Full Swing of Things

Hey everyone! So, welcome to my first blog post in months. Life has been absolutely CRAZY, so here goes my attempt to catch you all up on it, as well as some things coming up that you can pray for. This will also serve as my first monthly prayer letter to those who support me for my Cru Internship. The plus side of that is that there is now guaranteed to be at least one blog post a month on here! =] However, that doesn't mean that there won't be blog posts that aren't prayer letters, just that all of my prayer letters will also be blog posts. Make sense? Let me know if it doesn't.

So, school has not only officially started but is now in full swing, hence the title of this blog post. I am taking 20 credit hours of school (so glad I'm not an engineer), and also interning with Cru, which takes at least 15 hours each week but usually ends up being closer to 20. So as you can imagine I stay very busy. All this just to give you an idea of how much has actually happened since I last posted a blog and since I last talked to some of you in person. As busy as things have been, I would not say things have been overwhelming and with the exception of a few of my classes/assignments it's all been things that I thoroughly enjoy. One of the things that Todd Smith said my freshman year that has stuck with me is not to do anything by yourself. That's the reason that I manage to meet with all the people that I meet with during the week is that I don't eat any meals by myself and I try not to do anything without a purpose. My day to day schedule basically consists of class, homework, bible studies, and meeting with people one on one. I meet with 6 or 7 guys each week, including Todd who disciples me. The rest of those are either younger believers that I'm meeting with for whats called Discipleship, or non believers that I'm trying to be intentional about loving on and sharing the Gospel with. One of my best friends this year has been a guy named Cody Hanna, shout out to him if he's reading this. We hang out at least every Friday, and its been a real blessing to get to know him and we've had some great discussions, it's awesome to hear his thoughts on things. To explain more about Discipleship for a second, it's so much more than just sitting across a table from someone for an hour once a week and getting into the Word, so much more than just a one on one Bible study. When you look at Jesus and His disciples, or Paul and Timothy, what you see is that they did life together. They did ministry together, they did accountability, they spent time just plain hanging out, etc. That's what I try to see happen in my discipleship relationships, and obviously the way things are with classes and etc we don't spend every waking moment together like those Biblical figures did but I think you all see the point. I say this so that when I throw out the word "Discipleship" in these prayer letters, you all will know what I am talking about. Shout out to Kenny Ragsdale who has put up with me in that kind of a relationship for over a year now, love that guy. My Bible study has gotten off to a great start by the grace of God, I can't believe how much my guys have grown up over the summer. Many of the young men who were kind of on the outskirts not really consistent in coming have really built strong walks with the Lord over the summer and are now some of our core guys. We're pumped to be seeing about 20 guys coming out each week and we've already had some really good discussions. My favorite thing has been to see a lot of the guys being more outwardly focused and really being intentional about pouring into other guys lives to try and make a difference for the Gospel. Some of my Bible study guys are now leading their own Bible studies and I've met many of my "grandbabies" in the faith this year, which is kind of silly but it has been very exciting. Some of them even got baptized this past weekend. I've also gotten more involved this year with my church here at school, The Summit.

Some big events that have happened so far this year that I want to praise the Lord for have been The Summit's Church at the Ballpark, and NC State's Campus Crusade movement had our annual Fall Retreat. Very recently The Summit church in Durham had it's Church at the Ballpark, I hope it was the first of many. The church has about 6,000 members and this was the first time that the whole church had worshiped together in about 10 years. We rented out the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and had well over 7,200 people at one church service, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. The pastor gave a Gospel presentation and then they opened it up for baptisms and we saw nearly 400 people get baptized. I had the privilege of being a baptism counselor, helping walk people from death into life. They intend to open baptisms up again this weekend for those who didn't get the chance last weekend and I plan on being a baptism counselor again. Also, just a few weekends ago, NC State Campus Crusade had their annual Fall Retreat. We had about 350 students come out to Camp Dixie for a weekend (some of you Salem folks know all about that). The exciting thing was that we had a lot of freshman come out this year, I would say nearly half of that 350 were freshman. Fall Retreat is always a time where many freshman get plugged into Bible studies, build relationships that last through college, and even make decisions to live for Christ in college. I got to lead a small group at Fall Retreat and it was cool to see some of the people in the group making decisions like that they wanted to be more committed to getting into the Word of God daily.

One big event that is coming up for us is our annual Barn Party. This is always the most fun thing that NC State Cru does every single year. We always have a ton of people come out who are not normally involved in our movement and it's good to see a lot of those people experience the body of Christ. We will be having line dancing and hay riding and lots of good food! Please be praying that this event would be successful and that many people would come out and that God would get glory from relationships that are built.

Prayer Requests:

- Above all please pray for my personal walk with the Lord, that I wouldn't get so caught up in my busy schedule that I forget to spend time with Him.

- Please Pray that the Bible study would continue to grow and press outward to make an impact for the Gospel

- Pray for Cody, and some of the other guys that I've been getting to know this year. Pray that they would experience Christ in a real way.

- Pray for the Barn Party, that God would use this incredibly fun event to be glorified and that the body of Christ would really be on display.

- Pray for me to continue to manage my time well, so that I can have a healthy balance between my school work and really investing my time in other peoples lives.

- Pray for the guys in my study who are leading their own studies that God would help them build great relationships with their guys.

- Pray for the 3 guys that I'm currently Discipling; Brad, Christian, and Kenny, that God would be able to use me to impact their lives for the Gospel and that they would then impact others.

Thank you all SOOO much! I don't know what I would do without you. Your support in so many different ways is vital to everything that God has allowed me to do at N.C. State. Please let me know if you have any prayer requests, I'd love to return the favor. All of this is also going to be posted on my blog at mdcoope3.blogspot.com and soon I will put some pictures on there, so please check that out and I believe if you click "Follow" it should allow you to receive emails when I post a blog.

In Christ,

Matt

Life in Apex

If you know anything about Apex, then you know why I don't have much to write about lol. Today though I went and helped with a service project through the Summit, which is the church I go to in Durham. I love it. Anyway, we were originally supposed to be doing work at A.V. Baucom Elementary, which is my old elementary school, but they were finished before we arrived. They still put us to work though, they moved us to Apex Middle School which is my old middle school and we helped with landscaping. It was fun, the only person from the school there was my old Assistant Principal, Mrs. Avramidis. That was nice seeing her though, and kind of surprising that she remembered me since that was so long ago and it was such a large school. We got a lot of work done in a short amount of time though and I even got to help plant the new Apex Middle School Spirit Rock. =] I went out to lunch with my dad yesterday, and it was awesome, we had one of the best conversations we've ever had with each other. Thanks Dad! Later tonight I'm going to a Saturday night church service at the Summit, and then going to see Harry Potter for the second time with Chris Yow. I saw the midnight showing the other night and it was so much fun, we dressed up and everything.  We went to get dinner as a group beforehand and I got to share the Gospel with a homeless guy when I gave him our leftover Pokey Stix. For those of you who don't know, those are like garlic cheesy breadsticks, they are great. I also got to see Kenny again that night for the first time since I've been back because he came to the movie with us, love that guy! We went before the movie and visited Mike Mehaffie, he just recently had some major eye surgery so pray for a quick and successful recovery for him! It was great to see him again too. Tonight I'm going to church with Chris for the first time ever and I'm really excited about it, then we're seeing the movie and he is sleeping over at my house. I saw Chris about a week ago for about 2 hours but this will be our first real opportunity to catch up and I'm really excited for it. Also in the past few weeks I've been raising support, and making phone calls just about every day for an internship I'm doing in the Fall and that's been faith stretching.

God has been definitely moving in my heart since I've been back. I've had to be disciplined in continuing to have a daily quiet time without a team of people around me encouraging me and holding me accountable. I've had to be disciplined as well in making lots of phone calls that I don't want to make every day about raising support, it can be a pretty stressful process but I know I'm growing through it. The biggest thing God is teaching me right now is to be intentional in looking for opportunities to share my faith. They have always been right there in my lap as far as campus ministry and spending my summer's on mission trips. This is the first time in over 2 years that I've spent more than a Christmas break in Apex and I don't want to waste these months. I know there are opportunities to share the Gospel, I just have to be proactive in finding them instead of just waiting for them to fall in my lap. That's what led me to sign up for the service project I did today, and I was really excited to get to talk to that homeless guy on Thursday night. Pray for me to continue to look for opportunities and make the most of them when I find them. It's true that there are fewer opportunities here than at N.C. State but there are still plenty of people in Apex who need to hear the Gospel I just don't necessarily interact with them on a daily basis. Thanks for taking time to read this, I love you all!

Prayer Requests:
- My internship requires that I build a team of ministry partners to support me financially and make my ministry possible, right now I'm working on building that team so that I can actually do the internship in the Fall. I'm 6 weeks behind because of my trip to Africa.
- Senegal's political situation (see Pray for Senegal), and the hearts of the students I met while I was there, that God would grow the seeds we planted and prepare them to be harvested.
- For me to find and take advantage of opportunities to share the Gospel while I'm in Apex for the remainder of the summer.

In Christ,
Matt

Pray for Senegal

Hey everyone!

Please, please, please pray for Senegal, especially the city of Dakar. You may or may not know that there was some rioting there while I was in the country, a lot of political unrest about the President. Long story short nobody likes him and he tried to pass some bills that would keep him in power when nobody wants him to get re-elected next year. The electrical power has also been getting worse and worse there and that's government run. The riots have intensified since my team and I left the country, in fact there is now a curfew in effect on Dakar, the city that I was staying in. Also, some radical Muslim groups that have up until now been pretty underground groups are now using the political unrest and the rioting as pretense for attacking churches. Several evangelical churches in Dakar, at least 6 to my knowledge, have been attacked and burned down by these radical groups. I am especially worried about the safety of many of my Senegalese friends and Nationals who were working with the organization I was there with, they attend evangelical churches and I honestly have no idea it could have been their's that was burned down. There aren't a ton of evangelical churches in Senegal so it wouldn't be a stretch. Please pray for the country, and for my friends. Pray that God would show up there in a mighty way, to protect the believers there and to use this for His Glory. Pray for Pascal and his family, Yasenth (sp?) and his family, Martin, Severe, Pacifique, Ida, Etienne and all of his cousins, Samba, etc. Thank you all, I love you!

In Christ,
Matt

Settling In, but not Settling

Well everyone, I'm back in America and now have time to write in more time and with more detail about all the craziness of this summer, as I'm just resting all of today and tomorrow. I'm still not going to tell everything because I have to leave something to tell you all when I meet you in person lol.

God has done and taught me so much, I honestly am not sure where to start. Let me give you the big picture, and then hone in on details. If you've been reading my blogs up to this point then you'll have read about a lot of it. You'll have read about how God has broken my heart for the lost and especially the 10/40 window. You'll also have read about how God tore down sinful pride that was filling my heart but covered up on the surface level, and taught me how to live a life that makes much of Him instead of myself. I didn't actually mention in my blogs but at the end of the summer we counted up and between the 16 of us over the course of 6 weeks we shared the Gospel about 1,000 times with over 450 DIFFERENT people. 9 people put their faith in Jesus Christ and in doing so despite the sacrifices that it required, gave God glory. They decided that no matter what they had to give up, He was worth it. One example in particular of someone who had to give up much was a Muslim background young man who has decided a relationship with Jesus Christ was worth more than potentially his family relationships. Then there was Etienne who decided that in light of his new relationship with Christ he would drop everything and begin to be an ambassador for Christ, I am so proud of him. God already has and is going to continue to use him to do big things in Senegal. These are the major points of what happened this summer, time to elaborate.

Point one: heart for the lost. The 10/40 window is the area from 10 degrees latitude to 40 degrees longitude that contains nearly all of the world's remaining unreached people groups. An unreached people group is a group of people that does not have any access to the Gospel. How that is actually measured and quantified varies I believe but the gist of it is that they would walk for days and day and not find anyone who could share the Gospel with them. Senegal is included in this window. If you lined up all the people who are unreached in a single file line they would circle the earth 25x. Can you imagine a line of people as long as the earth, 25 people wide, trampling to destruction? This was just a statistic to me until I spent every day for 6 straight weeks driving past a huge graveyard full of people who had never heard the name of Jesus or seen a Bible. I will now spend the rest of my life doing something about this problem, whether God calls me personally to go live overseas or not I will always be involved prayerfully and financially in sending the Gospel to the 10/40 window.

Point Two: brokenness. There is an entire post about this, so I'll keep it relatively short. I was living a life to glorify myself, all under the pretense that it was for the glory of God. That's not an easy confession to make, but it's true. Even my God given spiritual gift of evangelism I was using so people would say "wow look how successful he is!" God spent all summer showing me how not one single aspect of my life is to make much of myself, not even my salvation. All of it was to make much of Him. Even the fact that I have had access to a Bible and the Gospel for my entire life is an undeserved gift of God that I took for granted until I collided with a people group who hadn't been exposed to either, ever. The fact that I even know who Jesus is is entirely a work of God, and has nothing to do with me. Why did he do it? Did he do it because he wanted to make much of me? No. He did it because he loved me, yes. But not an American definition of love, where you make much of the person you love. A Godly love where he loves me enough to give me himself, so I can be satisfied in Him and in being satisfied in Him, also glorify Him. Life is not about making much of me, its about making much of Him. By consequence, this means making little of myself, and I'm okay with that now.

Point 3: 16 people, 6 weeks.The Gospel was shared 1,000 times with over 450 different people, most of whom had never heard it before. 9 people put their faith in the Lord. Because of point 2 I want to take time to emphasize that none of this had ANYTHING to do with me or my team being awesome. We were only faithful, God did the rest. Because of your prayers, and because of God's Spirit, we were able to see and be a part of these incredible things.

Point 4: my Muslim background friend. He is from the Wolof people group, which is one of the unreached people groups I was talking about above. There are over 5 million people in this people group, and only 150 believers, there is no complete Bible in Wolof. It is 0% Evangelical Christian, and my friend is being discipled to begin to share his faith. In case your faith isn't that big of a deal to you, this guys family might not ever speak to him again. I can't even begin to imagine sacrificing the things he will have to sacrifice, but God gets the glory because guess what? My friend looked at the Bible, saw Christ for who He really was and said if this is really true then it is worth giving up EVERYTHING that I have. He hasn't actually sacrificed a thing either, he has gained.

Point 5: Etienne. I can't say enough, and I've said a ton already, so I'll summarize. I hope Etienne is reading this right now. I'm so proud of him. First I saw him go from death into life, talking about how big of a decision it was whether to open his life to Jesus or not, because he knew he'd have to follow it his whole life. He decided Jesus was worth it and he never looked back. The Spirit came into his life as promised, and God began changing him from the inside out. He quickly became bold and passionate about Jesus, and before long was sharing his faith with family members and friends. 3 weeks after becoming a believer he had helped me lead 3 more people to put their faith in Christ. Then I left Dakar to go to debriefing, and he led another guy to invite Jesus into his heart without me even being around. He has grown so much, truly he has grown into a man of God. Being a part of his life this summer and a part of his growth was an honor and a blessing. God is going to use him for huge things, and I can't wait to hear all about it. Glory isn't to Etienne though, glory is to God. Before God came into his heart, Etienne was a cool guy, but I couldn't have said any of what I just said about him. Etienne is a living testament to the radical life change that is supposed to happen once you open your heart to Jesus. I love you dude, I'm proud of you, and I'm praying for you.

In summary, I will say one more thing that God has taught me. My last post was titled Home Sweet Home, and now that I think about it thats not totally true. When I come back to America, I miss Etienne and other dear friends. When I go back to Senegal, I miss my family and my friends here. I miss my Bible study. Home is heaven, where I won't miss any of them. I'm settling back into life in America, but I'm not settling for just any life. I'm following Etienne's lead, I'm living in light of the Gospel, living passionately for Christ. I'm not wasting my life.

In Christ,
Matt

Home Sweet Home

Hey everyone!

mdcoope3.blogspot.com

I am posting now to let you all know I am home, and it was an incredible summer! It was also rather exhausting though, especially the plane flight back and the jet lag. So, I won't be writing anything more here about the trip, although there is more to tell. This is officially the end of this emailing list, however I will continue to update my blog regularly (perhaps more regularly now that I'm in the US). I will also be bringing back my Facebook that I had been fasting from for quite a while now. Many pictures will be posted there. The link to that is www.facebook.com/mdcooper Thanks again for everything you all did to make this summer possible, I love you all!

In Christ,

Matt

We're all safe!

Hey guys,

I just wanted to post and let you guys know we're all safe in sound. As you may or may not have heard there has been some political unrest in Senegal over the presidency. They don't like him and with elections being next year he is trying to enact some very unpopular laws to keep himself in power. That's the shortened version but anyway Dakar is the capital (where we've been living and doing ministry) so that's where the "action" has taken place. There were some demonstrations downtown yesterday and we live at least 20 minutes from there depending on traffic and didn't leave our compound yesterday almost all day and stayed far away from any protests. It's actually been pretty interesting to observe from a distance, it's not every day you see a fully armed riot squad rolling by on the street. Anyway we aren't in Dakar anymore we're 3 hours from there at a remote location for our debrief. It's very peaceful here and we'll be here the remainder of our trip, were only going back to Dakar to go to the airport basically. I'll let you all know when I get back to America safely on the 28th. Peace and blessings!

In Christ,
Matt

P.S. As far as ministry goes we are finished but God is NOT! Even since leaving Dakar I've received a text from Etienne saying he led someone else to Christ! I'm so proud of him :)

More Answered Prayers!

Hey so this one shouldn't be nearly as long, but God did more mind blowing things today. While we have seen 4 people come to Christ as a summer project so far, I was able to see 3 come to Christ before lunch time today!! Every conversation I had, relationships I had built all summer were just bearing fruit right in front of my eyes. I've never seen or been apart of anything like it. 2 of the 3 had something to do with Etienne, go figure. He took his first step as an ambassador for Christ by translating for me as I shared the Good News of Christ with 2 of his friends. He ended up leading them both to Christ. At the end came the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. I'll never forget it. I looked over at Etienne and said "it is so exciting when people move from death into life!" and Etienne was sitting in between the two guys who had just received Jesus into their hearts. He wrapped his arms around both of them, pulled them into his chest and with the biggest grin I've ever seen he said something I'll never forget. He said "they are my younger brothers!" this guy who has been a believer for 3 weeks and known these other guys his whole life. It was like he had a whole new relationship with these guys. They were his brothers in Christ now and he knew it and it filled him with pure, unspeakable joy. Words don't do it. 3 new brothers in Christ today folks, rejoice with the angels.

Answered Prayers

Hey everyone,

I know I just posted yesterday but I want to tell you all about an incredible thing that happened today. I want to tell you because it is an answer to the very things you all have been so faithfully praying at upon my request. I want you to know that your prayers have been answered (or at least hopefully some of them). This post is about the home visit to Etienne's house that I write about yesterday in my P.S.

Honestly it's hard to know where to start or how to collect my thoughts because it all just happened and I'm still kind of full of adrenaline but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh. I'll do my best. Etienne and I went to church together this morning to a French speaking church and it was awesome. He loved it and it was awesome to watch him worship. Afterwards Justin (my director) and I went to his house as planned. We spent all morning and afternoon just hanging out and meeting all of his cousins and uncles who he lives with. For the record if any of you travels overseas for Missions, do home visits early and often because they express SO much care for the person and respect. It means more to them than I can express, and he opened up a ton. He loved showing me hundreds of pictures of his village and family back at home and traditions. So did his Cousin Patrick who I have also blogged about before. If you'll remember, he also came to know Christ earlier in the summer. The other thing about home visits is that they are longgg. Thy are marathons but they are worth it. Anyway, back to the story. Etienne and Patrick left the room at one point and their uncle (who is the head of the family and very influential) said he wished he could participate in the group Bible studies Patrick had been organizing (see the post "launching baby movements") but he is too busy. We told him we'd be glad to share with him some of what we had taught, and handed him a "Knowing God Personally" booklet which is essentially the Gospel summarized into 4 main points and in French and English. He began flipping through the booklet and Patrick and Etienne come back in and we get sidetracked hanging out and talking. About 30 minutes later conversation came to a stop and an awkward silence and we realized that the uncle had been totally disengaged and absorbed in the booklet since we had handed it to him half an hour ago. We said hey man you've been looking at that thing for a while, do you have questions? He did, and long story short we were able to share with him John 3 how Nicodemus was a Pharisee followed all the law but that wasn't enough Jesus said he needed to be "born again." This hits home with Catholics because many of them are in a system of "works-righteousness" which basically means they try to earn their way to heaven by following rules instead of resting in the grace of God displayed by Jesus' death on the cross as payment of our insurmountable debt before God. Anyway so we asked him what he thought it meant to be born again and he didn't know but he wanted to so we explained to him Ezekiel 36:25-27 that God has promised to cleanse us and take out our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh and put in us his Holy Spirit. We emphasized how it was God cleansing us not us cleansing ourselves, and that this prophecy in Ezekiel was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Things were clicking for him and he knew that being born again meant the Holy Spirit coming into his heart a having that heart of flesh. He recognized that he could have good behavior and still have a heart of stone, and be spiritually dead. We were just about to explain to him that to get the Holy Spirit, this heart of flesh, and be born again all he had to do was repent and believe and ask Jesus into his heart. Then, much to our dismay, he said he had an appointment and would love to keep talking about this but couldn't. God wasn't shaken though, He had this in mind for His glory too. Backtracking, this entire time Etienne and Patrick have been helping translate and helping their Uncle understand the Gospel! :) Anyway, so he has to get going but before he goes we tell him that when he gets back, even though we'll be gone and probably won't ever see him again if he wants to be born again then to ask Etienne and Patrick how to go about doing that, what the next steps are. He said he would! After he left, I asked Etienne and Patrick what they thought they should say to him when he asked. They didn't miss a beat, both of them had already memorized Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." They knew the Gospel, they had accepted it already. They turned to the prayer in the back of the "Knowing God Personally" booklet which they had both prayed, and said they would have their Uncle read it and tell him that it wasn't that they were magic words but if they expressed the desire of their Uncle's heart then he could pray them and according to Revelation 3:20 Jesus would come into his heart just like He promised, and take out his heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, and begin a relationship with him. I was ecstatic, these two young Senegalese believers were going to lead their Uncle to begin a relationship with Christ!!!! We're talking about Spiritual Multiplication in SENEGAL!!! IN THE 10/40 WINDOW (if you don't know what that is, google it)!!! After that I had a great discussion with Etienne and Patrick about 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 which talks about us being Christ's ambassador's and how we've been reconciled to Christ and entrusted with His ministry of reconciliation. Through asking questions about the passage, they came to their own conclusion without me shoving it down their throats that helping someone to be reconciled to God (or have peace with God) meant to share Christ with them, because they believed Christ was the only way that peace with God was possible. When that came out of their mouths, I just about lost it. They said it made them sad that so many people in Senegal dying without ever even hearing about Jesus. They understood that God's plan A for getting the Gospel to the Senegalese people was them as ambassadors and there was NO plan B. That if a President sent out his ambassador and that ambassador didn't deliver the message, that it just plain would not get delivered at all. That's HUGE. We also went through Romans 10:14 about how people can't believe in the Good News if they haven't heard it. Patrick said once he knew the Bible as well as Justin and I did, he wanted to travel the world and teach the Bible. They decided their "small" action step to apply what they had learned in 2 Corinthians was going to be to begin trying to be ambassadors to their cousins and uncles that they lived with, including one Muslim cousin. They even asked about verse 16 which talks about not seeing people as the world sees them but as Christ sees them. They drew the conclusion that it meant seeing people not by their outward appearance but seeing people as either having a heart of stone and needing Jesus, or having a heart of flesh and having Jesus. It was AWESOME!!! Some time this week, Etienne is going to help me translate in sharing Christ with one of his friends who doesn't speak English. I cannot describe to you how exciting this afternoon has been with words in this blog post but I hope that right now you're encouraged that your prayers are leading to incredible things happening here in Senegal, and I hope you're almost as pumped as I am about what I'm getting to see God do here first hand. Praise the Lord!!! No glory to me, God gave me His word to teach, He gave me His son to teach about, He gave me His Spirit to guide my conversation, God gave these young Senegalese men His Spirit to understand and be moved to action. GOD is good! GOD is might to save! God is moving and causing Spiritual Multiplication here in Senegal, in the 10/40 window, in an area where thousands of people are dying every day without even having heard the name of Jesus, there are some native believers who are upset by that, and want to do something about it. People who will be here long after I go home in a week. People who have deeper relationships with other Senegalese, people who speak the language, people whose lives are beginning to be radicalled shaped by Christ in a way that provides testimony to the people that they are living with. I can't get my mind around it. In Senegal sometimes we are seed planters, and often times we don't see those seeds grow or come to fruition but today God blessed me with seeing everything I have worked towards and prayed for this summer come to fruition right in front of me. This was why I spent a majority of my summer in a little Copy Shop with Etienne and Patrick. This was why God sent me to Senegal, this was why God asked you all to give financially so I could be here, this was what we've all been praying for. I don't know how to wrap this blog post up well, which is probably why I'm still going on and on, but today was amazing, thank you all again for everything that you do. None of this would be possible without you, I can't say that enough. I love you all, keep praying!

In Christ,
Matt

Final Sprint

Me and Usher

Me and Stephen/Etienne (If you follow Anna's blog, this is the guy from the dream) my new brother in Christ!

Hey folks,

Blog link (with pictures of Etienne and other names you've heard me write about): mdcoope3.blogspot.com

It's time for the final sprint. I'm beginning the process of going harder in one week for the Gospel than I might have previously thought was possible, and quite honestly I'm not going into it armed with a full tank. I'll explain in a moment what that is going to look like, but first I want to start as always by thanking each and every one of you for your support, which I absolutely could not do without under any circumstances. God used you all to get me here and he has use you all to get me through, so THANK YOU for being willing to be used in that way.

This past week has been pretty crazy. One of our teammates, Ben, was sick for about a wee and a half and finally got sent home. He wasn't deathly sick or anything but it wasn't really getting better and we basically realized that if he stayed he wouldn't get back on campus to do ministry at all anyway, and he needed to get home to better medical facilities to figure out hat it was. Now he is home safe, and has been diagnosed with mono :( pray for him please! Anyway through all that we were all pretty affected because we lost our project directors for a week essentially to constant trips back and forth to the clinic, constant phone calls to Campus Crusade back in the U.S. as well as Ben's parents and etc. This also left a lot of responsibility on the other staff members (like me). It was crazy spending most of the week as the only guy staff member that was around and available. I ha to impromptu lead a lot of devotionals and things like that which were scheduled to be Justin, and fell on me. Even little things like helping get our team out the door in the mornings, and enforcing curfew. It was faith stretching. One of the things that kind of got forgotten about in the process was our weekly outreach. We realized the day before that we hadn't secured a place to have it, and that was my entire day that day trying to make it happen. God is good though and we got a GREAT place for it at the last second. The outreach was a Christmas in June party, which was awesome. We got to teach our curious Senegalese friends about the biggest Holiday in America and all of our fun traditions. In the process we were able to tell them why it was so important to us, the birth of our Savior. We read them some prophecies from Isaiah as well as the stories of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke. Then a girl from our team, Brinkley, shared her testimony of how Jesus had changed her life. We also had a lot of time talking and hanging out and enjoying sharing culture with them. We cut out snowflakes and stockings and put them on the walls. The stockings had Senegalese names like Fatou and Etienne and Babacar and Ousmane. :) We also decorated cookies, and played Christmas music!

Anyway, more about the sprint. There have been a lot of comparisons here about STINT (being here for a year or two) being like a marathon, and summer project being like a sprint. The STINT schedule is much less intense and full than ours, what we do is NOT sustainable in the long term. We're like special ops or something, we come in with the man power and energy to provide a short term boost to the ministry here, and since we aren't here for long we can go harder. Cross country and track people know what I'm talking about here; if the race is shorter, you have the freedom to run faster. If it's longer, you have to show discipline in pacing yourself. What I'm doing here has been specifically compared to a 400 race. Its 1 lap so it's just short enough to be a sprint, and just long enough to make your legs want to give out at the end. I have never personally ran in one of these races but my director has described it as your body basically giving up and you only make it to the end because you see the finish line and your willpower kicks in. You see it and you realize the harder you push to get there the sooner rest comes. "Rest is coming soon, I can see it, but now is the time to give everything I have left." This is my mindset for the next week. We get Monday through Thursday here doing ministry. Thursday night is our goodbye party, and then Friday morning we leave for our debriefing. That will be blissfully sweet rest but now is not the time for that, now is the time to do everything I can in faith so that when I leave I can rest peacefully knowing I did everything God asked me to do and the rest is up to Him as far as the salvation of my friends here. Oh, how I pray that I will see them in heaven one day. Pray that with me and God Willing (or Inshallah as they say here in Senegal) I will introduce you to my friends here in heaven one day. Anyway pray with me and for me this week that God's Spirit provides me with energy that I don't have for this final push, so that I can leave nothing on the table. So I can do everything God calls me to do and when rest comes that it will be a peaceful rest because of that. As I push harder, y'all pray harder! :) Thanks so much, I can't wait to see you all very soon.

Prayer Requests:

- For energy in the last leg of this sprint.

- For Babacar (both of them), and Hdiangue, and Usher, and Musa, and Djamel, and Frederic, that the Spirit would move in their hearts and show them their need for a Savior, and show them that Christ is that Savior. For me to have Words to speak as I share the Gospel with them just a few more times.

- For the rest of my team and their contacts, the same prayer request as above.

- For Etienne and Patrick and Paul Demba and Paula (Praise the Lord!) as they continue to learn what their new relationships with God practically look like and how to follow Christ.

- Safe travel to our debriefing location, and a God given time of rest and reflection on the summer.

- That every student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

In Christ,

Matt

P.S. If you were astute enough to observe that I'm sending this on Saturday instead of Sunday then here's why: I have a visit to Etienne's house tomorrow afternoon! I'm very excited :)

Beautiful song about God's heart from the nations, based on Scripture.

Bittersweet Countdown

I jacked this picture from Anna, although I shared in the experience haha, this was AWESOME

Hey everyone!

blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com (I will try to put pictures up)

I miss you all a ton, and I hope things are going great wherever you so happen to be. Of course I will start by thanking you all for your ongoing support. I need it very badly. Your prayers especially, but also for your encouragement! Thanks so much to those of you who emailed me or commented on the blog, it was refreshing to hear from you and I hope you'll keep it up. For those of you that I didn't hear from, I'd still love to.

I just finished reading the book "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper and it was pretty good. He says countless times in the book that "He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." that's such an amazing thing that we don't have to choose between a miserably stoic and therefore unhappy life that pleases God and "doing things our way." We can be eternally satisfied in a beautiful God and experience unspeakable joy and in doing so make much of God. The apostle Paul's words will not leave my mind when he said "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." I pray that I would continue to learn to live that way. To truly believe that God's steadfast love is greater than life.

Anyway, this is a taste of what God has been teaching me, on to Senegal stuff. If you can't tell from my last blog post, I'm trying to be transparent with these blogs and let you all see my heart. It's not all smiles and laughter all the time. I love it here, but to be honest sometimes I don't even really like it haha. I love the awesome cross cultural experiences that I would be missing if I hadn't come. I love the people. I love experiencing community with African brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the many many dear friends I have made on campus, Senegalese students close to my age and oh how I desire for them to know and experience a relationship with God. The sad reality is that most of them don't, and for many of them that might never change, though I'll never stop praying for it to happen. I can't describe to you what it's like to every day go past a massive graveyard full of people who never knew the Jesus that died for them. Many of them never even heard, never had the chance to know Him. Brothers and sisters, does that break your heart? It should, it breaks God's heart. It's a huge problem that EVERY believer in Christ is called to be a part of. I know that sounds crazy and maybe you disagree but for me having been here I know that whether or not God calls me back to live here (I don't think he has long term) I will always give and I will always pray because I am not okay at all with how many people die having never heard the name of Jesus, never seen a Bible.

In addition to seeing that tragedy first hand every day, there have been a lot of long, tough conversations that try my patience. As I shared last time, there are many discomforts. It's hot and dry all the time, you are constantly dirty and thirsty. However, in this environment growth in Christ is unavoidable which is beautiful. There are many beautiful things about this place that I will miss when I'm gone but to be totally honest there have been times when I have desired nothing more than to be just that, gone. 

Anyway, I can't wait to see you all. Pray for my friends Babacar (two of them), Usher, Musa, Hdiague, Arthur, Toumani, Saiv. There are many many others but these are the ones I have met with the most. Some are closer and more open than others but all of them don't know God and are in need of a Savior. Pray for me as I begin the bittersweet countdown of 16 more days. I will miss it, but I can't wait to leave lol. Hearing from you all is so refreshing, so make that happen if possible.

Prayer Requests:

- All the names I listed above, that conversations would go well with them and that they would come to know Christ

- Our team member Ben, he has been sick with a fever since Monday or Tuesday and so that's a pretty huge prayer request. We want to see him get better and back doing ministry as soon as possible.

- The guys from the Bible study I led this year. I really hope and pray that they are having strong walks with the Lord wherever they are this summer, and I can't wait to see them again. If ya'll are reading this, love you guys!

- Etienne (Stephen) and Patrick as they begin walking with Christ and experiencing His love and plan for their lives.

- That every student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

In Christ,

Matt

Launching Baby Movements!

Hey everyone!

So I'm sitting here on my second 30 minute time block of the week, which I usually use for skyping with my parents. They aren't able to get on tonight though, my mom has a pretty crazy week so please be praying for her! Something incredible happened today so I wanted to take the time to update you on it!

Once again, it starts with Stephen, or Etienne. I don't know if I've shared this with you guys or made this clear but his real name is Etienne, and its Stephen in English, so I kind of alternate between calling him both of those names. Anyway so I was going to meet with him for Discipleship (since we're not called to make converts of all nations, but disciples) and I brought with me one of the STINTers, his name is Ben. That stands for Short Term International, and they are people with Campus Crusade for Christ who live here for 1-2 years. I was supposed to bring one of them to get Etienne plugged in with them so they can continue to meet with him after I go home. Anyway, so discipleship went great but thats not the point of the story. Etienne's cousin Patrick was around, and another guy that I didn't know. Towards the end of our Discipleship lesson, Andy (one of my teammates on summer project) walks up and begins to share the Gospel with Patrick. Patrick speaks little to no English so Andy was basically just reading him the Gospel in French which isn't an ideal way of doing things but its better than him not hearing it at all. He used his little bit of English to tell Andy that he had questions but didn't know how to ask them in English. Right about that time Ben and I were finishing up with Etienne, and Ben speaks really good French. So Ben was able to translate for Andy as he shared the Gospel and answered questions for Patrick. As this was going on, the aforementioned "other guy that I didn't know" (His name was Saiv) got involved because he had only been quiet up to this point because he didn't know English. He was curious and next thing I knew  there were multiple French Bibles out as they all began to study. In the meantime, Etienne was off to the side having his very first quiet time!!!! It was an incredible scene here in Senegal, Africa where there are almost no believers and everyone in eye shot was studying the Bible. Turned out that Patrick said he was going to pray and receive Christ into his heart but he wanted to do it at home in his room!!! Saiv was interested but not ready to take that step yet. Patrick had the idea of starting a Bible study and as we were sitting there he invited 10-12 of his friends by handing them Gospel tracts and saying "Read this, prepare questions, we will have Bible study every Wednesday morning at 11am" and he is even trying to reserve a room on campus for it (which we can't do but students can). It was so exciting, a baby Senegalese movement of believers was started today at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop and I was privileged enough to be a part of it. Not only are people coming to know Christ here in Senegal, but those people are telling people, and Spiritual Multiplication is happening where it has never happened before! Guys, we are talking about a movement of believers among unreached people groups here!! I serve such an incredible, powerful God, and he has allowed me the undeserved privilege of being his ambassador and what I witnessed today was such a treat I had to tell you all about it. Thanks for taking the time to read, and please pray for these Wednesday morning Bible studies! Pray also for Patrick and for Etienne who are just beginning to have quiet times and walk with Jesus and are very excited about him (enough to want their friends to hear). Pray that this movement would spread from the little copying shop where all of this happened to dorms to the whole campus to eventually the whole country of Senegal. God is big enough to do that.

In Christ,
Matt

Brokenness is Beautiful

Hey guys, 

Life in Senegal has been a whirlwind as usual, and as usual there is so much to put in this blog post and so little time. I'm going to start as always by thanking you all sooo much for even taking the time to read this, and above all for making everything I'm doing and experiencing here possible. You all are a completely invaluable and irreplaceable part of my ministry.

As many of you read on my blog already, Stephen received Christ on Monday and is our new brother. :) He came to church with me for the first time this morning! 

Lately, God has been teaching me a lot of things and I have kind of left those things on the back burner when posting for the sake of time and wanting to tell you about what's going on as far as ministry, so I'm going to spend a lot of this blog post talking about that. If there is one word that describes what God has been teaching me since I've been here it's "brokenness." There are certain parts of your heart that are weak and vulnerable that you can get absolutely professional at covering up and pretending they aren't there... In America. Here those parts of your heart are exposed blatantly and they have to be dealt with and improved upon if you want to survive. God is and has been daily breaking me of my critical spirit, my independent spirit, my need to be right, and my protectiveness of my rights, time, and comfort. He is breaking me of my desire to be served, my desire to be a success, my drive to be recognized, my confidence in how much I know, and many other things. In the absence of those things God has begun to grow in me things like an encouraging spirit, an awareness of my need of my teammates; he is teaching me to yield my right to be right, and to be content in discomfort and sacrificial with my time. He is teaching me to serve others willingly and not seek recognition for it, to use my gift of evangelism out of a desire for Him to be glorified and not out of a desire to be successful at ministry, and shown me how much of a blessing and an honor it is that He has chosen to use me at all. He has shown me that for anything to happen it requires a work of the Spirit and my knowledge of the Bible or ability to talk isn't going to save ANYONE.

There are 2 great examples of how God has been teaching me these things. One is our new building. The people who own the complex we're staying in moved all the guys from the building we were in to another building within the same complex. The old building had a real mattress, not a good one but a mattress none the less. This building has a thin piece of foam with sheets on it. The other building had consistent power, and all the outlets worked. This one has sketchy power and none of the outlets in my room work even when the power is on. Which, by the way means no fans in my room. Oh and did I mention my mattress has bed bugs and we've had major moisquito infestation issues in this building? Yeah, God has been teaching me that what it took for Him to redeem me was not comfortable and neither is living life as one of his disciples if you are doing it right. A comfortable life is a wasted one.

The second example of this is the story of me and my friend Babacar. The first time I met Babacar I got into an argument with him, a heated argument that I had to walk away from. it was not Christ like and quite frankly it was embarrassing. None of the people here know the first thing about the Quran, it's just a cultural thing that they brainlessly follow and when you try to talk with them about logic and theology and doctrine they will argue for hours but not have any idea what they are talking about or have anything to back up what they are saying. Much of what they say the Quran says in order to support their arguments is not only not in the Quran but actually directly contradictory to what the Quran does say. What you have to do is have patience, listen to what they are saying no matter how ridiculous it might be, and try to get past the logic and to the heart level. In Babacar's case I did not do that, I let the brainless arguments get the better of me because I felt like I had to be right, it was incredibly prideful. God broke me over this afterwards because I felt like I had ruined my witness with him and perhaps the witness of my teammates. A day or two later, my teammate Kyrus calls Babacar up to meet and he says he can meet. I was not feeling very confidant and I decided to stay out of the conversation, and let Ky do all the talking. However, as I was sitting praying for the conversation I felt God rebuking me and telling me he had a plan and to get in the talk. Filled with God's Spirit instead of my own I was able to work through the arguing, and remain patient. None of the things that had bothered me the other day bothered me this time around. I got to the heart level with him, made things personal instead of just doctrine, and had one of the best spiritual conversations of the whole trip! I was even able to apologize for the other day and use that as an example of my imperfection and how Christ on the cross forgives me for that, and gives me his perfection before God. I was also able to share how I now have the Holy Spirit in my heart to redeem me from my mistake and work in me to change me so I didn't act like that again. It was amazing, now Babacar is one of my best friends here in Senegal. Because of what happened we have a connection that goes more than skin deep. Pray for him as we continue to meet with him.

Thats all I got for now, so here are some prayer requests:

- Babacar, that his heart would be softened and open to the Gospel. That he would come to know Christ.

- Stephen, as we continue to build him up in his faith and he learns what it means to walk with Christ.

- My heart, that God would continue to work in my, break me, and teach me. Pray that I will be filled with the Spirit daily so I can remain patient and selfless, and that God would give me words to speak.

- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Again, I will reiterate that I am dying to hear from any and all of you, so please if you're reading this I'm talking to you! Leave a comment on my blog or shoot me an email if its personal and let me know how you are doing; and if you have any feedback about my post whether its just that it encouraged you or you have a question or whatever please feel free to write that as well.

In Christ,

Matt

A New Brother!!

I wanted to update you all on what happened with Stephen, since I asked you to pray. I met with him today, and thanks in large part to your prayers and thanks in full to the Lord moving in his heart, you can now all rejoice with me that we have a new brother in Christ! Yes, today Stephen put his faith in Jesus Christ and began a life long relationship with Him. Now I know that when I leave Senegal, even if I never come back, I will see him in heaven =] I could not be more excited, it even happened early enough that I have 4 weeks left to teach him what it means to walk with the Lord. Hopefully I can show him what the Bible says about being called to share his new faith, so that I can leave someone behind in Senegal to continue to be a witness. He can reach his friends much better than I can, so pray for that! Thanks everyone! Love you guys!

In Christ,
Matt

God is Moving in Senegal

Hey guys!

Here's the blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com
As always I want to start by thanking you guys for your radical generosity in supporting me, whether prayerfully, financially, or otherwise. You all are the backbone behind everything that I do here and even in the United States and I mean it when I say that I could not do any of it without you. I can't thank you all enough times and words can't express my gratitude.

Things have been going really, really well here. Most of the stories will have to wait until I return because having 30 minutes to write out this update is simply not enough to catch you up on what has happened over the course of the past week. I know many of you have been eager to hear what happened with Malick since I wrote about him in my last email. Unfortunately when I met with him the language barrier proved to be much more significant once I got past the surface level with him. He spoke great basic English but it was difficult trying to explain Biblical concepts to him, and whats more is that he was pretty closed to it anyway. He firmly told me that he did not want to or have time to study the Bible with me. That was a pretty discouraging first meeting. However, God is good and I did my part in stepping out in faith and my prayer is that hopefully I was able to plant some kind of small seed. Now, I want to tell you all about a guy I met named Stephen. Stephen said he was a Christian which of course raised my eyebrows, given the spiritual climate of the University. Stephen was even wearing a cross necklace, but when I asked what it meant to him to be a Christian he said it meant he "believed in God and was not Muslim." While that might have seemed like a loss, it was very good because it meant he didn't have background information fed to him contradicting the Bible such as that Jesus is not the Son of God, or a family who was totally opposed to him believing in Christ. I opened the Bible with him (he had never seen one before though he called himself a Christian) and he was very eager to study it and see what it had to say. He was confused about the fact that he couldn't be born a Christian, he had to make his own personal decision to receive and follow Christ. He was also confused that it was not doing good things that got him to heaven but that it was because Christ had paid his debt before God. We have met multiple times now and studied the Bible, going through passages in Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms, John, Ephesians, and even Revelations. Stephen speaks incredible English, that is what he studies at the university and he is a masters student (it is one of 8 languages that he speaks). Now when I ask Stephen to tell me how he believes he can have a personal relationship with God and get to heaven he says "By putting your faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins." This is amazing, this is a huge deal because of the language barrier here and the closed hearts, it usually takes a very long time to get students to the point where they understand the Gospel. He even tells me that he believes it is the truth, but he understands the gravity of the decision and that he will have to follow this for the rest of his life if he chooses to put his faith in Christ. He says he will make a decision of whether or not to put his faith in Christ, but he was not ready to make it right then. I meet with him again tomorrow at 2pm Senegalese time and 10am Eastern time and again Thursday at that same time. I really believe he is close to putting his faith in Christ!!!

That is the only story that I have time to share right now, unfortunately. However, I can assure you that God is at work mightily here in Senegal in even more ways than that. In fact, one of my teammates, Anna (many of you know her) was able to lead a girl to put her faith in Christ!!! He has also done tremendous things in my heart and I have grown a lot in my faith since being here. If you want to hear another story, there was one that I posted a few nights ago on my blog but I didn't get to email it out. Thanks again for all your prayers and please feel free to leave comment on my blog (even if it has nothing to do with my blog post) I'd love to hear from you. Email me if its of a personal nature.

Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for all of my contacts that their hearts would be opened to the truth of God's Word, but especially for Stephen that he would have the courage to put his faith in Christ and that he would be able to see that it is worth putting his faith in.
- Please pray for my team, we have experienced incredible unity and close relationships but pray that that continues, and pray for our individual walks with God that they would continue to be strengthened.
- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

In Christ,
Matt

A taste of heaven

So guys, the most amazing thing his happened to me and I could not sleep until I had blogged about it because I don't want to forget how I feel right now. This is why y'all should read the blog even I you aren't on my email list, because I'm not sending out an email update just unloading about an incredible experience. So here it is:

Quite a few of us from project were saying our goodnights getting ready to go to bed when we heard this very interesting Gospel music. It was in English but it had a very African sound to it and they were songs that we knew such as "In the Light" and even "Kumbaya." Bear in mind where I'm living is 95% Muslim. So after discussing whether or not we should o exploring after dark to find these people or not we decided to go for it. I'll save you the details of our search for them although it was quite entertaining it's not the point of this blog post. Th point is we found them and it was a taste of heaven. Let me tell you about them. They were all Africans, Senegalese Africans and they were the most incredible a Capella Gospel choir I have ever heard in my life. When we arrived they had just finished but they welcomed us in and aske who we were (it always goes in that order here). We explained that we were also Christians and had followed the music and we wanted to worship with them. Their faces lit up. We were already glowing at having found other believers and they were now glowing as well. We were both so mutually encouraged it was amazing. They began to sing for us and it became one of the most inspirational things I have ever seen and by far the most beautifully vivid display of the body of Christ that I have ever experienced. They sang with such joy and such passion it was unreal. However, more than that it was the fact that we were all worshiping together. It reminded me of the church in Acts where they were people from all over the known world at that time but the Bible described them as having everything in common. We were white, they were black, we were from north america they were from Africa, we had very different styles of music, but none of that mattered! We were all brothers and sisters in Christ ad had the same Spirit living inside of us. I know this was just a glimpse of what heaven will be lik one day when the entire history of the Church worships God together but it was so incredible I've never experienced anything like it. I just got a glimpse at the glory and beauty of God and His coming Kingdom in a very tangible way. I just tasted heaven.

In Christ,
Matt

Beautiful Storm

Hey everyone!

Here's the blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com
I am having a hard time gathering my thoughts to tell you all everything that has happened in the last 4 days since I left my house, its been a whirlwind to say the least. My last blog post for those of you that read it was pretty nostalgic and there was a sense of calm in writing it and you probably felt it when you were reading it. That was the calm before the storm, but it has been a beautiful storm. I spent 5 hours on the road to get to Washington D.C. then I spent multiple hours in the airport, finally 8 hours on the plane, saw my team for the first time in a couple months and then we all got off in disbelief that we were actually in Senegal. The feeling we all got when the voice came through the speakers on the plane saying "We will be arriving in Dakar in 10 minutes" was rather indescribable.

Then the storm intensified, as we were bombarded by a crash course in a new culture, beginning with very large African men in military uniforms and an immediate language barrier. Thankfully those men have not been everywhere, it was just airport security, but every moment since we stepped off the airplane has been insane, like drinking through a fire hose. We got out of the airport and were picked up by the STINTers (the Campus Crusade for Christ missionaries that live here) and they took us to a big beat up bus which can only be accurately described by a picture (which will be posted on my blog). The bus had to be push-started. I have been quickly learning the basics of 2 different languages to be able to communicate when ordering my food and etc. Those languages are Wolof and French. Wolof is surprisingly much easier for me to pick up. I have already begun to know and love my teammates, as well as the African people and the schedule has done a great job of giving my ample time to start developing both since I have been here. We went to campus on day one and got a quick tour, that has probably been my favorite thing that has happened since I've been here. The University is called the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) and it has about 68,000 students. As you know nearly all of them are Muslim. We got to see the students our age and begin to have conversations with them and God provided my first contact! His name is Malick and he is a first year student studying Law. His English is pretty good and I'm very excited to follow up with him tomorrow and begin to get to know him and start dialoguing about Christ. The STINTers held a party tonight which they invited all of their own contacts to. It was incredibly encouraging to meeting students who had already had many conversations with the STINTers about the Gospel. Some of them were believers! Others you could tell God had already begun a work in their heart, and we got to have conversations with them as well and continue that work. Ultimately the STINTers will continue following up with these contacts and we will be focusing on meeting new ones but it was cool to talk to them at least for tonight. Maybe the most encouraging thing here is that there are native staff members. There is a team here from the Congo! Believers from the Congo who raised support and came on an out of country mission trip just like us! In addition to that, there are actually Senegalese Campus Crusade for Christ staff members!!!!! Senegalese people who came to Christ, and gave their life to full time mission work, that encourages me so much. God is already at work in this country and I get to be a part of it.

I already have more stories than I can share in the amount of time that I have to write this email/blog and its going to be an incredible summer but I love it here so much and I miss all of you guys. Thanks for reading and for supporting me in every way imaginable. It's been a storm since I got here in every sense of the word but it truly has been a beautiful storm.

Prayer Requests:
- Pray for Malick! I'm following up with him tomorrow and hope pretty quickly to get to discussing heart issues and getting him to hear the Gospel the first of many times.
- Pray for the hearts of the Senegalese people in general as we go out tomorrow for our first day of work on campus, and pray for our team to be ready for what we'll come up against
- Pray that my team and I would continue to adjust well to this new culture and to the language and customs and everything else.
- Pray for one of my teammates Andy he has been sick since we got here and he is starting to get better and be able to stomach food but he hasn't fully recovered yet so that is a prayer request and a praise.
- Pray for our team to continue to build relationships and really love each other well
- Pray for our walks with the Lord, that they would remain solid, and grow. Pray that they would be the most important things in our lives here.
- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Full Circle

So in the past few days even as I prepare to do something I've never done before in my life (go overseas) I've had quite a few deja vu moments. Do you guys ever have those moments in life where it feels like no matter where you go or what you do or experience you come to a place and you can't believe you're back in that place again, right back to your roots. Its good to have places like that I think, things we can always come back to. For me I'm back in Apex, back in my house, and in a familiar situation. It seems like every time I come here any more its a hub on the way to somewhere else. It's pretty much accepted at this point that every time I come home half my bed is covered in clothes and other things that I know I'm going to turn around and pack up to go somewhere else within a few days. Just like the beginning of last summer, I've only unpacked from Raleigh long enough to pack to go somewhere else for the summer. Yet I'm so thankful for this place, I love my parents so much and all they do for me, if I didn't stop here on the way to everywhere else I'd never be prepared to go to those places. Many of you college students can probably relate to me that home is one of the only marks of consistency on our ever-changing, always on the move lives. The other day my mom told me she knew I was home because she came home to a full house. No matter how long its been since I've been here, I always come home to friends who are quick to come over (mostly to get the rare opportunity to see me before I move on to somewhere else) which is another huge blessing.

Speaking of which, last night I had a party over here, with Katherine Nieman? Who'd have thought haha, another deja vu moment for sure but yet totally unexpected, another thing had come full circle. Throwing a party with her was far from being a new thing, shes been my best friend since I was a sophomore in High School and we've thrown countless parties together. I know I have gotten her with at least 2 surprise parties (pretty good I might add) and together we've planned surprise parties for other people, birthday parties, graduation parties, going away parties, you name it we've probably done it. But then there was that year where we weren't on speaking terms, oh yeah that ended  last month haha, and I thought our group of friends from high school who came to all those parties would never be all together again. All of those people in my house last night listening to music, joking, laughing, needing absolutely nothing but each other to entertain ourselves was such a familiar scene, yet so weird to see it again after I'd accepted that it was thing of the past. I was so happy, it felt like a dream, but it wasn't. And then there's the fact that it was in fact a goodbye party, and Katherine is moving back to Michigan. There's another thing coming full circle, her whole life. I can't even imagine. It's so bittersweet though that we're just getting back to being really close friends and shes leaving. I've had goodbye parties for her before, but never one where I had no idea when the next time I'd get to see her would be. I'm really grateful we fixed things before all this happened, that was totally God. Katherine, if you're reading this, you've impacted my life in more ways than I even know in these past 5 years, and I'm going to miss you so much. I'll be praying for you.

So here I am, unpacking from school and repacking for Africa, its unbelievable, and it hasn't even sunk in yet. Katherine is gone and I don't know when I'll see her again, that hasn't really sunk in yet either. And despite all that everything feels so normal, because I'm at home, and this is a recurring circle in my life. I'm so pumped for Africa, but after the party last night I can't help feeling pretty nostalgic (if you can't tell). Monday morning I go put all of this in the rear view again, only to be back in 6 weeks. Here goes the beginning of another circle. I wonder who I'll come back as this time?

Blog Revived - with a new title

Hey guys! It's been a while since I posted on here, actually not since my trip last summer. Back in those days my blog had the super original title "A day in the life of Matt." I've revived this blog of course for my trip to Senegal, Africa. and hopefully will continue to use it into next year as I start a part time internship for Campus Crusade for Christ. The reason and heart behind my changing the title to "Don't Waste Your Life" is for a number of reasons, mainly because thats what God has been teaching me lately, and because that is the essence of my calling into full time ministry. Currently I'm working my way into the book "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper and on the back cover it says this: 


"Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest: A couple 'took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .' Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: 'Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy."


This isn't what I want to do with my life, in fact I cannot imagine that being my life. Recently I was in a car accident, one that I easily could have died in, but I walked out with nothing but a sore shoulder. The song "Don't Waste Your Life" by Lecrae, one of my favorite songs lately, was playing in the car when I got in the wreck. I know without a doubt that the only reason God left me on this earth was to share the Gospel with the people around me. This is the message God has been drilling into my brain for the past few months, and this is the intensity with which I want to live this summer, and the rest of my life. Welcome back to the blog, thanks for reading!