The highlights included…

• cooking up 30 lbs. of meat. Thanks Jody!
• Watching students connect with students from other campuses
• Seeing students pray for their campuses
• Listening to Natalie (University of Portland) tell her story of life change over the last school year
• Our staff calling students into the mission of the reaching the campus for Christ and challenging them to begin to multiply their lives spiritual through leading a small group.
• Seeing students respond to the vision of someday every student on every campus in Portland having a chance to say yes to Christ.

This was a great night that is all about mobilizing students into what God is asking them to do. What a privilege it is for me to help our staff lead this ministry. This was a night that I’m sure we’ll look back on and give thanks for many years to come.

Thanks for your prayers and support. We couldn’t do this without you!

For those of you who support the ministry of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), God has done some pretty amazing things this year.  It is really quite staggering.  Thanks to your help, students and faculty all over the world are hearing the gospel and are experiencing life-change.  Here are some of my favorite highlights of what God has done:

1. Your financial support has given 10 million people a chance to know God personally this past year.  That works out to someone every three seconds hearing the gospel.  (And this is just through the US Campus Ministry arm of Cru.)
2. Thanks to your help 119,000 people began a relationship with Christ – enough to fill two Astrodomes to max capacity.
3. At the University of Iowa, over 1,500 students crammed into a 1,000-seat venue to attend an outreach with an Illusionist called the “Maze.” Another 1,000 students were turned away due to maximum capacity.
4. The Portland Winter Conference changed the life of one young man, a former member of “The Century” club in his fraternity.  His goal used to be to sleep with 100 women in a year.  Changed by the power of the Gospel, he is now a student leader on his campus.
5. This winter around 3,000 students showed up for our Korean American Winter Conferences.  Most people don’t even know that we have a ministry targeting Korean American students; much less that it is one of our largest ethnic student ministries.  We also have ministries targeting African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native American, as well as international students.     
6. Thanks to your support nearly 1,000 international students from 57 nations attended our Vision 2011 Conference.  Half of those students were not yet Christians.
7. The students who attended our Winter Conferences pledged over a quarter million dollars to missions for this coming year.  Over $150,000 of that was given in cash during those conferences.
8. Your support has given 42,000 high school and middle school students an opportunity to know Christ, and 4,500 began a relationship with him.  Did you know that over 70% of our high school and middle school ministries are run by volunteers?
9. More than 3,200 faculty and students went on summer mission trips this summer, investing their lives in others.  Midshipmen at the Naval Academy went on mission projects to Haiti, Venezuela, and Kenya – even though they had less than one month off for the summer.
10. This past year you have helped send and sustain 750 foreign missionaries to 35 nations around the world - many of whom are serving in the least evangelized parts of the world, such as the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

As I reflect on all that God has done through your support I am reminded of the passage in Ephesians that says it is purely by God’s grace that any of us know him.  Paul goes on to say, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). Thank you for the GOOD WORK you have been part of in reaching students and faculty for Christ around the world!

God connected us with leaders on at least two new campuses and the potential for a significant group of Asian Americans is off the charts thanks to the efforts of the spring breakers. What a privilege it was to mobilize the spring breakers strategically to help make Christ known on all the campuses in Portland.

I got this text from a MSU staff intern who joined us for the week. He was in a small group with me back in the day at MSU and wrote “God broke me for the city. I’m going to apply to some business and law schools in the Portland area. Could you use me and my wife as volunteer staff?”

YES!

This is the last day we were with the group. We were overlooking the city where my co-leader Justin was giving them vision for reaching the 100 thousand college students of Portland with the gospel and inviting them to join us in Portland. Powerful time.

1. Would you join our staff team in praying for open doors with key business leaders in the Portland area?
2. If you know of anyone who is remotely connected with Portland and would be encouraged to hear about our teams ministry efforts will you contact me and let me know?
3. If you are interested in contributing directly to campus outreaches, students scholarships, etc. please visit our give site!
4. Please take a minute and invite others to check out our give site too. Feel free to post http://give.pdxcru.com on facebook. The more exposure we have the better. Thanks so much!

We appreciate you all so much. If you have any questions please let me know. Blessings!

Matt

All the while we’ve been hard at work juggling parenting or lively kids, and our “real” job of directing our staff team in the ministry of making Christ known on the campuses of Portland.

Thankfully, we’ve had time to sit and reflect on how gracious God is in his provision and protection as well as how thankful we are for the relationships we have in this life. Many of you have offered words of encouragement along the way and we’re so thankful for you.

We are more committed than ever to seeing God’s Kingdom expand here in Portland. We believe whole heartedly that the students of Portland are a key step in seeing the city transformed for the glory of God. Please continue to pray for this place. God is on the move. We’ve seen more momentum in the last 4 weeks than ever before. Even today I heard a story about a student placing her faith in Christ at University of Portland.

Have a wonderful weekend!

“Thank you so much Cru Conference! You saved me from the destructive lifestyle I have set for myself. Without this event I don’t know where I’d be. Please tell all the staff about this. I am the reason you guys do what you do, I am the reason you CAN’T ever stop. God is so great to ME I can’t than you enough. I have changed my life around and set in motion a life I want want to live for God!”  – Riley, Univ. of Idaho

“I first came to God because of all sorts of pain. After a while, I started to give up on God to heal all of my pain from the past. I used ultimate Frisbee to escape from it all and fill my time. After Holly’s talk, instead of giving up, I want to surrender the pain. Instead of escaping, I want to rest in Him.” – Andy, PSU

“I gained confidence in sharing the gospel, and I loved being reminded to listen when I share. I gained new perspective on how sharing is not out of obligation, but out of a need for others to hear.” – Bekah, Univ. of Portland

“I was reminded that everyone is on a spiritual journey, and that people want to talk about deeper things. I want to continue to scatter all the seed because who know what will grow. I’m praying for big things to happen at PSU.” -Renee, PSU

“I gained confidence in my walk with God and facing the lies about sharing my faith.” (In reference to how people don’t want to talk about spiritual things”. – Amanda, Univ. of Portland

“I spirituality is the most important thing in our lives, why isn’t it the most talked about? With the 80 students we have involved at UP, I be collectively we know everyone on campus. We literally could give every student at UP, all 3300, and opportunity to hear the gospel. We could reach our entire campus!” – Zach, Univ. of Portland

Jody continues to recover from surgery. There’s been more pain than we expected, but the Doctors reassure us that everything looks great and it’ll just take time to recover. In the mean-time I’ve been juggling kids and work as Jody can’t lift Isaac so I have to be around just about all the time.

Housing update: after getting some much needed pro-bono help from an attorney our landlord settled on our offer to move out by February 6th with a small compensation to help with our moving expenses. We didn’t have to agree to this, but we’re pretty ready to be out of this house and not have to deal with her/showings/inspections any more. I won’t bore you with the details, but we’re clinging to a slight hope that we’re going to get word that the offer we put in on a house will receive approval by the first of the year, which would be a miracle. We’re asking the Lord to move heavens and earth to get this done. Join with us in prayer! If we don’t have the opportunity to buy that particular house, we’ll either make an offer on another house or rent again (more expensive) if we can’t find anything that we’re excited about. We’re doing our best to trust that the Lord knows what he’s doing and he’s got a great place lined up for us.

Lastly, Christmas is here and I reminded again what the incarnation of Christ means. God stepped into our neighborhood and was completely present with humanity. What a crazy and beautiful reality and what a joy that I serve a God who’s experienced what we’ve experienced and who dives into the muck of humanity to rescue us. For that I worship him this season!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Matt, Jody, Jenna and Isaac

Campus Crusade for Christ — Christmas Thank You from Masterworks on Vimeo.

Thanks for all your prayers. We feel richly blessed by our friends, family, and ministry partners. Your prayers have been carrying us along the last couple of days.

Housing update tomorrow…hopefully.