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 looks like we’ll have 9! Returning will be the two of us, Jake, Jacqueline, and Rebecca; joining us will be Tom (from Penn State), Katie (one of Carrie’s girls in Ocean City, MD), Stephanie (a Western PA-er), Josh (from Radford) and Ben (another first-year intern). We also have a volunteer – Alex who recently moved here after finishing at Michigan Tech. (Serendipitously, we cross paths again after meeting by chance in New Orleans last year!) Pray that we would find close, affordable housing for all of our teammates, and that they would keep focused during fundraising.

Former Students

We often share stories of students in our letters. There are lots of updates, but here are a few highlights:

• Brett – one of my guys from summer project last year. He has now graduated and is headed to seminary very soon to pursue his dream of being a pastor.

• Randy – featured in one of our prayer letters 2 summers ago and was part of the group of Slippery Rock guys meeting at our house last school year. Randy has now finished with college and will be volunteering full time with the Western PA team this coming school year as he prepares to come on staff.

• Nikki – a student leader from Edinboro who came to Ocean City last summer; she’s headed to Australia on summer project this year to take part in the campus ministry in Melbourne.

• Heather – one of Carrie’s summer project girls from 2006; she’s finished school in WV and will be living out her faith in her field of study at an internship at the Smithsonian here in DC.

Ocean City, MD guys

If you remember my lament from last year about this time, there is often a major shortage of men coming on summer projects. This year in Ocean City, MD that is not the case! While Carrie and I won’t be there this summer, we’re very excited to announce that the guys will be crammed into the project housing this year. The 15 guys that arrived yesterday are the largest number of student men that the project has seen, some coming the whole way from the west coast! Pray for a pivotal summer, for these men as well as the rest of the students and our staff friends who are there now.

Georgetown

For those of you who get our online updates in between prayer letters, you know that we had asked for prayer in becoming an official “associated ministry” at Georgetown University. After nine months of praying for favor, building relationships, and starting one off-campus study, we finally had an interview with the Ministry Council. Your prayers have been answered! Carrie received an email today inviting her to serve as an official member of the council starting in August. This will allow us to move toward an active on-campus movement this influential DC school! Pray that we’d have wisdom to match this responsibility.

Beulah Land Baptist

One of the most exciting updates is the fact that Beulah Land Baptist church has laid the foundation to rebuild their church! If you don’t remember, Beulah Land was the church in the 9th Ward of New Orleans that our team of 50+ Western PA students and staff helped to gut over Spring Break of 2006; we were sad last year to visit and see that they still had to tear the church down, but they are rebuilding now! They are looking to be the very first church in the Lower 9th Ward to reopen. One of our Western PA teammates was able to be in NOLA for the ground breaking ceremony as our representative. Pray that Beulah Land would represent Christ well to a (still) broken community.

Your Partnership!

Carrie and I have been honored to be part of God’s hands and feet in a number of places in the past 5 years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ (and we hope to continue for years to come). But we consider every one of these “success stories” to be yours, too, as our partners in the Gospel. Through your various types of support, we have been upheld and empowered, and for that we thank you greatly!
On that note, we would love to see you in person as we make our summer rounds. For those in PA, here’s a few chances to see us and say hi. We’ll just be hanging out visiting with whoever stops in!

• Erie, PA – Friday, June 13, Panera Bread on Upper Peach St., 5-8pm

• Grove City, PA – Monday, June 16, Prime Outlets Food Court (South End), 6-9pm

• Central PA – we’ll be over your way later in the summer. We’ll keep you posted!

Grace & Peace,
Jayson & Carrie

Please Pray For:

• Our travels this summer as we head to Erie, Orlando, Central PA, and back. Pray that we will be safe and well-rested with no car troubles, and energized by the four Bible classes we’ll be taking.

• Our time securing the necessary support to be in a healthy financial spot in Washington DC’s high cost of living.

• Our health. Both of us are getting over about a week of sickness (bronchitis, allergies, cold, flu, etc.). Pray that this would be the end of our health problems for the summer.

• Students’ summer growth. Pray that as they are away from their spiritual communities that they will still find people and places at home to direct them toward a closer walk with Christ.

Carrie and I at our Annual Fellowship Dinner

The PDF of this prayer letter is available here.