CSP | Chicago Summer Project

Students that engage in this project can expect to develop practical ministry skills and the tools necessary to be a strategic leader both in Chicago and back on campus. We’ll be partnering with the campus ministry team in Chicago to help them pioneer and establish new ministries on university campuses. Another focus will be to reach out to the ethnic groups that exist in this diverse city and on these diverse campuses.

Crossroads allows students the opportunity to build deep relationships and serve the ministries of the Great Lakes Region of Campus Crusade for Christ, including campuses in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Crossroads is an internship with the ZeroCanvas Design Team. Students work side by side with ZeroCanvas on projects that directly effect ministry as well as develop the theme and identity of IndyCC, a conference that brings thousands of college students from the Midwest together to strengthen and share their faith in Christ.

Moving the Crossroads Project from Indy to Chicago is a huge step for us. The students on this project will have the opportunity to use their skills for ministry AND get the experience of a larger summer project, with more opportunities for growth and evangelism.

The students that participate in the Chicago Project this summer will be working at various locations, practicing their skills in initiating spiritual conversations with their coworkers, while the Crossroads students will be working with Ryan, on regional and local projects for the Great Lakes Region. All the students will be disciples by staff, each having the opportunity to spend an afternoon on a nearby campus, sharing their faith with the students there.

Here’s how you can help:

• We will have 40-50 students that need jobs for the summer. If you know of an opportunity for one of these students, please let us know. They will not have cars, so it will need to be accessible via public transportation.
• The lofts we are moving into do not include lamps or dishes. If you have a lamp or pots and pans that might be making their way to Goodwill sometime soon, please let us know. These will help to provide for the students and staff.
• We still need about $2000 to help cover out summer project expenses. If you are interested in giving or partnering with us, you can do so at Our CCCI giving website with your credit card or checking account. If you would prefer to write a check, please let us know.
• Some of the Crossroads students are still needing to complete their support. If you are interested in giving to help them meet their goals, please contact us.

Thanks so much for all that you do for us! We are looking forward to our summer in the Windy City and what the Lord has planned for us.

Please Pray

> Please pray for the many families that will be staffing this project. It looks like the kids will be outnumbering the staff! This presents some unique dynamics and challenges for the staff team.

> Please pray, as the staff and students finish up the support raising process. This is the first time most of these students are raising support. And as many of you are well aware, living in the city is not cheap.

Historically, this summer project has taken place in Indianapolis, in the Great Lakes Regional Office. Moving to Chicago is going to be a great step forward for this project. A traditional summer project usually takes place at a beach or resort community, and offers some of the best evangelism training out there. The students will participate in building relationships with others on the project, get into the Word in small groups, be trained in how to grow in their own personal walk with the Lord, how to share their faith, how to spiritually multiply their life into others, and how to launch new movements on campus.

Crossroads looks very much the same, except that the Onsite Ministry is a full day’s work in the regional office, working on various projects. We have started to refer to Crossroads as an internship with the Zero Canvas Design team (our design and tech team in the Great Lakes Region) because, the students that join us during Crossroads continue on local and regional projects that we are not able to address during the school year. Every year, the students come up with the concept and design for our annual Christmas Conference. This as well as the other projects they work on during the summer gives Ryan’s team – Zero Canvas a launching platform as we jump into the fall semester.

However, because Crossroads is such a specialized project, there are only an average of 10 students attending each summer. They miss the fun dynamics of the larger project, which has anywhere from 30-150 students. Also, since there isn’t a resort community in Indianapolis and they are spending their days with other Christian students, they lack the opportunity to share their faith as often. Since working with the Crossroads Project, we have been praying for a solution to these problems.

Moving Crossroads to Chicago is a huge step! The 10 or so students that we are anticipating will be able to meet with and fellowship with a larger group of students and staff. They will be met with individually by staff, who will help guide them in spiritual development and train them how to share their faith on the nearby campuses. Not only that, but the Chicago location is attracting students who may not have considered spending their summer in Indianapolis.

We are so excited for this advancement for this project! Even more exciting is the fact that we will be staffing Crossroads this summer. Our whole family will be living in Chicago, with all the other students and staff for the Chicago Summer Project. Ryan is the Creative Director and will be working with the Crossroads students everyday, helping them use their skills for the ministry. Because we will be surrounded by students, Rachel will have more of an opportunity to spend time and invest in some of the students. We will get some really neat chances to minister as a family, providing a great example of a Christ-centered marriage and family environment.

In order for us to be able to participate in this exciting opportunity, we need to raise at least $3,000 in additional support. Anything above and beyond will help provide for the “extras” such as a cup of coffee with a student or cooking a meal for a larger group. Would you prayerfully consider giving a gift of any amount this summer? Please make all checks out to Campus Crusade for Christ and send to us at our home address below.

There are other ways you can give –

• http://www.relevantmedia.org/get-involved/donate/
• Our giving website

We are so thankful for all that you have done and continue to do for us as we strive to reach college students with the Gospel. Without your partnership, and the partnership of others like you, we would not be able to have the ministry that we do. Thanks again!

Along with a team of staff scattered across our region, Rachel plays a role that will influence the campus ministry over the next several years and into eternity. As they read and pray and talk with potential interns, they will be handpicking those whom God has called and chosen to represent Him to the 130 million college students around the world. They will be choosing leaders and laborers whom they are going to entrust with the Gospel and send to our campuses throughout the region and around the world.

Throughout history, students have held the power to change the world. 2,600 years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar understood this when he selected Daniel and his three Israelite friends to receive the best education Babylon had to offer. We don’t know exactly what he was thinking, but perhaps he saw the potential that these young men had to influence a nation the next 30-40 years.

We pray that the interns that Rachel and her team select to join us in reaching college students with the Gospel will continue to influence their campuses and international partnerships. The college students today are the leaders of tomorrow and if we can reach them with the Gospel, think of the impact they would have in their schools, businesses, and on the culture.

This is why, during nap-times and in the evenings, you will find Rachel reading applications, praying with applicants, encouraging them in their strengths and helping them realize where they still need to grow in order to have an effective and successful ministry.

The following is an excerpt from a prayer letter of an intern that Rachel spent a significant time talking with last spring. This gal had experienced a radical life transformation and is now investing in the college students on campus in Michigan.

“At Fall Retreat, Stacie made the decision to open her heart to Christ and receive Him as her Lord and Savior. Praise God for preparing her heart to follow Him! Since accepting Christ, I have been meeting with Stacie every Thursday afternoon to help guide her in growing in her faith. I always look forward to meeting with her!”

Praise the Lord for this intern, who is helping students grow in their faith and who is serving alongside us.

Please Pray

> That the over 100 new interns and stinters will have their support needs met quickly.

> Praise that we received enough support to purchase our minivan.

> For Rachel as she balances being a mother and being involved with ministry.

What was IndyCC like?

IndyCC Day of Outreach 09
from Ryan Strandt on Vimeo.

Check out more of IndyCC at indycc.org.

3 days after Christmas, as the world prepared to bid farewell to the first decade of the new millennium, nearly 2,000 young men and women from the college campuses of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio gathered in Indianapolis for IndyCC, the annual student conference held by the Great Lakes Region of Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru).

This year, the IndyCC theme was both delicate and personal: “Wrecked into Redemption.” As the title implies, IndyCC ’09 was all about God’s redeeming work in the lives of those who would be willing to be broken by Him—completely taken apart, shattered, wrecked. The main speakers, James MacDonald and Greg & Charmaine Lillestrand, spoke on the topics of repentance, revival, and responding to God’s calling. While the atmosphere throughout the main sessions was worshipful and even solemn, the speakers’ messages to students carried the hope of deep healing, rooted in the simplicity of God’s all-encompassing love.

James MacDonald, a critically acclaimed author, radio host, and founder of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, didn’t waste any time and cut right to the heart of the matter. As he began his first talk, he warned the students that God was about to do “some major taking apart” in their lives. “Can you take it?” he asked the students earnestly. Throughout the conference, he plunged deep into such difficult and uncomfortable topics as sin, our rebellion against a Holy God, and our need for genuine repentance.

The next speakers, Greg and Charmaine Lillestrand, are quite renowned for being pioneers in international missions. Since the 1980s, they’ve started many Christian ministries in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc and are currently serving the Lord in Italy, reaching the young people of Western Europe. Charmaine highlighted God’s unrelenting pursuit of those who seek Him and His work among the nations. She concluded with a question each of us must ask: “Where He leads, will I follow?” Greg echoed this challenge on IndyCC’s closing night. “It’s not about us, it’s about Him,” he affirmed, adding, “I’m asking you to lay down your life for the King.” Greg then challenged the students to commit a summer or a year of their life to ministry. Over 1200 students accepted this challenge. 600+ of them indicated that they would go on a summer project with CCC and over 500 students indicated that they would give 1 year of their lives to ministry for the Gospel.

The conference closed with the traditional “praying in” of the New Year. While many of their peers all over America were out partying with their friends, the young men and women at IndyCC were praising their Lord and Savior in song and prayer, ushering in the New Year and new decade in worshipful adoration of the One and Only, Jesus Christ. Please pray with us that, as our students are processing what they learned at IndyCC, they would allow God to continue His redemptive work in them and use them for His Kingdom on their respective campuses, in their home towns and around the world.

Please Pray

> That students would not get buried in distraction and continue to process with the Lord over decisions they have made.

> We will be taking some time this spring to focus on our support needs.

> Praise for the mini van we were able to purchase this month and not having to take 2 cars when we travel.

“Campus Crusade for Christ bills summer projects as experiences that will change your life. To be honest, we were a little skeptical of this claim. There are only so many opportunities in life for real change. But that’s what Crossroads Summer Project has done – changed our lives for the better.”

The students spent seven weeks working in the Great Lakes Regional Office. While there, they each used their creative skills to equip the students and staff members throughout the region for more effective ministry. It was a great experience to sharpen the talents and passions God has given them as they were able to use them for His glory. It’s amazing what work can be accomplished when college students rely on the Holy Spirit.

Crossroads main project was developing a theme for Indy CC, a winter conference for thousands of students in the region. The students were asked to incorporate the themes of brokenness, repentance, and the Spirit-filled life. It’s not easy to market brokenness to a group of college students who think they are Superman. All the hard work put into creating the theme was worth it. The conference is a direct result of God working through people to bring glory to Himself. It’s an honor to be one of those people.

During the summer, we kept a busy schedule. We spent one night each week looking at movies, music and other media to see how we could relate the message of salvation to current culture. The students also grew closer to God as they learned to study His Word inductively. Rachel was especially encouraged to see how the students’ hunger for God’s Word grew in leaps and bounds. By the second week, a lot of the girls were buying Concordances and Bible Dictionaries, as their study skills were being sharpened. Other nights were spent in prayer or learning ministry skills that the students could use back on their campuses.

I really enjoy leading Crossroads and Rachel loves having students in our home again. It reminds us of why we do what we do – We are going after students’ hearts. It was great to see the students on Crossroads this summer catch that vision as they learned what it looks like to use their unique gifts, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of His Kingdom and not find their identity in their skills or majors alone.

Please Pray

> Rachel is due Sept. 11th

> The work on our home is still not complete and we are hoping it will be before the baby comes.

> Transition to parenting two Boys to grow up into men of the Lord.

> Start to the fall semester – continued wisdom and discernment as Ryan continues to focus his role.

CSU (Colorado State University, the host campus) summers are always a little more of a strain with the extra traveling, but this year was one of the better times that I have had at CSU. It was hard being away from my family and felt strange without Rachel with me, but the content and focus on the conference was really great.

If I could sum up my time together with 5000 staff members, I would say I left the conference encouraged that CCC was taking a hard look at changing our own internal culture in order to reach the ever changing culture around us.

We heard from speakers like Tim Keller, Larry Crab and Rev. Keith Battle. Even though some parts of the conference were hard, I have come away encouraged by our ministry direction, … for our own ministry… for His Kingdom.