Kertson May Newsletter

The Making of a Leader
A Ministry Update from the Kertsons

This past month we had our first ever leadership retreat. What an amazing time to reflect on everything God did in our first full year on campus! We started last year with three student leaders who had no idea what Chi Alpha was, had no training, but had huge hearts to serve and reach their campus as best as they could. Those student’s faithfulness and hard work have translated into 12 student leaders taking a weekend out of their time just before finals week to pray, worship, and receive both theological and practical training to help them become better leaders next year.

As we heard each one share about their excitements and fears, it brought to life everything God had done in each one of these students over the past year. One leader particularly sticks out. Max already had a lot of leadership potential when we met him in his first few weeks of school as a freshman. Max has a charismatic personality, has a lot of knowledge about the Bible and loves sharing his faith with others. Even when he wasn’t an official leader, he was a big part of a number of other students becoming a part of what God was doing at Chi Alpha. Max told me during our leadership retreat that before joining Chi Alpha he had always done Christianity on his own. Even in his evangelism he saw himself as a sign post pointing people toward God, but never stuck around long enough to see what came from his sharing his faith. He told me at our leadership retreat how much our community had meant to his growth this past year. He is excited to be a small group leader and invest in a group of guys week after week for a year and not just a moment. He’s eager to disciple people toward Jesus, not just point them in the right direction and go on to the next person. He’s even excited to lead a small group with a partner, something he always thought he’d do better at alone! Max has changed from a guy with a lot of head knowledge who shared Jesus because he it was what he was supposed to do to someone who genuinely loves others and wants to walk through life with them.

Keeping Up With the Kertsons

Eden finished her first year of preschool! Being our youngest, she has been ready from the time she was born to go to school like her sisters. I’m sure she’ll miss it over the summer, but we’ll have her and the girls busy with swim, gymnastics and other family and Chi Alpha trips.
Peyton was very stressed out about her first state testing. So we made her special brain food smoothies and she felt pretty confident once she was done.
Peyton’s Little Mermaid Jr. show was a huge success, she was the scariest Ursula tentacle out of all 8 of them and mastered the art of “heely” shoes for the show.
Our aunt Laurie has made a full recovery from the pneumonia she had in April and is going back to regular feedings instead of tube feedings. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Prayer/Partnership Points

We did our semester ending cookies and prayer for finals again and had a great response. We got to connect with almost all of our students one last time as well as pray for their peace and well-being during their finals. We even got to meet and pray with some of their friends and some random strangers who wanted prayer. A big part of campus ministry is just being there for students when they need someone to talk to or pray for them. (see the picture above)
We had our first two students graduate! It was great celebrating with them. Hope will actually be with us at least one more year as she pursues her teaching credential and Jeff will be coming on staff with us. He was our president this past year and will be working with us while he pursues his MDIV and looks toward possibly becoming a Navy Chaplain in the future. (see the pictures below)
We started our Summer Worship Project where we gather for worship each Monday nights and one of our student leaders shares a message God has put on their hearts. Pray for more lives to be changed and for our students to be strengthened.
We are finishing the process of chartering a Chi Alpha group on a local community college, Grossmont College. We found an advisor this last week, thanks so much for your prayers. Continue to pray for more students and for our vision process this summer to start our second Chi Alpha chapter!
All of our staff are traveling and raising their budgets to go full time in the Fall. Pray for their support and endurance.