The Gospel is about Redemption

This is something that seems so basic but that God has really been using to change the way I think. This summer as we studied the book "The Gospel Centered Life," it challenged us to see how the gospel is more than just about your own personal salvation and redemption. That is only part of it. The gospel is about the redemption of the entire world - that means your life, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, your school, your church, your enemies, your city, etc. Our part as believers is to be His tool for redemption in these areas. Something I have been asking myself is, "How am I helping bring redemption to these areas?" and "How am I helping to bring and cultivate life in a world that is so often moving towards self destruction?"  I challenge you to think about these things as well.
Below are some of the ways we have seen this happening in our life over the past few weeks. I hope you enjoy reading and at the bottom I have included some ways you can be praying for us.

Sweden
This summer was the best of my 12 years of being on staff. I think one of the reasons why was to see the focus on the gospel and the redemption effects or ripples in the lives of Swedes.
One of these was to see our students love on an immigrant family from Poland who was living at our hostel. Alot of families live in hotels or hostels. This is due to the fact that the average wait time to get an apartment to rent is 7-14 years. It is so bad that parents sign their children up as soon as they are born.
Because of this we lived for 4 1/2 weeks with a Polish family. They would see us going in and out. After a week or so we started trying to talk with them, then we started using google translator to try to help. We found out that due to some trouble back at home they had moved to Sweden. One day our hearts broke when we came back to find out that the ex-husband had shown up and the police had to be called. Our hearts broke as the story became more and more evident and our love for this family started to grow even more. I was so proud of our students to see them play with the children who were having to live in a hostel for such a long period. I was really proud of our girls who started to really love on the mother. I was moved to tears that  the nights before we left the family just wanted to be with us. The students pulled out their Tennessee T-shirts and gave them to the kids and the girls had gotten the mother a Polish Bible and written a letter and translated it to Polish for the mother. It was a tearful goodbye, but as we left that family knew a few things: 1.) that Jesus loved them 2.) that a bunch of students from America loved them 3.) That there is hope in this fallen world.  This was the gospel on display.

Tennessee
Well school is getting ready to start back, and I am actually excited. Usually, it would be more like overwhelmed. This summer I have gotten message after message from students who have been praying for UT and can't wait to reach their campus. When you add that to the face that I have been getting emails and phone calls from people all over the world (New Zealand for example) that are coming to UT/Knoxville Area, that want to be involved and connected....it get's me excited.
This year our vision for the campus and for cru is as follows:  At is heart, Cru is focused on encountering Jesus and giving our lives to Him and to others.
It is simple, but the concept we are praying to be realized is that the gospel would redeem the students, the campus, the city and the world.

Ways to Pray
We start back on Sunday with the staff getting together and then it hits high gear. I will list some events below so you can pray through those. I will also list some request and updates in some areas mentioned before. Thanks so much for reading!
 - Sweden: Please continue to pray for the Swedes we met and that the follow up/transition to the Sweden longterm staff would go well
- Flooding: We are so thankful to our family and friends who helped out while we are gone. The inside of the house is back in order and now we are just working on the garage. We are also getting some drainage issues fixed outside to prevent it from flooding again prayerfully. Please pray for wisdom for the contractors doing this to fix the problem.  God has also provided financially for this need and we are so grateful!!
 - Ministry: Our biggest prayer request is support. This summer due to various reasons several of our supporters have had to stop. We have now reached a critical stage and need to raise $1000 monthly to stay on campus. We also need to raise a one time gift of $8000 to cover expenses before we start (deficit from summer, cost of starting campus). We would love your prayers for God's provision

Dates to pray for:
 August 8 - staff planning
 August 10 - student leadership retreat
 August 12-17 Freshman dorm outreaches
 August 18 - 1st Cru Meeting
 August 19 - Rocky Top Roundup (big social outreach)
August 26-27 - Freshman Overnight Retreat
September 23-25 - Fall Retreat

Thanks so much for reading and praying!  We are so grateful for you!