Certain things make me jump for joy, at least on the inside. Among these are anyone accepting Christ, clearly sharing the gospel with someone who is searching, and students who take their first steps sharing their faith. As a team, that is exactly what we decided to focus on these past few months. Together we set a "wildly important goal" of seeing at least 12 students take the initiative to share their faith, on their own or together with us, with at least 36 people before the February school vacation. What's wild about this goal is that it's really beyond our control, so we set to praying right away. We were more intentional about inviting students to share their faith with us on campus. And we encouraged them to pray for their friends specifically. Since we made the goal, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in students taking initiative. To keep track and encourage the team, we created a chart with 12 ice cream cones on it. On the side of the chart are 36 scoops of ice cream. When a student tells us about a gospel conversation with a friend, for example, we write their name on a scoop of ice cream and move it onto a cone. It’s so fun to see the progress and know that students are taking steps of faith and the gospel is being shared. The results? There have been 9 students who have either had opportunities to share the gospel with their friends or have gone together with us on campus. The total number of people ice cream scoops is 38! What do you think? Should we take the team out for ice cream to celebrate?!
Maybe it’s because of our Montana roots or May’s years of ski racing, but we just wouldn’t be Workmans if we didn’t drive our boys into the mountains in search of snow to ski on. This winter has been especially warm and dry in France. We drove to our favorite ski station in the Pyrenees and it felt like late spring! The mountain was barely covered, the roads and surrounding mountains bare. We wondered if it would be worthwhile, but still rented skis. When we woke up the first morning, there was almost a foot of snow on our balcony! And it kept snowing throughout the week. What a blessing! Our next stop is the French national staff conference. This year, both Silas and Efrem are joining the praise band. We’re really looking forward to playing together. Then, May has an 11 day trip to Bangkok with the technology team. Computer gurus working with Cru from all across the world will be there discussing global strategy. There is also a student weekend, the evangelistic outreach Graines d’Esperance in March, and an April spring break project in Spain. Looking forward to seeing God working!
Blessings to you in Christ,
