God's Provision

I've been reminded time and time again about God's Provision.  I just came back from Basileia, which I will share more about in a post soon, but at the wonderful week in the Adirondacks with 350 students, God spoke.  He reminded me of how even though I've been stressing about raising the needed support to be staff on campus by Fall that He's got my back.  I mean, He is in charge of all of the money in the world, so me stressing is really just not trusting God to provide for my needs.
Last year, I started a little challenge against myself to see if I could go from April to June when I went to camp without buying groceries.  I could still buy a limited amount of fresh fruit, veggies, or milk and I wasn't able to increase the amount I went out to eat to cover my lack of grocery shopping.  I saw God provide in wonderful ways so I was never hungry.  This year I decided to do the same thing.  So far God has provided for me in many of the same ways as last year and also in new ways.  At Basileia, He challenged me to go until college starts back up in August.  That means five months of no groceries which means five months of having God provide for my basic needs.
For those of you who can't believe this can happen, I've learned that as students leave campus, they have to consciously use up the meal plan before the lose it.  I help out by eating on campus with them, which also gives me time to have some final goodbye chats.  Then people living in apartments check in with me and anything they can't or don't want to take home I end up with.  While I was gone this last week, I ended up with some new food in my fridge and freezer.  Additionally, my small group often has food at the gatherings and willingly shares leftovers with me and the other individuals who will eat it.  In many different ways, God proves that He will provide.
The last way that I've seen God working in caring for my needs, is that I decided to change my budget for IV staff.  Since to keep my teaching certification I still need to substitute about 2 days a week and therefore working 40 hours for IV and 14 teaching is a heavy load, my new budget is for me to work on staff just 30 hours a week.  I'll get all of the benefits of being a full-time staff worker, the smaller budget makes it more likely that I can start full-time in the Fall (as I am now over 50% of the way there), and then Fredonia will have me to support the vast changes that are planned for next year.  The vision is great, but God is greater and can accomplish all things.

New E-board and Basileia Prep

A few weeks ago we selected the new e-board of six students to lead the chapter throughout the next year.  Two are returning e-board members, one switching from secretary to President and the other repeating as Large Group Coordinator.  We've got our Small Group Coordinator, Worship Coordinator, and Sec/Treasurer... then finally we've got one of our newest Christians filling in the Outreach Coordinator role that was vacant last year.
As I've met with many of these students and begun to prepare for Basileia where we will spend a week of training in the Adirondacks preparing for next year, I've become very excited to work with this group of leaders.  There seems to be alot of momentum building for some culture shift and ideas such as working in conjunction with Price of Life (in NYC) to raise awareness of human trafficking are resurfacing.  I believe this group of students, in partnership with other members and leaders in the group, can effectively work toward Transforming Lives, Renewing the Campus, and Developing World Changers.  The servant leaders and I will be refocusing the chapter and helping it to grow, and I'm thrilled about the possibility to work full-time with them by the Fall.  Please be praying for the leaders and students as they finish the last two weeks of the semester, for God to work in all 9 students total as we attend Basileia, and for me to be able to reach the funding to be on campus next fall.