Dear Supporters,
Another month has flown by and I find myself writing another update to you all. This last month has been crazy, and it definitely felt non-stop, but I loved every second of it. When I wrote the last update, we were about a week out from the students arriving. We spent that final week making last-minute preparations for them to arrive.
On September 14th, the 26 students for this Fall Discipleship Training School arrived. It’s hard to describe the amount of anticipation I felt leading up to this day, but needless to say, I was incredibly excited. My job was to welcome students, give tours to their families, and help them feel at home. A lot of the students were excited, but a lot were nervous too, so I had to do a fair amount of calming people’s nerves and answering any questions they had.
That night after the welcome dinner, the students wanted to have a worship night, which they led for the next 4 hours. This was my first glimpse at the type of students they are. We’re calling this school, “Burning Ones”, and they truly wrapped their minds around that identity. What I mean by that is they are people who see God rightly and are willing to lay down their lives for Him. They live lifestyles on fire for Jesus as they burn in the prayer room, worship Him non-stop, and unashamedly share the Gospel on the streets. Needless to say, these students are a wild bunch.
One cool example of this happened on the first day of class. The night before, I had 3 identical dreams about sharing the Gospel at Walmart with some specific students. Because of those dreams, I felt like I should extend the invitation for our school to go out to Walmart that night. 20 people ended up going, we went to a couple of different locations, but nothing too crazy happened. Regardless, I felt like it was important for us to go out on the first day of class to set the standard for what is to come and to obey what God asked us to do. Sharing the Gospel will be a big part of what we’ll be doing on outreach so it’s good for the students to practice doing it now.
By the second day of class, something even cooler happened, but first let me share the backstory. I have three students that I am 1-on-1 mentoring for the next few months. One of these students was really struggling the first few days with getting angry, having suicidal thoughts, and questioning if he should be there. I took the proper steps to bring in leadership, have them help me handle it, and we got to pray for him. It’s hard to describe what happened in this prayer time, but in a single moment all of those lies stopped, and he was free. That day 6 students decided they wanted to get baptized for the first time, and this student that I prayed for decided he also wanted to make an outward commitment toward Jesus after what had happened that day. So on only the 5th day of the entire experience, I got to baptize someone for the first time in my life, and what an honor that was!
At this point, we’ve had 3 full weeks of class. The first week the topic was, “Hearing God’s Voice”, which I really enjoyed as I continue to grow in my understanding of how God speaks to me. The next week was, “Making Jesus Lord”, which was really convicting and challenging as I contemplated what it looks like to really give God everything. Finally, this last week was, “Proclamation of the Gospel”, which really pushed our school to be bold and confident in going out to share about Jesus. During this time, I’ve also been leading a small group, mentoring students 1 on 1, sharing meals with them, hanging out with them in free time, and have had plenty of discipleship opportunities.
I’ve learned a lot during this time, but in particular, I feel like God is teaching me a lot about leadership. I said this in the last update, but I’ve really felt such a challenge when it comes to leading in this capacity. Something about discipling people to look more like Jesus is incredibly hard when we all fall short and make mistakes every day. The hardest part has been having to confront students about behavior that is really minor in the grand scheme of things but could lead to worse things if not addressed. Thankfully the students have been receptive to my confrontation and I’m learning how to handle it better each time.
With that said, I’m grateful for what I’m learning, and that I have opportunities to grow. Like I said, I fall short every day, but every time I do I’m amazed at how I’m met with the grace of God. I’m really awe-struck at God’s mercy and the life I get to live. Again I want to express my gratitude to all of you for enabling me to do this work. Each of you who are partnering with me either with prayers or finances is making a huge difference in God’s Kingdom! Thank you for being so willing to give and generous in doing so.
If you would like to contact me for any reason, I would love to talk to you. Please see my contact information:
Sincerely,
Jacob Frenzen
970-488-9235
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