Following Christ for young adults

I want to share with you a letter I sent out yesterday to some close friends asking for prayers and support for one of the critical areas of mission ChristLife is involved with:

September 30, 2009
Feast of St. Jerome

Dear friends of ChristLife,

I'm writing you to ask for your 1) committed intercession and 2) financial support for a Following Christ retreat, Dave, Ally, Brittany and I are running this Friday-Saturday
(Oct 2-3).

This summer ChristLife hosted a Discovering Christ course for 60+ young
adults. Many lives were touched - from regular Catholics to nominal
Catholics to non-Catholic Christians to unbelievers. In fact one of the
young adults who shared the last session, came from a non-Christian background
and shared:

"I've really been touched by this course, I don't know what it is, but I
feel like I'm in the right place. I'm not making any commitments yet. but I
really enjoyed this."

She's been coming to mass with a friend for the past several weeks and is
coming on this weekend's Following Christ retreat. Praise God! And, not only
is she coming, but 24 other young adults who the Holy Spirit has touched in
various ways!

This didn't happen overnight though. We prayed and struggled with the
feasibility of even running a retreat. We faced four obstacles:

1. Location. Finding a retreat center with less than a month
notice
2. Commitments. Needing 15+ young adults to commit (we only had
15-25 coming weekly)
3. Affordability. Making the retreat affordable for young adults,
while meeting the costs
4. Obedience. Juggling so much at ChristLife, and not wanting to
get-ahead of the Lord, or behind Him.

Long story short, the Retreat Center had an opening this weekend.
One obstacle down! We then prayed about this "open door," and the day I had
to make the decision, "yes" or "no," just 2 weeks back, I got three
confirmations:

1. Enough people. 15 young adults confirmed their attendance,
followed by 10 more the next week (25 of us overall!)
2. Drop in price. I get an email from the retreat center dropping
our price by $300
3. The Lord speaks provision. I read the Gospel for the day from
Luke 8, which immensely struck me, a) the ragamuffin band of followers Jesus
attracted - the apostles, women from Herod's court, former prostitutes -
which feels a bit like our Following Christ group - very diverse; and b) how
they and "many others provided for them out of their resources." (vs. 3) And
I felt like the Lord was saying, "go ahead, I have my people. tell them what
you are doing, and I will provide."

So, I'm writing to make you aware of our needs spiritually and financially.
This morning in prayer, I prayed, "thank you Jesus that we never have enough
money, because it keeps us dependent on you and on the family of the Church!
" So here's how you can help:

1. Pray for protection. Really. Friday is the feast of "Guardian
Angels." I don't think a coincidence, as our retreat is themed We are at
War: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Pray for angelic protection and
the power of the Holy Spirit. I know Friday is first Friday and many
chapels have adoration. Will you commit time to pray? We have huge
anticipation the Lord is going to changes lives eternally! (Pray for those
in attendance and for ChristLife's leadership.)

2. Make a donation. In an effort to make the retreat affordable - to
attract young adults - we are only charging $35, though it costs more like
$105 per person to meet our costs. That's a $60 difference. Would you
consider a donation of this amount or more to help us meet our costs for
this retreat? If so send a donation to 12280 Folly Quarter, Ellicott City,
MD 21042 or donate online at

Thanks so much! Blessings in the Lord Jesus,

Pete Ascosi
Young Adult Coordinator

Thanks so much for considering this request and joining our mission to make Jesus known and loved!

Discovering Christ!

Blessed be God! With the help of a friend, Phil Rosensteel of Wired Different Media, we produced the following video that shares what Discovering Christ is and are plans to video produce it this summer:

I hope you enjoyed this video. Please consider committing to pray for us and to making a donation to the cause of the Gospel! Thank you!

We also produced second video - based on the same video shoot - that is shorter and ends before the appeal about evangelizing, the video production, and interceding. This version is an "invitation" for young adults we are inviting to this summer's course!

earthen vessels

God is amazing. I'm really convinced of it. He really uses each of us, despite our weaknesses and insufficiencies, to restore people's hearts to friendship with Himself...

I got a call last Friday from a lady, for privacy purposes, named Leah. Leah explained she is homeless and on disability, but she was approved for section 8 housing recently. She went on to tell me, however, that she needed nearly $1600 in less than seven days for a security deposit - and the county government couldn't help her with this particular amount - so they told her to call churches and ministries. So she was obviously looking through the yellow pages making phone calls asking for money. She did have about $200 towards it and explained she is desperate to get into a place - her van or homeless shelters are rough on her, and her disability.

I responded telling her we at ChristLife don't give out funds for the poor, but, that I would ask around the office to see if anyone had cash. Well, that day only three young adults were in the office. We only had a few bucks.

Leah was so grateful I even asked others to personally give. Then I asked if she would like to pray over the phone. A pause goes by, and she answers "yes." I began to pray and invite the Lord Jesus to show her how much He loves her and to provide for her. After a tangible sense of God's presence, we ended the prayer with a hearty "amen." Leah then expressed her gratitude and gave me her number and said she would really love to help out some time.

Over the weekend that followed I prayed for her and then called her on Monday to see how the fundraising for her security deposit was going. Well, I didn't get a hold of her - and was worried that I wouldn't because she said her phone was going to be turned off at any point - due to not paying her bill.

But, on Tuesday she called and said, "thank you so much for praying with me, without it, I would have given up all the phone calls I was making." Then with lots of joy she said, "I got the whole amount of the deposit given to me by a local church coalition!" Whoa! I must admit, even during my prayers, I didn't have too much faith about her getting that much money in seven days. Praise God!

And Leah keeps insisting on how powerful praying with her was. Which is amazing because I didn't think too much of it at the time. And yesterday she came into ChristLife and I was able to share with her and pray a bit more... She was visibly moved and full of joy. It was as if I was the one who gave her the money; but rather, more correctly, the treasure.

And the incredible thing is that the Lord Jesus could use me in such a powerful way in someone else's life. All of this happened right in the midst of a season where I feel like I'm trying to do a lot for the Lord - but I don't see big ripe juicy fruit yet... Until this. Thank you Father!

If you feel like you are in a similar season as I was or you feel great weakness in fulfilling the mission the Lord's given us, then definitely read 2 Corinthians chapter 4. An excerpt: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us." (vs. 7) Basically we are called to be common clay pots, so people know that when God uses us - that is not because of our special abilities - but that God is working through us!

Do you have an experience where God used you in the midst of your weakness and insufficiency?

Image credits: The first illustration is by Elizabeth Wang, "True Prayer" (CWC 5930) © Radiant Light 2006. The photo of the clay pot is from umamitv a blog on cooking.