Fall 2011 Start-up!

Thank you all for your prayers.We had a very successful camping trip this weekend! About 15 people showed up early from summer vacation to join us, which was a major answer to prayer! These students represent the core of students that we will be starting with this Fall.We were able to spend some time in God's Word together, pray together for the upcoming school year, and re-connect after a summer apart. We also got a lot of planning done for events that we will be inviting students to come to. This year is a little bit different than other school years for start-up because Valerie and I are going to be the only staff people on campus. We will be relying heavily on the students that God has blessed us with to come along side and serve with us.

School starts tomorrow! Which means that we will be going onto campus to meet new students and see who Jesus brings into our midst. Please pray for us that God would:

• protect us from the enemy
• Give us courage and strength during the next couple of weeks to be intentional with students
• bring the right amount of new students into our sphere of influence
• unite our current students in a Spirit of unity and purpose 

We are excited for the new school year to be starting up, but also a little nervous since this will be the first time we are going solo (staff-wise) for a Fall start-up. This is an incredibly important time of the school year because how the next couple of weeks go often determines how the rest of the school year will go. So please keep us in your prayers and ask that God would do BIG things on this campus!

Camping

Hi Friends!
Could please pray for us. We are taking some students from SDSU camping tonight. We will be using this time to re-connect with each other and with God. Our goal for this time is to discuss the new school year and brain storm ways to meet new students. I can't express in words how grateful we are for your prayers and support!!!

Trust is a Good Thing

A blog by Ryan P Buss.

This last school semester was quite a ride for me personally, and for Valerie and I as a couple. Now that summer is in full swing I have had some time to reflect and see what it is that God is doing among Valerie and I. I would say that the biggest, most front and center thing that He is growing us in is our trust in Him. Trust. We trust and depend on a lot of things on a daily basis. In fact, you could say that we humans are very needy and dependent as a whole. I would invite you, for a moment, to think through all the things that you depend on and trust in every day.

Do it. C'mon, do it! 

Did you do it? How many things did you come up with? Probably less that you really are depending on because we are so prideful in our feelings of our own strength, intelligence, skills, or of other people telling you to do things. If I sound kind of mean, I am not trying to be. I just want us to stop for one moment and think about how we are REALLY dependent and needy people.

The question that Valerie and I have been asking ourselves a lot recently is not what we are depending on, but WHO are we depending on?  If we look around at our lives it can be pretty easy to despair or let fear in and enslave us all over again. So where do we look for provision when we feel as though we have nothing? Who do we turn to when our sin and guilt overwhelm our fragile hearts? Where do we look for truth about the world and who I am when all I see is confusion and darkness? Where do I find strength when I am helplessly weak?

...Jesus.

He MUST be the One to whom we look, all other places fail. I will fail. Valerie will fail. Family will fail. Friends will fail. Jesus will never fail. He who did not fail when, knowing the pain and anguish and rejection He would receive, He went to the cross. He went, willingly, obediently, humbly, lovingly to His death and resurrection three days later. That we might know Him and be reunited with His Father, the Creator and God of all the universe! Since He did not fail in this, He will not fail if I trust Him with my life. He will not fail if I trust Him with my marriage. He will not fail if I trust Him with our finances. He will not fail. Not ever.

That doesn't mean that He won't allow hardship or troubles or afflictions or persecutions to come our way. But it does mean that we have a living hope that He will guide us through them, sustain us in them, and remind of Himself because of them. We have a living hope that when we finish our time here on earth we will be with Him for eternity where there is not death, nor tears nor pain, and where we get to hear the sweet words of our Master "Well done,thou good and faithful servant."!

                           

                             O! to hear the Master say "well done" is the desire of my heart

                             To see His smile and to feel His arms embrace my weary soul.

                             I cry to You, faithful Jesus, when the waters surround me

                             For in You,and You alone, is all my trust and victory!

Who are you trusting in with your life? I hope it is Jesus.

Last Week

Can't believe it's my last week working with this guy. Excited for his next stage of life and especially his upcoming trip this summer to Japan. However, crazy sad I won't see him much around campus. He's become a pillar in our ministry and a pioneer in creating epic emails that students actually read. God has used him exponentially in the lives of students and even more so in Ryan and my life.

"Dear God,
Thank you so much for creating this man in your image. For allowing me to be his sister both physically and spiritually. Thank you for letting me work alongside him these last couple years as you molded him more and more into your image. I love him and will greatly miss working alongside him. However, help me to make the most of this last week with him. In Jesus name....Amen"

Rest

 

Rest...

Something I feel I'm constantly learning. 

This last week we experienced spring break, and it is always amazing to see God work during these times of seemingly inactivity. God has answered so many prayer requests this week, BIG requests, and I think it's to remind me that He doesn't "need a bull from my stall or goats from my pen." (Psalm 50) The world does not stop when I rest. Rest is good. Rest is needed and God works even when we rest. Sometimes I feel like He works even more when I rest because then I can get out of His way, sit back and watch His handiwork. I still struggle with the concept of rest, but my friend Kariann I think summed it up best, she described it as a time to renew. To renew my walk with God, with my husband and friends. To laugh, sleep, read and just be. As the the Psalmest reminds us: "Be still and know that I am God, I WILL be exalted among the nations. I WILL be exalted in the earth." (Ps 46) Nothing can stop God from being exalted. He will do it through me, or without me. But HE will do it! His command to me to rest reminds me of that, "Find rest Oh my soul in God alone, my hope comes from Him." (Ps 62) Rest is a very, very good thing.

Countdown

2 days and counting until our students come together for our annual conference. Collegiate Navigator ministries from all over California, Arizona, Hawaii and even Utah will be joining together just 40 minutes east of San Diego to learn about and worship our great God. Every year God has spoken to me in a very powerful and tangible way. I can't wait to see the things he will do in these students lives this weekend. Will you pray for them with us for their time at the conference?

1. ALL Obstacles keeping them from attending would be taken away
2. Protection from the enemy that would try to keep them from coming or engaging with Him or one another
3. Unity among the students that would bond their hearts towards one another
4. Humility and teach-ability would reign in their hearts in preparation
5. Each student would be touched in a dramatic way by God's love and truth

Success

I love my job. But...It's so easy in this stage of my life to look around at all my friends and peers and wonder if this is where we are REALLY suppose to be. From the world's stand point, I just feel like we missed the boat somewhere. There seems nothing about our life that even hints at any kind of success. This causes questions to begin running through me head, like "Should I have stayed a music teacher? Should we have started having kids earlier? Should I have gotten my Masters? Should Ryan have gone down a different career path? Should we have stayed in Arizona? or at least moved somewhere less pricey?" But then I come back from nights like this night and I KNOW in my very soul that we are exactly where God has placed us and wants us. I think for me, success in life is being faithful to where God has placed you and being joyfully content for the things He's placed in your life. And if that is success, then I feel like he's pushing me in that direction.

I love being with these college students. I love laughing with them, talking with them, playing games with them and even crying with them. I love telling them about Jesus, praying with them, praying for them, watching them grow, and being there when they fall. I love them so much that I feel I'm beginning to understand a little bit about how Paul felt when he told the Phillipian church that "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." My prayer is that this affection grows between us and them but also between the students themselves. Our prayer for the ministry this semester is that their hearts would be knitted together for the work of the Gospel on the campus at SDSU. If God would do that, then I feel we could look back and say we had a pretty successful semester as a ministry. But as for me personally, I want to continually strive for faithfulness and joyful contentment. Only then, do I feel I will be able to stop comparing myself to others and see that the only success that matters is what Christ already did on the cross. Everything after that is just...small potatoes.