Feel helpless, weak, and inadequate yet?!
A week before the event this year, we had just four students registered!
But we had been praying… faithfully hanging onto the promises of God and his call on our lives.
The ISI staff team held a 40-day prayer effort where we prayed each day for God to work in and through the Tejas Spring Break Retreat and we fasted each Monday as a team. The small group Bible study student leaders and their student assistants held a 7-day Jericho prayer effort right before the event where they prayed together for an hour each evening between 10-11 p.m. on a conference call [the library closes at 10:00 p.m. in case you forgot]. Each of 12 local ISI staff members asked seven of their prayer partners to commit to pray daily during the three days of the event and asked their church leaders to join us. In the end, more than 300 people were praying and asking God to do what only he could do… AND THE WEATHER AND PEOPLE’S HEARTS WERE CHANGED !!!
We knew it would be a good retreat because of all the spiritual warfare we experienced prior to it. The Enemy of God was worried we could see. Because of the prayer efforts, something was happening in the heavenly realms amongst the authorities who rule. Something we could not see directly, but knew was happening because of the collateral damage we could see.
There was a 70 percent chance of rain on Saturday early in the week. Saturday is the big activity day—horseback riding, shooting, high ropes, fishing, canoeing/kayaking, etc. After praying intently, it dropped to a 40 percent by the weekend. HOWEVER, it never rained at the camp until Saturday night about 4:00 a.m. when everyone was in bed! By noon on Sunday there was total blue sky! So all of the wonderful activities were accomplished… even the S’mores late on Saturday night!
And hearts were changed! Of the 85 international students at the retreat, roughly one-third were already believers (as 20 were small group Bible study leaders or assistant leaders). But…
· Of the 60 non-believers there, half chose response to trust Jesus as my only hope and way to God… to follow him only as my God or to learn more about who Jesus is and how I can know him personally. Can you believe HALF ?!!
· Of the 60, 25 percent wanted to join a Bible study on their campus! ONE-FOURTH!!
Those kinds of responses are supernatural and only happen because of Prayer!!
Here are some of the personal stories of what God did:
One student complained of severe pain is his abdomen on Saturday morning. A volunteer along with a student nurse friend of the student in pain went to the hospital. The student had an appendix which was about to burst. He was rushed into surgery that evening. By Monday evening the student was back in his dorm in Ft. Worth. He was sore, but happy to be alive… and deeply touched by the care and help he had been shown in his time of need.
One of the small group student leaders from Colombia who was a part of the group I led commented to me, paraphrased, “Thank you for allowing me to be a small group leader. I have been a Christian and going to church for a long time. This is the first time anyone has ever asked me to lead anything. It means so much to me that you would trust me to lead other students in discovering from the Bible.” What a joy that is for me to hear students express heartfelt thanks. His life will never be the same as he is now equipped to make disciples who will be able to make disciples. Praise God!!
A PhD student’s wife had come to know Christ last year, but he was not interested and chose not to attend church with her. He and his grade-school son came to the retreat. Because of his wife’s prayers for him, the way he saw his son cared for at the retreat by Christian leaders, and the discussion-based Bible studies he encountered, he has decided to begin attending church with his wife and made an intention to learn about who Jesus is and how he can make such a difference in people’s lives—a difference he has observed for himself.
A student from Dallas Theological Seminary (one of 11 who came and helped immeasurably with logistics as part of the “Servant Team”) remarked that she was blown away by the types of conversations she had been having with the international students all weekend. The students were asking her questions about the meaning of life, the problem of evil, and how to make sense of difficult circumstances in life. She said she had never been around so many people in one place who would ask such serious questions genuinely. [This is another specific answer to prayers prayed in the weeks before the event and by the 300+ people praying during the event.]
Would you join us in giving praise to the only one who changes the weather and human hearts?!
Would you like to join us for the next event we need prayer partners for?!
Would you like to invest in and get to be a part of the work of God reaching out to international students in the Dallas-Ft.Worth Metroplex?
Please contact me for how you can be a part of what God is doing:
A week before the event this year, we had just four students registered!
But we had been praying… faithfully hanging onto the promises of God and his call on our lives.
The ISI staff team held a 40-day prayer effort where we prayed each day for God to work in and through the Tejas Spring Break Retreat and we fasted each Monday as a team. The small group Bible study student leaders and their student assistants held a 7-day Jericho prayer effort right before the event where they prayed together for an hour each evening between 10-11 p.m. on a conference call [the library closes at 10:00 p.m. in case you forgot]. Each of 12 local ISI staff members asked seven of their prayer partners to commit to pray daily during the three days of the event and asked their church leaders to join us. In the end, more than 300 people were praying and asking God to do what only he could do… AND THE WEATHER AND PEOPLE’S HEARTS WERE CHANGED !!!
We knew it would be a good retreat because of all the spiritual warfare we experienced prior to it. The Enemy of God was worried we could see. Because of the prayer efforts, something was happening in the heavenly realms amongst the authorities who rule. Something we could not see directly, but knew was happening because of the collateral damage we could see.
There was a 70 percent chance of rain on Saturday early in the week. Saturday is the big activity day—horseback riding, shooting, high ropes, fishing, canoeing/kayaking, etc. After praying intently, it dropped to a 40 percent by the weekend. HOWEVER, it never rained at the camp until Saturday night about 4:00 a.m. when everyone was in bed! By noon on Sunday there was total blue sky! So all of the wonderful activities were accomplished… even the S’mores late on Saturday night!
And hearts were changed! Of the 85 international students at the retreat, roughly one-third were already believers (as 20 were small group Bible study leaders or assistant leaders). But…
· Of the 60 non-believers there, half chose response to trust Jesus as my only hope and way to God… to follow him only as my God or to learn more about who Jesus is and how I can know him personally. Can you believe HALF ?!!
· Of the 60, 25 percent wanted to join a Bible study on their campus! ONE-FOURTH!!
Those kinds of responses are supernatural and only happen because of Prayer!!
Here are some of the personal stories of what God did:
One student complained of severe pain is his abdomen on Saturday morning. A volunteer along with a student nurse friend of the student in pain went to the hospital. The student had an appendix which was about to burst. He was rushed into surgery that evening. By Monday evening the student was back in his dorm in Ft. Worth. He was sore, but happy to be alive… and deeply touched by the care and help he had been shown in his time of need.
One of the small group student leaders from Colombia who was a part of the group I led commented to me, paraphrased, “Thank you for allowing me to be a small group leader. I have been a Christian and going to church for a long time. This is the first time anyone has ever asked me to lead anything. It means so much to me that you would trust me to lead other students in discovering from the Bible.” What a joy that is for me to hear students express heartfelt thanks. His life will never be the same as he is now equipped to make disciples who will be able to make disciples. Praise God!!
A PhD student’s wife had come to know Christ last year, but he was not interested and chose not to attend church with her. He and his grade-school son came to the retreat. Because of his wife’s prayers for him, the way he saw his son cared for at the retreat by Christian leaders, and the discussion-based Bible studies he encountered, he has decided to begin attending church with his wife and made an intention to learn about who Jesus is and how he can make such a difference in people’s lives—a difference he has observed for himself.
A student from Dallas Theological Seminary (one of 11 who came and helped immeasurably with logistics as part of the “Servant Team”) remarked that she was blown away by the types of conversations she had been having with the international students all weekend. The students were asking her questions about the meaning of life, the problem of evil, and how to make sense of difficult circumstances in life. She said she had never been around so many people in one place who would ask such serious questions genuinely. [This is another specific answer to prayers prayed in the weeks before the event and by the 300+ people praying during the event.]
Would you join us in giving praise to the only one who changes the weather and human hearts?!
Would you like to join us for the next event we need prayer partners for?!
Would you like to invest in and get to be a part of the work of God reaching out to international students in the Dallas-Ft.Worth Metroplex?
Please contact me for how you can be a part of what God is doing: