Fall Retreat Tomorrow

Fall Retreat is tomorrow through Sunday
Right now we have 112 students registered a close to 1/3 are freshmen!!

Getting freshmen plugged in and connected to community is a critical piece in having a movement of Christ over time.
 
It is super-encouraging to the see the number of students that are coming to this weekend.

Prayer requests:

• Speaker (Mark Valentine from Appalachian State) will challenge students in their walks with Christ.
• Community to develop (students from four different campuses)
• Students will seriously consider spending their spring breaks on mission trips. 
• Safety (paintball and a photo scavenger hunt in the dark will be involved)
• Great weather (the forecast looks great so far)
• The Christ would be glorified!!!

It is such a priviledge to spend this time with the students.  My parents are keeping Zade (so he won't be completely worn out). And Gracie and Faith are will be staying with us for the whole weekend.  We packed their bags tonight and they are just beyond excited. 

What are they looking forward to the most?
Going to Costco to buy snacks (who doesn't love Costco?)
Saturday night dance party (the theme is hippies and hipsters but I think the girls are going as a purple ballerina-Faith and Joan of Arc-Gracie)
Faith exclaimed tonight she couldn't wait to live in a real cabin.
They love students, and the students love them.  Sometimes I can hardly believe the blessed life God has given us in this ministry.  Thank you for your love, support and prayers!

Love, Carra

Cru introduces Study Abroad!

This is a pioneer program where students can get get college credit at the same time as they provide "workers for the harvest" with a team of local and short term international missionaries with Cru. Pray for this to be an effective tool for bringing more laborers to the critical harvest of the colleges of the world! 

Pass this on to students you think would consider applying. cruabroad.com/

Love, Pete and Carra

Over 80,000 praying - join us?

http://prayeurope.com/

As we wrote earlier this week - we have a unique opportunity to under gird the Olympians and the Campus Crusade for Christ/Athletes in Action staff with prayer.

In addition to the Olympics, there are some very exciting prayer opportunities and an interactive way to connect to those.  When you visit the site (http://prayeurope.com/prayer-projects/), you can see what current prayer needs are in Europe and Russia.  You can chose to pause right there and pray for one of the initiatives or opportunities.  Then you can click "I prayed."

Explore the site to see other prayer requests and a ongoing list of answered prayers.

For His glory,
Pete and Carra

Olympic Sized Prayer

I love being a part of Campus Crusade for Christ!  One reason is the ability and the drive that Cru has to reach all people - going to remote areas of the world but also to some of the most crowded.  What an opportunity God has opened up for Athletes in Action (the sports ministry component of Cru) to be a part of the Olympics! As chaplains for the Olympics, CCC/AIA staff have a wonderful opportunity to develop relationships with athletes from all over the world.

While the International Olympic Committee forbids proselytizing, Carl (Campus Crusade for Christ Athletes in Action staff member) says there are plenty of opportunities to have spiritual conversations. Sometimes the hard realities of the Olympic competition lead athletes to seek out
answers with chaplains.“We’re mainly in a service position, but we can answer any questions they ask.”  Pray for divine appointments with non-believing athletes from around the globe.

Much prayer, preparation, planning and resources go into making Athletes in Action’s outreach efforts at the Olympic Games a smooth success, and the 2012 project in London will require no less. Regardless of what shape it takes, the work of the official chaplains as well as the 160-plus additional staff who will be working in London all boils down to one goal: spreading the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world.

Want to be a part of this?  Join in with prayer!
3000 people are needed to pray for 3 to 4 athletes who will be competing this summer.  Wouldn't be awesome to be a part of a team of people who will cover every single Olympian in prayer?  Here's where you can learn more (http://olympics.athletesinaction.org/prayer-strategy/)


For His glory,
Pete and Carra

Hosting the Nations

Students from all over the world will be at our house in approximately 100 minutes!  I got ahead of myself trying to get the yard in shape, but that ended up being a blessing.  I'm making sweet tea and lemonade and about to hide approximately 150 eggs (12 of which are Resurrection Eggs).

Please pray for the 15 students from Korea, China, Japan, Russia, etc. that they will be drawn to the Savior who gave His life that we may have life.

So that everyone knows someone who truly follows Christ...

Love, 
Carra

Mixing family, fun & ministry...again

I'm spending this weekend planting flowers, adding mulch and gathering the thousands (maybe slight exaggeration) of toys from across the backyard. This isn't just the spring boost - we're hosting a party!

One week from today, we are hosting an egg hunt / tea party for the international students (mostly girls) from UNCG. Our kids love the internationals and the internationals love them! Since Easter is the perfect segue to explaining the Gospel, we're making our own set of resurrection eggs. What an awesome opportunity to explain to our girls the sacrifice of Christ as we assemble the eggs. Then for them to be excited to help explain the symbols to our guests...Wow.

Some days it's really hard to juggle all the hats I wear in ministry and motherhood. Today, they're fitting just fine.

Please join us in prayer that God will make this a life changing afternoon!

That all may hear,
Carra

Disturbing Trend

Last summer, we were made aware of some disturbing developments at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.  We have several friends who are on staff with Cru there.  They had been working with the legal counsel of Cru and asked all of us to pray that they would be allowed to remain on campus.  There is another university in our MidSouth region (I've been asked not to share which one) right here in NC that is also considering changin university policies as Vanderbult has.

A very articulate senior has laid out the issues well, I invite you to read about this situation.  We are already experiencing limitations to our Cru movements by several campuses here in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.  Not as extreme as what is happening at Vanderbilt, but disturbing trends none the less. Some of our campuses will no longer allow us to approach a student and initiate a conversation unless he or she has already indicated some interest by attending a meeting or filling out a contact card.  This limits the evangelism to students who are already interested in Cru.

Please pray.  We are truly in a battle for the hearts and minds of young people.  The enemy wants to further tie our hands, but we know that Christ will be proclaimed!  Pray for us to have favor with the administration of all 20+ campuses in the Triad.  Pray for Vanderbilt to continue to allow christian ministries (like Cru) to exist on campus with integrity of their leadership.

Love, Pete and Carra