How it began

  I suppose the whole escapade began when a roommate of Ian and Philemon ( the missionaries) was planning to move out after graduation. During the time leading up to graduation I became good friends with both Ian and Phil. I also happened to be praying for more Laborers – you know how Jesus normally works these things out. Ian, the owner of the house, then proceeded to request me as a roommate and desire that the entire house be turned into a missionary house. If he had only knew what he was asking, and the kind of cup he was trying to drink.

What needed to be done

        These two young men were to be trained in the same material I learned through CAMPUS: how to be men with the Leadership of Nehemiah, ones with the Integrity of Daniel, with the passion for evangelism like Paul with the humility of Mary and the love for souls of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though imperfect, somehow we, the teachers of these two, were to give them an example of godly living and inspire them to have a heart that desires to usher in the coming of our Lord.

Preparing for the task

           With such an enormous task at hand, it quickly became apparent that if this was going to happen, and if God truly willed it, then there were some things that were going to be necessary. In devotions, I asked the Lord, What do I need? response: teachers, solid, godly teachers. You need materials – books that they can read. You need access to ministry retreats, meetings, and planning sessions. They need a work to do, a mission field so to speak and daily mandates such as cooking, cleaning etc for the sake of learning faithfulness. Above all you will need faith, that I the Lord will provide the finances, I will lead you all in the way everlasting, and that I will form balanced missionaries in the two of them. Thus, the preparations were made and the Lord brought all the necessary components together (and is still bringing more).

What is happening

      Today 3 men of different social, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual backgrounds are living together. We are starting to recognize that we are not perfect, but also learning how to accept one another for our strengths and our flaws. We get excited together about the ministry of God, and we are discouraged together about the ministry of God. We spend way too much time together because we are starting to say the same jokes and complete one another’s thoughts (that’s somewhat scary).

How it works

     In terms of spirituality, each week we have 3 devotionals one led by one of the three of us (except on weeks with class). Once a month the missionaries have classes for Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a guest teacher by Skype, in person or by travel. They have classes on such subjects as Evangelism, How to do Campus ministries, Hermaneutics and more. Along with these, each missionary has tasks to do around the house so that we are ever learning the disciplines of faithfulness. It is exciting to see that the missionaries are growing at their own pace and the many sides of them that do not reflect Jesus are being reformed. Through this close interaction, we are forming a brotherhood, a group of missionaries under one Lord.

Results

     Currently, there is a mixture of Adventists and Non-Adventists that we are ministering to. The Friday night college group that we minister to is rapidly growing as new students are coming. The three of us have befriended an atheist friend who is now baffled by how “nice” we are, this same friend would like to come to GYC with us and experience Christianity. The Lord is bringing students from Germany, Lesotho, Texas, Oklahoma City and many more places as the ministry at the small church found in Norman is growing. Just this past Friday, two people coming to our Bible Studies said, “I think this is definitely the place where the Lord is calling me”. To some it is small, to me it is big.

Where its going?

          Who knows what plans the Lord has for these two. The goal, as one of my mentor once told me, is to help them become the best “them” they can be in Jesus. The goal is to prepare them, to be able to fulfill any role our Lord would have them fulfill. Through this and many other small things they are quickly becoming a great blessing to my life and they have

quickly secured a section among my best friends.

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This blog was written by Rodney, CAMPUS MTP graduate and student in Oklahoma.