Beaver Creek

An hour and a half of driving, 9 cars, God's amazing landscape, and fifty-some people and I find myself beginning, for about my 8th year in a row, our annual Beaver Creek hike! This past saturday we took our largest group ever to a fun hike into a box canyon with cliff jumping and swimming just east of Sedona. While hikes are a fun break from the normal day-to-day campus life and everyone loves the adrenaline rush of throwing yourself from a rock ledge into the crisp cool water, the real joy is found in the relationships that are formed and strengthened during these shared experiences. Whether its the student leader who spends two hours hiking discussing who Jesus is and what he did for us with the Hindu student, or the new freshman who has felt completely alone at ASU having her first real conversations and finding her first real friends at college in a group she heard of for the first time only a week before, Beaver Creek always proves to be more than "just a hike". If you want to get a chance to know someone I say take a walk. If you want to get to know them well and have deep, meaningful conversation, make it a 3.5 mile walk (each way) set in the backdrop of a beautiful arizona canyon with a great place to swim and hang out in the middle of it all.

Ready, Set, Go!!!!

Hard to believe another school year is upon us! New students...new opportunities... just something exciting about New beginnings!

We gathered with our student leadership team a couple weeks before school began. We continued to plan and work out the details of our Fall Welcome 2010. We joined our hearts together in prayer for this upcoming school year and asked the Lord to bring divine appointments our way! Our student leaders discussed what godly community looks like, what it means to serve under godly authority, how to engage in meaningful conversation, how to live an intentional life and SO many other topics!

It blesses my heart to see that our students have already put so much of what they discussed and learned into action!

We asked our leaders to spend 6 hours on campus before school was officially in session... to hang out in dorms, the student rec center... basically anywhere new students would be. Amidst nervousness and uncertainty, our students took the challenge! Many were amazed by how easy it was to meet all kinds students.. to play games... engage in cool conversations... invite them to church, Chi Alpha, etc.

Just a little sampling of what we have been up to...

First day of classes began on Thursday, August 19th... students came together on that first night of school to pray and worship together.

Friday, August 20th - XA Sports Night -- students played soccer and other games on campus and invited new students to join them.

Saturday, August 21st - XA Welcome BBQ - We enjoyed a yummy lunch together with old and new friends. We were extremely blessed by a couple of women in our church who coordinated and prepared the food, side dishes and desserts. The BBQ was a huge success.... we were thrilled to see so many new faces!!

Saturday, August 21st- Passport to ASU - This is ASU's club fair for all incoming freshmen.... literally tons of the ASU student organizations set up tables for all the students to come by and get information (kinda feels like a huge cattle herd coming through!). Everything from Environmental, Dance, Sports, Academic to Faith groups.

Sunday, August 22nd - Campus wide BBQ's ... Chi Alpha, along with many other Christian ministries volunteered to make this possible... the evening ended with ASU 1st Laugh at Gammage Auditorium ... a night of clean comedy, hundreds of new students attended this event.

Throughout all of the above mentioned we have met many new students.. our XA team has worked hard and have invested themselves for the cause of advancing His Kingdom at Arizona State University.

Would you please pray with us.. that God would continue to lead our team and water the seeds that have been sown.

This Wednesday night at 7:30pm will be our first Chi Alpha Service. We are believing God for a historic night... for hearts and lives to impacted by the Good News of Jesus Christ!

We're Back!

Ok my last post was about Easter....sorry for the delay! I am either extremely lazy, extremely busy or extremely distracted every 5 minutes from my two little friends.. ?? I will let you decide. (perhaps it is a combination of all of the above! lol)

So since I know I will not be able to give the last few months justice, I will not attempt... but maybe a few highlights and will fill in the blanks at a later date.

May

XA End of the Year Banquet -

We enjoyed an awesome night of food, testimonies, worship and friends. It is always so much fun meeting students' parents and giving parents an opportunity to get a sneak peek into their children's lives... for them to hopefully see that their kids have been involved in something that matters...that they have been growing in their relationship with God and building friendships that will last a lifetime!

This night is also such an encouragement for Shawn and myself... to sit back and look around in complete awe of the goodness of God!

XA Mission Trips -

We had the privilege to send out two teams this summer. One to Macedonia and another to South Africa. Both teams made it back safely and students have come back changed... with a broadened perspective of God's heart for people!

* Testimonies and pictures to come!

Summer Time -

I am asked on a regular basis what our life looks like during summer time and how/if things change for us.

For me, summer is always a very interesting transition... as we focus more time on admin work, support raising and working from home. Often, I really miss the constant motion and activity of campus life...and I find it difficult to adapt to a new schedule and create new structure.... awww the life of a missionary! :)

This summer we have been having Summer XA... we are meeting in different homes...sharing a meal together, cool times of prayer, worship, testimonies and time in the Word. Summer XA is a bit more student led.... various students have agreed to host a night... which means they do the planning, delegating and execution.... AWESOME!

Last night we joined together and it was truly such a delight to see our students lead. I love how much God grows students through the community of Chi Alpha and that students are given opportunity to try new things and to be released in areas of ministry. What better way to learn and grow than by doing....?

The Home Front -

Trenton not only completed his first "semester" of pre-school but he also attended Vacation Bible School for the first time. He did great in both! It is crazy to see how quickly he is growing up. It is really cute that he has his little group of friends and tells us all sorts of random stories about his friends and the things he is learning! He continues to love learning bible verses and asks us to read his bible to him just about every night... but now he is very particular about what part he wants us to read... he generally wants to hear about the soldiers. :)

He picks up on so much of what we say and is quite the "rule follower" (well of the ones he likes, and more so of the ones he wants to make sure WE follow!)

"Daddy, we don't wear our hat at the table!"

"Mommy, we don't stand up in the car!" ( as I try to pick up Averi's cup)

I went to a friends' house for lunch and as she was telling me a story... Trenton says...

"Mommy, we are not supposed to talk with our mouth full!"

haha... Well, at least what he is saying is mostly true! lol.

Averi is also growing sooo quickly. She has quite the personality.. she keeps us on our toes, for sure! I always said that I hoped to have a girl that could be "girly" but who was also not afraid to get dirty.... well this proved to be true about Averi! We went camping with a couple families and Averi was covered with dirt and loved it!

She continues to love shoes, bows, necklaces.... Her new favorite word is NO... her new hobby is climbing onto our kitchen counters and her favorite movie is Snow White!

Averi and Trenton have a love/hate relationship... they are hilarious to watch together... such sweet moments and also such brutality!

Hope you are enjoying your summer! As always, we would love to hear from you and know how we can be lifting you up in prayer!

Until next time... (which will hopefully NOT be 3 months from now! ha. )

Easter Sunday

We enjoyed a great Easter Sunday! We started the morning off with the kids looking for their Easter baskets.. they were so excited to find them! I purposefully put very little candy in their baskets because I knew they would probably be getting more than enough throughout the day... and I was right (thanks to you know who... Grandma and Nana...but I guess that is their job ! :) )

After church, we went to a huge easter egg hunt that our church organized at the park. Thanks to many volunteers and church staff .. they had 6,000 eggs for the kids to "hunt". They seperated the children based on age and then it was free for all! Our kids loved it!

We then headed to grandma and grandpas' for Easter dinner! It was nice to be with Shawn's parents and my mom and her husband, Mike. Several of our friends and their families joined us as well! We had 15 adults and 8 children... made for a crazy and adventurous day!! We even celebrated through the earthquake and had no idea it had even happened! :)

We did a easter egg hunt for the kids and the adults participated in our annual Egg Toss ( a family tradition that I am determined to keep alive!!! Sad to say we did not have a winner... we all tied!)

A wonderful day... but best of all... celebrating the Ressurection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

So thankful that because of the work of the cross and because He Lives.. we can too!

Easter Prep

A first for the White Family --- coloring easter eggs!

We had such a wonderful time as a family. Averi lasted for about one egg before she said "all done" ... but Trenton sat at the table until the last egg was colored!

I was expecting that we might have a big mess, but we did not... Trenton is so neat and prefers things to NOT be messy... he splashed a little dye on the table and insisted that I wipe it up immediately! Haha... I think that Averi will be the one that can make a mess for both of them! :)

It is hard to believe how quickly Trenton and Averi are growing up!

Trenton continues to enjoy preschool and has made several little friends!

I have been spending time with Trenton teaching him some bible verses... I am amazed at how quickly he learns them! These are his current verses.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

"This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

"Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother."

What an amazing opportunity we have, to begin laying a foundation of God's word in our childrens' lives! And I know that the word of God does not come back void!

Averi is our little fashionista! Not a day goes by that she is not wearing some form of accessory (all on her own!) she loves necklaces, bracelets, headbands and shoes. She cries when I take them off for nap time.. hahah.

She seems to have a very adventurous spirit and loves being around people! She walks into Trenton's preschool class as if she owns the room! :)

She is starting a talk a little more... her favorite words right now are: shoes, thank you, please, all done and snack.

We praise Jesus for this abundant life!

Spring Break Mexico Trip!!

After an amazing weekend in Utah to kick off spring break, we made a quick turn-around and headed south to spend the remainder of spring break in Mexico. Every year we take a team of students to San Luis Mexico, a border town south of Yuma, to work at an orphanage and help minister in the surrounding community. This year we spent our time playing with the children, painting one of the dorms at the orphanage, ministering in a bible study for the boys home and a thursday night church service, ministering and providing food for people living at the dump, ministering and providing food for people who are unable to leave their homes due to either age or illness, working at the soup kitchen and providing ice cream for the children, and putting a new roof on the home of a local pastor who also teaches at the bible college run through the orphanage. It was an incredibly busy and amazing three and a half days! Here are some testimonies of the students who went...

"When we first pulled into Bethel and hopped out of the car, I was kind of nervous. One of our team members, Chad, spoke some spanish and started playing with the kids and they really liked him. I do not speak very much spanish, so I did not know how this would go. Suddenly, a little boy named Luis came up, hugged me and said, " Hola, Amiga! " That made me smile so big and know that the next few days was going to be amazing!" - Morgan Beadle

"When I came to Bethel, I came with this idea that I would be helping in great ways. When I came, the first day we painted a white wall with white paint and played with children. That was not what I was expecting, but the Lord opened my eyes to see how great a help that it was. The kids need to see love in every way and even if I can not speak the language very well, I could still love them unconditionally. I also saw that the God Christians serve in Mexico is the same God I serve. Through the testimony of Alberto and others, I saw how the same spirit works in all of us. The faith the Mexicans have is the same as I have. God works miracles through willing vessels." - Alison Bieker

"I put a new roof on the house of a local pastor. It will not let any rain in ! Now his house will be a refuge for his community and a temple for the Lord ! It hit me deep as we prayed for the family and their tears hit the sand and touched my heart. I was moved and every bruised finger was worth it !" - Chad Andresen

"In 1 John 4:11-12 it states, “1Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us,” and this spring break I was given the opportunity to go and share God’s love with the community of San Luis, Mexico and the children of Bethel Orphanage. A group of nine of us went to Mexico with the sole purpose of serving and glorifying God. We went with servant’s hearts and ready to share God’s word. It was an amazing experience. Most of the people in Mexico only spoke Spanish and there were very few people that we could speak with in English. This language barrier made it difficult for us to talk with them, but it didn’t stop us from being able to communicate and share God’s love with many different people. It was cool to see that God doesn’t speak in one language but in all languages. He understands all of us no matter what language we are speaking. We went to church at the orphanage and everyone was worshipping the same God; it didn’t matter if you were speaking Spanish or English. God heard each and everyone of us in that place. When we got to participate in a ministry in which we went to many homes of underprivileged people in the community. We got to pray for the families and share God’s word. In each of the homes you could feel God’s presence. We prayed that each person would be healed from whatever they were struggling with and that the love of God would consume their lives. There was one man that we were able to pray for; because of medical conditions he could not talk, but he could hear and as soon as he heard the name Jesus or we started talking about God, he would begin to cry. He could feel God’s presence, as we all could on that patio as we prayed for him. It was such an incredible experience. I continue to pray for each of those families, as I know they struggle daily with having faith that God will provide for them and protect them. Not only did we get the opportunity to minister to the community, we were able to play and just spend time with the children at the orphanage. We played with them, colored pictures with them, chased them around, and most importantly loved them. We poured out God’s love on each and every child. Although sometimes it was difficult to communicate with them, because of the language barrier, it didn’t matter because we could just pick them up and hug them and love on them. During this trip, God taught me how to be His servant and go out into the world and tell people about His amazing love because He has loved me." -Maggie Cannon

Ladies Night Out 2010

My name is Kent Stephenson and I have been part of ASU Chi Alpha since I was a freshman almost three years ago. Saturday, the 27th of March, 2010, I took part in making the food for Ladies Night out for the third time. Ladies Night Out is a tradition in ASU Chi Alpha with a profound mission: for men to repent of ungodliness with regards to our relationships with women and sacrificially show the love of God thereby raising the women’s expectations of men. Our world is filled with the conceited failures of men, so we let the women attending know they deserve so much more. As guys, we wear our best clothes and ask the girls to dress as they would for a prom, allowing them to declare, “God has made me beautiful and I receive all strength from my identity in Him”. We take care of everything for them – we valet cars, escort them to their tables, pull out chairs for them, cater hand-made gourmet food, provide entertainment, and speak words of life into them – all in the attempt to imitate Christ’s love.As the men show women (to the best of our ability) how God loves them, we discover parts of our identity as well. In serving the women of Chi Alpha by preparing the food, I found a skill within myself I had not known was there. The first year I prepared a meal for 40 people with only one other person helping me. I had never known that was possible, or even that I was able to cook well. Now I use this emerging talent to bless my friends throughout the year by making food whenever possible. Ladies Night Out has also taught me the importance of accepting thanks. My freshman year I wouldn’t let any of the women say a simple “thank you” without saying that “it wasn’t me, it was all God.” Although this is true to certain extent, I have learned that a simple “you’re welcome” is better than false humility.I have seen both women and men grow in maturity and better understand God’s love through these nights of ministry. I pray that this tradition continues in Chi Alpha and only surpasses what has already been done.

A couple Testimonies from LNO:

The last thing I expected from college guys was for them to tell me that they honored me and treasured me as their sister in Christ. Ladies' Night Out has been an incredible healing experience. It has renewed my hope in the Godly men who are future leaders in the church as they pledged to protect and uphold my honor and respect me because I am a beautiful woman.

- Jenni, Junior

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This was my first year attending LNO and I was just amazed at the caliber of the event. From driving up and seeing the guys waiting to escort us in to their readiness to get us anything (and repeated again "anything") we needed, it was such servitude. They made sure everything was excellent because they wanted to make sure we knew that we deserved excellent. I brought two high school friends and one in particular was just awe struck by the event and upon reading a letter that the guys had written for us, said to something to effect - "I am going to frame this!" For me, the night was an opportunity to learn more about guys and relationships. In one section of the event, called the Panel, the guys were open and honest, answering questions we had submitted. It was eye opening to hear some of their responses to questions and to see them as brothers who fight for us, support us, and are honest with us. It was a night of love and learning - a blessing for each girl present.

- Emily, Freshmen