Fall Retreat 2013 - Danielle's Story

Fall retreat is one of my most cherished events Chi Alpha throws because I was never able to go to them while playing soccer because we were always traveling. Something incredible happens when a group of people hungry for more of God take a weekend to get away and worship, seek and enjoy Him! 

 Students in passionate worship, I am in awe of the work He is doing here! 

My first fall retreat was last year and I still get excited sharing all the amazing testimonies of people being set free from their sin struggles and being empowered! I had the honor of praying over a very dear friend of mine to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. We received the gift and we ended up sitting at the altar praying, crying and laughing about how amazing God was. The best part was after fall retreat when she went back to her college and brought the joy and excitement of the Holy Spirit there. It’s humbling to see God produce so much fruit from one experience.

However this year was different…

I’ve always had a heart for the amazing young ladies on my old soccer team, as it’s only my second year of being a Bison soccer alumnus. Even though I still miss playing, the current of season of life I’m in has continued to prove to me that living a life with Jesus in control is so much better than I’ve ever imagined! Luckily God knows my heart and He opened a door for me to play in the alumni game this year and do His will at the same time!
 

Victoria, Gabi, Tristyn & I simply excited about Jesus!

This year the alumni game was during fall retreat BUT there were no games after it. So the soccer girls would be free the rest of the weekend. HOW PERFECT IS THAT?! So I not only got to play but I also got to drive three beautiful ladies on the team to fall retreat! We had SO much joy in that car as we talked about how we see God and what we wanted to get out of the retreat. The whole drive there I couldn’t stop thanking Jesus for allowing these girls the opportunity to take a break from the crazy schedule of being a student-athlete just to retreat to His presence and leave refreshed!

The three girls were:

Tristyn who was in my small group my senior year, we roomed together in Hawaii when we went and I’ve been so blessed to watch her leave her past behind and grow into a powerful warrior for Jesus!

Victoria who I met on her recruiting trip, she has an incredibly intimate and beautiful relationship with Yahweh (God) I am so challenged by her boldness as she proudly proclaims herself as a daughter of the King.

And Gabi who reminds me a lot of myself when I first came to college, she went to Chi Alpha last year and this year has truly grown in her relationship with Jesus, I am so excited to see what mighty things are in store for her! She’s also #17 on the soccer team, which was in fact my old number. The legacy continues… 

                                         The alter time is one of my favorites, I just get to watch God do His thing :)

Anyway God is so amazing and when we arrived there I was told that people could literally see and feel the joy that radiated out of them! They were so excited!! A highlight for me was being able to pray for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit during the alter call at the end. Gabi (wearing #17 on her shirt) came up to me for prayer. It was an honor seeing God empowering her and all the other women who came up.

Mark and I praying for students at the alter. My faith grew as theirs did.

 

Please pray for boldness in these three ladies as they witness on the team! Also for the rest of the people who attended fall retreat, pray that that fire wouldn’t leave when they return back to their campuses. I know that God has incredible things in store! 

Curious about what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is? Read the book of Acts and email us at mark.erickson.2@gmail.com for more information we would love to answer your questions!

Fall Retreat 2013 - Mark's Story

In John 5:19 Jesus says “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son does also.”
 

It's awesome seeing students passionate about worship!

 

God is working and so are we! In the last month hundreds of students have come to know Jesus and many have been empowered by the Holy Spirit. One amazing story we had the honor to witness and wanted to share with you was a student named Clayton.

A freshman from Missouri Clayton was one of NDSU’s top wrestling recruits. I actually had the opportunity to speak with him and his mother last year during his recruiting visit. My head coach mentioned to me “He’s like you Mark, you’ll get along with him.” – his way of hinting that this kid probably knew Jesus.

Little did I know that God would have us cross paths again. I was working the contact table during the first week of school when who walks up but Clayton and two other freshmen wrestlers. My heart stirred as I knew God was moving and answering prayers.

Throughout this semester I have had the opportunity to sit down with Clayton over lunch and attend our weekly Chi Alpha services together. We have even had the opportunity to wrestle in the NDSU wrestling room, as brothers in Christ of course.

Fall Retreat was incredible as students got to experience incredible worship, teachings, fellowship, healings and growth in their personal walks with Christ. During the end of the evening services at Fall Retreat Clay found me at the altar praying for other students. I saw his face

glowing with a smile and the next thing I knew I was wrapped in a hug by this young man. I hugged him back and he told me, “Thank you! I’ve never been closer to Jesus in my life!”

Clayton had been touched by the Holy Spirit at Fall Retreat. He is set to not only go to school and win wrestling matches but Clayton is ready to share the love of Jesus with his classmates and teammates! If you could keep this man in your prayers we would greatly appreciate it!

Clayton and I with Senior Pastor Bob Ona at Mama Deb's

Clayton is only one of the many students that are being impacted by Jesus Christ. Danielle will share one of her highlights of fall retreat as well.

From the both of us we thank you for your continued support and being a part of our team! We are forever grateful that God has placed you in our lives to help support our mission!

Are you wondering what fall retreat is? If you have any questions or prayer requests please feel free to leave a comment or email us at mark.erickson.2@gmail.com.

Once a Bison Always a Bison

As you probably know I've played soccer my entire life and was offered the opportunity to play 4 years of collegiate soccer with the Bison 2008-2011. To be completely honest I miss it dearly, soccer will always have a place in my heart. It's actually pretty incredible how God changed my heart's desires as I was planning on playing soccer overseas once school was up! But He had different plans as I got connected at Chi Alpha and met this awesome blonde haired kid. Now I have this passion to share the victory God had done in my own life and to watch Him break chains in the lives of others'. Truly all that matters in this life is wholeheartedly serving my King, sharing His amazing love to others, while battling off the attacks of satan! If you couldn't tell I've definitely taken my passion from the soccer pitch and transferred it over to serving Jesus.

Flashback to the past!

This year God spoke to me and opened my heart and eyes to how I can still have an impact on the team that I love so much. God opened up a door when myself and fellow intern/ex-soccer teammate Mary Krambeer found out that the next soccer home game was student organization night where if you are part of an student organization on campus and you get a group to go to the game you get a minute at halftime to shout out your group! I couldn't see a more open door for us to love on the team!

Unfortunately since soccer isn't America's most popular sport our soccer team has never had a large fan base. I realized that this was my chance to give the team something I never had - a CRAZY FAN SECTION! So we created an event on Facebook and a bunch of Chi Alpha people got excited to lparticipate!

Our awesome Chi Alpha fan section!

It was a huge success! Our group was the largest, loudest and proudest organization there! Not only did we get to show our love and support to the girls soccer team but we also had a student, David Mueller, go up and explain who we were. We got to name drop Jesus and His love to everyone in attendance! It was incredible and I'll never forget how amazing it was!

Tristyn after her goal!

To top it off one of the players on the team, Tristyn Walczak, who was in Mary and I's Chi Alpha small group for the past two years and is currently leading a small group within the team scored the winning goal! It also opened up a door to ask the coach permission if I could drive three of the players to our Fall Retreat coming up - he gave the okay so we'll have THREE soccer girls at Fall Retreat - something I didn't get to experience until after I graduated!

If that doesn't get you excited about what God is doing here I don't know what will!

September Starting Off Strong

The 2013 school year at North Dakota State University has begun! New and returning students are roaming our campus once again.

Danielle and I have been meeting with small group leaders that will be on campus this year. We have been able to pray over and encourage them as they impact the students by sharing their lives and Jesus Christ.  

Chi Alpha was back on campus kicking off the first week. Students poured into the Century Theater inside of NDSU’s student union. Over 450 students came to the two services on Thursday evening and over 30 students accepted Jesus into their lives!

Our amazing greeting team! These people are incredibly selfless and greet students as they arrive!

 We had a blast at Momma Deb’s, which is our freshmen outreach event where the famous Momma Deb, (mother of Pastors Nate and Dave Leedahl), makes all of Chi Alpha a dinner picnic! It used to be hosted at her house but our numbers have increased so much we had to move it to a park near campus. Students mingled, ate and played games as they entered into the family-like atmosphere we have. It was our hope that the students felt the Christ-like love and acceptance.

Small snapshot of Mama Deb's!

With the incredible success of HJOY last year we decided to start the school year off strong with another show. HJOY is our student-led stand-up comedy show that started many years ago in the living room of some Chi Alpha students. Last year we have over 1000 in attendance as we hosted it in our Memorial Union. Our prayer is that HJOY will be appealing to non-believers and break down the stereotypes that we don’t know how to have fun. This year was another success as we had over 900 students laughing and crying over the ridiculous skits & games of HJOY! !

 Last years HJOY was so great we did it again!!

We are both electric with excitement for this school year. Our vision is to see this Chi Alpha group double by year’s end. Pray for us as we will be praying for you! Thank you for your continued support!

Wondering why we have so many events in the beginning of the year? Feel free to reachout to us at mark.erickson.2@gmail.com for more information!