“I think my faith is at the first step to seek Jesus. I used to take the Old Testament class as freshman. We have the Choir performance seasonally in church. Currently I am not a religion person to practice faith. But I do know God exists. I am not a atheist. I am willing to hear his words.” Reflected Chris who is a senior and joined the music program to perform Trumpet.

Let us keep praying for Chris growth in God and more faithful students can be found and each day to get more contacts.

Evangelizing numerous young people will be top priority. The focus will be to reach out students at Grandview University and Drake University and church neighborhood. The goal is to set up three students at each campus to register AM & YEF accordingly.

The goal to evangelize is to find 12 students who can also join the Easter retreat and OLI in Summer.

Pastoral team including Bible Teacher; Prayer Leader; Praise Leader and Deacon will be set up by the end of Feb. The church family Nicolas and Sharon will have a trip to Elim Center and Dover to get more training from Feb 6.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” (Phil 3:13)

“The basic requirement to register AM or YEF officially on campus is to have at least three students who have the same vision and willing to submit the documents and one advisor.” Shared Sharon”

“Drake University has the religion major.  While Grandview University has the undergraduate program of Theology & Philosophy. So it will not be difficult to find advisor. Lots of effort has to be put to find faithful students who could see the truth are willing to do it. Big door to evangelize many students will open once AM  & YEF officially register at campus.” Added missionary Sharon.

Let us continue to pray for Holy Spirit guide all the steps towards registration.

“I know there is God which is a higher power. I am interested in studying Bible tomorrow at 6:00 pm.” Shared Thomas who is a transferred student.

“Please pray for my management of time. I want to make room for Jesus no matter how busy I am.” Shared Alex who is majored at sports management.

“There will be 2 Bible Study set up tomorrow. When the quantity changes first, quality will change. This is how the miracle of water change into wince happened. When the six jars of water are filled out first then God will change it into wine. The goal is that this week I can get 40 students who are interested and teach four  Bible Study.” Reflected minister Sharon

Date: April 1st

Time: To Be Decided

Please contact Sharon at (515) 661-0930 for details.

Location: 3008 E9th Street

Time: 10:40am-4:00pm

Location: Dover, New York.

Please contact Sharon (515) 661-0930 for details

“Matthew 13：47 The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. To go finish is to mean to evangelize all kinds of people. In Luke 8, when there is storm on the lake, the disciples said, ‘Master, we are going to drown.’ But in John 21:7, When Peter recognized it is the Lord, he jumped into the water immediately and 153 fish was caught. The Lord is the governor of all the creation, including the lake and so he could calm all the storm, walk on the lake. The important thing for us is to go out to spread the good news and testify the grace we got from the retreat. To show we love him by feeding his lambs.” Preached the minister Sharon.

“The message is very challenging for me. To show that we love the Lord is to feed his lamb.  I could love the ones that love me but to love the stranger or the one who hate me is not easy.” Reflected Bruce from Sioux Falls.

“In 1Thess 5, it mentioned the time and the date, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. We are the son of the light and son of the day. This part reminds me a lot to be alert.” Shared  JR from Des Moines.

“The dream of kingdom of God comes to me more clearly through this retreat. I come to this earth is in the plan and will of God and also I can see the fall and corruption inside of me. But only by the precious blood of Jesus Christ I can be saved.” Reflected minister Lois from Wichita.

Allen’s family, Becky and Kristia from Des Moines and Tracy’s family from Wichita helped out the lunch to cook hamburger.

After lunch, all the participants head back to their own city with the grace received from this retreat to bear fruit and expect to meet again.

” ‘Simon son of John, do you love me？’ ‘Yes, Lord you know that I love you.’ ‘Feed my lambs.’ ” (John 21:15)

For the Bible Reading, minister Sharon will read NT 3 chapter from Matthew and OT 2 chapter from Genesis and memorize 3 Bible Verses per day. Staff Nicolas and church attendant Jack will decide the method by Wed.

For the evangelism, from Jan 8- Feb 16, minister Sharon will walk on the 40 days to keep the standard 2-2-2 (the other time is for TM work and rebuild church work) to evangelize at Grandview University which is 5 minutes away from church to set up YEF or AM (to be decided).

Nicolas will start to make evangelism post and create a survey for the students at Iowa State University which is 40 minutes away from Des Moines. Since it is a public state university, it will be must easier to reach out students than the private university like Grandview or Drake.

From Jan 1-Jan 6 will be the time for preparation to renew church website, create new post and survey and have conversation closely with YEF or AM to make great strategy for the new semester.

Let us continue to pray for Sophia Church can do the preparation work well this week.