It’s been a while:) We are officially on week 6 now, and life is getting more and more busy! These past weeks have flown by so fast, I didn’t even realize till yesterday it’s been 3 weeks since my last post.
Two Thursdays ago, Montana became a red state for Covid. This meant that ministry would be even more difficult. However, since then, our team has been doing more online ministry, and in return I have been able to set up meetings with girls from Cru and Young Life! So even though in-person ministry is limited, God still provided a way. Cru weekly meetings have been moved to online, which is disappointing. But I am still so hopeful that God will still use us during this time! Our leader, Bob, said the other day, “Our calling is faithfulness not fruitfulness.”
This has been true during our time here. While we may not see the end results of our effort, we will continue to be faithful to God even if that means we don’t see any fruit.
Even though it can be discouraging at times, God really has provided so many opportunities for us. Young Life has been another blessing to us! We are able to go and hang out with high school students on Mondays, and also meet up with students during the week! It has been so fun and encouraging to be able to build friendships with these students!
One ministry opportunity that has specifically worked is Instagram outreach. We were able to connect with freshman from the University of Montana. Through this we were all able to set up meeting with freshman in hopes that they would want to connect with Cru. It has been so cool for all of us on the team to meet up with these new freshman students. We are able to share Christ with them, answer any questions that they have about Cru, and encourage them!
Since September 26, our life has been a combination of meetings with students, Young Life club nights, Cru events, hiking trips, and grocery runs. One morning, 3 of us hiked to the top of a mountain in Missoula to see the sunrise! The views were breathtaking! And it’s was freezing cold at the top, but it was so worth it.
Here is a picture!
On Tuesday, Oct. 6th, our team went to Glacier National Park! This has been on my list of places to visit for years, and I can’t believe I finally got to go! It was a two and a half hour drive to the park. It was so incredible. I don’t really have words to describe it, and the pictures really don’t do it justice.
Here are a few pictures from that trip!
One thing I have really enjoyed is going to Missoula Alliance Church. I look forward to going every Sunday. Through this church, we are able to serve Congolese refugees by tutoring younger kids. We are starting the tutoring this Wednesday! We also were able to serve at a Congolese lunch and help some people move! It has been so wonderful being able to serve and build relationships with them!
During the weeks of October 3-10, our gap year director, Jill, came to visit! After many zoom calls, I was so excited to meet her in person! It was so great to finally be able to hang out with her for a week. She is such a blessing to our team, and was able to help us through some different conflicts. We are all SO thankful for her:)
On Wednesday, the 14th, we were able to do a tabling at the University of Montana! Basically, we set up 2 tables, one inside and one outside. In order to get students to come and talk to us, we were giving away pumpkins and having the students would fill out a survey to get connected with Cru( and be entered in a drawing to win a pie!) At both tables, we were able to have several really good conversations with people who were struggling. We had a conversation about hope and where we as Christ followers find our hope. In the end, we got 26 new surveys from people! Hopefully this will result in them getting connected with Cru. We are planning to meet up with a few of the people to get coffee and talk this week!
Now if this post isn’t already all over the place, the final thing I want to mention is our team trainings. We have been talking a lot about conflict and how to deal with it. This actually helped out a lot whenever we have disagreements within our team. Last week we were able to restore our team dynamic and grow closer together! God has really been working though us both individually and as a team. Even when we have had disagreements, we all know God will restore any broken relationships. And we are all willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Often it means doing all we can to help, then just letting God work.
Here are some specific prayer requests for the next few weeks!
Tutoring Congolese
Meetings with students for coffee and building relationships
Cru weekly meeting on Zoom would go well
Young Life meeting( in-person) would continue to result in friendships/meetings with students
That we would all be bold in sharing our faith with the students.
Any team conflicts would be resolved!
That we would eventually be able to meet in person for Cru events!
I really really appreciate the continued prayers! They are much needed!:)
In Christ,
Dani
Some pictures from the last few weeks!
