Winter Blast 2008

Asheville, NC- This past weekend 23 of us (staff and students) loaded up our cars and headed to Asheville, NC to team up with Campus Outreach Charlotte for our winter retreat. We all stayed in the Holiday Inn-Biltmore West, and the speaker for the weekend was CO-Raleigh's own Rupert Leary. The theme of the weekend was "Price Tag", and throughout the weekend we got to explore the idea of how much our Christianity was worth. The major question we all were being asked was, "Is your Christianity mundane and boring, or is it worth dying for?" It was a very fun and moving weekend. One of the students that attended was one that we had building a relationship with all year and he finally surrendered his life to the King! The Lord continues to move here and the 11 students that have come to Christ this year will never be the same again. Please be praying for them as we continue to teach them the basics of the Christian faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, and God continues to broaden their vision for reaching their classmates all around them.




Campus Outreach..."Only the best and most influential group of people that I have ever met and have the utmost respect for. Love ya'll."
-Donovan Beadle

Kelley Ann with the girls at lunch.

Support Update

Thanks to you and your generosity Kelley and I had the best month that I have possibly ever seen since I have been on staff with Campus Outreach. In December alone, you gave over $14,000 ($3,000 reoccurring gifts and $11,000 one-time). So Kelley and I wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We have had and still do have a reoccurring deficit, but the Lord in His mercy continues to lay us on your hearts and you respond with such zeal. God bless you! Please continue to join us as we pray and trust God for the following:

1. For God to raise $1,000 in monthly support for us by the summer (Kelley has had to get a job part-time to make ends meet for us over the past couple of months)
2. For God to raise $150,000 (around $5000 for each student) to cover our expenses for Thailand.
   

Love you all and thank you for your partnership in the Gospel!

CCP THAILAND

This summer Kelley and I will be headed with a team of around 40 people (staff and students) to Thailand for an 8 week cross-cultural project. We are so excited about this opportunity because it will be a chance for us to engage Thai college students with the Gospel, most of them for the first time ever, and have our lives and marriage shaped dramatically by this priceless experience. Below are the some of the reasons why we would go to Thailand:

The need

1. Approx. 66 million people live in Thailand
2. 0.3% of them are evangelical Christians
3. 49 million of the people there are professing Buddhists
   
4. There is 1 missionary currently for every 47,000 Thai
5. 2 million people derive their income from the sex industry
6. 20% of 11 to 17 girls are sold into prostitution
   

The door

1. The Thai people are more open to the Gospel right now than ever before
2. Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution
3. Thailand is surrounded by communist countries like Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and could become the catalyst for the Kingdom advancing in Asia.

Please begin to pray with us and our team as we gear up and ask God to do more than we could ever image in Thailand.

Jesus is the HERO again!

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

As I take a look back on the past couple of months, it leads me to worship my Faithful Father because He is the ONLY reason that we as a team have seen grace advanced in our hearts, our community, and on the campus with students. We have failed numerous times, and we have been captivated by fear and insecurities at other times. Can I be honest? This job is not a glorious one. I hear so many people say that it is, and it makes me sick to my stomach. This job (calling) is a privilege and honor, but it will cost you your life. God is in the process of breaking Kelley and I down right, and it hurts. The wilderness is rough, barren terrain, but it is definitely God's classroom. He is breaking His servants in order to help us see the magnitude of His love and to teach us to trust Him. The cool thing though, is to watch God advance His Kingdom in our hearts, and take the sardine and stale piece of bread we have to offer and multiple it greatly. It is common theme for us to mess everything up and watch Jesus come in and be the HERO. But that is the Gospel isn't it? We mess it up royally and He swoops down to save the day. Thank you so much Jesus!

Look at how Jesus has been the HERO here at NC STATE:

1. 10 students have come to Christ since our time here at State.
2. Around 30 students are involved in Bible Studies (many of them opening the Word for the first time)
3. Around 20 students attended our annual conference in Atlanta, and were all exposed to a greater degree to the Gospel and the body of Christ.
   
4. Our single staff are maturing, and learning to embrace the Gospel at a deeper level.
5. Kelley's vision and desire for ministry, in particular college students, has grown vastly. She has been such a huge encouragement to me.