Our VALENTINE Update

Well V-day is just a few days away!! Earlier this week we got together as a staff team to reflect over what we've seen God do over the past year at UNC ...

• This time last year we were canceling a winter retreat due to low interest and had to take the 10 girls who were signed up to a different retreat with another region of Campus Outreach. This year we'll be celebrating Valentines day In Asheville, NC with 120 college students from UNC and NC State.
  
• Last year we were praying that 10 of the students we were connected to would attend our Summer Orlando Project. This year we're praying that those 10 would return in leadership positions and that 35 first year students would attend!!
  
• In February 2008 we hadn't had our first campus meeting because we didn't know enough students that we could invite. On February 5th 2009 we hosted our first campus meeting run entirely by student leadership.
• 17 freshman at UNC are currently meeting in evangelistic bible studies.
  
• 11 new christians are committed to establishing bible studies where they will learn how to walk deeply with God.
  

We hope your Valentines is filled with the amazing love of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Back in the Swing of Things!

Well, we had hoped to post some pictures here from our trip to New York and Christmas in Texas and in South Carolina, unfortunately our boxer puppy decided that the digital camera looked like a good chew toy before we got a chance! So, meet Rhett Butler, he helps us be reminded on a daily basis that the material things in life will one day rust, fade...or be destroyed on our living room floor :).
Nonetheless, we had an amazing Christmas break connecting with family, friends and getting to spend time with some of our supporters! We also spent 5 days in Atlanta, GA where the Campus Outreach New Year's Conference was held this year. It was great time of fellowship and refueling from God's Word. 20 UNC students attended and one freshman girl, who I met earlier this year in the dorms, prayed to receive Christ! Praise God for Lauren and please be praying that He would be at work establishing a firm foundation in her new walk with Him.
Now we're back in Chapel Hill and things are off to a great start in 2009...

• We currently have 12 committed student leaders who have been meeting with our staff in discipleship groups and learning how to minister to their peers on the campus.
  
• The girls are starting 2 evangelistic bible studies this semester, both led by our student leaders, and one establishing bible study for the 6 new christian girls that came to Christ or joined our ministry in the fall.
  
• The guys are planning to start an establishing bible study for the 5-6 guys that came to Christ over the course of last semester and 2 evangelistic Bible studies as well.
  
• Another one of our student leaders just moved into her sorority house hoping to be able to minister to her sisters there!
  
• And at our first leader's meeting of 2009 we challenged a team of 2nd semester sophomores to apply to move back into the biggest freshman dorm on campus as RA's or residents with the hope of meeting, building relationships, and sharing Christ with the freshman class next fall!
  

Tangle in the Triangle -- Part II (Bowe's story)

Bowe also coached a team for the tournament, "The Bowe-Berry Biscuits." The Bowe-Berries won their first game against another UNC team, but got out in the second round against State. They all still seemed to have a great time!

Tangle in the Triangle - Powderpuff Tournament!

Again, we're sorry it's been so long since we last updated our blog. We feel we are just starting to learn how to function as "marrieds" and divide up our work
tasks in a better way! So ... I'll be taking over the blog updates (Ashley) --- you can blame me next time there's a 3 month lapse :) I'm excited to share about our 1st annual Powderpuff Football Tournament that was held last Thursday night at NC State. We partnered with the Campus Outreach ministry going on at NC State in hopes of furthering the relationships we currently have and building momentum and interest towards the New Year's Conference we hold every year in Atlanta, GA over Christmas Break. We at UNC were amazed at the turnout and excitement level we got from the girls we've been building relationships with all semester. 67 women came out to play from UNC forming 4 teams (3 more than we expected) to go up against State. My team, "the Jimski's" (named after our coach and UNC staff guy Jim Stephens), unfortunately got out in the first round. However, we had the best time sticking around to cheer on the other UNC teams that went up against NC State. It also helped the momentum that the REAL rivalry UNC v. NC State game would be held two days later on Saturday November 22nd. After the games were over, we headed back over to the staff house at NC State for a spaghetti dinner and the presenting of t-shirts! The girls seemed to have a great time and it served to get everyone excited about the possibility of joining us for New Year's in Atlanta!

Thailand Part 1

Thailand is amazing!!! The people here are so friendly and welcoming. Just being an American gives us immediate favor with them. We have been here for about 3 weeks now. We spent the first 2 days in Bangkok and then flew to Khon Kaen.
Since arriving in Khon Kaen, we have been working on the NEU college campus here. Each day we go on campus trying to meet and build relationships with as many Thai students as possible. Our goal is to broaden the contact base, build deep relationships, and connect these students with the permanent Thai Campus Outreach staff.
God has really been giving us favor and we have been able to meet and build relationships with lots of students already. Everyday my heart breaks more and more for the people here. They kneel before idols and pray to them to pay for the short comings in their life and hope that their end will be better than their beginning. We are praying that in our brief 2 months here that God would do something in us that would last a lifetime in our development, relationship with God, and heart and vision for missions over seas. Also, we are praying that God would allow us to be apart of meeting students on the campus that he would bring to salvation and that the staff here would be able to train them to go back onto their campus and reach their peers with the Gospel.
Well, this is one of the few updates we will send this summer. Here are a few pictures that we have taken so far!

Leaving For Thailand

Hey guys,
Sorry its been soo long. Its been a crazy couple of months. As most of you know Ashley and I are going to Thailand this summer for 2 months. We have been asked to lead a team 0f 14 staff and students to work on the college campus of NEU in Khon Kaen, Thailand. This is another one of the training opportunities that we give our students in addition to the Summer Orlando Project. The one that we will be leading is called Cross Cultural Project and is designed to help develop and prepare older college students(juniors and seniors) to walk with the Lord and do ministry as they move into the secular work force. Also, it is designed to help build a vision for the lost all over the world. Our hope is that this summer God will deepen our walks with him, deepen our dependence on him, and shake our paradigms of what it means to live for Christ. Lord willing maybe one of our team will give themselves to full-time overseas work and that all of us would come home seeing the need to pray and support financially missions overseas.
I will be updating our blog about once a week all summer with pictures and stories about what God is doing over there. Please keep us in your prayers and write comments on the blog to communicate with us.
Here is a picture of the CCP team we will be leading. We fly out on June 2nd and will fly back to the U.S. on July 26th. Please remember to keep us in your prayers. We need it!!!

Multiplication Begins

Through the Bible study that we had in the Conner Dorm God has raised up a man. Matt Williams is a freshman from the Raleigh, NC area. Matt is to my left in the picture and his roomate DJ is to my right. Matt was one of the first guys that I met in the dorms at UNC. Over the course of this school year God has been blessing our relationship. Matt's is one of about 10 guys that I am heavily invested with on the 2nd floor of Conner dorm. All of these guys are either freshman or sophomores. As far as I can see right now, all of the guys on this floor are unbelievers and haven't had the transforming grace that comes from a relationship with Christ. Matt is the only one on this entire hall full of at least 75 guys that is a professing Christian and has a life that represents Christ.
Since the beginning of this semester my relationship with Matt has really blossomed. Matt has begun to recognize his need for discipleship and training in his life. I have spent some time getting in the word with Matt exposing him to passages like 2 Timothy 2:2, Matthew 4:19, Matthew 16, and Matthew 28:18-20. Through this process Matt has begun to see his need to be trained and developed personally. He sees his need to have practical skills to implement what he has been taught in church growing up and how to continue to grow.
He also, through looking at Mark 2:1-12 together, Matt saw his need to take his lost friends on the hall and even his roommate to Jesus like the people did in this passage. The best part about all of these things is that Matt is wanting me to be that man in his life that would help him learn how to grow personally and how to minister to his friends and roommate who don't know Christ.
How faithful God is!!! This is what we do! Who better to reach the 75 lost guys in a freshman dorm than a freshman in that dorm! I am now meeting with Matt on a daily basis and taking him with me to build relationships, share the Gospel, and love on the guys on his hall; so that he can begin to learn how to minister to his friends. We also get in the word together and Matt is learning how to study that word on his own now!
Please pray for Matt and his decision to come to our Summer Orlando Project, where he would receive more training and personal development.
Bowe