Ministry Highlights

I am finding it hard to believe that my first school year has come to a close. It has been a week since most students moved home for the summer. Campus now feels fairly empty and quiet. It has been such an incredible blessing to watch God move on campus in the lives of students. Here are some of my favorite moments from the year.

Student Baptisms
Perhaps I don’t have enough faith, but I never even considered the fact that in my first year of planting this ministry, I would have the opportunity to watch students surrender their lives to Christ and publicly confess Jesus as Lord. This school year we had four students do just that, three of which I had the honor to baptize. One of those baptisms happened within our first month of being on campus!

12 Days of Thanksgiving
Impact ministries across the country set aside 12 days in November to gather food for local food banks. We were only in our third month, but the few students we had involved here in California gave generously and donated over 100 pounds of food to CCTO’s Feed My Sheep food pantry.





Collegiate Day of Prayer
One of my goals for this year was to gather together students and members of CCTO for the purpose of praying for our campus. The first attempt at a gathering failed miserably. It was discouraging, but we didn’t give up. During our Collegiate Day of Prayer Luncheon we had 20 people gather to pray together.

Passover Seder
I have been celebrating Passover with student leaders for several years, but I have never lead a seder for more than a dozen people. This year CCTO decided to host a seder and asked me to lead it. So we combined our Impact CLU seder with theirs and had an incredible night of celebrating God’s deliverance as the Body of Christ

Coffee, Pizza, and Cookies
College students love food! Most of my favorite moments every year are the conversations that happen over cups of coffee or lunch or simply taking cookies to campus. Rarely is there an agenda of conversation planned, but rather just moments of being present and authentic with students. It seems to be that it is always in these unplanned moments where the greatest conversations and decisions are made. This will probably always be my favorite part of campus ministry.


There is much to celebrate this year. Bless the Lord for a great year of ministry, both the good and the hard times! 

Faith on Campus SoCal Forum

This week I enjoyed attending the Faith on Campus SoCal Forum at Pepperdine University with a couple of our Impact staff. I was going to share some of my thoughts on the forum, but then Impact’s President, Bill Westfall blogged about it. I decided he summed up the experience far better than I could. I am so grateful for the insights Bill has shared through his dissertation. The forum definitely confirmed his work. Head over to his blog and check out his thoughts. 

http://williamwestfall.com/2014/05/08/sabbatical-days-6-and-7-three-keys-to-effective-discipleship-among-millennials/

Reflections From Passover

Each year during Passover I find myself overwhelmed with how vast God’s love is for His people. At the end of every Passover season I find God has revealed some little nugget of truth that will take me months, even years to unpack. This year it hit me as I was leading the Passover Seder at Christian Church of Thousand Oaks (CCTO), Impact CLU’s partner church. 

We had an incredible turn out. I had never lead a Seder for this many people. It was a little nerve-wracking, but so much fun! We had reached the third cup, the Cup of Redemption, which represents the third promise in Exodus 6. "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” I shared with our group that God not only was going to lead His people out of Egypt, but He was going to teach them how to live in freedom.  As the words were coming out of my mouth, it was like God was standing in front of them speaking them to me. “Skoutz, I’ve not just brought you out of oppression, but I want to teach you how to live in freedom.” Wow! 

One of the most difficult parts of my transition to California is the tremendous amount of freedom I’ve experienced in doing ministry. I came to this realization early this semester. Very little college ministry has been done here. The only expectation is progress, no matter how big or small. The hurtful voices of past ministry experiences are fewer and far between here. No one has told me I’m sinning by doing ministry because I’m a woman. I have tremendous support from the CCTO staff. I really can’t imagine an environment where I am free to be who I am and to do ministry the way God is leading. 

The struggle comes with the fact that I’ve never been in a situation quite like this before. It reminds me of the college freshman who leaves home for the first time and now has to make all his or her own decisions. It is a tremendous amount of freedom and responsibility. Every freshman responds differently. Some flourish and others spiral down quickly. I’ve been praying that I will handle the new freedom and responsibility well. 

In the middle of our Passover celebration, I realized God has already shown me how to live in freedom. He is just waiting for me to notice. It is the kind of God He is, a god of great compassion and love, who constantly pursues His people. He desires to be with us because He loves us. That brings an incredible freedom! 

Cali Bound - Day 7

As you read in my last blog, we made plans to meet Jennifer this morning and stop by Sweet Cakes to buy some treats for the road. We wanted to help them get some more business because their treats are delicious, so we made this video to post all over social media.



Their treats were great fuel for our trip and we needed it because we decided to stop at Zion National Park to do some hiking before our last stop before Thousand Oaks. The hike was exactly what we needed to be out of the car and in God's creation just listening to Him and being with Him in preparation for our arrival in TO. Here are a few shots from the trip. There will probably be more on Facebook later.

These 3 peaks are called The Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

I love climbing rocks!

Panorama Fun! Click on it to make it larger.

We arrived in Las Vegas tonight to stay with Gessica's aunt and uncle. We've shared lots of laughs to night. We'll have a leisurely morning here and then head on to Thousand Oaks. We're almost there.

Cali Bound - Day 6

Day 5 ended by arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah to stay with our Impact U staff. I decided planning a rest day in the middle of the trip would probably be a good idea and SLC seemed like a great place to do it. Here is a look at some of our adventures.

Brett gave us a tour of campus.

We got to help out with some "tabling" on campus.

After lunch Tommy took us to the Mormon Temple and taught us a little bit more about what it is like to reach out to a campus and community that heavily influenced by the Mormons. It was a powerful time connecting with the heart of Impact U's ministry and the very eye opening to the culture in SLC. As we debriefed the experience, Tommy surprised us and took us to Sweet Cakes, a completely gluten-free bakery. It was amazing!

We spent the evening hanging out at Tommy and Jennifer's house eating an amazing gluten-free feast and sharing lots of laughs. Tommy managed to capture one of my crazy story telling moments.

Of course I brought gifts for Tommy and Brett so they could drink their coffee from a proper mug.

This morning we'll head over to Tommy and Jennifer's again to make a trip to Sweet Cakes to buy some snacks for the road.

It was so encouraging to spend time on campus with our staff and see up close the work they are doing. It was fun to spend time praying with them about the new adventures in Cali and learn from their team leader about going into a new place and planting a campus ministry. I absolutely love our Impact staff and the Impact U team is doing incredible things!

Cali Bound - Day 5

Today we took a little trip off our path to meet a friend, Tyler, from the South Bend area who recently moved to Ft. Collins, CO. It was great to catch up with Tyler and see a little bit of the area. Bakeries with gluten-free cupcakes and the coolest coffee shops.

We also decided to check out the Colorado State University. It was a beautiful campus and we met a very cool lady in the bookstore.  And the rest of the day was spent in the car trying to convince Little Gray Car it could make it up the huge Utah mountains.

Cali Bound - Day 4

Today was a long day so it will be a short post. Our 9 1/2 hour trip became 16 hours due to some unplanned trips to pray on three different campus. We stopped at the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas and the university of Nebraska. We were also able to meet some campus ministry staff at Mizzou and KU, which was really cool. It was a fun adventure.

Cali Bound - Day 2-3

It was a great weekend. We spent Saturday with my sister, Anna, shopping and visiting the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I may hate shopping but I love spending time with my sister.

On Sunday afternoon we drove to Columbia, MO to visit my aunt and uncle. We even got to spend some time with my cousin and her kids.

Cali Bound - Day 1

Gessica and I in front of the old 5824!

It has certainly been a long day. Packing was pretty stressful trying to get the few things I still own to fit in Little Gray Car. Fortunately, my parents came to help with the moving out craziness.

We all had lunch together and then Gess and I were on the road west. The first leg of the drive was to Quincy, IL to spend the weekend with my sister, Anna Lee. We arrived safely but not without some fun along the way. There are a few things we are trying to do in every state to add some excitement to hours of driving.

1. Take a picture of the state sign.
2. Take a picture of something that represents the state's nickname.
3. Meet someone new.

Our time in Indiana was very limited and we were wondering how we could find something to represent the Hoosier state in such limited time. We stopped for a cup of coffee a little disappointed with the situation. I grabbed my cup of coffee and simply asked God to help us find something. (Silly I know, but I did it.) Literally as I was praying a man walked in with a Hoosiers shirt. Gess and I started laughing out loud. I'm sure the man thought we were crazy. Gess briefly told him the story and asked if we could take a picture with him. He loved the idea and said, "Sure. My shirt will make history!" We made a new friend and got a picture of something about Indiana.

Meet our new friend, Thomas!

I'm hoping to blog each night on this trip and share some of our stories with you. In the mean time, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Use the hashtag #caliskoutz to send us messages, ask questions or give us a picture challenge.

Thank you for all of your prayers on this great adventure.

California or Bust

The time is finally here and tomorrow starts the big road trip. My roommate, Gessica, will be traveling across the country with me. We are planning to visit family, friends, supporters, potential supporters, and fellow Impact staff along the way. Here is our itinerary; we would appreciate your prayers during our adventure.

• August 23rd - 24th: Quincy, IL
• August 25th: Columbia, MO
• August 26th: Sidney, NE
• August 27th- 28th: Salt Lake City, UT with stops in Ft. Collins, CO and Rawlins, WY
• August 29th: Las Vegas, NV
• August 30th: New home in Thousand Oaks, CA

Gessica and our Impact students have created a hashtag (#caliskoutz) for those of you who are on Facebook or Twitter.  You can follow this hashtag to get updates on our adventures or send us messages along the way.  

Many thanks to all of you who have been praying, sending words of encouragements, given special financial gifts and cooked wonderful meals for me this last week. I am incredibly grateful to be partnering with you to Impact the U. Impact the World.

Kenya 2013 - Food

Back in March I had the privilege to have meet with several missionaries who worked or are working in Kenya. They had warned me that the food was rather bland and not anything amazing. While this was true, I didn't expect to be eating so many other types of foods. During the course of our trip I had Kenyan, Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, Lebanese, Mexican, Thai and American food.

Kenyans eat a lot of rice and ugali, which is like a super thick cornmeal porridge similar to the consistency of mash potatoes. Each meal usually had some sort of greens as well, usually kale, and a meat such as chicken, goat or beef. The meat is fixed different ways but you almost always eat it with the ugali and a thin bread. I can't tell you much about what the bread tastes like since I can't eat it, but our team seemed to enjoy it.

And because I know there are some of you who love food pictures, here you go! (Thank you Jeff for most of these pictures!)

The ugali is the white stuff on the top plate.

This was the wonderful meal we had at Erus' house, goat and rice.

Yes that is two pieces of goat and massive plates of fries.

Indian food

Ethiopian Food is my personal favorite! The bread is gluten free and the flavors are amazing.

Kenya 2013 - Some more pictures

I thought I would share just a few more pictures from the trip just for fun.

Morning lessons and prep for the day

We spent a lot of time in vehicles.

A taxi in Nairobi

Our vehicle in Turkana

Another Nairobi Taxi that became our Safari vehicle

Our plane to Turkana

We nicknamed the Mennonite Guesthouse in Nairobi our Base Camp. We had plenty of fun there.

Teaching our driver, Phillip, how to play American football

One of the coolest swings ever

Frisbee! We were always trying to get our drivers to play.

Breakfast was one of the meals we girls enjoyed the most. I know you are thinking, "They hate mornings. Why would breakfast be one of their favorites?" We discovered Bill tells his greatest stories and is the most funny at breakfast time. So we were never late for that meal!

 A random jaw bone we found in Turkana. We have no clue what animal it came from. Any guesses?

Several of you have asked about Erus' house so here are some more pictures.

Click to enlarge this picture

This is what we woke up to the next morning while when we stayed with Erus.

Such a beautiful place! Tomorrow I'll share some about the food we add. This has been another popular question.

Kenya 2013 - Day 13

At the end of day 12, we spent our last evening Kenya exchanging pictures and spending as much time together as we could. I'm not sure anyone on our team was ready to part ways the next day.

Our last day in Kenya did not disappoint. We went to the traveling Maasai market, which was very overwhelming for me. I'm not very good at bartering, nor do I enjoy it. I find it very stressful, but I bought a few gifts while I was there and helped barter a fair price for Megan's birthday present that made everyone happy.
Megan's Birthday from Impact Campus Ministries on Vimeo.

We also stopped at a few other stores and I was in charge of Mission Keep Megan Away From the Group So They Can Sign Her Birthday Card. That ended up becoming a great adventure in and of itself as it took the group longer than planned, we were given bad directions and ended up in a doctor's office. Somehow we were able to play it off well enough that Megan was surprised by her little birthday party.

Pretending to blow out candles we didn't have and the matches were already packed.

Happy birthday Megan!

Many of the trees in Kenya scream, "Climb me!" (Well, except for the acacias and their giant thrones!) This was especially true of a few of the trees at the guesthouse. I couldn't stand it any longer and finally asked Bill about how culturally inappropriate it would be to climb the trees. To my surprise he told us we could climb the trees at the guesthouse and you better believe I did! Also to my surprise was the fact that the bark on this particular tree is VERY slippery making it very difficult to climb. In fact, Eric was the only one who made it very high.

This is what Eric did while I was in the tree convincing him to climb it.

Finally our time in Kenya was running out and later in the evening we hopped on our taxi and started the long drive to the airport thanks to crazy downtown Nairobi traffic. It gave us plenty of time to share stories and that is exactly what we did. We were sure to make the most of every moment we had together. I'm so grateful for this team, a genuine community!