GOSPEL IN ACTION
Launching Campus Movements with Compassion
Cover: Auburn students weave together evangelism, church planting, and service in Nicaragua. (See page 12)
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DECEMBER 26, 2004 - AN EARTHQUAKE HITS SUMATRA, sending tsunami waves as high as 80 feet to the shores of 15 countries in South Asia. As monstrous waves rise up and attack the shoreline, they drag millions of homes back into the sea, killing an estimated 280,000 people. All over the US, Cru students say to staff, “We want to do more than pray and send money. Can you send us to help?” We do. Two groups of 100 students go to Thailand to pair up with Thai Cru students and work shoulder to shoulder with Thai villagers who had lost fishing boats, homes, temples, businesses, friends, and family members. And we become a tiny part of a God-orchestrated work to bring help, healing, the gospel, and 50 new churches to an area of southern Thailand that had only 3 churches before the tsunami. Eight months later, Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast and destroys the heart of New Orleans. Over the next 2 years, 17,000 Cru students wade into the chaos to lend a hand and offer hope in the gospel. Thus began a journey in the Cru Campus Ministry to blend the compassionate demonstration of gospel love and the passionate proclamation of gospel truth. On the heels of the Katrina effort, local Cru movements began to find creative ways to connect “win, build, send” movements among college communities to pressing human need in the world. They’ve done it on campus, in the local community, on stateside summer projects, and on Global Mission trips. Students and faculty have gone deeper into the gospel themselves – and for the lost, we’ve provided tactile experiences of the gospel truths we share. On the following pages, you’ll find stories of creative and compassionate Cru staff, students, and faculty who are seeing the power of the gospel redeem individuals and restore broken places and systems. In Cru Campus, our primary audience remains the university community. Our desire is to make disciples of Jesus on campus who see the multitudes — the distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd — and who respond by proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, teaching Truth, and bringing tangible help and healing to the suffering millions in our world. And always, our hope is that as Jesus works through His people to redeem and restore broken people, broken places, and broken systems, the world will get a preview of “Jesus over everything” – and be moved to glorify our Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
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Tsunami Facts The fourth largest Earthquake since 1900 5300 killed in Thailand (not including other 12 countries) Up to 5 million people lost homes, or access to food and water Around a third of the dead are children. *Sources: USGS, BGS, NOAA, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, Reuters 4
THAI CAMPUS MINISTRY
SOUTHEASTERN TSUNAMI
Now we live in peace, have land to live on and waters to fish in, and we know Jesus. When the most devastating natural disaster in recorded history – the Southeast Asian tsunami – hit the southern coast of Thailand, 5000 people lost their lives, and tens of thousands lost their homes, communities, schools, medical facilities, temples, jobs, recreational areas, friends and relatives. Many Christian organizations, like Thailand CCC, brought immediate relief and also spent several years helping victims rebuild their lives, families, homes, towns, and local economies. During the first 6 months, the U.S. Campus Ministry sent 200 students –100 in March and 100 in May – to work along-side Thai students as they worked with Thai villagers to rebuild their homes. As the effort continued, Thai staff and students focused on the Mogans – a people group living on small islands dotting the Andaman Sea. The Mogans had never been granted citizenship by Thailand or Burma, so they had no schools, no medical care, no legal system,
no protection that citizenship affords — and they had never heard the gospel. Over the past 7 years, Thailand CCC has partnered with Thai pastors and churches, Christian development organizations, and local government to rebuild 3 Mogan villages, and to build schools, medical facilities, and secure Thai citizenship for Mogan villagers. Through “Jesus” film showings, preaching, and teaching, most of the villagers have come to Christ, and churches have been planted. It’s no overstatement to say that the gospel has begun to change Mogan society and culture. Just 2-3 years after the tsunami, one older Mogan woman stood up in a meeting, and asserted, “The tsunami was a good thing. Before the tsunami, we were fighting, killing, moving from island to island in search of a place to live peacefully, and we didn’t know Jesus. Now we live in peace, have land to live on and waters to fish in, and we know Jesus.” 5
SOUTHEAST ASIA
TURNING FROM IDOLS
I felt convicted that I did not love my own country as much as they did. When I was just a girl I heard the gospel on television and trusted Christ, but my family was Buddhist so I did not grow in my faith. When I went to college one of my friends was a Christian and shared her faith. She invited me to go Thai Campus Crusade for Christ meetings and to church. Then I heard them say that we are forbidden to worship idols. I did not understand this so I decided it was not important to be a Christian and decided to be a Buddhist again. When I went home my Mother took me to the Monk and he poured holy water on me. Then when I was worshiping the idol I heard God’s voice say to me, “I am bigger than this!!!” Right away I did not want to worship idols anymore, but I did not think I could return to God because of my sin. After that many things began to go wrong in my life like with my friends, school, and boy friend. One day I saw a Christian friend on campus and she told me she had been praying for me. She helped me understand 6
that God forgave me. I realized things were going wrong in my life because God still loved me. I started following God for real this time. I started reading the Bible and got into Ting’s discipleship group. Ting helped me to understand how much God loves me and why He does not want me to turn to idols. With her help I began to grow in my faith every day. During my senior year the Tsunami struck Thailand. Many people came from other countries to help us serve the Tsunami victims. I worked with New Zealand students and saw how much they loved Thailand. I felt convicted that I did not love my own country as much as they did. God used that to lead me to dedicate my whole life to Him. So when it came time to decide on what to do after graduation I could hear God clearly calling me to join the TCCC staff to help Thais come to know Him.
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CAL POLY SAN LUIS OBISPO
CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF CRU
The primary purpose was to share the experience of sacrificial living. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Cru, by partnering with Feed My Starving Children, created a service opportunity for the entire campus. The primary purpose was to share the experience of sacrificial living with Greek students and give them a philanthropy opportunity. The overall vision was to pack thousands of meals for hungry children and cultivate a greater connection to the Greek system. Over the two day event, 1558 volunteers packed 200,232 meals that will help feed 550 children for a year. In addition, the 8
event opened doors of cooperation between Cru and Cal Poly Greek Life. Greek Life leaders actually asked Cru staff to lead Bible studies in the fraternities and sororities and to plan more events together for the future. Cru Team Leader Jamey Pappas was able to meet with the Student Community Services director afterwards and he would like to partner in the future as well. According to Jamie, the event also “really changed the perception of Cru at Cal Poly which, for some, was negative and uninformed.”
DENVER METRO
SACRED RIVER
Abigail’s passion to help the vulnerable In 2009, a Denver Metro staff member had a vision for Regis University, a Jesuit university where most of the students major in nursing. The team had just begun a partnership called “Sacred River” in South Asia, and the staff member dreamed of leading a trip of Regis nursing students to this massive city, where they could proclaim and demonstrate the gospel by using their God-given medical skills. Plans were made, the challenge went out, and students responded. The first trip was so successful that non-believing students are now going, knowing that every morning the team studies a different miracle of Jesus from the Gospels. The university administration is funding
each student that goes, even though there’s no official Cru movement on their campus. Abigail, one of the Christian students who went two years ago, has graduated, and she was so compelled by how Cru connected her love for helping people with seeing Jesus as the ultimate healer, that she is now helping lead. “Cru Health,” a ministry to medical students in the city. Abigail led the Sacred River trip this past year with no staff presence. Vision for proclamation and demonstration of the gospel, training, developing creative strategies, and Abigail’s passion to help the vulnerable are all key ingredients for the Sacred River initiative and for Cru Health.
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APPALACHIAN STATE
1000 PRAYERS FOR JAPAN The opportunity to fold a paper crane and write out prayers for the Japanese people on the inside. Appalachian State staff taught and trained students to respond to local poverty and to the 2010 Haiti earthquake in a way that created a different Cru culture at App State, and built a reputation for being the compassionate “first responders” on campus. When the tsunami hit Japan in early 2011, the campus community looked to Cru to help mobilize a response. Cru staff and students came up with “1000 prayers for Japan.” After orienting and training Cru students for the initiative,
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tables went up all over campus, and students and faculty were given the opportunity to fold a paper crane and write out prayers for the Japanese people on the inside. Over 1000 cranes were folded, written on, and sent to Japan. A diverse spectrum of the campus participated and many gospel conversations transpired at the tables.
BOSTON METRO
TUTORING IN MAMELODI
When Pat McLeod and the Boston Metro team began their partnership in South Africa, they found few students, and almost no black students, on their campus. After talking with the university director about this, they found that few students in the area especially the black students from the township across the street could pass the entrance exam. In response to the problem, Pat and his team set up a tutoring initiative at the university for these high school students from the township. Hundreds of students participate every year and the program has taken a life of its own. A new reality is now emerging in Mamelodi: high school kids with bleak educational opportunities are now graduating with honors and
showing up in nearby universities. Many have come to Christ with a new vision for making their own impact in their home communities. As Pat and his teams have been intentional about tangible impact, they have developed a partnership that gives students a great picture of the “whole campus to the whole world” and the kind of multi-faceted impact the gospel can have. Plans are currently under way to launch “Mamelodi 2.0” in a new location. And this time, it is the Mamelodi Initiative graduates who are leading the charge.
Launching campus movements by tutoring poor children 11
AUBURN UNIVERSITY CRU
NICARAGUA SPRING BREAK
“...he wanted his spring break to serve God’s purposes.” “Reach the campus today, reach the world tomorrow.” True throughout our Cru history – and true today. But Cru movements are also seeing that reaching the world today is a powerful tool to see life change in students and faculty who will reach their world tomorrow. At Auburn University, it started in 2009 with three Auburn students - Stege Wheeler, Lauren Bush, and Abby Bassinger, who wanted to pursue an alternative spring break experience. Stege was a junior at Auburn University and a new Christian. The gospel had finally clicked for him, and he wanted his spring break to serve God’s purposes. Stege, Lauren, and Abby found Chosen Children’s Ministries in Masaya, Nicaragua, and made arrangements to spend spring break ministering along-side them. CCM is an indigenous ministry led and staffed by Nicaraguans. CCM feeds the hungry, drills wells, cares for orphans and the elderly, and shares Christ door to door in the villages. They’ve planted over 20 churches in the last 10 years and equipped leadership for their long-term development. Stege and his friends recruited ten other students to join them, and the Auburn-CCM alliance was born. Like many international mission trips, Stege and his friends encountered the Holy Spirit in real and tangible ways not often seen at home. Stege said, “God has continually destroyed and blown up the box we tend to put Him in.” They saw people physically healed, language barriers broken down, and they were able to contribute to work that local churches had started. The trip was a success, and the ripple effects are still radiating out to the world. 12
The first group of students who went enjoyed their trip so much that the following year, they almost tripled their numbers simply through word-of-mouth recruiting. It has continued to grow every year. In 2014, the trip was capped at 70 students for logistical reasons, and now over 100 students have applied to go in 2015. Auburn students who have gone to Nicaragua return having encountered a real and active God, and in turn they have developed a personal relationship with Him that was previously missing in their lives. Stege, who has since graduated and now serves with Auburn Cru, says, “Most Auburn students claim to be Christian, but few really know Jesus.” That has changed for many on trips to Nicaragua. These changed lives have also provided a lift to Auburn Cru Global Mission efforts as students return from Nicaragua seeking opportunities to serve. For example, Chris Osterlund went on the first Nicaragua trip and learned what true Christianity looked like. He came back to Auburn with a new outlook and a personal relationship with Christ. When Chris graduated, he did a one-year Stint in East Asia. Chris has now joined Cru Staff and is preparing for a longterm ministry with Cru overseas. And Chris isn’t the only one to take this path. The last two years Auburn has sent 25 students on summer mission to East Asia, and half of them signed up because of what God did in their lives on spring break in Nicaragua. A video summary of the Nicaragua trip can be viewed here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlF5yWGNao
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“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching...and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” — Matthew 9:35
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GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
LOVE HAITI 900 students, 36 student organizations, 100,000 meals for orphans
A few months after the Haiti earthquake, George Mason University Cru partnered with Feeding Children Everywhere and Open Door Haiti to pack 100,000 meals for orphans in Haiti. Over 900 students, representing 36 student organizations such as the Muslim Student Association, the Morman Student Association, and various fraternities, sororities, and athletic teams. Leading up to the event and for several 16
weeks after, Cru staff and students used a ‘Love Haiti’ questionnaire to engage students in discussion on humanitarian work and spirituality. At the event, they distributed 500 copies of an insightful article by Randy Newman – “Why we Love Haiti” – that connected the grace of God in Christ Jesus to merciful acts on behalf of Haitian orphans. The outreach was so effective that George Mason Cru now holds an annual “Love” initiative, focusing on a different country every year and providing something to meet an urgent need in that country.
“Why we love Haiti” Any of God’s goodness would make the current situation in Haiti look like a minor tip of an iceberg. In fact, in some ways, that’s an accurate way to look at all the natural disasters of the world – tips of icebergs of alienation from God’s goodness. Since we’ve received a gracious solution to our greatest spiritual problem, we can give away earthly goods to help others with physical needs. Since we didn’t deserve God’s grace but benefit from someone dying in our place (that’s what we believe about Jesus’ death on the cross – it was more than a mere political martyrdom), we can reach out to people no matter who they are. Our right standing with God came not because we’re good
enough but because Jesus’ good work on the cross purchased our pardon. We can give things away because we were given the greatest gift. The blessings we sense in this life – a close connection with God, the freedom of forgiveness, an overflow of gratitude, and many other prompters of praise – point us towards a world that will one day be restored. Brief blessings in this life point us with hope towards the next one. They give us strength to work for justice, equity, relief, and expressions of love – even in the midst of tragedy, earthquakes, disease, and death. That’s why we love Haiti. That’s why we love life. That’s why we love God..
We can give things away because we were given the greatest gift. 17
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO
HURRICANE KATRINA Many of those nonbelievers had their first interactions with Jesus on that trip. At a recent MTL training, Kelly Woodman told this story: “A few years ago at the University of Northern Colorado, right after Katrina, we invited any and every student at our campus at the time, to join Cru for Spring Break Katrina. Roughly 140 students, half believers, half nonbelievers, car-
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avanned from Greeley, CO to New Orleans, a 24 hour plus drive. That may have been one of the best outreaches we have ever done. Many of those nonbelievers had their first interactions with Jesus on that trip, and their lives were forever changed by the Gospel. One student, Marla, who gave her life to Jesus after the trip, admitted she would have never cared to know about Jesus before seeing that believers really do care for the needs of the poor, the destitute, and the needy. Furthermore, in the severity of the circumstances, she for the first time saw herself as needy. Didn't we all!”
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
SOCCER CAMPS During breaks, staff and students shared the gospel with the kids
At Auburn University, a student on the men’s soccer club team had a vision for evangelistic soccer camps at West Forest, a low-income school in the area. The school was deeply appreciative of the effort and signed up 90 kids for the Friday afternoon camps. For 5 weeks,
30-40 Auburn students – including many non-Christian soccer players – conducted camps to improve the soccer skills of 90 “at-risk” children. During breaks, staff and students shared the gospel with the kids — and the Auburn students sitting among them — and relationships between believers and non-believers were formed. Auburn Cru’s partnership with West Forest gave staff and students an opportunity to simultaneously live out compassion for at-risk children and create a relational context for spiritual conversations with non-believing students. 19
FREEDOM 58
STAND FOR FREEDOM
Jesus As Deliverer From All That Enslaves Us Cru Campus and International Justice Mission forged a national partnership in 2007, and many Cru movements are building fruitful alliances with local IJM chapters. Through initiatives like IJM’s annual “Stand for Freedom,” Cru and IJM activists are helping end modern day slavery, and proclaiming Jesus as Deliverer from all that enslaves us. Cru and IJM students have used creative flyers, like the 20
one on the facing page, and videos to call thousands of students to fight the oppressive forces of slavery, and to see Jesus’ power set us free from everything that shackles us. More resources and information about these projects can be found at this website http://www.freedom58project. com/ And check out this video from Auburn University’s “Stand for Freedom” at http://vimeo.com/87955448
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN DIGNITY Rescued From the Dark Industry of Pornography At Purdue University, Cru/IJM partnership coordinator Libby Swenson spoke to an audience of 1500, and was followed by Melissa, who shared her story of being trafficked as a child. Chrissy, an ex-porn star, then shared her story of being rescued from the horribly dark industry of pornography. In contexts like these, gospel truth about Jesus as Rescuer from dark forces that oppress us become vivid to many, and people come to Christ.
WE STAND FOR MANNA. At 14 years old, Manna ran away from her abusive home, and soon met a woman who offered her a job selling fabric. Manna accepted, and the woman provided her a place to sleep for the night. When Manna awoke in the morning, she discovered that she was in a brothel – where she was raped multiple times daily for the next two years. This must change! WE STAND FOR CHANGE. As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, "all humanity is caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, and wrapped in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Taking a stand here at our university against injustice and for freedom becomes a stand for justice and freedom everywhere. Manna was freed when International Justice Mission® investigators discovered her captivity, alerted local authorities, and worked along-side them to free Manna and three other young girls from the brothel. The brothel owners each received five-year sentences for their crimes, and Manna was brought to an aftercare home to heal in safety and security.
The 2014 Purdue “Symposium on Human Dignity, Slavery, and Human Trafficking” drew 4200 students to a debate on human dignity, and 10,000 people from 60 countries viewed the event via Live Stream. The debate was #1 on Twitter that night, and the video now has over 100,000 hits on You Tube. Faculty Commons staff members have provided direction and tools for conducting a similar Symposium at your location at www.symposiachristi.com
WE STAND BECAUSE GOD IS GRIEVED. We stand because God is grieved by the violent exploitation of Manna. God cares for Manna, and He invites us to stand with Him on behalf of Manna and all victims of injustice. WE STAND GUILTY. We stand because we’re partly guilty for what happened to Manna. We realize that, in subtle ways, we can use others for our own good, and that our hearts are easily consumed with our own welfare rather than the needs of others. This evil in our own hearts is at the root of injustice in the world. In responding to a newspaper appeal for essays answering the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” G.K. Chesterton submitted a two word essay. “What’s wrong with the world?” “I am.”
WE STAND IN FREEDOM & FOR FREEDOM. We stand because we have discovered the solution to our own guilt, shame and fear. We’ve discovered that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ deals with our individual sin and the world’s broken systems. The cross of Christ and the empty tomb have set us, and the world, on a new trajectory. When Jesus Christ returns, everything sad will become untrue. In Jesus Christ, we are finding freedom from all that enslaves us. So, in this freedom we stand today and because of it, we stand for the freedom of others.
We agree.
TEXT JUSTICE TO 80077 to join the movement Learn more at www.freedom58project.com
Why We Stand 21
“It was a small moment in time where a group of women who are simply seen as nothing more than a perishable commodity were treated with dignity, respect, and honored as image bearers with the love of Christ.�
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SOUTH ASIA
ARUNA PROJECT The Cincinnati Metro ministry partners with India Cru to launch new movements on university campuses in Mumbai. Cincinnati Metro also partners with The Aruna Project, a small ministry caring for women and children who have been freed from prostitution and trafficking. Every year, Cinci Metro hosts an “Aruna 5K” race to raise money for the Aruna project. Emails from Ryan Berg, MTL in Cincinnati, demonstrate that Ryan and his wife have found a way to simultaneously live out their passion for trafficking victims and accelerate the ministry in Cincinnati. Ryan Berg’s email after the first Aruna 5K in April 2009: “We were able to engage certain groups on campus that we would never have been able to before, we had atheist
graduate students, and a number of others join in the event that would never come to a Cru meeting. In total we had about 200-225 people involved (as a 2 1/2 year old movement, we only have about 70 students involved, so the numbers that came were awesome.) The greater joy-- we literally were able to raise close to $9,000 that will go directly to the Aruna Project in Mumbai to help rescue women and children out of the sexual slave trade. Awesome stuff.” Ryan’s email after the April 2011 Aruna 5K: “Our Aruna 5K had close to 1200 people involved (online financial sponsors, participants, and volunteers). We saw about $27,000 raised. Some fun conversations as well. Good news good deeds... Good stuff.”
“I too am undeserving, but Jesus came to seek, to serve, and to save.”
IMAGE OF GOD In the early afternoon, the sex work-
ers began to file into the room one after the other, some dolled up for the upcoming nights work, others having just woken from the busyness of the night before. It was certainly a new experience for Jacque a sweet American college student who had never been face to face with others whose experiences of life have been so drastically different. The sex workers arrived for the personal hygene program that we were hosting at the Aruna Project drop in center. After
the over 25 sex workers all crowded into the room and the educational aspect of the program was concluded, Jacque and seven other women from Cincinnati Metro Cru knelt to wash the sex workers feet. In a culture that sees this act as something reserved for the lowest of servants, in a culture that places great honor on the one whose feet are touched—much more so washed, Manisha, a sex worker, simply said, “you can not do this… I do not deserve it. And you are a good girl.” To which Jacque was able to reply, “I too am undeserving, but Jesus came to seek , to serve, and to save.” Jacque and the other seven women spent hours with 25 sex workers who were daily raped for profit. By the end of the time, smiles filled the room, photographs were taken together, hugs and embracing was freely and joyfully given. It was a small moment in time where a group of women who are simply seen as nothing more than a perishable commodity were treated with dignity, respect, and honored as image bearers with the love of Christ. 23
“ If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” — Isaiah 58:10
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HAITI
A BEACON OF HOPE
“ God has a plan for the restoration of everything. The truly broken parts of the world are often the richest.”
Chambrun - A Beacon of Hope After the Haiti earthquake in January 2010, the Campus Ministry entered into a 3-year partnership with Global Aid Network, Nehemiah Vision Ministries, and Haiti Campus Crusade to help bring relief and hope in Jesus to the devastated city of Port-au-Prince, and to help rebuild a shattered campus ministry. The first summer, the USCM sent 150 staff and students who spent over 8000 hours helping build Haiti CCC’s Chambrun property into a beacon of hope for an extremely poor area on the outskirts of the city. Those initial efforts helped expand an elementary school from 350 to 500 students, provide medical care, support a small orphanage, and minister to displaced Haitians and university students. Many Haitians turned to the Lord, and the Chambrun church grew from 200 to 600.
and Haitians ministered shoulder to shoulder on campus and in “tent cities” of displaced Haitians, they distributed thousands of pounds of food and water, shared Christ with 4473 people and saw 368 indicated decisions. And through it all, God worked deeply in the lives of both Haitian and American students who participated in the project, as evidenced by the following comments written on evaluations at the end of the summer: “I plan to live my life for God...dive into His Word...walk in the Spirit...and be bold sharing my faith. I’m not going to live in fear anymore.”
Total Surrender on a Haitian-American Summer Project
“My passion is medicine, and as I pursue a career in it, I want to bring medical care to developing countries.”
Haitian university students – scattered by the earthquake – were included, and the project became an American-Haitian endeavor. This provided an opportunity for American and Haitian campus staff to minister personally, restore hope and vision, and teach and train 25 Haitian students, many of whom has lost family members and homes, and whose universities had been destroyed. As Americans
“I will no longer accept the phrase ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.’ I need to get out of this comfort zone and actually have meaningful conversations with others.”
“I am surrendering all aspects of my life to Christ. I have a much stronger desire to share the gospel to my fraternity brothers back on campus.”
“Our world is more broken than I dared to believe...and God has a plan for the restoration of everything. The truly broken parts of the world are often the richest.” 27
HAITI
SHARING CHRIST — SEEING JESUS
To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind In 2011 and 2012, the Campus Ministry sent another 250 students to serve along-side Haiti CCC. Universities were holding classes in tents and makeshift classrooms, and Haitians continued to be unusually open to the gospel. A journal entry from one of the Cru staff provides a snap shot of ministry on campus: “Twenty-five Americans are crammed into the already packed linguistics classroom. Our shirts are soaked with sweat. The makeshift room is 4 plywood walls haphazardly thrown together, and we can see the feet of students in the adjoining classroom. Sony, the Haitian CCC campus director, announces to the 28
Haitian students that we have come to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Somehow, the normal class agenda is postponed, and we spend the next 2 hours sharing Christ with Haitian college students. The little room is a sea of Knowing God Personally booklets, Solarium and Perspective Cards, and attentive faces. Nobody seems to mind the heat anymore.” And here’s a snap shot of life at the “beacon of hope” called Chambrun: “I'm reading The Gospel of Luke at 6am on Sunday morning atop the roof of our medical clinic. It's a perch offering sweeping views of the dry and rocky
Haitian plateau and the distant mountains that have long since been stripped of their forests for fuel. Jesus is now introducing his public ministry in the Synagogue. He reads from the scroll: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
I look up to see a crippled Haitian woman slowly wheel by me on her hand-cranked bike. Two years ago, she was a pariah in this community and had been abandoned because many thought her disability was a voodoo curse. Haiti CCC took action, building her a new home and engineering this special bike to allow her freedom and mobility. These days, she is usually the first person to arrive for Sunday worship and the one with the biggest smile. The spirit of Jesus is thick this Sunday morning.
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“When they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, and lame walking, and the blind seeing... they glorified the God of Israel.” — Matthew 15:31
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UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
MINOT FLOOD RELIEF There has to be a God.
Over spring break 2012, twenty-nine Cru staff and students drove 1300 miles from the University of Washington in Seattle, to Minot, ND to rebuild homes after flooding of epic proportions. The June 2011 flooding devastated the area, flooding 4000 homes in this town of 42,000 people, and causing 300 million dollars in damage. Students and staff spent the week gutting homes, putting up dry wall, taping and mudding, and doing anything needed to help residents rebuild their homes. Evenings were filled with Bible study, prayer, fun, and spiritual conversations with “seekers” in the group. By the end of the week, students were sharing things like: 32
“It’s so overwhelming for me because before I came here, I felt like I wanted to believe but there was a wall I was hitting that I wasn’t going to get past. [Now] it’s completely gone, there’s no wall there and this experience, seeing you guys— there has to be a God.” — Cara “I’m glad I’m here. I love being surrounded by these people. It’s definitely life changing and overwhelming. I don’t know much. I’m very hungry for God’s Word. It’s awesome, I can’t even describe it.” — Cheri, new believer. Bryon Scharenberg said, “Seeing 3 students come to Christ, and that sixty minute window of student sharing at the end of the week was the highlight of my last three years of ministry.”
APPALACHIAN STATE
iCARE iCare is a dangerous, two-week pursuit of intentional love. Originally crafted by Cru Sioux Empire (Eastern South Dakota), iCare began as a weeklong evangelistic campaign designed to creatively display, demonstrate, and declare the gospel on campus. Appalachian State Cru adapted and expanded it into an intentional pursuit of love that permeated the lives of Cru students and the entire campus. The goal was to help students fight through the distractions that often keep us from fully loving God and the people he has placed around us. Cru staff provided students with simple daily missions that would challenge them to bring their whole life to bear as Christ-centered laborers. Around 200 students “opted in” and took up the iCare
challenge. Students then took the kind of faith steps that staff members always pray will happen. One of the consistent takeaways from students was an appreciation for the integrated nature of this initiative. Students were challenged to think about their “posture” just as much as the content of their message – and that made a huge difference in their lives and in the way their friends responded to the message of the gospel. An iCare vision video, vision sheet, and interactive website are available to make iCare work for any context, either on campus or on a summer mission. For this information, go to http://crupressgreen.com/icare-2-0/
Vision
iCare is designed to increase your love for God and people. We want to move you from a posture of distraction to ones that will allow you to be more present in people’s lives.
Mission
iCare
Every day for 2 weeks, you will be given an iCare mission. Many will invite you to participate with others in the Cru community. Some will be personal and private. Many will be formal and public.
Values
Faith // Sacrifice // Spontaneity, Gospel intentionality // Love-like-Jesus
iCare is a dangerous, two week pursit of intentional love.
Commitment
1. Be faithful to attempt each mission . 2. Don’t go alone. You must walk alongside others. 3. Keep a journal of your thoughts and actions.
iCare In an iWorld of constant distractions what if we are missing something big?
Over 200 students at Appalachian State did this mission and thought it was pretty cool. We have all the resources you need to pull off your own iCare initiatve. asucru.wordpress.com/icare vimeo.com/79479414
Communication
Every morning you will be texted an iCare mission of the day. Your journey begins when you sign up for our iCare group texts.
33 iShare Today we will open our mouths and declare that
iServe Today is a day to get dirty and
iWonder Today we will invite our campus to ask God a
iRest Honor the Sabbath with others at church. Take a
iThank Who are the underthanked on our campus? Today we will find them
iGive What if we could keep a fellow classmate IN school and erase her
CRUPRESS&CRUPRESSGREEN B E E N
WILD
A
RIDE