Here's our final newsletter with InterVarsity!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
One month to go...
As our final transition off InterVarsity staff approaches, we are busy wrapping projects up, saying goodbye, and figuring out what happens when you leave a 10-year ministry career on campus!
Some highlights from our last 6-months of transition:
New staff funded (almost!): Out of the six new staff I (Sarah) started to work with last year, five of them are on campus working with students and funded! One is still working hard, hoping to be on campus in the fall. This has been a great joy in my last year, helping a new generation of staff step onto campuses all over San Diego!
Working ourselves out of a job!: We were hoping to replace ourselves, so the ministry would continue to grow. UCSD, where BJ has been ministering the past 5 years, has just hired a new staff, and is waiting for one more new staff to get funded. While my job role hasn't been filled yet, there are some great staff stepping into more leadership that will take the helm from me. I'm especially excited for a staffworker I've developed over the past 8 years to take over my role hiring and training new staff.
It's a bittersweet journey. We're excited about what's next, but very sad to leave a ministry and community that we love so much. We have been powerfully changed, first as college students ourselves, and over the past 10 years on staff with InterVarsity. It has been a privilege to partner with Jesus and you all to see college students lives' transformed!
Some highlights from our last 6-months of transition:
New staff funded (almost!): Out of the six new staff I (Sarah) started to work with last year, five of them are on campus working with students and funded! One is still working hard, hoping to be on campus in the fall. This has been a great joy in my last year, helping a new generation of staff step onto campuses all over San Diego!
Working ourselves out of a job!: We were hoping to replace ourselves, so the ministry would continue to grow. UCSD, where BJ has been ministering the past 5 years, has just hired a new staff, and is waiting for one more new staff to get funded. While my job role hasn't been filled yet, there are some great staff stepping into more leadership that will take the helm from me. I'm especially excited for a staffworker I've developed over the past 8 years to take over my role hiring and training new staff.
It's a bittersweet journey. We're excited about what's next, but very sad to leave a ministry and community that we love so much. We have been powerfully changed, first as college students ourselves, and over the past 10 years on staff with InterVarsity. It has been a privilege to partner with Jesus and you all to see college students lives' transformed!
Celebrating with the new staff. Audrey, taking the picture, will be taking over my role training and developing new staff hires.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Into the future!
Come June we are gonna need a name change for the blog (we are currently taking suggestions). Why? Because we are joining a team of missionaries focusing on church planting in Southeast Asia! Since this blog is public, we can't get into all the details for security reasons. But here is what to expect and what to pray for.
It is bittersweet as we finish the school year with InterVarsity. At the end of June, we will say goodbye to students and fellow staff that we love. We will say goodbye to a movement that, if it had not existed at UCSD and USD, Sarah and I might not still be following Jesus. As students, and these last 10 years on staff, InterVarsity has changed and shaped how we view and relate to God and the world. We love InterVarsity and want to see every college student, faculty, and campus transformed by Christ's love, as we have. It is our experience with IV that is pushing us out farther into the world!
Come June we will also say hello to Pioneers, a missionary sending organization that sends people all over the world to minister and plant churches among unreached people groups! We will join a team of 8 whose focus is to see people come to know Jesus that have never heard the Gospel before. That's exciting. Every year churches, colleges and other organizations in the U.S. send out short-term teams to help partner with our team in Southeast Asia. These teams enable the long-term church planters to be there, sharing the gospel.
In any given year, we hope to receive 15-25 short-term teams. As you can imagine, that takes a lot of coordination and communication. Something that is hard to do half-way around the globe, in a remote location with rustic internet. So, for the foreseeable future, Sarah and I will take up the slack and become stateside coordinators who will help recruit teams, train them to go, and help debrief them as they return. Our role will be mainly in the states, with part time in country (this makes our parents very happy).
Our hope and prayer is to grow the ministry and capacity of the team, so eventually they can expand to other villages and locations, raising up indigenous church planters and planting churches! Jesus told us to go into all the nations, and the Bible says, "Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them." Our hope is to develop a ministry model that can be replicated all over the world into countries that are closed to gospel of Jesus Christ.
We feel that God has poised us to take this next step. InterVarsity has grown in us a passion for making disciples. We are connected to hundreds of college students that need to be reminded of the great commission. We have built a network of people that we hope might come with us on short-term projects to see what God is doing in the most remote parts of the world. Will you join us?
It is bittersweet as we finish the school year with InterVarsity. At the end of June, we will say goodbye to students and fellow staff that we love. We will say goodbye to a movement that, if it had not existed at UCSD and USD, Sarah and I might not still be following Jesus. As students, and these last 10 years on staff, InterVarsity has changed and shaped how we view and relate to God and the world. We love InterVarsity and want to see every college student, faculty, and campus transformed by Christ's love, as we have. It is our experience with IV that is pushing us out farther into the world!
Come June we will also say hello to Pioneers, a missionary sending organization that sends people all over the world to minister and plant churches among unreached people groups! We will join a team of 8 whose focus is to see people come to know Jesus that have never heard the Gospel before. That's exciting. Every year churches, colleges and other organizations in the U.S. send out short-term teams to help partner with our team in Southeast Asia. These teams enable the long-term church planters to be there, sharing the gospel.
In any given year, we hope to receive 15-25 short-term teams. As you can imagine, that takes a lot of coordination and communication. Something that is hard to do half-way around the globe, in a remote location with rustic internet. So, for the foreseeable future, Sarah and I will take up the slack and become stateside coordinators who will help recruit teams, train them to go, and help debrief them as they return. Our role will be mainly in the states, with part time in country (this makes our parents very happy).
Our hope and prayer is to grow the ministry and capacity of the team, so eventually they can expand to other villages and locations, raising up indigenous church planters and planting churches! Jesus told us to go into all the nations, and the Bible says, "Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them." Our hope is to develop a ministry model that can be replicated all over the world into countries that are closed to gospel of Jesus Christ.
We feel that God has poised us to take this next step. InterVarsity has grown in us a passion for making disciples. We are connected to hundreds of college students that need to be reminded of the great commission. We have built a network of people that we hope might come with us on short-term projects to see what God is doing in the most remote parts of the world. Will you join us?
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What's ahead in 2012
Here are the top two things I'm looking forward to accomplishing in the next few months:
1. Seeing the 6 new staff funded and on campus! These guys are so close! I hope to see them on campus in the next few months! It as been such a joy to work with these six staff (one is missing from the picture above) this past year. They are excited, passionate, and determined and have committed to the process of fundraising and building a support team to prepare for the next 3 years of ministry.
I am inspired by their fait, and so excited to see what God does through them to transform the college campuses they will set foot on.
One of them is pushing 90%... so close to being fully funded. Two of them are right on the brink of hitting 80%, which starts them on campus with limited hours. The other three are farther behind, but still faithfully asking people and churches to join them in this mission. I am so proud of each one of them!
2. Raising up a leader to take my place. I will be helping with the search process to fill my role as an Associate Divisional Director. Pray with us for God to provide the exact right person, that is excited to advance the ministry here in San Diego. There are other positions that need to be filled in San Diego, and so we will be doing a national search to find the right people to lead the next generation of ministry in San Diego. As with everything else in this job, we are depending on God to provide what we need.
Leaving a ministry that I've poured into these last 10 years isn't easy. I pray that I will work as hard as I can, and give all that I have to give to InterVarsity, the staff and students in San Diego, as I transition out.
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