RADIATE2010 Praise Report!

RADIATE2010:

Praise God! RADIATE was a great success! Here's what one of my freshman students from Kean had to say:

Liscet & Maria (Kean Students)

"To sum RADIATE2010 up in one word it would have to be blessed, in all kinds of ways. It was blessed by amazing speakers and bands. Jesus really spoke through them to a lot of people, including me. It was blessed by awesome emcees that totally rocked the house. It was blessed by a lot of amazing students that loved the Lord and it was so encouraging. Most of all it was blessed by Christ! His Spirit filled the entire week and touched and tugged the hearts He needed to. It was a truly life-changing week." - Maria Y., Kean University

Campuses: NJIT, Kean, NJCU, Rutgers, MSU

Despite the treacherous snow our students and staff had to overcome, we had nearly 900 students in attendance at the 4 day conference in Baltimore. Some students didn’t even think they would make it due to financial circumstances, but God showed up in their time of need through various gifts from churches, family, and friends. To the right is a picture of women from the Jersey Metro Ministry, most of whom didn't think they would be able to make it. But don't just take my word on it, here is Christa’s story:

 “I wanted to go to Radiate this year because I had such an awesome time last year, however I was short on the funds. I prayed about it but some how God assured me that I was going to go, I just didn't know how. I sent out a letter to a few people to support me and asked for some help through some of my facebook statuses. My friend, Crystal Hayden, from Summer Project sent me a partial scholarship for the trip. I was so excited! Coming up with the rest was another concern. I prayed about it some more. I registered the day before registration was over because I still did not have the deposit. Sunday Dec,. 19th I went to a Christmas party at my supervisor's home with my fellow co-workers. We gave our “secret santa” gifts to each other and gave our supervisor his gift from all of us. After we had given him his gift, my co-worker, Erin, gave me a Christmas card. I looked at her in a puzzling way. As I opened the card the whole room was quiet. I understood why, because in the card there was $278 from my whole entire staff! I couldn't believe it. I broke out in tears! The LORD surprised me yet again! He is so faithful! From my staff and from my other supporters I received a total of $603! I gave $100 to my friend who wanted to go as well. God blessed me and through me he blessed my friend Sindy. HE IS SOOO AMAZING !! The best provider ever! This was the best Christmas present ever!”- Christa Diaz, Kean University, KUCru Bible Content Director

Christa, Sindy, Liscet & myself
 chatting at the Late Night Lounge

Christa (far left in picture) used the money she was given to fund her travels, meals and conference stay. She also used it to help a friend (2nd from left in picture) attend the conference. The rest she used to be part of the $25,000 cash donation that was given by the students to our Mid-Atlantic Ministry! Praise God for using them to help His work on the college campuses across all 5 states and in partnering countries around the world! :) 

Back in America

Jenn Lee, student leader from Montclair State University, is.... back in America!

Here is her story!

I am completely blown away as I sit here and reflect on how powerfully and amazingly God has worked in Botswana within the one month I was there! He is so AWESOME! Coming back to the United States has helped me realize how blessed I am and how I take certain things for granted. It helped me appreciate cars stopping in the middle of the road for me, nice hot showers, nice comfy beds and etc.

God has definitely opened my eyes more to the Great Commission: (Matthew 28:18-20) So amazing to see how God wants us to GO and be His ambassadors to make disciples. What an honor we have! :)

(Just a quick summary of what happened during the month at Botswana)

The first two weeks we were at a Feeding Station where around 40-50 children without parents or parents who are unable to feed their children comes to be fed. The cool part about this is that it is operated by a nearby church so most of the children who come to the feeding station attend church service on Sundays! Before eating, we shared a time of praise and a short sermons on the various armors of God. After eating, we got to talk with them, play with them and even dance with them! The children were a complete JOY and they constantly wanted to be played with, held and just loved. It really broke my heart to see most of the older girls (10-12 or even older) always have an infant on their backs. Most of them also wore the same clothing the whole time we were there. But, when they prayed to God and praise Him…their hearts were so pure. Their hearts were so precious!

And of course, there was a lot of spiritual battles. But one of them was the Islamic influence in Botswana. This past year, they build is Islam mosque right by the feeding station and they have been trying to lure the children with food. It was so hard to see some of the children leave to run to them for during the praise and worship even after they were fed really great meals. (Please continue to pray for them).

The rest of the trip we worked on the campus of University of Botswana. It was so amazing to see how receptive people were to the gospel message. I don’t think we had people refusing to hear what we had to say. There were people that I spoke with that were super excited and really wanted to how to receive Christ even before I shared with them! So cool how God prepares their hearts even before we spoke!  A lot of them had questions about the Old testament and the Ten Commandments. It was so cool how I was able to use the things I learned from doing Quiet times that week to answer the questions that they had. Totally the Holy Spirit. There were actually good number of Christians on the campus that fully understood the gospel message so it was really assuring. (There was a huge mosque that was right across from the campus so we’re hoping people aren’t influence by it.) We had over 1000 spiritual conversations and around 50-60 receive Christ within the two weeks we were on campus!

I even had the opportunity to share with the women who were working at the Lodge we were staying at and two of them made the decision to receive Christ into their lives.

Overall, this trip really helped me realize the importance of making the gospel known. We as Christians should always be on “GOSPEL-MODE”…ready and prepared to share the Gospel anywhere and everywhere.

Thanks for all the support through finances and prayer! God bless you all!

Ke a le boga ta ta! Modimo ga orata! (Thank you very much and God loves you!)

Sala Sentle (stay well )

Powerful Message

This is a message from a media ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ's called everystudent.com The website is intended to capture the attention of students who are seeking God and seeking answers to their many questions about Him. There are articles they can read covering almost any topic and they can respond by emailing a staff person anonymously and receive a biblically sound response. Here is a portion of one of the articles. (Feel free to visit the website to find the rest of this article and more.)

The early portions of Scripture declare not only God's immense power and knowledge in the fashioning of the universe, but his enduring concern over the created order. His relationship with individual men and women was such that they found it appropriate to identify him as friend, provider, comforter and King. Yet, it didn't take much time for rebellion against God's moral order to become the modus operandi. A great divide between God and his creation surfaced, as evil and corruption of heart and action came to be the primary descriptors of the human condition. It seems clear that a moral entropy has been enacted, leaving in its remains the wounded, pummeled and trounced souls of God's creation. All this in the face of the ever-present, ever-concerned creator.

God, as such, is the consummation of all that is noble, loving, compassionate, righteous and pure. He possesses these attributes to a degree in which no greater can be conceived. He does not participate in acts of love; He is love. He does not participate in acts of righteousness; He is righteousness. And it is because of these essential attributes, and a score of others, that God is unable to provide us with the forgiveness necessary for communion with him without exacting a heavy price. He cannot compromise his righteousness, yet he hasn't forsaken his love......