Gospel Grace in Marriage

In my short time being married, I have already experienced how deeply sanctifying this relationship can be. Mike and I started dating shortly after I graduated from college and were quickly and happily engaged. We got married in May of 2014. I knew that marriage would be hard and we’d have conflict, but I never knew how much I would learn about myself and the Gospel so quickly.

Valentine's Getaway 2016

I don’t know exactly why, but college students LOVE to stay at hotels. Maybe it’s because they are looking for any excuse to get out of their tiny dorm rooms. Maybe it’s because being at a hotel without their parents for the first time makes them feel more like adults. Whatever the reasons are, they were sufficient to bring a crowd of 120 Bethel and Northwestern students to the St. Cloud Holiday Inn for our Valentine’s Day Getaway last weekend.

The Best Summer of My Life

It was my sophomore year of college at NWC now the University of Northwestern St. Paul. I said yes to go on a Summer Training Project, not really knowing what I had signed up for. Andrew, this staff guy who at points felt like a “used car salesmen”, got me to sign up. I always wondered why Andrew really pushed me to go (and had been now for almost two years), and it was later that summer when I realized why.  My life would forever be changed.

CONYC 2015

CONYC 2015

On December 28th, 191 students from Minneapolis headed out to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Seven hours later they arrived, along with students from Charleston, South Carolina, Central Illinois, and East Lansing, Michigan.

And the 2015 Milwaukee New Years Conference began.

Over the course of five days, students had plenty to do: they attended rallies, seminars, and breakouts; they played spikeball, basketball, and volleyball; they enjoyed games, conversation, and worship music. Most importantly, though, the students saw Jesus work in their lives and the lives of those around them.

CO Sent Conference

This past weekend students from the CO Minneapolis region took part in the CO Sent conference. This conference focuses on the three areas students are ‘sent’ to after graduation— City, Campus, and World. We had a chance to hear from Wayne Grudem on viewing business as mission, Paul Poteat on what it’s like to be on staff with Campus Outreach in Minneapolis, and Laura Watkins’ experience in international missions.

 

City 

Wayne made the point that business in and of itself is good and glorifying to God. When God created the world, He created humans to flourish(Genesis 1:26-31)and business is a means for us to do that.  Business is a way for humans to create value out of things that didn’t have value before;a way to love our neighbors by creating something that brings them joy, convenience, support, or benefit. Businesses allows people to be reached in closed countries for the gospel as well as creating job opportunities through sustainable businesses in an effort to end poverty in developing countries.

 

Campus

Paul talked about the value of college ministry, which being an audience of all college students, made a lot of sense. We have all seen the impact that college can have on our walks with God, and seen the way that God works in the lost hearts on our campuses. Paul talked about what a strategic time college is in life to reach people with the gospel. College is a time when a lot of big life questions can come up as we figure out what it is like to live on our own. A lot of those questions can be answered as we grow deeper in our relationship with God and we see what our true reason for life is— to glorify him.

 

World 

Laura told a little bit of her story of how she got from a college student who was not very interested in CO, to going on staff in for CO Minneapolis for 5 years, to going across the world to be on staff with CO Thailand. God’s desire is that people from all nations will one day worship him (Revelation 7:9, 1 Timothy 2:4) and Laura’s story was a small glimpse into what that looks like.  God uses average people that don’t necessarily have a strong calling to the world to draw people to himself.