Men vs. Wild

Now, a quick update on the upcoming weekend!

Some of you may remember my post from Catalyst last May where I asked you to pray for my ministry to the men of Iowa. This has continued to be a theme of my summer, and God has been incredibly faithful!

As a a part of this reawakened calling for the men of Iowa, I decided to try and host some kind of "man trip" this fall for some guys across Iowa, so I started throwing out some invites to guys I know, and all of a sudden, we've got close to 20 guys who are going mountain hiking in Colorado this weekend!

We'll hop into vans in Des Moines on Friday afternoon, arrive in Denver at about 2am, watch some football and hike on Saturday, then get up and climb Mt. Bierstadt (14,060 feet!) on Sunday morning and drive home! (I'm getting too old for this stuff!)

Obviously, I think the trip will be a ton of fun (and utterly exhausting!), but beyond that, I'd love your prayer for a few key things:

* Many key male leaders from across Iowa are coming, and this is a crucial time of networking for me with them. You can pray that relationships deepen in natural and authentic ways, and that some of these guys might choose to come on staff! * My hope is that this trip (in combo with an upcoming Men's track at our fall conference) might lead to the emergence of pockets of men across Iowa that I can have ongoing relationship with, and who I can pray/minister with when I visit campuses, so you can pray that that vision coalesces during the trip.

Thanks All,

Jon

A Jesus Outbreak

Hello Everyone!

The next stage in the journey happened on 9.14 at the University of Northern Iowa. After hearing about what had happened at Central, our staff at UNI, Rachel Danley, invited me to make another call to faith at their Large Group, which I was happy to do. When I did so, another student (Evan) stood to mark his desire to give his life over to Jesus! (More on Evan Below!)

That weekend, on 9.18-20, my area staff team hosted FC09: Family Vacation (our annual fall student conference) for 130 students from around the state. I spoke on the final morning, again to give an invitation to faith, but as I was praying about it, I felt like I was supposed to ask Evan from UNI to give the talk with me (he had, after all been following Jesus for 5 days at that point!) So, I approached him to see if he'd be willing to share his story, and though he was a bit shell-shocked at first, he agreed. Sunday morning, Evan did a fantastic job of telling about what Jesus had done in his life, and I again made an invitation for students to give their lives to Jesus for the first time, and another 20 students stood to mark their decision from almost every school represented! Five of these students were from UNI and were inspired by Evan's testimony of receiving Jesus' forgiveness, and several were friends of Callie's, the student from Drake I wrote about above!


So, in the space of a few short weeks (22 days to be exact), we've seen 24 STUDENTS START TO FOLLOW JESUS FOR THE FIRST TIME, and another 21 RECOMMIT THEIR LIVES TO JESUS! I wish I had the space to tell you the stories of these 45 students, because Jesus is meeting them in incredible ways as they take steps of faith in following him (students experiencing physical healing, being challenged by parents angry at their desire to follow Jesus, and door after door opening for Jesus' gospel) They are following Jesus immediately into ministry and outreach to their friends, and we are TRULY WATCHING A JESUS OUTBREAK SWEEP THROUGH THESE CAMPUSES!

And, I believe that God isn't done yet. This Wednesday, 9.30, I'll be speaking again at Drake University, and I'll again be inviting students to follow Jesus for the first time (and join the other 5 Drake students who have already made that decision this year!) so I covet your prayers, and can't wait to tell you the next chapter in this crazy story God is writing.

Thank you for your support of this ministry, it's one of the deepest privileges of my life to watch God move in these ways on campuses across the state, and it's your prayers and support that make it possible.

Trying to keep up with a God who is most certainly on the move!

Jon