Our summers end

By Ryan Buss

Dear Friends and Family,
First off, we want to thank you so much for all your prayer and support! You are truly a blessing to us and we love and value each and every one of you! As many of you know, this summer has been a summer where our trust in the Lord as been grown beyond what we even thought possible. We have had some pretty significant set backs in our funding (such as our salary getting cut back by 50%), but we have also seen the Lord provide in so many other ways this summer (such as a part time job to help supplement some income). We have had many encouraging meetings with friends and family, and God graciously gave us a community of believers to help spur us on to pursue the ministry He has given us!

Valerie and I have been challenged to trust the Lord, to patiently wait on His timing and provision, and to be steadfast and faithful in what we know to do in serving Christ. One of the prayers that I have had recently is for us to grown in our faith by having the "patience of the prophets", the "steadfastness of Job", and the "faith of Abraham". And I feel that we have grown in each of those areas!

Our time here in Phoenix this summer is coming to a close. We are leaving to go back to San Diego on Saturday, August 15th. We feel like our time out here has been fruitful, challenging, and encouraging. One of the neat things that we got to do was to spend some time with the two wonderful, new EDGE staff guys we will be receiving this fall semester! We are very excited to go back home to San Diego and to renew the friendships that were started last year! One of the most encouraging this for me this summer was to talk with a guy that I discipled last school year. He called me and we got a chance to catch up over what the summer has been like and what we had been learning from the Lord in His Word. Over the course of the conversation, he told me that we was coming back to SDSU so that he could get more training in how to minister to people more effectiviely and to continue to grow in His walk with Christ! The reason this was very significant for me was that just before he left for the summer, he was considering dropping out of school and enlisting in the military! Now he in coming back for the express purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ, getting a degree along the way! What amazing work God is doing in the heart and lives of the students at SDSU!

So, to sum things up, we have really enjoyed this summer with all of its hardships and joys! We are anxiously looking forward to being back in San Diego and being with the students at SDSU. Please continue to pray that the Lord would soften the hearts and minds of the students to be receptive to His gospel, and that we would get to see fruit being born at this campus! As always, this ministry is only possible through your continued financial support to allow us to be on the campus full-time ministering to the students! Thank you all for your support!

In Christ,

Ryan and Valerie Buss