Sending a Sender.

It was a weird spring for me this year, as I labored to send out teams of students and staff on mission projects this summer, but also prepared to go myself.

Now more than ever before, I see the importance of a support team to stay in the US while people are sent out around the world with the Gospel. Being a 'sender' myself, I recognize the strategy and significance - but this summer I step into the 'go-er' role (I know, probably not a word...).

A few weeks ago we had our Briefing conference, where 150 people gathered together before being sent out to 6 countries for the summer. As I sat with my team learning about security issues and campus guards and code words, a dozen people worked behind the scenes to ensure that these 150 people could go to the world with the Gospel this summer. As I type this from my international dorm in a rather large city in East Asia, I see the importance of people back home that can directly support what we are here to do: take the hope of Christ to Asian college students.

Speaking of support teams, I can't forget about the awesome financial and prayer partners I have! The senders at my office would not have a job to do if it wasn't for faithful friends who give and pray generously - not only to me, but to all our summer project students. More than $500,000 came in this spring for these 6 projects. That's a LOT of givers- and lots of pray-ers who go before the Lord to ask for provision for others. If you're a sender, giver, or prayer, thanks for what you do!

You Are Not Your Ministry.

One of the things I've wrestled with for as long as I can remember is an answer to the question, who am I?

I just caught the title of an article on churchleaders.com called "You Are Not Your Ministry." That single five word sentence is like the theme of 2011, and my first full year in ministry.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

I know some things about you:

I know that you are not your art.
I know that you are not your church.
You are not your technical expertise, or lack thereof.
You are not your voice, even though people love it when you’re on stage.
You are not what your authority figures believe about you.
You are not your blog posts, or your readers’ insane responses.
You are not your Twitter count, or your Facebook friend total.
You are not your impact.
You are not your successes, and you are not your failures.
You are not that thing in your life that didn’t work out.
You are not that thing in your life that worked perfectly.

But I also know this about you:

I know that in Christ, you are a child of God.

My friends, there will come a day when you no longer create art. There will come a day when the software you use is no longer in existence. There will come a day when you no longer serve in that church, in that ministry. There will come a day when he’s no longer your boss, and they’re no longer your Elder Board. There will come a day when you quit blogging, and when people put Twitter and eight-track tapes in the same category. There will even come a day when your impact wains.

But there will never, ever come a day when you stop being a child of God.

Read the full article here.

Why College Students?

It was during his college years that CS Lewis learned what it meant to believe in Christ.
It was during his college years that Karl Marx shed his Christian faith.

The campus is a battleground of ideas and ideologies, vying for dominance and competing for followers. Everyone will graduate as believers, but in what?

It isn’t a question whether tomorrow’s leaders are on the campus, or even a question whether these leaders will shape and influence our country and world. The question is who will shape and influence them? The old watchword of Campus Crusade for Christ was, “win the campus today and you’ll win the world tomorrow.” Almost every major political, athletic, social, military and religious leader will pass through either the high school or college campus. To reach them with the gospel is to effectively reach the world.

The campus ministry of Cru targets students, because it is the time they make the most decisions in their lives. It is the small window of time where individuals are open to changing their ideas, beliefs and perceptions of the world. This is the reason roughly 90% of all Christians made their decision for Christ before they reached the age of 21.

The fact is, no one thought up the strategy of fulfilling the Great Commission by reaching the college campus. Campus ministry is the result of the observation that God has chosen to use University and college students like you as His primary vehicle in accelerating the evangelism of the world. The campus ministry is the heart of God’s global missionary strategy.



[taken from http://joinus.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/why-campus-ministry]

What God Has Done

Check out this video for some of the ways God has used the US Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade in the last year:

Deep Roots.

Earlier this summer I finished one of the best books I've ever read about being single. Interesting fact: the author was actually involved in Campus Crusade in college but didn't have a real great experience. Which made me even more intrigued by her story.

Anyway, I didn't love the book because of it's writing style (unique and witty) or all of her dramatic stories (there were plenty!). The author consistently shared encouraging insights into the character of God and living the Christian life that she drew from her experiences in relationships (and her lack of relationships, at times).

Below is an example of what I mean- a short excerpt from the book in which the author compares living the Christian life to being a tree:

And you have to sink your roots into Him, after all. You have to find His water underground…only when your roots are drinking from that stream can you grow tall enough and strong enough to reach out into the world and maybe even make a little shade for others. To grow up tall and strong so as to bless the soil of others’ plots of ground – that’s what we’re meant to do. The branch or plant, after all, doesn’t worry so much about “growing” hard or stretching up strong, but sinking the roots down deep into the waters of life. And then, because of how God’s made us, the life and springing upward is a mostly natural consequence of that drinking, sinking, rooting.

If I had a favorite verse, this one from Colossians would be near the top of the list: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

That verse felt like the theme of my upperclassmen years in college. Looking back, meditating on this verse propelled me into a search for a deeper relationship with God. I had been feeling distant from God for several months, grown weary of ministry on campus and wasn't growing much emotionally even though I was growing spiritually.

I remember sitting at yet another fall leadership training my senior year (or maybe even super-senior year), and hearing from a speaker that the Gospel was not just for unbelievers, but for believers, too. We needed the Gospel every day. I was floored!! God had been bringing this up in my life for the last year but I didn't really understand until that day. Right away I thought about that verse, about being rooted in Christ each and every day.

While masquerading as a book on singleness, this book taught me a lot about living the life God intends: not striving to grow and do and be externally- but seeking Him wholeheartedly. The Christian life is about letting the growth and good works and character traits we seek come from the love and life we can draw in with roots that grow deep.

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.

Kingdom Called

It's a few weeks late, but finally, a post about Kingdom Called! :) This is one of my favorite conferences (I feel like I always say that!) - it's incredible to sit in a room full of college students and recent grads that are passionate about reaching the world with the Gospel. Their lives have been changed by God, and they seek to be used by Him to change the lives of others.

We provide vital training and development for students going on international summer projects, along with the new US and international interns in our region.

As I stood up in front of a room full of 150 people on Saturday night, I felt overwhelmed with the task of sending these students and staff to the world. This will be the first trip overseas for many of these students, which could lead to many more trips. I feel so privileged to play a part in sending laborers around the world!

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!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

...or in my case- car, skyway, on foot, light rail, tram, plane, bus, van!

Today I left the bitter cold and snow of Minneapolis for sunny, warm Dallas, TX! Once a year, all the directors of all the summer missions projects in the whole US campus ministry get together for training (appropriately called Summer Project Directors Training - SPDT, since CCC likes acronyms so much).

Most of the people here are leading a summer project, or handling all of the operations for each project. Technically, I'm doing neither; I'll be coordinating the international summer projects for the midwest, specifically in terms of operations. Basically I'll be coaching the project leaders and operations people. Tomorrow all the operations people like me will gather for training, and then all the directors will arrive Friday and Saturday. I'm excited to finally see how the pieces fit together concerning summer project!

I had to laugh to myself as the plane was landing at DFW...I had quite the journey! It started off at 1030am, as I left my apartment in my car. 30 minutes and 5 miles later, (which is normal commute time) I was downtown Minneapolis, where I was able to park my car in a remote airport parking ramp for only $20 for 5 days. Unheard of! (Parking at the airport has to be at least $75 for 5 days. Since it's winter I couldn't leave my car in my apartment parking lot or on the street, as I'd get towed if they needed to remove snow).

I walked a block or two in the skyway from the ramp, heaved my huge suitcase down 3 flights in a sketchy cement stairwell, and hightailed it another two blocks outside to the lightrail station. I just missed the train so I had to wait about 8 minutes for the next one in 10 degree weather. Of course, I didn't wear my winter coat or boots because I was heading to Dallas where I wouldn't need them. But I survived :)

After a 30 minute ride on the light rail, I took a 1 minute tram ride at the airport to get to my gate. No full body scan or pat down for me, (though I am quite intrigued by the scanners).

The non-stop flight to Dallas was cheap (traveling Thursday-Tuesday is so nice!) and uneventful. From the baggage claim at DFW, I hopped on a 15 minute bus ride to the other side of the airport to catch my free van to the hotel downtown.

Door-to-door, the trip took 8.5 hours...a full days' work! No wonder I'm ready for bed at 930pm. Looking forward to posting more about the conference once it gets up and running. Pray I'll be able to retain all the information that will be thrown at me in the next 4 days! :)

Twin Cities Xperience!

It's been a few weeks since I wrote my last blog update - lots going on in the world of Operations!

The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of meetings and calls and e-mails about details concerning TCX, our annual winter conference. Around 1500 college students are attending TCX this year to be challenged, trained, equipped, encouraged and challenged. It's our hope and prayer that students would not leave this conference without being changed by God in some way that will make a lasting difference in their lives.

God's continually used TCX in my life in significant ways. This year is no exception. Mid-way through the conference this year, one of my impressions is the need for an increased awareness of sin in my life, and submitting in obedience to confess it and repent. I think about my sin a lot, and confess it to God periodically, but I feel a prompting to deal with it in a more direct way.

There are other significant things that God is calling me to do, or pray about, or surrender to Him that He has brought up this week. I'm sure I'll be blogging about them in the near future. :)

I also want to share a link with you: www.tcx2010.com. This website has up to date info about TCX this year, and will hopefully give you a picture of some of the things God is doing in and through students and staff this week. Check it out!

(I've also blogged quite a bit about the other TCX conferences I've been to in the last 5 years. Click on the 'tcx' label below this post to see 'conclusions' drawn from former years at the conference.

100%!

Great news: over the weekend I reached 100% of my financial goal, and today I got the final "ok" today to report to the office! I could not be more excited to head into the office tomorrow to join my teammates in reaching college students with the Gospel.

The "office" I so often speak of is the Upper Midwest Regional Office in Minneapolis, MN. In the US, Campus Crusade for Christ is organized into 10 different geographic regions. One of those is the Upper Midwest, made up the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Each region has an office in a major city, ours being Minneapolis, as sort of a nucleus of staff that offer leadership and support to staff around the region.


There are two main teams in our Minneapolis office: the Leadership Development team, and the Operations team. The Leadership Development team is basically the HR team of the office. They facilitate staff interviews, coordinate and lead our interns, help coach staff in their support raising, among many other things. HR in a non-profit organization really intrigues me; our HR team has more of a focus on training and development than legal/compliance issues that a for-profit company deals with. (There is an HR division in Orlando at our International headquarters, so I'm sure they deal with similar issues as a for-profit company).

The Operations team has several functions, providing leadership in areas of Fund Development, Information Systems, Technology, Finance and Conferences/Events, among others! Our overall goal is the same as campus staff: build spiritual movements everywhere, so everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus!

Well, that's enough ministry mumbo-jumbo for one evening!
Photos of my new office cubicle coming soon! (:

Transformed.

Two weeks ago we had a women's conference in Minneapolis called "Transformed: Laboring for a Lifetime." (Insert your witty comment here about a women's conference with the word "laboring" in the title).

As far as conferences go, this one was pretty typical- worship, a speaker, breakout sessions, campus time, free time, a dance party, lots of laughing, definitely some crying, etc.

It was a really encouraging experience for me as I wait for the last bit of funding to come in. My calling to ministry was definitely confirmed. I'm a passionate person, but not excites me more than hearing about a student coming to Christ in her dorm and seeking to be used by God to reach her friends and family.

I'd love to be able to solve the economic, political and social problems we face in America and around the world. I can't do much about those problems, but I can help college students discover the truth about Jesus. And someday, maybe they can make a difference in the economic, political and social arenas.

Jesus didn't give up his time in heaven to suffer, die, and then come back to life to give me a peaceful, safe, comfortable existence. One day I will have all those things in Heaven. But He came to earth for redemption. And because of this I can glorify God with my time on this earth, which ends up having a lasting difference in the lives of people I meet.

Here is a photo from the women's conference (I am in the bottom left, in front of a laptop at the sound booth).



This is what it's all about. A sea of college students, learning about Jesus. Some realizing their need for redemption for the first time in their lives. Some considering how God might want to use them to make a difference, for the first time in their lives. So awesome.

November Newsletter

By now, you’ve heard about the rescue of 33 miners, trapped in the San José copper-gold mine in Chile. The story captured the attention of people all over the world. One miner, José Henriquez, recently told his story to Christian Maureira, director for Campus Crusade for Christ in Chile. His account of the situation fills in the gaps that news stations often leave out – and shows one way God is using CCC around the world.

On day 16, the trapped miners still had no contact with anyone on the surface. The little food they had was rationed to each person.

But on day 16, the food ran out.

José remembered the story of how Jesus multiplied the bread and the fish, and led the men in a prayer, asking for the box to be full of food by the next day. They prayed for an abundance of food.

The next day, contact was made with rescuers on the surface. “José got choked up by remembering that the next day the probe made contact with them,” says Christian, recalling his conversation with José. “The multiplication was real. They saw how the box was filling up with food exceedingly. It was a miracle, a glorious moment.”

After contact was made with the miners, Christian started contacting public officials to see if he could send the miners a copy of the Jesus Film, a movie detailing the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke.

Through a connection with family of José, Christian was able to send mp3 audio versions of the Jesus Film, and the New Testament in Spanish, down to the miners. José sent a thank you letter up to Christian, which ended with Psalm 95:4 "'In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.'" José asked Christian a few days later if he could get the miners special T-Shirts to wear.

As the miners emerged, each one wore his tan t-shirt, reading "thank you Lord" on the front- and the text from Psalm 95:4 on the back.


Ministry & Financial Update
The next few weeks will be very busy, as the Regional Office Operations Team will help execute 4 conferences for our campus staff, interns, and student leaders. I’ll be helping with technical tasks at our women’s conference on Nov 12-14 in Minneapolis. The theme is Transformed: Laboring for a Lifetime, and will give women an idea of what it looks like to be transformed by the Gospel, and how we as professionals, mothers, and missionaries can be a part of God’s transforming work around the world. There is also a men’s conference the same weekend, centering on similar issues (from a more manly perspective). Pray for safe travels, Spirit-filled speakers, and an atmosphere that will encourage and challenge students.

I am just 7% away from my goal! I’m grateful for your prayers – they have been a constant encouragement to me on this up-and-down journey. God continues to show His Goodness to me in many ways – and each of you is one of those ways. If you'd like to make a contribution to my ministry, click here.

Why College Students?

There are a lot of reasons that make reaching college students a strategic part of fulfilling the Great Commission. College students today are...

1. Teachable
2. Starting Fresh
3. Leading
4. Unfettered
5. Growing
6. Seeking Identity
7. Global
8. Innovative
9. Integrated
10. Active

A short article written by Ken Cochrum and Amber Kinneer explains each element on the list.

Do you agree? Would you add/remove from the list?

Campus Ministries Working Together

How does a ministry decide on which students they will focus? How do staff members who can limited time and resources make certain their resources are used effectively on campus?

I love the intense focus within Campus Crusade of winning students to Christ. Our organizational focus is evangelism and discipleship. This is what God called Dr. Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, to focus on when the ministry started in 1951, and this is still our focus today.

I've heard a quote from Bright stating his interest in helping a believer understand and live in the power of the Holy Spirit over bringing someone to Christ. His reason was strategic; the more believers that are actively sharing their faith, the more people that could potentially be reached.

So if we're about reaching students in college and training them to be life-long laborers, the strategist (is that a word?) in me says train them while they're in high school so they can jump right into ministry in college.

A good thought, but there's an alarming statistic to consider: around 80% of Christian high school students leave their Christian faith in college.

So what do we do? How do we balance what God's called us to as a ministry and the current needs of university students?

This issue has been in the back of my mind throughout my college days, and even more now as a staff member with Campus Crusade. Several months ago, a friend shared with this article with me from the InterVarsity website about the importance of the first 72 hours on campus. The story also highlights a great organization partnering with existing Christian ministries on campus. (I love hearing about Christian mission organizations working together. It just makes sense to team up in reaching people with the Gospel).

Youth Transition Network (YTN), was created by Jeff Schadt to help students transition from high school to college. Schadt, a former Campus Crusade for Christ staff, explains that freshman often assume the adjustment to life on campus will be easy, but they often find themselves overwhelmed.

YTN partners with more than 65 organizations, including InterVarsity and Campus Crusade, to help students transition well. "For the second year in a row, YTN is offering SUCCEED 2010 to give high school juniors and seniors and their parents an opportunity to attend a live simulcast that covers the social, spiritual, financial, academic, and time-management issues that students face. “We address their practical needs as well as their spiritual needs,” Jeff said." (From the InterVarsity website. The Article in its' entirety can be found here. More information on this simulcast is available at YTN’s parent and pastor website www.YTN.org).

I'm grateful I had a textbook experience, because the transition to college can be a tough one. My first 72 hours set the course for my college career, and totally changed my life. If my then-Christian roommate wanted to party hard the first few months of college, I probably would have tagged along, I desperately wanted to fit in at that point, so I was willing to take huge steps out of my comfort zone and experience new things. I'm so thankful the Christians on campus were putting themselves out there to meet new people and trusting God to work amongst the new freshman on campus.