Day 2: 2 believers!

It's day 2 on campus for the summer project team in Uruguay (pictured here), and they saw 2 people come to Christ! I don't have many details, just that some of the project students were sharing the Gospel on campus in the Economics building and saw two students place their place in Christ. Rejoicing in Minneapolis (and in heaven!) for these new believers.

On the flip side, I saw a tweet from the project director today that he shared with 2 guys at the university's law school. The students weren't interested, saying that God bores them, and they have no faith because they believe in themselves.

These two situations occurred on the same day, on the same campus. Our message is taken differently; the Holy Spirit must be at work on hearts and minds for our words to mean anything. We cannot control outcomes. We can only be faithful to share what we know and trust God to use our actions done in obedience to His will.

Sidenote: it's also Tuesday - so many 2s today :)

What do I do for a living?...I'd love to tell you.

What a week! On Sunday afternoon, 151 college students and staff arrived at the Hilton Hotel near the MSP Airport. I watched from a balcony on the 11th floor as students arrived and parents and friends (and significant others) said good bye.

These people are heading to 6 different countries for a period of 4-6 weeks to share the Gospel with college students around the world. Campus Crusade strategically sends these teams each summer, giving encouragement and lift to the teams that are in-country long term, and giving a vision for college students of God's work around the world.

My part in this adventure is an interesting one: financial, logistical, administrative. I track donations, help trip leaders set their budgets, obtain visas for those that need them, book airline flights, ensure that everyone follows the corporate rules we as a global missions organization have in place, etc.

My job is hard to explain to people sometimes. I've tried to come up with a 2 sentence rote answer, but I rarely get across the magnitude of my job in the way I want. I should probably just start telling people I'm a missionary, and if they are actually interested, they will ask more questions after that.

I'm a missionary. Instead of the typical "going to live in a grass hut in the Amazon," that you might think a missionary would do, I work in a cubicle. (Don't worry, I LOVE it!)

I'm a missionary that loves Jesus, that desires for people all over the world to have a chance to hear the Gospel and respond to the claims of Christ. I'm a missionary that happens to have a business degree and a passion for using resources efficiently and effectively. A missionary that is gifted in administrative tasks, has a methodical mind that loves serving others. A missionary that loves supplying people with the resources they need to do what God has called them.

That's my job.

So, here's a breakdown of the mission projects I've spent the last 5 months coordinating:

• 33 students are heading to Accra, Ghana for 4 weeks
• 16 students sent to Uruguay, a country with currently only 2 CCC campus staff
  
• 17 students sent to Montpellier, a city near the south coast of France
• 20 students to a closed country in Eastern Asia where God is moving mightily
  
• 18 students to a country in the Middle East that is less than 1% Christian
  
• 23 students to Brisbane, Australia, where there is a large amount of international students
  

As I write this, there are students sharing their faith, some for the first time, in a foreign country with students, some of whom have never heard the name of Jesus. Glory to God for giving me a passion for using temporal things like e-mail, money, microsoft excel and paperclips to have an impact on eternity. That's what I do for a living.

May Daze

A few weekends ago, we had our annual Upper Midwest staff conference, May Daze. It was my first official time at the conference, and I had a great time! The weekend began with an Operations Team luncheon at the Pizza Ranch in Alexandria, and then we headed to Arrowwood Resort on Lake Darling (the photo below was taken from the balcony of my hotel room).

Some highlights from the conference included seeing my boss MC with one of the other national directors in the office (Steve and Patty, who did a super great job!) and hearing from Steve Sellers, the CCC VP of Oceania and the Americas.

I was reflecting about the weekend on the last night of the conference , and I realized I hadn't sat down at all during the weekend to read my Bible. Regardless, I felt very encouraged. I felt like I had experienced the presence of God in the last couple days by just being with like-minded, dedicated followers of Christ.

Reminds me of the book How People Grow, which I read this year for new staff development. One of the authors described a time in his life when he expected God to do something in his life supernaturally. Instead, God used the community of believers in the author's life. I've been experiencing the same thing lately; God frequently uses people in my life, sometimes very unexpectedly.