Winding Down, Looking Forward

The college semester is winding down.  UNC Greensboro's final Cru meeting was last Tuesday and most of the campuses will begin their exams sometime this week. 

As our seniors are preparing for graduation, students and staff are preparing for the freshmen who are headed to the Triad in the fall.

Budget planning, strategic outreaches and allocation of staff as well as how to reach specific student populations are topics we will be digging into.  Three days straight beginning Monday our staff team will be doing strategic planning how to reach the 70,000 college students in our region. (and probably eating a lot of chocolate, LOL!)

Pray for wisdom and discernment as we come together as a staff team to make plans that will honor Christ and do the work He has called us to do.


On the campus, for the campus,
Pete & Carra

A prayer for Japan

One of the ladies on our staff team is from Japan.  Her parents and family are there and gratefully they live in the south part of Japan and are okay. Sadly, there are so many, many people who are not okay.  Kimi (our Japanese staff member here in the Triad) shared this prayer that she found on John Piper's website.  I really liked it and prayed it with Gracie after watching some of the video of the devastation.

Click here for the link to

A prayer for Japan

Right now, Campus Crusade for Christ Japan staff are at a conference with 120 students.  The campus ministry staff are talking with staff from Japan about how we as a US ministry can come alongside CCC Japan.  For now, please join us in prayer for Japan and how we can show love through the ministry.


On the campus, for the campus,
Pete and Carra

Our Staff Co-workers in Egypt

http://give3.ccci.org/egypt/view/Egypt-Crisis

We just wanted to let you know that Campus Crusade for Christ has set up a website to keep everyone up-to-date about how the situation in Egypt is affecting the over 150 staff in that country.  Please join us as we pray for the country and that the Gospel can continue to be proclaimed.

Baby Boy has Arrived!

We hope you enjoyed a very merry Christmas.  We were anticipating the arrival of our child sometime about a week before Christmas.  We had a lovely Christmas as a family of four since our latest arrival decided to be fashionably late.

At 9:31 a.m. December 28, we welcomed Zadok Anthony Carl into the world.  It was a tough birth, but he was a healthy baby boy weighing 8 lbs, 4 ounces and was 21 inches long.  If you want the details of the birth, Carra has shared the birth story on her blog.

We have dreamed of naming our son (should we have one) Zadok for many years.  He was a courageous priest and servant of King David.  He is among the most faithful of the priests and his name means righteous and just.  We pray that Zadok will make wise, courageous choices even in the face of difficulty - that he will walk righteously and honorably depending on God for his strength.


Anthony is a family name from Pete's mom's side. Anthony was Pete's great-grandfather. He took his family to live in Indonesia from Holland to work as an engineer. His 18 children lived exotic lives with pet orangutans who stayed in the house.  He must have been bold and adventurous. No matter where or to what God calls our son, we pray he will do so boldly, for the glory of God.

Carl is a family name from Carra's mom's side.  Carl had a hard, painful childhood, was illiterate but ran a successful milk and egg business, worked in a mill and farmed.  He donated the land for Midway Baptist Church that Carra's grandfather founded.  His work ethic was phenomenal and his gentleness and love for his wife and children is something we desire to see in our son.

Sticker Shock with Charities!

Recently, as I [Pete] was checking a myriad of tweets (I'm a very sporadic Twitter user), I came across a link to "The 50 Largest US charities ranked by total income" which included Campus Crusade for Christ. To say the least, I was intrigued how we'd stack up!


According to this report (download the PDF here), Campus Crusade ranks #30th in terms of total income but more significantly we are the ONLY charity where compensation of highest paid official is less than $100,000! In fact, the next lowest was close to twice Campus Crusade's highest paid staff member -- hint: that's not us :-) !!

Ok, so comparison can be a bad thing, as it can lead to either jealousy or self-righteousness, but I believe there is a place for a report like this as both the workers and the donors have a right to know how their gifts are used... it's part of stewardship!

We are blessed to work for a ministry where financial accountability and stewardship is a core value! Please know that your generosity is going directly to fund this work. We are humbled to serve like this and we praise God for you in Christ Jesus.

Thank you so much for your faithful and generous support of our ministry and family!

With love,
Pete and Carra

Reverse Trick-or-Treat (Growing a Bible Study)

This is Amber and Caroline.  They (along with Nicole - not pictured) lead a Bible study at UNC Greensboro.  I know, they are wearing Clemson and Carolina t-shirts, but they really go to UNCG :-)

Since the beginning of the semester, they have been leading a freshman girls Bible study in one of the parlors of a freshman dorm.  Last month (sorry so late a post) they decided that the whole Bible study (11 girls) would go around the dorm on Halloween and bring candy to anyone who was in their rooms.  They met lots of new girls and invited them to the Bible study.

The next week two girls they met during the "reverse trick-or-treat" outreach came to the Bible study.  In addition to that, another girl randomly passed the parlor and said, "This is a huge study group."  Amber and Caroline said, "actually this is a Bible study, want to join us?"  And she did.  And all three girls are still coming regularly.

What makes this extra neat is the timing in the semester.  Most Bible studies are established by September and very few new people begin coming after that.  As the semester gets busier and students are becoming more involved in their established groups - seeing that kind of increase is really, really rare.  But God is definitely at work on this campus!  Thanks for praying!

On the campus, for the campus,

Pete and Carra

A Great Conversation

In the photo are Amber and Mary, student leaders who I (Carra) have the privilege of mentoring each week.  Amber is on the left, Mary on the right.  They are students at UNCG and women who have a passion for growing closer to Christ.  I love watching God work in their lives!

So last week I was beginning our weekly mentoring time with Mary.  Within minutes, she excitedly said, "I had a great conversation with an atheist today!"  I had to hear the details.  She and a random guy happened to be walking the same way back from campus last week.  From a question of "so what are you listening to on your ipod?" to "so are you religious?" Mary shared that though he may see her as "religious,"  she doesn't define herself that way.  She described her walk with Christ as a relationship - not a religion.  I was really pleased with how she handled the conversation.  Here are a couple of quotes:

Mary asked, "So do you believe in absolute truth?"
He replied, "It depends."

Later on a bit, she asked, "Do you think there is such a thing as right and wrong?"
He replied, "Sometimes."

She hadn't seen this guy before so there's not a good way to plan future conversations.  However he met a Christian young lady who knew her faith and how to articulate it.  And.... you never know their paths might meet going across campus again.

On the campus, for the campus,