Being sent: Nick

Last week I was talking with a lady about my ministry and she asked me to share about a life I’d seen changed as a result of Campus Crusade. Not to sound overly proud of the ministry that currently employs me, but I’ve seen a lot of lives changed by God working through the ministry.

The first person to pop into my head though was my roommate from last year, Nick. I met Nick my freshman year/his sophomore year. His story’s not just about a guy going from the college party scene to the church pew. It’s about a guy coming to grips with who Jesus is and what his identity in Christ is and the resulting life (not just habit) change.

Since I haven’t actually asked Nick if I could share his story on here, I’ll just fast forward to what I’ve seen him doing lately. A couple months ago, I posted about a friend of a friend named Omar. I introduced him to Nick, because I thought he could really make a connection with Omar.

Nick has met up with Omar a few times since then, helping him with his English and also opening spiritual conversations. He’s begun building relationships with other international students too this spring.

Nick’s also a nurses’ aide at a local hospital. At that job, he finds opportunities to talk with his patients and coworkers about their faith and share his.

How God moves in a student’s life through Cru doesn’t just end on the campus — it extends to the workplace, to the community and to the world.

2012
05/18
CATEGORY
Campus
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A year ago…

This last weekend marked one year since I graduated from Kent State. It was also one year from when I was accepted onto Campus Crusade’s staff. (Yep, same weekend. Actually it was my birthday that weekend too. Pretty memorable weekend for sure.)

A year ago I remember sitting in the M.A.C. Center with my journalism friends waiting for our names to be called. At that point, I already knew I’d be working for Cru, so the ceremony felt a little insignificant to me. I was graduating from college, but at the same time, I had committed myself to staying on the college campus to introduce students to Jesus.

Time has flown by since that day. A few weeks after graduation, my friend Matt and I drove cross country to staff training in Colorado for the summer. After six weeks in Colorado, we drove back and began the process of raising financial support.

I could never have guessed how God would use this past year to grow my trust in Him and also introduce me to so many amazing people who have passionate hearts for the Gospel. In this past year, my understanding of the Body of Christ has grown immensely.

So this is a giant THANK YOU to all of you who are praying for me and supporting my ministry. I’m excited to report I’m at about 70% of my goal now! I’m praying to be fully supported by June (aka, only 6-7 weeks!). I can’t even begin to imagine how God will use the next weeks or months of my life to continue to shape me. My hope is that God will also impact you in great ways, and that my ministry can be a source of encouragement and praise for you!

“Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.”
Philippians 4:17

2012
05/08
CATEGORY
Personal
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Prayer Request: College Fest

A few things I’d like to ask you to pray about this weekend:

  • College Fest block party

Every spring toward the end of the semester, students gather off-campus for massive block parties each weekend. They actually have names for the parties too — Drinkin’ on Lincoln, Shermania and College Fest (each named after the street near campus they’re held on).

College Fest is historically the most wild of the three. In 2009, students set bonfires in the middle of the street in reaction to police presence. Typically, students will begin drinking early in the morning and continue until police break up the parties sometime in the evening.

Pray for the students’ safety and also that Christian students would be able to show love and compassion to partiers. And through those actions, have opportunities to share Christ with them.

  • Students on campus in the wake of a student committing suicide

Last week, a 19-year-old woman was found dead in her dorm on campus (another story about the student can be found here). Sadly, this isn’t the first (or even second) student suicide that’s been reported in the last couple years.

Pray for the students grieving the loss of a friend/classmate. Pray that God would lead us to the hurting students who need hope in Christ.

  • Students coming to know Christ!!!

And finally, a reminder of the awesome ways God is moving in students’ hearts! One of the couples on staff at Kent State, Eric and Nicole St. Jean, wrote this in their prayer letter last month:

One of the young men I disciple, Bobby, has seen 5 other guys invite Christ into their lives this semester! He and I have been following up one guy in specific, Bill. Not only has Bill demonstrated an insatiable hunger to know God better, he recently decided to invest a part of his summer on a mission trip.

How cool is that?!

Praise God for what He’s doing through the students and Cru (and other ministries too!) staff at Kent State!

Shoot me an email (josh.johnston @ uscm.org) if you have something you’d like me to be praying for!

2012
04/20
CATEGORY
Campus
Prayer
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5 things that excite me about campus ministry

During this season of support raising, I’ve found it’s easy for me to lose sight of the purpose sometimes. So for the last couple weeks, I’ve been thinking through the things that really get me excited about campus ministry. Here’s five (in no particular order):

5. Small group Bible study

What first connected me to Cru at Kent State was the freshman Bible study I went to. Ten freshmen guys, all from the Quad, getting together Monday nights and hanging out. A senior named DA led the study, or at least tried to reign us in a bit. Some of the guys in that Bible study became my closest friends at Kent State.

4. Weekly meetings

Every Thursday night we have our weekly meeting on campus. Picture a hundred or so college students from all different spiritual backgrounds (from life-long Christians to spiritual seekers) coming together to hear who Jesus is and what the Bible says about our lives. And there’s a band. The weekly meeting is just another outreach we have to students.

3. Building a movement on campus

Ok, that’s kind of a cliche. I originally wrote “sharing the Gospel,” but I decided that didn’t quite fit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still totally pumped to share God’s love with students who’ve never heard, but that’s not all there is to it. We’re working to turn students to Christ, and then send them out to share the Truth with friends, roommates, coworkers, family, that guy they see every Tuesday while walking to class, etc.

2. Community with the rest of the staff team

I won’t be working alone on campus. At Kent State I’ll have the privilege to serve alongside some really awesome people who have a heart for college students and the Gospel. Eric and Justin (the two on the left) have been on staff since my freshman year. Matt (the bald one) is my best friend who I graduated with last May. Justin and Eric have wives who are on the team too, but they decided not to climb this mountain with us that day.

1. Discipleship

This might be what I’m most excited for. Having the opportunity to build relationships one-on-one with students and pointing them to Christ. Training guys how to share the Gospel and then going out and doing that with them. Pouring what others have taught me about walking with God into younger Christians. Seeing lives changed as a result of God working through me. Not for my own personal fulfillment or reward, but for the expansion of God’s Kingdom and Grace on Earth.

2012
04/12
CATEGORY
Campus
Personal
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What does Easter mean?

Easter is a holiday unlike any other for Christians. Without Jesus’ resurrection, Christmas would be the celebration of the birth of a peasant’s son and Good Friday would be the remembrance of a moralist’s death. But by rising from the tomb, Jesus proved He was fully God in addition to being fully man. His victory over death becomes victory over death to all those who call on His name.

Easter is a big deal.

Last year around this time, Eric (a guy on staff at Kent) and I came up with an Easter Spiritual Survey. We wanted to use the event of Easter to open spiritual conversations with students on campus, so we wrote down a few questions:

1. Do you celebrate Easter? How?
2. What do you think is the meaning of Easter?
3. Jesus is talked about a lot around Easter. Who was Jesus?
4. If what the Bible says about Easter is true — that Jesus died for our sins and rose again — what would that mean to you?

I expected a lot of students to give “churchy” answers — It’s when Jesus died, I go to church, etc. — but I was shocked that almost none of the students we talked to mentioned anything about church or Jesus. One guy I remember talking to told us, to him, Easter was all about getting together with family, like Thanksgiving in the spring.

Eric and I continued to open conversations and share the gospel when the opportunity came. Honestly, I don’t remember much of the conversations we had at this point, but I remember how surprised by the answers I was.

It reminds me of how great a need there is for students to hear the Gospel.

This week, dubbed “Holy Week” by many Christians, take some time to reflect on the events surrounding Easter. What does Easter mean to you?

2012
04/03
CATEGORY
Campus
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Men in the wood

It’s pretty safe to say guys do really weird things when women aren’t around.

At the apartment I lived in my senior year (4 guys, 1 microwave), we decided one winter’s day to buy Nerf guns from Walmart. That resulted in a continual Nerf war for about the next two months. And a cardboard fort being built in our hallway.

I have a big heart to see men in deep, relational community. In the daily battle with sin, it’s the men who have brothers fighting alongside them who prevail. I grew immensely in my faith during college through having strong relationships with other men who I could open up to about my struggles.

On campus, we aim to build that community among the guys. All men want to feel like they’re a part of something greater. A member of a team. Having solid Christian male community on campus is attractive to others. It naturally draws guys to our movement and, more importantly, to Christ.

Last fall, we held a men’s overnighter at a 4-H camp nearby. Twenty or so guys (including a good number of underclassmen) came out. In addition to dodgeball, capture the flag and Saran-wrapping a guy to a tree, we opened a conversation on Biblical manhood and how we could be helping each other as men in our walks with God.

Travis saran-wrapped to a tree

Some of the guys thought jumping into the freezing lake would be fun. Like I said, guys do weird things when women aren't around.

The retreat was such a success that we’re doing it again this weekend!

Pray for the men at Kent State…
      – that this weekend, they would grow in their relationships with each other and with Christ
      –  that guys outside of Cru would be drawn to check it out and ultimately hear the Gospel
      – that the staff guys (Justin, Eric and Devon) would be filled by the Holy Spirit when speaking to the students 

It goes without saying that thinking about these events happening on campus only increases my desire to be reported back! I’m praying that God would raise the last third of my support quickly and I would be finished by May.

2012
03/29
CATEGORY
Campus
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Feels like summer time

It’s 76 and sunny today. I was born and raised in northern Ohio and I’ve never seen weather like this. Reminds me of summer…

Hey, glad you mentioned summer! Sometimes people ask me what the staff of Cru do over the summer. Obviously 98% of students aren’t in school (sorry to the 2% who take summer classes…), so are we on vacation too?

Not quite.

Every summer Cru puts on about 200 mission trips around the world called Summer Projects. As a student, I went on two of these (The Northwoods Project in North Bay, Ontario and Ocean City SP in Ocean City, NJ). I can’t even begin to describe the experiences I had during those summers (although, if I were to… and I were standing in a walk-in freezer… it might look something like this).

The projects are staffed by US campus staff and interns. So once finals week rolls around in May, we’re off campus and onto project!

Quick facts about Summer Projects

- Started: 1969
- Locations: EVERYWHERE! Almost literally. The 200 projects span from inner-city missions to beach evangelism to overseas ministry planting.
- Number of students who attend:  A few thousand every year. At Kent State, we usually send anywhere from five to 15. The individual projects vary in size. At Northwoods (an all-men’s project), we had 25 guys. At Ocean City, there were 110+ students.
- Length of projects: Anywhere from a week to all summer. The “traditional” summer project usually is 8-10 weeks.

I’ll most likely write more about Summer Projects once we actually get closer to the summer. But I wanted to give ya’ll a quick glimpse. God willing, I’ll be fully supported and reported to campus by then so I’ll have the opportunity to staff a project!

2012
03/14
CATEGORY
Summer Project
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Laying foundations

While I’ve been working and trusting God to raise the support I need to report back to campus, I’ve also started helping out at a local youth group on Sunday nights.

The youth groups I went to in high school laid a strong foundation for my faith that Cru built on in college. Really, it was from my experiences in HS youth groups that I wanted to get involved in a ministry at Kent State. (Actually, I thought Cru would be just like a high school youth group. Man, I’m glad I was wrong there). So when a local pastor invited me to help out every once in awhile, I took him up on it.

The group is made up of about a dozen middle and high schoolers. Most of them aren’t growing up in Christian homes. The couple hours they gather on Sunday nights are the only interaction with the Gospel they have.

Every week is a new opportunity to share the gospel — how God connects to their lives — and invite them to trust Christ with their lives.

Seeing these kids grow spiritually is amazing! A few are coming to understand better who this Jesus guy was and how He came to rescue them from their sin. The ones who have been brought up in the church are growing missional hearts and realizing the gospel in deeper ways too.

I pray these foundations will hold for a lifetime. As I can look back and see the impact youth group had in my faith, I hope these kids will be able to do the same one day.

______________

Quick update on where I’m at: God has provided in some really amazing ways the last few weeks. I’m now at more than 60% of my support goal! I’m trusting God that I’ll be fully funded by sometime in April. By reporting to campus in the spring, I’ll be able to receive a summer assignment (aka, helping to staff a Summer Project). More on what that is next week!

2012
03/09
CATEGORY
Personal
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A string of events

Sometimes God works in big, overt, “can’t miss ‘em” ways. Other times, He moves in unnoticeable ways, setting up a string of events that unfolds over time (in the Christian theology class I took for staff training, that’s called providential workings… I think).

So this is a story of God’s providential workings. From as far back as I can trace the events.

Kristin moved into the school district my freshman year. We had a bunch of classes together and thus became friends.

I went to Kent State for college. Kristin started at Cornerstone, transferred to Ohio State, studied abroad in Germany for a year then finished at Ohio State. While she was in Columbus, she started working at Starbucks.

I graduated from KSU and joined staff with Cru. After graduating and becoming engaged, Kristin moved back home for a short while. She transferred to the Starbucks in Bowling Green.

Omar was an international student from Saudi Arabia. He spent a lot of time at Starbucks and got to know Kristin. Last fall, he transferred to Kent State. Kristin asked me if I could meet up with him and introduce him to my friends.

So a couple weeks ago I and my former roommate Nick met Omar at the Starbucks in Kent. I asked Nick to come because while support raising, I’m not in Kent full time yet. And I knew Nick is a very outgoing guy and would connect with Omar quickly.

We hung out for an hour or so and Nick and Omar exchanged contact info afterward. The next weekend, Nick, Omar and my friend Matt met up at Jimmy John’s. Nick and Matt shared the gospel with Omar, who’s Muslim, and answered his questions. Omar was interested in hearing more and wanted to invite one of his Arabic friends who understands English better to translate.

Do you see what happened here? God lined up ordinary events in people’s lives — college, coffee shops, high school friendships, etc. — and created an opportunity for the gospel to be shared with Muslim students in Kent.

God sets up the opportunities perfectly. And our only job is to see the opportunity and take that step of faith.

Be praying with me that God would continue to give us opportunities to share Christ to Omar, his friend and the whole international student community.

2012
02/24
CATEGORY
Campus
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For being a journo major…

…I’m terrible at blogging consistently. But I hope to use this space as a connecting point. A way to bring you (my friend and partner in ministry) closer to my personal ministry with Cru. My goal is once a week to be sharing a story with you of how God has been moving on campus or using me to help students draw closer to Him.

One of the freshmen guys who’s been getting really involved in the movement is Cody. He’s a Cincinnati kid and lives where I used to live on campus, so when I met him last fall we connected on those things.

For much of this winter, he had been planning on transferring to the University of Cincinnati next fall. Cody wanted to major in astrophysics, which Kent State doesn’t offer. A lot of us were sad to hear his news.

But that changed. While I was visiting Kent last weekend, Cody told everyone he had an announcement: he wasn’t transferring.

I know Kent State isn’t about to start offering astrophysics anytime soon, so I had to ask him why he changed his mind.

“I feel like my work here isn’t done yet,” he told me.

“Ok… how so?”

“This semester especially, the gospel just hit me like a brick wall. I feel like I’m really understanding it for the first time. And God is doing so many awesome things with people in the Quad. I want to be a part of it.”

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I still didn’t even know how to respond. This is a freshman who is willing to sacrifice his current college plans for the mission of the gospel at Kent State. To see his friends in the dorms and classmates begin personal relationships with Christ. Amazing! My freshman year, I struggled just with getting my laundry done, never mind what I could be doing to advance God’s kingdom.

2012
02/18
CATEGORY
Campus
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