joshua 1.

Email to our previous staff documenting encouragement from Joshua 1.

"Hey!
Just wanted to share something with you that encouraged me during our evangelism training a couple of weeks ago. We were studying Joshua 1, and what struck me a lot was the first thing that God says to Joshua (in verse 2 and 3): "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses."
I guess it had never occurred to me before, but when God says to Joshua, "Moses my servant is dead," it made me realize: Wow, last year's leadership team is gone (not completely, but in terms of our whole team/team dynamics, etc). [You're] gone. We're a really new team (the only returning leaders are on core, [our current staff] is new, all of the other leaders are brand new)...which is pretty scary. But that's not the end of it. God follows up His statement with such wonderful promises, and I know that He's basically saying the same thing to us this year in UTD-IV. It was just really good for me to remember/acknowledge that last year (and last year's leadership team) is behind us, but God hasn't left us by any means. Of course, I/we miss you so much, but you really did such a great job in training and leading us :D Thanks again!!

Yep yep. Hope that was as encouraging to you as it was to me. Can't wait to see you in less than a week! :D
Love, Anna"


The first two large groups have had >100 people. EACH. God is awesome! Can't wait to see what He has planned for our fellowship this year. But as they told us at Rec Week, "New level, new devil." With such large numbers, we have to take into account a lot of different things, not the least of which is crowd control and small group involvement. Jesus, please show us how to be faithful in shepherding Your flock.