June Newsletter

I hope this Discipleship Inc newsletter finds you well. Summer is in full swing and my schedule is filling up fast.

There are 18 college students that I will be meeting with regularly in the next couple months. The majority of them will be in person, but a few will be by a phone call. This is something new that did not happen last summer. 

The Panera Bible study from last year is now in its third week. There are 8 students signed up. Most of them know each other, making our discussion time easier and more relatable.  

Our topic this year will be, “Who is this?” Eight times this question is asked of Jesus Christ. (e.g. Mark 4:41, Luke 5:21, Matthew 21:10) We are looking at scenes in the gospels whereby the people marveled, or were astonished, at our Lord. He would calm a storm and those who saw it would ask, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him?” 

Recently I met with a student whose parents got divorced before she was born. Her dad soon moved to Florida and was no longer part of her life. Her mom was an alcoholic and spent much of their food money on liquor. She told me, ‘Much of the money I earned in high school went towards her drinking problem.’

I soon realized that she had little understanding of God as a Good Father … or the love of God in Christ Jesus. These Biblical terms, that so many of us grew up knowing, are unknown to her. My prayer is that as we meet in the coming months the Holy Spirit will use His Word to change her life, one truth at a time.

Another student, fighting an addiction to pornography, sent me an encouraging text recently. We have been talking about using the Word of God to help him “be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.’

One afternoon I reminded him of our upcoming meeting; he responded with the following text message. ‘Looking forward to it Steve! Don’t forget to leave some room for me to share how the Lord is working in my life.’ What a blessing that text was. 

Finally, I am working on a four week study for this fall. The focus will be on how to read the Bible. It will be called ‘Great Expectations—Meeting God in His Word.’ My hope is to help students read the Bible more regularly … and create an opportunity to give away ESV study Bibles. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God ... in Him was life and the life was the Light of men.” (John 1:1-2,4)

May God bless you and your family in the days ahead.

Steve  

I hope that this Discipleship Inc newsletter finds you well. I would like to thank everyone that supported our ESV study Bible promotion. Your overwhelming response brought in $3500.00—over 125 Bibles to hand out in the coming year(s). 

We will now be ending the Bible promotion. All future donations will go to the general ministry fund. Once again thank you for your generous support of this Bible reading campaign.

PFW has now ended their 2025-2026 school year. I will still be working with some of the PFW students this summer. However, the greater portion of my time will be spent with former Concordia players and FWCC tennis students. 

I am excited to start a new Bible study in June with many of the students from last year. We had a great group of young adults that met at Panera. I also plan to engage many of them over lunch(es) and hear how their school year went. 

One thought continues to come back to me as the school year ends. There are so many young adults caught up in ‘the web of lies’ brought on by our culture. 

Recently I met with a college student dealing with the stress of final exams. In the past we had talked about this stress, but in different ways. However, what he said that afternoon shocked me.

My opening question to him was, ‘How are you doing with your stress?’ He responded, ‘Better now that I am learning how to fight anxiety without pornography.’ His words took my breath away! Never once had it occurred to me that college students fight stress this way.

We spent the next hour talking about his spiritual battle with this sin. I told him how to use God’s Word to strengthen him in his daily battle with this evil. Much of our discussion revolved around Ephesians 6:10,18. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might ... praying at all times in the Holy Spirit.” 

We also discussed the Power of prayer to enable him to overcome in “the strength of God’s power.” This past year I have come to find the many benefits of one on one meetings with students. Here we develop a personal friendship that enables us to go much deeper into the hidden lives that many are living. 

What a blessing your prayers are. Jeremiah 29:12 tells us, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.” 

May the grace of God and the love of Christ penetrate the souls of these college students living in a godless world.

Steve