Dear Supporters,
This last month has flown by way faster than I anticipated. It feels like just yesterday that I arrived, got settled, and sent out the last email update. However, it’s already been a month, which means it’s time for another update! While the last month had its challenges, looking at the big picture it was an incredible and life-changing month to say the least. Let’s dive in!
Week 4 was on the Father Heart of God, and while the speaker talked plenty about that topic, he also kept circling back to this idea of what it means to cultivate. I was really drawn into this idea of slowing down, processing, and cultivating something out of what we had learned so far. The first three weeks were so jammed packed with lectures and activities, that I really hadn’t had time to implement anything yet. I especially liked this one-liner our speaker mentioned, “You have to cultivate the truth until it becomes a habit.” I was really challenged by this idea and took the time to slow down and implement a few changes into my life.
The next week I was supposed to be on a week-long rock climbing trip. I had my bag packed up and I was ready to go. However, when I woke up the morning we were supposed to leave, I felt really sick. I ended up testing positive for Covid the day we were supposed to leave. So, myself and a few others on my team were forced to stay back and quarantine while the rest of the team went rock climbing. The only word that could describe my emotions this week was frustration. I was frustrated at the entire situation, but I specifically got really frustrated at God. I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason and for the greater good. I kept waiting for some major revelation or life-changing moment while being stuck in quarantine, but that moment never came. To be honest, the only revelation I had this week is that there isn’t always a revelation or a reason when bad things happen.
So after serving my time in quarantine, things went back to normal. I returned to Week 6 in lecture which was focused on Grace and Identity. Our speaker this week was absolutely incredible. The way he taught, the examples he used, and the content he talked about really resonated with me. My big takeaway for this week was truly how broken, desperate, and in need of a Savior we are. Realizing how big our sin was helped me realize how big God’s grace is. Along those lines, seeing God’s grace and love in our lives motivates us to naturally respond with grace and love towards others. This was a very deep week with lectures, activities, and conversations I had. It was life-changing to say the least.
Fast forwarding to this last week, I faced another major disappointment. This week we were planning on going on a 35-40 mile backpacking trip over the course of a few days, but God had other plans. Last weekend a fire started about 12 miles south of our base and it grew very quickly. Within a few days we were moved into a pre-evacuation stage which meant we were preparing to leave base. Due to logistical reasons, they couldn’t with good conscience allow us to go on our backpacking trip while the base was at risk of a fire evacuation, so our trip was canceled.
This was a major disappointment for me seeing how I had just missed the rock climbing trip and now the backpacking trip. I had my bags packed for 2 of the biggest trips of the year and wasn’t able to go on either of them. It was incredibly frustrating to say the least. However, this time I at least felt like God was moving in the midst of disappointment. After being able to process with one another and express our frustrations, the leaders did the best they could to make it a really fun week for us. We had a lake day, a day hike, went indoor rock climbing, played games, and watched movies which was really good for team bonding. On top of that, I got to have some really good conversations with individuals and have a student team meeting which went really well. While the week was a disappointment, so many cool things happened that wouldn’t have happened if we would have been on the backpacking trip. This week really taught me that you can not only find the light in darkness, but also BE the light in the midst of darkness.
Speaking of cool things happening, here’s one cool God story from the last month. One of the weeks we had a giving night where we were encouraged to pray and ask God if we were supposed to give anything to anyone. I went into the night not expecting to give anything, but that quickly changed. As I was praying about it, I started thinking about how I had some extra money leftover from fundraising. From the beginning of this journey I felt like God was going to give me more money than I would need and that I was meant to give that to someone else. Well on this night, God put it on my heart to give a specific amount to a specific person. I really had no idea where this was coming from, but I went and talked to this person about it. I started asking some questions about if they still had more fundraising to do, and without me prompting, they told me that they had a specific amount left. The amount they had left to fundraise was the exact amount I felt God put on my heart before I talked to them. When I say exact, I mean it matched to the DOLLAR. When I heard the amount, I got chills and it brought tears to my eyes. Right away, I told them that I would pay off the rest of what they owed. They went on to explain just how stressed and unsure of how they were going to get the remaining money. While I hope, pray, and trust that God will work in their life to make this faith-building for them, it was honestly so much more faith-building for me just to see how God can speak to me and use me for his good.
To that, all I have to say is thank you. I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be a part of this if it weren’t for you guys. Not only that, but I wouldn’t have the extra fundraising money to be generous with if it weren’t for you guys being so generous. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
While I could go on and on with this update, I’ll call it good here. God is showing up in so many ways and it has me so excited. We just crossed the halfway point in our lecture phase, which means we have so much more to go. I can’t wait until the next update, but until then, God bless!
Sincerely,
Jacob Frenzen
Comments are closed