Staying Connected...

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Hey everyone,
We're almost done with our first quarter! 
Next week we have FALL BREAK!
This week we have the privilege of hearing from Judy Smith as she teaches 1 Corinthians.
Her and Ron have been such a blessing to our community, and we can't thank them enough for the heritage they've set before us.

We also wanted to take some time to remind everyone about all our social media accounts.
We're trying to stay connected this year and keep everyone up to date about the school and everything we're up to.
This year we have a great group of students that are hungry to know more of the Scriptures, and it has been such a blessing to walk along side them during this season.

Take a minute and connect with us on these sites:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

There are big changes to come for our ministry, and we'd love for you to stay connected as we see where the Lord takes us on this journey.
Trey Rogers

Keep up with the students on our STUDENT BLOG

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We're now in our 5th week of ESBS, and its exciting to see the students encountering fresh and new understandings of who God is as they begin to see books come alive in their original historical context.

Each week, as students turn in their book assignment, we ask them to write a short blog post about what they saw in the book they've just finished, and how that book impacted their heart.

In my view, reading these blog posts is the best way to keep up with what God is doing in the hearts of our students.  It's a great way to connect with the every-day changes that God is making in each student's heart.

Check out the blog at esbsblog.com

Meet the ESBS class of 2015!

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(from left to right: Jordan, Amber Josiah and Eric, Melinda, Nikki, Abby, Hamp, Bre, Aubrey Claire, Isaac)

We're back from a great summer and we're rolling through our first week of ESBS 2014-15.  We have 9 students, and so far we're really enjoying digging into the book of Philemon, learning how to plumb the depths of the book using the Inductive Bible Study Method.

This year most of our students are from right here in North Carolina.  In fact, 5 are former Camp Lurecrest summer staff members (Jordan, Abby, Aubrey Claire, Bre, Hamp).  One students this year came to us after hearing about the program through YWAM, and deciding to do this program instead of a YWAM DTS (Nikki).  One student met us at UNC Asheville last year when we spoke at a Campus Crusade meeting (Eric, his wife Amber and their newborn Josiah).  Another student heard about us while she was on staff with YWAM Australia, staffing a 3 month Bible Core Course (Melinda).  And last but not least...Isaac heard about us when we visited a ministry in Western NC this summer (The Inn…Franklin NC).

Stay tuned for updates as we begin this amazing Bible journey together!

Tom

ESBS 2013-14 graduates

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ESBS 2013-14 staff and students

ESBS 2013-14 is done, and it was a great year.  We had 9 wonderful students study with us this year, and I once again am so thankful to have had this amazing opportunity to journey through the Bible with such a fantastic group of people.  As we debriefed the year as a community, I was blessed again to hear so many people say that they loved the gospel focus of our community, and that they understand the gospel (the radical and lavish love of Jesus) in a deep way that they didn't anticipate coming into the program.  As we discussed the year, several students said that when they think about the gospel now they think about entire chunks of Old Testament Narrative (yes you read that right…Old Testament!), as they see the love of God not just in a verse or two here and there in the New Testament, but in the way God dealt with Israel all through their history.

Thats pretty cool I think, and it makes me even more sure that THE BEST way to transform someone's life forever is to take them through the journey of the entire Bible in a community setting.  God's character becomes so clear, and the community living demands an immediate response to what we're seeing in the Scripture. 

As we head into summer (all of us but Greg…who headed back home to winter...wa wa wa…in New Zealand) we have students and staff scattered all over the country: Florida, Seattle, Colorado, Mississippi, Michigan, and 4 who chose to stay right at Lurecrest and work the summer camp program (very cool, and something I always love to see).  

Additionally, Caleb Ives (ESBS staff) and Tom will be speaking for the Lurecrest's summer camps this summer.  Caleb will also head to Nigeria with Heart Cry, and Tom is heading to Montana for a week to speak for a DTS.

Excitingly, we've also filed articles of incorporation and our IRS 501c3 application to carve out the ESBS as it's own non-profit entity (Emmaus Ministries).  With that process now complete, we're beginning our search for a new location to host the 2015-16 ESBS, and we're excited to see where God takes the program next.

We're also excited about another great ESBS starting this August right at Camp Lurecrest!

Tom

Todd & Anna Lauren are engaged!

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Todd begging Anna Lauren to have mercy

We're happy to announce that two members of our ESBS family got engaged over the weekend!

Todd Livingston (current ESBS staff) and Anna Lauren Schumpert (ESBS student 2012-13) met during last year's ESBS, and began dating last summer.  This fall Anna Lauren will be finishing up her degree at Auburn while Todd begins a student ministry internship at a church in Mississippi.  We're sad to be losing them both, but so excited for their plans and life together!  Todd and Anna Lauren both love youth ministry, and they'll have a big impact in that area in the upcoming season of their new life together.

I think anyone who was a student with Anna Lauren last year would vouch for the fact that she and Todd make a pretty perfect match.  She's in a select group of people on planet earth who can go head to head with Todd in two key categories... #1) pop culture relevant to the average 13 year old girl (I love making fun of Todd for this one)….and #2) college sports statistics.

There is no doubt in my mind that these two will enjoy many years of Monday night football together and that they will one day become the loudest parents at their little league baseball games.

Their story, and their future life together, is also a great reminder of the power and scope of the Kingdom of God. They both came to ESBS to learn the Bible, but God's agenda for their time here was bigger than a program, a location, a school or curriculum.  Seeing Todd and Anna Lauren get together, and knowing the abundant life thats in store for them encourages me to not measure the impact of the ESBS in spreadsheets, quantify it in a budget, or qualify it in a by-law.  Those things are all necessary, but God is always up to something else, something truly "Holy"…in the sense that it can come only from Him…and no human mind could have ever planned it or made it come to pass.  He's unpredictable, and that's simultaneously the most fun AND the scariest thing about being caught up in His story.