parents visit

Two weekends ago my parents came to visit Teddy and I in Fort Collins. They had actually been in Denver for around 2 weeks already, but our schedule was CRAZY. Therefore, we didn't see them even though we were an hour away.

They came up for our commissioning into Campus Crusade for Christ. I loved that they were here for that. They got to come to the ceremony and dinner.

Commissioning:




Our new couple friends!


The next day we met them for breakfast at The Egg and I...then we headed to spend the day in Denver. We went to a Rockies game (lost & ridiculously hot that day) and then had a family gathering at my aunt and uncles house in Denver. There were 14 family members present. It was a lot of fun. We had delicious grilled salmon--a nice break from dorm food.

Family Time:




Just missing Amy & Jason--Dad's family

We spent the night there, slept in until about 10am (nice change of pace) and then headed back up to FOCO to begin the nation wide conference.

I really enjoyed hanging out with them! :) Lucky for us we are living with them throughout this next semester. We will get plenty of family time!

-Kells

Campus Crusade for Christ name change!

We have been enjoying staff conference for this entire past week. We got to hear from Francis Chan, Rene Rochester, and a host of cru staff that are in leadership. Tenth Avenue North had a concert for us, Tim Hawkins did comedy last night (LOOK HIM UP!), and David Crowder Band is coming Monday night for a concert! Plus, David Platt is wrapping up our conference Tuesday night. It's been wonderful!

Last night we even got to celebrate the 60 year birthday of Campus Crusade!! We got to hear from the very first person to ever receive Christ under the Campus Crusade name (with Vonette Bright). She was a doll on stage. She had never worked for CRU, but she has been in ministry for years with her husband. She is at least 83 years old. Vonette turned 85 out here. She is still quick on her feet. Bill Bright passed away 8 years ago. I'm sad I never got a chance to meet him. It's amazing the respect so many people have for him. It is VERY clear he was a man of God who walked in the spirit. I have enjoyed hearing so many stories about him.

Tuesday night we got to experience an incredible thing. We heard the vision/reasons behind the new name change. And we were present when the name change was announced. I'm pretty sure this will go down in the history books. Especially with all this news coverage. The new name is cru. Our ministry at Texas Tech has called it Techcru for at least 15 years now. Nothing new for us.

I wish everyone could have been in the room when it was announced to the 5,000 staff. I love the new name. But, what I love more is the fact that our mission isn't changing...and it won't. We are a committed body of believers who want to see every person receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. It has become clear that changing the name will help us get closer to fulfilling The Great Commission.

Here are some great blogs on the topic:
Arkansas Men's cru director

Insight on Branding

If you have questions--let me know!
-Kells

busyyyy

It's been 10 days since my last update. That is because we were bombarded with MPD (ministry partner development) week. It was stinkin intense. But, Teddy and I feel prepared as we embark on our next adventure of asking people to join us in phttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifartnering to reach the campus for Christ. Our projected goal is to be done raising funds in 9 months. We are trusting God for whatever His plan is during this process.

We will be living with my parents in Fort Worth during this time. We plan to spend a few months in Lubbock too, just waiting to see plans pan out. We will most likely be taking trips to Iowa Park/Wichita Falls, Houston, Lubbock, and Midland. We are actually pretty excited about this next chapter of our life.

Something that gets me fired up is THIS VIDEO. Take a moment (little over 4 mins) to watch & be encouraged. (click on "this video" to watch)

They showed this video today during our US National staff conference. LOVE it. Our conference has been great too. We are pretty worn out with the entire summer, but loving the speakers and worship. I will expand on alll this later.

Coming soon on the blog:
-Time with my parents in Ft.Collins/Denver
-New Name for Campus Crusade for Christ

We leave next Wednesday! Can't believe this time is already approaching. We have LOVED it here.

-Kells

Estes Park & MPD

We had such a wonderful weekend!

We went up with 5 other couples to Estes Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful! We stayed at a wonderful cabin just a few miles above the well known YMCA campsites. It was PERFECT. We ate real food, had great conversations, played board games and salad bowl (girls won both rounds!, saw wildlife, did a little shopping (both got Estes Park tshirts), and walked away feeling refreshed!


(Left to right) Harris & Kristin Britt (Texas), Us :), Andrew & Bonnie Burger (California), Kai & Lauren Pottenger (California), Adam & Alyssa Nixon (California), and Alex & Jess Ethridge (Illinois)

GREAT!

Which leads into this crazy week we are about to experience. Even just today we were in the same building from 8am-5pm...in meetings (lecture basically) about Ministry Partner Development (MPD), went to dinner, then had to make phone calls starting around 6:30-7:30pm. L.O.N.G.D.A.Y. And that is what the rest of our week will look like. We were told in advance that this week is INTENSE. So we knew that, but I'm still shocked at how tired I am right now. But this is some of the best training we could possibly receive. So for that, I'm grateful. I'm truly trying to soak everything in again.

Will you join us in praying for this week? We will need endurance & motivation. Plus, we are working on our support presentation as a team for the first time...this clearly can create issues. (especially for me--I've already raised support for my salary 3 years in a row, so OF COURSE I know what is "right"--hahah...hilarious.) Pray that our strengths and weaknesses would work well together. Pray that we would be diligent in prayer for our potential and current partners.

Also--we are around $3,000 short for this summers expenses. Everything gets drafted in two weeks from our staff account...meaning we will go into the negatives currently = no paychecks too. PRAY that we would be faithful in following up with those who said they wanted to give for this summer and for people that we just need to follow up with about our initial letter sent out. I truly believe that money can come in during the last 2 weeks. It's just finding time to do it.

Thank you SO much for your prayers!!! :)
-Kells

a lovely (long) list

So, a week or more has gone by since my last REAL update. I do recognize that the post are mostly what we have been doing and such...but my life isn't normal right now. so maybe you find it interesting that I'm just writing about our day to day life. Who wouldn't find it interesting that a married couple is living in a dorm with a bunch of other married couples and using community bathrooms? FUN! Oh and the fact that we eat every meal with friends? It's kind of like a dream come true for an extrovert. :)

Either way...enjoy!

1) You might have read on FB that Teddy practically broke his body a week ago. He was running while playing softball for intramural and strained his right hamstring. He reached down to grab his leg with both hands while falling and landed on his left shoulder. And some how twisted his ankle in the midst of all this. I wasn't there to see it happened, which I definitely think made me more calm when I showed up on the scene. We went to the doctor this past Tuesday and found out that he DOESN'T have to have surgery. PRAISE HIM! We prayed for this many times.

2) On going learning: God is so wonderful. Our insurance for Teddy's old job ended on June 30 & Crusade started on July 1st. This is a big deal because I pushed for us to be hired early (june 1st) so that our insurance would start July 1st. I wasn't up for a lapse in insurance...and wala...there was a reason why I felt this overwhelming need to MAKE SURE. We were on the old jobs insurance for our ER visit when he broke his body initially. Then for this past Tuesday we were with Crusade insurance. It ran over flawlessly. We are patiently awaiting bills...BUT again, praise Jesus for NO surgery and NO MRI. Bring on the bills--anything will be a blessing at this point. :)

3) Class is officially over (Tuesday was our final for theology). It was HARD work for 2 solid weeks. But even in that, we walked away with a new perspective in studying scripture, which made the Gospel even more beautiful. There were definitely moments in the midst of studying where my heart was captured by God's grace. That's pretty neat to be doing school work & that occur! We both passed both classes with flying colors! yahoo!

4) This weekend we are headed to a cabin in Estes Park with 4 other couples! We are pumped to take a weekend away from the dorm/dorm food/demands of a busy schedule. Hopefully, Teddy and I will be able to go on a small hike...his hammy is healing well. We will see! :)

5) So in my post about our placement I mentioned what a crazy ride our "placement" week was. So to make a long story short--we came here thinking we were for sure going back to Texas Tech. Then all the new staff were challenged to consider going to Miami or LA to help with the Destino (Latino/Hispanic movement) grow. We prayed and processed and were HIGHLY considering moving to Miami.(NOT A JOKE!) But through the wisdom of older staff people, really processing with the Lord and each other, crying because of confusion (me of course!) we landed on being 100% ok with being back at Texas Tech...and that is exactly where they placed us. We are thrilled! Miami would have been cool, but really...I would probably miss the dirt storms of Lubbock ;)

6) I'm learning more and more my need for me time. It doesn't happen often--but here it does. We are surrounded by people every where we go. I would much rather just come back to our room and just chill. I'm also learning that Teddy isn't really like that. He enjoys knowing what's going on and how we can be apart of it. He doesn't want to miss anything fun! Kind of crazy how I'm just discovering this about him, but we haven't been in this setting with people around at all times.

7) Still loving our dorm floor. Just last night the girls and guys spent time together. Us ladies (9 of us) went hot tubbing for a little bit and then came back to the dorms, sat outside and talked for a long while. I love that we all can understand each others worlds. I walked away from our conversation feeling refreshed in my heart and encouraged about marriage in general.

This is the first night I will actually be asleep by 11:30. So I'm out of here.
-Kells