fun times in houston

here's a photographic peek into the last few weeks of our life:

BREAKAWAY 2009

group shot
we had about 15 students come with us!

this is "big chris" being baptized by eric and matt
this guy hasn't stopped witnessing to everyone he meets since he got saved in august.

kristin being baptized by nicole
she has also been set on fire for the LORD. i've NEVER seen someone so hungry to know more about the WORD and to do the right thing.

Chili Cook-Off and Costume Party

mary poppins with bert the chimney sweep :)

strawberry shortcake, a 50's girl and a ladybug

swine flu

spring, summer, autumn and winter

an exciting (and competitive) time of games

* so, here's a cool story about the costume party. we made up about 400 fliers and matt passed them out on campus 2 days before the party. we never know just how effective it's gonna be, but we're always hopeful, right? well, turns out that out of the 400 or so fliers that were passed out, one girl in particular grabbed one. she stuffed it into her one of her books and never gave it another thought...until saturday afternoon (the day of the party). she was at work and had a bit of time to study during her break and she noticed the flier. she decided it sounded like fun and much better than all the other alternatives for halloween parties that night. so, she randomly showed up...with 4 of her friends!! they were super sweet and highly interested in getting involved with a Christian group on campus.

the moral of the story? every little thing we do, even when it seems pointless, is never in vain.
Galatians 6:9 "And let us not grow weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

good news/bad news

how 'bout the good news first, then the bad?

good news: matt and i had a jam-packed, fun-filled weekend. (i'm about to tell you all about it.)

bad news: i have zero pictures to prove it, so you'll just have to use your imagination, okay?

we had such a GREAT time hanging out with the hoogendoorn side of matt's family at a combination family reunion and celebration of his granny's birthday. can i just say how precious his granny is? she really is the kind of woman that makes it obvious why my husband and his family walk so closely with the LORD. i wish we could spend more time with her.

we had to leave jacksonville (where the reunion was) early because we had a church service in houston sunday morning. i'm gonna be honest...i had never experienced multiple church services before this, not to mention a church as large as this one, and i was actually a little hesitant about it (mainly because we got back into town SUPER late saturday night and had to get up SUPER early the next morning for a full day of services.) IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! the people at Braeswood AG are so down to earth and so welcoming. i felt right at home.

we get to meet so many truly amazing people doing what we do. i love our job! :)

who can we trust?

we, as a society or culture, never seem to "do business" on a handshake or by word of promise anymore. and when i say, "anymore" i must clarify that i've never known a time when life was honest, but i've heard about an age, long ago, when there was no reason not to trust that somebody was gonna do what they said they were gonna do.

it's sad to me, sometimes, that we seem to not even trust the word of our friends and family anymore. even sadder that our friends and family sometimes can't trust what we say. but why? maybe because we're fallen and sinful. probably. okay, definitely.

looking throughout Scripture, we see that GOD has made lots and lots of promises to us as His children. He's promised to never leave us; He's promised that if we lift Him up, He'll draw all men to Himself; He's promised to never flood the earth again; He's promised to provide for our every need; He's promised to clothe us in robes of righteousness even though we deserve filthy rags of sin; He's promised us a hope of a brilliant eternity. Some of us claim the promises that He's made that our loved ones will come to know Him, that we will be healed, that we will have a husband/wife and that we will have a family. that's only the beginning of His promises to us.

and why can we trust His promises when we can't seem to trust the word of others? because of HIS character. He is good. and He is true. He has not sinned and is not fallen. so, it's not necessarily that we can trust in His promises, but that we can trust in who He is.

"My faith does not rest on God's promises. My faith rests on God's character..." - A.W.Tozer

welcome week 2009

here's a little visual glimpse into the very busy week at the beginning of the school year called, "welcome week." for us, this first week of school is a PERFECT opportunity to meet new students and get them involved before the semester gets thick. welcome week involves many activities and events to invite students to...and of course, FREE FOOD. we've met so many new people...friends for life. here are some pictures:

we had a table on campus during the day and passed out candy and fliers.

kickball

free pizza after a campus-wide scavenger hunt

bowling
(this is melissa...one of the new students we met! LOVE her!)

free ice cream and coffee after our first fall meeting

eric, kevin, dean and nicole

i still can't believe the team the LORD has lined up for us. they are super amazing and just keep surprising me at every turn. last weekend, matt and i took the four of them on a leadership retreat to lake livingston. we had such a wonderful time together and were really able to get some stuff decided.

i think the coolest part about them is that although we've watched their lives change and grow over the last year or so, we still haven't really seen them become completely responsible for a group of students yet. that's about to change. their lives are about to change. oh, i'm so excited!

thoughts on life/death

so, i've been thinking a little bit about death lately...depressing, i know. after my grandmother passed away last week, i began to think about what people would say about me when i died.

you see, i realized that whatever it is that we value most throughout our lifetime is what our death also becomes about. for example, if we give our lives to family (which is not a bad thing), then all that people talk about when we die is how great a mother, father, sister, etc we were. if we give ourselves to our work, the only thing people can say about us when we leave is how much we accomplished in our particular field. if we live our lives around how much money we have or all the things we can acquire, then that's all that people will be concerned with when we die.

if we live our lives for the LORD and give ourselves to Him only, then that's all that can be said about us after our life is over here on earth. even those who may be unbelievers will be forced to talk about JESUS, because that will be the very essence of what our lives have been about.

that's i want for people to talk about when they talk about my life.

it's finally official!

matt and his official badge :)

okay...so matt may not be happy with me for putting this picture of him up, but i'm just too excited!!! earlier this week, he and two of the student "officers" attended a meeting at the university that allowed Chi Alpha to become an official student organization on campus. they gave him a cool new badge and everything. the LORD really showed HIS favor on us and has some really cool things in store for UHXA.

there are only a few more weeks left of summer and it seems as though the excitement just builds and builds the closer we get to the beginning of the fall 09 semester. however, as the excitement mounts, so does the nervousness. we kinda feel like we're about to walk into a realm of something completely unknown. PRAISE GOD that He's on our side, right? even though we're a little freaked out, we can walk in confidence knowing that we're not alone and that the Most Sovereign GOD is our guide.

please keep us in your prayers during this time. we need supernatural wisdom and continued favor from the LORD.

we are so rich...

The past couple of months have been such a busy, yet beautiful time for us. Matt and I have truly seen just how rich we are in terms of relationships, and how blessed we are to be always surrounded with such an amazing host of loving friends and family.

Here we are with my mom and my sister, Allison, setting up for my grandmother's 80th surprise birthday party. Gran is such an example of strength, beauty, and the love of GOD. It was so much fun celebrating her life and what's yet to come with many, many other precious family members.The month of June was started by our time at Camp Barnabas. We thought in going to this camp to serve that we would be a blessing to those there, but it turned out that we were the ones who left indescribably blessed.

Matt's cousin, Walker, got married a couple weekends ago in Corpus Christi and we were able to spend some relaxing time with his family. Of course, we did steal away by ourselves for just one day for fun at the beach and a nice dinner overlooking the water as the sun set. (Ahhh...) We were also able to spend some extra time with his brothers, Josh and James, for the Fourth of July.
Then, just as Matt's brothers were leaving, we welcomed our dear friends, Kyle and Tabitha Crouch into our home. We went to school with them at Sam Houston, but the LORD has directed them to minister to college students in Washington State. They're here for the month visiting friends and family. We really had such a refreshing time with them, catching up and talking about what the LORD is doing on college campuses at opposite ends of the country. We're honored to be have them as friends and co-laborors for the Kingdom of GOD.


Like I said, we've been super busy, but there's nothing else we'd rather be doing than spending time with those we love. We really are so grateful for the wealth we have in relationships...including our relationship with you!

CBTX

serving the LORD at Camp Barnabas TX was such an amazing experience...for EVERYBODY involved!!! we've all pretty much decided that it would take way too long to really explain all that the LORD did in our hearts that week. to sum it up in a simple phrase? forever changed. another phrase? our work here (with this ministry) is not finished. we're excited to see how the LORD will continue to use the students at UH at CBTX.
here are a few pics of us with our campers:

matt with his camper, noah
(that's a chocolate mustache that noah painted on him)

me with my camper, rebecca

kevin (one of our UH students) with his camper, jeff

and nicole (another UH student) with her camper, jessica

UHXA at CBTX

We are so excited to be taking a couple of UH students with us to Camp Barnabas TX for the next several days on a missions trip, but it's not exactly the kind of missions trip you're thinking about.

CBTX is a camp out in Tomball, TX specifically for kids with special needs and their siblings. This is such a wonderful ministry because most kids who have special needs are unable to go to a normal summer camp, but the amazing directors at CBTX make it possible for these kids to come to camp, stay overnight (which is really a big deal!), and have the time of their lives!

We leave tomorrow afternoon and plan to get back on Wednesday. Please pray for us as we're out there serving the LORD in this way. And of course, pictures and stories of the trip to follow.

i don't deserve this man...

can i just brag on my sweet husband for just a minute? this man is truly just so amazing and so thoughtful. i walked into the living room this morning to sit and eat breakfast and spend time with the LORD, and i saw that the coffee table was all cleared off (highly unusual). there was a big envelope with my name written all the way across it.

this darling man bought me a mother's day card just to tell me how much he loves me and that he enjoys this time we have as just the two of us, but that he looks forward to future when he can pick out little gifts and pretend that the kids actually bought them. *sigh*

and it's funny, because i feel much the same way. i really, really, really enjoy our life being just the two of us right now. just yesterday, we slept in until almost 10:00!!! a friend of mine (who has 2 very little boys) joked that she couldn't even remember what sleeping in was like.

as much as neither of us can wait until we're mommy and daddy, we sure are glad to have this amazing time together...just the two of us.

wow! what a year it's been...

this is a picture of my dear friends from the girls' small group. i wanna tell you a little bit about each one.
caitlin (in the yellow): she came around before the spring semester of 08 began. she emailed us saying that she was transferring from a Christian university to come to UH because she had a heart to see people get saved and it seemed that there might more of a need on a secular campus. (how cool is that???) she and i are dear friends and i have watched her work through some tough stuff in her life the last year and half. it's not easy to always be a witness when your roommate is muslim. but i'm proud of her.
nicole (in the middle): she started hanging out with us during our summer meetings last year. she had just gone through some major life changes and realized how far away she'd gotten from the LORD. she was (and still is) very, very hungry to know the LORD and to be in right standing with HIM. the LORD has bonded us together in friendship and in love. she will be going through our leadership training course during the summer and will hopefully begin to pour her life into other young girls.
mary beth (in the red): this girl is one amazing lady! she really knows how to surprise us. she's super quite and softspoken, but when she says something...she really says something. and either it's hilarious or insanely profound. she seems to be packed with much wisdom. i've also had the privilege of watching the LORD do some really cool things in her life, as well and i know HE's not done with her yet!
caitlyn (on the end): this is one of my dearest friends and i've actually known her for many years. we lived together while i was still in school. this woman has truly been my listening ear, my right hand, my voice of reason, my source of laughter, you name it. hers is quite a long story, but the gist is that she's helped me so much this year. she's led worship for us, led discussions, and has even spent a lot of time pouring into the other girls. i love her and am so grateful for her.

there are a couple other girls that aren't in this picture because of finals or illnesses. but i love, love, love each and every one them. i LOVE the LORD for allowing me to be a part of their lives and i know we'll always be connected because we were together for a time.

I LOVE THIS MINISTRY!!!!!

DO NOT LOSE HEART!!!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583

this newsweek article explains why America has become a post-Christian nation. meaning, we are currently experiencing the decline, and ultimately the end, of Christianity in America.

well...i disagree, but it breaks my heart nonetheless. and i know that if my heart breaks, then how much more does the heart of the FATHER break? this is why matt and i don't take what we do lightly. the future of America is, in every way, most certainly dependent on today's university students.

GOD help us...

time for updates

first off...matt's grandfather (gramps) did pass away only a few days after i last posted. matt had already left for his trip, so i ventured down to corpus christi with my brother-in-law, james to be with the rest of the hoogendoorn (and smith) family. as sad as it was to acknowledge the end of a beautiful life, it was also such a sweet and unexpected time with my new family...who are totally amazing, by the way!
i only knew gramps for a couple of years, but he won my heart from the very first meeting...like he does with EVERYONE he meets! what a precious life lived to serve the KING! he loved the LORD and his family with everything he had and did so much to make their lives the best they could be.

and here are a few pictures from matt's trip. i'll do what i can to try to get him to write about some of the really amazing stories.

the city

the caspian sea
(and my fully-bearded husband)

a monestary

mount ararat in the disatnce

please pray with us for matt's grandfather and my grandmother. both have been fighting cancer for quite sometime now (my g-mother- 2ish years, matt's g-father- almost a year), but it seems that in just the last few days they both have become weary of the fight. my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer (i can't remember what type) but it has spread and she has just developed a brain tumor that the doctors say is suppressing her ability to cough and will eventually cause her to get pneumonia. but her body is way too weak to fight it. and matt's gradnfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and they gave him chemo (as an, otherwise, very healthy and active 82 year-old man), which has completely torn down all of his immune system, leaving him in and out of ICU with several various illnesses. both have been given only weeks (maybe) to live.

it's hard to know exactly how to pray for the dying. do you pray that JESUS miraculously heals them or do you pray for their peace and comfort in their last days? of course, we love them so much and it hurts to think about life without them, but it also hurts to watch their pain and suffering be drawn out this way.

and this is the cool/difficult part of all...both families have several members that have never known CHRIST!!! i can't even begin to imagine the kind of hopelessness they're feeling right now. please pray, most of all, for their hearts. don't you know that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY will be glorified in both of these families?!?!

my grandmother with my sister and me at my wedding

matt's gramps and granny also at our wedding

Reconaissance Mission

we just found out about a week ago that matt has been invited to go along with a group of other chi alpha campus pastors on a missions trip at the end of this month! the reason for the trip is to make connections with the missionaries who live there in hopes that we'll be able to take teams of college students in the future. they'll get to visit 2 different countries within a week and a half. one of the countries is about 90% islamic (which is why i cannot mention the names).
we are super excited about this great opportunity and are praying that the LORD would open doors for the students at UH to go and see the need beyond this land. we believe very strongly in missions and that every student (or anybody, really) should experience what it's like to serve others in a foreign land. will you please pray with us for the protection of this team of men leaving on the 18th, and that deep connections would be made with those that live in these countries.
check back for pictures and cool stories!

we are humbled...

to those of you who read this that support us:

YOU ARE TRULY AMAZING!!!!! no really...you guys totally knock our socks off every month! and some of you just plain spoil us at other random times...and we just love it!

it's so crazy to us that just when things are getting tighter and tighter and we have no idea how to make it through the month...we receive a random check in the mail or note of encouragement. you have no idea the impact this has on us! i don't know exactly what happens in matt's heart when he discovers this sort of kindness, but it never fails that i am overwhelmed to the point of tears. it is truly humbling to know that so many people love us enough to pray for us, to think of us and to give to us. i'm just saying...you totally rock our world!

thank you for being obedient to the LORD. and for being so selfless and sacrificial. we love you so, so much!

Christmas "Break"

We have had such a whirlwind "break" this holiday season. In fact, it's been so crazy that I'm just now getting to update this thing.

Christmas:
Last year was our first Christmas as a married couple and we were able to get away with not having to travel everywhere to visit family since we had just seen most of them at the wedding. But we decided that we really wanted to see our extended family this year even though that meant adding a few extra locations to our "Christmas Travel Map." It was definitely worth the extra time and travel. We both have such amazing families and are so grateful for them...including our extended Chi Alpha family.

The World Missions Summit 2:
Oh, WOW!!! Really, not many other words can satisfy our feelings about this truly historic event. So much occurred at this conference that it would take too much to explain, but I'll try to fit what I can into a nutshell. We were in Cincinnati, Ohio for two and a half days with about 4,000+ college students and many other missionaries from around the world. There was international worship, rooms set up like different regions from around the world, and story after story after story about the grace and the love and the guidance and the provision of GOD. We also heard of many opportunities where there was great need for help. Close to 100 students pledged their futures to the LORD and told Him that they would go and do whatever would bring Him glory. And the craziest part? They really meant it. Can you even begin to imagine how much our world is about to change once these students graduate and are loosed into the far corners of the Earth to win souls for the Kingdom of GOD?! Incredible.


Itineration:
This is what Matt and I have been doing for a of couple years now to raise our personal and business budgets. Basically, we are invited to visit many different churches all over South Texas and share our vision and burden for the University of Houston. Just in the past few weeks we've visited several churches and have met many marvelous men and women of GOD. It is always so encouraging to hear how the LORD is moving in the ministries that have partnered with us.
When Matt and I visit a church, we always hope that the LORD would use us to minister to and encourage the members and the pastors of the church. And it never ceases to amaze us that we are the ones who leave deeply encouraged and blessed beyond words. I truly believe that we are in the best business on Earth. Thank you, JESUS!

So no, this has not really been much of a relaxing "vacation." But neither one of us would want it to be any other way...and we won't trade it for anything. :)