Snippets of Last Year

It's been a while since I updated you on what's happening on the campuses of New Jersey with Cru, so here are some short snippets from my monthly prayer letter. If you ever wanted to sign up to receive these letters via email, click here.

November

YOU'RE INVITED
The month of November was full of invitations for students. The Jersey Metro staff team invited students to Jersey Cru (pictured above) where students heard invitations to our winter conference called “RADIATE”, and to Summer Mission with Cru.

 Every year, we invite students to these conferences to give them opportunities to grow in their faith with other students in similar life stages and college circumstances. One of these students, Kassy Martinez (pictured left), is an emcee at our statewide meeting who’s been involved in the ministry at Kean University for three years. Last year, both emcees were our student representatives for RADIATE encouraging other students to attend the 4-day conference in DC. 

For the last two summers, Jeffery has participated and some form of summer mission but Kassy confessed she’s avoided it. Before an audience of her peers, Kassy confessed her selfishness and fear that prevented her from living on mission for God during her summers. At that moment, she declared that before graduation in May, she would apply for a summer mission trip with Cru. She’s not yet sure if she will go to the Dominican Republic or our stateside partnership – Hampton Beach, NH so please continue to keep her in your prayers as she prepares to raise the funds necessary to go. 

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December

Luis & Chris-John at Fall Retreat in October 

As our new staff, Joel Aponte, continues to raise his support away from campus activities, I’ve had the privilege of stepping in to coach the NJIT Cru ministry.  The New Jersey Institute of Technology is full of aspiring engineers who enjoy math, science & strategic planning.

Several of these fun & intelligent young men lead the movement of 10 students. Please pray for Chris-John, Luis, Nick & Tyler as they help lead their campus to Christ. March 2^nd, they will have an outreach called Pizza & God. 

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January

All throughout Scripture, God promises to be with his people. From the pillar of cloud in Exodus, to the Great Commission in Matthew, God assures his people over and over again that he will be with them wherever they go.

WITH US

This year, speakers at our winter conference (RADIATE) taught on this life-giving truth, and the implications it has for us today. 1,228 students from New York to Virginia packed into a DC hotel for four days to learn more about the great God we serve. Almost 100 students from New Jersey took this opportunity to grow in their faith and in community with other college students.

 

622 students signed this pledge: "Lord Jesus, I submit to you and in the power of your Spirit, I will...go where you want me to go, do what you want me to do, say what you want me to say, and give what you want me to give." Of those who signed the pledge, 29 trusted Christ as their Savior, 110 committed to spending at least a year of their life in full-time vocational ministry and 283 committed to going on a Summer Mission with Cru! 

Last letter, I told you about Kassy  (pictured right of me) who made a pledge before 200 of her peers at Jersey Cru to go on a Summer Mission Trip. I’m happy to report that she has just been accepted to the two-week missions trip to the Dominican Republic! Please pray for her and the other Jersey students who will begin raising the financial support necessary to go this summer!

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8PM Midnight Prayer

This is happening tonight! Shining a light at Rutgers University in New Brunswick only a week away from Halloween! Please cover us in your prayers team!

NJMetro Summit

Nearly 100 students showed up!

Sept. 14th 7-11pm, nearly 100 students showed up to a room on the College ave Campus of Rutgers University to realign themselves to the mission of this movement and to reconnect with students from around the state involved in similar ministries. They listened to Mark Scott, our new state director, cast vision for the ministry.

They connected with staff and students from across the state, sharing stories about all that God is doing from Kean University to Rowan University in south NJ.



They planned for how best they would each reach their campus for Christ, influencing the state and ultimately the world!  Praise God for all that He has done!

This is one of our new banners! :)

Keeping Tabs Jan2012

RADIATE.2011—Be Free

Every New Year, I have the wonderful opportunity to worship into the New Year with hundreds of students from the mid-atlantic region. This year 937 students from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey gathered in the Baltimore Inner Harbor to develop their relationships with Jesus through fellowship, training, worship and prayer.

 Pastor Jackson Crum, Claude Hickman and Roger Hershey all spoke on the topic “be free”. In and through their teaching, felt God challenge me to give a detailed testimony, known as a “soul to soul”, to the women involved at Kean Cru. Little did I know this time, which included my sister, developed a greater feeling of freedom within the women to be open and honest about where God has convicted them of sin. Since that night, I’ve been able to privately meet with several of these women and encourage them, as Paul did in Ephesians 5:8, to walk as children of light.

One of the great things about conferences like these is that I am able to reunite with the students I worked with this past summer at Hampton Beach, NH Summer Project. It was really encouraging to see the women from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia & North Carolina persevering and “running the race.”

Jersey Metro Planning Summit - Tecumseh 2012

This Friday is the Jersey Metro Planning Retreat at Tecumseh! 

This is where we make plans for the semester! :)

Tecumseh Planning Retreat:
Students just returned from winter break, classes have started and they're barely back on their feet. It's times like this when we need the body of Christ the most and where we need to realign ourselves to the mission God has called us to and refocus our vision and plans. We’re getting away for a weekend of prayer, training, planning and connecting with others. Pray for us as our students come and readjust their focus as we realign ourselves to the vision of our ministry as a state.

When: This Friday, January 27-28th, 2012.

Check out this email I created to inform our students.

- Jersey Metro Staff Team

 

 

Jersey Metro Mission:

"By all possible means, let us advance God's kingdom by making Christ fully known on every campus, influencing the state and ultimately the world."

 

FR.2010 - From the Inside Out

Every October, Jersey Metro joins the Westchester team and this year, the Philly Metro team of Campus Crusade for Christ to have a fun weekend away at Harvey Cedars Bible Conference. This Fall Retreat is meant to give our students a time to rest and draw closer to God as they are away from midterms and work for the weekend.
      This year, Roger Hershey spoke about living a life surrendered to Christ and led by the Holy Spirit from the Inside Out. Our Jersey Cru emcees engaged the 200+ students and our band led them in worship all five meetings. The students had a chance to attend seminars that trained them in living the spirit-filled life and so much more.

Chinwe (Pictured right) prayed with her best friend, Ashley (on right), to receive Christ just last year. Ashley is a freshman at Rutgers Newark helping me to pioneer a CCC ministry there. So far Ashley has enjoyed growing in her faith at Fall Retreat and meeting many other Christians at Jersey Cru.  I've always known God has been active in my life even before I got saved but seeing how he impacted others life as we all got to know each other at the Fall Retreat was truly amazing. I've never been in an environment with so many Christians so I know God put me there for a reason. My experience at the retreat changed the way I look at life and people for the better. It was as if God had the speakers write their speech specifically for me because I related to everything so much it was almost scary. God spoke through the speakers and taught me not to judge others because of their sexuality or due to jealousy which unfortunately are things that I used to do. Hearing that God loves me, will do anything for me and deserves to be praised and worshipped was nothing new to me, it was just how the speakers attached what I already knew to situations in everyday life. Everything that happened at the retreat happened for a reason and I thank God for giving me such a wonderful experience. – Ashley Ezewuiro, Rutgers University – Newark, NJ