry on campus for them. So what did this mean for all of us?


This could be an entire new post, which bits may come out later, but heres the shorthand version. We had to chose: to follow the leaders to this new ministry or be one of the students who tried to rebuild The Navigators on campus with the help of staff from another campus. After prayer and a lot of discussion, I was the only girl from my Bible study and one of the few in my group of friends who decided to continue with the "new" NAVS. This was a difficult decision for me because if you know me, I don't like to do things alone. One of the deciding factors of this decision, however, was that I felt a calling to, as an upper classman, start to take a leadership role and become a Bible study leader myself, which was a non-existent opportunity if I stayed with the leaders. I still remember the first meeting of the "new" NAVS: a few gathered in a small room in our union, two guys and their acoustic guitars; worship started and in flooded people! When we expected maybe 15-20 people, we had about 100! It was a great, overwhelming feeling that maybe, just maybe, we could survive on campus in our ministry! 


Fast forward a lot of growth of me and the ministry, a lot of traveling of staff, and a lot of emotions (also part of the long version of the story) to today. I've been co-leading a Bible study of AMAZING girls for two years. For real, they are wonderful and bring a lot of joy to my life. I'm sure you will hear a lot about them over the next year. We now have full time staff who started this year and they are great as well! Our ministry has grown to be a community of grace and a great place for fellowship. Seriously, I love this group of people!


As many of you know I am now going on staff with The Navigators next year. So why am I going on staff, besides the fact that these people are great?! What brought me to this point? Good questions! I honestly had never been "an EdgeCorps" type of person. I never thought it was for me, until...I was sitting in a senior breakfast at one of our conferences last semester and God put a brochure in front of me and told me "Check this out. What are you doing next year?" (Through many painful experiences, I have learned that when God speaks I should probably obey). So, for the next several months I prayed about applying and I attended a conference specifically about this opportunity, all the while without mentioning it to many people. This conference was an emotional roller coaster because I  heard God calling me to this opportunity, but I knew that my parentals would be less than enthused about me not using my degree for a year. At one point during the weekend, a staff member I was having a conversation with point blank told me "we need someone like you." Really, God?! Okay, okay I'll apply.


Throughout the entire application process (which happened to be about a 25 page application when finished), I kept my parents updated on what I was doing and prayed that God would work in their hearts. The conversations that came in those months were some of the greatest spiritual conversations I have had with them, and God definitely has changed their hearts to become supportive of my decision to go on staff with The Navigators. Praise Jesus!!


That is the how, so back to the why. I was a Resident Assistant in the residence halls on campus for two years. During those two years I encountered a lot of brokenness in the students: addictions, abuse, severe homesickness, depression, cutting, suicidal thoughts, and pregnancy just to name a few. Because of my job, I was unable to truly reach these students to show them who could give them a new life and hope.So without a title of having to befriend them, I want to be able to hang out with these people, love them for who they are, and show them the hope and love that comes in knowing Jesus! A verse that God has shown me, in the last month especially, is Isaiah 42: 6-7:


"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." 


This is why I want to be on staff with The Navigators. To show this campus that Jesus loves them deeper than we can ever fathom. You should also check out the song "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin. It's a good motivational song for the next year! 


In closing, (I know, finally!), I am creating this blog in order to keep people updated on my journey this next year as I encounter the students on campus, encounter the Spirit, and encounter opposing forces Face2Face. I am excited to see where Jesus takes me and the people I will meet and I fully trust that he will provide for me everything I need for next year!!


P.S. Ask me about how you can pray or support me for next year. And thank you for reading this incredibly looooong blog post. I will try to keep them shorter from now on. Congrats if you made it all the way through!