I thought I would end the semester sharing with you some of the faces and stories of those I have been investing in all year!

You might recognize Robby. He was baptized into Jesus by our former apprentice Alec Bryant in March 2019. We meet every week, and Robby continues to grow in his hunger to be more like Jesus. A few weeks ago we discussed the stories of hope in John 20 when Jesus came to Mary, the disciples and Thomas in their doubts and hopelessness. We talked about how Jesus comes to us in our hopelessness as well. Robby's future is uncertain, so we are making the most of our time together.

Yiming is a friend I connected with through Xu last year. It has been exciting to continue our study in the Gospel of John and talk about the story of Lazarus. When we reached the verse where Jesus says Lazarus has merely fallen asleep, and Jesus is going to wake him; we discussed what that meant. She asked a question doubting that Jesus was really going to raise him from the dead "in this life", but I told her to continue reading. She was surprised to see how the story unfolded, and we discussed whether she could trust this story, while she did believe John genuinely thought he was telling the truth. She seems to be opening up to faith more every time we meet!

Matt and I have started reading together this semester. He and his wife Grace have been around our ministry since last year, but we are investing in them more and more. They also have the most adorable little girl! Matt does have faith, prays with his daughter at bedtime, and is truly seeking God. He is still trying to be certain of his relationship with Jesus and salvation, so we are talking about that as we read the gospel of Mark.

Alex and Truong are two Vietnamese friends and brothers in Christ - we continue to meet most weeks. They enjoy fellowship with each other. Truong of course is a new Christian from last summer, and he has many important decisions coming up, so we continue to walk with him through some of his most challenging issues.

In the group picture, we have welcomed a summer intern, Cooper Wright, to work with us from Arkansas (Go hogs!). He's a Bible and Ministry major at Harding. The student in the black shirt is Kai. We reached out to him last fall, but he wasn't on campus. Kai reached out to me in March asking about our Tuesday night discussions, and he has come ever since! He's a freshman astrophysics major, and he joined our church family for worship in mid May! We hope to get him back to campus a couple times this summer because he will be gone studying abroad in the fall. We won't get to see him much until next Spring, but we hope our short time with him will ensure that he seeks us out again in 2022!

Finally, I had my last meeting with Jose a few weeks ago. He graduated the end of May. Rusty connected with him first a few years ago. I wish I could tell you everything I've learned meeting with Jose. Last week we had our best conversation yet discussing the possibility of following Jesus. He thinks his parents would be supportive but he's counting the cost and trying to decide what he really believes. Jose is super quiet and isolates with his headphones at Tuesday night dinners. However, one-on-one, he's opened up and sharing a lot about his past and his struggles, and I'm sharing how Jesus can help him and change his life for the better!

Would you say a prayer for each of these students by name and ask God to bring the harvest in the lives of those seeking and grow the disciples who are already following Jesus?

For the kingdom and the campus,

Casey