The Roes Go Blue.

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The continuing story of how God is transforming lives at the University of Michigan. Psalm 90:17

No Time For the Winter Blues

It's that time of year when it can be easy to get the winter blues. We are trying desperately to avoid that by staying busy on the support trail. The job of support raising takes both discipline and faith and there are some days where you dont feel like having either of them! Regardless of our feelings (were glad we serve a God who cares about those!) Gods faithfulness has not changed and He has continued to provide for us. We have now set our sights on completing our initial support by June 1st of this year!

@ New Life Church

One Last Great Generation was the theme of this years midsemester retreat. About 350 students from 9 campus attended this 2 day retreat held in Grass Lake, MI. The essential question that was posed was, What does God want- what would Gods dreams be? The theme of the messages surround these points: 1. God wants our heart. Psalm 51:16-17 2. God wants us to be holy in conduct. Amos 5:21-24 3. God wants justice. Isaiah 1:11-17 4. God wants everyone to be saved. Ezekiel 33:10-11 It was personally challenging and awesome to consider what God wants of us. We were particularly challenged thinking about Gods desire for holiness in our lives. So many times the idea of holiness is combined with guilt and shame when we dont live up to the standards God has for us. However, it was so refreshing to think about holiness as an invitation of love and forgiveness. At the end of the retreat we asked students to dream about: - Reaching the world with the gospel - Ushering in the return of Christ - Changing their generation - Being one last, great generation It was an incredible weekend and we believe the beginning of God doing something fresh in and through students!

We hope you will be praying for us that God will provide the last 33% of our budget by the beginning of the summer. Summer is a great time to get your feet wet at New Life. (on days like today I can't help but daydream about summer!) This would allow us to hit the ground running when students come back in the Fall. Thanks for being a part of the team and for your commitment to matters of Gods Kingdom.

Love, Jon & Andrea

Go Blue! Our nephew is all set to sport Blue and Gold with his U of M P.J.s!

Some of the staff ladies after a Christmas tea Andrea held at our house.

350 students gather in Grass Lake, Michigan for Core Retreat.

This is Zakk

Zakks Story
Zakk graduated from Michigan State University in 2010 with a degree in marketing. He is a part of Epic, the GCM campus church on the campus of Michigan State University. New Life Church sent a team of people from U of M to plant Epic in 2006.

My name is Zakk and I have recently completed my initial fundraising to go on staff at Epic Church on the campus of Michigan State University. I gave my life to Christ in 6th grade, but for most of my high school years and early years in college I was a hypocrite. I proclaimed to be a Christian, but I was living a lifestyle totally contrary to that proclamation. As a student I fell into a lifestyle of partying-Spartans win, drink.Spartans lose, drink.Roommate failed an exam, screw that professor, lets drink!Roommate gets an A on an exam, time to celebrate, lets drink. I wanted to live more for the glory of God but I was struggling with drunkenness.It was fun to get drunk with all my friends.It was fun to go out and party.But afterwards Id just be like ughhh I failed again,God please forgive me!! I keep making the same mistakes over and over.I was trying to live a life for God without any support from other Christians.I was trying to go it alone. So it was my junior year at MSU and I had just started going to Epic church here on the campus of MSU. I went to a service here and there and then one of the staff guys, Matt Moore, invited me to come check out the Lifegroup he was in (basically a weekly small group).In this group was Matt and a couple of other guys who, in my mind, were these super Christians.I was sketchy because I thought the only sin they struggled with was not helping that old lady across the street earlier in the day,or only spending one hour that day in prayer instead of two. I thought the stuff I was struggling with was just going to disgust them.This is the mindset I had coming into Lifegroup.I thought they wouldnt understand what I was going through,that theyd be judgmental of me,and just all this other stuff.I was also worried they would be these weird Christian people. In fact, it all seemed kind of weird at first.However, I soon realized their struggles werent feeling bad about not helping old ladies across the street.Their struggles were as real, and as hard for them to deal with as mine were for me.Some of them were dealing with the same things as me,some were dealing with totally different things.But they didnt judge me,they totally understood me and supported me. Even though the the guys were really awesome and supportive I was kind of flaky my first year.Id sorta come and go every other week,maybe Id go two weeks then skip two weeks.I always had some excuse not to go, not to really plug in with these guys.In all honesty, I was still scared about being that open about my struggles. It wasn't until a year later that I decided to commit to having a friendship with the guys in my Lifegroup.I wanted to be able to admit my struggles to these guys, and ask for their help.So I tried to do that,and I eventually I got to the point where I could trust these guys,and I loved hanging out with them,and I loved going to Life group together. I have experienced more truthand more loveand more of Christ in these intimate moments with the people in my Lifegroups than anything I'd ever experienced before. As these two years have gone by, Im seeing victory in my struggle with drunkenness.And Im seeing victory in a lot of other areas as well. Although I still struggle with sin in my life, I am still challenged daily,but Im striving to live a life for Christ,and Im not doing it alone anymore,because Ive got my brothers and sisters in Christ all around me now.And that's a slice of my life.

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

God to provide the last 33% of our budget. Gods kingdom to continue to grow at the University of Michigan. New people to meet with to share our passion for U of M students. The rest of the semester- that many students will grow in their relationship with Christ Jon and Andrea Roe 524 N. 5th Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 J: 989-780-1992, jeroe77@gmail.com A: 989-928-949, roeandrea@gmail.com Please make special and recurring gifts payable to: Great Commission Ministries P.O. Box 7101, Winter Park, FL 32793

We are campus missionaries with Great Commission Ministries We serve at New Life Church (a church for college students) located at 1541 Washtenaw Ave in Ann Arbor Sunday services at 9:29 and 11:11 am. Visit ww.nlcweb.org for more info