Transformation in South Africa

I want to re-iterate what I wrote in my last post; that we are passionate about being involved in God's global ministry.  

In an amazing orchestration of events, God enabled one of our interns, Kelsey Karys to travel to Pretoria, South Africa this January with a group of Boston-area Cru students.  

Our Cru staff at Harvard; Pat and Tammy McCleod have been leading groups of students to join with South African college students in an incredible mission to tutor high school students, grades 8-12.  Check out the Mamelodi Initiative website for more information: http://mamelodi.org/

Kelsey Wrote about an 11th grade student named Emmanuel who was one of the students she had the privilege of meeting.  "Emmanuel is a smart, quiet boy who loves cars and dreams to go to MIT and then work for BMW.  Like most kids from Mamelodi, his father is no longer a part of his life.  Unlike other kids, he does remember his father being a Christ-like role model who taught him to work hard and trust God.  
Part way through the week, one of the American tutors, a student from MIT, got to share the Knowing God Personally booklet with Emmanuel. On the page that talked about how our sin separates us from God, he asked if that was really true, and listened intently about how Jesus is not just a good role model, but also his savior!  When I talked to Emmanuel on the last day I learned about his church background that was, like many black South Africans, a mix of traditional ancestral beliefs and Christianity.  But I got to share with him about the work of Jesus and how the Holy Spirit will shape us more and more into the image of Christ.  Emmanuel prayed that the Holy Spirit would bear fruit in his family, and bring love back into his household."

As Kelsey and the team were leaving, Emmanuel handed her a poem about the way God carries us through all difficulty.  For Kelsey it was humbling to witness some of the students' grasp of God's sovereignty -confidently trusting in God even as they may not know where their next meal will be coming from.  

A Global Ministry....

Our hope and vision is that Cru at Cornell would be a global ministry.  Certainly, we are a local ministry, situated in Ithaca, New York, but as our God is a global God, we want to be used to make world-wide impact.  We want to zealously GO, anywhere that he would call us.

May we be a "Global ministry based in Ithaca New York" 

Over the break, I got to join a group of Cru team leaders from around New York and New England along with some regional staff and one guy from our international headquarters on a one week "vision trip" to the other side of the world.  It's a big world, I know but it's important for me not to specify exactly where we were hanging out because the world is full of countries that are not open to very much overt Christian ministry.  (Charmayne Yun was the lone woman on the trip.....props to her!) 

We visited a place where God is doing a lot of cool things, and we hung out with numerous in-country full time Christian workers talking about how we can support them best.  In the past we've sent students there over the summer, and this coming summer we've already got a group getting set to go.  

The trip was unbelievably inspiring for me personally.  For starters, it was incredibly refreshing to hang out and do some ministry with some of my friends from around the region.  I think we were all surprised at how fruitful the trip was even though we were there for such a short time.  We were able to hang out and initiate conversations about Jesus with local college students pretty much every day.  There was a lot of openness among the students and we were able to connect those who were interested with Christian students who are involved in Bible studies.  At least one student expressed an enthusiastic desire to put his faith in Jesus Christ right there, and so our friend Dan prayed with him and got him connected with a fellowship of Christians. 

Beyond that though, the trip was characterized by prayer.  We prayed often as a team, but even more, I got to pray with my room mate John Yelverton.  John is the team leader at Syracuse, and each morning we would get up, kneel on our beds and spend extended time praying for all kinds of things!  

Here we are again enjoying some delicious shish-ka-bobs.  I put a red bandana on one of our friends because he's a student who talks to lots of people about Jesus in a place where not everyone is cool with that. 

Kicking Off the Spring Semester

Of course it's easy to start the semester well, the real trick is finishing well!  I hope that we can persevere and keep this blog a bit more updated this spring than we did in the fall. 

Classes started yesterday at Cornell, so please pray for our Spring Semester.  We kicked off with a leadership meeting last night.  Some 50 students showed up to catch up and share about how God met them over the Christmas break. 

Our Epicenter conference was good.  We had 12 Cornell students along with two girls from SUNY Cortland and one guy from Ithaca College. 

One of the speakers was Doug Pollock, a man who is extremely passionate about engaging people with the good news of Jesus.   Rather than just talk about that though, he thought it would be best to actually do it.  So some of the staff arranged for a couple of guys who are atheists to come out and have a conversation with Doug right there on the stage.  Adam, one of the atheists challenged Christians who don't evangelize because they are afraid of social awkwardness to "get over it"   

Doug demonstrated well how important it is to really care about and listen to people.  He modeled how to be respectful and how to strive for productive dialog when sharing the gospel.  You can watch the session on this video.  (skip ahead to the 7 minute mark to get right to the dialog)

http://new.livestream.com/CruEpicenter/events/2665731/videos/39939110

(if the embed code doesn't work, just click on that link... The one your looking for is titled Doug Pollock on Outreach, and you'll see a picture of him sitting in a large leather chair.  

Why Chris Norman said No to the NFL

A fantastic video that I came across recently.  Chris Norman talks about coming to know Jesus Christ and taking the road less traveled for the Glory of God.

I love this story for a lot of reasons!  But one thing that is pretty cool is the way that Chris doesn't demean others who have actually chosen to go pro.  He keeps the person and power of Jesus Christ front and center.


Drafted: Why Chris Norman Said No to the NFL from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Raising Funds

Campus minister Tim Casteel hosts a fantastic blog on Leading in Ministry.  

I've benefitted from a number of his posts, especially the one titled Money To Fund the Mission.  In it Tim points out how critical finances are to the mission of moving the Gospel forward.  

During the spring of 2012, every single Cru staff member in the northeast region had to take 5 whole weeks off of campus to work on raising financial support.  The sad reality is that almost all of us are under-supported and struggling at some level.        Both our personal support accounts and our campus accounts are low. And without adequate finances to live, eat and minister staff must pull back from time on campus, meeting up with people  and spend time looking for new financial partners.   

In Tim's article, he references a Mark Driscoll video where he describes THE game changer in the history of Mars Hill (Seattle).  

He says there was " a single thing that took them from 40 people to 800. A turning point that made the difference between their church shutting down and being the global influence that it is today through the Acts29 Network and Mark Driscoll’s teaching.

It wasn’t hiring a key staff. Putting on a big outreach. Giving a great sermon. Getting a new website. Him yelling at a bunch of men (that was a different video).

It was money.

A gift from a generous couple – a $200,000 gift that was 100x greater than any gift they’d ever received."

I recommend reading Tim's article where he includes insights from both Bill Hybels and R.C. Sproul.  

He concludes: 

"As ministry leaders we spend countless hours thinking through how to reach more people with the gospel. We plan ways to raise up new leaders. Get excited about new books/ideas that could be gamechangers. Dream of new websites that will singlehandedly reach the campus with the gospel. But we rarely think of money. 

I just wonder what would change if our ministries and staff were abundantly funded. Imagine what God could do."

That's our goal!  Stephanie and I are in a place where we actually need to raise $1300 in new monthly support.  Even as we take seminary classes in Colorado this summer, we are working to raise money.  God has raised up three fantastic interns for next fall; Will Poon, Mercy Gbenjo, and Kelsey Karys.  But if we don't get adequate support, they'll be ministering on campus without us! 

We want to see the Cru ministry at Cornell truly taking the gospel to every student.  We can no longer afford to be barely making it as staff or running on financial fumes as a ministry.  

If you are reading this, and you are a financial supporter of our ministry, I want to thank You!  If you aren't, and you would like to be, please be in touch, or check out this link.  

Praying with desperate faith....

Over the past several weeks there have been many things that I've prayed about, and many more things that I really should be praying about.

Tonight, as Stephanie and I reflected upon a whole slew of things that are going on in our lives, we felt compelled to pray.  And yet as I prayed, I began to feel convicted about my lack of faith in prayer...which is fundamentally a lack of faith in God.   Of course I believe "prayer works" that is that God works in us and through us when we pray.  But, I felt like in a lot of ways, I haven't really been believing that.  We feel overwhelmed by so much right now, and although there is a sense in which we are "giving it all up to God", we are also quite stressed and exhausted and discouraged because we aren't thoroughly "giving it up to God."  

The Lord met me tonight, reminding me of his power and might, and provoking me to pray more faithfully.  In Joshua chapter 2, Rahab the Canaanite prostitute understands God's strength accurately and recognizes her own weakness and inability.  I need to do both of those things more.  I need to faith like she had.

This past fall, I was talking to some of our students about prayer and I had them watch a clip from the movie Act of Valor.  (It's on Youtube if you care to look for it. It's the boat rescue scene, and there is some profane language depending on how long the clip is.)  Basically the Navy Seals are getting picked up by these two boats after rescuing a woman from some hostiles.  The Swift Rescue boat comes to get them has these incredible machine guns (called a mini-gun) and they are unleashing this absolutely incredible amount of fire power upon the enemy.  They are spraying so many bullets so thoroughly that the enemy literally has no choice but to keep their head down and hide....or be killed!   And while the enemy is ducking for cover, the SEALs are able to load up in the boat and drive away safe.

The whole scene is pretty awe inspiring, but what I appreciate most about it is the way that the SEALS speeding down the road to the extraction point are communicating with the boat guys on the radio.  In his sermon "Prayer the Work of Missions", John Piper likens prayer to a "war time walkie-talkie."  He points out the way that we pray so passively because we fail to recognize that life is a spiritual battle.  Prayer is our direct line of communication with God in this messy missional adventure called life, yet we regard it so lightly.  We treat it like a luxury intercom system that we can use to page the butler to ask him to bring more pillows down to the family room, when it is actually our extremely vital communication life line!

May we pray with more faith this summer.  Without it...we're dying!

To End Homelessness in Ithaca

Local Ithacan's are familiar with a tucked away piece of land out behind Wegman's grocery store known as "The Jungle".  It's essentially a campsite wasteland where the homeless set up primitive shelters and tents to live year round.  Depression and drugs are rampant but food is scarce.  Last year there were 4 homeless deaths in Ithaca.   Efforts have been made in the past to help "clean up" the jungle -people volunteer and go pick up trash and try and make it all somewhat less dumpy.  Over the years, those who care for the poor would also visit this tent slum to provide clothing, blankets, food and encouragement.  But the Lord inspired a few passionate people to imagine an Ithaca without the jungle -an Ithaca with no homeless!  

Nic Brenner and I were walking thru Lowe’s Home Improvement checking out palm sanders when we bumped into Barry Segal.

(Barry is Ithaca ‘old guard’ –legend purports that he used to paddle a kayak across Cayuga lake every morning to get to work.)   He’s a character for sure; hard to miss with his pants tucked into his cowboy boots, sporting a bright blue and white Johnny Rocket leather jacket.  He’s pushin’ 60 years old but he still runs errands on a 750 Suzuki GSR.  (he doesn't normally wear a tuxedo though!)  We both bought sanders as Barry filled us in on the latest details of his homeless mission idea.

Some years ago, Barry decided to read and re-read Isaiah chapter 58 for a whole year.  Through that meditation God burdened him for the poor and he’s been brainstorming ways to serve the needful ever since.  Joining arms with other concerned and committed Christ followers the idea to provide housing for a couple of guys has morphed into the audacious dream to completely end Homelessness in Tompkins county.

God provided and Barry mobilized hundreds of volunteers

Last year there were 4 homeless related deaths in Ithaca.  In the fall of this year, Barry purchased two houses on Court street in downtown Ithaca.   The Syracuse Rescue mission entered into partnership with him and in December we joined together with other volunteers to begin remodeling the houses and getting them ready for occupants.  At the end of the Christmas break, I took Sophomore Sam Rabkin over to help and he got thoroughly pumped up about the endeavor.  He was a huge part of mobilizing our ministry to continuously serve.  Starting during the Christmas break and exinto the spring semester there were times when Cornell Cru students were serving a couple nights a week as well as Saturdays.  We did everything from demolition to flooring, from painting to cabinet installation.  Students were learning a ton.

Austin and Tom rip up old carpet

Here I am with Intervarsity staff Charles Fick

Moving old stuff, making room for new stuff.

The home is not the type of shelter where people  stop over and spend a single night. It’s much more of a transition house.  A place where men can live indefinitely, in fellowship, paying reduced rent while working to get back on their feet.  It was Barry’s desire to make the places look as nice as possible.  Even though we were utilizing primarily volunteer effort, there was a commitment to excellence and quality as we completely remodeled each and every room.  Barry’s hope was that the quality would help the men to rightly understand God’s  love and that the aesthetics would help inspire hope for a brighter future.   Barry intends to provide some vocational training for the residents and to facilitate a Christ-centered community.  

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER (different angle)

Residents are living in the house right now.  In late February, Stephanie and I got to attend a reception celebrating all the work that's been done in the past year to end homeless.  It was a glorious time to gather with Christ followers from across the city who are committed to serving the poor and making a difference.   Ithaca's Community Faith Partners are a big part of making it all happen along with key individuals like Barry Segal, Carmen Guidi, and others.  Right now, there is no one living in The Jungle.   Certainly this is just the beginning, but as a ministry we feel so blessed to be a part.  You can keep up with the work at:
http://www.rmsyr.org/ithaca-programs/
and
http://courtstreethouse.org/
and
http://www.communityfaithpartners.org/