Jayson & Carrie Whelpley

In August Carrie and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary, it’s been a wonderful and challenging time and we’re still learning to love each other well – but sometimes we can use help.

Because of that need for help Carrie and I are attending a Family Life “Weekend To Remember” conference north of Baltimore this weekend. Family Life is a ministry under the umbrella of Campus Crusade for Christ International that focuses on building up marriages and families in towards strength founded in Christ.

Please pray for us this weekend, this is a maintenence & improvement weekend for us and we’re looking forward to coming back with ideas of how to be better at loving each other.

Note: First off, it’s a miracle! We’re actually putting out our March Prayer Letter in March! Secondly, we’ll be posting some pictures of our trip to North Africa soon, we have to edit out ones that would identify too specifically where it was that we went, even though we were very very safe, there are still security issues involved.

To the Ends of the Earth

What would college ministry be without a few ridiculous “pick-up-and-go” weeks every so often? Last year, spring break came to our team.  This year with no incoming students, we decided it would be the perfect year to divide, conquer, and see the world: two bussed it to a conference in Panama City, FL for Cru’s annual outreach to the American beach partiers, a few went to Venezuela, and a handful of us headed to North Africa to experience the culture and see what ministry looks like there.

As we regrouped, the contrast was incredible.  The Florida group found about what you would expect from Americans – a fair amount of spiritual interest dulled by an assumption that they’ve heard it all before. Meanwhile the Venezuela group marveled at the openness, watching 30 students express the desire to start a relationship with Jesus.  As for our N. Africa trip, Jayson may have been the only one to even talk about the gospel, and only once, to correct an error in a Religion text book.

This isn’t surprising, considering the high cost of discipleship for those who profess Christ in North Africa. While foreigners have a certain degree of religious freedom, nationals only worship Jesus in the safety of homes for fear of being cut off from society by families and often left with no livelihood.

Thoughts on Reentry

It’s hard to not be shaken by the contrast in Jesus’ approach to sharing the message and that of the 21st Century American church.  He remains honest and unapologetic about the difficult aspects of the faith, comfortable saying, “take it or leave it.”  We hurry to assuage all objections with comfort and user-friendliness to assure even the most demanding spiritual consumers. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with eliminating barriers that would deter a seeker. But the message of Jesus is neither a product, idea or personality accessory to add to our repertoire, nor an experience to make us more well-rounded, self-actualized or nice.  It is a call to respond in either marriage or rejection to the God who is romancing us, a decision about what we will leave and to whom we will cleave.

Oddly enough, this thought gives me great hope for our movement and the city of Washington, DC.  Over the past months, our team has groaned and pleaded with the Lord over many students who linger unfulfilled in indecision about Jesus. But as they ask the right questions week after week, I can’t help but look forward to the energetic certainty that will follow when they take their vows, having fully counted the cost.  Given the masses whose complain (rightfully) of Christian hypocrisy, I will take three slow-cooked, thorough believers who knew what they were getting into over 50 fast floaters into a comfortable faith, not expecting spiritual resurrection to require death or sacrifice of any kind.

Rubber Meets Road

Last month, we mentioned our February conference (called “neXt”). Here “M,” a new Chinese believer decided to tell her parents about her faith, thus instigating her parents to cut off all financial and emotional support.  Now, a month before graduation, she finds herself sleeping on friends’ floors, trying to get a work visa in order to stay here and minister to other internationals, while I am challenged by her sturdy confidence in a God she has just met.  Please pray for M and for her parents, (prominent figures in the Chinese government) to come to faith.  We serve a God who specializes in the unlikely!

Pray For

• Health & National leadership for movements in North Africa and Venezuela.
• Freedom of staff there (and here) from judging their worth by performance or people’s response.
• Courage for students who have much at stake in livelihood & reputation if they profess following Jesus.

Hey friends, family & partners in the Gospel.

I wanted to clear up what’s going down next week as we head out for Spring Break.

We’re headed to North Africa to a country that we can’t share the name of for security reasons. To assure you, we are going to be safe and we’re actually not going to be doing anything illegal in that country. The country that we’ll be spending time in does have religious freedom legally, but the way that the culture operates can be very different. Of the countries in that region of the world it is definitely one of the most safe for Americans, the security issues that limit us are for the brothers and sisters who are naitives of the country who could be in danger if we weren’t closed about it.

We’ll fly out of the Washington-Dulles Airport on Friday at around 8:00 PM and will return almost exactly a week later (it’s less than a half-hour off). I am dissappointed that we’ll miss seeing what Friday is like in a Muslim country, but it will be an awesome experience for us and the 5 other people that we’ll be travelling with.

Please be praying for us that God would speak in and through this trip to us about where He is calling us to serve Him. We don’t expect that God is calling us overseas, but we’re willing to follow if He does. Also, pray that we’ll encourage our friends on the staff team that is over there long-term and that we’d represent Christ well in whatever way we’re able.

Also, you can be praying for our families as there is still some anxiety about us being there; especially for my (Jayson’s) parents as my brother, Ryan, will be in Iraq at the same time to run sound for a USO show for soldiers in the field there.

Thanks, we’ll share whatever pictures and stories that we can when we get back!

After talking to some friends the other day, I realized that I hadn’t posted our January Prayer Letter here at all! Yeah, I know, it’s March. Here it is. I’ll have the February one up a.s.a.p. as well!

Transformers

Ready or not, the new year is upon us, and the DC Cru team is squarely into Semester #4! As usual, with the change come signs of growth and just as many new questions, now with more eyes looking to us to have a plan.

If there is one thing that God is convincing me of these days, it’s that as the Author of all good stories, He is quite fond of suspense, and will reveal what I need to know no more than a chapter at a time. And if every chapter has a heading, this semester’s seems be “Transformational Community.” This concept  will sound  glorious concept  on paper  - the  power  of the  Risen Christ reworking distant, suspicious, selfish individuals in a city of isolation and racial tension into a gracious, truthful, humble community celebrating the God Who Came Near. It’s beautiful.

In real life, everything we do here starts in the hearts of our greatest asset, a staff team of nine people in absurdly close proximity, all of whom are different, most of whom are roommates, half of whom are spouses… let’s just say it is a workout!  But as we work it out together  with a faithful God, bleeding Romans chapter  12, we are seeing women who say “I don’t bond with females” plan women’s lunches with students from across the city. We’re seeing our (white) staff guys so welcomed in unusual places that they’re being mistaken for members  of historically black fraternities. We’re seeing students  at schools were everyone is too busy and important to give the time of day give up their afternoons  to meet  with friends across the city to talk with strangers about God. We’re seeing non-believers volunteering to plan prayer meetings and giving Christian books to friends. We’re seeing momentum build as people who say “I’m normally not that into God” keep surfacing to see if this community is for real.

Over and out

One of the key marks of a community genuinely transforming in the power of the Spirit is a contagious outward focus, and we (with the help of four visiting Australian summer project students) have been pitching the thought of living on mission wherever the Lord takes us. I wish  I could say I am not surprised to see what I pray for.

Of the 20 students who came out to our last citywide event, at least 6 are seriously considering doing a summer project with Campus Crusade, and 3 have already been accepted to go internationally! Summer project is the best thing Campus Crusade for Christ has to offer, but it is not for the faint of heart. Considering that summer project involves fundraising and spiritual conversations with relative strangers, this is a big deal! As it now stands, DC Cru students will be serving and sharing the story of Jesus on four continents this summer!

Guess it’s that time!

The irony in this story is that the Whelpleys have yet to travel abroad. With the exception of day/weekend trips to Canada, neither of us (or our team leader) have ever been out of these fine United States. The opportunity has come up for several members of our staff team (and extended community) to take a week-long vision trip to North Africa over spring break! More details to come as the time gets closer. Thanks again for your prayers and generosity!

Pray For:

• Vision for structure – pray that in the midst of a ministry that’s changing every semester, we would follow God’s lead, see the big picture, remain flexible and give the structure needed.
• Renewed hunger for God, desire to understand His word, and confidence in His promises in our Cru community.
• The upcoming “neXt” conference for juniors and seniors about how to walk with God and make good decisions after college. February 13-15. Over 200 students registered, 4 from the DC ranks.

P.S. Make sure you’re visiting our website pretty regularly, you can read (slightly) more frequently and see pictures that don’t end up fitting into our monthly prayer letters. You can even sign up to get those updates by email! It’s at Whelpley.org! (Good job, you already know all of this!)