On the way to the Valley

Pslam 145:5-6 "They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—

    and I will meditate on your wonderful works. 

⁶ 

They tell of the power of your awesome works— 

    and I will proclaim your great deeds."

Reflecting after the Vail valley experience, God is worthy of SO much praise for all he did this summer -- I would love to share some of his awesome works! This is the first of 3 parts (On the way, In the Valley, Comming down the mountain). Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Why Vail? "Suffering for Jesus," is a phrase often joked about as we walked under the shade of the aspen leaves in a beautiful Colorado valley. Vail needs Jesus too. I chose to spend my summer in Vail for a few reasons:

Vail Summer Project is a project that focuses mainly on three things: inward growth toward Christ, Relational (co-worker) ministry, and leadership development. I needed to grow in all three of these areas (don't we all?). I especially liked the coworker ministry development. My dream and purpose in life is to be a part of a movement for Christ, a generation of multipliers through evangelism and discipleship. Learning how to share the Gospel in a real world context would benefit me and help me train others how to do the same. This summer experience may be some of the most important training for my personal ministry and for God's kingdom.

I was scared, excited, and unsure all at the same time. I simply prayed "God, would you be glorified if I spend my summer for you?". He said he would. So I confirmed my spot and began to trust God to raise 3,500 in a couple months!

P.S. If you are a college student and this even somewhat excites you, begin praying now for two things: Opportunities to serve Him and the heart to say YES! when he presents such and opportunity.

And of course, living in and outdoor enthusiast's heaven on earth also drew me to this project :)

My car was packed and I was heading to spend a summer full of growth and love with 24 other college students, non of whom I had ever met.  (More posts on the way)

Vail Support Project Support Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

                                    

I would like to update you on my current adventures.  I am wrapping up my junior year at Fort Lewis College.  I am a student leader with Master Plan Ministries which is in connection with Cru (a mission organization that is committed to bringing the Love and Gospel of Jesus Christ to those all over the world. Focusing on winning (evangelism), building (discipleship) and sending (mission trips) college students all over the world). Through this ministry, among other activities, I encourage college-aged men through discipleship and reach out to my campus by sharing God’s Good News about Jesus.

I am majoring in Psychology while my plan after graduation is to join a full time college ministry staff.  Serving and encouraging college students to make His Glory known has become my greatest passion.  God has done so much in my life in these three years and He still has so many great opportunities ahead of me.  One such opportunity is to go on a Summer Missions Project this summer in Vail, Colorado. 

Vail Summer Project is 9 weeks, May 31 to August 5, involving about 40 college students.  The project uses the outdoors as a training ground and education tool to teach about the Holy Spirit, Evangelism, and living lives of authenticity with each other and the Lord.  We will experience what it looks like to “do ministry” in a real life context, the workplace. We will also serve the community through outreach and community service. Vail Summer Project is going to be an awesome opportunity for me, my future co-workers, and for my personal ministry (more details about the project can be found at: http://www.arkpages.com/vail/ ).

In order to make this project possible I need support from a team of partners—a group of people like you to be involved through prayer and finical support.  The total cost of the project is $3,800 (this includes housing, some meals, materials, etc.).  This is a great opportunity for me to trust God’s provision.

I wrote this letter to ask if you would prayerfully consider joining my team of partners through prayer and finical support.  Are you willing to support my Summer Project by donating $50, $100, or $200? Of course, any amount will be helpful and greatly appreciated. 

All donations to Campus Crusade for Christ are tax-deductible. Donations can be made on a secure website: http://www.arkpages.com/vail/team-members/brandon-cox/ . Checks can be made out to Campus Crusade for Christ (memo: Brandon Cox) and sent to:

Brandon Cox

FLC 7594 1000 Rim Drive

 Durango, CO 81301

Also, I probably don't have your mail address (my generation doesn't utilize address books). I would love to send you a support letter through the mail; could you message me your address? You can contact me at bcox90@gmail.com or facebook.com/bcox90

I appreciate your time, prayers, and consideration about supporting my Summer Project.

Thank you,

Brandon Cox

Climbing for the Glory of God

Phew, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. And so much has happened. A sufficient highlight would be "God is good!" Or, as Psalms 117 puts it, "For great is his love towards us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever".

Over that last several months I have seen non believers become new believers. I experienced God's protection walking away from rolling a Jeep 1.5 times totaling it in the process. I participated in a 1,300 student flash-mob doing the "Tebow". Then we initiated spiritual conversations with people in downtown Denver. I got to see my girlfriend lead a high school girl to Christ. I got to help, encourage, and follow one of my brothers in Christ start a deep devotion to prayer for revival on our college campus, our generation, and for all of the world. We will share stories from this semester for all of eternity.

"... do it all for the glory of God."

God has been teaching me through tangible examples of what 1 Corinthians 10:31 means. "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." I like how a friend of mine put it, "If we are called to glorify God when we're eating a sandwich, how much more should we glorify God in our relationships!" The same can be said for anything that we do, especially the things we do often.

A growing passion in my life has been rock climbing. I love it all, scrambling on a boulder low to the ground with a crash pad or ascending large cliffs overlooking beautiful Colorado. But what does it look like glorify God in a harness?

One cool story: My roommate and I have been training in the indoor climbing wall many days of the week. Fort Lewis college students are so down to earth and climbers are exponentially more welcoming. All to be said that we have been easily building relationships with the local climbing community (an area I have been trusting God to grow). We met "Tom". We transitioned small talk and route "betas" into friendship and invites to our events. "Be wise how you act among non-believers, making the most of every opportunity" Colossians 4:5. Last Thursday, Dakota, my roommate, invited Tom to eat dinner with us and several other college students. The cool part of the story is that one of our brothers in Christ, Joseph, has been praying for Tom and inviting him as well! In fact, minutes after Dakota's invite, Joseph unknowingly chased down Tom to invite him to dinner."Well since I've been invited twice in five minutes, I guess I should go". The rest of the story involves deeper friendship, getting contact info, and exposing Tom to the gospel. Pray for Tom that he comes to know Jesus Christ as Savior if he hasn't already done so and that we would be faithful to the opportunity to guide him to the Truth.

A day or two later, we went climbing and invited several students that are "new" to the group. It is essential in ministry and proved true through my own life that newcomers need to feel welcomed and loved by other Christians. How cool? We can use climbing as outreach and as strengthening relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ!

I pray to keep learning how to glorify God in all I do. I know that God has put me in Durango, Colorado, one of the best climbing areas in America, so that using the Holy Spirit through me, people would seek God, perhaps reach out to Him and find life in Jesus (Acts 17:27).

I encourage you to do the same. Use you passions and desires to glorify God. Build relationships, share the gospel, and strengthen those around you.

Please pray for me Paul's prayer in Ephesians 6:19 "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be give me so that I will fearlessly make know the mystery of the gospel."

Greece Pictures... !

I returned from Greece with amazing stories, new friends (Greek and American), more lbs from great food, all wrapped in experiencing God's loving faithfulness. Check out the vid below and the slideshow to see some pictures. The post before this has a link to the facebook group for more detailed updates... Thanks again for the views, support, and prayers!

Until He returns,

Brandon.

Greece Summer Project '11

Greece update...

I don't know where to begin. Athens is beautiful,  the food is amazing, and God is testifying to his goodness all around us. I have been in Athens for two weeks and I will be here for two more. We will be spending an additional week in Corinth for debrief about our trip.

One of my top favorite things about the trip so far is growing closer to my team. We are all from the "Great Plains" of central U.S., but most of us didn't know each other before the trip. In the fundraising stage before the trip I often received lots of encouragement from them. Now that we are here and are growing our friendships, the team is all the more encouraging. My teammate on campus, Stephanie, asks each day, "Brandon, how can I encourage you today?" Each day we get more comfortable and more goofy with each other while at the same time sharing our common passion of knowing God and making him known.

One of the main purposes of this trip is to meet Greek university students that share with us the vision of hope for Greece through Jesus Christ. Hope is a rare thing here in Greece. The economy is falling hard, the citizins don't trust their government, and people are leaving the country for better opportunities.

In the face of such things, we have been blessed to find hope with certain students and a hunger for Jesus himself. Students tell us they are optomistic in trusting God. One girl said "I believe that Church is more than a building." One young man was excited to share about his love for God and the effectiveness of prayer. He told us that he prays every day on the way to his lessons and that he notices a sharp difference on the days that he does not pray. Each day on campus we meet more students that are interested in spiritual topics and how the bible applies to our daily lives.

Of course there are the students that are not as optimistic, but that's what's great about Greece; they LOVE to talk! They are so so courious why we have such faith and why we traveled half way around the world to spend our summer on a hot grafitti-filled campus. They are so open-minded. An average conversation last over 2hours. When we have to leave in the middle of a conversation we have to apologize and explain clearly why we have to leave. We have been on campus initianting conversations about 10 days for around 3 hours a day. With the average converstaion rate; we have talked to about 20 groups of friends or "paraeas" and all of them have been so amazing and spirit filled.

We are not only here to have spiritual converations on campus. We are also initiating to have second and thrid follow-up meetings. We hope to clearly present the gospel and to offer a safe place to grow spiritually all while building genuine friendships. These students that we follow up with and are interested we hope to "pass-off" to the full time staff/interns. Americans can only do so much here in Greece and trust the rest to God, but it will have to be Greek students filled with the Holy Spirit that take this message to their country and beyond.

Well, this is a summary of what I'm doing here in Athens. Stay tuned for more specific stories and prayer requests. You can also get more current updates at my facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.php?sk=group_187878114590173&ap=1 just request to join. There are plenty of pictures with more to come.

Thank you so much. God bless you.

Encouraging story: NightVision, Soularium, Knowing God Personally

Heavenly Father may this story be a reminder to us of your goodness.

Last summer I volunteered at NightVision with the evangelism team. I was really excited for this event. That summer I had been living in the mountains without too many evangelism opportunities. I had been listening to Master Plan Ministries’ evangelism MP3s, praying, reading Nate’s evangelism blog, and fasting. God was using all this to grow my desire to share his Good News (Psalm 37:4).

Day one of NightVision I got to witness to a lot of people. I felt like it was more encouragement than witnessing because almost every person I talked to already had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The morning was a bit slow so I decided to just jam out to the great Christian bands in the afternoon. The whole time I was jamming out, I knew more and more people that didn't yet have a personal relationship with Jesus were walking into the concert. I knew now was the time to share, but I just enjoyed the music. The Holy Spirit convicted me and I repented (James 4:17).

On day two of NightVision I felt great as if day one was a warm-up. I still felt convicted, but in a good way. It was a reminder to seek more opportunities. I had a great day sharing the gospel using the Soularium tool. When I returned from dinner I put a Soularium in my pocket and prayed to be filled by the Holy Spirit. Just then I saw all of my friends in the front row jamming out and praising God. Begging to walk towards my friends, God stopped me in my tracks.

I felt strongly convicted to go share and I also strongly wanted to go jam out. Like a three year-old I had an obedience battle with my Father, my will vs. God’s. God won. I headed off to go share the gospel alone. Feeling pretty scared, I stopped and prayed some more (which gave me boldness).

I came up to three high school girls and asked them if they wanted to do a photo survey (Soularium). Slightly embarrassed and confused they agreed to do the survey. The embarrassment quickly transitioned into interest in the survey and getting to know each other. As I went through the survey I remember them saying that they all wanted to be beautiful brides one day. I observed a few clues that they had not yet made a decision to know God personally. They asked how other surveys turned out so I shared how I got to share a Knowing God Personally (KGP) booklet with a young man earlier that day. They asked, "Can you share that booklet with us?" Usually, after the Soularium questions a transition needs to be made to get into the KGP, but these girls asked me to share it with them before we even got half way through the survey!

I began to guide them through the booklet. I read law one that Jesus loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. I read John 3:16 to them and asked, “have any of you ever heard this verse?” they all hadn’t. Knowing that they had little to no exposure to the gospel I went through the next three points very thoroughly. When I got to law three that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, they asked about my own testimony. I shared my own story of coming to know God on a personal level. After sharing the reason for my hope, and going over law four that we must individually receive Christ, we got to the three circles. I asked, “Which circle best represents your life now?” They all three pointed to the first circle, a circle with self on the throne and Christ outside of their lives. I then asked, “Which circle would you like to represent your life?” Eyes teary, they all said they wanted circle two, a circle with Christ on the throne and self surrendered to Christ.

I asked if they wanted to pray right then to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Still crying they all nodded yes. Up to this point I had shared the KGP with about 30 people. Few stick around to hear law four let alone want to pray to receive Christ. I was clueless, but the Holy Spirit inside me had it covered. He helped guide them in a prayer of salvation and repentance.

I gave them all their own KGP, exchanged contact information, and had them fill out a follow-up form. Walking to the follow-up station, they asked me, “You’re really happy right now aren’t you?” I then got to explain that their names were now written on God’s hands and that there was a celebration in heaven happening for their step of faith. Happy was an understatement.

They headed off only to hear the gospel all over again by the main speaker and various artists. Since then, we stay in contact and I look forward to spending eternity with these three girls with Christ in heaven. God is good.

I pray that you would use this story as encouragement. Beyond that, I encourage you to serve and take a step of faith as well. NightVision is still accepting volunteers! It is a "sooner the sign up, the better" kind of thing. If you do want to volunteer at NightVision sign up here. If you can't make this event, I challenge you to both serve and to share the gospel (refer to the links in the 1st paragraph). In the end, Jesus is totally worth it and the Holy Spirit in us will allow us to do great things for Christ's glory. 

Thank you and God bless.

I AM SECOND

I became aware of IAMSECOND as being a great source for testimonies. There are several celebrities' testimonies and testimonies of lesser known people. They all have one thing in common; making God first and making themselves become second. 

I did not know until recently that iamsecond provides a great bible study resource. This was an answer to prayer. First semester of this year, my two roommates and I tri-lead a co-ed bible study in our room. The bible studies were topical, so a great investment of time researching verses was needed. This was a growing experience, but second semester I was in search of a bible study resource that took little preparation ( I was taking more credit hours and instead of tri-leading, I would be co-leading).

I found what I was looking for. The studies have all gone so well (with very little preparation). A typical study begins with follow up since last week and transitions into watching a short video. After discussing the video, the bible study transitions into God's word. The selected reading is usually a segment of a chapter. We discuss the verses. Then we go over the following questions: What does this show us about people? What does this tell us about God? How can we apply this verse to our lives? And the bible study wraps up with: Who can I share what I have learned tonight with?

Iamsecond is an attractive multimedia resource. Of course, God's word alone is attractive, but this is appealing to our generation's connection to the media. We used this resource as a men's bible study, but the women in our family of faith have also recommended it as a great women's bible study.

This study is great for the whole spectrum from non-believers to growing Christians. I know there is a population of people that are ready to team up to check out God's word. There may be a few simple obstacles that may be holding them back. 1) They don't know where to begin reading! 2) They don't know if they can commit to being a leader. 3) They don't know how to transition the bible study to run smoothly. I know these obstacles may come up because I thought the same things. This study lead the way while at the same time subtly taught me how to lead. 

And best of all, it is transitional. We use this term to mean someone can be a part of your study, see how it's done and then lead their own iamsecond. You can put together the most powerful bible study ever, but it it can't be passed on, there is possibly no multiplication in that process (it may make leading even more intimidating). I am all about leading people so that they may lead people (who then lead more people). Whether or not some is transitional or not is a high quality and iamsecond nails it.

Well, two day's ago was our last men's iamsecond bible study of the school year. I am excited to co-lead next year (possibly with a guy that was an attendee). Maybe one day, I'll be encouraging a whole action group of guys that are all leading their own bible studies. Well, check out the video's for yourself. This is one of my favorites below or you can find all the videos at: http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/

Thank you and God bless you.