Solos, Packtrip, and Purity

 Recently...........

Well, our Venture team has been busy. In our last blog we asked for prayer concerning the venture's 48 hour solo, and God was faithful again. First the weather was calling for rain the entire time we were out, but it did not rain until we were well on our way back to campus. God is sovereign in the small things too. The Venture students learned  and enjoyed their time with the Lord during those 48 hours. Some thought it was difficult, some thought it could have been longer, but over all the sense was positive and the value of true silence and solitude was captured. Everyone was safely kept by the Lord and we're grateful for the time we got to share after the experience. 

Shortly after that the team was off to the mountains again to experience packing in on horses. Each of them learned how to saddle, ride, and care for their own horse as well as set up a back country camp, cook, and all of the work that goes into the animals out there. We were blessed by a local rancher/outfitter with the use of his 18 pack animals and equipment. This kind of trip is much work with much reward.  Our staff member Kevin Lytle taught the students art of leading a trip like this with all it's work skills and people dynamics they might encounter. We are again so grateful for the safety God granted us with a total of 16 people and 25 horses camped together in the Mountains! In the past, several students have gone on to use this packing class in further ministry opportunities. It is always our hope that in each outdoor class and experience the students are challenged personally, taught the skill, taught to lead in it, and given the opportunity to take it further into ministry. 

Currently...........

For the next 5 weeks left in our semester the Venture team is stationed here on Campus. Their classes from here on out will be instructed by our resident and visiting faculty. This week they are studying  Absolute Purity with Peter Wetendorf.  Pray for them to see clearly what absolute purity entails in their own lives and to desire to work at it with discipline. As leaders we desire to be bold and Biblical in our lifestyles and teaching and we desire also for these students to rise to the occasion in their own realm. Caitlin Elya, one of the Venture students has said that the purity class has been relevant and challenging in her life. Peter has challenged each of the students to draft an intentional and specific personal purity plan for their current situation and the future. This has been a huge encouragement to Caitlin on how to intentionally live with absolute purity with no exceptions. 

Pray............

We are so blessed again by this team and are so encouraged to see their leadership with the students and to see how the students are responding so positively to them. God is at work in hearts here so pray against the schemes of our enemy to seek, steal, and destroy these people.  We have full confidence that God is refining and will continue to in these students as they are seeking Him! Pray also for their upcoming weeks of class. They will be studying the following: 

Leadership Principles in the Church Body- Dave Barnhart, Bible Study Meathods- Jim Carlson, Communication- Delvin Hackwith, and Leadership Principles in Contentment- John Erickson. 

Pray for their hearts and their minds to be engaged in each course. As we near the end of our semester a tendency amongst everyone here is to become anxious for winter break and to slightly disengage from the place. 

Pray for a continued excitement about learning in class and from the community life we share. Pray for the first year students especially as they gear up to go back home and leave the fellowship they've been sharing for the past semester. It is usually bittersweet to have a break and miss the "family" environment created amongst the class.                                                     Pray for their strength to step up spiritually when situations call for it. A place we would like to see all our hearts here is to crying out "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." (Psalm 84:10)

Thank you again for your prayers for this school and this team of Venture students. We hope you enjoy hearing about the events and classes in the Venture's life. And that you yourself are encouraged in your life.  

In Christ ~ Adam and Brooke  Jordan