Special Board Meeting

At our January Board meeting Brian Bigelow, Rick Petry, Gary Gross, and Sandy Bigelow asked questions about and discussed the structure and roles of the Board of Directors of CSF. Through the course of that discussion they thought it wise to call a special meeting on May 8th for the sole purpose of discussing possible refinements that would protect and enhance the future of CSF.


The meeting will be scheduled for Saturday May 8th, 12:00 pm at CSF.

 

[from the April 2010 Newsletter, which can be downloaded here]

We made it!

We made it to New Orleans safe and sound. We start working early tomorrow morning. Keep an eye on this blog and our Twitter page for updates throughout the week. Thanks to everyone who supported us for the trip and keep the prayers coming!

Spring Break Oh Ten ('10)

A few alumni have called and asked about Spring Break 2010 and helping to make that happen.  Thank you for contacting me, that alone is encouraging and comforting to know that you are out there and urgent about what's happening at WVU and Spring Break! Pray for attitudes and flexibility (include me in that, I'm human too!).

Missions trips are very special for a ministry. They are revealing personally and spiritually and I think that's why alumni ask and contribute eagerly, they recall those moments of growth and revelation. That doesn't come by accident – it touches on some deep truth: one week living together in service to God points to Jesus living his life with the disciples.

Every.  Single.   Day. 

Imagine being with a community of Christians for every minute of the day.  Jesus did it for like 3 years minus a few assignments and tasks. I think missions trips get to the heart of that when we're with folks in that capacity for a week. We grow in our awareness of God, people, ourselves, and how Jesus saw the world.

The cost for 19 to go is about $8,000. We carried over $500 from last year’s mission trip and a current CSFer offered to cover the van expense of $800-$1,200, and two other CSFer's are offering vehicles as additional passenger and luggage capacity to get there.  We need to raise $6,300 or $350 per person which is our goal.

Students are excited. Allison, JD, Katy, and others are building all sorts of creative visuals at the CSF house to track our support progress: a Crawfish pot and hanging Crawfish similar to "Monkeys in a Barrell"!  They have a collection pot for change.  Ryan is leading a fast in March to prepare us and he's taking care of some logistics as well.  Matt is planning a lunch for the ride to save on costs and complexity. Nick is planning some online media.  Updates on these will come.

We're not just going on a missions trip...we are being molded, challenged, and growing in our awareness of God through prayer, community, working together, and fasting. Thanks for making that possible, that's why we do this!  Let this be an encouragement to you as you go about your lives, communities and continue to stay connected to CSF.

Helping Haiti

Tonight Jared spoke about Christ being the cornerstone of the church, of our community. Rick Petry is a CSF alumni that is a part of that community that calls Christ The Cornerstone. Rick Petry is a former CSF intern and while he and his wife are supporters and board members of CSF, it's much deeper than those titles. We love Rick and Julia and are hopeful, scared, praying, and excited with him and his family right now. His wife, Julia, is leaving tonight for Haiti as Rick drops her off at the air port. She is flying to Haiti with her dad and younger sister to assist in the devasted Port Au Prince.  Rick is making arrangements to be on leave at work and will be headed down in a few weeks as well.

 Rick & Julia at their wedding last January

Paul Ronk is Julia's father, a CSF board member, and spent a week with me (Gary) in Colorado last year.  He is a vocational minister (works for a company and the church) at King's Way Christian Church in Nitro, WV and spent 11 years in Haiti as a missionary with his wife and family. They still have a heart for that area as they have answered the recent catastrophe with a resounding SEND ME. Paul, Julia, and her younger sister Sara are heading to Haiti tonight for at least 6 weeks. Rick and Sara's husband will be heading down in a few weeks. Being fluent in the native language they hope to assist in translating as well as utlizing their vast connections and resources from their prior time there to help people.

An urgency for God.  An urgency for people.  That's what they have. That's the message of the bible, plain and simple. That's what we're about at CSF. We're proud of Paul, his daughters, and Rick putting forth a massive effort to get there and deal with finances, arrangements, planning, and working around difficult arrangements with their employers. Rachel, Paul's wife, is the director of a day care and will be staying in WV. It appears like Sara is losing her job over the trip.

We will pray for them and support them. Any support given to CSF for their trip will be forwarded to King's Way Christian Church who is overseeing their logistical needs while they're in Haiti. Envelopes for support are upstairs by the box in the foyer.

Julia's Blog (updating ability is unknown at this time and may be sporadic):

http://handsforhaiti.blogspot.com/

Channel 13 News out of Charleston, WV interviewed Paul before his trip. They aired a segment Saturday and Sunday evening.  They also provided him with video equipment to document they're work down there.  He hasn't figured out how those video's will make it back here yet.  Here's a link to the Saturday evening interview which we watched this evening during our service:

http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=73572