Colorado Picture Update

This Summer was full of fun new relationships! 

Pictured right is the coaching group I was with every day of the first six weeks of the Summer. These women will all be leading in the Mid-Atlantic region under the direction of Jen Durlin, our regional/national director (center).

I really enjoyed getting to know each of them in a real way and can't wait to see how God uses us across the region! :)

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Other Vital Relationships: This Summer had lots of difficult moments that could only be faced in prayer with my sisters in Christ.

   A Jersey Metro Cru almuni, Jess Fong, was one of those women I leaned on often! We prayed multiple times through the tears of pain brought on by the enemy's attempted attack on our identity as ethnic minorities within Cru. Now headed to work with The Epic Movement of Cru in CA, I'm sure prayers will only increase. It's a blessing to my hear to know this gorgeous woman!

Patrice Holmes is a new but dear friend who lived in the dorm next door to mine all Summer long. We had long, honest and difficult conversations about reaching ethnic minorities within the United States Campus Ministry of Cru and The Impact Movement. It was so good to have Patrice around to challenge, encourage and pray with.

Since taking classes at the Institute of Biblical Studies with Cru last year, I have known Brianna Esa to be a warm, loving, compassionate woman growing deeply in love with the Savior. This Summer, our relationship grew to a new place of encouragement. Bri is on staff with The Destino Movement in LA and has become a great friend of mine, in spite of the distance.

In the Summer of 2008, at Rollins College near Orlando, Florida, I joined staff with Beth Hasbrouck. She is by far, one of my favorite people on this earth! It was God's sovereign plan to have us be two doors away from each other all Summer long as she took the classes I took last year with Patrice and Brianna.

Beth is on staff with Cru - Inner City, Chicago and keeps in touch regularly as an encouraging and motivating friend.

The 4 of us at Horsetooth, CO

Surviving VS Thriving

WE SURVIVED! 

...AND THRIVED!

It's been an extremely DIFFICULT and yet EXCITING month! 

I expected to do a lot of planning for the Fall and I knew my role on staff would be different but I didn't expect to have so much more responsibility. My new role as the Missional Team Leader (MTL) in the Urban area in New Jersey expands my responsibility to coach a team of student leaders to include staff and intern leaders as well!

To the left is a collage of pictures of my coaching group this Summer on our trip to go white-water rafting. Being a city girl, I didn't often enter into nature's uncontrollable scene. That was God's work and I typically appreciated it from afar with my paint brush and canvas but this time God had something else in mind! I was SO nervous to head into the unfamiliar and basically learn through experience and yet, none of us fell out or were injured! Our guide was younger than us and had only a High School education but he was the expert and knew how to correct our mistakes if and when we did!

Similarly, I know the Holy Spirit is an expert (at the very least) in winning people to Himself! He controls the waves of the sea and he reigns over the waves of ministry! 

Just as the guide taught us how to row correctly, my job now calls me to be a guide and coach the staff, interns & student leaders in how to lead others to Christ, build them up & send them into mission. As their team leader, I will have to be the example but I can't do it alone. I need the help of my team to maneuver through the waves of ministry and I especially need the leading of the Holy Spirit to show us where to go.

• Please take a moment to stop and pray for the Holy Spirit to move before us in the lives of students who don't yet know Christ and those who know Him but don't know how to serve yet.
• Please also pray that God will remove all obstacles that can cause our team to row out of sync and any obstacles that may not allow us to report to campus full-time. (ie: financial support) Pray that we may thrive in His power!

Prayer for Tab's Summer 2011

Hey readers!
Here's a quick 3 point update of my life... (HBSP, NST & Personal) read with caution :)

Hampton Beach Summer Project:
I just returned from a summer project trip to New Hampshire (with 24 students and 14 staff) where I...

• ...discipled 3 student women (Lauren from Salisbury U. in Maryland, Julie from Towson U. in Maryland, Alison from Virginia Tech) on what it means to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• ...trained one of the small servant teams of our students on how to plan and put together a weekly meeting (kinda like a church service)
• The other groups were prayer team, evangelism team, community team, etc.
  
• ...shared my faith on the beach & taught my students how to do so in a variety of fun ways!

Prayer Request:
The staff left after training and teaching and now all the students have taken leadership roles and run the ministry in NH for the last 5 weeks of the project without staff! This is where I feel like Paul, leaving those who I've helped train in the faith and entrusting them to God to lead the movement where they are. Please pray for me to let go and allow the Lord to work on their lives. And pray for the students to work well together so that their love for one another may be shown outward to those who don't yet know Jesus Christ.

Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) National Staff Conference
I will be leaving for Colorado next Monday for our National Staff Conference (which happens every two years)

• It's a refreshing time for staff to be poured into and relax with our main speaker, Francis Chan
• I'll also be updated on what's happening around the world with Campus Crusade for Christ! :) (probably my favorite part)
  
• Lastly, I'll be informed on any changes CCC is making and trained in new ways to advance God's kingdom within my field (college students)

Prayer Request:
I will be with over 6000 other staff at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO. Please pray for my flight and for how I manage finances while I'm there.