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Campus Ministry puts you in contact with students who need to hear the good news.

Are you considering divorce? We want to pray for you.

“Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass and He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitudes. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:19, 21, NKJV).

Recently I was part of a small team of ladies who put on a square dance and auction to raise funds to donate a water well to Africa. We thoroughly enjoyed the organizing process, found our community to be very generous in donating auction items, and had a lot of fun at the actual event.

We raised enough money for a water well that would impact the lives of 1000 people providing clean water and improved health for both people and animals, strengthening their economy, and opening the way for the girls to go to school rather than spending their days walking miles for water.  It also meant that we could plant a church in the village that would change lives for eternity.

I was so overwhelmed by the small thing that we had done. How little of my actual time and energy it cost, and yet what a HUGE impact it had on a whole village for now and for eternity. I began to realize that this is what the story about the fish and the loaves is about. It’s the little thing that we have to offer, and if we are willing to give that little thing, God can take it, multiply it, and use it to bless thousands.

We can often feel inadequate and that we have so little to give, but this miracle tells us that if we will just be obedient and give the little we have, we can have a major impact in the lives of others. What are the fish and loaves in your hand? What little thing is God asking you to do or give that has the potential to bless multitudes?

It is said that “there are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say what happened???” Let’s be those who MAKE THINGS HAPPEN to the glory of our God!

Questions: What little thing is God asking you to do or give that has the potential to bless multitudes?

Into this environment a water well drilling team from Global Aid Network (GAiN), the humanitarian division of Power to Change, stepped in to help.

The GAiN Water for Life Initiative aims to provide both clean water by drilling wells, and living water by teaching about Jesus. According to the World Health Organization, a child dies from a preventable disease associated with lack of clean water every 20 seconds. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The provision of clean, uncontaminated drinking water through the drilling of capped water wells can end this cycle of suffering and death.

Click here to learn more about GAiN’s Water for Life Initiative and learn how you can help!

In Togo, West Africa, a team of church planters were visiting churches the small, relatively unknown country. There they found many examples of vibrant faith. This video presents one such story.

In a devotional titled “The Practice of Surrender,” pastor Rick Warren explains how surrendering ourselves to God can have far-reaching consequences not just for ourselves, but for many others as well.

Bill Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ. Through the worldwide Crusade staff … it’s estimated that over 150 million people have come to Christ and will spend eternity in heaven. I once asked Bill, “Why did God use and bless your life so much?” He said, “When I was a young man I made a contract with God. I literally wrote it out and signed my name at the bottom. It said ‘From this day forward, I am a slave of Jesus Christ.’”

Are you still arguing and struggling with God over his right to do with your life as he pleases? Experience the freedom of surrender and begin the Holy Spirit-filled life! And feel free to contact us anytime if you have questions or concerns.

Jack decided he wanted to attend a Christian school and after a few months of praying and investigating, we moved forward with that decision. In doing so, I found out that Jack would have assignments to complete before school started up again. Yee-haw. I’m such a fan of homework (see http://elisabethcorcoran.blogspot.com/2009/09/homework-woes.html). Let alone SUMMER homework.

It started with Jack’s homework

But part of Jack’s homework was to read a book called Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado and it’s been needling both of us, albeit in very different ways. Today’s reading was Mr. Lucado’s take on what the leper must’ve felt who was healed by Jesus. Jack wrote that it reminded him of being at Feed My Starving Children earlier that day.

Jack went with some friends for a packing session where they packed meals for children in third-world countries. While we were reading Just Like Jesus later that night, he said, “Did you know that for only ten dollars, you could feed two children for a month?”

“I didn’t know that, bud…that’s amazing,” I said.

I could tell his mind was going a mile a minute.  For months we’ve been kicking around ideas of different ways he could use basketball to raise money for Africa, like Austin Gutwein did.  I prayed with him before putting him to bed and asked Jesus that if He thought this was a good idea, that He would help us be creative and make it happen. When I stopped praying, Jack said, “I think I know how we’re supposed to do this.” I grabbed a notebook and took down his thoughts. It was pretty sweet. I pointed out that the Holy Spirit just told him what we should do. I gave him a kiss and told him we’d work on it tomorrow.

Hearing from God

Jack came and got me a few minutes later to show me something. He pointed out what when the light hit the wall across from his bed, the shadows looked like letters. He told me he was asking God to help him see what it said in case it were a message, and before he could tell me, I saw it, “B A L L.”

“I think it says ‘B A L L’,” Jack said.

Now, it wasn’t like the handwriting on the wall with Daniel or anything, but it was clear enough that I teared up. “Jesus must be trying to encourage you, hon,” I said.

“I’ve never had Him do that for me before,” Jack said with a smile.

“Jesus is cool that way, baby,” I said as I walked back out, with my own big smile.

Jack came back out a couple minutes later. “I think it maybe also says ‘F A I L’,” he said, looking dejected.

“Jack, which word do you think Jesus would be saying to you right now — BALL or FAIL?”

“Ball,” he answered.

“Then we’re going with that,” I said reassuring him.

The lessons here are many and deep, but I’ll just point out a couple. God can speak to us at any time and in any way. Never discount what God wants to do through a child. Always acknowledge a God-thing…I think He loves it when we give Him credit.  Encouraging our children’s very personal walk with God will build their faith and our own.

And for heaven’s sakes…when the writing on the wall is positive, assume it’s from Jesus.

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Even though the G20 summit is three weeks away, security barriers are already being constructed in Toronto. The Star reports that “Thick concrete blocks and steel poles holding wire mesh fencing have gone up overnight just south of the Rogers Centre as crews start installing security barriers for the G20 summit in Toronto.” These security measures are necessary because of violence at past G20 summits. Although protests have usually begun peacefully, they have sometimes turned violent as tensions escalate and clashes with law enforcement occurs. The security measures will also disrupt traffic in downtown Toronto and make life miserable for anyone who lives or works in the area before and during the June 25-26 summit.

The cost for the security measures for the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto will be approximately one billion dollars. This does not include all of the other expenses. The Star also suggests some other ways the billion dollars could be spent, like $1,000 in tuition cuts for every student in Canada, or create 11,000 new construction jobs. Another way it could be spent: Build thousands of permanent water wells in Africa to drastically improve lives of millions of people who live there. To put the billion dollars in perspective, it is double the total yearly amount Canada spends on foreign aid.

Is this really a wise way to spend money? The meeting just seems unnecessary. Technology allows us to meet using videoconferencing. What purpose does it serve for the leaders to physically meet in the same room, other than the intangible qualities of talking face-to-face? This would reduce the security costs to nearly zero, and would still accomplish the same ends.

Rather than hold this conference, shouldn’t the money be used to care for the less fortunate in the world? James, Jesus’ earthly brother, explains to us what type of religion God considers worthy: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

I’m not objecting to keeping our world leaders secure, there is a real need for security whenever leaders meet together. Rather I’m suggesting, along with many others, that this meeting as it is being conducted is unnecessary in the first place.

What do you think? Would you prefer that the money for the G20 summit be spent elsewhere, and if so, where?

Even though the G20 summit is three weeks away, security barriers are already being constructed in Toronto.

The cost for the security measures for the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto will be approximately one billion dollars. This does not include all of the other expenses associated with the summit. In a second article, The Star suggests some other ways the billion dollars could be spent, like $1,000 in tuition cuts for every student in Canada, or create 11,000 new construction jobs. Another way it could be spent: Build thousands of permanent water wells in Africa to drastically improve lives of millions of people who live there. To put the billion dollars in perspective, it is double the total yearly amount Canada spends on foreign aid.

The meeting just seems unnecessary. Technology allows us to meet using videoconferencing. What purpose does it serve for the leaders to physically meet in the same room, other than the intangible qualities of talking face-to-face? This would reduce the security costs to nearly zero, and would still accomplish the same ends. The security costs even give protesters an additional reason to protest: Obscene spending on security!

I’m not objecting to keeping our world leaders secure, there is a real need for security whenever leaders meet together. Rather I’m suggesting, along with many others, that this meeting as it is being conducted is unnecessary in the first place.

What do you think? Would you prefer that the money for the G20 summit be spent elsewhere, and if so, where?

Are you totally discouraged with your situation in life? We can listen to you and pray for you.

Mary Slessor, the courageous red-haired missionary who became known as the “White Queen of the Cannibals,” wrote home to friends in Scotland about the victorious life of a native woman in Africa: “She is so poor that she has not one farthing in this world but what she gets from us, not a creature to do a thing for her, her house all open to rain and ruin, and into which the cows rush at times. But blind Mary [the native woman] is our living, bright, clear light.”

The chief of the village told Mary Slessor that this woman was the only visible witness among the church members in the town, but he added, “She is a proper one!”

“Far advanced in spiritual knowledge and experience, she knows the deep things of God,” said Mary. “That old hut is like a heaven here to more than me.”

Just think about being blind and desperately poor, of having cows stomp through your house before you realize what is happening, of having rain and dirt sweep in at will! If anyone had reason to be bitter or complain or think ill thoughts, this woman did.

But according to Mary, “Her voice is set to music, a miracle to the people here who know only how to groan and grumble. She is ever praising the Lord and her testimony to the Savior is not a shabby one.”

It is apparent that this admirable African woman meditated on God and His Word day and night. It was her very life. How else could she have lived with such joy under such deplorable circumstances?

It’s remarkable that this dedicated servant of God, Mary Slessor, found joy and refreshment in that blind woman’s tumbled-down hut–”like a heaven here to more than me,” she wrote.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our homes could be like heaven on earth not only for us, but for our families as well as visitors? We can’t arbitrarily change the lives of those around us; but we can allow the Lord to transform our lives as He did blind Mary’s. Certainly if the Lord would do it for her, He could do it for us too. Then who knows? Perhaps our beautiful testimony would reach out and influence and lift the members of our family, church, and community, just as that of blind Mary’s did.

My mother told me of how her mother, who was beset by troubles, used to comfort herself by singing gospel hymns as she bent over her scrub-board for hours washing clothes for well-to-do people. She was trying to keep her mind off her troubles and on the precious promises of God. Not many of us go around singing the old hymns these days, do we? Perhaps if we did, they would help lift our minds to the same high plane on which Blind Mary lived!

The Apostle Paul knew what he was saying when he kept telling his fellow Christians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice.”

Questions: What hinders you from rejoicing in the Lord?  How  do you respond when financial troubles arise? What could you start doing on a regular basis to help remind yourself to rejoice in the Lord continually?

About the Author Muriel Larson