Thursday, May 5, 2016

April

Hi friends,

We had lots of amazing things going on in April. Hopefully you were able to attend our Spring Showcase. It had some really amazing talent! I enjoyed going so much, and I already can't wait for next years. We had another baptism that happened at TWU, and I asked the girl to send me a response on why she decided to get baptized. It was a little lengthy, but I thought it was so profound. I decided to just copy all of it for you guys and let her minister instead. I really hope it impacts you as much as it did me.

Adrianne's Baptism

Why did I get Baptized? Well that’s quite a long story, but ill do my best to fit it in a few paragraphs or so.
I would have to go all the way back to getting invited to F.O.C.U.S to start my journey. Ann Haven, that wonderful gracious soul, invited me to her core or FNF about five or six times before I gave in. I held a lot of prejudice against Christian organizations and churches because of the negative experiences I had with them in the past. Many churches I were a part of, I often felt like just another body and not part of His body, or was often met with worldly judgement on my views and questions instead of being challenged out of wanting me to grow in my faith. Finally, I said yes to coming to her core, and although my anxiety was sky rocketing and I was trying to find validation in not going, I put one foot in front of the other, and stepped into a community radiating God's love.
Now, to get to why I felt led to be Baptized. I have only been a part of FOCUS for two semesters now, but I have been challenged and have grown in my faith in ways I never saw possible. Recently, I attended my first Easter service as a now true believer in God and was in awe of Him this whole service. During worship the question "Why do you believe in this?" Kept swirling in my head. I reflected on that question and my walk with God for the duration of the next few days, journaling over and over my answers.
The one I come to the most, is because God brought me out of my anxiety, challenged my views on His congregational body, and brought me into a church family that pushed me closer to Him, even when I was my most terrible, un-trusting and overly-anxious self. I called Ann Haven and explained that I wanted to be baptized, and that I was ready to make an outward declaration of my inward choice to follow the God who would bury the terrible, un-trusting and overly-anxious old me, and bring up the beautiful, trusting, darkness-fighting, and clean woman I am today. A verse I have gone back to a lot as of late is 1 Corinthians 15:10 which says By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of themyet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. By Gods grace he has loved me and met me where I was at, and continues to meet me in my mud, and washes me clean daily, and for that I committed and continue to commit it all to Him. 

To close I just wanted to thank you for your prayers and support for this campus. It's because of your investment that these student's lives are being impacted for God.

Sarah



1 comment:

  1. Yes, although progressive jackpots can't be triggered in a free recreation. These are often activated by wagering maximum actual cash bets. By finding out the paytable you may get} a tough thought of how unstable (also also known 온라인카지노 as|sometimes called} 'variance') a recreation is. The more unstable slots have larger jackpots however they hit much less frequently than the smaller prizes.

    ReplyDelete