Wildwood

Our staff team of 24 is preparing to leave the Wildwood Summer Project. Today we had some time to share with one another and remember what God has done during our time here. Here are some highlights:

One staff shared about a student who had a great desire to go to Asia this summer, instead of staying in the states. However, God led her to Wildwood, and she obeyed. On Saturday, we hosted our annual neighborhood cookout, and this student met a few Taiwanese students who are growing Christians. The student shared, "Instead of having me go around the world this summer, God has brought the very people I have a heart to minister to to my backyard [literally]."

One student shared, "At McDonald's [his place of work], I have a hard time remembering I'm in America. There are so many people from other places working there!"

One staff shared about her group of girls she has been working with and the way they are ministering to one another: "One week one of the girls came and shared openly about her struggle with identity. She had spent time journalling all the things she doesn't like about herself. In response to this the other girls were able to speak in grace and truth. And then one of the girls said to her [the student who had journalled], 'give me that paper.' Then, she took the paper and ripped it up." A powerful example of our dream that students would learn and experience the beauty of transformational community, where they are all important contributors to the life of the group and the life of one another!

Another staff shared about her group: "I had a hard time seeing how this group could come together. I had a southern belle, a punk, a homespun middle America and a smart Asian. Quickly they have learned to love one another and share their gifts. Fro me this is the closest to Philippians 2 that I have ever seen lived out."

About a men's group: "Our group is quiet, teachable and they are becoming vocal. They are most comfortable behind the grill. If there is ever something, they grill. So, on Saturday [at the project cookout], our guys were grilling. So I wondered what would happen when they finished grilling. I didn't give them any direction. They got their food, and went and sat with international students and had great conversations!"

One of our staff guys had a group of men who, at the beginning of the summer project, would blankly stare at him in response to his questions during their time together. He shared today that "they are getting it!" They are leading and mining the Word together and encountering the Gospel together, too. When he asks questions like, "What does this Scripture reveal about your brokenness that requires the redeeming work of Christ? How does this Scripture point to Jesus?" they have answers and a discussion!

This year, we had four students from WWSP10 return as "student staff." Although they are not on full-time staff with Campus Crusade for Christ regularly (they are still students!), this summer they served exactly like all of our full-time staff. One guy shared, "Last year, at my job, I became pretty good friends with a girl, Jess. We kept in touch. So, on Saturday, late in to the cookout, I realized I hadn't invited her. I texted her [at 9:30pm], expecting her to be like "no thanks." But instead, she responded, "ok. see you soon." As it turns out, Saturday was the first time she had actually completely heard the gospel message. So, I invited her to Monday [our large group weekly meeting]. She came and loved it. When she left [the meeting on Monday], she asked, "How do you get there?" Meaning, how do you know God? It's been great to see God work over time, even though I had no idea what His purposes were at first.

WWSP 2011

The Wildwood Summer Project is up and running!

Our staff team, 22 staff including ourselves, arrived May 23 for a week of preparation. 47 students from around the country arrived June 1. Most students have jobs, which they will work all summer; only about 12 are still looking.

Our theme is "treasuring Jesus, making Him known."

The other day I was talking with one of staff and she expressed how God is using this summer in her own life: "I just have a tendency towards performance and trying to do things in my own strength. I feel like this summer, I am experiencing some freedom from trying to perform in order to be accepted. And I am seeing things happen [like the student relationships in her small group] that I couldn't make happen. God is just doing it and better than I could."

We are so thankful that God is moving in the lives of our staff and students!

Big Break on NBC

Big Break was highlighted on NBC!

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

Boston Winter Conference 2011

Holly Sheldon is a National Director with Campus Crusade for Christ.

http://vimeo.com/18761225

Boston Winter Conference 2011

Enjoy this main session "Free Together" from BWC 2011

http://vimeo.com/18670872

Siena

Here's an update from our staff, Joe, who works at Siena College.
"We weren't able to get a table this year for the club fair (which has put our gears into "high" on getting recognized as a club at Siena). However, students are still motivated and have decided to go door-to-door over the weekend to get 150 students to fill out surveys. Please pray for them this weekend. Aaron (a fellow staff member) has graciously volunteered to help me out and do a follow-up training for the leaders Monday night. Then, we'll begin follow-up on Tuesday. Different plan than we originally thought, but God is still moving. We had 10 students at the initial planning meeting yesterday. 4 freshmen"

Sage College of Albany

We have often shared with you about a student we met our very first year in Albany; that year she was a freshman at Sage College of Albany - a small college of about 400 students down the street from us. She has worked tirelessly and often alone. At the end of her freshman year, we met a young man, a year older who is a Jesus-follower. We were thrilled that she would have a co-laborer the following year, and, together they completed the process for becoming an official school organization ("Cru"). Even though they worked diligently to reach out to the Sage community, at the end of another year, there were 2 more Jesus-following students connected with them. Here's some of an email she just sent this week about this year:

Hello Everyone,

Thank you again for your willingness to pray for CRU this year! I'm here to report that your prayers are already being answered! :-)

In my last note I mentioned that we were going to be having our activities fair last Friday. In all honesty I was just hoping and praying to find one other like minded Christian among the incoming freshman class and hoped at least a couple people showed some openness to spiritual things. Well I must say God went above and beyond!! As of now we've connected with 15 people who have all showed interest in attending our weekly meeting! Now out of those 15 we know for sure that at least 5 of them are Christians. With a current group size of 3 another 5 would mean we've more than doubled in number already. So with so much promise on the horizon we are all super excited! One guy I spoke with helps lead worship at his church and really wants to do so for us too which is way awesome!

So what we have coming up now is a meeting on Tuesday to talk about the awesome response and how we are going to handle it and informal get to know each other/hang out meeting with all the new people on Thursday. Additionally we'll be doing a movie night on Friday which will allow us to connect further with our new people and allow everyone to invite some friends along. Afterward we'll have some pizza and hopefully have some good bonding time and meet more students. Then on Saturday we're doing an outreach for freshman where we'll be offering free car washes and air fresheners for their cars. We're hoping to use that as a good time to start dialogs with students and demonstrate God's love in a tangible way. So we've got a very busy week ahead of us and will despteratly need your prayer support through it all!

This is what you can be praying for this week:
1. That we connect with all 15 people people who gave us their contact info
2. That we bond well with all the new friends who will be coming along side us in our mission at Sage
3. That the Holy Spirit guides all of our conversations with students that we interact with during our movie night and car wash
4. That we connect with many students who are spiritually seeking and are able to guide and lead them in the right direction
5. That God guides and leads us as we plan out where to go next with CRU during the semester
6. That new students are able to get connected at good local churches