We returned safely from San Antonio. We both had a good time connecting with our teams as we both lead during the summer. I spent many hours with co-leader Scott, where we planned the entire summer project. John spent time with other leaders and helping them understand the financial systems of our organization. Together, they oversee $2 million that students raise to attend a 15 projects around the world.
During the week in San Antonio, John’s leg reacted strongly to the radiation resulting in a fairly severe burn on the inside of his calf. Radiation burns are pretty common side effect, but this one is pretty severe–second degree burns with blisters and a lot of swelling. He went to the doctor when we got back and is now on anti-biotics and has a cream to put on his leg to soothe the burn. Pray for healing! He was looking forward to being back in the office and working full-time again. That isn’t possible now that he needs to stay off his feet.
In other news, Even though John or I were not able to attend the Christmas Conference this year, we were encouraged by what the Lord did this year and thought you would be to!
“I think God wants to do something significant through you for eternity,” Ed Uszynski, main speaker for the Indianapolis Christmas Conference, proclaimed in front of the crowd of over 1,650 college students.
Uszynski was the featured speaker at the annual Campus Crusade for Christ, Indy Christmas Conference. He challenged all to live out the December 28th to Jan 1 conference theme; you know you want to… speak!
He encouraged those students to be angry about being called Twixters, 18-30 year olds that do nothing, but to go make an impact.
Lives were impacted for eternity during the Conference.
Saturday morning Uszynski invited students to come into a relationship with Christ. Several students stood. Hundreds joined the standing in response to thankfulness to Christ, and in repentance of their own sins.
That same night students were challenged to help send missionaries to Africa. Students gave $44,000 for missionaries in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia.
As missionaries themselves, students were sent into the city on Sunday. Students visited a women’s prison, a men’s prison, and inner city communities. The gospel was shared with 1,511 people, 169 people accepted Christ as Savior. Closing that night, reflecting on what they had seen that day, students agreed to invest their all in helping to bring Christ’s love to the mission field wherever that might be.
“God seemed to answer our prayers over and over again,” Larry Conover, Conference Director, said. “There were so many things we asked for that happened way better than we could have hoped and imagined. It just seemed like the Lord was orchestrating things.”
One thing I wanted to point out to all you readers is the new Pray for Us feature on the right. At least monthly, I will update the Pray for Us so that when you stop by our site, you can immediately see the prayer requests, and be praying. We will continue to blog and share stories too, but I know sometimes the prayer requests gets lost in the post. Now it is there and easy to see!
