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Leesha'S Update: Students Ignite Before Retreat

Leesha provides an update on upcoming events and experiences from her recent travels. She discusses an upcoming student retreat called Fan into Flame where 110 students will travel to Wisconsin to reignite their faith. Leesha shares that past retreats have powerfully impacted students and opened them to a personal relationship with God. She then shares about her recent travels to Michigan, Texas, and Minnesota where she was able to serve and reconnect with missionaries and students. Leesha provides prayer requests related to the upcoming retreat and the church.

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65 views

Leesha'S Update: Students Ignite Before Retreat

Leesha provides an update on upcoming events and experiences from her recent travels. She discusses an upcoming student retreat called Fan into Flame where 110 students will travel to Wisconsin to reignite their faith. Leesha shares that past retreats have powerfully impacted students and opened them to a personal relationship with God. She then shares about her recent travels to Michigan, Texas, and Minnesota where she was able to serve and reconnect with missionaries and students. Leesha provides prayer requests related to the upcoming retreat and the church.

Uploaded by

leeshaplante06
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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LEESHA’S UPDATE

January-February 2013

“For this
reason I
remind
you to fan
into flame
the gift of
God,
which is
in you
through
the laying
on of my
hands.” –
2 Tim. 1:6

Students ignite before retreat


Gearing up for Fan into Flame
By Leesha Plante
Every year, for over 15 years, Every time I have gone, the Lord what happens when it is over. All
students in Minnesota have has worked powerfully, and I see over the country, and in particular
received a new experience of so many students ignite with zeal at St. Olaf College, the Lord pours
Jesus as their Savior and the Holy for their faith. For so many of out gifts and graces to the
Spirit as their helper on the Fan them, their eyes are opened to students long after the retreat has
into Flame retreat. This March, 110 looking at Christ in a new way; it is become a memory.
students and staff will be traveling the first time they see that they Our student missionaries at
across the Wisconsin border to re- can have a personal relationship St. Olaf are a witness to this. Two
ignite their faith and reconnect with the God-man who came to of the three young women who
with Christ the Lord. Some have this earth 2,000+ years ago. became student missionaries this
been on a Fan into Flame retreat We are bringing 10 students year, did so because the Lord
before, many have not. This will be from St. Olaf College to this called them to a radically different
my first time attending the retreat retreat, and they will receive talks, life after Fan into Flame. They not
with Minnesota students. Though I small group discussion, and most only wanted to spend time with
have been to similar retreats in importantly, the presence of the Him daily, they wanted to serve
Kansas and Texas, I am looking Lord in our prayer meeting on Him among their peers at college.
forward to experiencing what the Saturday night. How precious are the gifts of God!
Holy Spirit can do here, in the One of the best blessings of
place where this retreat originated. the Fan into Flame weekend is

1
LEESHA’S UPDATE January-February 2013
My January Travels
a missionary’s footsteps “I finally realized that even
the tiniest, most
This January, I was blessed to travel insignificant little yes I gave
to Michigan, Texas, and a small town to God, when I said ‘I love
here in Minnesota to rest and restore you, God’, was something
(and serve) with the Lord. He could receive, and He
I flew to Lansing, Michigan on could bring so much good
January 1, 2013 to attend our Saint
in my life from it.
Paul’s Outreach staff retreat. The retreat
was combined with a conference for Nicole Wagner, student missionary
difference Christian ministries that all
minister to college students.
The staff retreat was so refreshing.
How much joy we receive from each
other, catching up with missionaries
from the other states, swapping stories,
and bearing one another’s burdens of
the ministry. We all love the experience
of being able to worship God as a staff
as well: our prayer times are certainly
the highlights of the retreat. This year’s
retreat theme was “Everything is
Possible”; our meditations for the day
focused on confidence in God, hope in bliss a balmy 65ºF can create in a celebrate and relax after a prayer
His plans for us, and trust in His mercy Minnesotan in January! But beyond the meeting! The “joy of the Lord was upon
and providence to sustain us. fantastic weather, I had an even greater, me” as I experienced His love among my
The weekend conference was deeper joy in seeing my former friends in the Lone Star State.
centered around “One”, being unified in missionary team members, and the And a few days after I returned
prayer, mission, and service. We met students I had served last year. It was a home from the ‘heat wave’, our
people from all over the country, and a huge grace for me to serve as a small Minnesota staff (missionaries and
few from different parts of the world! I group leader at their Fan into Flame mission directors) went to a little retreat
was excited to get to know people who retreat, to be “behind the scenes” as it site in Cannon Falls, MN for Staff Days
serve God in the same ministry, to were, taking care of hospitality as well. Away. We ate lots of good food, prayed
worship Him with them, and to come God worked powerfully in the young together (and took personal prayer time)
home encouraged by the greater support women in my small group, and His grace and generally were free to relax, play
we have from ministries I’d never known was apparent in all those who attended games, watch movies, and catch up on
before. the retreat. There’s nothing like eating sleep. The Lord definitely “refreshed my
A week later, I was flying down to Texas barbecue, worshipping with soul” this January!
Texas. How much I had forgotten the friends, and dancing the two-step to

Prayer Requests together and pray, work, and


We need your help! eat in common with each other.

• For our Church, that God


• For the students attending will bless us with a new Pope,
Fan into Flame, that they would who will guide us in greater
renew or begin a relationship holiness
with Jesus Christ and use the
gifts of the Holy Spirit they have • For all of those who are
received. forced to fast this Lent: that we
A Lily in the Desert might remember and help the
This Lent, an image has come to my prayer, the • For our Households at St. hungry, poor, and homeless
lily in the Desert. She is the fresh flower that
blooms in the midst of adversity. God’s love is
Olaf College next year: that through our prayer and alms.
what nourishes the lily, and she blooms, even students will commit to live
when she remains hidden from human sight.

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