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.

Fasting, praying, and communicating with God....can be bad..what?

This semester I'm meeting with Life Group facilitators to encourage, pray, challenge....I'm excited.  We have an amazing group of folks. When I sit in front of them I am challenged. We have the makings of like the perfect church (don't read too much into that, it's a communicating device – a metaphor if you will). Dedication and consistency, always follows through for God and contributes and serves like crazy.  An attitude and energy for people.  Inclusive video, cooking, and helping. A love of scripture and sharing that with others.  An unbelievable, make me feel guilty, CSF couldn't function without them servant attitude, it's not even an attitude, it's just what they do. A dedication to what we're doing amongst a grueling full time school and work schedule. Up and coming spunk, desire, and appreciation for what it means to be urgent about God and urgent about people. It is awesome meeting with people like this. Serious. Laughter.  Praying.  Thinking.  Sharing.  Awesome.

All of these folks are committed to investing in Christ and others. They are not just involved, "core" people, or members, but they're out there making a difference, praying, and investing in others every week. They are the church, the "ekklesia" of the New Testament - the "gathering" if you will. “Church” doesn’t just happen once or twice a week – but it happens all week long. They aren't leaders, they're friends.  I trust them.  I love them. I hope for them. I can't wait to see God work through all that they're doing. I hope they see truth that points to Christ in all that they're doing.

That's our prayer. That God would speak to, affirm, challenge, and lead us. That the truth of scripture would become clear and plain as we follow God's lead in having an urgency for Him and an urgency for others (in other words living out the "two greatest commandments").

Go read Isaiah 58, seriously right now. Life can wait. That thing that just popped in your head telling you that you don't have time...that can hold off for one minute. You'll make it!
You see God, through Isaiah, being harsh about fasting and praying and being eager to know His ways. What?  God can be upset about that?  Who would be upset about that?  True fasting...and healing...and joy....and the Lord answering us - is intimately connected to how we view God which is related to how we view people around us. Every day - how you view the people you see and talk to, is intimately connected to all of those other things.  Think about that at work.  At school.  At home. 

But when you think about it you're not that surprised. Because you care. You care about someone.  You care about atrocity because it involves people. This actually speaks to the truth you know to be true deep down inside - it's not about different values and things - it's all the same thing. That's what Isaiah 58 says, it's all connected.

How you view the creation says a lot about how you view the creator, doesn't it?

Now that you didn't read Isaiah 58 - go read it!

So yeah - all that is made possible by folks that care about WVU, that care about the college environment and what we do at CSF. Go pray, thank God.  Thank you.  That's what it's all about.  An urgency for God, an urgency for others. That's our deal here and that's what you're a part of if you support and encourage this place!



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



Upcoming Events

Rock Band

Saturday, January 9 7:30 pm

Saturday Night is Rock Band night at the CSF! And what's different about this Rock Band Night, as opposed to others? Well, we're gonna suggest you dress up...like Rockers! That's right, go all rock and roll (but still appropriate, lol) if you fee like it, and we'll rock till we drop!

Back To School Party

Friday, January 15, 7:00 pm

Our first big event of 2010...and we're celebrating a new year, with a brand new tournament. We're playing ping pong, Olympic style round robin...where every point counts. Think you're not very good at ping pong? That's ok, it's the kind of sport where you still have fun even though you're missing every ball (I know that from experience), and your team will root you on till the end! Just not into ping pong? Come and enjoy the show! We'll have Kool Aid ;)