It’s already August! The Jersey Metro team, Jenn and I are prayerfully preparing for a great harvest in this next academic year. Join us! Specifically pray that God would pour water on a thirsty land (New Jersey college campuses) and that He would pour out His Spirit, causing students to spring up (trust Jesus) like grass in a meadow (Isaiah 44:1-4).

As for our roadtrip to Cru’s US National Staff Conference, in Colorado, thank you SO MUCH for lifting us up in prayer! Our boys, Gianluca and Gabriel, were so well behaved for the total of fifty-something hours we were on the road.

About 6,000 staff from our many different ministries were there for one week to hear hosuw God has been at work, to receive challenging teaching, get training to help us be better ministers of the Gospel, gain vision and direction from our leadership, time to connect and seek the Lord, and great community with others doing ministry around the country.

It really was a refreshing time with Jesus! While there were tons of revelations from the Lord, Jenn and I both took away main things.

Jenn was reminded that while God has a mission he wants to accomplish in our hearts and lives, he does NOT need us. BUT He wants us, which is better. We have nothing to offer Christ for him to need us, but He loves us despite our empty hands and chooses to use us anyway. I was reminded that God is able to use us, even when we’re weak, incompetent and fearful. He is strong, competent and fearless. Since His Holy Spirit resides in us, Christ will accomplish what he wills.

YOU can enjoy tons of sermons and video from the conference for FREE by going to http://www.csu2013.cru.org.

Finally, I wanted to give a praise update for how my summer discipleship has been going with Samir, student president at NJCU, and Efrain, a new believer at NJCU. It’s been GREAT!

Samir (left) has taken his role as a student leader at NJCU as a specific assignment from the Father! He has made room in his schedule to be more present on campus, evangelizing and building up other believers. At our last sit down, he said one of his goals is to represent Christ so well that NJCU’s weekly meetings go from 20-30 people to 60 people! He loves Jesus and he’s living for Him!

Efrain (right) also has matured since his conversion in April of this year! He simply cannot shake the conviction that Jesus’s life, death, burial and resurrection have accomplished Efrain’s salvation!

An atheist friend of his has been VERY antagonistic toward Efrain’s faith in Christ, gossiping about how “dumb” his changed life is. Coming out of an atheistic circle of friends, Efrain expected some backlash, but did NOT expect a friend to begin talking behind his back. He is surprised and hurt by this.

I was able to point Efrain to the fact that Jesus was reviled and hated, and that He, our Master, also promised persecution. Please pray that Efrain remains strong and  gets the opportunity to love this atheist friend with the endless love of Christ!