Jayson & Carrie Whelpley

Early this past fall, I spent a day shadowing our teammate Maria as she visited the Penn State Beaver campus in Monaca, PA. She’s had an extra year under her belt, and I was hoping to learn the ropes of our job a little better. That day, we met with a staff woman from another ministry (who was soon leaving her position) in hopes of figuring out how we could pick up the slack with a group this woman could no longer lead. At the time, this group that called itself the “Jesus Club,” seemed little ludicrous as it consisted of one chemistry professor and the group’s two founders Jess and Cesar, who, oddly enough, were not Christians. In fact, the whole day seemed ludicrous, as we spent much of it in the car, learning which back roads are not quicker, and to ice the cake, Maria split her pants. After that day, I visited that particular campus (a small, primarily commuting campus – a nightmare for igniting a movement) one other time – just enough to be glad it wasn’t my full-time assignment.

Last week, I received an email forwarded by Maria’s husband from the chemistry prof (Michael Hay) who’s been leading the group. As it turns out, the group at Penn State Beaver has grown to over 10 and God is doing things; so far this semester, both Jess and Cesar and 1 other student have turned their lives over to Christ for the first time and will be meeting with Michael for follow up!

As we seek wisdom for what to do with our potential new starts on the Erie campuses, praise God for proof that He does cool things, even in situations that don’t look very promising at the start…

So, two weeks ago now – Thursday the 26th. The team had our weekly 2 hour prayer meeting to pray for each other and for our work here in Western PA. One of the things we constantly pray for is for God to open up doors to new campuses.

After we got home, I checked my email to find a message titled:

Campus Crusade for Christ!!! (Gannon needs help!)

The email was from a senior at Gannon who had found my email from EveryStudent.com, she had felt a need to reach her peers for a while now and only recently searched us out.

Carrie and I were headed up to Erie to go to the Penn State campus there so we worked a time out to meet with her. When we got there we told her what Campus Crusade for Christ was about and asked her some background questions.

It turns out her dad was involved with Cru at Penn State main. Also, she’s attending a Bible study that took place in my mom and Roy’s house before they moved to North Carolina – the Bible study is lead by the guy that led mom and Roy to Christ (Doug).

We’re working through some of the red tape that exists at Gannon due to poor decisions made by other people trying to reach the campus in the past. Pray that God will work through these issues so that more would be able to hear the Gospel in downtown Erie.

My mom received an email from the Doug later that night that recounted the story from his end; he included a song that I’ve sang since I was 11. You’d know the song as Isn’t He Wonderful – Doug and his wife Mary Kay had been missionaries in China in the past so we knew it as Ju Yesho, Jun Kei miuh:

Ju Yesho, Jun Kei miuh
Ju Yesho, Jun Kei miuh
Ju Yesho, ngoh gau Ju, Jan Kie miuh
ngan chang king
yie chang teng.
ching saw joi sing ging gei meng
Ju Yesho, ngoh gau Ju
Jun Kei miuh

i’ll give an update later today… good stuff.