Rest and Recovery

On March 1st of 2012, my mom passed away and went to be with the Lord.  I have been wanting to write a post on all of my feelings, processing, thoughts, and any and everything that has come up in my heart over the last seven months.  However, I think that post will take some time. 

Other changes have occurred the last four months as well.  We were asked to take over the role and position of directing The Navigators ministry at the University of California, San Diego.  Tess lost her grandfather in New Orleans at the age 92.  Our team on campus has been changing, with everyone processing and seeking the Lord on how he is leading for the future.  We saw our largest senior class graduate this year, as seven of the students, who were freshmen when we met them during my first year on staff.  The Holechek family has been learning a new family dynamic as we feel the weight of the absence of Mom.  To say the least, there is a lot God has allowed to occur in the first half of 2012.

The summer has been the perfect time for the two of us to get a little bit of down time to spend with the Lord and get quality time together.  It has been a blessing from God to have this time to rest the first week or two of summer before we start to focus on our funding for the next year and plan for our new role.  God is a god of rest.  I love that even He rested on the seventh day and he set apart a day of the week for us to do the same. 

Over the last few months I have personally been trying to become increasingly disciplined in the area of scripture memory.  This is one of the spiritual disciplines we really focus on and try to train students in.  With the craziness of the last couple of years, I have to admit this is an area of my Christian life has suffered.  So I have really been making a concentrated effort to intentionally “hide God's word in my heart.”  One of the passages I have been memorizing and meditating on goes well with the idea of rest.  It is Matthew 11:28-30 which says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus’ words here have been an immense encouragement to me and my heart.  As I have looked to next year and building the ministry on campus, I have often been filled with an urgency and anxiousness, stemming from my own ambition, that has not been restful, nor Christ-focused.  I have found myself at times feeling a pressure that if we don’t do “this” or get “that” in place immediately, things won’t go “perfectly.”  So quickly my heart turns to my own performance and trying to do things correctly, and Jesus patiently remind me that he is in control and that I need to abide and rest in him, not lean on my own understanding or ambition.  When I come to Him in my weariness and my pressured performance thinking heart, He in His humble and gentle heart takes my burdens and my weakness and instead replaces it with his gentle, gracious yoke.  This has been the same in our journey of mourning the losses we have experienced; Christ gently walks with us and comforts us in our pain.  This is one of the many facets of the love of Christ.  His comfort in our time of need, His strength in our weakness, His grace and mercy in our manmade pressure to perform our way to “success.”

As Tess and I have felt our spiritual and emotional tanks running low it has been so important and helpful to go directly to the source of life.  As another verse I have been memorizing ends with Jesus reminding us, “I have come that they may have life and life to the full.”  We are simply invited to rest, and trust Him in His goodness and care for His children. 

UCSD Navigators New Facebook Page Twitter Account

Online Friends! 

We are proud to present you with a few new online ways to connect with our ministry with the Navigators at UCSD.  Through our Facebook Page and Twitter Account we can interact and share more on our students and you can feel more of a part of what is happening on campus. 

Please feel free to “Like” our page at www.facebook.com/ucsdnavs

And follow the UCSD Navs on twitter at: https://twitter.com/ucsdnavs 

Or Stephen on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/StephenHolechek

We are always looking for unique ways to connect our students and Nav Ministry with those praying for them both! 

Past Prayer Posts

Dear readers and prayer partners,

       We have been through another up and down year of seeing God work through opportunity and pain, friendships and challenges.  We have posted our prayer email updates today to give people a quick look at the last year of mostly ministry and will do so for future prayer updates as well.  This will be in addition to the normal blog posts and personal thoughts we place here.  Thanks for reading and following us on this journey God has us on.

June 2012 Prayer Update: End of the Year Party

Summer officially sprang on us this past Wednesday and with it we end another school year at UCSD.  On Sunday the 17^th, our seniors graduated after four years of hard academic work, growing in their relationship with God, and bonding in brotherhood.  This was the class of students I had the privilege to meet on my first year with The Navigators at UCSD.  It’s hard to believe that I am entering into my fifth year on staff this summer and Tess is starting her third! 

It is a privilege every year to have our end of the year party where we honor our seniors and send them off as disciples of Jesus.  Our goal and vision for the future is to help raise up our students as disciplemakers, so that as they graduate and go out into the world, they will continue as life long laborers.  Here are a few photos from the party this year!

		End of the Year Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We love you all and hope to update you again next month on our summer plans and ministry!

Looking to Christ,
        Stephen and Tess

May 2012 Prayer Update: Affliction and Opportunity

Greetings from San Diego!  This update comes with a few pieces of exciting news in our lives and ministry and some personal thoughts on the passing of my mom.  If you were to tell me four months ago of the ways God was going to bring change into our lives, I am not quite sure I would fathom it.  And when I think about Tess and my life the last three or four years, I never would have guessed all that we would go through, trusting God through much pain, disappointment, and brokenness.  However, friends, I can tell you He is so good and is always refining us to be more like Christ. 
               

The biggest piece of news in our ministry is actually quite a big deal.  We have been asked to take over the leadership and direction of the University of California, San Diego Navigator Campus Ministry.  Our former leader and director, Tim, has felt the Lord leading and calling he and his family into a new avenue of ministry to 20 something’s in the city of San Diego.  They begin that work beginning in June.  The responsibility of leading our staff team, directing the ministry, and building up the work of Jesus through the Navigators at UCSD has been handed off to me, beginning immediately. 
               

This new role has come at an obviously trying and painful time for us personally, yet Tess and I greet it with great excitement, faith, humility, and honor.  We are privileged to have two fantastic teammates continuing on with us next year, Diana and Lawrence.  As we pray about what we are being asked to take on, we have felt a peace in trusting God’s leading.  I am personally excited to approach a new challenge of leading a team for the first time, trusting the Lord in faith for a big movement of the Gospel and discipleship at UCSD, and experiencing all He wants to do in our life.  Our heart is for the college campus, seeing students changed by the Gospel of Jesus, being sent out as laborers for the harvest, equipped to make disciples everywhere they go!  Thank you for faithfully praying as we continue processing this transition and praying to know God’s will for the UCSD ministry. 
               

We will be sending out our latest newsletter later this month on many exciting relationships happening on campus and in our core group of students.  Heading in to next year, we are feeling great about the momentum God is creating.  More on the ministry is soon to come!
               

On a personal note, Tess and I are trying to rest deeply in the Lord as we face the loss of my mom in March.  This has been an incredibly painful time, realizing I will never be able to have another conversation with her, knowing the glue that held our family together is gone, and that our time here on earth together has come to a close.  However, it has been an incredibly hopeful time as well, knowing her painful battle is over and she is with Jesus face to face now.  Like the rest of our family, we are still processing the grief and mourning together with others.   My mom is the best example of finishing well in the race of faith that I have witnessed and it is an honor to live the legacy she left behind.  Through this time, Tess has been such a faithful friend and loving wife, helping me process this gigantic loss and often just sitting and letting me talk about her and cry.  She and Mom had a very sweet friendship these last 4 years.  Unfortunately, Tess and her parents have faced a family death in April as well, as Tess’s granddaddy went to be with the Lord.  As you pray, would you pray we would feel the Lord’s goodness and peace in this time of turmoil and sadness? 
               

At times I feel like we could share for hours and hours and pages and pages about all God is teaching us, growing in us, doing in the ministry, and other thoughts.  However, knowing this email is so long this month, I will try to hold off ;)  Really, Tess and I just count it one of life’s greatest blessings to have each of you in our lives, faithfully standing with us in prayer, and loving us where we are at in life.  We are truly blessed and honored to have you in our life.  Thank you for lifting us up in prayer as the Lord brings us to mind and for your friendship, whether near or far.
                          Clinging to Christ and His Word,
                                                   Stephen and Tessica

These have been some of the verses that have spoken to me greatly the last few months.  Thank you for praying with us!
Psalm 119: 73-77
⁷³ Your hands have made and fashioned me;
     give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
⁷⁴ Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
    because I have hoped in your word.
⁷⁵ I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous,
    and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
⁷⁶ Let your steadfast love comfort me
    according to your promise to your servant.
⁷⁷ Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;
    for your law is my delight.

January 2012 Prayer Update: The New Year

This is our second week of school for the Winter Quarter at the University of California, San Diego.  We have hit the ground running and are excited by the passion of our students coming back to classes.  Two nights ago, we had two students over to our house, Jenn and Maria who were very excited to be trained and encouraged in sharing their faith on and beyond the campus.  When we presented the opportunity for joining our Joshua Team this year, our quarter length team and class built for training students in evangelism and discipleship, they both signed up immediately!  At our staff team meeting this past Monday, we invited a few of our upperclassmen to come and speak to the staff about their ideas for building deeper community in our ministry.  It is so exciting to see our older students begin to see needs in our ministry and taking initiative to help meet them.  
"

The Word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself." -- Charles Spurgeon

As we are in full swing with a lot of our students and the ministry as a whole, it is always exciting to be able to start up new relationships and minister in new dorms.  Last night I, Stephen, went on campus with our director Tim to help lead a men’s study earlier in the night and help cultivate new relationships with non believers later in the night.  We spent time with Vince, a popular freshman in the Muir dorms who does not yet know Jesus, reading the Bible with him and his roommate, Zane,  and building relationships in the lives of those in his suite.  Ministry can be draining at times, but every time I open up the scriptures with someone who has never read the Bible before, it energizes me in mighty ways.  There is such power in the Word of God!

Tess has the privilege to help organize and attend the Sunland region's bi-annual women’s conference next weekend, where she will spend the weekend in Orange County with the other women in the region.  This will hopefully be a time of mutual encouragement, worship, fun, and edification.  It is wonderful to see all of the opportunities Tess has to use a lot of her gifting in administration.  
As the Lord brings us to mind, would you please pray for these requests:

• God would continue the work He is doing in the lives of many of our students (Phil. 1:6)
• Vince would come to a true understanding of who Jesus is and that life comes through Him (John 1:12-13)
• For Tess and all the women attending the conference next weekend, that it would be a time of blessing
• For our parents on both sides, as they continue to deal with health issues
• For our funding, as we are coming up against some unexpected car and travel expenses

Thank you again for your incredible prayer support.  We cannot do this without you!  
       For the True King,
                       Stephen and Tess

December 2012 Prayer Update: Merry Christmas from the UCSD Navs

Merry Christmas!

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:8-12

He is the reason for the season!  We love Christmas, because it causes us to remember why Jesus came and why we do what we do.  Jesus was born to bring salvation to all people, from then until now it remains true.  Jesus is our Messiah and we want Him to be Messiah in the lives of all the students at UCSD.

This time of year we normally do not experience a lot of cold weather in San Diego, however Tess and I are spending this week of Christmas with our family in Washington State, keeping us nice and cold!  It is a blessing to be with family this Christmas season.  Our cousin Jennifer performed in her last Nutcracker Ballet this year as a Senior in Highschool, and we were all able to be there for her big day!  Two days ago we celebrated our one year anniversary!  God has been so good this past year, as He always is, as we have learned more about each other and marriage.

At the end of the school quarter we held our annual student Christmas party.  This year's theme was "The Dorky Christmas Party." Can you tell from the picture above?  It was so fun to have most of our students together one last time before they went home to family.  This was also a great time for them to bring their friends to enjoy community together.  
As we think about many of our students like Joe, Maria, Jenn, Jarod, Matt, Hanalee, Kelly, Deshan, Tung, Jon, and others, we get so excited about the work God is doing in their lives, transforming them to be more like Jesus.  When I think about being able to help these students grow and seeing God raise up leaders and laborers in our group, I am reminded of you and your immense help in this ministry.  Tess and I really want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything you do to help this ministry.  Your prayers, support, encouragement, and faith have helped bring us to where we are today, and we trust God to continue to use you, us, and these students to continue on the good work for many generations to come at the Universitry of California, San Diego.  We are so very thankful for you and really, truly could not do it without you standing with us.  THANK YOU!  The students you see in that picture, and many more lives, are being touched because of your faithfulness.  
                                                 Merry Christmas!
                                                   Celebrating the birth of Jesus,
                                                                           Stephen and Tess

 

Together at the Nutcracker Ballet

October 2011 Prayer Update: Fall Regional Conference

October is drawing to a close and we all know what that means… FALL Conference! Our region hosts an annual conference for all of our collegiate students in Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, and California. Normally, the student conference is held in February in our winter quarter, however this year we decided to move it to October. Having it this month is huge in building momentum for ministry at the beginning of the year, getting students serious and encouraged about walking wholeheartedly with Jesus in college. 

This year’s theme for the conference is “VISION: Fix Your Eyes…” It is all about allowing God to create vision in our lives as followers of Him and living with a purpose. Tess and I personally are praying that this would be a time for all of our students to sacrifice the weekend to seek God and develop Vision for their life. Our hope is that as students become more excited about Jesus and the Gospel, wanting to live a life filled with vision, they would want to really grow and develop into devoted disciples of Christ. The goal is to come along side this spiritual growth and fervor with Joshua Team, our 8 week training time in the area of evangelism and discipleship, which will likely be happening next quarter.

As the student conference is coming up this weekend, will you pray with us for these things?

* We would see the majority of our students, if not all of them, come to our conference

* It would be a sweet time of corporate worship with hundreds of other students from across four states

* God would shape the lives and hearts of all attendees, impressing upon them a life of vision and purpose

* Our UCSD students would go deeper in relationship and community with each other

* Safety for the weekend as we drive an hour to and from the conference, and as students take place paintballing and other physical activities

* Against all spiritual warfare, as Satan wants to unravel any plans made and entrusted to the Lord

We are so excited about the potential growth for our students this weekend and how this weekend may be a turning point in their relationship with Jesus.

Thank you for your constant support and prayers for this ministry at UCSD. We are honored to stand with you and represent Christ to the next generation in San Diego. We couldn’t do it without you!

In Him,

                              Stephen & Tess

Here are some pictures from the Conference:

Vision Conference VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

September 2011 Prayer Update: Please Pray for Our Fall Launch

This past weekend 18,000 new freshmen moved into dorms all over the UCSD Campus.  This week is Student Welcome Week, where freshmen become oriented with the school, enjoy student life (before classes consume all of their time), search for organizations and community, and begin making new friendships.  Classes start this Thursday the 22^nd. 

As The Navigators at UCSD, we are hard at work, getting ready for our Fall Launch!  Earlier today we met with our student leadership team who will be partnering with us to meet as many new students this year as possible.  Monday and Wednesday of this week we will be manning a recruiting table for our Nav group, telling students about who we are, what we will be doing this year and more.  Every approaching student will be invited to fill out a spiritual interest survey, have the option to join a Bible study or Investigative Bible Discussion, guess how many hundreds of candies are in a jar (the closest gets them all!), be invited to our first NavNite this Friday and our Saturday Beach Party, and talk personally with our students and staff about our unique family community seeking Christ together.   

Tess and I are feeling so refreshed and incredibly excited about this coming school year.  We are really trusting God for big things on campus at UCSD this year!  Beginning tomorrow, we will be launching our new school year.  These students are searching for meaning, for identity, and for truth.  Will you pray with us, as we recruit students over the next two weeks, that God will bring those He has already prepared, into our lives and ministry?  We desire to love students where they are at, advancing the Gospel in their lives, and see them grow such a passion for God and His word.  Thank you for praying and standing with us in spirit at UCSD.

We hope to update you soon on how this second half of the month’s recruiting goes and all the wondrous stories God gives our group.
If you are interested, I recently posted two new prayer and training updates on our blog as well.  Check them out at Holechek.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer on campus as we meet hundreds of new students, welcoming them to UCSD and possibly our Navigator Family.
                 In Christ,
                          Stephen and Tess