Student Accepts Christ at SDSU!

Last week, Francis and a student he disciples, Cameron, went out on campus to share their faith. It was nerve racking for Cameron because it was his first time doing evangelism. They approached Noah and started talking to him. Noah is a senior graduating at the end of the semester. He was interested in talking and hearing more about who God is. Cameron was able to share his testimony with Noah and Francis shared the "Knowing God Personally" (KGP) booklet with him. The KGP is a simply, clear, and concise way of sharing the gospel. After hearing it, Noah responded by asking how he can have a personal relationship with God. Then, with Cameron and Francis, Noah prayed to receive Christ!

SDSU/UCSD Dinner and Backyard Fun Social

A desire of ours is to see the students at UCSD and SDSU become a large community here in San Diego. To help doing so, about once a month we have shared social events together, including Fall Retreat. Our first social all together was a huge success! About 60 students split up and had dinner at a dozen host homes. Then, we all met at Joe and Allison's house for dessert, backyard games, and a bonfire. Here are a few photos from the night.

Student Reaching out to Roommate

One of our involved students at UCSD sent out a facebook message to ask us to pray for her roommate. Here is specifically what she would like us to pray for...

From Student:
So my roommate, Tiffany, doesn't really understand religion of any type and lately she's been asking me a lot of questions about my faith, especially the past 24 hours since I got back from Fall Retreat. Her boyfriend is a Catholic and she was asking me about my faith while he was here. Her boyfriend was being really quiet about his religion and would agree with me about some of my statements and then would say something that personally I wouldn't say followed my beliefs. Thankfully I knew enough about Catholicism because one of my best friends from high school was Catholic and I'd ask him about it all the time. Because of this I was able to better parrallel/answer her questions about my religion versus his.



Today she asked me to better explain my relationship with Christ even more. Basically she told me that she liked parts of Catholicism and parts of Christianity but she didn't think she could "subscribe" to only one at this time. She said that there were some things that she couldn't wrap her head around because of Christianity and she was also confused at how different some Christians could be from each other.



In the end, she said that she was just becoming aware of religion and that she just wanted a better understanding of it all. Hell and death has just become very real to her for some reason... I honestly don't know why and she want's to understand God's love and how He can be next to her at all times without her feeling it. Basically I told her that if she really wanted to understand God and how much He really loved her and was present beside her at all times, she should just ask him to reveal Himself to her. She seemed responsive to the idea, but said she needed time to consider it.



SO. The point of this note was to just ask you guys to pray for my roommate:

-That she will soon be ready to ask God to make Himself real to her

-That she will continue to be open to Him

-That she will find herself even more surrounded by strong Christians who can be a good witness.

-That God will use me even more to be a witness to her and that He will give me the words to explain His goodness, faithfullness, and love.

Thanks!
I"ll update you in my next newsletter about Fall Retreat!

Students at San Diego State

There is a lot of growing momentum at San Diego State. We have new students every week at our weekly meeting and have met so many interested just from being around campus. This year, our whole staff team is there every Thursday. It's been refreshing to be there once a week. During the middle of the day students will be just hanging out on campus: sleeping, napping, reading, or taking with friends. This is not uncommon at SDSU, but is very rare to see at UCSD.

Anyways, at SDSU there are a few students I'd love for you to join me in praying for:

Roney saw our sign and was interested in what we were all about. He grew up in a Christian family, but isn't quite sure what he believes. He's been meeting up with Francis, one of our staff members, on Thursdays to ask questions and continue to explore. He's also been coming to the guys bible study. He always mentions that he "has a lot of laundry to do" or something of sorts in case he finds him self wanting a way out. Haha. Pray that he continues to search for who God is, gets plugged into our community, and comes to Fall Retreat!

Ariel accepted Christ a week before school started. Her friend invited her to church and about a year later she asked Jesus into her life! We met her the beginning of the year and she's been actively involved. Ariel has not yet told her parents yet about her decision and is very nervous about it. Please pray for Ariel as she discerns when the right time to tell them is.

Francesca re-dedicated her life to Christ at the beginning of the school year! She was raised Catholic and knew that she had a decision to make when she came to SDSU: to follow Jesus or not. It's been great connecting with Francesca and getting to know her!

Freshmen Bible Study

Along with greek, I'm leading a combo freshmen bible study in two of the colleges here at UCSD. We've found that students are more likely to come to daytime studies because they're to bogged down my homework in the evenings. I'm leading a Chelsea, an awesome, fun, passionate student leader.

Our first study is today at 3! Many girls have showed interest. Please pray they would come, would want to grow and be challenged in their faith, and become friends with one another. Many of them live in the same dorms and have freshman classes together. Thanks!

Heart Changing, Eye Opening, Challenging and Indescribable: Summer Projects 2011

Since being back from project and interacting with all our UCSD students that attended, it's amazing to see how much God really did in their lives'. They literally come back changed students; we a new prospective on life and a heart for the campus. Students on our Facebook page are saying project was heart-changing, eye-opening, challenging and indescribable! Through the post-project survey done nationally by Cru, students also told us they are more confident in initiating spiritual conversations and sharing their faith than before project, as well as more certain of their sense of God’s calling on their lives.

By the numbers, here is a picture of what God did:

Students Sent: 3297

Total Projects: 224

Personal Evangelism: 40,817
Decisions: 2722

Group Evangelism: 28,388
Decisions: 2966

Media Evangelism: 50,505
Decisions: 2490

The first ever Fiji Summer Project saw 168 Fijians receive Christ!


What the numbers don’t say…

“From Day 1 I was immersed in the most loving community I've ever had” San Diego Summer Project

“I am excited to reach out to freshmen and show them what it looks like to have a flourishing relationship with God and what it looks like to be women of God.” Grand Traverse Bay

“We shared with Diana on project, and she met with us for all ten follow ups! Before we left project, she was sharing the Gospel with her friends and leading one of them through the follow ups. I mean you hear all the time about God using you if you let Him, but I actually saw it and experienced it and it was so cool to know that the Holy Spirit was working through me!” Guayaquil, Equador.

Praise God for all He did this summer in and through the lives of 3297 students sent around the world to share the good news!

Student Leadership Retreat

The week before UCSD began, 12 student leaders and our staff team gathered around in my living room for a 3 day/2 night Leadership Retreat! This was a great time to connect with all the students and get to know them better--especially the girls I lead last year and hadn't seen most of the summer. We talked about our first 4 weeks on campus and what we want them to look like, how to best reach EVERY incoming freshman, and how to launch and lead bible studies. All of these leaders will be leading a Ministry Team (Socials, Weekly Meeting, Prayer, and Outreach) or a co-lead a bible study with a staff member. Last year we only had 3 leaders, this you we have 12!! I can't wait to see how God is going to use each and every one of these students this year.

National Staff Conference

This summer I joined 6,000 other US Staff at our bi-annual National Staff Conference. It was a great time to gather together and celebrate our 60 year anniversary! I feel so blessed to be a part of an organization who's focus is continually on Christ and seeing others come to know Him.

The other big news at our conference was the CCC name change. Beginning in early 2012, we will be Cru Global. This change reflects the feedback of thousands of students, donors, non-Christians, Christians, etc. "Crusade" was becoming a barrier to sharing the gospel with students here and internationally. "Campus" no longer represents our scoop as a ministry--as we now also work with high school students, post-grads, athletes, homeless and inner cities, and all those overseas that view 'The Jesus Film'. After through research and surveys, we landed on the name CRU. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Jessica's Experience in Santa Monica

Jessica is going to be a senior at UCSD and our first Greek leader in Chi Omega! I wrote about her in my last newsletter (see link on the right), but here is a re-cap from her about all God did in her life this summer!

"There are so many times where I just sit and am so utterly blown away by my God.

I thought today of how reaching down to us is probably a similar experience as to us reaching down into toilet water. Him in all His perfection and glory and sovereignty chooses to reach down to these people who let sin run rampant and destroy this beautiful world that He created and yet He looks on us with love?

One of the best nights of my life was Monday night. I love the moments that are so insanely characteristic of God that we just look to Him and laugh. How he takes our precious 'plans' and reeks havoc in a way that blows our mind. Listening to a gay atheist start weeping as he sang "How He Loves" caused God's redeeming power to literally cripple me. He breaks the chains that everyone else gives up on. No one has been created for anything or anyone other than our Father. And we can sit here and say that as many times as we want, but do we believe it? until we get smacked in the face with the fact that maybe the one who we thought could never grasp God's love understands it more than us all. in this moment, right now. as he is leaning on God's children crying out to our Father. and yet we stand there unmoved by Him. paralyzed in our chairs. paralyzed by our thoughts of what others think of us. freedom in worship, not only in singing but in daily actions, in thought, in simply being able to experience life in a way that screams of your knowledge of your Father, is the most beautiful freedom. we may look crazy, but isn't that what people in love are supposed to look like?

Sitting with my roomies at our last discipleship today was one of the weirdest things of my life. I think it blows me away how much God is willing to answer if we just simply ask. You want to know how to pray? Let's talk. You want to know what it means to rely on me? Let's start peeling away. And the crazy part is how much He holds our hand through it all. He guards our hearts when we can't. in a way that we can't comprehend. He isn't afraid to reach into the toilet water. He meets us where we are. and finds joy in it. in us.

I prayed with a girl to accept Christ on Sunday for the first time. (!!!!!!!!!!!) It was the most insanely beautiful thing of my life. I will never feel adequate to do God's work. And yet at the same time, it was at that moment I realized that this is what I was truly made to do. There is no greater joy. No more insanely ecstatic mixture of emotions than praying with someone and leading them into the arms of our God. Pray for Daisy :)

So tonight is my last night of this trip. I am staying in Santa Monica for two more weeks to continue working at Quiksilver with one of my best friends here. So be praying for that place please, God's not done using us there yet :)"

Thank you for praying for Jessica! I'm excited to see all God does in and through her this year at UCSD!

Serving in El Salvador

Along with sharing our faith two days on campus, we also spent two days serving the city. One day was full of playing and loving kids in an orphanage and the other was spent painting a school in a very poor area.
The orphanage was incredibly sad. There were newborn babies to "troubled" teens, to 12-13 year old pregnant girls. There are only four caretakers that have 75-100 kids to care for at a time! When were walked in the little boys and girls just wanted to be held. The teenage girls wanted to dance to Justin Bieber (yes, he's the teen crush there too) and have fun. We made PB&J for all the kids and I've never seen someone scarf up their food so fast We were also told that 99.9% of these kids will never be adopted because EL Sal doesn't want to look like the government can't take care of their people.

El Salvador Highlights

In March, 35 students and 7 staff from Cal Poly and UCSD ventured down to Central America for a week long mission trip. Our time in San Salvador, the capitol of El Salvador, was full of various ministry opportunities. We worked along side our STINT team (CCC 1 year missionaries) to help them establish a CCC organization on a new college campus. The colleges in San Salvador are very strategic because the few young adults that go to college are motivated to change the way their country runs.
We spent two days on campus sharing our faith, using the picture survey, Solarium. It was a nice change from UCSD that students wanted to talk to us. We would share with groups up to 10 people and everyone stayed engaged. Towards the end of our last day, Katelyn (a Cal Poly student I was sharing with) approached two ladies in the cafeteria that were killing time before their next class, Taitana and Catherine. Catherine was also fluent in English and was able to translate to her friend and us. As we continued talking they both expressed an interest in wanting to know more about Christianity and how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus. I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with them and leading them through a prayer to receive Christ! At the end of our conversation Catherine looked at me as said "thank you so much for giving up your spring break to come here to share this with us".

We're on the News!

Hi All,

Every year CCC has a conference, Big Break, during the month of March. Students from all over the east coast come for spring break to party with friends and soak up the sunshine. Big Break gives CCC students the opportunity to share their faith with peers on the sand throughout the week. I attended Big Break with Boston students the past two years. This year, the conference made the local news! So nice to see something positive being broadcast. Watch the link below...


http://flash.video.worldnow.com/wjhg/WJHG_1603201117590112305_8817793C.mp4


(you might have to copy/paste the link)

Pray for Japan

Like me, I'm sure you've seen the devestating images of Japan all over the news. My heart breaks for them all. Thankfully, all CCC staff are ok. Below is an email from one of our international staff there. Written on Friday, March 11th.


You may have heard about large 8.8 earthquake in northern Japan. Around 2:46pm, I felt the whole church building I was in swaying, so exited and knelt on the cement and prayed for Japan. I knelt both in prayer, but also because I felt like I would fall otherwise from the strength of the rocking of the ground under my feet. Sanae-san and I prayed together, wondering about the severity. Soon after, I spoke with Cam and made my way to the kids' school, finding them all on the field. Interestingly, at 2:45pm the day before, the school had conducted an earthquake drill. Today, the announcement included, "This is not just a drill." But that was obvious. The aftershocks have lessened, but now the images on the news are producing the shocks. The area around where we vacationed last summer (Miyagi) is flooded, and possibly hundreds of bodies (so hard to write this) are being found. But all JCCC staff are accounted for.



Cell phones and trains not working meant many people are stranded, and a few extra kids are spending the night here tonight. As I turned out the light in the girls' room, we noticed more aftershock tremors.



People think about what they believe in at times like this. The ground shaking so hard has an effect like this. Our national student conference, called CHANGE Conference begins this Monday and we'll be having a day of outreach (which Cam is in charge of) where we'll have these kinds of conversations with people all over Tokyo. Please pray for open hearts across Japan. (I've felt tremors twice since I began writing.)



Hebrews 12:25-29 says, "25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Thank you for your prayers.
Love, Cam and Kristen