How My Blog Got Its Name

If you've ever wondered how I came up with the title and tagline of this blog, wonder no more! Today's the day you find out.

It's pretty plain story, actually. A college friend, LL and I were talking about my blog, and how I could make it into a more focused ministry blog. I frequently talk about how much I love cubicles, so the title came together pretty quickly. LL is very familiar with Campus Crusade and our mission, so I was not surprised when she combined the admin side of ministry with the end goal to come up with the tagline. Pretty clever, that LL. I think she enjoys hearing about my trifling matters amidst working on her PhD.

The real question is: do I even use paper clips in my day-to-day job?

Little did LL know, the tagline she dreamed up was perhaps foreshadowing my role in ministry. I wasn't ever 100% sure of what I'd be doing at the Regional Office upon finishing my support, (I wasn't too concerned with the actual job, I knew it would be fabulous).

I mainly use paper clips every day when students send in their donation checks. It's pretty systematic (some would say boring, I suppose) - open the envelope, count the money, scan the checks, scan the form, mail the checks, file the form.

But this monotonous procedure represents a monumental faith step: college students trusting God to provide their finances in a way they probably haven't ever experienced. Knowing that each envelope I open has a story attached keeps me focused on what's important when they fill out the form incorrectly, or miscount their money.

So, the name of the blog is pretty accurate, with one clarification: I'm using the paper clips, in hopes that God will use me in the lives of college students, who will change the world by taking the Gospel everywhere. I just had to shorten it since all that wouldn't fit in the little bar at the top. :)

Webinar Wednesday - Woes & Wins

Today, I hosted a live, 45 minute Webinar over the internet for students that are going on US and International summer projects. A coworker of mine covered the strategy of summer projects, and gave a biblical perspective on raising financial support, and I covered the tools and procedures we use to raise support and process the donations once they are given. (Some staff joined in as well - so cool to think we had people from all over the US meeting together for the same goal, via the internet).

I hosted the first of these webinars about 3 weeks ago, which I was initially really nervous for. That one went flawless. Today was another story! The actual webinar went fine, but there were quite a few little things went wrong along the way- starting before I even got to work.

Last night, we got 4 inches of snow on top of an inch of slush, making the morning commute awful. After spending 15 minutes digging out my car, I managed to put my elbow in the middle of my breakfast while attempting to get into the car. (I ate the breakfast anyway...tasted just fine!)

Because of the roads, the coworker who was supposed to help with the first part of the webinar couldn't make it in, so we had to scramble to get him set up on the program at his house. I had neglected to reserve the big computer TV system I wanted to use, so about 30 minutes before the webinar I had to rethink the setup for the broadcast.

Regardless of the little hiccups along the way, the webinar was a success. It was so fun to 'stand' before a group of nervous students and guide them in the support raising process. When I went to Brazil on project in 2007, we didn't have these great tools and processes; even in the last four years there have been major advances in websites, procedures and tools for students and staff to make the process of raising support and tracking donations much easier. I think it's a great example of leveraging technology to enable us to increase our capacity for sending students around the world.

Pushing past incapable

"If you saw me as I was supposed to be, the contrast between me and the rest of the world would be unbearable."

Do you ever feel like you are incapable of being who you know you can be? That somehow, though no one expects anything from you, you still feel vastly important?

We all need a little push. No matter our fears, our struggles or failures, our hopes and plans and dreams. I get pushed every time I watch this video from my friend Marty, and I hope you do, too.

Researching.

Another week has come and gone- along with it much coffee, office chatter about bacon, and some work on our international missions operations. One of the highlights of my week was researching the country of Uruguay, where we hope to send our very first team of staff for the 2011-2012 school year.

We can fly a team down to Montevideo, Uruguay in about 12 hours. Obtaining 9 month visa's may be a bit more difficult, but an obstacle that we can probably get around.

I can't imagine trying to send missionaries overseas without the Internet, cell phones and airplanes. The dedication of missionaries throughout the course of history truly amazes me. I can't even imagine having to take a ship for 6 months just to get to a location. Parents saying good-bye to their sons and daughters and grand kids, knowing they might never see them again. But, that's not to say it's not hard today, especially when you're talking third-world countries and unreached people groups. Just some random thoughts for the night :)

Big Break '11

As the weather slowly warms up in Minneapolis, students are just settling in to their hotels at Big Break, a one-week spring break evangelism training and outreach in Panama City Beach, FL. Last year, over 3,000 college students made the journey to PCB, for their spring break. Over the course of five weeks, the Gospel was shared 10,815 times, with 1,689 people trusting Christ!

I overheard someone talking about the Spring Break atmosphere in Panama City Beach. The first few days, students go crazy. By Wednesday, they start to wonder...is this it? This is supposed to be the most fun thing in the world?

People might scoff short-term mission trips or initiative evangelism. But God can take a chance meeting between an 18 year-old from the U of M and a senior from Auburn...and transform both of their lives.

Follow Big Break on twitter here for updates as the conference continues this month. Hoping to post more later about how God is moving in the hearts of college students.

Someday.

My heart is heavy watching the news and reading the stories online about the tragedy in Japan. We had a moment of silence at church today to consider all that's going on in the world. From the aftermath of the tsunami, to difficult situations in our personal lives, there was a lot to think about.

We live in a broken world. Bad things happen to good people. Events occur that don't make sense. Well-meaning people are hurt.

But we know the end of the story. Someday, God's home will be among his people. He will live with them, wiping every tear from their eyes, no more death or sorrow or pain.

I read a book awhile back about living in the now, and the not yet. It was technically about being single in the 21st century, but I found myself relating a lot of the book to other aspects of my life. The difference between life here and life hoped for can be disillusioning. We are stuck in the now, but we hope for the someday when Jesus will make everything new. Knowing the end of the story makes the 'not yet' a little more bearable sometimes. And to be technical, I guess the story never ends :)

What's Really in a Name.

At the end of office prayer yesterday, we spent a few minutes praying about the new name for Campus Crusade for Christ. (If you haven't heard, the name may be changing this summer).

A few people at the table quickly confessed a need to pray for a better attitude about the whole situation. There have been a variety of reactions to both the selection process of the name, and the samples that were included in a recent staff survey.

So, we just spent a few minutes in a small group praying about it. And in those few minutes, I sensed God drawing out some much bigger issues than a lame new name.

Why are we getting so worked up about the name change? I can’t lie; my ears perk up when I hear Campus Crusade for Christ. It’s an organization that God has used to totally change my life. It will always be an important, significant organization to me, and the name evokes a certain response.

But, at the end of the day, it's just a name. Campus Crusade staff labor to make Christ’s reputation known, not ours. No matter our name, the work stays the same: building spiritual movements everywhere.

I do wonder if the core DNA of our organization will change in an attempt to become more relevant through changing the name. I don't think it will happen, but it's a slippery slope sometimes.

Whether the name changes or not, I think there's a deeper issue at hand. Do I work to make my and Campus Crusade's name great, or God's? Who really gets the glory in the work I do?

Lent

Why do we give things up for Lent? Do we just feel so bad that we so easily gave up on our New Years' Resolutions that we feel the need to try again? And this time it's only 40 days, not a whole year, so it's more likely to actually abstain from eating candy, or commit to working out 3 days a week, or to stop playing video games.

I normally don't partake in Lenten services or sacrifices, and I definitely eat meat on Fridays. When I was younger, I thought you only gave things up for Lent because when people asked you about it (or you told people about it), you would look really spiritual, suffering for God and all.

Now that I'm older, I know the bad reasons for giving things up for Lent. But do I really know the good reasons? Something I'd like to explore in the coming weeks.

Maybe this year I'll try to give up or add something in to my life. I better think of it fast as I just saw on the calendar this morning that today is Ash Wednesday.

Decoding AI

Today I spent a few hours at the Art Institute of Minneapolis, just down the street from the regional office. A coworker of mine, Jim, has been involved on and off with students at AI for the last 5-6 years, and took me there today so I could decode the campus (one of my assignments from my New Staff Development training).

Decoding is the process of gathering information and relationships to help you figure out what God might be doing on campus. Getting the right info about a campus is the starting point of decoding, but seeking out relationships with people is the most important part of the process.

There were a few things about the Art Institute that made it seem like any other college. We couldn't even get inside the building without swiping an ID card, but we just waited until we could follow someone through the door. There were students chilling in the basement of one of the buildings, hanging out and working on homework.

That's about all of the similarities between AI and the typical 4 year university. At AI, there are four quarters of 12 weeks of class, with a one week break in between. Students can't miss more than one quarter of class at a time, and programs run for 3 years. There aren't sports teams, and there aren't many student clubs (there are 10, to be exact, and the only other non-art, non-academic group besides Campus Crusade is an LGBT group). There aren't any dorms (students can live in one of the dorms at the U of M). A large majority of the 1900 enrolled students commute from all over the metro.

Because of this, the typical campus ministry strategies must be modified. There isn't a Thursday night Cru meeting; there aren't any evening meetings, actually. There's a student-led Bible Study each Tuesday at 1pm this quarter, with attendance ranging from 1 to 8 students. The best time to meet with students is in the day time, usually between 12-2pm. Speaking of timing, with only 12 weeks in a quarter, there are really 9-10 weeks students are available to meet.

One of the themes that keeps coming up in my life lately is the realization that missions is no longer geographically distant- it's culturally distant. Even two blocks from the office, there's a small pocket of art students that is so different from any group I've met before.

Interesting that it's easier for us to go places all around the world, but harder to understand and cross cultures. Regardless, it was really fun to be back on campus today, meeting with students!

EII Forums

In my last update letter, I wrote about the EII Forums that were put on around the Upper Midwest region this year. Last week there were three EII forums: UW-Green Bay, with over 40 top student leaders attending, University of St. Thomas, with over 60 student leaders attending, and UW-Stout with about 40 student leaders attending.

More later on how things went...just wanted to get an initial update written!

Seeking Status.

Growing up, I wanted to be a high-powered executive, working long hours in a big city office, making a ton of money and bossing people around. And I pictured myself doing all of this while wearing heels.

My reasoning for this was simple; I wanted to be seen as having status in life. I wanted to be seen as important, and the way I thought I'd get that was to make a lot of money, have a lot of power.

When I got to college at the University of South Dakota, I realized I was starting out with 0 status in life. I was from a tiny town in Minnesota that no one had ever heard of. Anything I did in high school didn't really matter; this was a clean slate.

In a way, being in a new town in a new state at a new college excited me. I realized I could construct whatever image I wanted to. I could start all over and be whoever I wanted, whether it was really true or not.

My very first week of class I met an interesting group of people. As we continued to hang out, I realized they were different than anybody I'd ever met before, for a few reasons. One of them was their interest in hanging out with me and my roommate. We spent quite a bit of time with a couple girls several years older than us. I was amazed that these cool seniors would want to hang out with lowly freshman. After a week or so, I realized that it wasn't just me that they seemed interested in; they seemed to have a love and compassion for other people, even strangers they didn't really know. I'd never really seen that before.

It wasn't long before I found out why they had this real love for people, even people who were hard to love. They had experienced the love of God is such a meaningful way in their lives that they couldn't help but love other people because of it. They talked about God like he was their buddy who lived down the hall in the dorm; like they actually knew him. And I'm not talking about the way Pastors talk about God, like he's "sovereign and almighty" and all that stuff. They talked about God teaching and showing them things in tangible ways.

Even though part of me thought it was kind of weird, I was amazed that they were so assured of their status in God's eyes. Even when they didn't feel like God cared about them, they chose to believe him despite their doubts and trust the truth over their feelings.

I wanted this assurance for myself. I wanted to know God like they knew him. One day, a friend of mine came to my dorm room to talk about all of this stuff. We read some verses together and talking about God's love, my sin, and Jesus' death on the cross. She shared with me one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. She said, "For God so loved AMY that he gave his son for her, so she may have eternal life by believing in Him."

I'd heard this verse a million times, but suddenly I actually understood it. God gave his son for ME? He must love me a ton, to give up his son for me. I realized that this made me important in God's eyes. I didn't have to pursue a powerful status in life, because God thought I was already significant.

As I pondered these things after my friend left, I realized a few things:

- I wasn't sure I'd go to heaven when I died.
- If I asked Jesus into my life, I'd be sure.
- This was a really significant decision.

- I should not have let me friend leave without telling her all of this.

So, I asked Jesus into my life. I prayed a simple prayer, confessing my sin and acknowledging the fact that I couldn't save myself, but I needed Jesus to save me. I asked God to make me into the person he wanted me to be- a significant person in his eyes, and that I wouldn't care about how I looked in the eyes of other people.

So, I prayed this prayer, and nothing really changed right away. Little by little, as I began to learn more about God through the Bible and talk about him with others, I realized why he saw me significant: because he had created me to be like him ("in his image," as it says in Genesis). He wanted me to be his ambassador in the world, and share my love for him with others around me. That God would trust me with this task, the most important thing in the world, and the purpose of our lives, showed me that God thought I was significant.

Now more than 6 years later, my life continues to revolve around this significant task: sharing my love for God with others around me in any way I can. My relationship with him is the most significant one I'll ever have, and affects everything I do in life. And when my time here on earth is done, the fun really begins: life in Heaven with Jesus.

March Prayer Letter

Imagine dozens of student leaders of a major Midwestern university gathered in one room. Three people take the stage; each have made millions of dollars in the business world. They share with the ins and outs of being successful in life after college.

But not only do they share their successes, they share their failures, their struggles, and their belief that pursuing Jesus Christ is the best aim in life. The final speaker at the forum clearly shares the Gospel with the group of students, and invites them to receive the Christ into their lives.

These speaking engagements are called Executive and Entrepreneurial (EII) Leadership Forums, and are sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. There are typically 8-12 forums around the five-state Upper Midwest region. This week there are two on Thursday night. One forum will be hosted at the University of St. Thomas, with over 60 students in attendance. St. Thomas is a Catholic school with over 10,000 students in attendance. The other school with a forum this week is the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, with over 6,500 students enrolled.

We partner with business men and women to host these forums for a variety of reasons. They are strategic, as they focus on reaching important student leaders who have an influence on the rest of the campus. They give us the chance to work closely with students on campus to plan and prepare for the outreach, which gives them ministry experience for the future. These forums also increase the number of spiritual conversations on campus, and provide another venue for students to hear the Gospel.

Last week there was an EII forum at North Dakota State University in Fargo. After the speakers shared their stories, students filled out info cards giving feedback and contact information. Over 40 students indicated a decision to receive Christ at the forum! The following is an e-mail from the Student Body President at NDSU:

“I wanted to extend my gratitude for your invitation to the Executive and Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum. It really was a great outreach event that brought together a cross-section of emerging campus leaders to hear stories of faith and success.

Faith is a crucial component of life, and especially so in college, where the big questions are asked about life's ultimate purpose and direction. Thank you for putting forth three individuals from whom we can learn by example. Your important ministry is much appreciated on our campus.”

An unexpected blessing!

Since today was the first of the month, I thought I'd check my staff account for a glance at my balance. After crunching some numbers, I realized that I might be a little bit short this month, depending on some donations that were yet to come in at the end of February.

The number I came up with that I would potentially need wasn't huge, but it still caused a little anxiety. If I was a little short this month, surely I'll be short even more next month. Then what do I do? I had a fleeting thought that I should set aside some time tonight to pray about my support, but I went back to my work and pushed aside my concerns.

When I checked the mail tonight, I found one small, personal envelope. Inside was a check for the exact amount I needed. My reaction was similar to this photo (it's my typical I-can't-believe-that-just-happened reaction).


The donor and I had been playing phone tag for months, and they must have decided to just send a check even though we hadn't been able to meet. What a huge, unexpected blessing!! That check was written out and mailed yesterday, before I was aware of my need. Hope this is an encouragement to you today; God knows what we need before we need it, but he definitely likes hearing about it from us.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4.6-7