One of the things that we wanted to share with our prayer letter yesterday is our new address in Orlando. We’ll be moving on August 18 to our new place. If you send regular financial gifts in by mail, please continue to send them to Campus Crusade’s headquarters. On the other hand if you want to write to us or if you send special one-time gifts, our address will be:

Jayson & Carrie Whelpley
12061 Lake Cypress Circle, G-104
Orlando, FL 32828

Creation Festival Recap

Our booth at the Creation Festival was a success (you can see pictures on our website)! The hope was to connect students who want to reach their classmates for Christ – both in college and high school – to staff who can coach and support them. Besides an unspeakable quantity of dust, we brought home names of around 75 students, parents, pastors and volunteers, the majority of whom were interested in reaching high schoolers. Not realizing what a youth-group hub the festival is, we had expected more college interest. Still, we’re thrilled, as Student Venture (CCC’s high school ministry) recently came under the umbrella of the collegiate ministry –and will feed solid leaders into college campuses all over the region!

Home is Where Your Good Pillow Is

Well, here we are back “home” in the cozy apartment that will only be ours for another three weeks when we start preparing for the mid-August move to the Sunshine State! It’s been a summer of regrouping, reconnecting, reflecting, and rejoicing in the midst of much road time (some planned, some incidental). This past week included a wedding (Carrie’s baby sister) and a funeral (Carrie’s grandfather) and saw me drive to PA and back twice to see family and get them to airports.  Even in the craziness, I was able to keep a date with my brother (who lives in Nashville) as we both passed through DC. Praise God for so many sweet moments and meals shared with friends and family, with or without AC!

Three Weeks & Counting

Our hope for June 2011 is that we will be moving back to DC to continue minister here. Accordingly, our regional leadership has allowed us to invest the remainder of this summer shoring up our financial support in hopes of a speedy reentry when we return.  Pray with us that the Lord would raise up a new group of committed partners in the DC area and finish well here, even in the short weeks we have left.

Please Pray

I figure pictures will give you the best feel for what’s going on here.

More words later this week.

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Well, I’m here now. We have a good group it seems, 3 students from Mansfield University, 3 staff and 2 guys from other schools who have been co-opted to do official video footage for the festival.

We also have a guy from GAiN (Global Aid Network) trying to recruit for some overseas aid projects.

Last year we launched 8 new movements from this project. Pray that we’d be all the more effective this year… More people more resources, more effect?

Creation Festival

In the past 7 years that we’ve been with Campus Crusade, we’ve had a lot of ideas, one of which I have shared with some of you. Every year, there are a number of Christian music and arts festivals around the country. When I had the chance to go to some in college, I remember thinking it odd that organizations like ours didn’t have booths to connect interested youth with movements at their schools. This summer we get to help move in that direction! From June 28 – July 3 we’ll join another staff member and 4 students in Mt. Union, PA to invite college students to partner with us to reach their campuses. Last year was the first for anything like this and the result was 8 new movements in our region! So, if you’re attending Creation ‘10, stop by our booth and say hi!

Jobs!

In anticipating our move to Orlando, we’ve been eagerly speculating what our roles will be upon arrival. During our application process for the program in March, we outlined what kind of things we enjoy, wanted to learn, and felt prepared to do. Just last week we heard back from the placement team! And (drum roll…) our job titles will be as follows:

• Jayson: Content Manager for StaffWeb (All-Staff Intranet Site)
• Carrie: Campus Minitry Media Lab Project Manager

While we’re still figuring out exactly what those words mean, the small glimpses of have been both intimidating and invigorating. Jayson will be helping staff all over the world access vital information ranging from legal issues to encouragement from our senior leadership. Carrie will be helping the teams that design the media (everything from conference ads to websites) that engage students and partners with the heart and vision of our ministry.

We’re trusting the Lord that the coming year will be fruitful for our own growth as well as that of His kingdom. Thank you again for everything you do to make it possible for us to be here!

Please Pray For:

• Our times in the Word. As we step into roles that we feel unprepared for, 2 Timothy reminds us that it is used to, “equip his people to do every good work.”
• Every weekend in June has one or both of us out of town. Please pray for rest in our home when we are able to be here & strength while we’re not.
• For the students’ summer Bible study that starts next Tuesday.

Jayson & Carrie

Creation Fest 2010

We’ll be staffing the Campus Crusade for Christ table at the Creation festival in Mt. Union, PA from June 29-July 3. More about this in our May newsletter.

If you’re at Creation, come and say “hi”!

What do you do again?

Some days, I wonder this myself.  My position focus outlines a few basic responsibilities, among which are loving my Lord and team, learning the culture of my city, and coaching student-led spiritual movements on college campuses here.  The accompanying expectations vary from helpful to rather vague, depending on the tilt of the day. Once in a while, though, we’ll have an encounter or hear a story to which we point and say, “This. I’m pretty sure my job is this.”

This.

The following are excerpts from an email from Jess, a student leader at Marymount University, shared with permission.  Of course, no one story can capture the whole, but I’ll share it because it’s still a good day. From Jess, shortened to fit:

“So today, I was walking down the hall & my friend S. (she’s an RA too) walked by & she looked sad & I found out that her boyfriend of over a year cheated on her with her BEST FRIEND! We talked about it & she seemed stable & everything so I said bye & told her to keep me in the loop. [Background info: I have been praying for opportunities to share my faith with both S. & N.]

Then I went to the mall with N. & E. When we got back, we ran into S. & she was BAWLING HER EYES OUT. So we stopped & asked what was wrong & she totally gushed about the whole boyfriend drama. Turns out, her “best friend” has been sleeping with her boyfriend for over a month. It was a huge fat big ugly secret & everyone knew but her… literally. So they didn’t tell her the whole truth & one of her friends accidentally blurted it out. She was hysterical & as she was standing there in the deepest desperation, I’m thinking what do I do? How can I serve & love her… in front of E­. & N. who are not Christians??? So we listened for about another 10 minutes & she shared that yesterday she took 4 Zanex to calm her nerves & has 3 packs of cigarettes to smoke tonight. That was it, I was like, can I pray for you? And she was like… I wish I was more religious & I wrapped my arms around her & prayed for her out loud. E. & N. both hugged us from the outside & we all cried & prayed for strength & comfort for a solid 10 minutes. And the Holy Spirit moved. Wow. S. was sobbing through the whole thing & thanked me through tears at the end. I gave her a hug & told her to come to my room if she needs me.

THEN, N. came to hang out & I brought up facebook & checked my inbox. In it was a message from my friend, Meg. We were writing about prayer requests & she told me she wants to help me with summer project N. looks over my shoulder & is like who is Meg? I was like… she’s my friend from home, she’s so on fire for God it’s so inspiring (because I’m really open with my friends even if they are not Christians). I could tell she was interested & she was like… Oh I felt that way once… must be nice. So I was like…what do you mean? She explained that she went on a camp trip & had a moment where she was overwhelmed with tears & accepted Jesus. After that she was baptized. She said she literally felt like God touched her soul with his Hand. (woah.)  She also said that it was like she came to this crazy understanding of how much God loves her & that she understood who Jesus is. So I asked what happened? what changed? She explained that when she went home, her friends looked at her like she was crazy & her mom was like let’s see how long this lasts. Since then, she said she believes in God. But she flat out asked me… How do you get to heaven? So I shared how you get to heaven with her!!!! God is so cool! We talked for a long time, she said some strange guy on the street gave her a track TODAY with all these encouraging verses about salvation. She asked me, Do you think God is telling me something? I said, Maybe he wants you to revive your love for Him like it was that one night at camp? We talked a lot about the Bible & read some verses & she was like this was fun, we should talk like this more often! She left so peppy & encouraged, the papers I gave her in hand.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you, if it wasn’t for the bold love that you have all showed me and the literal lessons on how to share my faith, today would not have been the day it was. God is at work, and using you to bless others. Let’s praise Him for how wonderful and in control He is!”

Grace & Peace,

Jayson & Carrie

Home!

Carrie and I love life inside the “beltway.” We’ve grown fond of our neighborhood (Waverly Hills) — employees at local shops know us

Student leaders at our place for a city-wide planning meeting before Spring Break.

by name, and neighbors invite us to dinner and visit regularly. We have served on our church’s hospitality team and have hosted a small group for Northern VA couples. We’ve even found a couple to mentor us and a marriage pastor willing to meet regularly. We really feel at home here.

We love the students and schools here too. Carrie adores mentoring several women around the city. I’ve enjoyed giving direction to the campus that is slowly evolving into an “anchor school” for the rest of our work in DC. Three students (and one of their sisters) are applying for summer project this year, alumni are sticking around to give lift to the movement, and one of our leaders is talking about interning with CCC here when she graduates. Even a student who has serious emotional and intellectual objections to the God of the Bible is continuing to come out to everything – including two identical Bible studies every week. God seems to be moving, and this is still where we hope to be.

Away!

But life and ministry have also been difficult. In keeping with what Washington’s reputation, God has used this time to dredge up lots of stuff in us – even more intensely since December. I have struggled in my job, and (since they’re so intertwined) my personal life and walk with the Lord. I say that I’ve struggled, not stumbled, because every turn feels like new growth. God has been speaking as clearly as I have ever experienced, calling me to do and not do things that have been uncomfortable, but undeniably sanctifying.

Meanwhile, as we approach our 7^th anniversary on staff (a time when many take a sabbatical from active ministry), We’ve wrestled through the where and what of God’s calling, with both short-term and long-term implications. Conversations with our leaders about both the health of the team and our own personal development have proved helpful (albeit nerve-wracking at times) as the best options were discussed.

In praying through them, it seemed that the best one for both our personal health and that of the DC Metro team long-term would be to follow our directors’ recommendations to move to Campus Crusade for Christ’s headquarters in Orlando for a year as part of a program called the “Lake Heart STINT.”

Lake Hart

The Lake Hart STINT is an 11-month commitment that lasts from this August through June 2011. In addition to serving in a position at headquarters, participants receive personal development through weekly time in large groups, small groups, one-on-one life coaching, and hearing from Campus Crusade’s top leaders. It’s a great time to step away from field ministry for a minute and have a hand in the essential behind-the-scenes work that makes the work on campuses possible. And as neither of us have had real experience in a 9 to 5 job, we’re looking forward to a more “normal” work environment for a time!

Lake Hart is the global headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ, over 900 staff work here to support local and area ministries.

Several friends have taken advantage of this opportunity and have benefited greatly both personally and professionally from a year “off the field” to be developed from angles that the pace of the campus ministry rarely allows for. It’s almost like a year-long summer project for staff, a time to “sharpen our axe” in community.

During the last couple of decades years Campus Crusade has seen significant growth worldwide.  There are now over sixty ministries within Campus Crusade for Christ.  These ministries share a common goal – to engage with a certain part of society in order to reach the world for Christ.  From students on college campuses, prisoners in cell blocks; refugees in Albania; businessmen and women in the corporate office; the homeless in the inner city to small far off villages known almost to no one, our staff members are there sharing the hope that can only be found in Jesus.

The growth of this ministry is made possible due to the talented staff serving behind the scenes. Whether it is in human resources, reimbursements, film production, graphic design, etc., there are needs to be met so the gospel can be advanced throughout the world. In order to sustain these advances and trust God for even more, we have a tremendous need to strengthen and enlarge the support structure that exists for our ministry at our World Headquarters. We are honored to help meet this need. The men and women who serve our ministry from Orlando not only enable us to be on the campus, but also reach just about every segment of society worldwide.

This is a chance for staff members like myself who have been on the campus long enough to learn core principles of ministry to take the next step in leadership and learn how to launch and sustain new ministries. Upon completion of the year, our hope is to return to the team in Washington, DC. Of course, we are learning as followers of a Holy Spirit who like the wind “blows where He will,” His people also hold their plans loosely.

Throughout this whole process, I am struck by the graciousness of our God to put us on the same page with our leaders – we’re expectant of how this will prepare us even more for a lifetime of loving our God and serving people! Thanks for your prayers and continued support that will allow us to stay focused on the mission – more details to come!

Grace & Peace,

Jayson (& Carrie)

Prayer Requests:

• That the transition would go well for us, students, and incoming staff.
• For student leaders who are taking new responsibilities seriously, that they would see much fruit in their own ministries and hearts. As we’ve passed off more to them, they’ve had great ideas and enthusiasm for prayer and evangelism.

• That we would be expectant and hopeful as we look to this season as a chance to see God’s provision. We really love DC and we’re going to miss our friends and church a whole lot.
• That we’d make the most of the 5 months until we move.

It’s a Miracle!

We are so glad to be back home. After a month on the road, and it feels so nice to sleep in our own bed, to read the mail the day it comes and, yes, even to look at the brick wall of the condos next door as I work at the dining room table.

The past month was wonderful though, as it was spent with family and with friends from around our region. We visited our families all over Pennsylvania, spent a week in Baltimore staffing a student conference (“RADIATE” – more details to come on our website) and trekked to Mississippi for an abnormally cold week with Carrie’s family and newborn niece. That’s a total of about 2,725 miles and 43 driving hours, and despite it all Carrie and I still love each other and life – it’s a miracle!

Families – I Like ‘em

I feel like I live life with two families. I’m not talking about mine and Carrie’s, but our biological-legal family and our Campus Crusade staff-family. I feel like each one teaches me how to live with and appreciate the other better.

Last week my step-sister wrote on her blog about a rabbi who spoke of God using our families to teach us how to live with people that we may or may not like but to whom we’re bound. (The irony is not lost on me that she and I didn’t get along very well when we were younger; we do now.) This holiday season was strange – I enjoyed our bio-legal family even more than usual, but due to some miscommunications had a harder time with our staff family which has almost always been easy and fun for me. Of course, no truly close family becomes so without some hard conversations, right?

Home Away From Home

As I write, it strikes me that my first evening back on campus included catching up with four students about their breaks only to hear of four uniquely difficult home stories revolving around fathers who have been various combinations of selfish, abusive, absent, withholding and unpredictable.

Given that talk of community and family metaphors find their way quite often into our conversations of faith, would you pray with us that this movement of students, staff and volunteers here in Washington, DC would be one that feels like a healthy family – full of those committed to be gracious and truthful to one another even as affections and annoyances come and go?  One of the students above has yet to publicly confess faith in Christ, but recently mentioned feeling more real community at Cru than any of the other groups he frequents, and that something “clicked” at our last dinner.

Pray that God uses this “family” not as an alternative or escape from realities at home, but as a glimpse of the restorative power of God that revives hope and trust where it’s been wounded, and as a practice ground that turns us all into family men and women for decades to come!

Pray for:

• Good follow-up to decisions made at RADIATE – of the ~900 attendees, 30 students around the region decided to make it official with following Jesus, and 149 wanted to dedicate at least one year of their lives to full-time mission work. Go ahead & say it. Wow.
• Upcoming spring break conference for students and our summer placement – our destination is currently uncertain, as we are waiting on a decision from our leadership.
• The 2 staff families in Haiti, as well as several “JESUS” film teams in Port Au Prince.

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Hi everyone! Carrie and I are both doing very well and we’re working on our January newsletter that will be out to you soon.

In the meantime we wanted to pass on some information about how you can join Campus Crusade’s response to the ongoing disaster in Haiti.

Even as the search to rescue people in the rubble turns into a recovery effort there are still hundreds of thousands of people now homeless, hungry, sick and possibly injured. Regardless of the reason WHY God allowed this to happen, our response needs to be filtered through the words of our Lord:

Matthew 25:40
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

You may or may not know about the Global Aid Network (GAiN), but it is the humanitarian aid arm of Campus Crusade. Currently there is already a group of GAiN staff in the suffering island nation as well as the campus ministry team that is there to reach their own college students (the last I heard, the national director still had not located one of his parents).

The need from this disaster creates a need that surpasses political and ideological barriers. Please join us in giving by going to http://GAiNusa.org and share as the Lord would lead you.

Thank you for reading and, we’ll be sharing with you again soon!

(I typed this up on my phone, so I apologised for any typos.)