We are ACCEPTED for Campus Crusade!!

I feel like there is so much to talk about lately. I have these random thoughts and I think to myself, "I need to blog about that". But then I get here and every thing slips away.

One big thing that hasn't "slipped" my mind is a huge HUGE transition Teddy and I are about to embark on. I can't tell you how excited we are! :) I know your first thought is that we are pregnant. Every other person has thought the same thing but no, we are not.

Teddy and I have officially been accepted as full time staff with Campus Crusade for Christ!!! That's right, we will be missionaries on college campuses! To give you some background: I never thought this would be the case. We were headed towards him being a firefighter and me figuring out my job situation as the time comes. I wasn’t sure if next year I would be doing Crusade again.

Rewind a little: Spring break of 2009 we were coming back from a conference in Memphis and he mentioned he could see himself doing missions some day. I was completely surprised. Not because he didn’t love the Lord or anything, but because I always imagined him doing hard/dirty/heavy work, because of his built and his passion for those type things. But yea, that conversation didn’t go any further. It was almost just a thought in passing. Plus, we had only been dating for 7 months at that point...I threw it to the back burner!

Fast forward: My second year of interning (August 2009-2010) and Teddy and I were engaged. He had just finished EMT school & starting fire academy Fall 2009. He mentioned multiple times that he enjoys the staff team and really likes the idea of staff life. He was basically apart of the staff team this year & loved it. (mostly for social events). Towards the end of that year we got married March 2010 and his interest is growing towards ministry. Throughout my time interning, Teddy was right there with me. He was involved with the ministry and was able to get on campus here and there between him working full time at the jail. Summer 2010 occurred and I had a really hard time raising support that summer. We didn’t really ever talk about staff stuff until I finished raising support and he brought it up again. This time, for whatever reason, I knew he was for real. He really wanted us to start praying about heading that direction. WHAT?!?! It was crazy.

So August-October we prayed and prayed. Literally every night! We desperately wanted to seek God's will for our marriage! We had close friends & family praying for this time too. The first weekend of October, I finally told him yes, lets go for it! He was pretty much in very quick, I was hesitant. I had STRONG fears that made me push against the idea and had to spend many nights processing with the Lord. But yea, beginning of October we decided we were definitely going to pursue this. In November at Pine Cove (region-wide staff conference) Teddy had his first interview in person. This would normally happen at Winter Conference (January), but due to our schedules we were not going to WC.

January we started our application (a solid 30 page application for each of us) and continued praying about acceptance. Sure, Crusade is ALWAYS hiring, but they take full time ministry VERY seriously. We honestly had NO idea if we would get accepted. Therefore, we prayed and prayed again. (My prayer life has grown significantly because of this process!) We heard from Crusade the end of February saying they received all referrals (3 for me & 6 for Teddy) and would begin the process of reading our apps. We didn’t hear again until beginning of March that they were reading our applications and Teddy needed to have a phone interview. (I didn't have to have an interview, due to me being on staff the past 3 years) Teddy had his phone interview March 6th and by March 8th we had received our “pre-acceptance”. Which means, we made it past the application part and we were now onto background checks. We knew we didn’t have anything in our background that would keep us from getting the job, but still waited to share the news with the whole world. But on Friday, March 25th WE GOT OUR FINAL ACCEPTANCE! yahoooooooooooo!

What this means: Teddy and I will be in Ft. Collins, Colorado starting June 14th-July 27th (6 weeks) for New Staff Training (NST) taking seminary courses (Bible study methods/Beginning Theology/New Testament Survey), learning how to raise support (funds) together, and prepping for joining staff full time. Starting August 2011 we will start raising our funds for our salary. Typically it can take a couple 6months-1 year to raise all their support (funds). We also don’t know if we will for sure be at Texas Tech. We are confident that there is a high chance due to different conversations we’ve had with the regional people in Austin. It’s ultimately up to them and the bigger scope of our region in all 4 states. We are willing to move. If we did move it would be somewhere either in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or Louisiana. We will know our campus the first week we are at New Staff Training!

You might have questions and I would LOVE to answer anything.I hope you will join us in prayer starting NOW for our time with the Lord in the process, raising LOTS of $$ (now, we have to raise just for Colorado—in august we start for our salary), and our marriage through this adventure.

God's grace is completely evident throughout this entire process...all the way back to when we FIRST started dating. The Lord has so clearly been preparing us for this crazy life decision! I'm SO thrilled to be able to do full time ministry with my wonderful husband!!! :) What a blessing and ride this will be!


We love the Lord, love each other, and excited to love on college students and share Christ with them!

-Kells