At 10:02 every day, phone alarms are going off throughout the Candeo Church building. Luke 10:2 declares that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” and that earnest prayers to the Lord of the harvest should be for laborers to send out into his harvest. One prayer that the Salt Company staff prayed all year was that God would raise up student leaders for the harvest on the University of Northern Iowa campus. In faith, the prayer was that God would increase the student leadership team from its 68 current leaders to over 100 leaders. Reaching that goal would mean an expansion of the leadership team by almost 45%.
The leadership process for new leaders involves an application and an interview conducted by members of the Salt Company staff. These interviews serve as an excellent opportunity to shepherd students and to celebrate evidence of God’s goodness and faithfulness in the last year, but also throughout their entire lives. This process, from start to finish, takes nearly a month. After 75 interviews and losing other leaders to graduation, internships, and student teaching, the final number of new leaders was 100.
At the final leaders meeting of the 2016-2017 school year on April 30, leaders sat in a room full of current leaders as well as new leaders for the 2017-2018 school year. Many of the veteran leaders could remember when a room that full was the entire Salt Company. In just four short years, a room that full is now just the leadership team. What a faithful and gracious God! To Him be the glory for the work He is doing in the Cedar Valley and beyond.
During one of our Monday Morning Prayer meetings, I had the opportunity to prayer with one of our students, Andrew. We prayed for different people in our lives who didn’t know Jesus. One of the people that he prayed for was Colby, who is another student at UNI. Andrew continued praying for Colby and kept bringing him to Salt Company during the second half of the Spring semester. During our second to last Salt Company, Matt Snyder preached on John 20 and God did an incredible work in Colby’s heart. That night Colby was saved and came to have a relationship with Jesus. Andrew quickly found me after the service to tell me the exciting news. Colby had a radiant look on his face as he had found hope and peace in Christ. To this day, Andrew still prays for Colby, but his prayers look different. Now Andrew is praying that Colby would grow deeper into his relationship with Jesus and that he would fight temptation this summer. It’s incredible how God is working in so many different ways here at Salt Company, and Colby’s story is just one of many that put God’s glory, power, and love on display.
