Another Great Big Break story

From one of our students who went to Big Break with Dave: "Before I went to Big Break, I hated evangelizing. I thought it was stupid and disrespectful to the people around you. After Big Break, I actually feel almost passionate about it. At Big Break I had many spiritual conversations and felt much more confident, and now God is trusting me with so many more conversations. Something cool that happened was on the way home from Big Break, I got a text from a guy in one of my classes who I barely know and he asked about what I was doing in Florida. I told him about Campus Crusade and he told me that he wants to know more and was interested in my story. He even opened up about his spiritual background. I now have plans to meet up with him and discuss my beliefs with him sometime soon! God is really awesome."


This is why these conferences are so important! A transformed, Christ-follower!

Big Break 2012

Dave travelled with students from RPI and Siena for a week of Big Break at Panama City, Florida.  Our students spent their Spring Break listening to great teaching, engaging in practical training, worshiping passionately, and walking up to college students who had come to do this beach for one thing: party.

Ray was having a fantastic time.  He really was.  He was looking for a concert on the beach and he asked us if we knew which hotel it was at.  We had been asking God to lead us to people he had prepared for us to interact with, so we took Ray's question as an answer to prayer. Ray was shocked that people had come to PCB to talk about God!  He easily opened up about his life and admitted that he had been wanting to make an effort to move closer to God but so far he hadn't.  "I grew up in a Christian home, and it will always be a part of me, but I've been putting it off for too long and I really need to start lining up better what I think and how I'm acting, you know?"

After another 45 minute conversation with three surfers during a perfect early evening on the beach, Dustin wanted to know how he could keep learning about God.  "You guys are going to go away but I still want to be looking in to this stuff.  I've been wanting to get in to the Bible some more.  I think I'm going to start in John."  I assured him he was making a great choice, and I learned one of his friends already knew Jesus.  "Hang out with that guy."

Not everyone was as quick to talk with us, but our students had been practicing the art of listening and asking good questions and many Spring Breakers were grateful to have "...the most meaningful conversation of my entire week..." with a patient, genuine Christ-follower.  We also practiced bringing the needed content, not the content we wanted to bring.  Nevertheless, our students were bold to speak the Gospel on many occassions and about half of them witnessed God bringing someone in to a relationship with himself through them.

Trips like this almost guarantee wonderful things will happen interpersonally too!  Couped up in a car for 24 hours?  Things are going to come up!  Exhausted after a long day at the beach intiating conversations?  Someone's going to get cranky!  Good stuff and junky stuff rose to the surface.  It was powerful to see the Gospel applied to our lives too, and our team grew significantly as a result.  We'd been hammering away this semester, specifically during the month of February, on the importance of teams going on mission together on campus, and it was just like God to give the students a first-hand experience with Christ-centered team during our week in FL.

"If I perish, I perish."

This fall, I (Megan) have been studying Beth Moore's Esther. I was able to share some of what I have been learning with our students on Thursday night at our Real Life Connect.

Beth Moore says, "The most critical breakthrough of faith you and I could ever experience is to let God bring us to a place where we trust Him - period! We don't just trust Him to let us avoid what we fear most. We determine to trust Him no matter what, even if our worst nightmare befalls us."  With this in mind, we read Esther 4:12-5:2. Towards the end, in the exchange between Esther and Mordecai via Hathach. Mordecai underlines this reality for Esther: That either decision - to approach the King or to do nothing at all - has its risks (death). And Esther was moved to a point of being able to say, "If I perish, I perish." She recognized the risks on either side and chose.
We have so many opportunities to fill in these blanks with our greatest fears: "If ____ happens, then _____." But as Christ-followers we can apply the gospel to our life and remember that God has in effect extended the golden scepter towards us in Jesus Christ. We can approach His throne with confidence and ask Him to change our hearts and attitudes, so that we trust Him more and more, even in the midst of our circumstances. Here's what some of our students shared:

"If I don't get accepted to RPI, then I'll be embarrassed."
Other students applied the gospel: "You are still valuable, even if you don't get accepted."
"God has a plan, even if that's not the one." (Jer 23)

Another students shared, "If my dad doesn't become a Christian, I am a bad ambassador."
Others applied the gospel: "His decision/choice is not up to you."
"God is the one who accomplishes growth, we only plant and water; we can't make someone trust Jesus."

And so, we shared some of our fears and the reality that the Gospel changes our response to them, the way we look at them.

And music to my ears: a couple days later a student facebooked me to say that he would be sharing this with the high school kids he leads in the church youth group.

men's breakfast

This morning, Dave and the staff guys are meeting students at Bob's for some men's time - hopefully accompanied by lots of bacon and coffee. They will be talking about Piper's definition of Biblical Masculinity:

AT THE HEART OF MATURE MASCULINITY IS A SENSE OF BENEVOLENT RESPONSIBILITY TO LEAD, PROVIDE FOR AND PROTECT WOMEN IN WAYS APPROPRIATE TO A MAN’S DIFFERING RELATIONSHIPS.

Fall 2011: a season of learning

We feel as though we have some exceptional clarity from which to lead this Fall.  That’s the good news!  The bad news is that clarity is the result of some, “Oh man, that was a big miss!” kind of moments.  So there’s this whole thing that God is working out in us about his sovereignty and our effort and what’s ours to own and what’s his to own and how we can rest because of what Jesus has done, not only when things are hard, but when things are hard because, perhaps, of us! We are meditating on the 7 Gospel Truths while learning so much.

One lesson that seems true for our area at this time is this: mission flows from community.  There are some areas we clearly see we can facilitate community on campus and we pray that God is in it and blesses those efforts like crazy.

7 Gospel Truths

We were first introduced to this powerful list in Wildwood this summer, when our dear friend J.W. Betts shared them with our project. The list originates with Drew Hyun, a pastor in New York City. He was also our speaker for the Upstate NY Fall Getaway this fall, where he shared this powerful message. 

Because of Jesus/In light of the Gospel:

We are fully loved. 

We are fully accepted. 

We have nothing to prove. 

We have nothing to lose. 

We have nothing to hide. 

We are free to make mistakes. 

We have nothing to fear.

International Students

From our dear friend, J.W.

I didn't really believe Dave when he said there were hundreds, even thousands, of international students in Wildwood over the summer. I honestly thought, "right." I'm on staff at Cornell, there are a lot of international students there! But, now, I see, there really are a lot of international students. This year, when I invite students to consider WWSP, I'll tell them, "No, really, there are a lot of international students!"

There are 500 students from Bulgaria alone! They commented on Saturday, "we really want to practice our English. But we keep meeting and running into other Bulgarians!"