Spring Break trip to Utah

We just got back from Utah this past Sunday. Drove all day and all night and arrived back in Fayetteville AR at 8 AM Sunday morning. Thanks to James and Noreen for making it happen. Normally, I like to drive, because: for one I like to; secondly, I can’t sleep anyway in any moving vehicle, including airplanes; third, it’s probably a trust issue. Me, actually almost dozing off, Car, bump, Me – “What was that?” – Driver, “What was what?” You get the idea. 21 hours total and we made it!

I was hoping to actually write some while in Utah, but the days were long, and time to even reply to emails was limited. So I will try to sum up the week in this post.

Coram Deo (The Presence of God) Church, the church we worked with in Eagle Mountain & Orem, Utah, is doing some phenomenal things to build bridges into the community. We had a lot fun working with Pastor David Nicholson, his family, and his staff (all volunteers). His staff comprises of believers that have sensed God’s direction and believe so strongly that they are willing to move to Utah, get jobs to support themselves and work for the church in their spare time. He simply prayed for workers, and God has provided people from everywhere. Primarily we helped promote a movie night on that Friday. We canvased the surrounding neighborhood at the church location in Orem, which just opened this past January. At the event on Friday we had approximately 150 people show up for a family movie night with free pizza and popcorn. There were an estimated 100 new guests in the building that night we were able to make some connection with. Awesome night!

We also had the opportunity to visit and experience two campuses. The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City and Utah Valley University in Orem. Both are beautiful campuses located right on the edge of the Wasatch Mountains. Let me preface this next part with “nothing’s official” – We are really felt God’s direction as we prayed at the campuses that there were was definite direction for us to launch Chi Alpha at Utah Valley. There is currently no evangelical Christian ministry on a campus of 32,000 students. It’s the largest state university in Utah and in the shadow of Brigham Young University. God was coordinating relationships before we even arrived with the church in Orem. When planning our trip, the first person I contacted in Utah was David Nicholson, the pastor at Corem Deo, without even realizing where exactly he was located. So despite my lack of strategic planning, God was ordaining.

We are excited about the future, and are trusting God with each step. Thanks for your prayers and support as we go on this journey together!

Check out some pics if you haven’t already: http://daranlemon.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/utah/

Utah

Utah Public, a set on Flickr.

Some pics from our recent Spring Break trip to Utah.

A little family update…

As many of you know now, we are working toward planting Chi Alpha in Utah. Analiese was looking at a map in her school book and it had a picture of the Rocky Mountains. I told her that is where we were going to move. She is enthralled with the Rocky Mountains now and says that she is going to live there forever. She even taught herself how to write Rocky Mountains on her doodle.

When we mentioned this to Ayden, it came crashing down that he would be moving away from his best friend, Matthew. He started to cry. I started to cry for him, so I decided to tell him that we would be getting a dog when we moved to Utah. Daran and I had already decided this, but I figured that it was a great time to tell Ayden. Analiese thought this a fabulous idea! She mentioned that we could each have our own dog – totaling five dogs. I told her that we did not have enough money for five dogs. She said, “How much money do we have? Do we have enough money for three dogs?” I explained to her that the most we would have would be 2 dogs. Now the kids are super excited and talk about the Rocky Mountains all the time. Ayden will be making the trip to Utah with us and he is very excited!
Thank you guys so much for making this happen!!

We love you guys!

Noreen

Every Student A Disciple-maker

Don’t you love that feeling of putting on a new shirt you just bought. Or the new car smell, even if you get it from a spray bottle. There’s something exciting about something new (or at least new to you). We’ve felt that exhilaration this year seeing some new students catch the heartbeat of Jesus for their campus at the University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith (for those of you wondering, we’re at the U of A in Fayetteville). Even more exciting is that this group of students started Chi Alpha on their own. They were also not afraid to ask for help from other Chi Alpha leaders in the area. Ronnie,  Chi Alpha director at the U of A offered to teach the same leadership class that XA students go through before becoming student leaders.

The students in Fort Smith jumped in and were hungry to learn to become disciple makers.The leadership class is really about becoming a disciple maker for life –  where God has placed you. Of course for most college students, their primary placement in life at this point is the campus. Justin, is one of the students that has been a sponge and has seen the mission field that is his campus. This year, Justin, with the other leaders at UAFS (Fort Smith) are taking steps to ensure that there will be a thriving campus ministry taking place after they graduate.

Now that is pretty cool. But this takes it to another level. Most of you have probably heard us say at some point there over 4000 universities in the US with approximately 280 Chi Alpha groups. One night recently after teaching the class, Justin was excited to share with us some news. Having grown up in a pastor’s home, and his brother a youth pastor, and brother in law also a pastor, Justin was struggling with God calling him into full time ministry. Through his time  in Chi Alpha this year, not only was he no longer struggling with that call, but he heard God’s voice clearly with direction.

Yes ladies, Justin is single and available!

God’s plan for Justin, was not like his family but He was directing him differently for His purposes. God was preparing Justin to reach his campus now as a student but also for the future as a campus pastor.

God is still calling people to reach the campus! Justin is graduating this December and already starting the process of becoming a missionary with Chi Alpha, and praying about returning as campus pastor to his alma mater.
For The Campus,

Daran