Starting Well by Praying Well

By Moriah Sharpe and Addie Southwick, 2018-2019 Fellows

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Happy September and happy beginning of a new Fellows year! This is always an exciting time for our Fellows and everyone involved in the program, but it also a time that requires a lot of prayer. We want to cover every aspect of this program in prayer as it would not exist if not for God’s provision and grace. This year is all about starting well, so we pray that our Fellows would start well, starting at the very beginning of this year. Please pray for them as they transition into a new season of life in a new city. Pray that they would be open to what the Lord teaches them this year, however He chooses to teach them. Pray that their insecurities, unknowns, and uncertainties going into this new year would be washed over with immeasurable peace. Pray that they would learn to love this city and its people, each other and those surrounding them, and most of all our God truly and deeply.

We also ask that you join us in praying for every additional part of the Fellows. Please pray for our wonderful host families, both new and returning. We are so thankful for these families who are willing to open up their homes and lives to our Fellows, and we pray for them as they adjust to these new members of their families. Pray for comfort in the uncomfortable and depth in relationships as these families graciously invite our Fellows into their lives, and as the Fellows welcome them into theirs.

Please pray for our Fellows’ internship placements, that they would benefit from the experience and learn to integrate their faith and their work. Pray too for our Fellows’ employers, who have provided these internships, that they would benefit as well from this year. We ask God for growth in knowledge and grace for the Fellows and their coworkers during their time together in the workplace.

We lift up our three partner churches: Uptown Church, Christ Central Church, and Hope Community Church. They have been faithful supporters of our Fellows year in and year out, supplying all aspects of our program from host families to employers to mentors. Pray that they would greet our Fellows with open arms and provide a source of community. Pray that our Fellows would value their time worshipping at their churches and learn from the blessings and challenges that come with settling into a new church and making new community.

Please pray for our mentors, who commit to spending time walking through life with our Fellows. Pray that these mentor-mentee relationships would be fruitful and life-giving to both the Fellow and their mentor. Pray that these mentors would be ears that hear and lips that speak words of wisdom, and that they would guide our Fellows well on this part of their faith journeys.

Finally, please pray for our Fellows board. They are the architects behind the scenes making sure everything runs smoothly, or with as little turbulence as possible. They work hard each year to match our Fellows to host families, internships, and mentors, and we are grateful for everything they do. Pray for them as they continue to keep our program going, providing our Fellows with valuable resources to prepare them to start well. Pray that they would continue to follow God’s guidance with our program and that they would know that all their work truly does make a difference in our Fellows’ lives.

Nine months is both a very long time and altogether too short; pray that everyone involved with our program would treasure each moment and enjoy what God has given them in the Charlotte Fellows program.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

– 1 John 5:14-15

Fall Update from Connice Dyar

Connice here!

Fall and cooler temperatures have finally come to Charlotte! Given the last 2 months, Fall in the South has been basically Summer with pumpkins. But even with the hot weather, the ninth class of the Charlotte Fellows is off to a great start! We have 6 guys and 4 girls and are so excited to see all the things that God is going to teach us and the ways He’s going to change us.

A new component that we’ve started this Fall is using Friday mornings to visit different non- profits here in Charlotte. We are visiting and hearing from different organizations on how they are loving and serving the city of Charlotte. Already, we’re having our eyes opened and our thinking challenged.

One of the books the Fellows read during the summer that we will spend some time interacting with this year is “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” by Eugene Peterson. This classic about discipleship is a great reminder that even in our ‘instant society’ where the internet and email have intensified our quest for the quick fix, the prescription for discipleship remains the same—a long obedience in the same direction. This book looks at the Ascent Psalms, Psalms 120-134, for encouragement for us today as modern pilgrims, on how to grow in worship, service, joy, work, humility, community, and blessing.

This book fits well into the mission of the Fellows year. We desire that our Fellows begin to understand and live out the Gospel in every area of their life. To understand and desire what it means and looks like to live a holistic faith life. It’s why we spend time on professional development and vocational testing, meeting one-on-one with a mentor, volunteering, becoming involved in the local church, gathering together weekly in community and prayer, and sharing life and so much more.

As followers of Jesus, we are all headed in the same direction, toward face-to-face life with King Jesus. It makes sense that as we travel together as pilgrims in this life, this ‘long obedience’, that we learn to encourage each other, to speak God’s Truth to each other and help each other to find Joy in the obedience.

We are having a full and busy and fun Fall! We anticipate more fun and great growth in professional development and job hunting and lots of new memories and challenges in the coming new year!

We’d love for you to join us in praying for this class of Fellows, that they will have open and soft hearts to hear from the Lord and that they will have great courage and boldness in living out the truths from this year.

Maybe you’ll even be tempted to pick up a copy of The Long Obedience in the Same Direction and read it.

As always, we could not do the Charlotte Fellows each year without your support! Your prayers and words of encouragement and ways that you support the Charlotte Fellows makes it such a fun and exciting endeavor to be involved in for the Kingdom!

“If we are serious about following Jesus and living out the gift of his life in detail in our bodies and circumstances, we must swim against this whitewater River... and familiarize ourselves with the world in which Jesus and his gift of life are revealed to us. We do it by reading our Scriptures slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully, and obediently.”

— Eugene Peterson

Grace,
Connice

A New Year, An Old Truth

Growing up, I watched cartoons every Saturday morning. My favorite was The Jetsons. With a flying car and a robot to do everything, it seemed like they had the good life on demand. At the time, 2018 was a lifetime away, and yet, here we are with more robots than we realize and our needs met at the touch of a button.

From The Jetsons to the twenty-first century, our lives and professions have advanced at an alarming rate. Yet one aspect of our daily lives remains unchanged. We may be living in “the future”, but our human nature has remained unchanged. We are still broken and searching, in need of that one thing that makes our lives free, purposeful, and more abundant―relationships.

And the ultimate relationship we were made for is the one with our Creator God.

All the artificial intelligence, the most brilliant computers, and our advanced knowledge will never discover another way to know God or experience grace than through a relationship with Jesus. The words of the apostle John are still true: "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.” (I Jn 5:12)

“We must cling to the truth when the world around us screams loudly in our ears.”

As we go into the second half of our Fellows year, we will be tempted to believe the lie that life can be found in the perfect job, the best relationship, or that instagramable apartment―not in the Creator God. We must cling to the truth when the world around us screams loudly in our ears. Jesus did the same when he was tempted in the desert in the Gospel of Matthew. (Mt 4:1-17)

Using God’s truth to navigate this world is not very “Jetson-like". It’s not robotic, or computer generated, or in video form. It doesn’t follow a checklist. It comes to us in the form of a relationship with Jesus, the Living Word. So if you want to know how to pray for the Fellows and myself in the upcoming months, pray God’s Word over us. Pray God’s Word for us.

We have several full months ahead of us. Pray with us as we walk into the second half of our program:

1. We have our Highlands Ability Battery weekend coming up in early February. Pray for insight into each Fellow’s individual gifts and passions.

2. We head to Chattanooga to volunteer with Hope for the Inner City at end of February.

3. The Fellows continue with professional development seminars, Roundtable discussions with members of the community, and investments in their church placement.

4. The Board and I are interviewing and putting together next year’s class. It’s going to be a busy Spring!

Want to learn more about the Fellows program in Charlotte or get involved? Reach out! I’d love to grab coffee and chat.

Thank you to all of you who pray and support us in so many ways. We are very thankful! As Paul David Tripp says, “We have not been left to secure our own future because God is grace has secured an end to our story more glorious than we can grasp.”

In Grace,

Connice

Walking By Faith: Charlotte Fellows Summer Update

This post was written by Connice Dyar, Director of the Charlotte Fellows. 

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Another Fellows’ year completed...our 7th year. I look back to when we first started in the fall of 2010, and I'm overwhelmed at all the wonderful memories of God’s provision and the hard and beautiful ways He has worked in our Fellows’ lives.

It reminds me of the quote from A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." There were probably times this year that I’m sure the Fellows were thinking the same thing.

But isn’t that how all of life is? Wonderful things happening alongside painful and hard things. But it’s walking through both that grows and strengthens us.

“But isn’t that how all of life is? Wonderful things happening alongside painful and hard things. But it’s walking through both that grows and strengthens us.”

As believers, we're called to walk by faith and not by sight. And this is what we did together all year. We walked:

• Through volunteering at Brookstone School,
• Through seminary classes with Rod and Mark,
• Through work internships,
• Through retreats and jokes and laughter and tears and seemingly unanswered prayer, 
• Through professional development, resumes sent out, job offers,
• Through loss and blessing and questions and hopes and friendships and thank you notes, many thank you notes and oh so much more.

And by God’s grace, here we are...in one of "the best of times." We talked a lot about walking by faith and not by sight this year. We learned how to walk in full dependence on God’s Grace instead of trying to do life in our own strength. We learned to rest in God’s provision and his timing; we learned to humble ourselves and submit to his plan, not ours. We learned how to trust that He was and is in control and that he’s good and kind.

Walking By Faith

Each of our Fellows walked by faith in coming here to be a Charlotte Fellow this year. They came not knowing their host family, their employer, me (their director), or each other. We, the Fellows Board, walked by faith, not knowing the Fellows other than through their applications and phone interviews.

We believed that this was the class that God had for us, that each Fellow was here because this was where God planted them. They were meant to be here. We were meant to be a part of their story as they were meant to be a part of ours.

“For each of us, walking by faith will look different. But the faith is the same because our faith is in the same person—the person of Christ. ”

And as I think about all the many components of the Fellows programs and all of you who are such an important part of making the Fellows program work and flourish, I am deeply grateful and humbled. But I'm also excited and looking forward to our Fellows' future. All of us have made an investment in the Kingdom by investing in these lives.

God has called all of us, not just the Fellows, to walk by faith and not by sight. And for each of us, that walk will look different. But the faith is the same because our faith is in the same person—the person of Christ. We are called to look to Him, the "author and perfecter" of our faith.

The “Sabbath Fellows”

It was a privilege and a pleasure to walk with these Fellows over the past nine months. I called this class "my Sabbath Fellows," as they were our 7th class. And in the Old Testament, every seven years was a Sabbath year.

God has used this "Sabbath class" to remind me and the Fellows that true rest is found in Him. It's also a reminder that our value and worth are not dependent on how good we are, how hard we work, or how well we perform; our value, joy, and purpose are found in Jesus and our identity in Him.

Each year at graduation, our Fellows choose someone from the Fellows family to give them a blessing. These blessings are a highlight of each graduation.

My blessing for our Fellows this year is found in Colossians 3:12-17:

“As you walk by faith...Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

A reminder to our Fellows and to us is that "we have not been left to secure our own future because God in grace has secured an end to our story more glorious than we can grasp.”

Looking Ahead

The class of 2017 has moved out into the future God has for them. The board and I are finishing putting together the class of 2018. We have a couple more male spots to fill.

But preparations are in full swing to welcome our new Fellows in September. We're always so thankful for your prayers, support and encouraging words. Please keep it up!

If you're a part of our three partner churches, we’d love for you to prayerfully consider being a host family for next year.

Again, thank you for all you do in support of the Charlotte Fellows!

Walk in faith,

Connice

Spring 2017 Update

The Spring Ahead

2017 is here and it already seems to be flying by! We had a great and very busy first semester and this second half of the year looks to be even busier. The Fellows are all at their chosen churches, plugging in and meeting lots of new friends.

In 2 weeks we're having Bill Fullilove from McLean Presbyterian come for the weekend to facilitate and interpret the Highlands Ability Battery test. It's a very thorough and intense vocational and ability testing tool. It's proven over the past years to be very helpful in identifying and articulating strengths and potential challenges.

The following weekend we're off to Chattanooga to work and serve for the week with Hope for the Inner City. It’s a week filled with hard work, hard thinking, and good times with wonderful people we’ve come to know over the years. It’s always a highlight for our Fellows. In between these two events, we're hosting a couple of new and prospective Fellows for visits.

In March and April our Fellows will start interviewing and wrapping up our Professional Development series. We're also getting excited about one of our Fellows getting married the week after graduation!

Next Steps

In the midst of this, our Fellows are walking through some hard and uncertain things in their lives (as we all are). They're anxious and worried about not finding jobs. They miss their families and old friends. But they are also seeking to keep their eyes on Jesus, to walk through the unexpected and hard, still finding joy and excitement in the journey. They are finding great fun and unexpected blessings in their Fellows community here that they didn’t expect.

God is working in them and in me. Each year, this is part of the great blessing of being in the midst of the Fellows. We have a front row seat of God moving and working in each Fellow’s heart and life. But also to see God using the Fellows to work in my own heart and life.

As we help our Fellows prepare to “start well,” we also want them to finish this year well. Would you please pray for our Fellows to finish well, for them to have courage to walk into this next season of life, and for God to lead them in the direction they should go?
 
Would you also pray for myself and the Board as we put together next year’s class? We've filled some spots but are in the process of seeking to fill the rest. The process is both fun and hard, as we attempt to put together the class that God has for us.
 
Thank you again for your prayers and support! The Charlotte Fellows are a family, and we’re glad you're a part of it!

 Love and prayers,
 
Connice