Helping Seniors Transition After College...

This Friday, we are hosting a dinner & seminar for seniors at Washington State University in order to help them transition into life after college. 

One of Campus Crusade for Christ's goals is to send every person into their community as an ambassador for Christ. Many college students that are involved with Campus Crusade for Christ in college have a great experience during college, but have difficulty making the transition into engaging into their community (whether it be at work, at home, or at their church). 

Our hope during this seminar is to help alleviate some of the concerns and difficulties that come with life after college. Some of the topics will include:

• The Great Commission & impacting the Kingdom of God for a lifetime
• Living out of your priorities
• Practical ways to plug into a church & community
• Managing Finances & Stewardship
• Practical tips for ministry w/ Friends & Co-workers

One practical resource that we are passing onto our students, is a website created by Campus Crusade for Christ called All Callings. This website is dedicated to helping ministry-minded people connect with others in their community around the globe. 

Have you done something similar with graduating seniors? What have you done? What else could we communicate over dinner?

Thanks to jcestnik for the photo above

WSU Cru alumni - Kelsey Martin and "Women of Hope International"

Kelsey Martin is a 2008 graduate of WSU. She was a leader with Cru during her time as an undergraduate and is now working for Highline Community College as an Employment Consultant. Kelsey has been actively involved with a ministry called "Women of Hope" that exists to bring whole person healing to women with disabilities in Sierra Leone. Here is a portion of a recent update we got from Kelsey...

A summary of our last trip is difficult, but we were able to accomplish the majority of what we had set out to do in the short two and a half weeks there. The first week was dedicated to meeting with the local non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), other humanitarian aid agencies and governmental officials in the area. Our focus was on assessing the services already provided to women with disabilities and to begin networking with those already serving women there. We were so thankful to be welcomed warmly by everyone we encountered as they openly affirmed of the tremendous need forWOHInt. We hired three full time Sierra Leonean staff and assembled and met with our SL Advisory Board during this time as well.

The second week was emotionally exhausting as we held focus groups with representatives chosen from the blind, deaf, polio, amputee, war-wounded and leprosy communities. Every woman had a unique story about how society tells her she is worthless and the many barriers she faces living in the poorest country in the world. Most women were sexually exploited in some way, and all experience isolation and significant poverty. We facilitated brainstorming around solutions. While I had been to the country before and I had researched the trials of women with disabilities, nothing could have prepared me for hearing their deeply personal stories for myself, and developing friendships.

I returned home overwhelmed. I wrote this letter three different times before today. Each time I struggled with communicating all that I learned while still questioning what role God has me play in His desire to bring restoration to the women. Today I am sure that God wants to use myself and Women of Hope International to facilitate healing and the restoration of dignity and hope to women with disabilities in Sierra Leone. He has given WOHInt a strategic plan of action and our prayer is that gospel transformation will take place for these women and inspire the development of a community!

Helping change the world through IT...

Nathaniel Fremd graduated from WSU in spring of 2009. He is now on an intern at the Campus Crusade for Christ Headquarters in Orlando, FL helping provide the IT backbone that supports and resources the 25,000 staff around the world as they share Christ and launch movements "so that everyone will know someone who truly follows Jesus".

Above is Nathaniel's December update to friends and ministry partners that help fund his ministry. We're excited to see him at Venture 2010, the Northwest Winter Conference!

Drop him a note of encouragement via email (or other communication means). We're sure he would love to hear from you on his computer, whether at work or home. ;)

Redemptive work in Australia

Kara Michael graduated from WSU last spring. She was involved with Cru, and is now getting ready to go on a year long mission trip (STINT) to Australia. Here is a little bit of her story...

"Throughout my four years at Washington State University, I studied Sociology expecting to learn ways I could bring hope to an aching world. Semester after semester my classes dove into global social issues, discussing ways to bring hope into these pressing situations.

As my studies continued, I noticed my professors’ solutions did not seem to implement the hope required for the brokenness we experience everyday – whether it be with warring countries, political instability, the hurting within our families or within ourselves. The textbook answers and my professors’ theories for hope were not satisfying.

As my relationship with Christ deepened, He demonstrated what hope could look like in my fractured life personally, as well as in the fractured world we live in. Being involved with a Christian group at WSU called Campus Crusade for Christ, I experienced a transformational community of believers, with truth and grace being pillars in our relationships. It was here that I began to catch a vision for how God could bring hope into our broken lives and world.

Using similar communities built on grace and truth, God is bringing hope to students throughout the world. Three summers ago I had the joy of being a part of His redemptive work on the University of Newcastle campus in Australia. Since then, He has been patiently and persistently calling me back to this ethnically diverse and spiritually apathetic culture. It has been a beautiful process, knowing there is no other place I would rather be than in the center of His will."

Kara is currently raising support for STINT so she can leave for the start of the Australian school year in January. You can help by giving here!