New Ministry Adventures

Praying on CLU's campus with CCTO members

I first stepped foot on California Lutheran University's (CLU) campus and met the
people of the Christian Church in Thousand Oaks (CCTO) during our annual All-Staff
Conference in January and it didn't take long to see the need and potential for
campus ministry. CCTO has a great passion to minister to the students at CLU and
other California campuses. In the weeks following that conference, my desire to
see the Spirit of God move in the lives of college students began to grow even
deeper as I thought about the lives that have been changed in South Bend. As I began
to pray diligently for the CLU community and CCTO, God began to instill in me another
desire, to go and serve that community.

Recently, Impact Campus Ministries' Development Team asked me to move into the new
role of Lead Campus Minister for our new ministry at CLU in Thousand Oaks, CA. I
was truly humbled by this request and have accepted a six-month commitment to help
plant the new ministry at CLU, with the potential of the commitment becoming long
term. I'll be moving to Thousand Oaks in late August and begin the new position
on September 1st.

While I will greatly miss Impact South Bend and my St. Mary's ladies, I am really
looking forward to this next step in ministry. The CCTO members and staff have already
welcomed me with open arms by leading the search for a room to rent, providing multiple
resources for the ministry, spending lots of time in prayer, and serving as volunteers
in the new ministry. It is an honor to welcome them to my support team and it is
my hope and prayer that you will continue to partner with me as we Impact the U(niversity).
Impact the World.

Kenya 2013 - Travel Days and Day 1

I know you may be thinking, "Why has skoutz waited so long to post about her trip to Kenya?" I would do the same if the rolls were reversed. I apologize for the delay as I've slowly tried to find the right words to describe the trip.

Our seven member team consisted of Impact staff, interns, students and friends. There could not have been a more perfect team for this pilot trip. The diversity of the group brought incredible perspective to developing the program and the shared commitment to Impact's mission and vision brought and incredibly sense of unity from the very beginning. We had a few Skype calls before the trip, but we met face-to-face for the first time in the Amsterdam airport.

Can you tell how tired we are? One more 8 hour flight to go!

We all arrived in Nairobi safely and got settled into what all of us girls called "our new home" at the Mennonite Guest House. We took time to get settled, find some food and rest as we tried to fight jet lag. The next morning we started with a quick briefing of the day and headed to the Shalom House to worship with a local church that meets there. Bill shared a great message with the congregation about hope, which quickly became a focus and theme of our time in Kenya.

Morning briefing and wisdom from Bill

Sharing a greeting and word with the church

I absolutely loved worshiping with our friends in Nairobi. Most of the service was in Swahili but the members took turns translating for us and a few songs were even in English. We may not speak the same language but we were worshiping the same God as we sang, clapped, danced and opened the Text together. I loved every minute of it.

Want another perspective of the trip? Check out Bill Westfall's blog at http://williamwestfall.com/

I'm Going to Kenya!

It has been a dream since I was in grade school to visit Kenya and the time has finally arrived. I wanted to post a copy of our itinerary so you can be praying for us. I look forward to sharing lots of stories with you when I return.

There are still a few uniforms that are needed for this trip. It is only $10 for each uniform. Please consider helping us with this project. You can give HERE.

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May 17-18: Travel to Nairobi. The team will travel in pairs to Amsterdam and fly together to Nairobi.

May 19: We will worship together with a church in Nairobi and Impact’s president, Bill Westfall, will be preaching that morning. We will have lunch with the church leaders after church and spend the afternoon exploring, picking up last minute supplies and adjusting to the time change.

May 20: We will spend the day at New Life Homes, touring the facility and getting a picture of their work. We’ve volunteered our time to help wherever we can while we are there.

May 21-23: During the three days we will be working with Missions of Hope International (MOHI). After going through an orientation, we will spend time visiting families that are living in the slums of Nairobi. We will also visit some of the schools that MOHI has established and gain an understanding the programs they are utilizing to combat poverty. 

May 24: We will fly to Lodwar (Turkana) on Friday and begin to adjust to the heat of Turkana. (Yes, I am very excited about being in the 90 degree heat!)

May 25 - 26: We will spend time in Turkana visiting MOHI's school, as well as the Turkana Bible Training Institute. We may have a small work project at the TBTI. Our time here will focus on the importance of local leadership, as well as some historical perspective on missions in Africa. Sunday, we will visit a church in a village. During these days we’ll be visiting the school in Choki-Chok, where many of you have helped provide uniforms for students.

May 27: We will spend some more time with our host families and fly back to Nairobi. We’ll spend the night there and prepare to head to Narok the next day.

May 28-29: We’ll travel to Narok to be with New Mission Systems International’s ministry, AfricaHope. We will have a variety of activities here, mostly focusing on the topic of AIDS, and its impact on much of Africa.

May 30: We will rise early and head back toward Nairobi...the slow way. We will spend the day site seeing (on safari).

May 31: This will be our final day in Kenya. We will have the day to do some final shopping, site seeing, and debriefing.

June 1: Back home!

Impact Stories: Colleen's Baptism

Photo by Leanna Vite - www.leannavite.com

This weekend our SMiCpact family had the chance to gather and celebrate the baptism of one of our students, Colleen Donohue. It has been such a huge honor to watch Colleen learn and grow this last year. I asked her to share a little bit of her story with you. Colleen is a junior at St. Mary's College studying Communication Disorders.

Like most students who go to college, it was the first time I was really on my own. However, it took me until my junior year to realize that I wanted to commit myself completely to Christ, and this is why I have decided, on my own accord, to get baptized (this Sunday!).  

I did not grow up with a strong faith, so when I came to college, it was the first time that I was responsible for directing my faith. My family was not committed about going to church or having Jesus be the center of our lives. My mom was raised Catholic and therefore I was Catholic for the first six years of my life.  When my mom got remarried to my stepfather, whom was Lutheran, our family joined his church. My mother was very avid about going to church when we were younger, but my stepfather ridiculed her and poked fun at her faith. I remember my mother, younger brother, and I coming home from church and my stepfather teasing us when we got home saying that we were “goodie two shoes”. It felt degrading and made me feel ashamed of wanting Jesus in my life. After years of his comments, my mom, my brother Ryan, and I stopped going to church. I felt isolated and lost for a long time.

When I came to Saint Mary’s, the community and faith was welcoming and powerful. Freshman year, I tried to find a place where I fit in, like most people. I wasn’t Catholic, but I didn’t consider myself Lutheran. I joined the campus Bible study and attended Catholic mass, but I never felt at home. I continued to stay strong to my morals, even though many of my friends did things I was uncomfortable with. I decided to become a Resident Advisor and join a group of girls who shared many of the beliefs that I did. I was lucky enough to be placed in the same dorm as Allison Zandarski. Till this day, I cannot thank her enough for how much she influenced me that year. I went with her one Sunday to Granger Community Church.  I have never been touched so deeply by a service as I was that day. I honestly believe it changed my life.  I remember vividly when I saw the baptisms outside of GCC and knew that one day I was going to do that, but I knew I wasn’t ready yet.

              
Actually, about a month later, I pushed in the opposite direction, further away from God.  Last Easter, my stepfather sat all five of my siblings, my mother, and myself down and told us that he messed up and that he had been cheating on my mom for about a year. I couldn’t rationalize the feelings that I felt, but I know I didn’t turn to God for help; I rebelled against Him in anger and frustration. I struggled with trust and forgiveness, but I realized that if I could forgive my abusive, drug addict, biological father, that I could and would forgive my stepfather, my Real father, the man who raised me and loved me. God made me realize that it wasn’t the person I was angry with, but the actions that they committed. He carried me when I was broken and showed me that I was capable of forgiveness and that the only person I needed to put trust in was Him.

After that realization, my pursuit of Christ has basically become an obsession. I have a different bible study almost every night of the week, I have joined the Special Friends program at GCC (Thanks to my friend Gianna,) and I found my calling to become a Speech and Language Pathologist to help give voice to those who do not have one. It has been though these experiences this year that I have pushed my faith to a limit I never thought possible before. This year has made me realize that I want to make a personal, physical, emotional, and verbal commitment to live each day for Christ. While I wasn’t ready my sophomore year when I first witnessed the baptisms, I know now that I am and that my relationship with Christ is where I want it to be. I believe that getting baptized and fully giving my life to God will further deepen my relationship with Him and continue to help me wash away the things in my life - my fear, my trust issues, and my self forgiveness - that have held me back for so long and will allow me to trust in Him completely. 

Photo by Leanna Vite - www.leannavite.com

Part of the SMiCpact family after service

Celebrating Passover

Monday night was the beginning of Passover and once again I hosted a Seder for our student leaders and a couple friends from my church who love college students. Only a couple of the ladies had ever attended a Seder, which made for a really fun evening of watching girls make new connections and learn more about our story as God’s people.

Even though favorite gluten-free matzah recipe did NOT work this year, everyone enjoyed trying traditional dishes and learning about the symbolism of different foods in the meal. The students asked some incredible questions that fueled some great dialogue. One of my friends who joined us has traveled to Israel and it was fun to hear about her experience there and have her share more about the things she has studied. 

I appreciated the conversations that stemmed about what it may have been like to sit around the table with Christ and His disciples during that meal and what it would have been like to try to watch the events we celebrate each Holy Week unfold as you are in the midst of it. Despite the fact that none of us at the Seder were Jewish, we challenged each other to remember that the Exodus story is our story. Israel’s wandering in the dessert is part of our journey.  He is our God and we are His people.