We just got back from our week and 1/2 training in Fort Collins, Colorado at Colorade State University. What an amazing week to be with our extended (5000+) U.S.staff family to hear from our leadership on the direction of our ministry nationwide.
As you may have heard, Campus Crusade for Christ has changed its name in the U.S. to 'Cru'. After hearing and trusting our leadership's prayerful decision, we are fully confident that this name change will help us further the most important name, the name of Jesus. There are numerous reasons as to why this name change has occured. (1) being the name 'campus', did you know that there are over 40 different kinds of ministries in the U.S. alone under campus crusade for christ, including ministries to family, military, athletes, etc.? Well when we use the phrase campus, it is confusing. Although Tommy and I personally work with the campus ministry under 'cru', many of our fellow staff members work for one of these other divisions, and it is helpful for us to drop the name campus, so that we can be under one unified mission which is to be a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ. (2) being the word 'crusade'. In recent years this word has become a hindrance to the gospel. In 1951 when Bill Bright originally felt the Lord calling him to use this name, it had a different connotation. The word crusade used to have the connotation to mean 'christian revival movement'. over the years, this word has gone back to its other meaning ... referring to THE crusades. It has become offensive, specifically to Muslims (which make up a large percentage of the population on our NJ campuses), and now we find it difficult to even have a conversation with people, and never even get to talk about Jesus because off the bat, they are offended by the word Crusade. Let us give you an example: We go to student freshman orientations and student involvement fairs ever year. At Rutgers alone, THOUSANDS of students walk by our table at the beginning of each school year, probably 10s of thousands statewide. About 200 (at Rutgers)of them sign up for free stuff and to hear more about Jesus and/or our ministry. Most often the other thousands of students will look at the word 'crusade' and make some sort of comment about the word 'crusade' in a negative way. Some read the word 'crusade' and walk the other way without ever asking what we're really about, which is Jesus.
You may have heard in the media some negative comments about taking 'Christ' out of our name. Please talk to us if you are questioning our spiritual fervor-- the media as you know sometimes portrays things inaccurately. Let us assure you that this was a prayerful decision that took two years for our leadership to come to. Now more than EVER before are we committed to taking the NAME of Jesus Christ to the college campus and beyond. We are so excited for the possibilities that this name change might bring, we are hoping that in New Jersey we will be able to share with Muslim students and other skeptical students without the name crusade getting in the way. We are excited to give meaning to the word 'cru' instead of letting the name give us meaning as it did before. We are excited to be a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ! Our vision and mission in ministry has not changed along with the name. We promise! Please call us and talk to us if you have further concerns or questions.
Ok ...enough about the name change. We absolutely loved our staff conference this year. We heard from speakers such as David Platt and Francis Chan, and worshiped two nights with 10th avenue north and the David Crowder Band. We learned about ministry strategies using the ever-changing world of technology as a means to telling the world about Jesus. We feel refreshed, renewed, and are so excited to reach our campuses with the gospel in new and fresh ways. The biggest thing we took away from this conference is to Love Jesus before ministry. We of course know this, but it was so good to be reminded and renewed in this purpose. We want to have a greater devotion to Jesus and His kingdom work. I am praying that what God has started in our hearts at this conference he will continue throughout the year in our hearts as we minister to our students. We truly believe that if we reach the college students of today, we can reach the world tomorrow as we send out these future leaders of our world into the churches, into multiple countries as missionaries, and as we send them into the secular workforce as 'missionaries' in their fields.
We are so excited for what God has in store for the future of 'cru' but ultimately what He has in store for the spreading of His Kingdom throughout the world. We look forward to the day when "at the NAME of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" Philippians 2:10-11. AMEN!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
New Hampshire...bienvenue!
Hampton Beach, NH is a funny little beach town. People come from all over New England and even Canada to vacation there (that's why the signs say welcome in french and not just English). It's not much, a beach, a 'strip' : some restaurants including the ever so classy McDonald's and the quaint coffee shop of dunkin donuts, sand, a little concert hall, a few arcades, fried dough, pizza, and ice cream shops...but this is where God transforms the lives of college students and the employers they work for every summer for the past 35 years. And this funny little beach town is one that Tommy and I are completely enamored with, because these summers spent here have and continue to transform our hearts and lives as well.
So what did God do this summer? exactly that. Every student changed for Christ...every single one. I made a list of the students and what they were like when they first arrived-- every single student changed to conform more to the image of Christ by the time the staff left!
We were faced with some challenges. Tommy and I were new directors, and as I mentioned in our last blog, although this is an 'old' project, in many ways it was new! New house for the students, new staff housing, new directors, new staff, new students, new neighbors. A lot of things to figure out... a chance for us to walk by faith and not by sight. What a challenge!! By God's grace we were able to lead this project of 24 students, and 14 staff, trusting Him for every thing that we had to figure out.
Some highlights/things we saw God do/things we learned this summer:
-watching Esther come alive. She's our friend from our Jersey staff team and finished her 1 year internship with Cru in Hampton Beach. She led 3 people to Christ this summer, and led our staff team for our weekly prayer meeting. She is truly gifted in many areas, and we were really blessed to be a part of helping her realize and use those giftings this summer!
-chances that we got to breathe life into students through God's truth! Everyday we had the chance to watch and be a part of the transforming work of Christ in these students' lives. One on one, we had chances to care for broken students and help them through showing them God's word. On a larger scale, I had the chance to share with the women about being pure before the Lord with their emotions not just their bodies. I also REALLY enjoyed speaking to the students and challenging them to share their faith and take steps of faith in areas of their lives. Tommy had the chance to challenge the students to pray in faith, he did an amazing job challenging them!
-Tommy absolutely LOVED his job as the Operations Director. He embraced this role with humility and authority and did a phenomenal job making the project happen logisitcally.
-I loved my job as well as the Associate Project Director. I really enjoyed the whole process going back to last summer. The project closed, we sold everything-- beds, kitchen supplies, you name it..we sold it, I prayed in faith, the project re-opened!, I was challenged to be APD, accepted, read applications, accepted girls, went to project nervous we'd have to furnish an entire house!... but it was already ready!!, staff arrived, students arrived, staff and students changed, staff left... and NOW... we get to go back in August to see what God continued to do after the staff left...an opportunity that is a special blessing that directors get to experience (something I've never done before). I'm so excited and looking forward to August 6th-9th to be back up in New Hampshire to close the project for this summer.
- Watching God provide: a house, parts of the house: new couches, new bunk beds and mattresses, 3 fully stocked kitchens, a new roof, new electrical wiring on the top floor, a brand new kitchen upstairs, bikes and a CAR when the students didn't bring enough! .. God used Dave and Amy (a couple from one of our church partnerships) to provide ALL of these things. Watching the Lord work in and through them in stewardship was like something I've NEVER seen before and it was such a blessing and a picture of generosity in the body of Christ.
-6 people accepted Christ! one was a neighbor Linda, one was a mother of a girl that we helped prevent from committing suicide, and 1/2 of those people were led to Jesus by Esther (something that will forever change Esther's life). The other guy's name was Wes and he was a result of our students stepping out in faith one night and sharing the gospel with 13 people!
-Student leadership took over smoothly after the staff left. Some of our NJ students have positions. Will from Monmouth is the Project Director, Da'Shawn from NJCU is in charge of a community group (we divide the project into 3 smaller groups on wednesday night for dinner, bible study, outreach, and fun-- they're called community groups) , Santei from Rutgers is the Prayer and World Vision Servant team leader, and Cyrus from Monmouth is the bible study leader for all the men and both him and Will disciple all the rest of the men on project!
-We've learned dependence on the Lord in ways we've never clung to Him before, and our marriage has been strengthened through this dependence on Christ together.
-much, much more!!
Next week we head off to Colorado for our national staff conference that happens every other summer at Colorado State University. 6000 staff gather from around the country and we hear from our organization's top leadership about the direction we're headed as a ministry. This is a great time of refreshment and renewing our vision to reach the next generation for Jesus! Its also a great time for us to catch up with friends on staff, for example my old hampton beach roomie will be there..as students our lives were changed on that project, and now she's on staff in Wisconsin and I'm on staff in New Jersey...every 2 years we grab coffee and catch up, it's so awesome to see how God continues to work in our lives after that summer!
Prayer requests:
-July 18th-July 27th for our staff conference: refreshment, rest, and renewed vision for our work with the Lord.
-August 6th-9th Jeff (the PD), Tommy, and I travel back up to NH to help the 2011 hampton beach summer project students to process their summer, and cast vision to them to impact their campuses as they go back!
-rest during vacation time that we have here and there this summer
- the hampton students to persevere through the busy summer schedule and be able to see how God is working in and through them
-for the incoming freshman that they would encounter Christ during their years at college
-for our student leadership for the fall around the state, that they would stand firm in their faith over the summer and be strengthened in preparation for the fall semester
until next time...
So what did God do this summer? exactly that. Every student changed for Christ...every single one. I made a list of the students and what they were like when they first arrived-- every single student changed to conform more to the image of Christ by the time the staff left!
We were faced with some challenges. Tommy and I were new directors, and as I mentioned in our last blog, although this is an 'old' project, in many ways it was new! New house for the students, new staff housing, new directors, new staff, new students, new neighbors. A lot of things to figure out... a chance for us to walk by faith and not by sight. What a challenge!! By God's grace we were able to lead this project of 24 students, and 14 staff, trusting Him for every thing that we had to figure out.
Some highlights/things we saw God do/things we learned this summer:
-watching Esther come alive. She's our friend from our Jersey staff team and finished her 1 year internship with Cru in Hampton Beach. She led 3 people to Christ this summer, and led our staff team for our weekly prayer meeting. She is truly gifted in many areas, and we were really blessed to be a part of helping her realize and use those giftings this summer!
-chances that we got to breathe life into students through God's truth! Everyday we had the chance to watch and be a part of the transforming work of Christ in these students' lives. One on one, we had chances to care for broken students and help them through showing them God's word. On a larger scale, I had the chance to share with the women about being pure before the Lord with their emotions not just their bodies. I also REALLY enjoyed speaking to the students and challenging them to share their faith and take steps of faith in areas of their lives. Tommy had the chance to challenge the students to pray in faith, he did an amazing job challenging them!
-Tommy absolutely LOVED his job as the Operations Director. He embraced this role with humility and authority and did a phenomenal job making the project happen logisitcally.
-I loved my job as well as the Associate Project Director. I really enjoyed the whole process going back to last summer. The project closed, we sold everything-- beds, kitchen supplies, you name it..we sold it, I prayed in faith, the project re-opened!, I was challenged to be APD, accepted, read applications, accepted girls, went to project nervous we'd have to furnish an entire house!... but it was already ready!!, staff arrived, students arrived, staff and students changed, staff left... and NOW... we get to go back in August to see what God continued to do after the staff left...an opportunity that is a special blessing that directors get to experience (something I've never done before). I'm so excited and looking forward to August 6th-9th to be back up in New Hampshire to close the project for this summer.
- Watching God provide: a house, parts of the house: new couches, new bunk beds and mattresses, 3 fully stocked kitchens, a new roof, new electrical wiring on the top floor, a brand new kitchen upstairs, bikes and a CAR when the students didn't bring enough! .. God used Dave and Amy (a couple from one of our church partnerships) to provide ALL of these things. Watching the Lord work in and through them in stewardship was like something I've NEVER seen before and it was such a blessing and a picture of generosity in the body of Christ.
-6 people accepted Christ! one was a neighbor Linda, one was a mother of a girl that we helped prevent from committing suicide, and 1/2 of those people were led to Jesus by Esther (something that will forever change Esther's life). The other guy's name was Wes and he was a result of our students stepping out in faith one night and sharing the gospel with 13 people!
-Student leadership took over smoothly after the staff left. Some of our NJ students have positions. Will from Monmouth is the Project Director, Da'Shawn from NJCU is in charge of a community group (we divide the project into 3 smaller groups on wednesday night for dinner, bible study, outreach, and fun-- they're called community groups) , Santei from Rutgers is the Prayer and World Vision Servant team leader, and Cyrus from Monmouth is the bible study leader for all the men and both him and Will disciple all the rest of the men on project!
-We've learned dependence on the Lord in ways we've never clung to Him before, and our marriage has been strengthened through this dependence on Christ together.
-much, much more!!
Next week we head off to Colorado for our national staff conference that happens every other summer at Colorado State University. 6000 staff gather from around the country and we hear from our organization's top leadership about the direction we're headed as a ministry. This is a great time of refreshment and renewing our vision to reach the next generation for Jesus! Its also a great time for us to catch up with friends on staff, for example my old hampton beach roomie will be there..as students our lives were changed on that project, and now she's on staff in Wisconsin and I'm on staff in New Jersey...every 2 years we grab coffee and catch up, it's so awesome to see how God continues to work in our lives after that summer!
Prayer requests:
-July 18th-July 27th for our staff conference: refreshment, rest, and renewed vision for our work with the Lord.
-August 6th-9th Jeff (the PD), Tommy, and I travel back up to NH to help the 2011 hampton beach summer project students to process their summer, and cast vision to them to impact their campuses as they go back!
-rest during vacation time that we have here and there this summer
- the hampton students to persevere through the busy summer schedule and be able to see how God is working in and through them
-for the incoming freshman that they would encounter Christ during their years at college
-for our student leadership for the fall around the state, that they would stand firm in their faith over the summer and be strengthened in preparation for the fall semester
until next time...
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