Praise and Glory to God for His Gracious Providence and Answers to Precious Prayers

Faithful Prayer Warriors,

Thank you so much for lifting up this ministry in prayer. I hope you had a chance to listen to John Piper's talk on  prayer and that you found it not only an encouragement, but also a catalyst for your prayer life. It's been about a month since I listened to it, and I feel that I could probably listen to it over and over and still get a renewed sense of drive to pray more. As promised I wanted to update you on what has happened this past week, that I can only give God the glory for, so thank you for your prayers.

I have to have a moment of honesty with you all. I failed at praying each and every night and morning for this ministry, life can get away from me, and that's why I'm so grateful for God's grace. This past Thursday, Matt was unexpectedly asked to speak, and he spoke of God's ever abundant grace, that like a tree, he planted us along this every flowing river of grace. You are God's gracious providence for this ministry, when myself or Matt forgets to pray, we rejoice in God that we have you! This is by no means an excuse for Matt and I not to pray, just God's provision to ensure this campus gets prayed for on a more regular basis than any of us could achieve on our own.

This week Matt and I have seen God's hand at work! We have seen students show a new level of vulnerability as they admit that only through God's strength can they do what He has asked of them. We have seen students recognize spiritual warfare in their lives and seen how God has used these revelations to start them on the path of fighting back against the enemy, again in His power. God provided for the Girl's Bible study on Wednesday night when, the student leaders had a scheduling conflict and God laid a message on one of the student leaders heart to share that was not in line with the Bible study content, but led to fantastic discussion and a further outside conversation that I'll be having with a student. Also on Wednesday, God gave a message to Matt for Christian Fellowship's main meeting, that was refreshing and what the students needed to hear. Following his message students were given the opportunity to write on the board where they needed God's grace in their lives. Praise the Lord the students are giving up areas to walk in God's strength instead of their own. I myself began talking to students about the Bible study that I'll be starting soon about God and Justice, and already I have four interested students! There is no doubt that God is hearing our prayers!

Please continue to lift up this campus and ministry. Pray for the students that God will meet them where they are, in their vulnerabilities, struggles, accomplishments, and any other places God may have them. Please also pray for guidance for Matt and I as we try to follow God each day, living out what He has for us to do. May we be filled with His Spirit and wisdom as we prepare and meet with students. May this ministry be one that is fully operated by God through you our partners and us, as through prayer we are united on this battle front fighting for God's will in the lives of college students.

Spiritual Warfare and God’s Sovereignty

I’m so excited to share with you what God is doing. This week I met with some students. I asked them how their breaks were and how they were currently. This one question launched us into a deep conversation about where each of them was spiritually and where they were struggling. I would like to take you back in time to better explain this God moment.

When I started with Campus Crusade I was passionate about discipling girls and being their mentor, a wonderful asset that was not available to me as a student. I also had a strong desire to reach the unreached on campus. However as training began, I started to notice myself hesitating and relying on Matt a lot. I didn’t know why I seemed to be struggling. I soon realized that I was questioning my faith. My time in college was mostly spent pouring out. I loved where God had placed me and that I was able to make a difference for Him, however I slowly had begun to struggle with doubt. The only partnership I had was with my fellow leaders on campus, whom I didn’t want to burden with my questions because they had their own problems, with no weekly discipleship either.

This past semester, it hit me that my job was to share the gospel and how was I to do this if I couldn’t even assure myself that it was 100% true? I wanted to know that I knew, that I knew that Jesus was real and that I had asked Him into my life as my Savior. I realized that I had shared my faith in college without an arena to handle the difficult questions that arose as a result of talking to non-believers. I’m a full supporter of looking into these questions but alone, I felt helpless, and alone was exactly where the enemy wanted me. Matthew 7: 7 states, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”.  That is exactly what I sought out to do. With the support of my coach in Campus Crusade, I set out to answer the questions that I had been avoiding in the past. Praise God that He is sovereign. For He graciously met me right where I was, and today I can firmly state that I know, that I know that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that I have been God’s since that moment as a four year old, I gave my life over to Him. Looking back I can testify that He has always taken care of me.

Bringing us back to the present day, I’m not saying that I still don’t have thoughts of doubt, but they don’t shake my inner core and cause anxiety anymore.  It was with this testimony that God used to meet the students where they were at with a word of caution.  They all are very active with our group, attending as much as they can and leading so much in our ministry. When they began to talk about the spiritual attacks that they all felt they were under, I asked how their personal spiritual walks were going. I encouraged them to not put it on the back burner like I did in college. Matt and I treasure their personal roles in our student ministry and praise God for them everyday, however if they are doing all they can for the ministry but not steadily growing themselves and worse possibly backsliding, Matt and I are not doing our jobs. I explained that we wanted them to own the ministry and to follow the passions that God has given each of them for specific ministries, but to not forget about their personal walks, and that is why Matt and I are here, to take on the tasks they can’t do (in addition to many other things) so that the enemy doesn’t have a foothold in their busyness. I love each of these girls deeply, and nothing angers me more than the enemy messing with them. I once was in their shoes, and I pray that God will use me to help them now.

Every morning, I wake up trying to figure out my schedule and what my tasks are for that day. It has been hard to adjust to being in charge of my own schedule, and I’m still learning. However I can often feel like I have failed if I don’t meet the expectations that I set out for that day. But after this week, God has showed me that my job is to do my best, but ultimately He is in charge of what my day includes, some of which I may not know the purpose of for a while.  Back when I was at the end of my own struggle with doubt, I wrote in my journal, “My faith was affected in college and I don’t want that to happen to others. Satan is taking souls, we need to fight back. I love college students, I want to help them and I see the danger they are in. I see the need and I’m willing to fill it.” How cool is it that two months ago, God gave this to me in a quiet time, and I’m now seeing this come to fruition in a tangible way this week!

I come to you our ministry partners to lift up the campus in prayer. These students that I just shared about are not the only ones subject to the backsliding that can occur in one’s faith during college. Pray that Matt and I will be led by the Spirit on a daily basis, and not try to do this ministry out of the flesh. To live in God’s abounding power instead of feeding into the enemy’s lies.  Together may we pray for the freedom of the students on campus. That those who know the Lord would be encouraged and those that don’t may we pray for the promises of the new covenant over their lives. That God will begin to stir in them a longing to know Him. May we pray for protection from the enemy over the territory that has been gained for the Glory of God from the enemy.

Below you will find the link to John Piper’s talk on prayer. I encourage you to listen to it. It is 45 minutes. But my prayer is that it will rejuvenate your prayer life.  

Prayer: the Work of Missions

This week I’m challenging myself to pray for the campus day and night. Please join me. I can’t wait to see what God will do. Next week I will update with what God has done. I will conclude with the following song lyrics, “The enemy has been defeated, and death couldn't hold You down, we’re gonna lift our voice in victory, we’re gonna make Your praises loud” [Shout unto God, Hillsong United].

A Simple Thought

One of the main pieces of my ministry involves discipling college men. When I disciple them, I often have ideas of what we could study to help them further in their faith journey, but I always ask them what they would like to study both so I can gauge my reading of them and so I can hear if there's something that would be more valuable to them.

I did so with a young man who's new to my discipling roundup this semester, and he suggested we study how to study Scripture. What a simple-yet-elegant idea! Soon after reading his suggestion (we had been communicating over Facebook) I realized that while I studied Scripture every day, I had never had formal training in HOW to study Scripture, and thus had little ability to teach someone else how to study Scripture.

Hours of asking others' wiser perspectives and surfing the internet and praying I decided upon Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. The book arrived yesterday, and only ten minutes into reading the text I found myself asking: Where has this information been my whole Christian walk? I had already learned so much that I had never heard before about observing, interpreting, and applying.

This morning, the young man and I met and talked about how so few Christians have been taught these principles that we're embarking on learning in a useful and powerful way - and we wondered why? People with a new job get job training for a significant chunk of time, freshman college students get introductory classes that teach them how to study and the fundamentals of their major. Why is it that the most major decision any one person can make in their lives comes with little to no entry level training on how to study the source of growth and development for their lives?


It seems like a simple thought in the form of a question. It also seems like a convicting question to me as a teacher of Scripture and a mentor to Christian college students. I'm passing the question on to you mainly because it's what I'm thinking about today. Maybe it's something we all need to be thinking about.

February Prayer Letter

Hey All!

Here's our prayer letter that went out this week:

“He said ‘No; rather I indeed come now as a captain of the host of the LORD.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, ‘What has my lord to say to his servant?’ The captain of the LORD’s host said to Joshua, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.”                                                                                                                                                                                   – Joshua 5:14-15

Dear Family,

This story in Joshua has always bewildered me. God finally gets the Israelites across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. They set up camp within sight of Jericho – their first enemy. Before Joshua even has a chance to ask God “Now what?”, God tells him to circumcise the whole army. Did I mention how close they camped to Jericho? As if that weren’t enough, Joshua goes to survey the city as the troops heal and runs into none other than Christ Himself. Surprised and probably psyched by God’s clear show of support, Joshua seeks counsel from Him about what He would have him do. Christ (as the “Angel of the LORD”) answers Joshua and befuddles me: “Take your sandals off, this is a holy place.” Exactly at the moment where Joshua seeks a battle plan – a map with forces and strategies or blueprints for a war machine – Christ gives Joshua an opportunity to worship Him and spend time with Him. And this is exactly what January has been for us.

Our month started with the high-octane, labor-intensive Epicenter Experience, a 4-day conference in Albany, NY with 300⁺ students from across the Northeast region. I (Matt) worked in the Prayer Journey – a room filled with Scripture, activities, and décor meant to lead the students into deep prayer time with God. Rebecca spent the week as Book Store manager – having planned the inventory and ordered new books ahead of time – selling books to students and managing the finances of the store each day (a job which she loved!). We both spent our free time working with the 22 UMD students who attended – processing God’s leading, helping them strengthen their testimony presentations, preaching the Gospel around Albany with them, and teaching them about God’s Word and Will. We watched students come to Christ, surrender their lives in new ways, and find their hearts burning with passion to preach the Gospel to their campuses. We left Albany with them ready to change the world.

A student reflecting on Eph. 3:14-21 

& “planting her tree” at the Prayer 

Journey station I designed

Two days later I found myself all dressed up with nowhere to go. The Monday after the conference I realized three weeks sat between me and the start of the semester. Three weeks without students, meetings, Bible studies, or times of evangelism. I sat with my Bible that morning and asked God, “now what?” He spent those three weeks just as He spent that time with Joshua. He showed up powerfully in our study times, spoke to us in prayer, wrote His Word on the tablets of our hearts and grew in us a passion for His mission. He laid on Rebecca’s heart the desire to lead a bible study on suffering and God’s view of justice, which she has been preparing for ever since. He led me to a deeper understanding of His Scripture and to teach a study on His view of our relationships with each other. He has taught both of us much about the other and has strengthened our marriage richly. He showed up when I stood there in my battle armor and gave me a chance to worship Him. Choosing to do so was the best “prep time” we could’ve had!

There’s nothing quite like a roomful of students 

passionately worshiping God! Can you spot 

Rebecca and the UMD students?

Today is the first day of the semester – and we’re more sold for God’s mission than ever before. Now that we’ve had our three weeks of adoring Him and learning about Him, we’re ready to take the enemy by storm – in His strength – and introduce UMass Dartmouth to the most astounding Being in this universe. God has the victory already, so please be praying that God will begin even now to show us the fruit of His labor.

In His Service,

Matt & Rebecca Litchfield