Leading Worship!

Last weekend was our annual May Daze staff conference. Once a year, all 200+ midwest Cru staff get together for a long weekend. I've only been staff with Cru for 3 years, but already I am experiencing the wonderful, tight-knit family present in this group of people. I was so very encouraged to hear at this conference what God is doing in the lives of college students around the world - and to just spend time hanging out and reflecting on my year with people who understand what it's like to be a missionary.

As a member of the region's operations team, I get the chance to serve our staff at a lot of conferences, assisting in setting up, running and packing up after events. I love being a part of the behind-the-scenes experience of a conference, and it's fun to do it with such great people that love our staff and love operations.

This year, however, I got the chance to do something totally out of my comfort zone - lead worship for these 200+ people! I've lead worship in various capacities before (Cru, Vespers, Church, small conferences) - but never such a large crowd, and never in front of this crowd that normally sees me behind the scenes. I connect very deeply to God through music, and place a very high value on creating an environment where people can easily enter into and meet with the Lord. I have never felt very confident as a musician, but I've always loved singing.

Leading this weekend scared me (...a lot...) but I knew this opportunity would be a huge chance for me to grow in some significant ways in my walk with God. Before each worship session I had to continually lay down before the Lord my fear of man, and remind myself that the Lord has given me this huge passion and small gifting, and He would get the glory if I was obedient to combine these two things, and share it with others, when he asked me to.

Kingdom Called

A few weeks ago, all of the international summer project teams gathered together in Minneapolis for a training conference, named Kingdom Called. This is probably my favorite conference of the year (I think I say that about every conference!).

Saturday night of the conference, I spoke to the students about some of details regarding their summer project. As I looked out on the room full of college students that I am sending to the world, I felt totally astounded and grateful that God would choose use me to play such a vital role in fulfilling his Great Commission.

One summer can change everything. When I ventured out to Sao Paulo, Brazil as a college student on a summer project, I had no idea God would stir such a passion in my heart for telling others about the life I have found in Christ. That same passion is still present 5 years later, and I pray every day that it will never leave.

There have been many highlights this spring in my ministry:

• Running a national webinar training for college students raising financial support for international summer projects. I also coached 3 other Cru staff to lead these webinars, and together we trained over 300 students from across the United States.
• Seeing over 90 students apply to in the Ghana Summer Project - about half of them were selected to participate (and 30 of them are women!)
• Preparing for my own summer project in East Asia. I can't wait to share Jesus with east asian college students and help train and coach the female college students on my project.

Here's a shot of me on stage speaking to the students about a website that helps them track their financial support that they raise for summer project.

The Legacy Project

I love learning the history of Campus Crusade. So much has happened in the last 60 years! Awhile back, the Legacy Project was started as an initiative to benefit young leaders, by connecting us to our organizational heritage. There are dozens and dozens of videos. Check out this one from a Jacquie, a staff woman from Madison, WI, about her husband's military ministry:



Click here for more info on the legacy project.

10 days to 10 months

Vision trips give students just a small glimpse of the work God is doing around the world. Sometimes, a glimpse is all you need. A year ago, we sent out a 10-day vision trip from the U of M to East Asia. Little did Amber know, she would return there a few months later for 10 month STINT (short-term international trip). This year, our vision trips resulted in six STINTers returning overseas this fall to be a part of reaching people with the Gospel. We see firsthand how God uses short-term trips to lead to long-term investment in overseas missions: showing the need for laborers and growing hearts for the lost, which leads to more people praying for, giving to and participating in overseas missions in the future. Only God can transform a 10 day experience into a 10 month - or even a 10 year - investment.

Coyotes around the world.

I was recently cleaning out an old box of papers and found this little gem. Seems like such a long time ago, my best buds and I were all headed around the US for summer project. Fast forward 6 years... almost two dozen Coyotes applied for summer project, and 10 of them are headed all over the world this summer: Denver, North Myrtle Beach (3), San Salvador, East Asia (2), Australia, Ocean City, NJ (2). Super excited that a few of 'yotes are heading to East Asia with me!

Too much news to share.

At the end of every month I think...surely nothing can top last month's newsletter - that was a really good one! And then as I reflect on what's happened through the month, I think of so many things to write about I can't possibly fit them all into one short letter.

Ideally, I would be posting the overflow on this blog, but somehow it doesn't seem to happen. I guess I'm writing this post as a bit of a public (to the 3 of you that read this) promise that I will share more of the daily happenings.

But, I'll still probably save the real good ones for my newsletters, so be sure to keep reading those.

:)

Top Five Tools for International Sending.

Below are the top 5 things that make me good at my job (besides D.I.C.E. and the Holy Spirit, of course) :) - these tools are super important in allowing me to send the large number of college students overseas from the Upper Midwest:

5. Google!
Not only do I get an instant answer to a question from this fabulous website (ie: what's the current exchange rate in Uruguay?), Google has a few other important platforms: Google Docs, (shared spreadsheets and surveys) Google Translator, (because I don't read Turkish), and Google Blogger, (which enables me to share my wonderful thoughts with you!)

4. A file-sharing system
Our office (and region) uses a file-sharing system called SugarSync, which allows me to set up folders for each of my 12 vision trips, 6 summer projects and 8 stint teams. I couldn't do my job without this. A file-sharing system greatly increases my capacity to keep track of so many files, and make sure that each trip leader has what they need at the right time.

Along with providing a way for dozens of people to access the same files all at once, file-sharing systems provide a place to hold important documents from year to year. With a few clicks, I can find documents regarding summer projects in 2007. We often joke about not "reinventing the wheel" - and file-sharing programs help us stick to that philosophy.

3. A reliable visa agency
A visa is a piece of paper from a foreign government giving you permission to enter a country. I obtain about 200 visas a year for our various international trips. There's no way I could get that many visas without having a trusted agency in Chicago that actually submits the paperwork to foreign consulates for me. The best feature of using this visa agency is their awesome website. I can type in a country, and the purpose of a trip, the resident country and state of the traveler, and immediately get instructions on the process for applying for the right visa. It's genius, and has made me look like a genius on many occasions.

2. A trusted travel agent (or 3)
I am lucky to have a trio of stellar travel agents to hook me up with good deals. Not only do they provide the basic booking of tickets, they have my back. They offer advice, catch my mistakes, and have taught me a ton about international group travel. They also help me look like a genius.

and finally...the number one tool for international sending...is...

1. Microsoft Excel!!
If you know me at all, you knew this would be number 1! I. Love. Excel. I have so much data I need to store: from tracking $500,000+ in donations each year, to ticket prices and locations for each of our 25+ trips, to passport names and birth dates for travelers.

When I see a jumbled mess of information, my brain automatically wants to categorize it into a spreadsheet that will make numbers and names make more sense. I have a very high value for easily accessible, very concise, and extremely reliable data.

I need to end this post with a shout-out to my boss, who is always very willing to figure out a way to get me the resources I need to do my job well. Sometimes I'm not even sure what that resource is, but with his vast knowledge and expertise in the field of Operations, my questions are never a problem!