Relevant Media

We hope you are encouraged, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior during this Christmas season. We have been encouraged this year by your prayers and support as we continue in the ministry that the Lord has provided to us and to you. Thank you for being a part of it.

recent prayer letters:July 08, September 08, October 08, November 08

Campus Crusade for Christ and the ministry of Ryan and Rachel Strandt. relevantmedia.org

On the Thursday before Fall Retreat, I (Rachel) got an “urgent” email from a Greg, a Butler student. In this email, he tells me that Allie, another Butler student, is dying to go to Fall Retreat, but just can’t afford to go. He is practically begging me to scholarship her. I emailed him back, telling him that of course we will give her a scholarship, and that she should come.

Later that day, I got a phone call from another staff member, telling me that another Butler student, Adam, had just given his life to Christ and wanted to attend Fall Retreat as well. He wanted to know if he could just come and if we could scholarship him. Again, I said, of course.

A month later, Allie is a changed girl. She told us that she truly gave her life to Christ at Fall Retreat, and is growing like a weed. She has graciously let us share her story in her own words:

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As we continue to build Christ-centered laborers and plant movements in our quest to see every student know someone who truly follows Jesus, we need to build the skills that are necessary to help accomplish this goal. Hence, this semester’s Ministry Skill Set Training conferences.

This fall, our region has been spending time with the campus staff at these smaller training times to sharpen the skills we already have within the ministry. We are also collaborating with each other to learn new skills, which will prayerfully help us to be more fruitful in reaching out to students in the Great Lakes region and around the world.

My team has also felt that this is a great time to let our field staff know how we can help them. We wanted to personally inform our fellow staff that we can do creative work for them and help them solve their technological problems. Whether they need a flyer for their next outreach or a new website for their ministry, even giving tech support when needed, our team is a great resource.

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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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The students who were on the Crossroads SP this year wrote about their experience and we thought you should here about it. “Strong work is motivated by dynamic purposes.”

For the Crossroads Summer Project team, our motivation rose from the chance to use our unique skills and talents for the greatest purpose: the Kingdom of Heaven. What began as a group of students from around the U.S. formed into a team that creatively constructed an effective promotions campaign for the 2008 Indianapolis Christmas Conference.

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Our first story is a recent one from our new family. It might be a “You had to be there moment,” but I will share it anyway. We also want to tell you about our summer.

“Ready?” I ran across the room to sit beside my wife and son. As the light flashes faster, Rachel rips the pacifier out of Braden’s mouth just before the camera takes a picture of our new family. This happened about 10 times before we got just the right shot. Well, almost the right shot. Our faces are red and there are tears streaming down our faces from laughing hysterically, but Braden looks great. It was the most fun we had had in 4 weeks.

Things are definitely funnier when you are really tired. The past 7 weeks have been an amazing adventure. We have learned a lot about diapers and burps, and have realized that we have no clue how to be parents. Each day is an adventure and an experiment, and we are enjoying every minute of it.

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In November, we wrote to you about IUPUI, one of the schools that we have been working with this year and how the Lord has done some amazing things on that campus.

IUPUI is the 3rd largest school in the state of Indiana, and is primarily composed of commuter students, making it a very difficult campus to reach with the Gospel. Very few students stay after class and there is very little community on this campus, so having weekly meetings and Bible studies are a challenge, let alone getting students to come to a campus-wide event.

At the beginning of the semester in August, we started the year off with no returning students and one staff member (Rachel). As the semester progressed, students started showing up to our weekly Bible study and we attained 4 volunteers and 3 more staff, and 8 students attended Fall Retreat in October. We were amazed at how the Lord was working to bring students to grow closer to Him and to reach their campus with the Gospel.

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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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The start of the school year was crazy for me. Taking on an additional role and learning how to do windows tech support in our regional office added a little stress to my first 6 weeks of school. Besides trying to get up in running with the many web projects I stepped away from during the summer. All that to say that I wanted to share why I do what I do (And love it).

The vision statement of Campus Crusade for Christ is - to turn lost stuents into Christ centered laborers. Our goal is to Win students to Christ through effective evangelism, Build them up in their faith, and Send them out to be full-time laborers for Christ.

Our creative team met earlier this semester to discuss our vision for our ministry and why being creative is helping to Win, Build, and Send. What we came up with was the basis for our team and my ministry - to Win more, Build more, and Send more. Essentially, to aid in the process and allow the staff throughout our region to Win more, Build more, and Send more.

So, what does that mean? Well, a lot of what I do is not direct ministry. If I create a website for the regional Christmas Conference, what I am doing is giving students and staff the information they need to attend that conference. I also strive to promote the conference is such a way that more students attend.

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How do we begin to describe our summer to you? It would take several pages to tell you everything that happened. The Lord did some amazing things this summer!

We staffed our first summer project in Traverse City, Michigan. This is where students from all over our region come in and get summer jobs during the day. On their days off and in the evenings, they meet in Action Groups, get discipled by their staff member, plan weekly meetings, plan outreaches, and of course, have fun! Each student works on average 30 hours a week, participates in an Action Group, and serves on a ministry team. It is a fun-packed, God-condensed 8 weeks.

Probably the most life changing part of Summer Projects is the opportunity for the students to share their faith a lot. Many of them come to Project with that goal in mind. A lot of these students feel nervous or unsure of themselves and they want the practice. In Traverse City, they were far away from people who knew them, had more time dedicated to evangelism, and were surrounded by people with similar goals. This year, we seemed to have a very dedicated student group. Every spare afternoon, they gathered in small groups and went to the beach to share their faith.

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