Christmas Craze!

Hello everyone,
       Christmas is nearing and the water is freezing. Its supposed to snow a little bit here in Kansas in the next few days. By next Wednesday the forecast says the temperature will be 6 degrees... I don't know if I even have warm enough clothes for that type of weather and an ice scraper is definitely on my next shopping list.

        We recently had a Thanksgiving break in which I went up to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with extended family. It was nice spending time with them and catching up. They also took me pheasant hunting which was a blast! The picture on the right is my Uncle Corky and I in Wisconsin on a hunting farm. We Got 9 out of 10 birds. Unfortunately I had to return to Kansas that day so I was unable to enjoy my catch but i'm sure they had a great dinner with all this food. I am loving the midwest. I do miss home a lot though and I am excited for my 10 day visit starting Wednesday, December 16th. Until then we have been cramming in a lot of assignments and preparing for our outreaches. The Kairos class and I have been practicing a few plays which we will perform for Christian schools and youth groups to inspire them to become passionate about serving our Lord. I recently heard that the greatest need in missions work today is mission mobilizers. This is the focus of our 18 day East Coast road trip called Speaking Blitz. We return from the Speaking Blitz and leave 10 days after our return for our Honduras trip. I am really excited for the busy year ahead of me.


       I have been really getting to know the other people in the program with me and we have become a really good group of friends. We all recently went to a 24/7 prayer ministry called International House of Prayer (IHOP). It was an awesome and stretching experience. Today we helped World Vision set up a big display for Africa in which people come and walk through to experience life in a specific African Village. The experience takes about 20 to 30 minutes and it takes you through a real persons life if Africa. They are expecting thousands of people to come through in the week that it is set up. The picture on the right is a picture of the setup from above.

         I started a new book for Kairos recently called Abbas Child by Brennan Manning and I am doing a book study on Philippians also. The homework is very tedious but I am so excited and thankful for everything I get to learn. Some of the topics we have been learning in class lately are: how to hear God's voice and how He speaks to us, understanding God's guidance and how to seek His will, and have also been learning about self image and how to have confident humility. God has really been expanding my understanding of His power, character, the greatness and uniqueness of his Kingdom, and of the Body of Christ (both as individuals and as churches as the parts to a whole) which He works through. I am so thankful to be a part of His inheritance. Next week a man named Wick Nease is coming to teach us about The Father Heart of God. There is a quote I heard yesterday from the pastor of Life church written by Costa Deir that states, "The greatest crime a Christian can commit is to limit a limitless God." I love this because it is humbling and is a reminder to me to trust in Him and to allow Christ to work in and through me rather than living on my own and checking in on Him.
     
Prayer requests:

• That God blesses the host families who have opened up their doors to us students and that we students might be a light of Christ to them
• That God takes our fears and expectations of the outreaches to come and turns them into a sense of peace through which He can teach us how to trust Him better
• That through all the commotion and busy work, I, and the other students, stay dependent and focused upon God
• That I am not anxious or stressed about my support raising and I continue to trust God that this is where He wants me and that He will continue to supply me for all my needs
• That God continues to break me and mold me into the man He created me to be

Thank you all for your love and support and I pray that you have a blessed Christ Centered Christmas Season. Through my experience of you as a family supporting me and remembering me and loving me, I am really able to empathize with the early Christian Missionaries such as Paul when He would write back to the churches He was so deeply in love with, thanking them for their support and living with them for Jesus Christ. I am so blessed to be living in Christ with you and for being able to call you family, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love you all and I look forward to seeing you soon.
                                 With Love and Blessings in Christ Jesus,
                                                                           Stephen Reynolds

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Hello Friends and Family,

              It has been over a week since my last post and the stories are piling up. I have been busy with class, youth ministry work, homework, getting to know people, and trying to fit some sleep in there somewhere. We are now on our fourth book and the report is due fairly soon. Many memory verses and an in depth study assignment for the book of James is also on the itinerary. The weather here has been really cold the last few days and I am really enjoying it! I will definitely need some warmer winter clothes as December and January roll around. The picture on the right shows the first of the snow we have received in Olathe, Kansas.

      The other students are a blast to be around. We have really gotten to know each other in the past couple of weeks. We have done skits together, played sports (my favorite so far is indoor foam hockey), had crochet parties at Starbucks, run errands, watched movies, and spent much time together in class. We recently had a man named Ollie Olsen come in who talked about biblical foundation. The picture on the left is my Kairos class and the man in the middle with glasses is Ollie. We have had seven teachers come in so far teaching us a wide range of topics from spiritual warfare, relationships, how to correctly study the bible, personal foundations, biblical history and foundation, and next week a pastor from the local church is coming in to talk to us about personalities. We recently took the Laurie Beth Jones Path Elements Profile (PEP) and I found out I am mostly Fire. It is a really neat and seemingly accurate test.

    The picture on the right is a picture of what Life Church calls the barn, because it used to be a real barn. It has been resored and now is a very cozy classroom where Kairos meets everyday.



 "The core element of humility is truth; about God, ourselves, and others."

  






Things to pray for:

• That I am fully rejuvenated every night and 100% focused on God and the things He wants me to learn
• That the Kairos class does not become divided from cliques and/or arguments or irritations
  
• That Satan does not distract or prevent us from this season of growth or our focus on Jesus Christ
• That the finances continue to come in and that I am not anxious about it but rather lift if up to Christ

         Thank you all so much for keeping up with my life and for your attention and prayers. It is such an awesome blessing to have; to see people continue to be a part of my life even when I am 1700 miles away. You bring me great joy and I am grateful for everything God is doing. Every day is full of new surprises and blessings. A favorite quote of mine by Elizabeth Barrett Browning says, "Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees it takes off his shoes, the rest sit 'round and pluck blackberries."
          Have a blessed and joyful week and I will talk to you soon! :)
                                            With Joy in Christ,
                                                              Stephen Reynolds

I need your help!

Hello family and friends,
         I have been blessed with an incredible opportunity to be under intense discipleship and in the 10 days that I have been here I have learned an incredible amount. I am so excited to continue to grow and be stretched by God and He is definitely moving and working in huge ways in my life, molding my heart into His new creation. I believe without a doubt this program, here in Olathe, Kansas, is where God wants me this year. I am short about $925 dollars for this semesters tuition and the money is due on October 1st. I am looking for 10 people who would be willing to invest $100 dollars each to keep me in Kairos but any and every donation, whether bigger or smaller, is a blessing and an incredible help. You can donate online HERE. Make sure you select my name in the drop box (Stephen Reynolds P007566). I also need people who are willing to pray for me continuously throughout the year. Thank you so much for following my story, the way Jesus Christ our Lord is moving uniquely in my life, and thank you for your support whether its prayerful support or financial support. I could not do this without your help! If you have questions or comments you can contact me at sjreynolds77@gmail.com.
                                 With Love and Blessings in Christ,
                                                           Stephen Reynolds

Kairos Update #2

Today is my first full Monday in Kairos. For those of you that don't know Kairos is an intense 10 month discipleship program that is focused on my personal foundation, leadership, and missions. We do many things from classroom teaching to mission trips. We will also be serving in the local church called Life Church. The past 8 days here in Kansas has been full of excitement. I am blessed to stay with an awesome family and I also have a roommate who is also in the Kairos discipleship school. It is very interesting to be plopped into another family with a roommate but I am adapting quickly and I'm loving it. We have had four days of classroom teaching so far covering spiritual disciplines such as worship, prayer, and bible reading. Last Wednesday the Worship Pastor at Life Church named Jared Scholz came in to teach the class and shared a quote with us that was very convicting to me yet filled me with hope: "Do you have more faith in your ability to hear God than you do God's ability to lead deaf people?"

















This is the Kairos class that I will be journeying with this year. They are all awesome and unique people that I am excited to get to know. This was at a two day orientation camp we went to and we had all just done a high ropes obstacle course and a lot of team building activities.

Some things you can be praying for me are:

• That God supplies the finances that I may continue the year with Kairos
• That I soak up all the teachings and then apply them to my life that I may grow to know God more deeply and continue to be transformed into a man of God
• That my roommate Keegan and I learn to live together and when we butt heads that we handle it with love and gentleness
• That I start living a life of constant communication with God and allow Him to fill all my needs. That I don't seek comfort or love in anything but God

Thank you for your prayers and support and I am so encouraged by my Beachpoint family wanting to continue to be a part of my life. My goal is to update the blog at least weekly with things going on in my life, prayer updates, and pictures when I can. You can contact me at sjreynolds77@gmail.com
                                                    With Love and Blessings,
                                                                    Stephen Reynolds

Kairos Update #1

                 Hello Friends and Family,
I have created this blog so that, although I have moved out of state, I have not moved out of your lives. My hope is that this blog serves as a median that you may still be a part of what God is doing in and around me. I will be updating the blog weekly to keep you posted with what is going on in my life here in Kansas. Please keep it interactive with questions and comments so it can be more of a converstation with you and I. Thank you for checking it out!
                                                                  With the love of Christ, Stephen Reynolds