Time to get Creative...

If God closes a door (literally), He opens a window, right?
Well, if you're here because you just got my e-mail, you know that this was no ordinary week at Talawanda High School. The administration has decided to really tighten security and has therefore changed their policy to keep any outside group at all from being on campus. Obviously, this is not great news, since so much of meeting with and connecting with students happens right after school. Thankfully, though, the principal is a Christian, and desires to help us in any way possible.
We are praying that God would provide a faculty member to "sponsor" us, so we could legitimately be on campus after school, in the teacher's classroom. Please pray that God would raise up a teacher that would jump on board with Student Venture and open his or her classroom to us!

So, as you can see, we're down but NOT out. :) It's disappointing, but praise God that we've had a few years of meeting students and establishing some sort of presence on campus. Prayerfully, this will cause our involved students to step up and be real student leaders on campus, since we won't be there!

If you're wondering what I'll be doing in the meantime -- don't worry, I'm quite busy! I can still meet with the students I know and their friends, because they can just meet me out in the parking lot or at another location. In fact, my ministry time with students doesn't look that different. It's typical that when you know a few key students, you meet a dozen more. What a blessing!

This is also a key time to figure out what next semester will look like, so Roxanne and I are taking some time to pray and plan for that.

Time for a Break... Fastbreak, that is!
Another critical thing to pray for right now are students deciding to go to our winter conference in January, Fastbreak. Typically, if students don't sign up before Christmas break (Dec. 15) they aren't likely to go with us. We have over 10 students interested this year (we've ever only taken 5-7 before!) Please pray for Stephanie, Betsy, Emma, Jenni, Stacey, Tashina, and Ashley -- all girls I'm meeting with who are thinking about going!

Man, so much to tell you, and so little time. I really appreciate your faithful prayers and your investment into this incredible ministry. A door may have closed, but that just means that it's time to get creative in how we can reach students...

Thanks for loving our precious youth!

His,

Emily