Hello gorgeous people! Tomorrow is July 19th, which shouldn't really mean anything to you... but it is exactly 40 days until school starts. We are planning on bathing those next 40 days in some serious prayer... so our plan is to have at least one person praying/FASTING a day so that we are all petitioning God to do something radical on campus this year. I have this anticipation in my spirit that something beautiful is going to occur... that God's hand would be revealed as mighty to save! I just hope that some of you would like to participate in these next five and a half weeks... if so, just pick some days from now (July 19th) to August 28th and really concentrate on spending those days in prayer and fasting. You can fast relatively anything: food, media, spending money, your phone etc. Just make sure that something will 'cost' you and the time you would spend to enjoy that something would instead be substituted with prayer... You can be praying for:
A move of God on campus
Influence in International student's lives
Any friends who need salvation
Any needs or breakthroughs you need to see in your life
The leadership of Chi Alpha (Scott, Jess, Rocky, Krysty)

So, hopefully some of these ideas have been inspiring because our hope is that everyone involved in Chi Alpha would participate. So please, prayerfully consider getting involved. I have great faith that this will expand our lives and influence on campus! You won't want to miss out!

kupalisko

Slovakia
Originally uploaded by davidcharding.

welcome to hell on earth. ok, maybe that was a bit strong. but this was one of my choices for free-time during the camp i was at last week. but you can bet i opted to sleep instead. sure, it would have been nice to get wet because it was quite hot, but if the price was two-fold: sardine-age and being seen in a swimming suit then no thanks, lady. i think i'll snooze. slovaks are really crazy about their kupaliskos:) the camp was, after all, very much like salt in the summer. there was a large tent with services in the mornings and evenings. great worship and funny videos. nine different people spoke about the touch of God. the eternal touch. and it was amazing. it was so neat to hear about this topic from so many different perspectives. my favorite speaker was an american missionary named danny jones. slovaks absolutely loooove this man. he's lived here for maybe ten years and his slovak is really good, but occasionally he'll make a mistake and they are just sooooo endeared. he talked about how none of us was a mistake. that Jesus was there when every single baby was conceived. whether they were wanted or not by their parents, whether they were expected or a surprise, God made them. it was God's touch. he said it so much more beautifully than that. but one part i liked so much. he talked about when bad things happen to us, like sexual abuse etc. and when people ask "where was God when this happened to me?" he said that that's why Jesus came to earth. because of these things. that He cries when these things happen to us. i don't know it was so heart-felt and sincere and beautiful.
i got to spend the week with my friend katka and it was so great. i like her so much. and then people from banovce came every night for the services too. the last night my gypsy lady came with pastor rast'o and others and it was amazing because they had us go forward and pray for our leaders and i got to go with the banovce church and pray for rast'o and i just felt so much a part of them. our church tends towards quietness and shyness (rast'o is quiet and full of humility) and while other churches were sort of roaring in prayer (which is also beautiful) ours was quietly praying. just such a blessing for me. God did a lot in me at the camp, too. one night we were praying for the touch of God and i saw a vision of Jesus walking toward me. well, actually i saw his feet walking toward me and i was overcome with the realization that this same Jesus is the one that was in the Garden of Gethsemane. then my roommate prophesied over me (she knew nothing of me or my story) and it went right to the heart. for the third time God said to me, "you are doing so much more than you realize here." and i just cried. and on the last night during worship people went forward for prayer and this gypsy man we call "little jaro" from our church went forward and my friend asked me if i wanted to pray for him. i was shy to just because of the language barrier, and it takes courage to do so. but then God spoke to me the same things He's been telling me for a year or so. something along the lines of "live without regrets." i wanted so badly to pray for him but was frozen. then i just felt this rush and thought about how i would feel if i didn't. so i went forward and did it. and then later, too, for an angel of a girl named idka who is a nanny in england. i was so glad i did. prayer unites us. not just people but unites us with God and it's so precious. i'm starting to see that the things in life that are precious have to be fought for.

young believers' group

FH000001
Originally uploaded by lafalda.

just wanted to give some shout-outs to some peeps from this picture who have blessed, inspired and challenged me. dead center beige vest...curtis cole: blessed me with many a song and joke, challenged me to walk in the confidence of Jesus. disembodied head at the bottom of the picture...majo: up and moved to ireland for the summer to make some money and upon arrival discovered that promised job was not there. prayed, fasted, believed and found job with impending 350 euros being due for rent at end of week. blue shirt in front...jaro ferianc, lovingly called jaro fero in order to differentiate between the other 2300 jaros around here: sought God from a cloud of pot smoke and found Him. now radically serves Jesus by, among many other things, using his gift for carpentry to help gypsy families...for free. crazy, passionate, gifted musician who reaches out to and reaches crazy, passionate, gifted musicians and artists. slovakia tshirt on the left that i now own...juraj: currently in teen challenge after having been in prison. former heroin addict. loves Jesus with a love and fire like i've scarcely seen. knows literally every third person he passes on the street by name and greets them, telling them that Jesus is alive. walks around asking the Lord whom He wants him to talk to next. upon me asking him where i could buy a shirt like his, peeled off his own and gave it to me. did the same last friday while we when all praying together. thank you all for your prayers from home. as juraj so often says, Jesus IS alive.