Hello Emmaus Community,

I want to introduce myself.  I am Susan Gillispie and it’s my honor to serve as Lay Director for the Chrysalis Board.  I look so forward to 2022.   We have 6 Chrysalis journeys planned this coming year.  This brings me such joy to think about the young adults that the Lord will touch through these journeys.  It wouldn’t be possible without the support of our community.  I want to give thanks for the Betenbough and South Plains Compost (Schilling families) who donate every year to our scholarship fund.  Their gift is impacting many young adults for the kingdom.  As the year ends, I ask that you prayerfully consider giving to the Chrysalis scholarship fund.  For $185 you can join the Lord in touching the life of an 18–25-year-old young lady and young man.  All these young college and career students can attend the Chrysalis free because of donations like these.   If you would like to participate in the blessing you can send your donation to Susan Gillispie PO Box 93783 Lubbock, TX 79493 and I will get that to our treasurer.  Please make checks payable to Llano Estacado Emmaus and memo Chrysalis Scholarship Fund. Thank you in advance for your support not only financial but prayer and serving.  If you have not worked a Chrysalis or are ready to work again, please reach out to me and let me know and we will make that happen.  Susan@aspc.online

Our first journey of the new year will be January 6-9^th.  Kenna Christopher is serving as Lay Director.  The team meetings have been phenomenal.  Come join us in sending these young ladies off Thursday the 6^th at 7 at the Mercy Center.   The team is preparing Him room as they say yes to serving.  

I have been thinking about that phrase Prepare Him Room.  “Let every heart prepare him room.” We commonly think about this as we sing the Christmas carol Joy to the World.  Prepare him room for me lately looks a little messy.  It involves finding joy within sadness.  It involves prepare him room to heal my broken heart.  It involves prepare him room as he has a holy purpose behind the pain.  It involves prepare him room for his holy date to lift me up.  I Peter 5:10 tells us “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”  Prepare Him room.  Let the King of glory enter in. And as you do, watch the Lord fill those messy spaces with His joy he gives freely to the world. 

O behold, the mystery now unfolds

See the star shine on the virgin foretold

Angels sing and light up the sky

Hope rings out in a newborn’s cry

Swing wide, you ancient gates

For Christ is born today!

God with us, the promise has come to be

This, the one the prophets were longing to see

In the darkness a blazing light

To the hungry the words of life

His kingdom now is near

For those with ears to hear

Prepare Him room

Prepare Him room

Let the King of glory enter in

(Prepare Him Room ~ Sovereign Grace~ sovereigngracemusic.org)

Merry Christmas,

Susan Gillispie

What a way to start the summer!  The Young Men’s Emmaus Chrysalis is hosting a retreat for young men between the ages of 18-25.  It will be a very blessed weekend; full of worship, fellowship, food (lots of food), fun and experiencing God’s Love.  The retreat dates are May 2-May 5, 2019 to be held at the luxurious Mercy Center in Slaton.

AND, donations have made it possible to keep the cost at $0.00.  Yes, you read right. $0.00.

Please pray for God to send you a name(s) of someone you would like to sponsor.  Applications are on the website at http://llanoemmaus.org/apps-and-forms. If you need additional information, please contact the Guy’s Registrar, Jonathan Bloxom (806-632-4764) or the Journey Lay Director, Jonny Hutson (806-239-5673, jdhuts@yahoo.com)

Choose JOY for today.  and we love the rain.

Hello Llano Estacado community!

My name is Trapper Burrus. I will be serving as your Chrysalis community Lay Director for the next year. First, I must apologize for the tardiness of this newsletter. I got busy with life (and procrastinated a bit) and the months flew by. That being said, Lets get down to it. I am very excited about the things God is doing within Chrysalis. You should be too. Chrysalis is very near and dear to my heart. As a college aged young man I always had a heart for people younger than me. Volunteering with youth groups and such were my favorite kind of ministry. Growing up in Canadian, Texas taught me the value of hard work and community that comes with “going through life” with people. I feel that that is a major strength with Emmaus in general but I think it is even more important for young people. As most of us know, college is a time when we really find out who we are as a person without mom and dad. When I was in college I know I made some pretty questionable choices. Now I would not take many of them back because of the lessons I learned, but I can honestly see God’s hand on me the whole time. I for one was very impressionable and I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without a strong community of Christians surrounding me. With that in mind, we as a Chrysalis board are trying to push two main activities in our community: Prayer and community.

We are trying to stress to all the new incoming caterpillars that they need to get involved in reunion groups. Emmaus is technically a para-church organization. We are not designed to be a church replacement, but many of the young men and women who come to these Chrysalis Journeys don’t have a home church. They are nomadic in nature. Lets face it, many of us didn’t like to be tied down to one spot too long when we were that age either. With that knowledge in mind, it is all the more important that we help these young people stay connected whether that is with a Chrysalis sponsored event or some other ministry situation we can help them find. Also we as a board are open to suggestions. If you know of opportunities to keep people involved, find your nearest board member and put a figurative bug in their ear.

The next activity is prayer. WE NEED MORE PRAYER!!! Prayer is so important for us as Christians but even more so for a group of us. We need to pray for direction and protection most of all. We don’t want anything to happen that is not inside of God’s will for us. We need him to guide our steps. I know God will build His kingdom through Llano Chrysalis. I also know that satan hates what our community stands for and he wants to destroy it. So, to make a short story long, We need need your prayers. We need you to stand in the gap for the young men and women who are going to come on these events. Say a prayer tonight for your Chrysalis Community. Invite and sponsor a young person (18-25 years old) on the next Chrysalis. Thank you so much for the prayers I already know you are going to send our way. Christ is counting on YOU!

Fly With Christ
Trapper Burrus

We have some exciting Chrysalis news! 22 Young Women came to Journey #43 last weekend and the Lord moved in a mighty way. Sarah Tucker and team did a fantastic job. Many of these ladies reconnected to God and are now making disciples in their fourth days.

Young Men’s Journey #35 is fasting approaching as well! September 13-16th 2018 Kelton Coleman is the LD. Send your applications to: Jonathan Bloxom jonathanbloxom@gmail.com 806-632-4764 There is still room whom can you invite today?

Raffle tickets are at the print shop and will be ready for purchase in the next few weeks. We will have our annual dinner fundraiser December 8th at the Bayer Museum so save the date now you don’t want to miss this fun evening.

We will be doing team selections soon for the 2019 journeys. If you want to be pray fully considered to work these journeys please reach out and let us know. We need you and Christ is counting on you! Who can you invite to these Chrysalises? God is doing a new thing amongst our future leaders 18-25. Who in your circle needs this amazing experience?

This past year has flown for me! October 1st Trapper Burrus will serve Chrysalis as our new LD. It’s such a joy to work with Trapper on the board and I look forward to continuing to serve with him as Former Chrysalis LD for the remainder of 2018 and 2019. I cannot thank the Emmaus/Chrysalis community enough for all your love, prayers, and support that you have given our family during Joe’s cancer journey. He is doing well and is still receiving treatments every 3 weeks. We both have grown so much through these last 5 months. I’d like to share a little about what God has shown me. May this speak to you and bless you as it has me during this journey.

Doing big things for God is not some grand movement to shoot for in the future. Doing big things for God just means doing the very next thing he says. It’s the very next person you need to love on and forgive. It’s the very next person to tell about Jesus. It’s the very next temptation to resist. One decision at a time, we should seek to look at it the way Jesus does and trust him for the results.

Are you surviving life right now, or are you thriving through your life? Survivors tend to think that tomorrow will be easier, tomorrow will work out better, and if they can just get to tomorrow they’re going to be okay.

We’ll always anticipate another tomorrow and tomorrow will never fill us, but remember we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Only Jesus will bring us fulfillment and peace now in this moment.
God wants us to see with the eyes of Christ right here and now. Only then will we see a purpose for being where he has us at this moment. He tells us to redeem the time, and the time is now. If I have learned anything these past 5 months it is live for Christ in this moment and let tomorrow take care of itself. Much love my friends!

Fly with Christ,
Susan Gillispie
Chrysalis Community LD
806-789-9049 aspc@sptc.net

Bad News or Good News

You know the question…you want the good news or the bad news first?  I tend to always answer the question with tell me the bad first so I can end on the good.  So here it is: Time marches on and generations come and go just as the sun rises and sun sets, we are all going to die and chances are we will not be remembered three generations from now.  Wow you say that’s a depressing thought but truth is apart from God, life is just an event that we have to endure until it’s over. 

Good News is that with a relationship with God life isn’t just something we have to endure until we die but instead life becomes this amazing journey that we get to enjoy as we love God by loving people and serving them as the hands and feet of Jesus.  As we walk this amazing journey of life with God he uses us all in different ways to make a difference and to influence the lives of everyone around us for the kingdom of God. 

So as you ponder this think about how you are living your life.  Is it in the bad news mentality or the good news mentality? Are you just getting by hanging in there in the mundane and possibly even the hard stuff of life or are making the most of everyday with purpose and meaning that leads to something great and amazing such as joy and peace? God wants to bust through our mundane and our hard and He wants to do something new and great. I love the promises of God that we can stand on like this one: Behold, I will do a new thing, and now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  Isaiah 43:19 and then in Revelation 21:5 He reminds us again that He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”  And He said, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”  God’s words are true and faithful and they can be trusted.  I love that we can believe and trust that He is making all things new and that even though we are dying we can live and have life abundantly here on earth as we wait for our heavenly life.  Are you ready and prepared to enter your eternal heavenly home when you die?  That is really the most important question of the moment.  How about your family and friends?  Are you sharing Jesus with those around you in your circle of influence?  Are you inviting them to go to church with you and have they taken a Chrysalis journey or their walk to Emmaus?  Are you seeing a problem and being the solution?  Are you walking in the joy of the Lord as he brings us the gift of a new day?  God wants to create something new in you today!  He wants to take the mundane of your life and make it new and joyful.  Thank you Father for making all things new!

Chrysalis Updates

We have some exciting Chrysalis news! Our teams for our upcoming Chrysalis journeys are meeting and God is already moving in a mighty way amongst the teams! Young Women’s Journey #43 is fast approaching! August 30-September 2, 2018. Sarah Tucker is the LD. Please invite and send your applications to Kayla Watson, kwatson86@gmail.com,  806-549-5853.

Young Men’s Journey #35 is fasting approaching as well! September 13-16th 2018 Kelton Coleman is the LD. Send your applications to: Jonathan Bloxom, jonathanbloxom@gmail.com, 806-632-4764.

We will be doing team selections soon for the 2019 journeys. If you want to be pray fully considered to work these journeys please reach out and let us know. We need you and Christ is counting on you! Please please who can you invite to these Chrysalises? God is doing a new thing amongst our future leaders 18-25.  Who in your circle needs this amazing experience?   

Fly with Christ,

Susan Gillispie
Chrysalis Community LD
806-789-9049
aspc@sptc.net