Financial Update

      Hey everyone! I wanted to let you in on the exciting news I just recently found out. I am now fully supported for the amount I set out to raise at First Glance!!! It has been a long process, but one that I continually got to see God working through. Thank you, my supporters in prayer and financially for helping to make this happen.

      When I set out on this journey of stepping into the unknown, I tried to be as faithful as possible with how I raised and spent my money. I did not feel comfortable with using the money I was raising to pay of my school loan, so I decided I would stay at the fire department on a limited part-time basis, and use the money I made there to pay off my loans. I have since paid off all of my loans using only money from the fire department. I was able to do this because I was living as frugally as possible, and not planning ahead drastically towards the future and setting large sums of money asideas savings, but trusting that God would provide for me.

      I budgeted out all of my other expenses and figured out that I really only needed a little under $1000 to live on per month. Over these last nine months I have definitely had to dig into my emergency fund, but God has been faithful, and I have never had to go without anything I need. I definitely also solidified the difference between things I want and things I need. I tried to ask as little as I could of people, and instead bring my needs to God, and he always provided, despite my lack of faith sometimes. I know I need to trust him way more with my finances, and realize that it all comes from him, and it is just on loan to me.

      As I move forward in life with a little more money at my disposal in the future, I am praying about how God would best have me use the money he has gifted me with. I am asking, “what is the best way God wants us to manage money?”, and “what exactly does Jesus say about how to use it?”, and “does what the majority of churches in the U.S. teach actually line up with what is in the Bible?” These are tough questions that I am mulling over, and I would encourage you to open up your finances to what God wants to do with them as well. It is just another area of our lives that God wants us to FULLY surrender to him and trust him with. 

DO WE REALLY BELIEVE HE IS WORTHY TO BE TRUSTED IN ALL AREAS OF OUR LIVES OR DO WE JUST LIKE SAYING IT WITHOUT BACKING IT UP WITH ACTION?

      Another praise in the financial area is that my fiancé got a job! We are so grateful that God provided us with a job for her, and not only that, but one where she gets to use her Spanish skills. We really would like to pay of her college debt as quick as possible, because the more I look at the Bible the more I see that it speaks against having debt. So Lord willing, we will be able to live off my combined salery, and use hers as much as possible to pay of debt.

So thats it for this update.

Thanks for your love and support, and I would love to hear your thoughts on how God would have us manage money.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin

Student Leader Retreat

   This past weekend I took my student leaders out to Camp Carl for a retreat. I had nine of my students go so it was a fairly small retreat, but it was a great time. The rain stopped just in time, my wonderful sister, and beautiful fiance came along to help lead, and Camp Carl proved to be just as beautiful and mystical as usual. All in all it was a great weekend and a time to have spiritual conversations, and grow as leaders.

     We left Friday night and drove through the rain to Camp Carl. The whole time I kept praying that it would stop raining, because many of the activities I had planned were outdoors. Sometimes God answers even the smallest of prayers that you wouldn't think he cares about. As we pulled into camp, the rain stopped. We were able to do all of our team building exercises outside. We were able to get through quite a few teambuilding activities in the camps challenge course, with only minimal disagreements. All in all, I have seen them work better together before, but they did a great job listening to each others suggestions, and taking leadership during the activities, both things we have been working on. They definitely have shown great improvement since he first time we did a teambuilding game nine months ago. They were not even able to finish one activity in an hour, and were fighting, and making fun of each other the whole time. It is definitely encouraging to see.

     Our topic for the retreat was servent leadership. It was a great way to bring more spirituality into the lessons as Jesus is the prime example of what a servent leader looked like. There were a couple kids on the retreat who going into the retreat seemed very closed off in my previous experiences in talking about my faith with them. During the retreat I was talking with one of the girls (who claims she is Wiccan)and she said even though she doesn't have the same beliefs I do, she respects what I have to say. I continue to keep praying for her, and many of the other kids who are without God's truth in their lives. I know that ultimately nothing I say will change their hearts, only God can, so I will faithfully continue to bring them before his throne in prayer. We have seen him answer time and time again at First Glance, and I know he will again.

     Another cool thing on this retreat was getting to see students outside of their normal environment, facing their fears. It was cool to see the students faces light up when they got to ride the horses for the first time. Many of them were at least a little afraid, but they faced their fears, which is an incredible thing for many of them. It was also many of their favorite activity! Another thing we did was paintball. While some were definitely afraid they again conquered their fears and did it anyway. Many of them enjoyed that as well. There were the occasional temper flare ups, but overall it was good experience.

     The retreat as a whole was a success. We were able to have some great lessons about being servent leaders, and able to bring the gospel into how Jesus was the ultimate servent leader. We were also able to have intentional conversations and build better relationships with many of the students. I am excited to see where God continues to direct this program! Please continue to be in prayer for me as these next two weeks, I will really be putting together the foundation of the student leader program for the next year. I definitely need prayer for wisdom and discipline, so I can get a lot of the planning done for next year, so I have more flexibility to spend time hanging out with students, and really "doing life" with them over the summer.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe