Over the past five months God has done incredible work through the Impact 2018 Staff! Going from nine exec members casting vision on this ministry to now over 550 staff members has been an exciting, and growing experience. Throughout each stage the Lord has been faithful in showing us where He wants to lead this ministry. Josh Dickins ‘19 described them as “checkpoint moments for us to be able to look back and see the Lord’s faithfulness in our ministry; those times are motivating us as an exec staff to look forward to the future and be inspired by what the Lord has in store for us.” The following is just a snapshot into this year and the work God is doing through students who continue to serve and lead through prayer and preparation.
Prayer
Prayer is the backbone of our ministry, and Prayer Teamers are constantly floored by the spiritual growth they experience in the position. When beginning the journey of leading a camp in prayer, Abbey Sawdon, Class of 2020, has loved the newness of leading behind the scenes in encouragement and prayer. “It’s been so cool to serve my co-chairs by lifting them up in prayer. I’ve learned that It’s okay to not know everything; I’m trusting the Lord is going to provide and be faithful to us as a camp.”
In just a few months Abbey has been reminded of what it means to walk in faith and trust God’s guidance wherever He is leading, and that is transferring directly to her camp. Now she is sharing with her girl counselors the wisdom she learned in her time as a counselor and through training as a prayer teamer. Abbey shares, “I’m so excited to lead prayer meetings! To start meetings off in the right place and help them not rely on their own strength or their own way to do things. I want them to just trust that the Lord is going to use them whether they’re prepared or not.”
Preparation
Alex Arze ‘20 is serving as a Co-Chair and loves the new dynamic of a quad, sharing how “having the spiritual support of four people in a partnership versus two people in a BG has been the most profound thing to me so far.” A common theme throughout the leadership of this ministry is students allowing God to take complete control. According to Alex, “God broke down my walls and built my character to trust Him more at retreat. It wasn’t until I got to camp that I truly realized that I cannot do this on my own. I am so excited to see similar growth and transformation in my counselors.”
Alex has a front row seat of his counselor’s life from now until retreat in August. When it comes to preparing counselors, Alex is ready for the ‘controlled chaos’ that generally happens a lot. “I am excited to see the genuine relationships that foster through the messiness, and sometimes dysfunction of a camp meeting.” Even as Alex and Abbey serve in different capacities of this ministry the Lord is teaching them things that are so similar. Much of being a leader means trusting God. Within Impact, and likely many other ministries, it can be common to feel like we have control.
Thankfully we serve a living and active God whose Spirit is continually reminding us that only He holds the reigns. All that is being accomplished through Impact is by His work. With continued “checkpoints” such as first staff retreat, partner reveal and the approaching Family Weekend Banquet this Saturday, we are excited to celebrate and praise God for all He has done and will continue to do.
In His Time
Every so often we get opportunities to share the gospel in the most unlikely of ways. One of the most powerful was this past January when two co-chairs were interviewing a girl for the position of counselor. Here is what one of the co-chairs had to say about the experience:
“It was so evident that the Spirit was moving in her life because of how hungry she was to learn more about God. When we realized she didn’t understand the Gospel, we began to ask her who she thought Jesus was and what she believed about His life, death and resurrection. She shared about some difficulties in her life and how in that time she felt comfort during that period of instability. She believed this had to be from God. This spurred her on to begin learning more about Jesus.
I related to her story and was able to share my testimony with her. This led me to walk her through the Gospel. She told us she had been reading scripture online because she didn’t own a bible. Knowing Impact had free bibles, we asked her if we could give her one. She was so overwhelmed she could barely get the words out to say yes! This has by far been one of the sweetest memories since being on Impact staff. It was just such a testament to God’s sovereignty.”
We are reminded that God is the author of time and has a unique plan crafted for His people. We are blown away with how He has used Impact to further His Kingdom, not only in the lives of freshmen but also in the lives of those that simply come in contact with this ministry.
REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Freshmen are registering and we are so ready to serve them! With already nearly 800 freshmen signed up, the excitement of our staff cannot be portrayed adequately in print. We pray this year would be more proactive than ever in trying to get freshman to Impact! In an effort to serve as many freshmen as possible, we could use your help! Here are a few practical ways:
- Contact your local church’s youth pastor and share about this ministry,
- Like and comment on Impact’s posts and #tamu22 through social media channels,
- Share about your past experiences with others,
- Pray for 1900! This is the max number of spots we have for freshmen at retreat!
We thank you for your faithfulness in following Impact and are very excited to see what God will do over these next few months!