Freedom: May Prayer Update

Stand 4 Freedom

 “Hey, what’s this all about?” John asked as I stood on campus at UCF holding a cardboard sign.  I told him that we were with the International Justice Mission movement and were participating in their Stand 4 Freedom event where students took shifts to literally stand up for 27 continuous hours in order to raise awareness about the 27 Million people trapped in modern-day slavery.  He replied, “That’s cool, I thought you might be some kind of church.”
          
A little thrown off, I asked more and learned that he had recently heard about an anti-slavery movement started by a church that he felt was a bait and switch effort to try to gain converts without doing any tangible work to fight slavery.  He was happy to hear that IJM is an organization that is actively freeing slaves around the world but he did nothing to hide his disdain for the church.
       
Since he knew that IJM is a legitimate organization, not just a group hiding an ulterior motive, he stayed around for another minute or two.  As he did, we were able to explain that Christians are engaging in the fight against slavery  because we are all made in God’s image and He calls us to “do justice” and “love mercy.” Then he sailed away on his skateboard.
       
With such disdain for formal religion, without a miracle, John will never attend a Cru meeting or a church.  In order for Christians to reach people like him with the truth of the gospel, we must go to them because they’re not coming to us.  Engaging in things that are on God’s heart that students, like John, also care about is one way to bridge the gap.  As we do, we can have wonderful dialogues about the love of God.  That is why it is so crucial for all believers to “do justice” and “love mercy” and “give the reason for the hope that you have.”  By doing so we show people a fuller picture of the God we follow and they will begin to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

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Birthday Season

With our kids’ birthdays less than 2 weeks apart, this time of year is quite celebratory!  This year was special because the Pippins treated the kids to a weekend at Disney.  Addy is enamored with Princesses, so the highlight for her was getting to meet many of them.  For Aiden, his favorite thing was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - a roller-coaster ride.  We had a blast and it was great to have Sarah’s Mom and the Pippins all in town to celebrate with us!

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Praises:
• God’s work freeing slaves from oppression around the world through IJM
• Opportunities to connect in meaningful ways with students who need Jesus
• Our wonderful children and the opportunity to celebrate them with our family

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Prayer Requests:
• For God to draw John to Himself
• For the new student leaders of the IJM movement to have wisdom and guidance
• For our children to continue to grow in their love and understanding of our Lord
• For our continuing adoption process

Great News! April Prayer Letter

En Route to China

After months of requesting documents and having them approved by various government agencies, our dossier is finally complete and is currently on its way to China!  We are very excited to have the tedious process of the paper trail behind us.  Once our documents arrive in China, they will be reviewed and then our names will be added to the waiting list.  Once we are on the list, we could be matched with a child at any time.  When a child is available, they will send us the information in a “referral.”   Then it is usually about a 6 month wait before we would travel to bring our child home.  Please continue to pray that the Lord would match us with the child He has prepared for our family!

Perseverance in Prayer

When Janette started working for a large bank, her trainer, Tiffany, made quite an impression.  This hardened 30-something seemed to be the last person who would be interested in talking about God.  As a result, Janette decided to talk to God about her.  As she prayed, she intentionally invested in Tiffany’s life, getting to know her and showing her that she cared.

For 3 years, Janette prayed with perseverance that the Lord could and would work in Tiffany’s life.  She often invited friends in her Bible study and other Christian co-workers to join her in praying for Tiffany.  Finally, an answer came.  Over a meal, Janette had the opportunity to explain Jesus’ love and sacrifice very clearly; however, at that time Tiffany wasn’t quite ready to surrender everything to God.  She’d been in control of her life for quite some time, so it was scary to let go.

Several months passed and were filled with many more spiritual conversations, then one day Tiffany shared with Janette that she had invited Christ to save her soul and be the Lord of her life.  After praying for her for 3 1/2 years, Tiffany had become a Christian!

Janette is just one of the many graduates that I have the privilege of connecting with on a regular basis from across the country and she is a wonderful example of the power of prayer.  In our fast-food culture, we are often discouraged when God doesn’t answer our prayers immediately.  Janette persevered and offered not only her prayers, but herself, to her friend.  Through Janette’s faithfulness God did a miraculous work in Tiffany’s life.  Praise Him for His amazing love!

Praises

• The completion of our Dossier!
• For God’s faithfulness to hear and answer our prayers
• For Janette’s perseverance in prayer and intentionality to show God’s love to her co-workers
• For the Lord’s amazing grace!
• For the many graduates who are representing Christ to a broken world

Prayer Requests

• For Tiffany’s growth as she continues to surrender her life daily to Jesus
• For Janette’s continued faithfulness and witness to other co-workers
• For the Lord to use many grads like Janette
• Please continue to pray for our adoption process

Stand 4 Freedom

Last Friday, I joined UCF students as they took shifts literally standing on their feet for 27 hours.  We did this to represent the estimated 27 Million people who are enslaved around the world. 

UCF was one of over 400 campuses across the country who participated in the Stand 4 Freedom campaign from March 5-15.  The IJM movement I've been coaching at UCF just started meeting this semester, yet they were able to gather enough people to fill the slots for all 27 hours! 

The event is geared to raise awareness about slavery and it did just that.  During the few hours I stood, I was able to have several good conversations with some people who were aware of the issue and others who were not.  Even more, one student I talked to, John, reminded me why a partnership between Cru and IJM can be so powerful. 

John came up to us asking what we were doing, so we told him.  He had recently heard about an anti-slavery movement started by a church that he felt was a bait and switch effort to try to get people to convert to Christianity without doing any real work to fight slavery.  He was happy to hear that IJM is an organization that is actively freeing slaves around the world. 

Since he knew that IJM is a legitimate organization, not just a group using a ruse of caring for the oppressed while hiding an ulterior motive, he stayed around for another minute or two.  As he did, we were able to explain that Christians are engaging in the fight because the Bible is clear that we are all made in God's image and He calls us to "do justice" and "love mercy." Then he sailed away on his skateboard.

With such disdain for religion, unless God does a miracle in John's life, he will never attend a Cru meeting or a church.  In order for Christians to reach him with the truth of the gospel, we must go to him and people like him.  Engaging in things that students like John care about is one way to bridge the gap.  As we do, we can have wonderful dialogues about the love of God.  That is why it is so crucial for all believers to "do justice" and "love mercy" and "give the reason for the hope that you have."  By doing so we show people a fuller picture of the God we follow.  It is why I love the partnership that Cru has with IJM!

March Prayer Update: Break it up!

Fights among students were common at Ashley’s school.  The teachers at her inner-city elementary school debated on the best way to handle the situation.  In the midst of competing suggestions, she thought, “The students need Jesus.” 

After graduating from college, Ashley spent a year interning with Cru’s High School ministry where she learned how to have a ministry in public schools.  This gave her the tools she needed to start a Good News Club where kids learn about God in a fun, engaging way after school.  The response has been tremendous.  The club quickly grew from 50 to over 100 students regularly attending!  With such a great turnout she quickly learned she could not do it alone.  She needed God and others to help her!  She meets 2 other teachers to pray regularly for the students and several volunteers from the Cru ministry at UCF help facilitate their meetings.

Last year Ashley overheard one of her Kindergarten students telling her friends what she was learning in the club - that Jesus died for our sins.  Through her ministry, God is touching the lives of children and using them to plant the seed of the gospel in the hearts of their friends!

God’s call to be an educator is extremely significant for college students.  As a result, we have been working diligently with Cru’s Middle and High School ministry to help prepare these students for what lies ahead.  As teachers, they have the potential to impact their students’ lives for eternity.  They will invest in hundreds, if not thousands, of students throughout their careers and we want each student to see Christ living in and through them.

Cru has a wonderful coaching center made up largely of former teachers who train educators and future educators how to live out their faith in the classroom.  We recently directed the production of a video with three of these educators here in Orlando.  You can watch it at cruoncampus.org/called-to-teach.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning how to invest spiritually in the lives of elementary, middle, or high school students, please let us know.  We would be thrilled to connect you to one of our coaches!
 

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Praises:
• For Godly teachers who impact students’ lives with the gospel daily
• Ashley’s ministry at her school
• Our partnership with Cru’s Middle and High School ministry who train teachers well
• Our Adoption Home Study was approved by U.S. Immigration!
• God’s grace in our lives

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Prayer Requests:
• For Ashley and all Christian teachers to see God use them mightily
• For many future educators to receive training and to be ministers of the gospel in their schools
• Please continue to pray for our adoption process. Our documents are being reviewed by the Chinese Consulate. Once everything is approved, our dossier will be complete to send to China!

OOPS - January Newsletter - finally!

In the busyness of life, I forgot to upload our January Newsletter to our blog.  Sorry about that!  That month we shared a cool story about how 5 of our grads spoke to graduating seniors at the Mid-Atlantic Winter Conference in Baltimore.  Alumni can speak powerfully into the lives of students, so it was great to make it happen!  Read it all here!

Little More Jesus

It's always fun to sing Christmas carols with our kids but this year has been great to see little Addy learning the words and singing along this year.  By far, her favorite is Away in a Manger.  Here's her rendition of the classic tune...

...I love how she says "little MORE Jesus" because that's what our world really needs.  Merry Christmas!

Emmanuel, God With Us

Last Friday was a big day, I had the opportunity to share about the realities of human trafficking to 1800 high school students.  Doing so forced some of them to open their eyes to the evil that is in our world and, I hope, prepared them to protect themselves and their friends from being victimized by those who would want to harm them.  What I didn't know until I finished speaking was that evil had hit our nation's children in Connecticut in a way that would be impossible for anyone to overlook.

If we weren't already keenly aware of the brokenness of our world, the shocking evil of last Friday has brought it to the forefront of our minds.  I read many Facebook posts saying, "Jesus come soon!"  I join in that prayer.  I hurt for the families who have lost their dear little ones and can hardly imagine the pain they are going through - in fact, I don't want to empathize with them because it would hurt too much.  It was tough to let Aiden go to school this week.  The reality of my inability to be in control and protect my family every moment of every day is humbling.  It forces me to slow down and look up to the One who is always there and is truly in control - for my control is merely an illusion.

One thing, among many, that Friday taught us is that true evil exists in our world.  We may live in relative safety in a "good part of town" and sometimes this sense of safety causes us to forget the fallenness of the world we live in.  Any problem must be seen before it can be solved. We'll never make our world a better place with our heads stuck in the sand, avoiding the realities of its brokenness.  Jesus was our perfect example, He entered the mess with eyes wide open.  

He left the Father's side in Heaven, a place of perfect holiness and glory to come to our side on earth, a place of utter brokenness and pain.  As Philippians 2 states about Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 
 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. 
 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!  

He gave it all up for us so that we might have it all.

I'm forever grateful for Jesus' willingness to leave the safety and security of Heaven to come down to this dark, evil world.  He could have chosen the easy route and continued to enjoy unbroken fellowship with the Father.  He could have said, "Oh, it's too terrible!" and chosen not to come.  However,  He stepped into the darkness to redeem and restore this broken world.

This redemption, this restoration is still His work; it's still His plan and He has entrusted it to His followers.  Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).  We are sent to  shine light into our dark world. 

Gary Haugen, the Founder and President of International Justice Mission said: 

"In God’s mission for this world, we are the plan. There is no Plan B. We carry out God’s mission be being salt and light in the world. This includes going to the suffering of this world. For people in the midst of suffering, when they receive meaningful help from a Christian, they are seeing the body of Christ show up on their doorstep."

As I think of Emmanuel, God with us, I am challenged to consider how I am following Jesus into the darkness of this broken world.  I am quite comfortable in the "safety" of my suburban life.  Where am I to shine His light?  What dark places might He be calling me?  Where is He calling you? 

Jesus showed up on our doorstep.  He lived among the suffering to bring healing and restoration physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Who needs Jesus to bring healing and freedom in their lives?  What can you and I do to shine light into the darkness?  This is what happened at Christmas.  Love came down into the evil and shined His light into the darkness.  Let us do the same and enter into this beautiful mess.