Yes it's true. After almost 5 years each with the Navigators, we are moving on. We are so thankful for all of your support and prayers and friendships over the years. There are several reasons for this decision, but I'll just name a couple.

First, Nicole and I would both like to have careers with more consistent hours and pay.

Second, we would like to begin to prepare for the future and family. Considering our funding has always been somewhere between 50 and 70% we do not have enough to raise children. We have had just enough to get by ourselves, but we believe strongly that this is not how God desires us to struggle forever. We took our desire to have children without enough funds as a sign to move on.

We would also like to put down some roots and be near our parents so we will have grandparents near by when the time comes.

In addition to all this, I think we just generally feel that God is pressing on our hearts to leave the Navs. And in the end, it's God who we should be listening to. Amen?

But don't worry! We're excited about it!

We took a couple weeks off around Spring break and drove to Kansas to pursue some job opportunities. After applying for about 20 jobs each, we both got a couple bites. 

James:

I was called into interviews for a Youth Worker and a Youth Specialist position. Both positions required testing in my knowledge about at-risk teens and how to deal with them in incarceration. While I have the experience being in the system myself, it was a little hard to answer some of those interview questions since I lean toward a more caring approach. However, I did very well on the tests and I think I represented myself well in the interviews.

The Youth Specialist job is for a more relational all boys facility. They even said that they deliberately shy away from looking like "corrections". The Youth Worker  spot is a more traditional corrections job at a juvenile jail type facility.

I'm still waiting on a response for the relational position. They said it would take 4-5 weeks. However, in the mean time, I was offered the position for the corrections job! All I have to wait for now is for my background check to pass.

Please pray that, even though I told them about my histroy and criminal record, when the background check comes back they wouldn't change their mind about me. Please also pray that the relational place offers me a job as well. I think that's a better fit for my personality. And they pay more. I should find out in the next week or so.

On to Nicole!

Nicole was called in for two jobs. They are both very similar. Nicole has wanted to be an Academic Advisor or something close for a couple years now. ITT Tech and Baker University are the schools she's looking at. The Baker job is an enrollment representative. ITT Tech is a recruiter type of position. Nicole is excited about both places!

Both places are good schools, have a branch in Overland Park, KS (where we are going to live), would offer ME 80% off tuition, and pay very well. The ITT Tech place has a boss who grew up in the same area as Nicole. Baker is actually a Christian university. So there are perks all around. And both places have told Nicole they will be calling her back in for a follow-up interview.

Please pray that she gets offered at least one of these jobs and soon. Please pray if God has a preference, that He would move to make it happen.

When does it go down?

Well, soon. We put a down payment on an apartment for April 17th. So we will either move a couple days after that or a couple days before. It all depends on when the closest orientation starts for my job. They rotate in 3 weeks increments. The current plan is to send us off at the Nav night on the 14th. So we want to at least be here for that.

What does this mean for you who give financially?

Since we are leaving in April, our last paychecks will be at the end of April. If you desire to give to someone else after us just call the Navigators accounting (866-568-7827) and ask them to change it over. It should be easy. The same will apply for just asking them to stop taking money from your account. Please make sure you give in the month of April so we don't go into deficit on accident. If you would like some recommendations on who to give to, we would be more than happy to mention some quality people for you. We know some in Collegiate, Overseas, International Ministry here at US Universities, and NavYouth.

Thanks again!

We couldn't thank you enough for all your support! This has been an incredibly humbling expereince for myself and Nicole. To ask friends and family for money to live is hard to do. But you helped convince us that you weren't just paying our bills, you were believing in us and more importantly, what God could do through us!

We have both learned first hand that money comes from God's hand first. We also have learned that God can support us when we least expect it. Some of you believed in us without being in our close group of friends. You are such a testimony that God can provide and it's not just because people like us.

And for those of you who were our close friends first. You are such a testimony that we can be given gifts from friends without affecting our friendships. That is always a fear in the beginning.

For all of you, thank you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. God has done some great things through us over these years. Through hard times and good times, God was moving in one way or another. On the other side of it all, it's really neat to see all that God has done. Beyond just learning how to trust God for money, we have learned how to minister to a variety of personalities. We have seen some personal weaknesses come out, as well as some strengths. We have grown for the better, and hopefully helped others due the same.

In the end we hope every life we touched knew that in the midst of our own weaknesses we desired them to know Christ and make Him known. We hope that people saw in us a genuine need for grace and forgiveness as we tried to convice them of theirs. We hope people came to truly know God and give Him glory.

May God be given the glory, forever and ever. And may His grace and peace be with you all the days of your life.

Sincerely,

James and Nicole Barr

 

 

 

After me and several guys crawled through our attic, we found the cause! Dead squirrel!

So I know some of you girls out there are already cringing at the categorizing. Haha. Don't worry, men like tea time too. And some of you would love to go crawling around in my attic for dead squirrels. And that would be ok too. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Recently we decided to have a man night with the guys, and the girls decided to do something as well. So we both have some neat stuff to share.

James:

First, let me say that recently I was sharing with several non-Christian professionals about what I do... and got a couple blank stares when I mentioned the term "man night." Haha. Nicole told me I should have said, it's when guys hang out, eat meat, watch Braveheart, climb around in attics for dead animals, and push cars up a hill. But instead I took the more serious approach.

It's true. We did all those things. We wanted to really have fun and give the guys some masculine outlets to enjoy... and it was glorious! However, we didn't just want to express our brute strength, our propensity for danger and grossness found in attics and on our faces after eating meat not meant to be finger food, ...but we also wanted to call these men to a challenge of character. We wanted them to learn more about being a man than those playful cliche things we characterize ourselves with. While those things can be awesome, there is so much more!

Joel and I set out to encourage these guys in ways they act like men of God already. But we also wanted to "call them to the carpet" (a phrase that seemed to fit well for the challenge) on some things.

We made an anonymous survey on the website for the women in Navs to share freely. We asked 4 questions:

1) What do you look for in a man?

2) What do we as men do that makes you feel honored?

3) What do we as men do that makes you feel dishonored?

4) What would you like every guy to know?

This was huge! We got some awesome responces that really helped.

First, we found that a lot of girls saw a lot of sarcasm. Mainly, some of the guys tear each other down in front of others as a form of joking. We've all done this, right? But we've also all taken it too far. And these guys had started to make it their main form of bonding and joking. Saying things like "nobody likes you" or "get a life", etc. can get old quick when you're the embarrassed one in front of a room full of people. Safety was at stake!

The girls also all said they wanted to be friends first and felt some of the guys were just not doing that in one way or another. Whether it be talking too much about themselves, talking too much about guy stuff that girls don't care about, or just talking to them unlike a friend. That's right. Flirting. Again, we've all done that one too, right?

As I led this part of the discussion, it was soooo encouraging to see the excitement in their eyes as these men saw opportunity to be better men! The main message? Be brothers (in Christ) first. Or, be friends first.

We talked about how to be a brother to your brothers, and a brother to your sisters. And that there is a difference. We encouraged them that a way to "fight" as men and be "strong" is to fight the urges to confide in girls over guys, or to single out girls they were attracted to when they had no intentions, or to just gossip. Doesn't this just stir something inside of you! Doesn't this sort of fighting and strength just feel right? It gets me pretty pumped!

There's so much I could share, but it would be too long. Let's just say, it was really good. One of the guys who Joel took home told him his main take away was to be "friends first". Nate (who made the comment) said he had never even heard of that before! Then the same guy started a man group for encouragement (instead of the tearing down we addressed)! And he called it "Gideon 300" (Judges 7:7) after a manly army of men in the Scriptures. Now that's what I call buiding up instead of tearing down!!! So things are going well!

Here's a pic from the man night:

Please pray for these guys as they begin to discover (some for the first time) how to be brothers in Christ to their brothers and then brothers to their sisters. Pray they care more about the brotherhood, but also that they care deeply how to honor their sisters better. Thanks!

Car pushing contest. We won!

Nicole:

This was a neat occasion. This was designed to really let the girls have a chance to feel like women. A chance to be elegant. A chance to be classy. They were encouraged to dress up and come ready for a semi-fancy breakfast and tea time.

The girls had scones and keish's and muffins with their tea. Joel's wife Kelly led a short time about what it means to be a woman. This time wasn't as intentional as ours. But it was intentionally female. They enjoyed just being girls and chatting it up. Sometimes that's all you need.

Nicole said that the coolest thing that happened was that some of the "fringe" people in the Bible studies came. Basically, some of the girls who aren't as much a part of the fold (or regular group) came and had a chance to just hang. I'm sure that was very powerful! Sometimes it's so important to simply provide a safe place for the outsiders to feel not so outside. And it went swimmingly!

In addition to that, it was a great chance to connect as the fold. Below are a couple pics of the standard group of girls in Navs as well as Nicole's Bible study.

It's funny to me. When I asked Nicole what happened that was really important, she didn't have the kind of specific addressing of situations as we did. But I know that having a safe place for new girls to just "be" and feel a part can be more powerful than we guys will ever understand.

Please pray for these new girls to keep coming around to more than just Bible study. And please pray for the regular girls to think outside themselves and to invite others to simply be a part of their every days lives.

The girls at the Tea Party:

Nicoles Bible study g irls at the Tea Party:

 Just a little note: A few weeks ago we had a student leadership retreat and Nicole led a discussion time and taught a lesson to the girls during the time they split up. I just thought you should know that. These girls love Nicole and I heard some great responces to that talk she gave! Can you blame them?

Anyway. I thought you'd like to know. 

Well, Christmas and New Years was a nice break. And with the new year, came new changes.

James:

I decided to drop to part time staff with the Navs and take a job with Moes for the 4th time. Old faithful. I will still be working about 20-25 hours a week with Navs. And the most important aspect hasn't been sacrificed...Discipleship! I'm meeting with 4 guys weekly, a couple off and on, and seeing some neat things!

Jesus sees Corey!

I finally got a new guy from my Bible study to grab breakfast with me. And it was on his 21st birthday. Instead of drinking for the first time, my new friend Corey learned how to have his first quiet time! I have a method I like to teach students to help them find there own. If they've never read through the book of John I tell them to start there. Then I walk them through these steps:

1) Title the top line with "QT" for "quiet time" or "TAWG" for "time along with God", then what you're going to read, then the date.

2) Then journal a prayer to God roughly a paragraph long. This clears your mind so you can focus on the Scripture you're about to read.

3) Then ask God to speak to you through the Word, read about a chapter, and jot down one or two things that sticks out to you.

Example:

QT:   John 1                                                                                                                             1/14/12

.                                                  Lord Jesus, thanks for the ability to go home for Christmas.

Thanks for safe travels and good times with family. Please help me do well...                   

.                                                                                                                                                                

1:14 - "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us". This is so cool that there's a place in 

Scripture that calls Jesus the Word and refers to him becoming a man in the same verse! 

 

After I explained it, we had a quiet time together right there. Check out what happened next:

A little over a year ago Corey's dad passed away. When we shared our testimonies he said, "I didn't realize it would still be this hard to be without him." He went on to explain how he has become very quiet and sometimes people think he's upset when really he's just constantly reflecting. I imagine Corey has become a very deep thinker with a slew of emotions not many can understand. Losing a loved one can do that. I think Corey feels pretty alone. 

After the quiet time I asked Corey to share with me the couple things that stood out to him. The last one really got my attention. He wrote this in his journal:

John 1:42 - "Jesus looked at him..."

When I asked Corey to explain why that stuck out to him he said, "because it made me think that Jesus can look at me, into me and through me."

I responded, "So you feel like Jesus is saying that he really sees you?"

Corey: "Ya."

Can you imgaine the awesomeness of this moment? After hearing his heart about his Dad and his feeling like people don't understand him I concluded that this... was huge! I think I just witnessed Jesus speaking directly to a students' heart right in front of me. Wow. It's moments like this that I live for! Remember when Jesus first told you how he truly sees you? Man, what a moment!

Here's a picture of Corey with his parents

JD "teaches others also" (2 Tim 2:2)

As you read in our end of the year newsletter, JD came to know Christ as his savoir a couple months ago. Since then he went to the Passion conference in early January.

At the conference of roughly 44,000 people, each person is given a numbered and color-coded wrist band that puts them in a small group with people they don't know. Just like Corey, I recently taught JD how to have a Quiet Time as well, and at one point in small group JD had an opportunity to share it with others. It seemed the others needed a way to do Quiet Times and when JD shared it, they were super excited to try it out themselves.

Now that's a generational story! 2 Timothy 2:2 says, The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

JD said there were students from FL, GA and AL in his group. Can you imagine the ripple effect of growth if student take back to their friends a simple encouragement to have consistent quiet times with God? Wow! I love it!

JD also said something he's realized since actually becoming a Christian is that "being a man of God is more than just being a southern gentleman." Now that could be one of the coolest things we could hear in the south!

JD has decided to come to Nav nights and other events. Elle has been very invited to him joining the community. Please pray for Elle and JD to guard their hearts while, at least for now, they shouldn't be dating and they see each other often.

Nicole:

The staff team just started a program called Roots. Student leaders and students are taught how to share the gospel on campus. It's a 5 week program and Nicole was excited to teach her girls how to share the gospel!

She felt a little nervouse at first, but after sharing with about 15 girls Nicole was reminded that the fear of sharing is sometimes more than realistic. She was super encouraged by the over-all positive responce and how great the girls did!!! Bailey and Elle (from the Newsletter) were the two girls she took. One secific girl they met named Logan was extra encouraging! 

Logan basically just hadn't been invited to join a ministry since coming to college. As the survey asks about spiritual interest, Logan said she was at an 8, but it had gone down in the last year. And the only reason it had gone down is because she wasn't involved somewhere. What an opportunity!

Nicole of course invited her to Bible study. Please pray for Logan to show up and feel welcomed! Man I love when college students start to catch the community bug! Please also pray for the remaining 4 weeks of Roots!

Here's a pic of Bailey and Elle

Nicole is currently at a leadership retreat with the student leaders. Please pray for them also.

Here's a copy of the survey we use to share the gospel on campus.

 

 

We have officially finished our first week! And for me, my first week of College ministry ever...and it was Awesome! But I'm jumping ahead.

A week ago we went on a leadership retreat with the Tim Team (our student leaders). Talk about an encouraging time! These cats and kittens were mostly Sophomore's and totally committed to reaching out to Freshman! Nicole and I went into the retreat feeling a little nervous and left feeling so relieved. We couldn't believe the powerhouse of a team we had. It's such a relief knowing that the staff aren't doing all the work. We made some great connections through team building, bible study leadership training and some good ol' fashion fun on the water. I got up on a Wake Board for the first time! I posted the link at the bottom for those of you who would like to see just how much fun I had.

This is a picture of Nicole and I with our team doing the team building. Each team had someone without legs (me), someone with one arm (Nicole), someone who was blind, and someone who was mute. Maybe that one should have been me. Haha. This was such an awesome way to jump start our friendships while also teaching us to be mindful of each others weaknesses. Afterward we had a discussion about practical ways that relates to ministry. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God's power is perfected in our weaknesses. We hope to be willingly open with our weaknesses and grace giving when the weaknesses of others begin to surface.

This video is our team (with handicaps) trying to work together to make our way out to the buoy and back. We were losing.

Here's a photo of Nicole and I with our team of student leaders. We went over Bible studies on the Assurances of faith and took turns leading. That's what they will be leading their Bible studies on with the freshman! The Assurances of faith include the Assurance of Salvation (1 John 5:11-12).

Here's a pic of the staff with the whole Tim Team! We had a lot of fun as you can tell.

OK. So once we returned from the retreat it was time to get to work! We had frisbee all week and several days of sitting at tables and recruiting for Bible studies. We'll do that again this week. Here's a pic of Nicole at her table talking to a freshman girl who's interested in Bible study! We also had an ice cream social where about 60 freshman showed up and heard about the Navigators. We made some great connections. Nicole actually recruited some girls to do some work out classes with her at the gym on campus. Pray she forms deep relationships with those girls and continues to meet more through things like that! I know she's already met several she loves and is forming those relationships fast. She'll post a story soon!

Here's a group of guys I was goofing off with in Target the other night when we took a ton of students to do some last minute shopping for school. I had an awesome talk with one of the guys in this pic just before at dinner about how he's been living a like warm life with Christ and he wants help to change it! What an awesome moment! I got to share about all the stupid decisions I made before I was a believer and even after. I also shared how amazing the relationships we build in college ministry can be. Case and point: Joel was one of my first roommates and he was sitting accross the table at that moment. I think it's comforting to know the bond we can build as we pursue Christ together!

So if you've made it this far, maybe you can read this: I have been tasked with running Nav Nights. Now, I wasn't officially placed as the worship leader, but I think I am the worship deligator. Haha. I've recruited enough people for several teams to be on a rotation. I truly believe in the large group. I think it serves a great purpose as an on ramp for non-christians and young christians. But it's also an easy place to fellowship and worship together! So, I have been finding mic's, speakers, cords, and people to be on the worship team. I have been starting a skit team. I have been buying cheap tables to create a coffee house type atmosphere. Check out the pic below. And I had a lot of blessings along the way. My church is loaning us their musical gear for one! Praise God.

Please pray that God grows a humility in myself and in the other members of the worship team. Please pray for servants to do the things that seem to not matter, but do to some of the younger people (i.e. skits, set-up, etc.). We need to be a place of depth ...and fun!

Here's a picture sort of illustrating what I'm trying to do. Try to picture table cloths and little table lamps on each table as well as about twice the chairs.

Special Funding Request: We could use a sound system of our own. Please consider giving to a special fund for a very basic, but good system we could call our own! Here's one I found that we used in Young Life a while back. It's about $300 and I have been told that is a good deal. Here's the link:

We have already had someone offer to purchase the whole system! Praise the Lord! For those of you who wanted to help with this, we could also use a couple mic's, mic stands and cords. Thank you all for praying and giving!

Fender Passport: http://www.google.com/search?q=fender+passport

Here's the wakeboarding video:

 

 

Us in Naples at a 4th of July parade. My Nana was in it!

We wanted to write a blog centering around our thankfulness for all of you who give financially and also who pray for us regularly. We couldn't do this without out! AND, you're patience during this -what seems like a long- transitional season means more than you could know!

In This Post:

-Recap of Travels

-Update of Funding

-Ministry Schedule for August

Recap of Travels:

Well, the travels are over. Thank the Lord. Just to update you on where we've been all summer, here you go: We arrived in Columbia, SC April 25th, went to Joel's wedding on June 4th, left from there to Kansas for a month, drove back to SC on July 1st, on the 3rd started a Florida tour, and finally we settled back home on Sunday night, July 16th. Whew! What a whirlwind! It's so nice to finally be home.

Columbia:

We spent most of May getting situated, decorating, and discovering Columbia. Did you know there's a full-fledged Zoo just 5 minutes from our house!?! They have penguins. PENGUINS! Nicole loves the Elephants (See below).There's also a dollar theatre (more like two dollar) in town. And we found a church we like with great teaching (Here's a link to the latest sermon series. Brad is our favorite teacher so far: http://downtown.columbiacrossroads.org/sermon-series/john). The church is only a mile from campus! We hope to be able to invite students to do things like go watch the penguins, watch cheep movies in stinky broken seats, and -if they need a church- we think it would be so awesome and easy for students to join us at such a close location!

Kansas:

After Joel's wedding in North Carolina, we hit the road to Kansas. 14 hours later we arrived at Nicole parents...alive! We were beat. It was a fun and relaxing time with family and friends. I particularly enjoyed getting coffee in the mornings with Nicole's best friend's husband Mark. It's also nice to feel more of a part of Nicole's home church Grace (http://visitgracechurch.com/). We actually attended an entire sermon series.

We spent some good quality time with a handful of people who support us.  We were also invited to the monthly missions meeting at Grace and were able to share with the whole board what we are doing at USC this year. They only give to a handful of people and groups so they can be more invested in each one. We were humbled to hear that we were considered valuable enough to be on that list.

Florida:

Florida was fun, but busy! We stopped in Jacksonville, Naples (where my family lives), Tampa, Gainesville, and Tallahassee. It was such a blessing to see so many people who support us both in friendship and as donors. I remember telling Nicole that I never felt the need to thank people for giving because it was so nice to just appreciate them all as friends. For those of you that didn't receive a direct thank you, please know how valuable your friendship and financial support is to me and Nicole.

Update of Funding:

Annual Budget: $78, 876 (100%)

Currently Raised: $51,188 (64%)

Remaining Need: $27, 688 (36%)

Ministry Schedule for August:

8/4-8/5: Staff Planning (just staff)

8/9: Ice Cream social at the Barr's (that's us!)

8/10-8/12: Pre-Semester Retreat (Staff and Student leaders: this includes planning with the student leadership team)

8/15-8/19: Recruiting on Campus (Bible study sign-ups, follow-ups, frisbee, etc.)

8/22-8/26: Recruiting on Campus ( "       " )

We are so excited for ministry to start and to have fun stories to report to you! Please pray we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus during this time. And again, thank you for all your support, prayers and patience. The waiting period is almost over! Wooohoooooo!

 

Nicole:

Hey y'all!  I have officially become a southerner.  James and I have been here 15 days and I think we've begun the adjustment pretty well so far.  Let me be more specific:  I have adjusted to everything pretty well... except the roaches.  As adorable as our house is, it was infested with roaches.  There is actually an exterminator taking care of it right now.  Praise God.  It was pretty gross each time I opened the kitchen cabinets not knowing if there would be one or two waiting to make me jump. 

I have to confess my first night here in Columbia was a tearful one.  It's sad and exciting to make another transition.  I was going through withdrawal from friends and fimiliarity until I met with my new teammate and partner Shayna.  She's been on staff here for three years and I get to be her new partner in crime this coming school year!  We met on campus last week and she gave me the rundown on my role here. 

Shayna and I will be focusing on Freshman women this Fall and even typing it now makes me smile.  That is exactly what I was hoping to do!  Freshman are prime picking for molding and grooming into men and women after God's own heart.  I'm so ready for ministry to begin I can hardly contain myself.  I would love it if you all could join us in praying for open hearts and opportunities to reach these newcomers.  Today God gave me a good word as I was reading Isaiah 51:2.  God speaks about how Abraham was only one man when He called him, but after blessing him, he became a great nation.  That is my big prayer for USC, that God would bless the few of us leaders to raise up a great nation through Christ.  Please join me in praying this as well.  Also on a personal note, please pray the roach problem is no more ;)

James:

So you've already heard about our roommates from Nicole. We tried to kick them out, but they just didn't want to leave. We tried to explain that we just got married and it was a tad inappropriate to not give us our privacy. Haha. All that was about the roaches if you couldn't tell. Other than the prvious tenants (roaches again), the house was actually hardly touched by the landlord. Now that we finally got him to send an exterminator we need to see if he's willing to come spackle, paint, replace the toilet seat, paint the chipping paint spots on the porch, etc. Please pray that we are able to give mercy when needed, but still require some things to be fixed that should have been done already.

I wasn't as sad as Nicole was when we got here. But that was because I hadn't really left. My buddy Stephen came down with us to help us move in. When we dropped him off at the airport a couple days later, it hit me. I actually ran back in to give a better good bye. Ya, the flood gates open up kind of unexpectedly. It was harder than I expected. And it's been a little lonely for us lately, but we hope to find a church soon and plug in to some young married's group or something. Please pray for that.

OK. So the title. Basically, we're here, but the students aren't. Well, some are, but the ministry has sort of come to a hult for the summer. We're excited and ready for ministry, but the other staff is a little worn out and needs a break. We understand. For now we're just getting settled in, church shopping, and preparing for some summer trips. Joel and I met and discussed what training I need. But that probably won't start up right away. 

After Joel and Kelly get married in June, Nicole and I will head to Kansas to fund raise with her church and some people in it. Please pray for that time. After that, we'll head to Tallahassee and touch base with some friends and supporters there. Then we'll finish up in Naples with my fam. And lastly, we'll head back a little before the semester starts and talk through our roles in a little more detail. For now we know that Nicole is getting trained by Shayna and also partnering with her in reaching students in the dorms and on campus. And I will be doing the same with Joel. We are both excited that we are partnered up with them!

I guess we'll be in touch about how the summer plays out and let you in on what ministry will look like as we find out more. Thanks so much for being in our corner!

Nicole and I have been praying every night for the past two weeks and have been seeing some neat things. We have mainly been praying for the students and team at USC, our funding, and a little blue house.

1) USC: I asked Joel if he has seen God moving in new ways as a result of our prayers. I said we have mainly been praying for surrendered hearts on the campus. Joel was so excited to hear that we had been committed to praying for the students! He proceeded to tell me about little things here and there that he's seen lately. One story fits our prayers well.

Joel asked a specific guy, Noah, in the McBride dorm to pray and fast for the students on his floor to join them in a Bible study. It started with Joel, Noah and Mitch. And now several more guys have started coming and most of them don't yet know Christ! How cool is that? We prayed for surrendered hearts and God started with melting them! The Bible tells us that we have hard hearts before coming to know the Lord. (Ephesians 4:18 and Ezekiel 36:26). I'm sure that before we come to a place of surrender, we must first be softened to hearing the glorious message of the gospel. Please pray with us for these guys to surrender to Christ. I may even end up meeting one-on-one with some of them very soon!

Joel with the McBride guys!

2) Funding: Nicole and I have nearly reached the end of our list of people to ask to support us and it feels a little discouraging. I sometimes get to this place of not wanting to keep asking people. It's just hard. So, even though I need to ask a few more, we have been asking God to move on people's hearts to give. Almost every day I have seen a new donation show up in our account! We have seen one time gifts of $55, $100, $250, and $750, and several people making monthly commitments. We even had someone initiate a $200 monthly commitment without being asked and another person initiate increasing their monthly commitment. Praise God! He really answers prayer! We have actually calculated that we are at 73% of our fully funded goal! Praise the Lord!

3) The Little Blue House: We wanted a house with a porch like the one I posted a month ago, but it was a little much. And then this happened: This house popped up on a site as a new availability for May. We sent our scouts (Joel and Kelly, his new fiance) out to see if it was any good. They like it and said it's in a good part of town. This cute little place is only $695 a month, 1200 square feet, 2bd 1ba, and only 2 miles from campus!!! And it has a porch! Haha. The other one was $850 and 3 miles away. So we applied for it. I have been waiting to get the house before I told you about it, but since all this prayer stuff has been working I thought I'd sick my team of prayer warriors on it with me.That's you.

Prayer: After checking into 7 years of good standings they still told me that we need to make 4 times the rent in order to not need a co-signer. Crazy, right? Now my Mom would be willing, but I don't want to have to do that. Nicole and I haven't raised enough to increase our salary yet, but we have plenty to pay rent and our bills. Please pray with us that they will see us as a safe bet and give us this house! We are after all, only 16 days away from moving. Yikes!

I have been working a second job a few days a week at a Piano shop as the truck driver and mover. The other 2 guys on the truck are guys I knew already through NavYouth. Guy 1 (James) was about 21 when I met him through some NavYouth kids. He was in a couple bands with some of them. Guy 2 (Ryan) is 19 and was actually in NavYouth for 2 of my years as a leader. We even woke him up as the Good Morning Gorilla once. The 3 of us have had some interesting moments of conversation while driving all over Maryland to deliver and pick up pianos.

James has decided he is an Athiest/Agnostic and so has Ryan's little brother Kyle... who I discipled for a while off and on. In fact, about 4 or 5 of the kids who used to be in those Hardcore/Screamo Christian bands are now calling themselves Athiest. Ryan, however, is not. He has become a YoungLife leader and seems to be standing firm in his faith while his friends are falling around him.

The other day Ryan was writing a talk for YoungLife as we rode around in the truck and he asked me "Hey Barr (since there are 2 James's), why was Jesus called the Lamb of God?" What an awesome "little window" into the world I'm about to enter in college ministry! I shared the basic "because he is the final atonement for sin" answer, but was also able to share the correlation to the Passover and neat truths like Jesus' bones were never broken just like the lambs in the Old Testament sacrifices. Cool!

Please pray for these young guys falling away from their faith and also for Ryan to grow in his!

Nicole will post an update on herself soon.

 

 

Well, we are down to the wire and aren't where we'd like to be with our funding. We always expect the possibility that people won't give before even embarking on the season of asking. In fact, it's quite definite that some will not. However, God is faithful and Sovereign regardless of our circumstances. The good news is that we have moved from 58% to 68% since we started asking in January. Praise God! The bad news is, we will still need to get part time jobs if we don't raise at least 75% by May 1st.

This is a picture of a house Nicole and I are considering renting. It's 3 miles from campus and has a porch swing! Can you picture us having one on one's right on those steps? Or a group of students sitting all over that large porch and eating chili when it get's a little chilly outside?!! 

This house is $850 a month and while this is a great deal and a house like this would be perfect for ministry, it's only $50 less that what we pay now for rent in Columbia, MD. In order to live in a house instead of a small apartment, we need more funds...or 2nd jobs.

Nicole and I have nearly reached the end of our list of people to ask to support us. Would you permit me to ask a bold question? Would those of you who have been faithfully giving to us for a while pray about giving a little more? Would you consider increasing your monthly donations $10-$25 a month to help us reach our goal of 75% or more by May 1st?

We are trusting in a verse Nicole felt God give her about funding and the house He has for us:

Isaiah 30:18b - For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.

We are so thankful for those of you who give. If you are unable to increase your donations, please know we appreciate you already. We would not be able to give 68% of our time to ministry if it wasn't for you! And for those of you who are committed pray warriors for us, please don't stop! Nicole and I need your prayers for us personally as well as for ministry. We believe in prayer and need it's power!

 

It's been a while sinse the last post and this one may come as a surprise. For those of you that don't recognize this logo, it's for the South Carolina Gamecocks. You guessed it. Plans have changed. After discussing things furthur with the directors involved, we all think USC is the best fit for us. This was fine with us considering that we had felt like USC was where God was calling us from the beginning. We both just had a strange peace about it. Plus, it was nice to think of working with my long time buddy, ex-roommate, and mentor Joel Helms. So, we go from Columbia, MD to Columbia, SC.

Here's a picture we took as roommates at FSU.

Here's Joel with the FSU Navs Director Dave Wirgau. Joel was on staff there when I met him. Joel is one of the first people that made me want to be a Navigator.

Nicole is also excited. She mentioned how much she loves the way they recruit students at the beginning of each semester. Nicole and I both liked how the Directors care for the staff team. They said we are their priority. We need to be spiritually healthy in order to reach students effectively. We like that!

We are excited and encouraged to moved to this ministry. Our lease is up April 30th and we should be moving that day if all goes according to plan. During the next 3 months we will be fund raising and searching for a place to live (hopefully from here in Maryland). Please pray for us to find individuals who want to support us financially. Today we reached 62% of our total budget! But we still need to raise $29,891, which is $2,490 per month. We'll keep you updated. Thanks for being in our corner!