Newsletters

April 1999

Spring “Thinking”

Spring is in the air and many of you are beginning to get outside after a long and, at times, hard winter (at least here in Ohio). You are thinking about cutting the lawn, going to a baseball game, joining a church softball league and cleaning the house. But while your thoughts may be with the blossoming flowers and your spring wardrobe, those of us working with Campus Crusade are thinking about summer and fall. And while students at the University of Michigan are, like many of you, thinking about getting some sun, they are also thinking about what they are going to do this summer. After all, the end of the school year is only a little over a month away!

Evaluation and Planning

The staff team will be meeting during the beginning of April to evaluate our ministry over the past school year and to do some planning for next year. Shelly and I will be joining the rest of the staff for part of this evaluation and planning time. Since we have not been on campus this year, it will be good to hear about what has happened in the ministry and what we will be doing next year.

Future Student Leaders

We also take time at the end of the spring semester to challenge students who have been involved in our ministry to step up and become leaders in the movement next year. One of our goals  is to present the gospel to each student at Michigan and give them an opportunity to respond by placing their faith in Christ. There is no way that our staff team can reach the 35,000 students at Michigan without the assistance of many of these students. This is why we must have a number of students who are willing to sacrifice their time and talents to help us reach Michigan for Christ.

Options for the Summer

At this year’s Christmas Conference in Indianapolis students were challenged to consider what they will do with their summer break. This is a very important question. A student who has been involved in our ministry and has grown tremendously in his or her walk with the Lord can find the summer to be difficult spiritually. Students who go home and work to earn money for school can find it difficult to continue their spiritual growth without the encouragement and accountability of their Christian friends at college. Many students also have to deal with living with parents who are not Christians and who do not understand this zeal for Jesus Christ.

With these things in mind, we tried to get students to consider going on a summer project with Campus Crusade. U.S. summer projects are held at eighteen beach and resort communities acrossthe United States. A summer project lasts for the entire summer. Students on projects get full-time jobs during the day so that they can still make money for school. Then the students have times of teaching, training, and outreach during evenings and weekends. A number of staff join the students to provide leadership, training, and accountability. The best part of a summer project comes half-way through the summer when the staff leave the project and the students take over all the responsibilities of running the project. Students take over maintenance of the living quarters, leading Bible studies, running the outreaches, providing spiritual leadership for the entire project, as well as many other responsibilities. Summer projects provide a great atmosphere for students to be challenged in their walks with the Lord, to be trained in various aspects of ministry and to still have the opportunity to make money needed for school. Students who go on summer projects not only avoid summer being a down time in their spiritual life, but also come back to campus in the fall trained and willing to be a part of reaching their campus for Christ.

Other options for students in the summer include Summer in the City and International Summer Projects. Summer in the City participants go to the inner city of a large metropolitan area of the country to be a part of giving physical and spiritual aid to the people of those communities. Often students will work with churches and other ministries in the community. They also work with the staff of Here’s Life Inner City, another ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Students participating in International Projects go overseas to be a part of reaching students for Christ in another country. They often work with STINT teams working in the country. STINT stands for Short Term International and involves men or women taking one or two years to be a part of reaching a country for Christ.  n

 
Students take part in a tug-of-war outreach during a summer project to draw in a crowd with whom to share the gospel.

Prayer and Praise

We praise God for continuing to provide for us financially. We also praise Him for bringing in 67% of our support. Continue to pray that we will finish our support this summer so that we can begin our ministry in the fall.

Please continue to pray for both of our grandfathers who are struggling with health problems.

Pray for the ministry at Michigan.

   Pray that many students who are a part of the ministry this year will step up and be leaders in the ministry next year.

   Pray that we will see 200 freshman get involved in our ministry next year.

   Pray that God will prepare the hearts of the many students we will be sharing the gospel with next fall.  n

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