Prayer & Praise (Dec 27 - Jan 2)

- Praise God for a wonderful Christmas celebration with my family! After finishing my fall semester at Metro State, I was able to take two weeks of rest & relaxation before shifting things back into gear with CEF this week. It was a good time, and Christmas was definitely a big highlight.

- CEF of Colorado is focusing on staffing. For me, that means I am working to hire a team to drive our student ministries in Denver: a team of new staffers who will be passionate about reaching children for Christ, mobilizing students for the mission, and partnering with local churches to get it all done!



In January, we are taking our first step in the recruiting process: I will be traveling to Kansas City for “Missions Emphasis Week” at Calvary Bible College (my alma mater) to present the incredible ministry opportunities here in Denver. During this week, recruiters from many different mission agencies and organizations come to Calvary to interact with students and present opportunities for mission. It is a neat time!

Calvary asks all of the recruiters to prepare several potential seminar presentations. Here are some I am working on: (1) “Transformational Student Ministry,” (2) “The Marketplace of Worship,” and (3) “Teamwork in Missions.” Please pray for me this week as I begin doing research, crafting the big ideas, and just work on putting these talks together.

Thanks so much for praying!

Prayer & Praise (Dec 20-26)

- Things have been going well in our Good News Club at Mt. View Child Care! We spent the first two weeks of December telling the story of Christmas. In January, we will come back and tell the story of the Magi who came to see Jesus, led by the star.

Praise God for this opportunity that Hannah, Kayla, and I have to build relationships with the children and share the good news of Jesus with them! Pray also for Hannah and Kayla to have a good, refreshing Christmas break with their friends and family before heading back to work, school, ministry, etc. in January.

- Last Friday, Dec 18, I met with the rest of the Denver staff to discuss CEF’s student ministry plans for 2010. It was a very productive time! I am excited about next year and it feels great to have everyone on board. In the week leading up to the meeting, I spent time drafting 10 personal goals and 10 ministry goals for 2010.

Pray for God’s grace heading into the new year, and praise him for the birth of his son!

Prayer & Praise (Dec 6-12)

- Last week, we had the privilege of partnering with the student ministry from a church in Pagosa Springs (about 7 hrs SW of Denver) while they were here in Denver for a weekend mission trip. The twelve students that they brought got involved in senior’s ministry homeless ministry, and children’s ministry, all in one whirlwind weekend.

We hosted a welcome party for them on Friday night and partnered with them in their children’s ministry experience on Saturday afternoon. It was really exciting to see these students taking action on their faith, leaving their comfort zones, and learning the value of doing what they do in the service of something larger than themselves.

- Praise God for how things are coming together for next year! I finished our schedule for Summer 2010 (and all the preparations leading up to it) a full month earlier than last year. I think it may be the best schedule we have ever had. The logistics were not less challenging than prior years, but this one just came together really well.

Thanks so much for your prayers and for praising God along with me!

Prayer & Praise (Nov 22-28)

- We are laying plans to take a group of our students to Boston next summer for “Good News Across America,” a two-week mission trip to help jump-start evangelistic and discipleship ministries to children in partnership with the local churches of Boston.

To this end, I recently found out some news: beginning January 10, Southwest Airlines will begin offering non-stop flights from DIA to Boston Logan. No need for layovers in O’Hare or anywhere else! Praise God for this wonderful development!

- On a more sober note, here is an excerpt from an e-mail I recently received from CEF HQ: “[When] we heard the news about the shootings at Ft. Hood, we immediately began praying for our workers on the base and the chaplains as we considered the comfort they would be providing to the base community in the coming days and weeks.

“There are seven elementary schools on the base at Ft. Hood ... Good News Clubs are in four of the schools and Party Clubs are held in every school. The week after the shootings Good News Clubs were underway.

“David Powell ... shares, ‘I want to praise God for allowing us to have ministry established at Fort Hood, Texas. One of our staff, Caron, was on post, meeting with the chaplains, when they received word of a mass casualty incident. The chaplains quickly deployed to the scene and the surrounding hospitals. The next day Caron received e-mails from the schools in which we are doing clubs asking for prayer. They were feeling the pressures of helping the children process the attack. We are working with the chaplains and support groups to pass out CEF’s “Do You Wonder Why?” booklets to the children and families.’”

Please be in prayer. Thank you.

Prayer & Praise (Nov 15-21)

- In October, I wrote here that my long-term project with CEF’s student ministries in Denver is staffing. We are looking to hire a team of five student ministry coordinators to help build the ministry in different regions of the metro area.

I have spent the past few weeks doing research on job design and job satisfaction. Simply put, I want to create great jobs for these student ministry coordinators! Please pray as I begin drafting the actual job descriptions and lay some groundwork for our initial recruiting efforts in the spring.

- Praise God for the children in our Good News Club at Mt. View! Today we are doing the story of Noah with them. Pray that Hannah, Kayla, and I would clearly convey the things that God wants them to hear.

Thanks for praying!

Prayer & Praise (Nov 1-7)

- Praise for a great weekend trip to Kansas City, Oct 23-25! I got to see some dear friends and enjoy a few days away from my work and school responsibilities. It was a great time and I can’t wait to go back next year!

- The first week of Good News Club at Mt. View Child Care (two weeks ago now) was a little hectic. Hannah, Kayla, and I ended up being in a large room where it was hard to get an already rowdy group of kids to focus. Last week we had no club due to the heavy snowfall. I’m happy to report that things this week went much better! We were able to do a better job engaging the kids in both games and the lesson, and keep things more organized, all at the same time.

After the lesson, I got to do some counseling with two of the children. One had questions about how to control his reaction when his brothers made him angry; I was able to pray for him and talk with him about how he could depend on Christ for help. The other child had questions about the origin and nature of the Bible; I was able to offer some preliminary answers and ideas, and directed her to 2 Tim 3:16 and 2 Pet 1:21 for more.

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Prayer & Praise (Oct 18-24)

- Tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 20) is our CYIA fundraiser night at Chick-fil-A for folks down south: all day at River Point shopping center and 5-8pm at the Southwest Plaza food court. Pray that it would be a great success, and that we can make much progress toward finishing off our budget for the 2009 calendar year.

- This Wednesday, Oct 21, I will start teaching a Good News Club at Mt. View Child Care with Hannah and Kayla, two of our team leaders from the summer. Pray that (1) we will clearly communicate the gospel in our words and deeds, and (2) we will be able to build some great relationships with the kids over the course of this school year.

- This weekend, Oct 23-25, I am traveling to Kansas City to visit friends and attend a conference at my church there. The conference is called “Proclaim!” and is being led by Ravi Zacharias and Wade Bradshaw.

The description on CCEFC’s website says: “Join us as we wrestle with the reality that actions often speak louder than words, but words speak more clearly than actions.” I am really excited about this! Also, praise God for the opportunity to relax and spend time with friends.

Thanks for much for your prayers and support!