We're certainly glad that you've joined us again this morning for the Word for Life Radio Ministry. I'm Pastor Greg Huffman, and with me in the studio is Nate Amack. Nate is a Christian businessman in our church, but beyond that, he is an investor. in lives. And Nate, you were sharing with us the joy of investing your life, you and your wife Amy, in the lives of college students. Now you've worked with young people, you've worked with teenagers, but right now the Lord has opened the door to work with about 150 college students in our church and the ministries that we have with Maranatha Baptist Bible College, in Watertown, just a few miles away, and then other colleges in the area. What an opportunity God has given you to invest in their lives. Well, obviously within any church, there's a ton of needs for ministry help. And youth ministry always tends to be one of those ministries that is always looking for some helping hands. And the college ministry is no different with that. And really the challenge that we have is just that we just have a shortage of help, of people that really understand what true discipleship is like. And so the approach that we've taken is what we call a power group model. And the concept there is to take mature, God-fearing people that have the desire, that are consistent in their faith, consistent in their ministry. We have seven young men and seven young women that Amy and I are investing in. These are college students? College students. I would say college and career. Our college ministry goes from basically freshman of college up to age 28, I think is the oldest individual we have in the class. But we don't have any age restrictions. There's really nothing there. It's more based on their walk with God is how we measure that. We ask them to be a part of it. And then the commitment is multifaceted. One of the biggest pieces is accountability. You know, each week when we get together after a Wednesday night session, we'll meet for an hour to an hour and a half typically. And they fill out an accountability sheet with their ministry partner. We partner with them. And we typically tend to tailor that so that their strengths and their weaknesses are well matched together. But they fill out accountability sheets and everything from their time in the Word to how they're doing in investing in the life of somebody else, in their finances, in their eye gate and their ear gate and things of that nature. It's heavily focused with prayer, you know, for the members in our groups. And then we actually discussed the upcoming Sunday morning Message that we're gonna be going through we're going through a book. We're just finishing up called before Abraham Genesis chapters 1 through 10 just been exciting. We're just closing that up But these power group leaders are all assigned 5 to 10 Crossroads group members and how we do that is we just had a full complete roster We brought everybody together had some pizza and just asked him Hey, who do you know in here? And who would you like to invest your life in exactly right? Power group leaders are responsible to pray weekly, you know, for their group members. They're responsible to reach out in the way of text message or Facebook or emails, go out for a cup of coffee, whatever it is, but to just pour their life into somebody in that group to make themselves available, and then also to deepen their walk with God and start the teaching role, the guys with guys and ladies with ladies. And so we're slowly but surely teaching them how to study the Word of God, and then more importantly, how to live it. And so as you teach them how to be with the Lord, it's kind of like Jesus choosing his disciples, and he specifically said that he chose them to be with him, then to send them out. You're talking then, Nate, about the personal discipleship of these 14 individuals as you are just watching the Lord develop them, then giving them the opportunity to impact the lives of other college students. And so in essence, they're being trained on doing it and then how to do it. And that's exactly what they need, isn't it? That's exactly right. I mean, it's life on life, you know, belly to belly, the fleshing out of what love looks like in the Christian life and challenging and sharpening each other, you know, eventually The idea here is to strengthen our core leadership group to the point where we can go out and we can now reach out to the local secular colleges and install Bible studies. And then we just duplicate that process all over again. You know, for us to reach two or three hundred really is not the goal of this group. It's to reach souls for Christ. Before we do that effectively on the college campus, It's developing the leaders and the consistency there in their walks with God before we put them on the campus. Yeah, they've got to bloom where they're planted. And right now they're planted in the church. So they have to learn how to walk with God so that when they're being shot at, so to speak, with all the questions and criticisms and everything else, they will be strong enough to be able to sustain those attacks. Absolutely. And I'll tell you, one of the big things that we focused on this year is prayer, you know, for each other as a group. We went out and actually these composition books on the desk here are very similar to what we have for that. We use prayer journals. We provided one for each one of the students and then really up until the summer before this new series that we started before the ring, every week we would take prayer requests and then we would ask for follow up on how things are going. And it's been incredible how the group has maintained that prayer journal and even just things on the Facebook page has been a great tool for us to keep each other updated. But the love, the genuine love that this group has for each other is demonstrated in how we pray for each other on a consistent basis. And God has answered so many incredible prayers in that way and blessed in some amazing ways. It's funny when we're faithful in the little things, how God blesses in awesome ways. So when they get together on Sunday, do these 14 power group leaders teach or exactly how does that work? We're all going through the same material right now, the Genesis 1 through 10. It's a study guide. And what we do is we pair up. Some groups have two, some groups have three power group leaders in them. But the gist of it is we end up having three smaller groups of guys and three smaller groups of girls. The discussions are led on a rotating basis by the power group leaders on Sunday mornings. And then myself, my wife, and then a couple of the sponsors that we have also sit in to ensure, you know, accuracy and good flow of things. We can also give feedback. After we finish on Sunday mornings, each youth leader fills out an evaluation form, you know, for the group leaders so that we can encourage them and challenge them on ways that they can grow and get better. That's great. And then you mentioned the Before the Ring. This is a book that I read and mentioned it to you. And it's basically 22 chapters discussing the things that a couple needs to discuss before an engagement ring. And it's really been a joy to have had the students over at our house for the months of July and August and just gather in the basement and They've really opened up. They really have. And I'll tell you, God has used those discussions in some amazing ways. You know, I have the privilege to be able to meet with typically three to five young people a week. And what's incredible about it is they are the ones asking to get together and design that accountability. But there's one chapter specifically where we talked about immorality and the challenges that face these young people today. You know, it was so refreshing, Pastor, to see when you hit that head on and called it what it is. And there are so many things that are taboo in church today. And I think it leads to some of our young people being informed by the world. They get their information from the world. And when you did that, I had three young men within that week approached me and asked to get together and asked for accountability for things like pornography and their thought life and just critical issues that these young men, all single guys, preparing for their wives, want to make sure that they do what is necessary in their walks with God, in a sense, before they find that bride, before the ring, so that they can have what God fully intended in their marriage. And that's been amazing. That is fantastic. Because the devil will basically say, well, You know, after you get married, pornography got you up to the point, but after you get married, you know, you won't need that. But the devil's a liar. And when they have the first argument, then he comes back and says, well, you know, maybe you do. And it becomes such a bondage issue. And it is just such a blessing just to be able to understand God's word has the answer. for everything that pertains to life and godliness, the Bible says in 2 Peter 1, and to be able to just share honestly with young adults. Yeah, I'll tell you, the most difficult thing I think for these young people is, you know, you always talk about how temptation is, define temptation how you say it, I love how you say it. Is an invitation to believe a lie. And that nails it right on the head. Satan wants our young people to believe that if they follow God, if they sell out to God a hundred percent, that they're going to get gypped. And so many of our youth believe that they buy into it. And so consequently they become lukewarm and we lose them. We lose them to the world, to all the pressures that come. And it doesn't get easier when you get older. And that's what's so amazing is these young men and women that are stepping out, raising their hand and saying, I want to be a man of God. I want to be a woman of God. And I want to shed these things. you know, and follow Him. And the investment that we're starting to see now, you know, into the underclassmen is just incredible. But it all comes confessing their sin before God. I mean, that's the first step to all of it, is clearing the conscience, get it all out before God, and He's faithful and just to forgive us of that, and then putting the checkpoints in place so that we can live a life of victory through Him. You know, Nate, One of the great revivals started with college students just getting on their face before God, and God just began to break up the fallow ground, as the Bible calls it, so that He could begin to plant His Word in their hearts. And the Haystack Revival began and just spread. not just in the college, but in the entire surrounding communities, the churches, and everything else. God can do some amazing things through young people. who are totally given over to God. Because they've got zeal, it's our opportunity to give knowledge. That's exactly right. I call our group the doers. Yeah. One of the challenges, but one of the exciting things is that a lot of the ministry opportunities will be presented to the Crossroads group, and it's such a burden that we have for these young people is for them to understand that fulfillment comes in total sacrifice to Christ. Right. And that is, you know, there's such a thing as giving of your time and volunteering when it's convenient for my calendar. It's a completely other different thing. For me to give up my time, my energy, my money when I don't have any left. You know, and to give to him from the first of all of our fruits on all those levels. And man, when they see it, it is energizing. It is energizing to be a part of. It's kind of like that story of Elijah when he realized that the brook dried up. You remember the story? And so God says, okay, I'm going to be sending you to the widow of Zarephath in 1st Kings 17. And so he walks up and he sees this widow and she's got a couple of sticks and He says, would you get me a little something to drink? And oh, by the way, would you fix me a cake? And she said, well, I've just got enough to fix for my son and myself. We're going to eat it and die. And then in verse 13, Elijah said unto her, fear not. But make me first a little cake, and then make another one for you and your son, for the Lord has said, and then he gave her a promise of God's provision. That idea of making God first, and making God's man first. And she basically believed what he said, made him a cake first, and at that point God said, okay, You put me first. I'm going to meet your needs. And they said for a year, they had a cruise of oil that had all the oil they needed, had all the meal they needed. But the lesson was, who are we going to make first in our lives? And what a testimony that is for each of us. Well, our time has quickly come to an end again. But Nate, thank you so much for allowing us to understand that a businessman doesn't just invest in his business, but he invests in lives. Now if you're a businessman or business lady, learn that very important lesson. Invest in lives and God will invest in you.