April Prayer Requests

• Praise God for the good semester we’re having.
• Give thanks for the wonderful ways God blessed our Spring Break trip to Mississippi.
• Praise God that this semester we have had approximately 162 different people attend our weekly meetings.
• Pray for us as we move toward our Summer ministry program and prepare for the Fall Semester.
• Next semester we hope to add another weekly Bible study night to accommodate even more students.
• Pray for increased financial support for our growing ministry.

April Update - Meeting Needs & Planting Seeds

Thanks so much for your prayers for our Spring Break Katrina Relief Trip! March 10 through 19 we took a group of 36 students, staff, parents, and community members to Ocean Springs, Mississippi to help in the massive rebuilding efforts.

We stayed at and worked with an organization called CORE (Christians Organized for Relief Efforts) and had teams of people helping in several different ways such as roofing, drywalling, painting, cleaning and sanitizing.

All in all, we had a fantastic experience. Many students were able to witness the destruction for the first time and were really convicted about how important it is to help others in need (and about how we are personally blessed through the process of giving to others). In addition, some great relationships were formed, both with the homeowners we worked with and between the students who came along on the trip.

For me, one of the neatest parts of the trip was that several students who went with us had never been a part of CSF or attended a CSF event before. In fact, some of them were not Christians. One of our prayers for the trip was that God’s love would shine out strongly through those of us who know Him in order to reach the hearts of those who do not.
Since the trip I have received several emails that have led me to believe that this prayer was answered in a number of ways. One of the new students wrote this: “You all were very welcoming and didn’t seem to have any qualms about taking a few strangers along… To be honest, I haven’t been so close to the church in recent times, and you all have given me so much inspiration and hope that there still is an abundance of compassion and real, pure joy in this world… I had an unforgettable experience that I know just wouldn’t have been the same without the people that we went with.” Praise God for allowing us to plant some seeds in this young person’s heart!

If you would like to read more about our trip or see some pictures, you can do so by checking out our CSF Katrina Relief Trip blog at www.csfkatrina.blogspot.com. This blog also contains details and pictures from our first trip during Christmas Break 2005.