Relevant Media

Ever since Braden was born, I (Rachel) have been asked, by just about everyone, what I will be doing this fall. In fact, I have even asked myself. I have the wonderful opportunity to stay home with Braden, and eventually our other children, if that is in our future. However, I wish to remain as involved as I can in the ministry and invest my time in things that will help to change the lives of college students.

This fall, instead of being on campus 3 days a week, I will be mostly working from home. My responsibilities include managing our website (with Ryan’s help) Indianacru.com, helping to organize Fall Retreat, and coordinating our volunteers.

This role, the volunteer coordinator, includes helping volunteers get involved in the ministries on the campuses they wish to give their time to. I am working with 10-15 individuals, keeping them up to date with what our team is doing, resourcing and equipping them for ministry, and providing them with additional training that they might need.

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I have started working with a new ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. The Global Short Film Network seeks to use short films to interact with students and others on deeper spiritual issues. You can read more about the GSFN on their website.

I have been helping prepare the videos to be used in New Zealand and on other summer projects this summer. We have made the videos available for download in ipod and cell formats so that they can readily be used, spur of the moment, to start conversations on the Boardwalk, Beach or campus.

Last week many of you may have heard of the shooting that took place at NIU (Northern Illinois University). I was a student at NIU not too long ago and hearing about it and knowing many of the staff members there was troubling. Our staff team at NIU and the students involved in our Cru movement there have responded to comfort students and staff on campus.

This week I was able to develop a website for the campus and our Cru team there called niutogetherforward.com

Check it out and leave your Sentiments in the Thoughts and Prayers section.

As the holiday season gets underway, we wanted to let you know about one of the schools we are working with that we are most thankful for.

This fall, the Lord has done some amazing things at IUPUI. Last year, we had some difficulty keeping the ministry stable and growing. In fact, by April, we had no students left. IUPUI has been a difficult school for ministry, as it is mostly commuter students. It is the third largest school in the state, with over 30,000 enrolled, making it a priority campus to reach.

In August, we walked onto campus with little staff and no students or volunteers. The staff that works with Ryan in the office came out and volunteered to help pass out information and gather surveys from students. Through that effort, ten students starting coming to our meetings, mainly freshmen girls. Also, a couple approached us about volunteering and working with us. They were student leaders at IUPUI a couple years ago and wanted to get involved with what was happening now. Through them, we met another couple, who were students also, that have joined us in our efforts to reach IUPUI. In just a couple months, we went from having no one to having 10 committed students and 4 volunteers!

Of these 10 students, 8 went to our Fall Retreat in October, which is a huge building and training time for our ministry. During that weekend, the girls bonded and really got Pray a vision of reaching the lost on their campus. All of our students are in discipling relationships, with staff or volunteers. One of our older students who is being discipled by a staff member, is disicpling another student.

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Wow, a whirlwind of a summer and travel. It seems like we have been everywhere. First to Chicago for some time with family and to connect with many of you. Then to Traverse City, Michigan for our summer project (which was wonderful and blessed by the Lord). From there it was to Chicago for a few days as we made our way out to Fort Collins, Colorado for the National Staff Conference.

The Conference was a refreshing time to meet with friends and the Lord through some great speakers who helped me re-evaluate how I view evangelism and interaction with students. Now we are back home getting ready for the start of the school year.

The Lord is truly good and sovereign. Thanks so much for your prayers this summer. We look forward to telling you what exciting things are ahead for us.

Rachel and I are out in Fort Collins, CO right now at our national staff conference. We are having a great time meeting and seeing friends that we do not get to see but, every other year at this event. These are friends but, also staff that we partner with throughout the year in ministry.

Some of you might be wondering what the national staff conference is and why we go. The national staff conference is a time when all the staff from all over the US as well as some international staff come together and connect. This provides a platform to connect the growing and spread out staff within our ministry under a common goal and strategy. The national team takes this opportunity to share ministry vision and future direction of the CCC ministry.

Rachel and I have been busy these past 4 weeks in Traverse City, MI. You might be thinking how is summer project in traverse city work? It has definitely been a great time of learning and building into students lives. I have been meeting and disciplining with 3 guys this summer and Rachel has had 4 girls. I have learned a ton through the men I have been working with.

Besides working with students individually, we have also been leading bible studies and interacting with the people of traverse city… on the beach and in the down town area. Our students also have jobs during the day and are interacting and sharing their faith with their co-workers.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support this summer. Continue to pray for our coming weeks as we turn the project over to student direction and we head back to Chicago for a few days before leaving for Colorado.

Our summer project assignment is Traverse City, MI. This will be our first summer project on staff and we are excited about working with students this summer. We will be discipling students and help them grow in the ability to share their faith. We will let you know more about the summer as it happens. This is the first step to what the Lord has planned for us this summer and we are looking forward to it.

New Zealand was incredible…from a personal and spiritual standpoint. We had a wonderful time together and seeing what God is doing in the land of the kiwi. We worked with the STINT team in Wellington, NZ. There are two campuses in Wellington. Victoria University and Massey University. We spent most of our time at Vic following up contacts from the Tune In campaign.

It was great to help support the STINT team and see the ministry at Vic take off as the team began to form LTG (life transformation groups) for the school year. Our group of students were in Wellington for 10 days and on campus for 5 days. During those five days we had 105 spiritual conversations (including conversations with students from 13 different countries), 53 gospel presentations and saw 4 students trust Christ.

We are so thrilled to have been able to go on this trip and know it will be one of many that we will have the opportunity to be a part of in the future. We look forward to the opportunity to go back to NZ in the future.

Check out the pictures from our trip at flickr.

As many of you know, we are headed to New Zealand for spring break. We are taking a group of about 8 students and 4 staff to Wellington, New Zealand to help the STINT team there start up the fall semester at a new university. Please pray for us as we Travel and work with the students there. We look forward to sharing more with you about what the Lord has done through our trip.