Hey guys, Rusty here, as you all know over the past year I have been transitioning into my new role of recruiting and training up others in outreach and discipleship. I truly thought COVID19 was going to hinder our ability to vision alongside others but God continues to open doors. We currently have one on-site campus missionary apprentice, and one student intern actively working together to build relationships and transform lives for Christ.

Last year after working with James and Allie from Little Rock AR, we decided to continue to work with others who are wanting to be more intentional in outreach and discipleship and potentially help plant. We help them live out Col 4:2-6. Which starts with prayer.

Too often we want to move straight in and have bible studies with others without ever building a relationship or even letting them know we are spiritually minded beings. I remember 5 years ago as I was reaching out to a Muslim student from Egypt. I invested into him weekly for 2 months before I ever brought anything up spiritually and when I did I just wanted to word vomit the gospel at him as fast as I could. It was awkward for both of us and I realized my only prayer was for the conversation to not be awkward rather than we spent the past 2 months praying for him and letting him know it. (Ex: Your mother in law is stuck in Egypt, I will be praying for her what is her name?)

The solution is to be intentional with prayer in all we do, how can we casually bring up spiritual things in passing, if we are not actively praying for them? The one thing I have learned from personal experience as well is working with others is we all struggle with this as we have been "trained" to not casually bring up spiritual things in our everyday conversations. To back this we must be intentional in prayer, as Collisions 4:2-6 says Pray with thanksgiving and alertness.

Before we can make the most of every opportunity we must pray with thankfulness for what God has already done and with alertness to what He is going to do, so we can be intentional in making the most of every opportunity. In the above picture, Jessica (one of our long-distance students) has made a prayer board so they can be more intentional at moving conversations from Casual to Meaningful to Spiritual to Biblical and can be praying for those God is putting in their path along the way. 

The first part of our mission is to Transform Lives for Christ, and this starts with prayer.

Prayer List:

For Davis (guy getting baptized above, Nov 29) and Abby as they now continue to reach out to his family.

For our search as we look for a new apprentice to be joining us in 2021.

For comfort for all students as they stress of COVID, online learning, and job searching continues to take a toll on mental health.