September 2008

God Moving in Changing Lives

Within the first couple weeks we have seen God at work in changing the lives of students, seeing four students already begin a relationship with him. Here are a couple of those stories:

From A U-M staff member:

A sophomore student in West Quad indicated he received Christ yesterday with me and one of our student leaders. We were at his room to talk to his roommate but only he was home. We invited him to Bible study and got into a spiritual conversation. I shared the Knowing God Personally booklet [a gospel tract] with him once, and at the end he said he wanted to receive Christ. I didn’t believe him at first, so I went through the booklet again. He said again that he wanted to receive Christ. I was still unsure if he understood what I was telling him, so I took him through it again and told him to tell me in his own words why Jesus had to die. He struggled at first but over the next few minutes articulated the gospel perfectly, though simply. So he prayed right there to receive Christ, half in his dorm room, half in the hallway. I gave him a Bible and told him that this book tells us about all the wonderful things God has promised to those who believe in Jesus. He took it from me and said, “I must learn these things. When can I learn these things?” He is from China and had never heard the gospel before. He came to our house the next night to eat dinner with us and watch the Jesus Film in Mandarin. Please be praying for this student. Praise God for his lavish mercy!

In Christ,  E  J

From an EMU intern:

I am excited to share that we have another new believer! Today Lizzie & I went sharing at Eastern with a girl who is a commuter. It was exciting because we were doing Soularium [a visual survey using pictures to help people indicate their spiritual interest]. The girl we talked to was saying she has been searching recently and basically wanted to know how to have a relationship with God. She felt like she was missing something in her life . She even mentioned that she started praying to God. We went through the Knowing God Personally booklet with her, and she was tracking so well.  When we asked her questions, her answers definitely seemed like she understood. When we asked her where she stood with Christ she said she did not have a relationship with him but wanted to have that relationship. We explained how she could begin that relationship. We went through the sample prayer of how to receive Christ and she said she wanted to pray it then. So she prayed the prayer out loud. We gave her a Bible and Lizzie & I are going to meet her next Thursday.  It was just such an amazing experience because it was so evident how the Lord has been pursuing her! She mentioned to Lizzie how funny it was that she was there in the student center the same time we were and that we went up to her out of all the people. Praise the Lord!   -Ashley

Kids' Column

I am hoping to start flag football this weekend. I have wanted to play football for a long time. It has been fun to learn about the pyramids in Egypt. We even got to see our names written in cuneiform. We acted out the king of upper Egypt conquering the king of lower Egypt.

Lauren, the gymnast, shows off her leotard and Andrew practices some gymnastics of his own

Gymnastics is so much fun! I am practicing whenever I can. I have done the vault, two different balance beams, floor exercises and the bar. I got to help Mommy out around the house more because she sprained her ankle and had to use crutches. It’s a good thing she had been teaching us how to clean! I had an Olympic birthday party and my cousins spent the night. It was so much fun! I made a game called “Pin the balance beam under Lauren”.

Family photo on a church camping trip; this trip was much easier than when we tried camping with Caleb as a 2 month old

I really like all the dogs in the neighborhood. Every time I see one I ask if I can go pet it. Caleb and I like to pretend to be dogs, too. He still listens to what I tell him to do most of the time so I like playing with him.

Caleb and Lindsey having fun with some late summer sprinkler action

We went to Ohio for my cousin’s birthday party last week. My cousin Rachel is really fun. We hugged and kissed a lot. It has been fun to have Daddy and Mommy go to staff meetings again. I sure like having a babysitter and playing with my friends every week!

Caleb

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Staff Account #0484633