THE SLAMERS

Tuesday, Becky, the kids, and I, all headed up to Santa Barbara for the day.  The Cru staff team there invited us up to lead a development time for them.  You can read more about what we did that day on our Serving Santa Barbara post.

One of the things Scott did was gather students from UCSB who had been on the Santa Monica Summer Mission in the past three years, when we helped lead.  Six students showed up on only a couple hours notice!  It was a sweet time of reconnecting and catching up.  Scott asked them all the question, “How did the Santa Monica Summer Mission affect your life?”  Their answers were encouraging!

UCSB Sant Monica Alumni: Ashley, Andrew, me, Paul, Jonny, and Veronika.

UCSB Santa Monica Alumni: Jonny, me, Nicole, Veronika.

Jonny is a senior.  He attended the Santa Monica Summer Mission in 2013.  His experience in Santa Monica gave him confidence in sharing his faith, and helped him understand the urgency of sharing the gospel.  Jonny now shares his faith regularly on campus, and has led a small group Bible Study in the residence halls for the last two years.

Andrew is a senior Communications major.  He attended the Santa Monica Summer Mission in 2014.  Andrew said the summer mission gave him a toolbox of ministry skills, ones that he now uses as he leads Cru’s Retreat Team.

Ashley is also a senior.  She manages a pizza restaurant just off campus in the popular Isla Vista college town.  She was on the Santa Monica Summer Mission with us just this past summer.  She learned how to reach out to her co-workers.  She shared a fun story.  In the past, she would make pizzas to take to her women’s Bible study.  But when co-workers asked what they were for, she was too nervous to tell them about her Bible study group.  Since returning from Santa Monica, she was asked by a female co-worker why she was making pizzas to take home.  This time Ashley replied with confidence that they were for her Bible study group.  To Ashley’s surprise and joy, her co-worker replied, “Can I join your Bible study?!”

Paul is a graduate of UCSB.  He attended the Santa Monica Summer Mission in 2013.  On summer mission, Paul was impacted most by the significance of Christian community.  After graduating the following year, Paul and a fellow Santa Monica alumus, spent the year with Cru, reaching college students in the Middle East!  This year Paul is back in Santa Barbara and investing part of his time still reaching college students at UCSB.

Nicole is a senior.  She attended the Santa Monica Summer Mission in 2014.  That summer mission gave her confidence and experience in leading others in Bible study.  She now leads her own small group of women in Bible study in the residence halls!

Veronika attended the Santa Monica Summer Mission in 2014.  That summer mission gave her skills and experiences that she now uses as she leads the Community Team with Cru.

All of these students will be attending their big Fall Retreat this weekend.  175 students from Santa Barbara are registered to attend.  They will have the opportunity now to share their stories with the next generation of UCSB students!

We stand in awe of how God uses summer missions to change the lives of college students for His glory!

This our my favorite time of year in college campus ministry!  All over the Pacific Southwest millions of college students are stepping onto campus, many for the first time.  And it’s our opportunity to put Jesus and a community of His followers in front of them right away.  The Cru staff around the region, that we train and care for, have been at it now for weeks.  The semester campuses are in their 5th week, while the quarter campuses are just starting tomorrow!  Here are some of the stories and pictures of what God is doing already!

SLO Cru’s Small Group Leader Training

This may look like a Cru movement on campus with all the students in it, but this is actually just the small group leaders who are being trained to lead groups all over campus this year!  Check out the picture below for a glimpse of the size of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Cru movement!

SLO Cru’s first weekly meeting! Too big for any room on campus, so they moved to a local church!

This next picture is of San Jose State University’s Cru weekly meeting.  An average size Cru movement.

San Jose State Cru weekly meeting.

But listen to what God is doing this Fall already!  Jessica and her husband are new staff members that joined us after two years of interning.  She is leading a Freshman group of student women in Bible study and community.  These Freshmen were not all followers of Christ when they first showed up, but one-by-one God is bringing them to Himself!  In this picture, Jessica (top left), is celebrating with her group.  Mindy, had just received Christ!

Jessica’s Freshman Small Group at SJSU

Fun fact!  Two of the young women in that picture, Marla (bottom left) and Brandie (glasses), were with us this summer on the Santa Monica Summer Mission!

This is Kyle Voelker (right).  He’s on staff at Arizona State University, and is one of the guys Scott coached in Santa Monica in 2014.  Here he is with a student named Nicholas, right after Nicholas received Christ!  Nicholas received a SnoCone from Cru at their club fair, and later texted Kyle, “I’m new to this whole Christianity thing, can you tell me more about Jesus?”  Kyle met up with Nicholas and the rest is history.  In the first 3 weeks of classes, Kyle’s already seen 6 people receive Christ with him!

Kyle (right) with Nicholas, just after Nicholas received Christ!

There’s more, much more happening on campuses all over our region right now!  Like the 350 freshmen students at San Diego State University that showed up to a Cru beach bonfire social Monday night!  The most they’ve ever had!  God is on the move, and we’re so stoked to be in the midst of it!

A few picks from the Club Fair on campus at UC Irvine on Monday.  Thousands of new students flood Aldrich Park in the middle of campus!  They’re perusing all of the clubs and organizations available to plug into at UCI.  It’s Cru’s opportunity to put Jesus and the Cru community in front of them, their first day on campus.  We gave away over 2,000 free water bottles and info cards and received hundreds of contact cards!  The campus team at UCI will be following up those contacts for the next several weeks.  Pray for them!

As you can see in the picture below, 75 different stories  unfolded and grew this summer (not including the staff team!) on the Santa Monica Summer Mission.  It was a privilege and a blessing to lead this summer mission.  Here are a couple of the stories of changed lives that came from “SaMoSuMi15”.

SaMoSuMi15

Kevin will be a junior this Fall at Cal Poly Pomona.  On one of the first outreaches we had, Kevin met two teenagers whose names were Eric and Alex (girl).  They connected well in that first encounter and Kevin invited Eric and Alex to attend our weekly meetings on Monday nights and church on Sundays.  They showed up for every one for the next 6 weeks!  They met tons of students, and by the last week of summer mission, one of the women got to pray with Alex to receive Jesus as her Savior!

Tiffany will be a sophomore this Fall at Cal State Chico.  She came to SaMoSuMi new in her faith and insecure about being a part of a community that felt more “spiritual” than she.  She asked tons of questions throughout her discipleship times, trusted the Lord with sharing her faith, and dove into community.  By the end of the summer she couldn’t wait to share how the Lord had worked in her life and how excited, yet nervous, she was to take what she’d  learned back to campus! 

Prayer & Praise!

• For each student from SaMoSuMi15 to process all the Lord did in those 8 weeks, and use them to catalyze life change around them on campus!
• For Alex and the 37 other men and women who received Jesus as Savior this summer; that they would continue to grow in their relationship with Him.
• For Becky, Sarah, and Ethan as they kickoff a new school year next week.

Thank You!

For all you invest to see Jesus change the lives of college students for eternity!  We are grateful to partner with you!

(If you don’t currently receive our monthly prayer letters and would like to, send your email address to scott.slamer@cru.org, or click the “Follow” button on the right.)

Last week we closed out SaMoSuMi15. It was quite a ride and challenging at times. Yet, as 73 students worshipped & loved on each other Thursday night and embraced each other as they moved out of the Palm motel on Friday…we rejoice in what the Lord did in drawing this community together and we are so excited to see what the Lord has for them as they head back to their campuses! Keep walking with Jesus SaMoSuMi15! He is worthy of our lives! Much ❤ from the Slamers!!

It’s an amazing joy to be on Cru staff now, alongside the man who taught me so much about my faith when I was a college student.  Brent Larson was my first ever Bible study leader and discipler at Cal Poly Pomona!  He persevered even when I would rather spend my evenings drinking beer and watching the first season of Friends, than attending a Cru weekly meeting.  I shared my faith on campus for the first time with him, learned what my “testimony” was, and made tons of hilarious videos to show at Cru weekly meetings.  I loved spending time with Brent again this summer at Cru15!

One of the greatest joys of staff conference is seeing friends from all over! We didn’t get pics with everyone we got time with but had to give a shoutout to these three that all happen to live in Orlando! We met the Hudkins on Lake Hart Stint back in 2005 when we lived in Orlando and worked at our world headquarters! It was such a great year and we have loved staying connected with them! Diane has known me since I was a student. We first met in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 1995. She has seen me grow up and walk through many seasons of life & ministry! I respect and admire her so much. I love that we now share a heart for so many things and love being homeschooling staff moms together!! I count it such a privilege to have her speak into my life. The Deguias are a joy! Gabe & I staffed the Ocean City Summer Mission back in 1999 and have been friends ever since. Our shared love for people and a good laugh have brought so many fun memories. As our families have grown, getting to know Rachel has been a treasure and we enjoy them so much! We have a tradition of seeing each other at the same restaurant every staff conference that I hope never ends!

This is just a sampling of the incredible men and women of God we had the privilege to be exhorted and challenged by at our national staff conference in Colorado…Francis Chan, Milton Massie, Ney Bailey, James White, Dennis Rainey, Steve Douglass, Steve Sellers, Mark Gauthier, Patty McCain, Dr. John Perkins, Darryl Smith, Judy Douglass, Christina Cleveland, Greg & Charmaine Lillestrand, & Andy Crouch! So much to process still but encouraged as we move forward in walking with Jesus and sharing His good news!

With thousands of other Cru staff on Day 4 of sessions of our National Staff Conference…lots to process. I so appreciate our leadership and how they are leading us in our continuing commitment to share the gospel, to move toward ethnic diversity and in building partnerships to trust the Lord together to change the world for His glory!!