Alaina and Dan's Ministry Adventures... the Sequel

                                                                                                                                                                        October 2014

 The adventures continue! :)

Here is an update on what what's been going on in our lives since our last blog.

Chatting after CRUX

As far as personally, Alaina and I traded in our beloved Camaro so that we could lower our monthly payment.  God was so good, He blessed us with an amazing used car (2006 Jeep Commander).  This will allow us to pick up college students and make retreats that much more easy to prepare for.  We’ve had a huge development as far as our living situation goes.  As many of you know, we’ve been living with a wonderful woman from the church for a whole year!  God had put it on our hearts to take in Alaina’s mother, Janice, to live with us.  This transition will allow us to have our own place.  We’ll be moving in two weeks into a house that we'll rent with her mom. Please pray for us as we do ministry and take care of her.  Growing up in a home where my parents took care of my grandmother, I know that it can be a lot of work.  We are very excited though!  Please pray also for more support since now we’ll be paying for our own utilities which the Lord has so graciously taken care of this past year.  Exciting news all around!   

Summer is usually a time when college students go back home to live with their families, pick up jobs and go on vacation.  We decided that for our CRUX College Ministry, that we would still meet every week except that we would do an event every other Thursday.  We thought we would lose a lot of our students, and we did lose some.  But to our surprise we maintained the same amount of students we normally would have.  God brought new students to our fellowship including some of our church’s recently graduated High School Seniors!  Our theme this summer was “Yeah… it’s kinda like that.”  Through this series we talked about modern day parables, why story telling is important when sharing the gospel and most importantly that their lives are a great story that God wants to tell!  You can check out the first sermon I did on the subject on my blog http://whowithunveiledfaces.blogspot.com/2014/09/yeah-its-like-that-series-intersect.html.  

Alaina at Identity

 If you’re a fan of the show Chuck you’ll get a kick out of it.

                                            

Another great thing that happened this summer was Alaina leading worship for our Identity Service on Sunday nights!  Our Sunday night service is more worship-centric and Alaina led the congregation in 8 worship songs.  She did a great job!  Not only that but she continued to lead worship for CRUX.

 I got an opportunity to preach about Communion.  This was big for me since this is the first time that I’ve preached in the main services (we have two morning services).  Not only that, it had the potential to be seen by 300,000 viewers on the broadcast the church has that airs on FOX.  Pretty cool!  Here is a link to my Communion talk (It’s only 8 minutes).  http://vimeo.com/103747219  

Also, in regards to our broadcast, we have a commercial running for CRUX right now.  Check it out!  http://vimeo.com/104669662

It was a great summer and as we are already into the Fall semester we are excited with what God is doing.  We were able to share a table with Fresno State’s InterVarsity ministry so that we could introduce ourselves to students as they arrived for the new school year.  We’ll also be having one of their leaders speaking at CRUX in a couple of weeks.  This weekend we will be taking our student leaders on a retreat up into the Sequoia Mountains.  It’ll be a time of discovering their spiritual gifts and     helping ignite a passion for what God has for them.  We can’t wait! 

 I’ll leave you with a part of a letter I received from one of our students a couple of weeks ago. 

“…I want you to know that you have made a huge impact in my life and in this college group.  You’ve helped me see parts of God that I’ve never seen before.  I know of his grace and his nature more because of what you’ve let Him do in your life!  Please never get discouraged about your impact on this group and this church… You’ve already made a big one…” 

Without a lot of you, none of this would be happening.  Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!  Thank you for partnering with us as we reach this community for Christ!  We love you so much! 

Dan & Nick at the Iron Men's Retreat                                                                                

                                                                       CRUX Pool Party

 

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                


                                                                                                

Our CRUX commercial that airs on Fox this summer. :)

Here is a commercial that we have running on Fox during our church broadcasts for the summer.  God has blessed this church with the ability to be on TV to reach a greater audience.  Enjoy.  :)

We could use your help! :)

Dear friends and family,

                  I hope this letter finds you well.  I’ve had a lot of friends ask Alaina and I how our time in Fresno is going and if there is anything that they can do to support us.  So to those of you who are interested, I’d love to give you all an update on our lives.

                  Alaina and I moved to Fresno to become the College and Young Adult Pastors at Fresno First Baptist Church, the oldest church in Fresno.  Invited by our close friend Pastor Joe Basile in February of 2013 to partner with him in ministry, we prayed and sought the Lord to see if we were to move to Fresno.  Feeling like God had called us, we looked for opportunities to be able to make the move.  Fresno First Baptist Church wouldn’t be able to pay us to do ministry so we searched for other means of income so that we could do what God was calling us to do.  We searched for jobs for eight months and couldn’t find anything.  In faith, we had started driving up once a month to meet with the college students at the church.  In September of last year, a man from Fresno First Baptist Church told us that God had told him to give us $10,000 to move to Fresno so we could do ministry.  What a blessing!  What an answer to prayer!  So by faith, we quit our jobs in L.A. and moved to Fresno to embark on this adventure with God.  The Lord blessed us with a place to stay.  A wonderfully gracious lady from the church has let us live in a room in her house for free!  Without her help we wouldn’t have been able to afford a place to live.  God was providing, so we moved in October and came on staff at Fresno First Baptist Church as the College and Young Adult Pastors. 

(Dan preaching)  

In November we launched CRUX College Ministry and started to meet with the college students weekly.  Our weekly meetings consist of Worship, Prayer and preaching the Word.  Among our many duties, Alaina is in charge of the Worship teams and I prepare the sermons. You can read about what topics we’ve gone over here: http://whowithunveiledfaces.blogspot.com/. 

(Alaina with the Worship Team)

Each week, we meet individually with several college students in a mentorship capacity.   Since we started CRUX, we have launched three small groups and have gone on two retreats.  I have been able to lead two people to the Lord since I’ve been here and have had several college students be baptized.  The Lord is moving and we are excited to be a part of it!  That’s a broad overview of just some of the ways that God has moved rather swiftly in the life of this ministry.  Individual stories of people serving, growing and maturing in Christ are already part of our short history.

In March, the church was able to give Alaina and I part-time jobs.  Alaina is now the Church Bookkeeper and I am now the Office Manager.  As helpful as these jobs are, they don’t meet our financial needs.  We already work 40 hours plus between our church office jobs and ministry.  To add another job on top of what we already do would make doing ministry difficult.  Our hearts are to pour into this church and these college students as much as we can.   As we have prayed about our situation, it has become clear that the Lord wants us to open up an opportunity for all of you to join us in the ministry God has called us to.  We are confident that the Lord is going to meet our needs no matter what, but sometimes, He desires us to ask others for help.  Not solely for our benefit, but for the Kingdom and for those of you who feel called to partner with us.  Here’s how you can be a part of this ministry: 

PLEASE PRAY! 

(CRUX Leadership Retreat in February)  

We need prayer to carry out this work.  70% of college students will leave the faith in college. Only 35% eventually return.  We are trying to bridge the gap between High School and College and keep our young people engaged with Christ.  Your prayers will go a long way to help that. 

·       Pray that students will not only come to know Jesus Christ, but also learn to lead others to Christ.

·       Pray that God would give us courage, boldness and creativity as we aim to share the message of the gospel to this community and beyond.

·       Pray that God would raise up this next generation of leaders to change Fresno and the World. 

PLEASE SUPPORT!

(Dan giving announcements)  

We ask that you would pray about giving to CRUX College Ministry. Funding is difficult for College Pastors.  Many churches, including Fresno First Baptist, don’t have any money in their budget to reach out to students even though they want to.  It’s such an important age group… a group that will be our future leaders.  I relish the opportunity to help shape this generation for the Kingdom of God and I want you to have that opportunity as well.  Our desire is to cover our essential resource needs to enable us to effectively minister to the needs of college students.  One of the things God has put on our hearts is to be able to rent our own house.  A place where college students can come and hang out and be ministered to whenever they need it.  A safe place where they can encounter God as we live life together.  Unless our finances change, this ministry won’t be able to continue.   That’s where you come in, dear friend. 

We would like to raise at least $25,000 if not more, so that we can continue to minister here in Fresno.  Please prayerfully consider supporting us financially on a monthly basis or with a one-time gift.  Your gift of $50, $100 or even $500 a month will go a long way to make sure this generation of college students has an opportunity to change their campuses and the world for Christ.  Any gift amount helps.  Thank you in advance for whatever God puts on your heart.  And if you don’t have anything to give, don’t worry about it.  God is going to take care of this ministry.  We just wanted to give you an opportunity to be a blessing to these college students.  But if you can’t give, please know that your prayers are also a huge support. 

To send support to us directly, please make your checks out to Alaina or Daniel Lowman:

Alaina and Daniel Lowman

2985 E. Willis Avenue

             Fresno, Ca. 93726 

If you would like a tax deduction for your donations, please make your checks out to Fresno First Baptist Church (or FFBC) with “Lowman Ministry Support” in the memo and mail it to:

Fresno First Baptist Church

1400 E. Saginaw Way

Fresno, Ca. 93704

If you would prefer to give online you can donate at: http://www.fresnofirst.org/connect/onlinegiving/ using the drop down menu for “Dan and Alaina Lowman”.

We’re excited for this next chapter in our lives and we thank you all for having ears to hear and hearts to care. Thanks for your prayers as we take this leap of faith and trust in God’s goodness and greatness.

In Christ’s love,                                                                                                   

Dan & Alaina Lowman