A story of an impacted life from our Brewfest outreach

Yesterday I recieved the following email from a gal who served with us at Brewfest this last weekend. For those of you that dont know what I am talking about we have the opportunity every year to provide free rides home for the annual Colorado Brewers Festival in Fort Collins. This last weekend an estimated 40,000 people were in Old Town Fort Collins enjoying the “Brewfest”. We had 7 vans giving rides all weekend and were able to give hundreds of people rides home. Durring this time of serving the community we get an opportunity to buid relationships with people and connect with them about their lives. Usually they ask us why we are doing what we are doing so we then have an opportunity to talk to them about the way that Christ has impacted our lives. This year the Campus Crusade Summer Project had over 60 students that helped us put this outreach on. Below is a story from one of the girls who was a little skeptical about the outreach but then watched God use her in an amazing way. I hope you enjoy the story:

I was one of the Campus Crusade students helping out at Brewfest in the vans on Saturday night. I just wanted to share a story with you from the night because your ministry that night was so awesome.

First of all, I was going in thinking… man… drunk people really frustrate me, and I can also remember wondering how people would receive the gospel when intoxicated. I thought, honestly, at first, that it might be kind useless to share the gospel with someone drunk and getting a free van ride home. It was a stupid and prideful thing to think, but that’s honestly when I was thinking! I knew they would appreciate the ride home and make that connection to the church, but I definitely wasn’t expected what happened.

I stood in line and started conversations with people and then would get onto the van with them in hopes of continuing the conversation. I met Katie and Kate, two girls aged about 25 from Denver. Katie was throwing up when I walked up to them. I got her a bottle of water and some towels and then offered to pray for her. She was thankful to have someone taking care of her.

Kate, her friend, however, was a lot more sober. She got deeply involved in conversation with me, and I ended up being able to share the gospel with her. She received it, and at first, it was kind of like, “maybe someday I’ll get there.” She talked about how good she felt after going to a church service and how her Christian aunt had been trying to reach out to her.

I remember I said something like, “how does it make you feel that God put me in your path?” She actually responded that she thought it felt like God was reaching down to her in her lowest point. I talked about asking God for a blank sheet of paper, to start over and live for something better than how she was living now. She was starting to get really serious in her sentences, noting that she really needed this. I got out my Cru Knowing God Personally booklet and asked her which circle she wanted to fit into… a life without Christ in the picture or the circle with the self yielding to Christ, and she very excitedly pointed to the second circle.

I asked if I could pray with her and help her receive the Holy Spirit. When we got out of the van, she grabbed me in a very tight embrace, and tears rolling down her face, she said out loud that she needed Jesus and wanted to be forgiven. Wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I prayed for her for a while, and she stood there for a while and just hugged me tightly. As she walked away, she turned back and said, “thank you for helping me start to change my life.”

How cool is that? Praise God!!!!! I was so excited. She was so honest and it was so real. I gave her my email, and she said she’d be in contact.

What an encouraging story and one that will keep us going back to Brewfest year after year. (Even if it takes me 3 days to recover).

Let Love Live.

God’s Spirit Goes Deeper Than Chemicals

Last night as we were on our shift I was able to drive a van and pick up people that we had made contacts with. We had a great time and before we headed out for the night our team made a pact with each other that not one person could get out of one of our vans without hearing who Jesus was and what He has done for us. It was something that we have challenged our team with and it is something that our team really took to heart.

My van in particular was committed to spreading the Gospel message in the lives of others. There was one person in particular named Cody who got into my van. I ran into him when we dropped a couple of girls off at a club. As one of our team members was praying for the girls outside the club (We pray for safety and a sound mind to make good decisions for each girl that we encounter). Cody was barely making any sense and all he kept saying was “Comfort Suites, room 317. Comfort Suites, room 317”. We drove him to Comfort Suites, which ironically was only 4 blocks from where he was, he was so drunk he didn’t realize it. We got to Comfort Suites and he was ready to get out, he opened the door of the van and stepped out, as he stepped out we told him that Jesus loves him and that God has a plan for his life. He stopped and said, “I know but I am messing it all up.” With that he turned and walked away, I shouted, “You know, it isn’t a coincidence you are in room 317. You need to come back and read John 3:17”. With that, Bear, one of our leaders and intern staff with nine70 helped him back into the van. When he was there Bear read him John 3:17 and then asked him if he know what John 3:16 said. Cody said, “Of course I do, I grew up in church”. Bear started, “For God so loved the..” and before Bear could say anything else, Cody, this guy who was slurring his words and kept repeating, “Comfort Suites room 317” on cue said, “world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” We all smiled and after that we had a great conversation with him. It seemed that the Holy Spirit sobered him up a bit and he and Bear spent the next hour talking about God’s forgiveness. (We were driving others around at this point so everyone that got in and out of our van heard this conversation). Cody kept talking about how he keeps messing up what God has done and couldn’t see how Jesus could forgive him for all he has done, especially the things he has done on Spring Break in South Padre. We prayed for him and read him scripture. He thanked us up and down and said, “You guys are really cool, thanks for talking to me. My friends even left me and wont talk to me but you guys dont even know me and are talking to me.” Bear got his information and they are going to meet for lunch at Denny’s today.

Selling Drugs Or Being A Dad – Beach Reach 09

Last night before we started our shift we had some “family time”. We spent some time talking about how God has impacted our lives and what we have witnessed the Holy Spirit doing. One story that was shared was by one of our teammates named Mike Pintaric. Mike has come before on this trip and is a High School teacher that loves reaching out to others. He told of a story of a guy that they saw on the island. I think his name was Jamie. Jamie wasn’t wearing any shoes and got a ride from one of our vans, the one that Mike was driving. For 4 hours Jamie just wanted to ride in the van and was very curious as to why our teams were driving people around for free and having a great time doing it. For 4 hours he heard our team talk to people and speak words of life from the Holy Spirit to people that got in and out of the van. Throughout the night our team got to know Jamie’s story more and more and he shared about the struggles of his life. He said that he has a family that he needs to support but doesn’t make a lot of money working so he has started dealing drugs. He seemed to be really drawn to a life of selling drugs and knows that he needs to make a decision between selling drugs or his family.

The Holy Spirit really was working. Our van driver Mike started sharing a little bit about his own life and experience. Mike said that when he was very young his dad had to choose between selling cocaine and being a dad, and Mike’s dad chose the drugs. Mike told Jamie that his whole life he wished that his dad had chosen the family, no matter how much they would struggle financially. It was a powerful example of God intersecting our lives with those who are walking through situations in which we have walked through previously. Our God is good!!! Mike said he was welling up with tears as he was talking and Jamie also was welling up with tears. Jamie then talked about his questions about faith and God and our van tenderly walked Jamie through what it means to be a follower of Jesus. After 4 hours of talking Jamie gave his life to Jesus and said that he was going to choose God and choose his family. PRAISE GOD!!

One girl in our van, Lauren (Who is one of our leaders) asked him if he had a Bible to read from. He said that he didn’t and Lauren gave him her own Bible, her study Bible that she has used for a long time with all of her notes, highlighted passages and years of Spiritual Nourishment for her, she gave it to him and told him to make sure that he reads it. What an unselfish act of God’s love.

Stories like this are still waiting to happen. As I write this we are at a morning pancake breakfast where Spring Breakers are flocking to a parking lot where we set up a pancake stand. Keep praying for the men and women of this team, we were driving till 3 this morning and had to be at the pancake breakfast at 10. Some on our team are wearing down and starting to get sick, we are praying, trusting God and taking a TON of Vitamin C (Airborne is our friend) .

I’m Glad You Put It That Way – Beach Reach 09

Well it is Monday morning and last night was our first full night of ministry here on the island. We met in the hotel lobby at 10pm to get ready for our evening shifts. Our duty on Sunday night was to run the hotline room (Take phone reservations and pick people up in vans) and to be in the prayer room. As we were heading down to the lobby I ran into 6 guys in a hallway. We got to talking and I asked where one of the guys was from they said “We are all from UNC and it took them 22 hours to drive here. I thought to myself that North Carolina was a lot farther away than 22 hours but I totally dismissed the fact that they meant Greeley because that would just be too weird. Well, I was wrong and I could sense God smiling as we were talking. These guys in fact are from UNC in Greely and play football at UNC. I told them we were from Fort Collins and they really freaked out. I have done some work with FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) at UNC so I was able to talk to them about the great ministry FCA is doing on their campus. I was able to give them a ride to their destination and got their phone number. It really is encouraging to see God ordain encounters like that, of all the hotels here in Padre, He put us in the same hotel (ON the same floor) as guys that are 20 min away from Fort Collins. This started a great night of conversation.

My duty while I am out here is to run our midnight pancake breakfast outside Louie’s Backyard Grill. We serve pancakes from 11pm – 3am and run free rides from there. I was working with 3 teams from churches in Texas and these young people did a great job facilitating what has the potential to be absolute chaos. I was able to have some conversations there with Spring Breakers and I want to tell you about my new friends Justin / Jessica. I saw Justin stumbling towards the pancake tent and got him some water and pancakes. He thanked me up and down and said that we were doing a great thing. He introduced me to his wife Jessica and told me that they were in their late 20s and wanted to come and hang out in Padre during Spring Break because they have never been here on Spring Break. We got to talking and the conversation came to church and why we were doing what we were. As I was telling them Jessica told me that she grew up in church and missed going to church. I told them that God loved them and that if they needed anything to please let us know. after that I walked away. Well about 10 min later Jessica came running up to me and grabbed my arm with Justin close behind. She said, “Can you tell us about that verse that talks about being unequally yoked.” I pulled out my pocket BIble and showed here 2 Corinthians and this started a great discussion on faith. She was about in tears and said, “I thought that Justin was a Christian when we got married but ever since we got married we haven’t been to church since.” We talked about this for about 45 min and we talked about the things that were holding Justin back from giving his heart to the Lord. I shared with him a story about a court room scene in which he was the guilty party and for his crime he was going to get the death penalty, then I told him that his best friend’s dad was the judge and how his best friend walked into the courtroom and asked his dad to take the cuffs of of his arms and to put it on his best friends’ arms. I used this story to tell him how Christ took the punishment for our sins and died in our place. HE looked at me and said, “I am so glad you put it that way, that is deep.” We are going to hopefully meet for coffee later this week.

Another girl named Ahmen and I started talking. She was from India and said that she couldn’t be a Christian because of her culture and how her parents would react (God really didn’t give her a chance because I was the wrong person to say that to) I told her that I knew exactly what that was like. I encouraged her to not try to be a Christian but to realize that God wants a relationship with her. I told her that people instituted religion, God instituted a relationship.

These are just the stories that i experienced. I am going to try to get stories and interviews from those on our teams. Thanks friends for praying for us and supporting us. It is making a difference down here!