I Am, I Will, & I Believe

Hello and Happy New Year!

We have started this year with so much excitement and intentionality. I have

been on campus meeting many new girls who are hungry and looking for community.

They told us how they spent last semester scared, hiding in their dorm rooms but are now ready to meet new people. I’m praying that they are more than just willing to meet new people, but that they also have a softened heart towards the Lord.

It’s that time of year again, where students have new class schedules. They sit in new classrooms filled with new classmates and with a new professor. During the first week, each student is asked to introduce themselves to the class and it goes something along the lines of, ”Hi my name is….., I’m a (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior or Senior) and I’m majoring in….. But is that all that defines us? I have met students looking for more.

This past weekend we took 126 of our girls on leadership to Chica Retreat. Our time together is not only fun but marked by the presence of God and Biblical truths remembered through experiential ways. Friday night we all sat together to listen to a teaching on the things that keep us from God. But first we blind folded them and tided their hands and feet. The blind fold represented false identities that keep us from seeing God. Tided hands were the sins that so easily entangles us as humans. Jesus frees us from these sins. As one person was freed by having the string around their wrists cut they were then given the scissors to go set someone else free. Tided feet was willful rebellion that keeps us from moving forward in the identity and purpose God gives us. Our choice to obey frees us from the bondage of rebellion.

We took time to write out on old, worn out, t-shirts the identities we had once proclaimed over ourselves or received from others. After sharing what we wrote with a trusted sister and praying over each other, we took our old identities and burned them.

Saturday morning was spent proclaiming and declaring new identity over our lives. I am who God says I am, I will do what He has asked me to do and I do believe! At the top of our lungs we loudly declared the words written in the text box below. It became our anthem for the weekend and our hope and prayer is that it will set the course for the rest of our lives. We are starting this year with a new identity and new purpose given by God.

Thank you all for your sacrifice in time given in prayer and in finances to send others into unreached places. Thank you for passing on the heart of God to the next generation!