Credited to Your Account

Sarah and I wish we could share more stories of God's work on campus, but we've been spending much of our time this past windter and spring working on our fundraising. The sustained recession affecting all of us has made it more challenging to meet the fundraising goals we have for our ministry with InterVarsity.

We have been studying Philippians 4 lately, where Paul is writing to the believers in Phillipi, who are also givers to his ministry. We feel a lot like Paul when he says: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances...Not that i desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account."

Paul, like us, was in "need". He was in jail, and needed the daily support of others to be sustained. But he learned how to trust God, and be content with whatever the circumstances were. We haven't quite reached Paul's contentment in life...but we have been learning how to trust God with the needs of our family and our ministry.

We also, like Paul, strongly believe that one day, you will be credited for the amazing things that are happening on the college campuses we work on. God will look at you and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" because of the gifts you have given to the ministry. Like Paul, we are praying these words over each of you as you invest with us. "They [your gifts] are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." May this be true for you today!

 

From Vandalism into God's Arms

A Fraternity Student's Changed life!

Hosting big outreaches on campus are a lot of work. At UCSD, the "No Secrets" outreach was off to a rocky start. Many of the staff, including myself (BJ), were off-campus fundraising, we had gotten a late start planning such a major outreach, and the majority of the work rested on students and their initiative. We were worried about the outcome of the outreach.

God was not worried, however. He had great plans for reaching out to students all over UCSD's campus and inviting them into a life of freedom. Here is one of our favorite stories from the week.

On Wednesday night, a crew of InterVarsity students camped out at the No Secrets Tent at UCSD. They broke into spontaneous worship and prayer around 3am as two intoxicated fraternity guys approached the tent. They came into the tent, and one of the guys immediately sat down and started crying, as the group continued to worship, this guy started to pray and ask for God's forgiveness for the deep sin and darkness he found himself in. He asked that God bring him home again.

Our student leaders began to pray with him and process what was happening for him, and he began to share about how he had been a Christian in high school, but had joined a fraternity and turned away from God into a life of partying. Later, he explained that he and his friend were originally planning on coming to the tent to vandalize it and mock the worshipers, but w hen he came into the tent (in his own words) he was "hit by a warmth that was unexplainable, and all of a sudden, his own sin and brokenness became clear." He later asked to stay with the worshipers because "it felt so safe". Praise God for this Saul- like moment, where God interrupted satan's plans for evil and redeemed it for good.

Overall, the outreach was a huge success, with thousands of students sharing their secrets and being introduced to a God who knows their deepest secrets, and offers then a life of freedom.

Click here to visit our UCSD No Secrets Website

Watch a video of all the secrets UCSD students carry

Missions Night a Success!

Thank you for your prayers! The missions night at Newbreak was a great success. We had over 40 people show up to hear about what God is doing on colleges around San Diego. We also ate a lot of pizza... a popular college activity!

We are praying that this night will be the start of a new season of support in San Diego for the amazing work God is doing on campus, right here in our city.

Spiritual revival is coming to San Diego... we believe that very strongly. But it will take many people getting fired up enough to pray, fast, give, and get invovled to see God rescue and release the 250,000 college students in our city. Join us in this adventure!

Missions Event in San Diego!

This weekend, Newbreak Church will host a missions event for us at their Tierrasanta Campus. This is a big event for BJ and I... for many reasons.

BJ grew up in Boulder, CO and has been sent as a campus missionary from the community of First Presbyterian Church in Boulder. I was raised in Carmel, CA and Carmel Presbyterian Church played a significant role in my faith journey, and then sent me out as a missionary to the college campus as well. We have been so incredibly grateful for these two communities.

Going to college, coming on staff, getting caught up with the busyness of life and ministry, it has been harder to cultivate a base of supporters here in San Diego. We also didn't grow up here, and haven't had the network of relationships that one grows throughout a lifetime.

However, we have felt embraced and supported in the past few years by a very cool church here in San Diego. Newbreak is one church, but many campuses, with a heart to love and serve the city. We have recently become supported missionaries through that church, and they are throwing us this missions event this weekend.

Believe it or not, we have never had an event like this in San Diego!

We are praying that through this event, many people in San Diego will become familiar with InterVarsity, and the movement of God on secular college campuses in our city. We are praying that people will become caught up with the excitement of God rescuing lost college students: students that have never heard about Jesus, or who have got caught up in the college lifestyle and walked away. There are too many stories to share about college students falling in love with Jesus, committing their life to Him, and then sharing Jesus with their friends. It's a powerful and captivating journey that we, and our supporters, get to be a part of!

We need people to join our support team, and invest in God's movement on campus. Lately, BJ and I have been praying for 30 new supporters giving at $100/month. It's a daunting goal. Pray with us, that people would come this weekend, and find that this is a worthy investment.

Are you in San Diego? We would love for you to come! Contact us for more info, and click the link above for directions.

Freedom from our Secrets

About a year ago SDSU InterVarsity engaged the campus with an outreach called “No Secrets”. It allowed students to anonymously share secrets they had never told anyone before and learn about the freedom that Jesus offers us. We love it, and decided to bring this outreach to UCSD. With the leaders, we studied Mark 4 when Jesus heals the bleeding woman and found that her secret wasn’t that she was bleeding (everyone knew that). Her secret was when she touched Jesus’ cloak, she was healed! And because she had courage and revealed that secret to the crowds, Jesus restored her, set her free, called her daughter and commended her faith!

Here’s a secret a UCSD leader shared at a prayer time we recently had (with her permission)…

“I have been carrying this secret since my freshmen year. It’s not a secret from you guys, but from my family. I haven’t told them that last year I stood up at an InterVarsity meeting to start following Jesus. Nobody in my family believes in God and I am afraid to tell them. Afraid of what they will think, how they will react. But I don’t want it to be a secret anymore! They are coming down to visit this weekend for my birthday and I am going to tell them. That’s why I told you all, so I won’t chicken out.”

Later the following week… “I did it, I told my mom. We were waiting for a table at the restaurant. I was ready for a confrontation, it was probably one of the most nerve-wracking moment of my life. She was quiet for a minute, then smiled and said, “You really have changed, haven’t you?” Now I am closer to my family than probably ever before.

Isn’t this a great story? This leader is taking steps and risks for Jesus! Not only on campus, but with her family, which can be the scariest step of all. Her mom might not believe in God, yet… But she can see a change in her daughter, and her daughter was quick to point out that the change was Jesus, just like the bleeding woman. Jesus is the secret that needs to be told, to bring hope and freedom to students held captive!

Check out this video our UCSD students made about the secrets we carry

Community Colleges Matter

InterVarsity in San Diego is currently reaching 4 community colleges. I helped to start the work at San Diego City College over five years ago. It has been challenging, sometimes disappointing, and hard to sustain. And yet every time I walk onto a community college campus, I feel a deep sense from God telling me that we need to be there. 


These colleges are crucial stepping stones for people to receive technical skills,  get the classes they need to transfer to a four-year university, or complete programs like nursing that otherwise would be unavailable to them. The students that pass through community colleges will likely become the foundations of our communities... technicians, hospital staff, firefighters, teachers.

These students are also hungry for the gospel. 

Before we started reaching community colleges and establishing witnessing communities there, the only groups present on these campuses were cults. As our presence grows, the cults influence diminishes.

We know that in the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience.

- President Obama

July 14, 2009

We are committed to reaching these schools full of men and women that make up the fabric of our society... nurses, fire-fighters, heater/air conditioning techs, teachers and more. 

Right now, I'm using some of my time to help San Diego City College stay afloat with no staff worker. Please pray for me as I minister to these students, and pray for God to make himself known on these campuses that desperately need transformation and renewal. 

Human Trafficking Stopped by a Student

I love this story from San Diego State:

 This is from a student leader named Honey who went on an InterVarsity missions trip to Cairo last summer:


About a month ago, I had yet another amazing opportunity to share my testimony about my missions trip in Cairo. As soon as I was done, I got into a deep conversation with a man who was intrigued by my story. I told him about how hard it was for me to be an American woman in Cairo because of how I was treated. I explained how there was a moment in Egypt where a few even believed my roommate and I were targets for human trafficking and how terrifying it was.

When I told him about that specific experience, I saw tears instantly falling down his cheeks. He eventually confessed that back in the day, he was in the business of human trafficking in California. Through his trembled voice and in his teary eyes, I saw that this was something he was very shameful about. So in that very moment, I prayed for healing in his brokenness and then we went off our way.

Honey is on the right.

A few weeks have gone by and yesterday I got a very unexpected call from him early in the morning. He said that he’s been really praying about it and God convicted him to go to the police to turn in the names of the traffic leaders he knew! He said an image of my face kept coming up in his head and he knew he had to do something. He explained the danger that he was putting himself in, yet he said it was worth saving the souls of the women and children who are sex slaved. Because God tugged on his heart and had made this man into a new creation, six human traffic leaders are now in jail and they were able to shut down the traffic house! Praise God!

Through my missions trip, God has really broke my heart for women and children who are victims of violence and sex trafficking. Sometimes the issue of violence against women seems so immense, it often seems too much for me to bear. In all honesty, I often doubt the role and power I have in what seems to be a hopeless situation. Nevertheless, God has showed me that I do indeed have a responsibility to uphold and that job is too simply share my heart and testimony to as many people as I could.

Alone, I am nothing in the battle of stopping human trafficking. But when I partner up with GOD, I am made into a woman warrior who will witness the power of God unfold. Praise be to God.