Student Testimony

One of the wonderful women in my discipleship chain, Britni, has been growing so much this semester, and now the fruits are truly shining through. I asked her to write up a little testimony of her recent exciting news: a young woman in her Bible study is now in discipleship! It's really exciting because as missionaries we realized that the mission of FOCUS is:

"To know Christ Jesus and to fulfill the Great Commission by first living and then communicating the fullness of faith within the Family of God, the Church"

....nowhere in there does it say that the mission of FOCUS is to lead as many Bible studies as possible. Rather, we genuinely try to win people to Jesus Christ, build them up in effective discipleships and then send them out to do the same with others. Britni is starting to really grasp this concept and here's a brief testimony that she shared with me:

This is my first semester leading a bible study and from the start I had a steady, solid group of girls coming. Immediately, I began to think "Wow, Jesus and I are going to make a bunch of really great disciples out of this group!" As the semester continued, no girl stood out to me. No one was laid on my heart during prayer for that specific thing but I continued to pray about it. As the semester began to wind down, I almost started to panic wondering what was going to happen with these girls. I felt like I had failed them and Jesus because that is the "goal" is to make disciples of all nations and I could not do it. Dang... Finally, there were a couple girls I had in mind but none of them were quite there yet. So I continued to pray and be patient. I knew that prayer was the only thing that could ease my restless mind. Then, as I was ready to talk to a couple girls after our last bible study of the semester, none of them were there...weird. I was bummed at the beginning but it just opened up the door for the beautiful Bobbi Jo. This young woman came to study almost every week and was always very quiet but I knew she took everything to heart. Because these other girls were NOT there it opened up the floor and my eyes to Bobbi. She didn't say a lot but what she did say I took to heart. I knew she was the answer to my prayers!

After bible study, I got home and texted her asking if we could talk, she said she would love to and she actually needed to talk to me too. Cool! We went to lunch, I asked Bobbi Jo into discipleship and she said yes! It was the most beautiful thing! I almost cried (because I was so happy and excited!) and then she really just blew me away. Bobbi proceeded to tell me that she started meeting with a girl in her dorm to pray together every night. HOW GREAT! She also told me that recently she had been praying for guidance so she was excited that I wanted to do absolutely anything for her to help her get to know the person of Jesus Christ even better. Essentially, we answered each other's prayers. 

Now that my friends, that is what spiritual multiplication looks like: Not only to make disciples of all nations, but to raise up disciples that raise up disciples. And that is why I'm a FOCUS missionary!!

Oh, and in other great news: four new girls said yes to discipleship with Jesus and I this coming semester, the two that I was working with will be "launched" and/or leaving Fargo and I think that what's in store for NDSU FOCUS will look much differently than it ever has! I'll keep you posted!

Also, I can already taste the Spotted Cow... Wisco here I come!! Less than one week away and I'm SO EXCITED to watch the Rose Bowl on the 'rents' HD big screen! Wooop! Let's go RED!