McComas Ministry

We’re currently at our biannual national staff conference where it was just announced that the name of Campus Crusade for Christ will be officially changed to Cru. It’s an intriguing process that is weighty and has a huge impact on lowering the barrier for us to talk about Jesus in the Portland area. We’re cautiously optimistic about the name change. You can read more about the decision here!

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask us. Rest assured that we will still be taking the message of Christ to the heart of the campuses of Portland on the way to reaching the world for Christ!

Greeting from 6200 feet above sea level in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, California! 71 students  plus 37 staff and student staff are experiencing God, the mission, and roaming black bears while on the Lake Tahoe Summer Project right now!

More than one-third of the students on project this summer gave their life to the Lord within the past year. Now for the first time, many of them are experiencing Biblical community and the joy of communicating to others what God has done in their life. Within the first two weeks we’ve already seen students making drastic changes to their lives and take huge steps of faith!

The best is yet to come with an ice cream slip and slide, the fourth of July outreach and project turnover right around the corner. We’re dreaming that this summer would launch students on a new trajectory of serving the Lord for the next 50 years of their lives! Maybe some of these students will be on your staff team in the future!

Our April Newsletter is freshly baked! Get a glimpse of what went on during spring break, hear about our Lake Tahoe plans and please pray for us for key events!

We love our ministry partners! Thanks so much for investing in the lives of college students. It’s worth it! Please let us know you’re reading this and comment on this post. We love to hear from you.

Our February 2011 Newsletter is hot off the presses. Get a taste of what we’re doing launching movements around the city plus an update on current events and our Lake Tahoe Sumer Project.

We continue to covet your prayers for us and our team as we fire on all cylinders here in Portland!

We just returned from our annual Cru Conference in Spokane. To use the student lingo…it was epic! Here are some of the highlights

• 560 students and almost 200 staff from around the northwest attended.
• Students shared the gospel with more than 450 people in person and more than 100 on facebook
• 46 people indicated decision for Christ
• Students and staff pledged more than $16k toward reaching ethnic students in the northwest and beyond.
• Hundreds of students took steps of faith to initiate spiritual conversations
• The dance party! If you’re on facebook check it out here.
• Our six Portland students where stretched, change and met with the Lord. They loved it and vowed to return next year with more students!

The Christmas season is upon us!

We just wrapped up our first “term” here in Portland. It’s been an intense season of life for us as we adjust to a new city, a new job, a new staff team and a new little boy! But God continues to meet us, shape us and help us find strength in him.

Our little family is doing well. Jenna is loving preschool and Isaac is finally sleeping more which makes Mommy and Daddy very, VERY happy.

Pray for us as we head our to our annual Winter Conference in Spokane on the 27th. We’re excited to take a handful of great students from Portland with us. We’re looking forward to seeing what God does in the lives of our staff and students while we’re there.

Today was a historic day.

We got about the business of launching the ministry at Portland State University today. By the way, PSU is the largest university in Oregon and the third largest in all of our Campus Crusade region, behind U. of Washington and U. of Utah. Didn’t know that, did you?

We started with a short discussion on this powerful article by Tim Keller to give us a framework for our heart to see this urban campus transformed. Keller’s stuff is what pushed me toward making the decision to move to Portland. For Keller fan boys, here’s a link of all his stuff.

Then believing God to breakthrough on campus in powerful ways we braved 97 degree temperature and pounded the streets for information. Joined by five of the regional office interns today that will be working with us 1 day a week this fall we gathered information that will shape our initiatives, outreaches and strategies.

Looking forward to the day when at PSU there is a community where the gospel captures hearts, transforms lives, and launches men and women into a lifelong adventure with Jesus Christ.

If you’re like us then you’re praying for the nation of Haiti in their hour of need and wondering what you can do to help.

You can  contribute directly to relief work in the area through Global Aid Network (GAiN), the relief and development  arm of Campus Crusade for Christ. GAiN already has containers with 1 million meals in it in Haiti and eight more containers of food and critically needed supplies ready to ship to Haiti.  GAiN’s primary need at the moment is financial resources to distribute the goods they have to the people of Haiti.