A Jesus Outbreak

Hello everyone!

I've never experienced a month quite like this one. Across the country, folks are worried about virus outbreaks on college campuses, but across Iowa, we've been experiencing an outbreak of a different sort- Jesus on the move! Here's the story...

After a first few weeks of class filled with meeting new students and caring for the whole campus, the movement got started in earnest at Drake University on September 5th...

That night, I had a text conversation with our staff, Amy Schoepf that went as follows:

Amy- "A student just became a Christian!! She agreed to share at IV on Wednesday"
Me- Wow!! That's awesome! What's her name?
Amy- Callie. Sweet story--she was really close in the spring but didn't fully commit. She and Audrey and I hung out last night-I brought it up and Audrey led her.
Amy- New Christian (Audrey stared following Jesus last spring) leads new student to Jesus :)
Me- So great-I'll look forward to hearing the full story!
Amy- Yep and she has three girls that come to IV with her who are all nominal Christians--so keep praying!!

Obviously, a great way to start the year, but this was only the start. On 9.9.09, (the same night Callie was sharing at Drake) at Central College, the story I've already shared below went down. I was speaking on the Prodigal Son out of Luke 15, and invited students to make a decision to follow Jesus. To my utter shock 30 students stood to signify their desire to follow Jesus. (Check out the "Unbelievable" post below for the whole story, it's worth a read!) The fruit of these decisions has continued to play out over the last two weeks in new Bible studies being started and additional outreach happening on campus (more on this below).

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!

Then, on the following Tuesday, 9.22, I got two emails from one of our student leaders at Central, Aaron Jones. The first was a message that he had received over the weekend, it read like this:

Hi, I was in your small group for Vintage community last Wednesday night. I don't know if you can help me but I don't know who to ask about faith. I am new to being a Christian and new to the bible, and have grown up in a home with atheists. I have had a rough past and am ashamed of it, and am looking to find some guidance for my future. I have been told that I can never be forgiven by God for what I have done in the past and
I am scared because if that is true I am afraid what my life has in store for me.
Can something from my past be so bad that God can never love me?

Aaron asked Jessica if she'd be willing to meet to talk more, and she agreed. Later that night, we got word from Aaron again...

Jessica and I just got done talking, and she prayed tonight to accept Jesus as her savior!!
She asked a lot of good questions about forgiveness, prayer and church. I made sure that she knew that she just wasn't accepting my beliefs, but was beginning a relationship with a living God. She prayed for forgiveness and to receive the Holy Spirit and said that she felt amazing! I went with her back to Graham (girls' dorm on campus) as she shared with some girls what she just experienced, then I left as she went to a
prayer meeting that another girl in Graham had already set up.

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