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georgetown

August Newsletter

September 18, 2009

in prayer letter

Back!

“Where are you from? What’s your major? Where are you from…” This time of year, this is the sound that rings back when your head hits the pillow.  Classes in the District have officially started, along with all that goes with it — tables at club fairs, brightly colored fliers, free stuff, new faces and the ever-present aroma of cheap burgers from orientation events.  Today at Georgetown, the music on the quad from a huge beginning-of-the-year church service for freshman and a few lingering parents reminds last spring’s party ground that it is time to get serious again.

Georgetown, along with American University, will probably be one of our strongest movements this fall, as we have become part of the Campus Ministry communities there and have freedom to meet more students and hold events.  Please pray that these relationships with other groups will only grow and that God would show us how to contribute as team players to the good reputation of Jesus.  It is the body of Christ (not just Cru) that is able to reach the whole city.

Connecting the Dots

September is always stirring with transition, but this year even more.  Between the reality of a much smaller staff team and so many of last year’s students leaving town for various reasons, it is a perfect time to zoom out to focus on who is here.  Due partly to a national push within Campus Crusade to mobilize Cru alumni and partly to an accidental bunch of potential volunteers, we’ve been spending our time in between the club fairs trying to connect some of the dots here.

What could it look like if a city full of Type-A twenty-somethings caught a vision for reaching out to the students around them? If the graduating seniors from thriving Cru movements like Virginia Tech and James Madison University had a clear place to invest themselves when they moved back home to our doorstep? We’re praying to find out. By Fall Retreat (October 9-11), we hope to have a small army of 20 volunteers, trained and moving toward a clear vision.

In the Wings

One of the advantages of living in a high-profile city is that you can get more press — Washington, DC has been on a list of the Top 10 priority cities within our organization for several years now.  As a result, two other metro staff teams, one from Chicago and the other from St. Louis, have volunteered to come here for a few days this October just to give lift to what we’re doing.  You may remember our incoming spring breakers two years ago — this is a big deal! Pray for wisdom as we think through the best way to put them to use, and we’ll keep you posted!

Grace & Peace,
Jayson & Carrie

Pray for:

  • Praise God for a summer of excellent training and sufficient funding for it! Thanks everyone!
  • Pray that the several non-Christians who’ve been investigating our groups would stick around.
  • Pray that our team and students will stay in good health through the fall flu season & that the presence of the H1N1 virus here would not keep people from our Fall Retreat.
  • Pray that our two new staff would be able to return from fundraising quickly to turn our 3-person team into 5!

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“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.

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October 08 Prayer Letter

November 7, 2008

Hello friends and ministry partners! I wanted to let you all know that with this prayer letter from the end of October we have redesigned our prayer letter to be smaller to download as a PDF, it’s less than 2Mb. You can download it here. Also, I wanted to ask for prayer from all of [...]

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May Prayer Letter – Misc Updates

May 29, 2008

Updates! – May 28, 2008 As this year has wrapped up, we wanted to take some time and look back at past letters so we can update you on things that we’ve asked you to pray for in the past and celebrate! Our Team Our staff team is in place for next year – it [...]

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Georgetown Meeting

April 30, 2008

The meeting went very well. Carrie was able to talk about specific plans that we hope to work with next year and I was able to talk about the ways that Campus Crusade for Christ has grown and matured corporately since they were asked to leave over a decade ago. We will not know if [...]

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Quick Prayer Request

April 29, 2008

Please pray for Carrie’s meeting today at 5:00 with the campus ministry board at Georgetown University. They will determine today whether or not we will be recognized as an “associated ministry” which will allow us freedom next year to seek to start a movement on the prestigious university’s campus.

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