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
No comments:
Post a Comment