Monday, September 29, 2008

Whew!

Another week has come and gone...It is funny to me that I once thought things would slow down toward this time in the semester but there has been SO much going on, it really is incredible. So here are some updates!




Girls Pajamarama/Girly Campout- Sept 19-20th.


Every year we have a sleep over for the girls and a campout for all of the guys, but this year ended up being a campout for both of us. It was a fun time for all. We ate hot dogs and chili, played games...we even had a fashion show! It was great because we had six new girls who really seemed to enjoy themselves and have still continued to come to our Bible Studies and Weekly meetings.





Aside from all of that fun stuff, we also had a group of Chi Alphans go out to Humble, TX to provide relief for families affected by the hurricane. So we were EVERYWHERE that weekend and everything went great for each event, so praise God.



My POD (girls small group) gets better and better every week. We've begun a study on Women of the Bible that is So much fun. The girls seems to really relate well to it. This is the first year I've had over five girls come to Bible Study so my co-pod leader and I are really enjoying this time that we get to have with these precious young women. So please be praying for us every Tuesday at 7pm!

Austin and I get the priviledge of doing video announcements once every month. This week was really fun. Austin came up with most of the ideas and I had to be the actress...it was quite funny.

Thurs Night was another successful night. Every week is great of course, but it seems like we as leadership are being challenged every week to really step up in all areas.

We are being blessed daily!

Continue to pray for:
Each and every student we are coming in contact with.

Blessings,

Ani

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

WOW

Oops, it has been over a week now since I've blogged. It's been a crazy week of changes and once again, God's word to me about being flexible is proving to be a daily part of my life. These past few weeks I kept asking myself "Why am I here?" I was curious as to why God was keeping me here. Within the last week I've seen why God wants me here.


So it looks like I will be co-leading a Bible Study with my friend on Tuesdays now and Fridays mornings some of the girls are getting together for a breakfast/Bible study time so things are really picking up!


We had our Annual Lake Day event up at the Perdanales River. Hehe. It was a great success! Altogether I believe we had 45 Chi Alphans make it up there. Here are some pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of anyone on the river. These were taken at lunch.



These were some sweet Japanese girls that we met when they had their International Student Orientation. We gave them gift bags and inside it had a list of events and they came! They are so great!



There is our dock!



A few of our cooks!

Some new and old faces

Our veterans :)


My handsome Fiance






Our Tuesday night POD (Bible Study) went so well! We had five girls and all of them are "new"
which means they are freshmen or transfers and they are all so excited about learning. We will be studying Women of the Bible, which is something I've never explored before so I believe it will be a good time of learning in my own personal walk too.



Today, went great too. All of the girls returned, except one but we had another new girl so it was the same amount of girls. I just have to keep giving God the glory cause man oh man, I get nervous for no reason and regardless He takes care of all things's so cool cause we've been hanging out with freshmen A LOT. I keep thinking "They like us! They really like us!" haha

Thursdays' meeting was incredible once again. We had a lot of people return from the week before as well as eight new visitors. We heard from the Mexico Mission Trip team and it was so cool to hear the testimonies they had and the videos they made were incredible.

Worship practice had been great too. We have a freshman girl singing with us and it's fun. We're hoping for more talent to come forth.


Our Friday morning Bible study went really well too. There were four of us there and God really moved in our group. I feel priviledged to be a part of this group.

Friday night we had our International Dinner and WOW was it amazing. We had a good group but more than that, I felt like we really connected with the international students. We had friends from Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, Kenya and a few more. We ate lots of good food too ;)




Somehow I've managed to survive the last two weeks without a car. Thanks to my angels who happened to be my fiance, pastors and friends. But Austin and I went to San Antonio to pick up my car Saturday and had Such an amazing time at church Sunday. I am just so impressed by my youth. They did an amazing job with their drama.

All in all, God has truly been in everything we have done and it's just so overwhelming to see Him move in our group. But of course, in every victory, we have an enemy who is trying to work against us so continue to pray that we would be strengthened and that our hearts and minds would continue to be focused on doing God's will.

In our Friday Bible Study we read a passage Luke 11: 5-13. I had actually read in my quiet time earlier that week and felt like it needed to be shared so I'll go ahead and share here too. I can't help but feel that as Christians sometimes we just assume we will get what we want by simply asking God once and not putting much effort into our request. When I read this scripture, I felt like I had been handling my prayers of petitions in the wrong attitude. Christ says that we must be persistent. That God WANTS to give us the Holy Spirit as our gift and He wants good things for us. However he says "Keep on asking, Keep on looking, Keep on knocking. I was so encouraged to see and understand that even if I wasn't seeing my needs or desires being met, it didn't mean God didn't hear me...it meant that I needed to KEEP praying, requesting, searching. He truly is a good Father who gives good gifts and wants the best for us, His children.

What more do I need?

Blessings,

ani

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Mis Amigos.

This Sunday was interesting...
Austin and I took our two friends Suko and Ryo to church in San Antonio. They are both from Japan and Suko actually went to Mexico with Austin and I this past summer. They had a good time, but unfortunately my car didn't. It had a transmission fluid leak and we got stuck in the middle of Bandera and Hubner Sunday afternoon and as far as I know my car is not fixed yet. However, God is good. Since the car wouldn't move at all, three men/angels helped us move the car out of the intersection and into the parking lot of Whataburger.

It was quite a blow to my Sunday because I depend a lot on my car but Austin and I are managing to make it work with his car.

Tomorrow is our first Chi Alpha meeting of the semester! I'm incredibly excited and I'm praying for a good turn out and for new people to really get plugged in to the group.

Things to pray for:
-A strong level of committment from our members
-An excitement for this coming semester
-For time to supernaturally multiply for these busy college students ;)
-For tomorrow. That the Holy Spirit would join us in all we do.
-Pray for Austin and I, as well, and our fearless leaders.