What He Has Done (GYU 9)

Merry merry Christmas!  It's been SO wonderful to be home again with all my lovely people over Christmas.  It's crazy how long 3.5 months feel when you're separated from your family. I only get to be home one more week before our team will reconvene for the second half of our gap year mission, but the time I have had with my family, though short, has been wonderful and refreshing.  I love you, family!!! xoxoxo Okay.  So now that we're back from Montana...I'm finally getting around to writing a post about what exactly ministry looked like there.  I am so sorry I've had so much trouble keeping my blog updated.  It was just so much easier to throw up some pictures and a caption on Instagram after I got that for Cru social media outreach.  I guess I can start with that.   So, Cru does pretty much everything, but the ministry outlet my team was involved in during our time in Montana was college ministry.  Cru is very relational oriented and gets on campus as a Christian club to get students into a good, caring community.  Initially we did club every Wednesday night on campus, including games (always with some sort of life tie analogy), a testimony, and a message. After Covid cases began to rise in Montana and campus was shut down, we were forced to move our weekly club meeting onto zoom.  Cru is so much more than just that week night club though.  It's all about the community, and support we want to provide the students.  Despite Covid, we were able to do a bit of outreach on campus still through tabling, but for the most part we needed to get creative and seek God's inspiration in how to reach students in these new times.  That's when we went into outreach using Instagram.  It was honestly SO cool to see how God can use even something like a popular social media platform to platform hope and the gospel and reach more students with Christ's love and good community. After some training in how to operate our new "mission: instagram outreach",

we dove straight into it: using Cru's instagram to go onto the university's instagram and find and follow all the incoming students and freshmen. Then, when a student would follow Cru back, one of us would be assigned to then DM (direct message) that student and reach out thanking them for the follow and setting a time to get coffee and share with them more about what Cru is and get them integrated in if they were interested.  That was probably my favorite part of ministry.  So thankful we were still allowed to do the one one on one meetups with students we reached through instagram.  Getting to meet them, hear some of their stories and why they were interested in Cru.  Sometimes it's because they'd grown up Christian and wanted to find Christian community on campus, which is one of the purposes Cru college ministry fulfills, but often times (especially with the ministry opportunities Covid has provided) students saw Cru Instagram's posts and pictures about what our community is. They saw hope and life and love, and they wanted that.  They wanted to find that for themselves.  So many, many students have just been so lonely and afraid and just need people to care. In addition to getting to do our assigned Cru college ministry...God made a way for us to still get to do high school ministry as well!  Which is definitely a bit more of my passion.  Originally our team was supposed to spend our gap year with Cru's high school ministry, but because of limited options of where to go due to covid, we ended up in Montana doing college ministry instead.  But then...when we got there, our leaders there "happened" to be best friends with Kate - the Young Life Missoula high school ministry.  Young Life isn't connected to Cru at all, but because of the connection through our leaders...our team ended up getting to do YoungLife there with Kate every Monday night, even by the end, pretty much running everything. :) That was SO good of God to provide a chance at high school ministry after all!  Young Life is set up a lot like a youth group type thing for kids from any of the in town highschools to come to Monday evenings at a different kid's house.  We have games, songs, worship, and a message. Their ministry is also very relational oriented.  So each of us on my gap team was encouraged to really get to know the kids and built relationships with them.  Which I LOVED.  Just getting to be their friend, show them they matter, and listen to their heart blessed me so much even.  I have some very special friends now that I met through YoungLife who I won't ever forget. God bless you, sweet friends.  I'm praying for you often.  Believe it or not, even with both college and high school ministry, team trainings and our own discipleship times, our team still had more time to pursue other ministry opportunities around too.  A lot of that got to come through working with ministries our church in Montana (Mission Alliance Church Missoula) ran.  Through them we got to pitch in in the Congolese refugee ministry, do some tutoring for behaviorally challenged 2nd and  3rd graders, and even paint a good portion of their downstairs halls at the church building! :) Each of those opportunities was incredible and so much fun really.  (who doesn't like painting? :)), and even the tutoring position, which was quite a challenge and probably not preferred by my teammates, I found really special to me.  To get to help the two girls we taught, both academically, but also trying to be someone who they could tell genuinely cared and was willing to be present and invested in their learning with them.  Through that experience, which honestly was really challenging, I learned (probably over again, but...) that I find it so fulfilling. Especially when the kids are challenging like this, actually.  To love and work with them and overcome the challenges eventually.  I'm really glad I got to do that.  And I've actually missed little Serina and Janetta. <3 So...that's what we did in Montana!  And now we're getting geared up to move out to Missouri next!  Thank you all for your patience in my update.  I sincerely apologize it was so long in coming and that this is the first chance I've gotten to write much at all.  I'm so thankful to know that even in my weakness and lack of time to do everything, I'm still remembered in your prayers.  Thank you.   I know I haven't posted many prayer requests in my last few updates.  But I'd like to do that again.  Prayer is so powerful, and I really do need the support each of you give through your faithful prayers and care.  So, Prayer Requests: - For me to be refreshed and reenergized in this next week before I head out again on mission.  The past few months of ministry have been incredible,  but also very draining and challenging and hard.  I'm honestly so worn out and just simply tired.  I'm going to need His strength to press on again next semester.   - For my team to come back together well.  That we'd grow more in unity and encouraging and supporting each other as His body. That we'd all be willing and open to grow and learn in Him. - That we would still get to go overseas at some point somehow.  Because of Covid, all our options got closed, and we've had to settle for staying in the states again this next semester.  At least for me, that's been pretty disappointing.  So also please pray for trust and peace in God's perfect will for our team, even if that doesn't include getting to go overseas after all. - For God to build His Kingdom on earth through us.  For faithfulness in all of us to follow where He leads with willing and humble and trusting hearts. Thank you all so, so much for your love and support.  May the Lord bless and keep you this holiday season. He is truly Emmanuel - God with us. In His love, ~Etsi