Jayson & Carrie Whelpley

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – B. Franklin

The sign that said that caught students’ attention too. On April 24, we spent about 10 hours at Georgetown University for Georgetown Day, the campus’ annual excuse for an all-day block party on the quad complete with bands, free food and about 10,000 people. Georgetown Day sees a lot of alcohol consumed by students (as we got to campus at 10:30 a.m., the liquor store’s line was out the door).  Beer is on many minds already; God, maybe not.

Needless to say, our table about beer, God and happiness provoked some interesting conversations. With a survey about the Ben Franklin quote, we requested thoughts on God, the nature of love and happiness, and even the meaning of Jesus’ death. Below is a quote from a corresponding website, BeerIsProof.org:

“To Ben the issue was simple. Simple enough that a cold beer from the local pub was proof that God loved him. What about you? Consider laughter, music, sunsets at the beach and the miraculous combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Do these things suggest that the genius behind it all wants us to be happy?”

Without endorsing drinking, we managed to have over 100 conversations and at least one person who said that he wanted to invite Christ into his life.  Apparently anything can start a conversation about Jesus.

Go big or go home – and bring someone with you.

The semester is over. Students have moved home, gone to their summer projects or graduated and started “real life.” Last week at an end-of-the year retreat to help us look back before we look forward, we named as our greatest “wins” things that happened in our homes and extended “off hours” hangout times – out on the quad until midnight, at our place drinking tea over movies and life discussions, at campfires at the staff guys’ house, or at gatherings sharing home-cooked meals on couches rather than in fluorescent-lit meeting rooms facing front.

Year Two has seen God answer our prayer for genuine community marked by transformation.  Internationals, skeptics of all varieties and even a few Jewish students have hung around to consider the claims of Jesus. Things have come into the open that normally don’t.  We haven’t seen the masses come to meetings, but lives are changing. Praise God!

Lean, mean and on the scene!

This year we had a ready-made community of 9 staff and interns and three apartments to invite students into.  With the close of the year comes (hopefully temporary) end of this fun chapter. This fall, it will be just 3 of us. Some of the interns will be fundraising and going elsewhere, one is moving on to pursue a masters and the other couple will be moving to an established ministry where their gifts will be a better fit.  Every change comes with pros and cons, but we’re excited to see what the year will bring! Pray that God would fight our battles for us, and provide a way to move closer into the city.

Pray for:

• As we hope to move from Arlington into DC at some point, pray that we’d find affordable housing that can fit lots of students.
• This summer we’ll be taking classes again – this time to help us learn how to lead a team and structure a movement. We’re pining for summer project but recognize our need for training.
• We’ll be working on developing a larger support base in DC this summer before and after our assignment, pray for contacts and perseverance in that work.

Deans List!

As you may remember, this summer it was our turn to lug the books around campus, as we spent four weeks in Orlando underneath professors from respected seminaries around the country taking four Bible classes: Biblical Interpretation; Biblical Communication; Theology of God, the Bible and the Holy Spirit; and Old Testament Survey. Five years after graduation, we had forgotten the amount of work that goes into studies – especially masters-level courses that are only two weeks long. (Phew!) The good news is that we both feel like we’ve learned a lot and are even better equipped to teach faithfully from the Word, as well as feed on it ourselves more deeply. We even made the “Deans List” — all As and Bs – although Carrie, the non-Communications-Major in our marriage, is still having nightmares about the public speaking.

Overall, dorm life at Rollins College was refreshing, as we shared class and free time with staff friends and deepened some friendships. While we’ve all had to trade the beautiful Mediterranean architecture and Spanish-mossy trees for home and hectic Augusts, we’re looking forward to seeing our friends again in the winter, once the “conference season” starts.

Cheat sheet…

One of the big perks of working for a prominent international ministry is the abundance of good resources that get put in our hands. We thought we would share the wealth and pass on some of our favorites to you:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones – Oh my. This book is written for kids but can I say this was one of our favorite required texts? I’ve never seen the Bible so clearly woven together in simple, childlike gospel language with great illustrations.
• God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts –A short must-read (for grown-ups) that sheds light on the underlying storyline of the Bible.
• http://iTunes.rts.edu – free seminary course lectures on iTunes from one of our partnership seminaries
• ThirdMill.org – “Biblical education for the world for free.” Electronic books, video courses and goodies in multiple languages.
• DesiringGod.org – Pastor John Piper’s archived audio sermons, books, poems and countless great resources. For youth leaders, parents and teens, may we suggest the sermon entitled Let No One Despise You for Your Youth?

Coming in for a landing…

We are both glad to finally “land” back in Arlington as of yesterday. Connection in a community where you are ministering is vital to long-term success in ministry; since we’ve decided to stay in this area, it’s been refreshing to find friendships outside of just our staff team.

As we get back, there are constantly possibilities for what God could be calling us to in the future. We’re still unsure where God will have us next July, let alone 5 years from now, though we suspect that God may have us in DC for a while. Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we seek to follow God’s lead where ever that might be.

Please Pray For:

• Our team of 10 will now be a team of 9 because one of the interns support never came in. Pray that we would know how to lead well and that we would all be working out of an overflow of our relationship with Christ.

• Please continue to pray for our support needs. We have had quite a bit of new support come in over the summer, but we still are a little short. We are not in financial danger, but the needs are still there.

• Pray that this school year would start strong – there are a lot of incoming freshmen that are looking for Truth, pray that we would be able to powerfully proclaim the Gospel to them in a way that they will connect with.

Well, we received our summer assignment today, and I can’t lie and say I’m not a little disappointed. Carrie and I were hoping to spend the summer taking seminary-level classes in Colorado – it was a little bit for selfish reasons. I love Colorado.

We were supposed to get our assignment about a month ago, so I called last week to ask where we’d be going and was told that they were having problems filling spots where they needed people, particularly on Summer Projects. A lot of this is due to the CM07 event in South Korea – thousands of students gathering there for global mobilization to take the gospel everywhere. CM07 is taking a lot of campus staff there as well and is shorting a lot of the regional summer projects.

So, our assignment is – Ocean City Maryland! I did like OCMD last year, it was our second choice, and I still get to spend 10 days in Colorado for the National Staff conference. I’m praying and working towards being excited for Ocean City. It’s not there yet, but I’m sure it will grow!