We're Back!

It was obviously a busy summer for us in the Brucker household. Little miss Sadie is now 3 1/2 months old and we are having a blast with her. She is doing great and is so much fun! School has also finally started here at Oregon State and we are so glad. Campus is alive again and it's so wonderful to see our students again!

We have started our GreekSide Nav Night (our larger group meeting on Tuesday evenings) back up again. This term we doing a bible study format and studying the book of Mark. Stephen is speaking at more Nav Nights this year which is fun and challenging for him. It's looking like it's going to be a great year!

Noah's bagels graciously gives us their leftover bagels - yum!

Nicole snuggling Sadie

Sadie is here!

Sadie Maren Brucker arrived on June 25th at 11:14am! She was 8lbs. 2 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She had a little bit of a rough start with fluid in her lungs and a possible infection so we had to stay in the hospital 3 extra days. However, she is doing quite well now and we are so thankful. We are loving being her parents!

Endings

Well the school year is pretty much wrapped up with most students almost finished with finals and graduation this Saturday. We had our end of the year BBQ this past Friday. We were able to send the seniors off into the "real world." We gave them a gift and asked them to share a favorite memory of their time with the Navigators and advice for those younger than them. It was neat to see the way God has worked in their lives reflected in their answers.

The Seniors - Abe, Kayla, Allison, Hillary, Brian, Katie

To end the year with our Sunday night bible study we decided to do something fun. So we all went miniature golfing together. It was great to just be together and celebrate a great year of making new friends and learning about God and ourselves. And it only rained on us a little! : )

the girls - Nicole, Lindsey, Lisa, Stacy and Hillary

Jake, Lindsey, Brian, Hillary, Stacy, Nicole, Sam and Lisa

I am 38.5 weeks pregnant which means I'm coming to the end of this pregnancy. This little girl could come any day now or wait for another few weeks, who knows?! With the school year coming to an end we are realizing how quiet and empty things are going to feel this summer. Only a few guys are living in the house over the summer which compared to 70 won't feel like any at all probably. Although it's a little sad we know this summer will give us a good opportunity to adjust to life with a baby and how to be a family of 3! We think we have everything pretty much ready to go so now we're in the waiting game. We are nervous and excited for this little one to turn our lives upside down!

(unfortunately my putting skills weren't any better or worse with the addition of the huge belly!)

one of our students got us these baby TOMS - aren't they the cutest things ever!

Every story whispers His name

Last Tuesday evening we began our 6 week leadership, discipleship and evangelism training called Joshua Team. We have been pleasantly surprised by all of the students interested in participating and our first night we had around 20 students and last night 25! We also have 3 students who weren't able to come on Tuesday nights but are doing it one on one with a staff member. It's been great so far and we are excited to see what God does through this team of students.

One of the assignments we have given these students is to read a portion of the Jesus Storybook Bible (pictured above) each day as a daily devotion. It is a great children's Bible that gives a big picture view of the Bible as a whole and at the end of each story in the Old Testament the author mentions something about the One who is yet to come. As it says in the introduction, "Every story whispers His name". We weren't quite sure how the students would respond to us having them read a children's Bible (would they think it too cheesy or beneath them?) but they are absolutely LOVING it!

This Bible has been floating around the fraternities and sororities here and really creating opportunities for discussion. One student was able to share the gospel with his roommate after his roommate picked up the bible and was asking questions. Another girl left her room for a while and came back and her roommate had read 100 pages and was asking lots of really great questions about God. We have been surprised and excited to see the ways God is working unexpectedly! We can only get excited thinking about what will happen in the next couple of weeks.

He is the Passover Lamb

This past Tuesday evening we had our weekly gathering at our Campus Director's home and had a Passover Seder Celebration. We have done this in the past with our couples group from church and really enjoyed it. It is so powerful to see how the Exodus story and the passing over of the oldest Israelite firstborn points directly to Jesus. He is our passover Lamb and because of what He did for us we are passed over for the death sentence we deserve. So amazing. It is also a neat way to recognize the Jewish roots of Christianity and participate in a celebration that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. Most of our students had never even heard of a Passover Seder before so it was a new experience for all! We had some interesting mishaps with horseradish (some people got a little zealous with the amount they put on their Matzah bread - it's hot!) but overall I think it was a great way to remember what Jesus did for us and that this was God's plan all along.

We had about 25 students all gathered in the living room.

Also this weekend, we were able to celebrate Easter with my family in Portland. It was great to have the whole family together and we still did our traditional Easter Egg Hunt. Only now instead of candy the eggs have money in them!

The four of us ready to go - even me at 31 (almost 32) weeks pregnant!

Sunriver and a Baby Shower

(The whole group!)

We are finally recovering this week from a busy Spring Break! We were able to rent a house in Sunriver for Monday - Friday of Spring Break and we had 9 students come along with us. We all slept-in a bunch, hot tubbed, some went skiing/snowboarding, we shopped in Bend and explored Sunriver. We also spent a good amount of time just hanging out at the house watching March Madness b-ball, movies and reading a crocheting. Every night we all had dinner together and had a question of the day such as "what is one thing you want to have done before you die". It was a great time of just being relational and having fellowship with one another.

Early Friday morning Stephen and I left and drove 7.5 hours up to Spokane because his mom's friends were throwing me a baby shower! The drive didn't end up being too bad and I'm very thankful we were able to do it now at 27 weeks rather than later on in my pregnancy. I know I'm only going to get more uncomfortable as time goes on! Here are some pics from the gorgeous and fun shower. It was such a blessing to us!

(beautiful decor!) (Sally, Me and baby Sadie, Anne)

(some of the gifts we got)

Girls Bible Study Update . . .

We met last night to give the girls a little taste of what we will be doing next term and talk about when to meet. 15 girls showed up! and several girls e-mailed us to let us know that they couldn't come to the meeting but still really want to be involved. The girls come from a variety of spiritual backgrounds but they all seem game for reading the bible and talking about it a bit. Morgan and I were super encouraged. The biggest praise of all is that somehow we were all able to agree on meeting next term on Tuesday nights from 6-7, Wow I could hardly believe it! But I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised because God is good and answers our prayers!

Stephen is beginning an investigative bible discussion with several freshman guys tonight also so we are excited to see how that will go and what God will do! We are enjoying doing ministry together so much and feel so blessed to be able to share in this work together!

20 girls said yes!

This past Monday Morgan and I had the opportunity to do a survey at one of the sororities here on campus. I have been meeting with two of the girls in this sorority who are Christians and they had expressed the desire to possibly start a bible study in their house. I have been encouraged to see their hearts for their sorority sisters to know Christ. We decided to do a very short survey to see who might even be interested.

basically the survey asks three questions:

1. What's your spiritual background if any?

2. How would you describe your faith currently? (not interested, curious, enthusiastic)

3. Would you be interested in participating in a bible study or investigative bible discussion in your house?

We had 20 girls fill out the survey and say they would be interested in a bible study! I wasn't really aware of this since this is the first time I had done a survey in a house, but this is one of the biggest responses the Navigators have ever had to a survey at a sorority or fraternity before! Wow! Also, a few staff women surveyed this same house a couple of years ago and not a single person responded. God must be doing something in this house! We are now working on setting up a time to get these women together and we will hopefully begin the investigative bible discussion next term. We are excited and encouraged by what God is doing!

Baby B is a . . .

GIRL! Last week we had our 20 week ultrasound and found out that our baby is a girl! We are both very happy and glad to find out that everything looks great with her growth. It was super fun to see her on the ultrasound screen and we even got to get a 4D ultrasound which was a special treat, although she kept trying to hide her face behind my placenta! Hmm uncooperative already . . . : ) It's so fun to be able to call her a "her" instead of "it". The cook here at the Sig Ep house is excited too cause now us girls are really invading the fraternity! After prayer and discussion we have decided to stay here in the fraternity next year and so the guys will have to get used to one more girl around.

Ignite Conference and 1/2 way through Winter Term!

Two weekends ago, January 21-23rd we took 16 students to our annual Winter Navigators Conference in Portland. It was at the Double Tree Hotel near Lloyd Center. We had a great speaker and lots of great interaction with students. Stephen and I decided to stay with students so that we could take advantage of the time there and we were so glad we did. We figured this might be one of the last times we are able to do this before Baby B comes along! The conference was a really great start to Winter term. Now we are praying about which students to invest in with discipleship relationships. We are also both in the process of starting investigative bible discussions with students. Stephen in one of the fraternities with freshman and Lisa in one of the sororities. It is exciting to see the doors God is opening up for us!

Good News!

On Monday during their chapter meeting/National Championship football game watching party, the fraternity voted on if they wanted us to stay with the baby next year. It was pretty much a unanimous yes! We are excited that they want us back and for this adventure we will all have together next year. : ) Stephen and I are quite sure we will decide to stay next year, we just need to work through some of the details as we prepare for little B's arrival.

How cute are these?!!!!

Last week we arrived back on campus and Winter Term began! We started up our Tuesday evening GreekSide NavNight meeting Jan. 4th and Bible Studies began last week as well. It's a little strange to have had such a long break but we feel like we are picking up right back where we left off. We are excited for this term. One of the girls I have been meeting with weekly crocheted these adorable booties for our baby over her Christmas break. Aren't they just so adorable? She is so sweet! We feel very loved. : ) We can't wait to find out if a little boy or girl will be wearing these! (we might have to change the ribbon for a boy though!)