Hanna's Campus Ministry Updates

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,  the new creation  has come:The old has gone, the new is here!   All this is from God,  who reconciled us to himself through Christ  and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:   that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.   We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,  as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."- 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (NIV)      Think about something old that you or your family has always had. Maybe your thinking of a quilt, or a clock, or some sort of family heirloom. When you look at it, it makes you think about all of the things it has been through. Being owned by multiple people, used in a variety of ways, and aged with time. This item may not be as attractive as it once was. It's colors may hav...

Hello Dear Friends,    As I continue on in this apprenticeship I have come to realize that I don't know everything I thought I knew, and that I can't continue on believing everything I think. As I read more, discuss more, and learn more I find myself faced with a very hard hitting reality: growth hurts. The best way I can describe this is to refer to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S Lewis. In this book there is a young and selfish boy named Eustace who thinks he is the smartest and brightest boy that ever existed, and basically he gets turned into a dragon through his ignorance. There is a scene in the book that describes Eustace's transformation back into a boy with the help of Aslan. But in order for this transformation to take place, Aslan (who is a lion) has to use his paws to scrape the scales off of Eustace's body. As he begins scraping Eustace becomes very aware of how painful this process is, but he allows it to happen because he knows that in the end ...

A sea of international students at the Big Howdy I have recently come to love everything about plants. I love planting something and watching it magically shoot up and grow into a lovely, full-fledged beauty. I love the joy that it brings me to see healthy, full of life plants in my window sill. But planting isn't always fun. We have all been let down  by a plant that we had high hopes for that just dies no matter what we seem to do. We have all over or under watered and killed innocent plants. We have all tasted the disappointment of never seeing a seed sprout. But I thank God everyday that he is the supreme gardener. That "he was the gardener before even Eden was breathing," as my friend Rhett Hayes sings. God has given us the great gift of helping with his garden this month. He has allowed us to go all throughout the campus and plant seeds for this year, but only he can make those seeds grow. I rest in the comfort that he is a much better gardener than I.  P...

The Beginnings  Welcome to the Next Ten Months    Hello Dear Friends,  I want to start by saying that I am so thankful for the generosity and love that I have been shown at the beginning of this journey. God has blessed me so richly with amazing friends and family ,and I just wanted to let all of you know that I do not take those things for granted. Starting Out I have been an apprentice for a total of twelve days now, and I am already seeing the ways that God is molding me and preparing me for what is to come. Our first class for the apprenticeship is an introduction to the Old Testament, which involves reading the Old Testament in its entirety back to back. God is revealing so much about his nature and grace to me through these texts, and reminding me that I can put my faith in him. This is summed up in a verse I read about God saving Hagar and her son in Genesis 16:13. The verse says, “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God ...