What's in a Name?

I've been considering the meaning of names for a while. This Sunday, we talked about the new covenant. When you would establish a covenant, one of the things you did was exchange identities with each other. In Revelation 2:17, we're told Jesus is going to give us a new name. While I don't know what my new name will be, I've been looking at what Carolyn means. The names Carolyn and Kyle are actually both derived from Charles, which means strong. With the command to "be strong and courageous" from Joshua 1 that we've been studying, I'm pondering what that means. So, what does your name mean?

A Discerning Eye

We're jumping into leadership discernment. Which means lots of interviewing potential leaders, prayer, and decisions to be made. Pray for us, that we'd have eyes to see what God sees in potential leaders, that God would clarify the call to leadership, and that students with vision and passion would be strong and courageous to cross some rivers. I'm also praying for 8 Small Group Leaders for next year, which feels lofty, but I can only imagine what good that could do in our fellowship!

Breakthrough

Our hope was to see students "Courageously Crossing Rivers, Faithfully Renewing the Land" at our Breakthrough conference Feb. 11-13. This may be crossing a river from unbelief to faith; sinful living to a holy choice; or living without a mission to answering God's call to reach the campus and the world.

I got to teach 30 students inductive Bible study skills, and many of them left camp saying things like:

"Inductive Bible study makes God's word a little easier to understand."

"I spend a lot of time journaling and praying, but I'm going to add more inductive Bible study into my quiet time."

"I'm going to take this back to my Small Group on campus."

I also prayed with one student who is making drastic choices to step away from an addictive sin. Another student realized she was trusting in herself moment-to-moment, and wanted to trust in Jesus instead. Finally, one student was trained in evangelism, and feels God calling them to something great, especially with our Spring Break mission trip coming up. Please pray for continued fruitfulness!