Also, Baptisms!

This past month, we had our semi-annual baptisms at The Rock with ten students getting baptized, including two in our own canvas group! It was such and encouraging and exciting time. I thought I'd share this link to a student's blog who wrote about the time and posted a video from it.

Joey Soto's Blog

Summer Time at The Rock

This past Friday was the last day of finals, followed shortly after by a mass exodus of students and graduation ceremonies. (Side note: Aimee graduated on Friday with a Masters of Science in Education! Awesome!) So now I find myself at Dunn Bros Coffee preparing for the summer. Next to me is Aimee, pouring over her meteorology notes to finish the online class and next to us are Andrew and Kirstin Schulz, who have just moved back to Columbia to finishing their support trail this summer.

While I will be primarily raising support and taking care of the Worship Team this summer, I thought I'd share with you what we hope to do at The Rock this summer.

Worship Services
With roughly 30-40 students here for the summer, our services are downscaled and move to Thursdays (for the sake of so many people going out of town on the weekends). With Pastor John Drage at Colorado LT and Pastor Ed Courtney at our first Honduras LT, we ask local pastors who we have a relationship with to come and share with us each week.

Dessert Nights
Sundays, we have a weekly fellowship time where we have a potluck dessert night. It is closely followed by...

Bible Studies
Last summer, I lead a doctrine discussion group with two good friends, David and Michelle. This summer Michelle will be leading a bible study after our dessert nights.

Service Opportunities
Finally, we are currently looking for opportunities to serve in the community throughout the summer.

As for me, I will be involved with The Rock minimally, while focusing my efforts on raising support to increase my hours with The Rock for the upcoming school year. I will share more in my upcoming prayer letter!

Take care and thank you for your prayers and support,
Chris Swift

Grad Dinner

Last night we had our Grad Dinner (not to be confused with the RAD Dinner) where we celebrate our seniors, most of whom will be leaving us in the next week. We got to host 17 of our seniors for a semi-formal dinner. After serving up some filet  mignon, salmon and seasoned chicken (yum) John pulled out Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss to read to the grads. It's sort of become his tradition to do so.

Afterward, John opened the floor up to the students to share how being a part of The Rock has made an impact on their lives. Here are some things they had to share.

"Without being a part of The Rock, I probably would have gone through college complacent about my faith."

"Being a part of The Rock has definitely helped me be more on fire for God."

"The Rock helped give me the opportunity to lead and take ownership of my faith."
"I always felt loved and supported by people at The Rock."


It was very encouraging to see younger guys and girls share about how God took a hold of their lives while in college. So many of them are now set up to make an impact for the Lord in their next communities, workplaces and mission fields. And this group is going places, whether it's the business field, a two-year African mission trip, teaching, or to Memphis serving as co-laborers with the Service Over Self inner-city ministry, they are going to do great.

It's one of the most bittersweet things we do, but as a campus church, it's in our DNA to make disciples and be at peace with sending them out to bring the gospel to the nations. I had five members of my canvas group there last night and, although I will miss their presence and leadership, I'm encouraged that they will do great in their endeavors and pray that they continue to live for the Lord.

Please join me in praying for our seniors as they leave us and go begin the next chapter in their journey.

Passing the Baton

2010-2011 Canvas Group Equippers

This week and next are the last two of the semester and I will be having some end-of-the-year chats with various students. One of those, Aimee and I had the other night with our equippers from this year, the student leaders who help make Canvas Group happen. The other was with the equippers for the upcoming school year.

You may remember them from my letters throughout the year. We had Travis, Zach, Ben, Brooke and Cassady over for a very nice lasagna dinner one last time on Sunday night. It was a time just to say thank you and to celebrate the year. Zach, Brooke and Cassady all graduating this year, we asked them to share some thoughts on why it is worth to keep investing in community and to keep growing as a leader at The Rock. It was cool to hear their responses and to in some sense, pass the baton to Ben and Travis, they younger equippers.

Now with three of these students leaving after this semester, we've been praying and seeking out a couple replacements for them. A few weeks ago, we approached two girls from another CG to serve as equippers with us this upcoming year. We asked two young girls, Erica and Margaret, to join us next year. Each of these girls is on fire for the Lord and have been asked to come over because of two things: they are passionate about reaching out to the dorms and if there is one area we are out of balance in, it's with younger girls.

We met with next year's equippers, including these two at Memorial Union yesterday to introduce them to the group and to start dreaming about next year. It seems like they will be a great fit and I am very excited to work with them.

Please be praying for us as we make the transition into absorbing these girls into our group. We have a few large goals for next year that I'll share with you another time. Pray that the Lord stirs in us a passion to be united in Christ and in purpose next Fall. It is going to be an awesome school year.

Take care,
Chris Swift