CBS ’08 Mark 1 Recap

Just got back from Campus by the Sea for our one week Spring Break Retreat! We brought about 90 students to spend a week doing inductive bible study on the book of Mark. What this is is basically our students get a blank manuscript (double spaced scripture with chapter, verses, paragraphs removed) and we spend a week together in class going through the scripture verse by verse. It was a powerful week of studying scripture together and getting to know Jesus in a powerful way.

This was the first time I got to teach manuscript style bible study to students. It was such a joy to teach, and God has definitely been sparking in me a greater love for teaching his word. There is something life changing about studying scripture in its entirety, looking for major themes and really letting it challenge our hearts. It was amazing to co-teach this class with another staff worker, Jesse. God also blessed us with a third staff worker Jen, who was going through Mark for the first time with our students, but also got to connect and pray with the girls in our class. God definitely blessed our time together as we saw God move powerfully in healing lives and revealing himself to our students.

What’s been super exciting is to just hear testimony after testimony of how God has been moving in our class out students. They were all definitely rocked through the week as they got to know Jesus more deeply. Some of them were healed as they realized that Jesus had the power to heal their past sins and clean them. Many of the younger students walked off the island with a new sense of authority and leadership over their lives. They shared through the week about how Jesus was challenging them to be an evangelistic presence in their dorms and communities. Others, who have have known Jesus most of their lives were challenged as they saw Jesus in fresh new ways, sparking their hunger to continue to learn more about him and allow Him to change their hearts. I was particularly blessed through three new believers in our class, who all had incredible breakthroughs with the Lord through the week. One of those students shared on the last day how she’d been struggling with depression for months until it was broken this week through getting to know Jesus. Finally, for all of us, I truly believe we got a deeper look at the Kingdom of God this week. I believe the enemy lost incredible ground this week as we studied what it meant to be agents of God’s Kingdom. It is truly an exciting place to be!!!

Finally, this week was an incredible week for me as I learned something powerful about Jesus- that he truly has the power to change lives. It was such a joy and honor for me to teach and watch my students as Jesus just rocked their lives one by one. It was powerful to see past brokenness healed, sins cleansed, communities built, and kingdom purposes released. I was brought to tears the last day as each student shared what new thing about Jesus they had learned through the week. It was incredible! I truly believe that this week will be a week that my students will remember for the rest of their lives, and it was such a joy and privilege to be used by the Lord to do his will. This is one of the best things I get to do as a staff and I am definitely walking away with a renewed sense of purpose for why I do what I do. Praise God!

PLEASE watch the youtube video up top. It’s powerful, and will definitely give you a glimpse of how God moved.