Easter on the Quad

This past Sunday we got to be a part of an amazing Easter Celebration right in the middle of Campus. Working alongside the other campus ministries and with the blessing and affirmation of our local churches, we hosted a Resurrection Service on the Arts Quad at Cornell.

The weather was....Ithaca. Classic Ithaca rain. As I mentioned in my message -you don't get picturesque waterfalls and beautiful gorges from sunshine! We'd hoped for sun, but the Lord had other weather intended and we praised him just the same.

I estimate there were over 500 people at the service. The band used poignent secular songs like Where's the Love by the Black Eyed peas and Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle to highlight the relevence of the Gospel for today and to talk about Christ's love.

Two students and a professor gave their testimonies -which were very powerful. I also gave a message which was cut short by the rain. My hope was to give an extended apologetic for the fact of the ressurection and then invite people to place their faith in Christ. As the rain drops got bigger I had to cut out a lot of my talk, but was still able to point to the Scriptures and proclaim Jesus as Savior!

Considering how bad the weather was -there were a lot of people. And with umbrellas and rain coats people stuck it out in order to celebrate together the Glory of what God accomplished for us over 2000 years ago!

The point was to make the good news as accessible as possible. Having the service right in the middle of campus certainly did that!

Below is a pretty cool little video that talks about Easter, using a facebook motif. Very creative!

Guatemala Trip

In addition to Big Break in Florida, we also sent Cornell students to Guatemala over Spring Break.

A few short years ago the Campus Crusade Lifelines ministry in Vermont pioneered a trip with an organization working in Guatemala. Students get the chance to serve in the barrios, dumps, orphanages and prisons of Guatemala City

This year, Mike Sugihara and Sarah Furnish along with Cru Lifelines Staff Wes and Meghan Wright led a team of 13 people.

This trip is truly one of a kind and that is due primarily to the full time missionary named Ashley. Ashley is a young woman who moved out to Guatemala city to work full-time with orphans, gang members, the poor and the hurting. I've never met her personally, but she seems like a young Mother Teresa with a sassy spirit and fashion sense. She loves Jesus and his love pours thru her all over the ghetto. She's an inspiration to everyone who's ever worked with her.
Basically on the Guatemala trip, you spend most of your time walking around with Ashley, seeing God work mightily. You get to hear the most incredible stories of faith while working amongst the poorest of the poor in a ridiculously corrupt country.

This year, the group got to work on a community center being built right next to the dump.

Olivia Lee is a sophomore here at Cornell. She went to Florida with us last year, and this year she got to go to Guatemala. She wrote a short post about one of her experiences at the women's prison. Read Below.

When Ashley asked,“Who wants to do crafts with a guilty inmate, a real criminal?” my hand shot up. I love crafts! And perhaps, I thought, “I will LOVE this inmate too.” I knew her story as I headed into the prison, and I was a little nervous that I would accidentally let it slip that I knew who she was and why she was in prison. However, in a room full of many women, and not exactly sure which one she was, I got down to business with our intricate sewing craft and began chatting with the ladies.

Big Break 2011 - Part 5

Without taking the time to unpack each of these....for sake of time.....let me just list three big reasons that we go to Big Break

1. Because we care about College students!

2. Because life and joy are actually found in God! (not in the party scene)

3. Because people give their lives to Christ!

This is my favorite of the vodcast's that the student team made: