Six Week Quest and Jubilee

Dear faithful supporters,

I apologize for not staying in touch as often as I promised. Lately in blog-world I have been giving most of my attention and writing time to a Lenten Study blog called "Six Week Quest." I highly recommend you take a look at this blog to get a better feel for what my college students and young adults are going through, especially if you are in search of a Lenten study yourself.

If you look at this blog you'll actually be able to read several comments that students of mine have been making; I hope you will find them to be as insightful as I have.

This past weekend I took nine students with me to the annual Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh. Everyone in my group had an incredible time. We were blessed to hear words of wisdom and authenticity from speakers such as John Perkins, Makoto Fujimura, Susan Isaacs, Bob Gaff, and many many others. On the ride home we shared ways the Lord had worked through the conference to specifically speak to each of us. Overall the conference was an amazing gift from God for everyone who attended.

Lauren Sell, a student from Messiah and member of Manoa Presbyterian, told me that it was the best conference she had ever been to, and that she couldn't wait to go again next year. Even though the conference is geared toward college students, April Woods, a school teacher and regular attender of the Manoa Presbyterian evening services, said that after being to dozens of conferences over the years, Jubilee was by far one of her favorites. Justin Poole, another young adult who is currently working toward his doctorate, confessed to me that the conference far exceeded his expectations in the very best way possible. I am very pleased that all the attendees enjoyed themselves, but even more pleased to have already witnessed seeds that have begun to sprout in each of them through conversations we had during the conference, and on the ride home.

Please pray that these seeds as nourished by my ministry and their church community so the Spirit can be ever more glorified in their lives.

Blessings.

Snowy weather and what's next.

As all of you know from your aching backs and cold toes the passed few days students and campus ministers alike have been knee-to-waist deep in snow.

For this reason Rachel and I have not seen Sam for days. Sam is the name we chose for our new 2000 Saturn Wagon. I don't remember whether this was included in my blog or not, but God completely answered our prayer for a means of transportation. A friend of a friend happened to be getting rid of his car because he could no longer afford the insurance, so he just gave it to us! The name Sam is short for Samuel. Samuel means "God Heard" or "request of God." You may remember the story of Samuel, his mother was barren and prayed to God for a son, and promised Him that she would dedicate her son to Him if she ever gave birth. God heard her prayer, and answered. In a similar way, we prayed for a car, God heard, and God provided.

Our weekly small groups this week were canceled, and so was a one-on-one meeting that I was really looking forward to. A few weeks ago Katie Zoet, one of my co-workers, passed along an e-mail from a lady named Wendy who was looking for a Wednesday or Thursday night small group for a young guy she knew to attend. In the e-mail she made it clear that the guy (Chris is his name) was a family friend who knew very little about God and Jesus, and was new to the religion scene in general. Ever since then I have e-mailed back and forth with the Wendy to learn more about Chris, and find out exactly how I can help. After about a week we thought it would be best for me to contact with him, so I called, and we set up a time to meet. We were supposed to meet on Tuesday, but due to the weather we have postponed until this coming Tuesday.

This Sunday is Valentine's Day, and it is also the beginning of Lent. I am excited to be starting the Lenten series "A Hole in our Gospel" which I have mentioned in previous blogs; it will also be featured in this month's newsletter which is being worked on presently. To learn more visit

I learned about this study during my time at the Urbana Conference in December, it was being handed out at the World Vision booth. I also learned about an awesome branch of World Vision called Act:s which exists specifically to challenge students to start campaigns that raise awareness and relief resources for worldwide causes, such as Malaria, starvation, Child Slavery, and many more. Act:s also works with individuals who they call "mobilizers" to assist in special projects, campaigns, and events. I'm currently working in conjunction with them, the director of CCTI (Cross-Cultural Theater Initiative), and some of my CCO co-workers in developing a special Haiti Mission Trip in Philly. The basic concept right now is to have a mission trip in Philly where students and young adults would interact and serve the Haitian community right here in our backyard. We would learn their stories, serve their community, and learn about their culture over the course of ten days. World Vision is looking into the possibility of having speakers come, and the Director of CCTI wants to use the experience as an ethnographic study which he would turn into play that would be produced in 2011. The catch is, even though the mission trip is local, the cost of the trip would be equivalent to a mission trip to Haiti, which would be about $2500.00. All the extra money raised that didn't go toward costs for the local trip would go directly toward Haiti relief. Part of the reason we would do a local trip rather than one to the actual country of Haiti is that the $2500.00 each participant raises could actually do a lot more good if we just sent it as relief.

Alaina, a friend of mine who has traveled to Haiti, shared a story with me about her trip. During her trip she spent a lot of time with her translator and guide. After a few days her guide benevolently made an offhand comment about Alaina's accommodations, pointing out that what she was paying per night at her hotel would be a little more than the wages he made in a week. The chasm between Alaina's wealth and her guide's poverty suddenly became apparent. Alaina doesn't regret going on the trip, but she is now acutely aware of how far our resources and side-cash can really go in an impoverished nation like Haiti.

Speaking of trips, please pray for the following students and young adults who will be attending the Jubilee Conference next weekend. This conference challenges students to devote every area of life to Christ, and to use their gifts wisely for the kingdom:
Skye Randall
Ben Mell
Jess Mell
Justin Poole
Matt Stromberg
April Woods
Christina Caldwell
Erin Gormley
Lauren Sell

This is Elliott, signing off.
In Christ.

Pray for Skye

Dear Friends,

Some of you know Skye, and some of you don't. Skye is a personal friend and a young adult I minister to at Manoa. He was involved in an argument with one of the tenants of the house he and his fiance bought, and intend to move into when they get married. From what I have heard he was trying to confront them one last time with documents proving that they owed him money. They had apparently been purposefully avoiding him for weeks, and were trying to move-out the night in question without paying what they owed him. The tenant had her brother and father with her, and the brother threatened Skye several times, before finally attacking him. Skye produced a weapon for his own safety, and used it to ward off the brother until he could safely return to his room, lock the door, and call the police. Shortly after the police showed up, and were quickly intercepted by the tenant and her family, who told their story first. Skye was arrested and was forced to spend the night in jail. He is now being charged with three counts of assault, including "terrorist threats." I am assuming this last charge is based entirely on the fact that he is a person of color.

Skye is a very peaceful person, and I know he would never use his firearm for anything short of self-defense. Unfortunately the media has already spun it to make him seem like the villian.

Skye will have a court-hearing sometime in the next couple weeks. Please pray for him as a brother in Christ, and spread word about this to anyone who you think would be willing to intercede with the Lord on Skye's behalf. Skye is a well-grounded Christian, and is working on his Master's degree right now. He and his Fiance Cheryl are in the midst of wedding planning. I cannot begin to imagine what sort of impact an unjust ruling would have on Skye and Cheryl's life. Please pray for justice.

In Him,
Elliott

Week of the Lord's Favor: RIP Goldie

What a week, what a week!

Well, it's been a while my friends. Obviously I have not been as faithful in keeping up with this blog as I intended, but given the circumstances I hope you can forgive me.

Last time we left off I shared some stories about Goldie, our car.

I just received word today that Goldie has been freed from all her sufferings, and now is driving around on a golden freeway somewhere in automobile heaven!

Of course, Rachel and I have been praying vigorously since the day of my crash for God to provide us with transportation. I mentioned in my last entry that I was faithful that God would provide, and asked you to pray with me so that we could all glorify Him together when he answered our prayers. Well friend, get ready to celebrate!

Rachel and I received a simple text from our friend Diana on Saturday asking us if we wanted a free car! Rachel spoke with her on the phone, as I was busy in meetings and running a fundraiser all day to help raise money for students to go to the Jubilee conference in February. She found out that Diana had a friend with a car that they never used, and couldn't afford to pay the insurance on. Stefan, Diana's friend, had many fond memories of his car, road-trips and such, and wanted to make sure his car either went to people who really needed it, or he was considering donating it. Well Diana knew we really needed it and put us in contact with him. Turns out Stefan needed to know soon, because he registration ran out today, so we made an arrangement with him that we would have it inspected by someone we trusted, and if it didn't need a lot of work (more than $1000.00 worth)then we would take it! We didn't get our hopes up though, it is a 2000 Saturn wagon with more than 120,000 miles on it, and the last two times Stefan had it inspected it cost him $600.00 and $1000.00 to pass respectively. We took it in this morning hoping for the best but expecting the worst, only to find out a few hours later that all it needed was an oil change, bringing the bill to a grand total of $68.00!

Praise God! Before we have even settled on the estimate for our totaled vehicle God provided a new one!

One last story of God's amazing provision. As I mentioned before I spent most of my Saturday helping to run a fundraiser to assist students in raising money for the Jubilee conference. This is the CCO's annual conference, and is actually the reason I ended up working for them in the first place. It is an incredible conference which in my opinion every college should go to at least once. In fact me and three other local staff members believe in this conference so much we went out of our way to devise a fundraiser in our free time to help raise money for the students who wanted to go but couldn't afford to. The fundraiser was called "breakfast for dinner," which basically is exactly what it sounds like. We borrowed the fellowship hall from my church, and set it up to emulate a restaurant, then from 5-8pm students hoping to go to the Jubilee conference served everyone who showed up one of three possible breakfast items: pancakes, waffles, or eggs. It was a huge success, considering that only a quarter of the people we expected actually showed up. If you remember there was a bit of a snow storm on Saturday. We raised half of what we hoped, which is actually quite encouraging, it showed that people were twice as generous as we expected. Still, with that much raised would would not be able to cover transportation costs for students to Pittsburgh and back, which can easily cost over $150.

After the evening finished I was left with mixed feelings of triumph and despair. I was so happy with the way the night turned out, and how supportive everyone had been, but we still needed to raise more money. We still had over 50 pledge forms left, which encouraged people to give $40, $50, $70, $100, or any other amount towards transportation, scholarships, or the jubilee fund. I knew I could take a chance by putting them into the church bulletins, but I had no idea what kind of response we would get. My fears told me that our low turn-out had more to do with lack of interest than snow, but my hope told me that we could possibly get at least another $200 or $300 if the right people were in attendance on Sunday. My hopeful side won out, so I spent an hour before our morning church service stuffing bulletins. I asked Jim, the guest preacher that morning, if I could say something brief to encourage people to give, and he obliged. After the service I set up a small sign and donation basket in the hospitality area where people enjoy fellowship and snacks together. I asked Pat, one of the young adults I minister to, to collect the basket and bring it with him to Sunday School for me to count. He came through the door ten minutes after we started the lesson with the basket overflowing. I didn't have a chance to count the donations until a hour or so later, but as I had guessed by the look of the basket, people's giving had far outreached my expectations. When all was said and done, the donations we received on Saturday night were doubled on Sunday! Praise God!

All of these clear signs of God's provision in my life are taking place at such a perfect time. My students and I have been talking a lot about poverty and have spent much time discussing God's sabbaths and the Jubilee year (aka the year of the Lord's favor). In these discussions we have learned how important relying on God's provision rather than our own paychecks or sense of power and wealth is to a healthy spiritual outlook on life. I am so thankful that God has seen it fit to so clearly show his glory and provision in my life during this season! I know that we all encounter times of harvest and times of famine alike, and that both come from the Lord, but praise Him for this amazing time of blessing and provision. Thank you for your prayers and support! You are also amazing blessings given to me and Rachel from the Lord. Your prayers, encouragement, and gifts show us God's love and provision most of all!

Until next time :)