CHANGE IS NOT EASY

In my last letter, I talked about how New Jersey is a “different world”… but really, it’s more like college life is a different world.

When a freshman walks onto the college campus, he/she is very aware of the differences from home life. Sometimes these differences stem from their ethnic cultures. Often students will start to feel alone, misunderstood, and frustrated by the second month of the semester… unless they meet a friend… someone else who may feel alone or scared but chooses to smile and say “hello”.

Beyond college life, many people are scared of what they do not know or understand and often that leads to assimilation or isolation. However, when someone is bold enough to engage with another person made in the likeness of God, they choose freedom over the bondage of fear.

A friend of mine gave her 3-year old daughter advice for whenever she would meet someone new at our biennial staff conference in July of this year. After her daughter greeted me, Sarah said “Pheobe, do you have a question for Ms. Tabitha?” “Oh yes…. Ummm…. What’s one good thing that happened to you today?” Pheobe would reply. Sarah is teaching her young daughter to not live in fear of the unknown when it comes to relationships but to engage in conversation that leads to freedom over fear.

At Cru15, I witnessed God do something with the fear once in our leaders hearts that was passed on to the 5,000 staff in the room.

Steve Sellers and the national leadership team began to look around and truly SEE who was and who was NOT yet in the room and then they encouraged us to wrestle with the question “why”...Why were there so few ethnic minorities on staff with the ministries of Cru in the United States?

I believe this year's national staff conference was the visible beginning of change for Cru in the U.S. and may even impact Christian evangelicals in America for the next decade. For forty days before the conference, staffs were invited to fast and pray for the Lord's hand in and through Cru15. The staff at Cru15 engaged in difficult conversations, many of which helped bring up some underlying racism they didn't know existed. We did this so that we can move to expand in our diversity ethnically as staff in order to show God’s love in our unity to a dividing nation. We were also challenged to grow in our commitment to share the Good news, move forward in building partnerships with the body of Christ, and take the good news beyond our borders so that everyone may have the opportunity to know God personally.

Working with my Father

Everyday is "Take Your Daughter to Work" day for me bc I get to join my heavenly Father and watch Him do these amazing things! Check out this video! So cool!

http://vimeo.com/91575798

#Cru #2014 #AmazingGod #StudentTestimonies #Stories #ToGodbetheglory #YoungPeople #happy #JCru #NewJersey #Christians #diversity #encouraged #myjob

A Willing Heart

Will you check out this video describing the organization I work with as a full-time missionary and consider joining my team through prayer or financial support today?

Back to campus life...

Hey friends!
I hope your summers have been just as rejuvenating as mine has! I’ve been praying about what to tell you in this newsletter since summers are so unique on staff with Cru. If I’m not on a mission trip (summer project) or taking classes, most of the summer consists of planning and preparing for the new academic year, connecting with students, and encouraging them to walk closely with Jesus. As you already know, this summer consisted of classes at the Institute of Biblical Studies in Orlando. August however, was very strategic.

  Just two weeks ago, I finished my New Staff Development Curriculum and then went to the Jersey Metro staff retreat. This year we have one new intern coming to Kean University, Joel Aponte (pictured right with Jon & Mario - Kean Cru student leaders), and two part-time female staff for the North and the South parts of the Jersey Metro team. Please pray for Joey & Jenn Sforza (pictured left) who have been raising their financial support for two years and have not yet reported to full-time campus work. We need them in the Urban region, especially at Jersey City University and Kean! Just following the retreat, we had one full week of staff meetings 10-4 everyday to pray, strategically plan, have devotions, and set goals for the entire state. I’m so excited to see what God is going to do at Kean University!

This week is already the first week at Kean University for incoming freshmen. Upperclassmen move in on Friday and classes start on Tuesday, Sept. 4th.  Please pray for the Kean Cru leaders to continue to prioritize their relationships with Jesus as the semester begins to unravel and that be an overflow of their service to the King. These leaders truly love Jesus and want to see His kingdom expanded here, but it can be often difficult to keep that a priority when there are so many other things fighting for their attention as students with jobs other responsibilities. Please pray for me as well as I take on more responsibility with multiple students and ministries in the Urban section of New Jersey, that I may keep Jesus as the focus of my time and affection. :)

These leaders will be coming together on September 14th with Christian student leaders from around the state ministry. Please pray that God will give them wisdom to learn what to do at Kean to reach their community here with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for your prayers and financial support, which encourages us all as we prepare! :)

Working alongside Christ,

 Tabitha Morales

Kean Cru Light Sounds

So excited to see Kean Cru in the Kean University Cougar's Byte (weekly newspaper) and on their social media blog-site, KeanXchange. Click here to watch the video. My job at Kean University is basically three-fold; I share my faith with students who don't know Jesus, disciple women who do know Jesus (teaching them to walk with God at the center of their lives), and to coach/train Christian leaders to do the same after they graduate. 

Throughout the past year and a half, I have re-gathered and aligned the Cru student leaders at Kean University who have a heart to reach the campus as though they were missionaries sent to it. These are mature believers in Christ, passionate about seeing God's kingdom come. Last year we prayed for men leaders and this year, God provided six men who have stepped up to leadership. We also prayed for more students to come hear about God's love during our Bible Studies and 50 students showed up regularly during our Thursday night Bible studies last semester (including someone practicing Islam and another struggling with homosexuality). Last semester we prayed that God would make His name known at Kean; so that Jesus' name would no longer be common as a swear word but as legitimate conversation about who He was and why we live like He is! This semester the student leaders at Kean Cru planned how they can effectively reach their campus for Christ. After they won the "Special Projects" award (a grant for any event a non-funded group wants to put on), they used the money to plan a jazz music/spoken-word night called "light sounds". The outreach was fully funded by Kean University Student Org! The intention of the night was to show how college students who enjoy music, poetry, and FREE FOOD can also love and live for Jesus Christ. This wonderful event made the Cougar's Byte (pictured above) the following week and even the social media site, KeanXchange.

Praise God! His name is being made famous! :)

Car Updates

I'm currently working with mats.org to get a car in my price-range that is small (because parking in Jersey City is a nightmare) and gas-effiecient (because I drive 200 miles a week)! I've made a faith goal of $10k to purchase a vehicle that would meet my needs. The combination of what my insurance company will be giving me and my tax-refund will leave me just about $1500 short of that goal.

I'm currently waiting to see how God will provide the rest of the money or which car He will provide for me. I was considering a hybrid, but the potential battery maintenence I will need to pay for doesn't really make it worth it. Last car I had, Toyota Yaris, is the most gas-effiecient car I know with 35-38 miles/gallon.

Please pray I make a wise decision that would help me to continue my ministry work here in NJ for many years to come. I'm so excited to see how God will work!

New to Christ?

Are you a new believer? Just prayed that prayer and wanna know more? Do you have a friend who is a new believer or someone you know who may want to know the basics of the faith?

Check this out: http://www.startingwithgod.com/starter-kit/ 


Here’s what’s you’ll receive in “The Spiritual Starter Kit” via email if you sign up:

• How to be sure that Jesus Christ entered your life.
• What God did to draw you to himself.
• What’s different about God’s love and why that matters.
• Why your relationship with God is secured by him, not you.
• What it means to trust God.
• What if you sin? Does God still forgive you?
• How to find a church, other Christians, or a Christian group on your campus.

Tecumseh

Jersey Metro students pray for the state

This was our planning retreat back in January. Without this retreat, I'm not sure half the things happening on campus would be possible today. Students are currently so overwhelmed with work and classes, that planning for ministry stuff would be impossible at this point.

Thank God that that's not really an issue for most of our students. One thing we planned for ahead of time at this retreat, was as a state to have an event called "Quest Week". This is a week where our students from all 33 campuses around the state take the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit to step out on campus and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with students, faculty and staff at their schools. From 5-question spiritual surveys called "Quest" to picture surveys called "Soularium" and outreaches called "Pizza and God", students have been trained in a variety of tools to strategically bring up "Jesus" in their conversations! This week has been covered in prayer and hundreds of conversations have already been had and it's only Wednesday! God is doing great things here and I'm so happy to have you as part of it.

Liscet, Christa, Joe, Ali, Sharon, Sindy, Maria, me

To the right is a picture of some of the students leaders at Kean University, my alma mater. These students worked diligently to come up with their own mission statement, vision, and goals they want to see accomplished specifically at Kean! They have been meeting weekly to discuss the details of these plans, pray, and see God move. Thursday night is their typical weekly meeting, but these students are working everyday to see God be glorified at Kean! This Quest week, they have shared their faith in the University center through Soularium (pictured below) and even tonight through "Chill & Chat", their version of "Pizza & God", which is an open conversation where pizza is given for free and conversations about God and spiritual things are promoted.

QT - "In Remembrance of Me"...

When I think about God's works, I'm saddened by and even disappointed in my preference of the technologies of today. I was born and raised in New York City and very little amazes me or makes me wow. I remember the first time I went to Florida with my family to visit friends & family who boasted about how amazing the light show at Disney was. Based off of their description, my family and I were excitedly awaiting the spectacular show! As the show began, I remember thinking "I've seen this before, but I guess it's nice to see it in Disney World". It really didn't baffle me or cause me to be in awe at all. I had grown up in the city that never sleeps! I had seen the NYC 4th of July Fireworks on TV and from over the river near my home in the Bronx! I had been to Times Square many times at night where the  sky is constantly lit with a plethora of colors! I was numb to the live up close version in Florida because I was so used to my own.

I've realized lately how in a similar pattern, that's so effectively dimmed the potential brilliant view of God, the I AM. In Bible Study yesterday there were several opinions about what that could have meant, "I AM". Did God give Moses a vague answer (Exodus 3:14)? Did God give him a very specific answer in His way of using our language to captivate all of who He is as to say He simply "is"? I don't know, I'm not sure yet. But I know God wanted to get across to Moses (which we all agreed to) that He is sufficient enough that Moses doesn't need details, like a name that mankind has given Him. He simply needs to trust. I realize I similarly have a dulled view of who the I AM truly is. Like the light show in Disney that didn't amaze me. It's as though I've become numb to hearing that CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS FOR MY SINS. It becomes a ritual phrase Christians use without an ounce of brain energy or a phrase unbelievers use to mock us. 

Why does it seem like it was more possible to be deeply intimate with the Father before mankind started to create a new world? Well for one, there was more discipline in the old days. We could blame it on the generations. For another, there is more technology now...easier to be busy, we can say. But really I think we've chosen to dumb ourselves down by choosing the most comfortable convenient route little by little, day by day. There is very little reliance on the Holy Spirit when I want to do something nowadays. Think of the shepherds in scripture for example. They look up at the sky and they can see the glory of God and be grateful each time because they have light to work and night to cool down. They have rain to care for their crops and sun to feed them. They have clouds to shade their animals from dehydration and they have stars to lighten the night. I look up in the sky and it's like I've become numb. Don't get me wrong, as an artist I LOVE THE BEAUTY of every piece of the heavens, but am I grateful for that which lays in the heavens beyond that which is pleasing to my eyes? Not even rarely.

I heard it said that our sun is the smallest known star in the universe and yet we can fit 1.2 million earths in our sun! Whenever I stop to meditate on and savor the amazing gift Jesus is in my life, I HOPE I AM humbled and overwhelmed with a sense of repentance, followed by gratitude and then with joy...AND NOT JUST NUMB TO THE THOUGHT.

March, 2010 Newsletter

What lasts in a changing world? What matters at the end of it all?

Our gifts and our work for the Kingdom! 

Thank you for having an eternal perspective in your giving!

A junior Psychology major, Suzanne Dematteo, has been fellowshipping with Cru at Montclair State University for some time now. As a commuter, there wasn’t much she could do to participate and give to the ministry. Here is her story about how she turned from a member to an involved active believer:

“At the end of last year Jonny (our Cru President) asked me to consider switching to the Prayer team. I thought & prayed about it over the summer and I really felt like I had to find a way to incorporate weekly prayer into all our lives without necessarily having a physical meeting. I am a commuter and I work so it is difficult for me to be on campus as much as everyone else. I started praying about different ways I could make prayer more visible in Cru. While I was praying I was also reading this book called, "31 Days of Prayer" by Ruth Meyers. It’s basically like a couple paragraphs of prayer on a certain theme for each day of the month. That is how God placed the idea of weekly prayer emails on my heart. I found that reading those prayers helped me to articulate what I wanted to pray about. It made my devotions and prayer life more productive because I could fit them easily into a day packed with other things. As college students I know it’s difficult to have regular devotion time and for new believers it’s also hard to know what or even how to pray. I thought the emails would be a good easy daily help and reminder for college students as well as a jumping point for other prayer ministries to get started. 

So that’s what got the emails started and encouragement from my friends and family as well as God giving me a heart to keep doing it is what makes me continue to write them! It really does amaze me though that people read them and are encouraged by them because honestly sometimes I just feel like I’m rambling on and no one will get what I’m praying. What I write in those emails is always what the Lord has been affecting me with in my own devotional time so I get nervous sometimes wondering what people think! But it’s for God's glory so I just leave it in His hands!”

This past month I moved back home with my parent’s in the Bronx of New York City to save money as I raise support. Left, I'm with my niece Gia and nephew Aaron. 

Please pray that as I am here, I can expand my network and meet new people to join our team as I sense the urgency to reach college student’s for Christ!

Proverbs 3:5, 6 reminds me that God always keeps His promises and like many Olympians I am confident that even though it can look like lost hope, as I persevere and finish the race, God will bring the reward.