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Two Christian students sharing the gospel on the beach
College students flock from all over the country to Panama City Beach, Florida (PCB) to celebrate a week of partying. With 250,000 students packing the beach each year, PCB is one of the largest spring break destinations in America. Tens of thousands of students fill miles of shoreline as beer bongs, cigarettes, and empty beer cans line the beach.
With so many college students flocking to one place, our ministry at OU sent 55 students to PCB for spring break this year but with a different plan in mind. There is no better place to send Christians with the light of the gospel than into the midst of deep darkness and innumerable temptations gripping the hearts of students. Every spring break, Cru holds an evangelism conference for Christians to grow in their walk with Christ and reach out to their peers on the beach.
For many students who are new to Cru, this is their first time ever sharing the gospel. In the mornings, students receive high quality evangelism training to prepare them to share their faith with spring breakers throughout the week. Afternoons are spent engaging people on the beach in conversation about Jesus using questionnaires, as well as photo and video evangelism tools. The evening sessions consist of sharing stories from the day’s outreach, worship music, and teaching from the Scriptures.
Two students speaking about their experience sharing the gospel that afternoon with the rest of the conference.
800 Christian students from a variety of Cru ministries across the country attended the conference, struck up countless conversations, and shared the gospel with 1,444 people! Through the witness of these students, 101 spring breakers came to faith in Christ.
As a student six years ago, I (Aaron) attended this conference and shared my faith for the first time in my life. That week equipped and motivated me to share about Christ with my friends and classmates, and has had an eternal impact on my life. Students come home from PCB prepared to share the gospel on campus, and our prayer is that this training and evangelism conference will produce 800 students who actively share their faith for the rest of their lives.
Thank you for your partnership in the gospel!
For His Glory,
Aaron and Katie
While 800 students attended the Big Break Conference the same week as OU's students, there was a total of 3,144 Christian students from Cru ministries all over the U.S. who attended the conference during their respective spring breaks.
Does your life look like you truly believe this verse?
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
-John 11:25-26
If you believe in Jesus, you will never die. It is a strange paradox. We have died with Christ, so we can truly live. We live in Christ, so we will never die.
In the movie series, Band of Brothers, Captain Speirs, one of the most courageous soldiers in the movie, is correcting a soldier who hid in a ditch during the battle. Speirs says, “You hid in that ditch because you think there’s still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier’s supposed to function.”
The sooner and more fully that we accept the fact that we are already dead, and our true life is Christ, the sooner we will live as we are designed to live. We are freed to believe in Jesus, and live dangerously in light of His resurrection.
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
-Colossians 3:3-4
Aaron with Joe at New Staff Training in January
Even though Joe was a Christian when he arrived at Ohio University, he was immediately sucked into the party scene just like many other students. During winter break, he became more and more dissatisfied with the person he was becoming. When Joe returned to campus, he decided to check out a Bible study, which Aaron happened to be leading in his dorm. Right around this time of year, God did a powerful work in Joe’s life.
Each year during spring break, Campus Crusade for Christ sends students to Panama City Beach to share the gospel with the students who are there to party. God used that spring break outreach trip to drastically transform Joe. Returning to campus, he was excited to walk with Christ, share his faith, and invest in others. In fact, Joe approached Aaron and asked Aaron to start meeting with him for one-on-one mentorship.
Over the next few years, Joe became a student leader in the ministry at OU by mentoring other men, leading Bible study groups, and coordinating the quarterly retreats. Joe also became gripped by the idea of spiritual multiplication that the apostle Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 2:2. With a strong desire to build into men and proclaim the gospel of Christ, Joe joined the staff of Cru and will be making disciples on campuses in the greater Cleveland area. Joe attended the training for new staff that we went to in January. What a privilege it has been to get to entrust the gospel to Joe as he entrusts it to others.
What are we up to?
Katie and I are in Columbus and traveling around Ohio as we continue to gather a team of people to partner with us in our ministry. It’s been an incredible time for us to pray together and trust the Lord to provide for our ministry. This month, the Lord has been putting 1 Corinthians 3:7 on our hearts— “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” We have been thinking and praying on this truth as we rely on God’s faithfulness. We are trusting God to provide for us to be fully funded by this summer so we can move to Athens and turn our full attention to reaching students!
We are sincerely grateful for your prayer and partnership; we appreciate you!
For His glory,
Aaron and Katie
Imagine a man sitting in a room alone, with headphones on, listening to music. As he hears the music, he starts to dance. His entire body responds, through dance, to what his ears are hearing. Then another man enters the room, who happens to be deaf. The second man sees the first man dancing and starts to imitate him. He catches on quickly and matches the dance steps of the first man. Is there a difference? Absolutely.
“The first guy hears the music and his actions are a natural response to the music’s rhythm and melody. The second guy is merely imitating the outward actions. Being deaf, he’s not listening to anything.
There’s an important spiritual parallel here. The dance (outward actions) represents the Christian life, while the music represents the grace of the gospel. Though we have come to know Christ through grace, we are often like the deaf man in the story who tries to perform the dance without hearing the music. Our spiritual life is reduced to a series of dance steps— external behaviors and activities—devoid of God’s animating and transforming power. God’s desire is not to get us to do the dance but to get us to hear the music of the gospel, with the dance (godly actions, character, and activities) flowing naturally from it.” – Keith E. Johnson, Ph.D
(*here’s a link to his excellent article entitled, “Hearing the Music of the Gospel“)
This analogy was presented to us in our Bible Study Methods class; we hope it is as helpful and encouraging to you as it was to us.
We recently returned from a month-long training for new staff in Daytona Beach, Florida. Our training was an intense time of studying and hard work. We took 2 graduate level courses (Bible Study Methods and Intro to Christian Theology) and received other training as well.
We are thankful for the incredible and invaluable teaching we received. Katie and I are excited to allow our ministry to students at OU be an overflow of hearing the music of the gospel in our own lives.
One of the fascinating things about our time of training was the variety of new ministry staff in attendance. It was so exciting to look around the room at the ordinary people God uses to advance His kingdom, while imagining the number of lives that will be impacted as they leave to share the gospel all over the globe.
Thank you for your constant prayer and your partnership in the gospel. We appreciate you!
We had the pleasure to hear from and meet Vonette Bright at training. She and her late husband, Bill, founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951.
Prayers & Praises!
Saying goodbye to our friends from our New Staff Training
“My problem with God is, why does He deserve to be first in our lives and be in charge of what we should or shouldn’t do?” Cassandra asked. As Katie and two college students sat in Cassandra’s kitchen, they shared that God is worthy of our worship because He is our perfect Heavenly Father who loves us. Unlike many authority figures in this world who fail us, He never fails. He made us in such a way that we experience the most joy possible when we are in relationship with Him. Cassandra’s eyes widened, “You guys are really answering a lot of my questions.” Although she did not accept Christ that day, it was clear her perception of God as a demanding and undeserving ruler was changing, and she was growing in her desire to know Him.
Katie, Adrienne, and Trevor met Cassandra during the outreach at Campus Crusade’s regional winter conference in Indianapolis. 2,000 students at the conference spread out all over inner-city Indianapolis and partnered with local churches to distribute food care-packages and share about Christ. God did incredible things during our day of outreach! In one day, 1,522 people heard the gospel, and 147 people accepted Christ!
This winter conference, known as IndyCC, included 2,000 college students from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. This year, the theme was “God is Greater Than …” Students were challenged to consider the truth that God is greater than anything else in their lives: their struggles, future, past, sickness, addictions, pride, etc.
There are some non-Christian students who attend the conference each year. During one very powerful evening session, the main speaker, Mike, invited anyone who would like to accept Christ to stand. Standing up in front of 2,000 people to declare anything takes guts; let alone a decision like this. After a few moments of silence, 7 students in the crowd proceeded to stand and declare their decision to accept Jesus! It was incredible to celebrate together and thank God for them!
Katie and I worked on the set-up crew and as greeters (pictured below). Getting to serve at the conference was a blessing to us, and it was great to spend time with students from OU that we will soon be leading and serving.
Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement; we appreciate you!
Here’s a link to a PDF copy of our January 2012 Prayer Letter
The more we understand (know and feel) our wickedness, the more we can understand (know and feel) grace. But if you’re anything like me, so often it’s hard to believe that my wickedness can be forgiven or healed. Who wants to go through the pain of pondering their sins? But, recognizing the “sting and the sing” of the Gospel, the depths of our sin, and the all-consuming heights of God’s grace is freeing! So often I can back away from grasping the truth that God is not surprised by my sin, and loves me and forgives me more than I ever dared believe. That God is rich in mercy and loved me even when I was dead in my sins and in utter rebellion against Him (Ephesians 2:4-5).
“[The Gospel] tells us that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope – at the same time.”
-Tim Keller
47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36-50
Christians need the Gospel preached to them too. Writing to the Church in Rome, Paul says this to a group of people who are already followers of Christ! (Romans 1:7-8, 12)
“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
-Romans 1:14-15
The Gospel is not just a door for “fire insurance” of salvation, but is applicable to all aspects of the Christian’s life. The Gospel includes the entire message about Jesus Christ, how Jesus transforms lives and all of Creation. By faith we receive the message of salvation in Christ alone, but by faith we also live our daily lives after our conversion.
Paul also seems to believe that his preaching the gospel to the Church in Rome and seeing them face to face will be encouraging for not only them, but also for him (Romans 1:12).
Christians need to be reminded of, and live in light of the Gospel everyday.
God’s timing is perfect. Most (all?) people view life through a self-centered lens. As humans, that’s just naturally the way we were designed. “What am I going to do today? How does this make me feel? How does ___ affect me?”
I would imagine very few people are naturally inclined to think about others first. Sure, many people think about others, but probably not first. And for the most part, I think that’s okay. The person I am primarily responsible for is me (We also do need to work on having a healthy concern for looking out for others as well. Certainly we can become too self-focused and simply be selfish).
This lens through which we view reality can sometimes cause us to miss out on seeing how God’s hand is weaving our life and story into others’ lives and stories. Because we are not all-knowing, we can’t fully see how every person’s life intersects with the rest of the world. But even though we don’t notice it, it is happening. If we could see how our life is fitting into God’s purposes and plans across the globe and also in our immediate vicinity, we would be less inclined to question why things we want to happen, have not yet happened. We would be less prone to complaining when something that we view as ‘good’ has not yet come about.
God’s timing is perfect.
God may be working in a way in someone else’s life, that will cause what you hope to happen to be more fruitful and even more enjoyable, at a different time than you were originally hoping. God may be doing things that you have no idea about, or are too stubborn to notice, that by waiting, will make things much better.
Our individual lives and stories play just a small role in God’s grand story of the universe. And yet, He cares more about our individual lives and stories than we often care to notice. We’re usually more concerned about why I haven’t had my way, that we don’t appreciate everything that has gone far better than they would have gone if I had my way.
That, and the fact that God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness.
“And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him.”
Acts 17:26-27
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:6
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Galatians 4:4-5
I never get tired of this video.
I found it on Justin Taylor’s blog, “Between Two Worlds” (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/) some time ago. Still, it comes to mind frequently for me. Amazing discussion at our Bible study tonight brought it to mind for me again. The truth that the day we accepted Christ, we died. We died to ourselves…and with Christ, we were raised into a new life with Him. We have already died, and have eternal life in him. So what do we have to fear?
From Taylor’s blog: “Christian: You have died, you have been raised with Christ, your life is hidden with Christ in God, and your citizenship is in heaven. What can man do to you? (Col. 3:3; Col. 3:1;Phil. 3:20; Heb. 13:6)”
I (Aaron) was reading this passage this morning, and thought of this video.
“When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.”
-John 12:9-11
