Today, I am EXCITED!!!!!! Y'ALLZ IN 'FO A REEEL TWEAT!! One of my best friends is guest posting today!!! This is my first time hosting a guest post, and I am so ecstatic that it is from my God-fearing gator, Carly Coffman. She has been a special friend of mine since 5th grade, and she is so dear to my heart for many reasons. I think the thing that I love the most about Carly is that she loves the Lord and wants to make His name known more than anything in her life...yet she is so fun and isn't one of those boring Christians that freaks you out. So, without any further ado...here she is :)
When asked to guest blog for Brooke,
I must say that I got really excited! First, because she is allowing me to
grace her blog with my amateur writing skills (which are really only impressive
to my grandmother) and secondly, because I have just recently myself begun to
follow some blogs on cooking, decorating, and interesting people in general and
I really like it! It is literally a snap shot into the lives, uniqueness, and
creativity of people. I love it!
I would first like to tell you, as
Brooke’s faithful blog followers, a little bit about our friendship. Brooke and
I met back in 5th grade, a.k.a. the glory days, at Chets Creek
Church. Those were the days when you lived for Wednesday nights so that you
could see all your church friends and crush on boys in pooka shell necklaces,
or at least I did. Often times
Brooke and I will take a trip down memory lane and look at pictures from youth
group camps and just laugh our heads off at how ridiculous we looked and
dressed. It truly is such a blessing to have a friend that you have grown up
through the years with. Someone who is able to laugh with you, cry with you,
but more importantly a friendship that is fueled by spurring one another on
toward Christ. Some of my favorite memories with Brooke are times I’ve spent
the night, we’ve eaten way too much blue bell, prank called 20+ people, and
have stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning having intentional conversation. All
this to say that she is a blessing in my life and I am thankful for her.
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| bnfunky and I :) |
Now that our background info is out
of the way, I will get to the gist of what I am really here to write about.
Brooke texted me last week asking if I would write a post for her blog
describing a little about me and what I get to do for a living. As for me, I am
22 (almost 23!) years old; I graduated from the University of Florida in 2010
with a degree in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences and a double minor in
leadership and organizational leadership for non-profits. While a student at
UF, I became increasingly involved in a student ministry known as Campus
Crusade for Christ (CRU). I have always known that God has shaped my heart for
full time ministry and for reaching out to people ever since high school, so it
wasn’t much of a surprise for my family or me when I graduated a year early and
decided to go straight into the mission field.
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| alyse and casey, two of the students I disciple |
Some of you reading this may be
thinking I am writing from some far off country simply because of the phrase
“mission field”, but I am actually typing this from a coffee shop in
Gainesville, Fl., about 3 miles west of UF’s campus. For the last 15 months I
have been serving here with a team of 12 others as full time staff with
CRU. For those of you who do not
know much about this ministry you can read all about it
here. CRU is a non-profit organization
made up of over 26,000 staff, all who raise their own financial support through
building a team of donors, and serve in pretty much every country through
various forms of ministry. I personally am a full time intern with CRU’s campus
ministry.
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| Taking some freshman girls out for dinner! |
As a team our desire and mission is
to see students encounter, experience, and express the compelling love of
Christ, here at UF and at our partnership in Paris, for the purpose of reaching
the world. It seems like a huge
undertaking, but even still we are seeing God move in incredible ways on campus
because we know that he desires for all people to know him and to be in
relationship with him. Lives continue to be brought from death to life and
restored through the power of Christ here at UF. In fact, just two weeks ago I was able to see the power of
the gospel at our 1st weekly meeting of the year where 94 students indicated
that they had placed their faith in Christ and made him Lord of their lives.
Along with people coming to know
God and beginning a relationship with him, we are seeing an increase in
personal evangelism and discipleship among students involved in our movement,
made up of about 1000 people. I myself have the privilege of investing in 8
younger women, all of whom are leaders within CRU. Discipleship is a very important
part of my job, but I am also responsible for planning events and coaching a
handful of small groups that are held on various parts of campus.
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| my fellow co-interns this past summer in Paris, while leading our summer mission trip |
I wish I could go into more detail
about what I get to do on a week in and week out basis, but for the purposes of
not being long winded I will keep it at that. However, I would love to leave
you all with a word of encouragement if in fact you are following after Christ
as well so that you too can know how to be apart of God’s redemptive plan for
the world!
Jesus, before ascending into heaven in Matthew 28, gave us as
believers a charge to GO and make DISCIPLES of all nations. If I could say anything to you as a
brother or sister in Christ, it would be to be discipled yourself and then to take
what you learn in that relationship and go and multiple it with disciples of
your own! It is exactly what Christ commands us to do and a means by which the
gospel will go forth into our communities as well as the world. To those of you
in other areas of vocation who still desire to be a part of building God’s
kingdom, know that you still have the command to be “a sent one” wherever it is
God has you. Make intentional efforts to build relationships with people placed
in your lives that do not know God. It could be your trainer at the gym, the
lady who does your nails regularly, or simply just a coworker. Love them. Pray
for them. Share your life with them.
Also, realize that even if you are
not serving full time in missions, you have a huge responsibility to pray for
God to raise up laborers to be sent out into the world. This comes straight from
Luke 10:2, where Jesus is speaking about how the harvest is plentiful but the
laborers are few. Go read it : ) Lastly, pray about giving financially to a
missionary and or just to missions in general. We have all been incredibly blessed with finances and all
should give back. Even though I am completely supported by others in order to
live, I still set aside money to support some of my students on mission trips
and places they are called to. It
is straight up joy to know that I am a part of God’s growing kingdom, simply by
helping supply someone the means to go! Scripture also states that we are
storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven and I do not doubt for a second
that giving to the Lord and his purposes will go unnoticed.
If you are interested in hearing
more about my personal ministry to students here at the University of Florida,
I would love to hear from you! You can email me at
carly.coffman1@gmail.com. Also, if
you are at all interested in giving to my ministry you can go to
www.give.ccci.org and plug my name into the
“give a gift” box and follow the directions there. Thanks for reading :)
"Therefore, my dear
brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to
the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in
vain."
1 Corinthians 15:58
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