Newsletters

May 2000

Panoramic View of the Boardwalk in Ocean City

Ocean City Summer Project 2000

Last month we told you that we would be spending the summer in Ocean City, New Jersey on a summer project. We wanted to take this opportunity to tell you what a summer project is.

Campus Crusade has over 20 summer projects all over the United States. They are usually held in beach or resort communities like Ocean City. There are even some in this neck of the woods—Put-in-Bay, Ohio and Traverse City, Michigan.

In Ocean City we will be joining 30 staff and 100 students from around the country. We have four U-M students going. The students will all live in one large house where they will live together, eat together and learn to get along together. It gets a little tight having 100 students in one house, but that is part of the fun. The students will all have a job in the community during the day. The evenings will be set aside for training and Bible study, and each weekend will we have a major outreach. Some of the outreaches in the past have included slow-motion football, tug-of-wars, chicken fights, and sand castle-building contests.

Nate will be leading a small group of 4 or 5 guys. He will lead them in a Bible study and will also meet with them individually each week to encourage them in their faith, develop them as Christian men, and train them in various aspects of ministry, including evangelism.

The purpose of the project is to prepare students to minister more effectively on their campuses when they return in the fall. We find that the students who become our key leaders on campus are usually those who have been on a summer project. They usually come away from the summer excited about their relationship with God and desiring to minister to other people. They come away trained to lead Bible studies and trained to confidently share their faith on campus.

The greatest preparation for these students will not happen while we are there but after we leave. One of the unique aspects of all U.S. summer projects is that the staff leave half-way through. When we leave the students take over our responsibilities. They lead the Bible studies. They handle the finances for the project. They head up the outreaches, socials, and other events. They handle maintenance on the house. Each student will be assigned a responsibility in accordance with their gifts and experience. A few more experienced students will head up the entire project.

Summer projects help us develop students into Christ-centered laborers, which is the central goal of the campus ministry of Campus Crusade.

We will be leaving for Ocean City May 15 and returning to Ann Arbor July 17. What will we do with our cat? Shady can’t come with us (said with tears in our eyes). She will stay home and take care of Sara, who will stay in our house.

I am looking forward to meeting other moms who have been where I am now. It will be helpful to hear their stories and glean from their experience. I would like for this summer to be a time of beginning to find out just what my role in ministry will be for the next year. My desire is to be involved in the lives of students without sacrificing my time with Andrew. This will be my first time in Ocean City and I am looking forward to seeing this place that Nate has told me so much about. Many of Nate’s closest friends are people that he met during the two summers he was a student at the Ocean City project.

Andrew is looking forward to spending some time at the beach, wearing his swim trunks. He has many cute hats that Mommy can’t wait to have him wear!

If you would like to visit us in Ocean City, just let us know. You can call us in Ann Arbor until the 15th and can email us any time during the summer at our regular email address.

Pray For Us

Please pray for us as we travel. Pray that Andrew will tolerate it well and adjust to our summer residence. Also pray for health while in Ocean City. Finding a doctor while there would not be a fun thing.

Pray that we will develop strong relationships with the other staff who are there for the summer.

Pray that students leave the project excited to return to their respective campuses and share the gospel with their peers.

The students will be living in close quarters, so pray that they will make friends quickly and exemplify grace to each other.

Andrew at two months old

Andrew eyes his first Easter basket

Online This Month

Read about the changes taking place on our staff team next year and how Nate’s role on campus will be changing as a result.

Also read about what we do on campus here at the University of Michigan.

See new pictures of Andrew.

And learn much more about us and our ministry.

www.ardle.org

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