Update on how things have been going...and fun news!

Oct. 9-13, we had 60 staff in town helping us do ministry in locations all over Knoxville and the surrounding areas.  We are very excited about what the Lord is doing on all these campuses!  The conference was a huge success and these are a few of the highlights:

At Maryville College, we discovered 2 Bible study groups (who started on their own since there was nothing offered) who are very excited about Cru being on the campus and want to help start it.  We are currently in the process of becoming an official chartered organization there and are already having leadership meetings.

At Roane State, a guy accepted Christ into his life after someone shared the gospel with him.  

 At Pellissippi State, we now have about 60 people    coming to 3 different Bible studies!

The Knoxville College group met needs by scraping paint off one of their buildings.  They are in the process of revitalizing their campus and were thrilled to have help.  This opened the door for future service and speaking opportunities.

At UT, we were able to meet some key contacts in the Latino community.  Cru has a ministry called Destino for Latino students and this is something we are looking into as it will become a greater need in the coming years.

Valor is Cru’s ministry for military and Britton is currently working with an air force captain at UT who contacted us about helping him start a ministry for ROTC on campus.

“I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.”  -1 Samuel 1:27

 Great changes that we are very excited about… we will be having a baby in April!  This has been the prayer of our hearts for a while and we couldn’t be more thrilled that the Lord has answered.  So far, everything has gone well.  The sickness has mostly disappeared as we’ve entered into the second trimester and we’ll be finding out if it’s a boy or a girl in the coming weeks.  The due date is April 16th and we are overwhelmed and overjoyed by everything that comes with this — from thinking about decorating a nursery to thinking about how different our life will be.  But even in the overwhelming moments, we have to remind ourselves that the Lord will always be with us for He is faithful and will always provide for us.  Thank you for your prayers… we are so blessed to have so many share in our excitement!   

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the continued health and development of baby Sharp. 

Pray that God would give us wisdom in leading our team as we continue to expand  and take on new areas.  Pray that we would be sensitive to His voice as He leads us.

Our staff account has been in deficit for several months and Britton has taken some time away from campus to focus on raising more.  Please pray that God would raise up people with a heart to reach college students in Knoxville through giving to our ministry.                                    

God goes before us...

I love the verse Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ to do good works that He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

I love this verse because of the promise of God's purpose and provision for us.  God has done the good works and we are simply supposed to walk in them.  I can choose to try to do my own thing or submit to where God is wanting to take me.

This is a big week for us.  This week we are hosting a conference and taking teams of staff to 9 campuses around our area to see about starting ministries there either now or sometime in the future.  We would love your prayers for God's provision and blessing.  We would also love your prayers on how to shepherd and lead a growing movement.

Many of you already know that we have somewhat started ministries now at Pellissippi State and Maryville College.  We have about 60 students at each of those locations that have expressed interest in knowing more about getting involved.

Abby, an intern that works with us, started meeting with a few girls at Pellissippi.  Quickly the girls started asking if they could bring friends.  Abby now meets with 18 girls regularly and this is still growing.

It is clear to us that God is working on these campuses and we would love your prayers for His blessing, wisdom and provision.

Below I will list the campuses we are heading to this week and challenge you to be praying with us.  Pray that He would allow us to meet key people that would help us start ministries in these locations.  Thanks so much for praying!!

-Knoxville College - Historical Black College in downtown Knoxville - approx. 100 students

-Pellissippi State - 2nd largest College in the area - 10,000 students, no campus ministries present

-Maryville College - Former Christian College, has become very secularized  - approx 1,200 students

-Roane State (Harriman and Oak Ridge Campuses) - 8,000 students - 4th largest college in the area. No ministry presence to our knowledge

-UTK - looking to start a Latino ministry to the rising number of Latino students on campus. Currently no group is reaching out to this community on campus

-Walter State - 3rd largest College in the area with just under 10,000 students, no ministry presence as far as we are aware

-Johnson Univeristy - Trying to resource students at this University with ministry opportunities

-Tusculum College - 5th largest University with just under 8,000 students , on of the top 25 oldest Universities in America

-TN Tech - in Middle TN area, specifically we are reaching out to the over 500 international students there, specifically the Saudi population.

Get Ready for FALL RETREAT!!

Fall Retreat is one of the most strategic times of our semester and we wanted to send out a quick update and ask for your prayers for this coming weekend.  This is a big weekend when students process a lot because they have time to stop and reflect.
Our speaker is Richard Smith from Spartanburg, SC.  Richard spoke at our big Encounter conference last year and students loved him.
Below I will list things to be praying for this weekend.  Thanks so much for your partnering with us to reach students with the gospel!

Prayer Request
 - Praise God for the 37 Freshmen already registered, please pray that more would sign up and take a step of faith to come. Pray for those who are deciding between coming with us and basically something that will only leave them empty. This is a battle for the hearts of men, pray that God would draw them to Him.
-Please pray for Richard as he speaks this weekend and for his safety as he travels, his health and rest.
-Please pray for all of the staff and volunteers coming to help this weekend. That God would allow His love to shine through and that we would be at the right places at the right times.
-Please pray for the non-believers that are coming with us, that they would have a safe place to process the gospel and an unclouded opportunity to accept it!
-Please pray for safety as we travel and as we play!
-Please pray for the decisions that students make to be lasting and not just emotional.
-Please pray for unity, there have been some students from Pellissippi and Maryville that have expressed desire to come, pray that they would feel welcomed and catch a vision for what God can do on their campus.

Ways to Help:
If you would like to scholarship a student to go please let us know. (We have 3 asking for scholarships at present)
If you would like to help out with a meal or come help serve, you can let us know when you would be available.

Amazing Grace and Amazing Blessings!!

Wow!  That is the first word that comes to mind as I think about this past month.  When school started back we were curious as to how things would go since we had recently redone our leadership training and structure.  We were also curious as to how students would respond to the new format in our weekly meetings and our new vision statement that focuses on Encounter and Give (Encountering Jesus and Giving our lives to Him and others).

Our Leaders
Brooks and I feel so blessed by the young men and women that God has raised up here at UT.  They have such a vision and a heart to reach out to their fellow students!  Our Freshman Bible Studies are averaging about 15-20, which is amazing and things are still growing.  Even among the upperclassmen, where you usually see a fade out, we have seen more students getting involved with the need to start new studies to accommodate the people interested.  Please continue to be in prayer for our leaders, especially in recruiting for Fall Retreat which is coming up September 23-25th.  This is a critical weekend for the ministry and we would love your prayers for this weekend!

Launching New Campuses
We have been overwhelmed by how God is working as we start to launch new campuses.  Things are going very well to start Cru at Pellissippi State.  Pellissippi has 10,000 students and is the second largest University in East Tennessee. It is projected to grow even bigger and change to a 4 year school soon.  There is currently NO established campus ministry there.  We have had several things on campus and have about 50 students interested in helping launch Cru.  Please keep praying for church partnerships to strengthen and that God would raise up laborers.
We are also looking to launch at Maryville College, Johnson University, Knoxville College and Roane State.  Please pray that God would go before us and raise up connections, students and volunteers to help reach these campuses.  Please also pray for favor in the eyes of the administration.  A lot of them are not used to groups coming in like this.  We need faculty sponsors and a lot of times have to be "voted in."  Please pray that God would provide for these needs.

Ways to help and ways to pray
-If you know of students or teachers at any of the Universities/Colleges listed above that would be interested in helping out please let us know!!
-If you would like to help be a Volunteer Staff Person that would help out at one of these campuses please let us know!
-Please be praying for our Fall Retreat and our speaker Richard Smith (from Spartanburg, SC).  The retreat is September 23-25.
-We have had several students ask for scholarships to Fall Retreat.  If you would like to give towards helping a student attend Fall Retreat the cost is $59 for Freshmen and $75 for Upperclassmen.  We don't really make money on Fall Retreat this is just to cover our cost.  You can do partial or full scholarships.  The link to give is posted below, but please message me at Britton.Sharp@uscm.org if you give so that I know to look for it in the campus account.
https://give.ccci.org/give/View/2284485?pp=Search+Results
-Please thank God for how He is working on the campuses in Knoxville!!

Rocky Top Goodness!

We are off and running!

After a busy first couple of weeks, we have been really encouraged by how the ministry is going on campus. We have had several encouraging things happen.  I will try to fill you in below and provide you with a few links.

Our Vision:
This year at UT our vision statement is: Cru is about students encountering Christ and giving our lives to Him and others.   Our first weekly meeting we started off challenging the students to live as givers and not takers on campus. We have been really encouraged to see students, even freshmen begin to take steps to live this out.

Ask Mom:
It is good to be on TV for something positive.  I say that remembering back to the incident a few years ago that has now become a campus legend.  We have been doing "Ask Mom" for 3 years now and it is so encouraging to see students come by and yell "It's the MOMS!!! I love it when you all are here!!"  When we put the word out that we were doing this event again, a local news team heard about it and decided to do a story on us.  I will post the link below, but it went really well.  Events like "Ask Mom" have allowed us to build a positive image on campus and let people know that there are people here who care about them.  Our heart is to tell them about Jesus but for many in this generation, there are a lot of walls that you have to get over first.

Click here to see the news story:
http://www.wbir.com/news/article/181498/8/Moms-hand-out-free-advice-and-cookies-to-college-students


Freshmen Overnight:
This was the first year that we attempted a Freshmen Overnight.  The idea is to give the freshmen a chance to meet classmates and build relationships with the Bible study leaders in their area.  While Brooks and I were meeting with the Bible study leaders, we let them know that this was a step of faith and we didn't know if we would have 8 or 80.....we ended up having 46!!  It was an awesome time and the students loved it.  We are still praying that God would continue to work in these students lives and are so thankful for our chance to meet them!!

Rocky Top Roundup....in a Thunder Storm:
The Rocky Top Roundup is becoming a Cru tradition.  It is held in the Ag Gardens the first Friday after classes start.  We have a live bluegrass band, snacks and square dancing.  Last year we had about 100 kids come out and it was HOT!!  Like people looked like they got out of the shower.  So this year we planned accordingly and had stuff to help cool people off.....and it rained.  Like massive thunderstorm rain.  It didn't deter the students or the band.  We ended up having 150 come out this year and they had a blast!  The wind was blowing, teeth were chattering and bluegrass was playing.  The night ended with a joint singing of Rocky Top!  It is a great way to start the year and a great way to welcome students to UT.

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!

No Matter Where You Go In The World....God Is Already There And He Is Waiting.

This thought has really become more and more evident to me as we have reached out here in Sweden this summer. That God is already here and that He is at work in peoples lives, even if they don't realize it.

We are wrapping up our time in Sweden now and we don't have much time left. It has been amazing to see God continue to work in the stories that I mentioned before.
One in particular is the story about a young athiest named Eric.  Eric was the one who previously upon first meeting with our guys stated his views rather bluntly that (edited version) the Bible was worthless. He has continued to meet with some of our guys, and beyond that started to introduce our guys to other Christians he knew. This is really rare because there are not many young Christians in Uppsala. Through Eric we have now met 3 young Swedish believers who basically want to talk more about what we do and want to get involved with the ministry here. Eric continues to be willing to meet and talk and it is encouraging to see that God has brought and is bringing Christians into his life to help him process the gospel.

Another story is of a guy named Andreas.   We met Andreas when he was sitting with his friend in a cafeteria. He told us that he is agnostic and his friend who was with him was a Christian from Stockholm. Andreas wanted to meet up again to talk and then invited some of our guys to his house (this is a big deal culturally). He wanted to talk more and brought up spiritual things pretty early in the conversation. God is definitely working on his heart. Andreas had to leave early during the first meeting but what was also really cool was that his friend turned to us and said, "I believe that in this meeting God revealed His heart for me to share my faith with my country". This may not sound like a big deal, however culturally this is huge. Swedes don't want to stick out...they actually have a word for it. The goal is to be "Lagom" which means: not to little and not to much but just enough.  This spirit of lagom has really invaded the church so that believers don't talk about their faith at all. After coming here for several years now we are are seeing this spirit of lagom begin to fade among young believers. God is working in the hearts of the Swedes.

Another story is one of a girl named Osa. Osa met some of our students and invited them over. They talked about the gospel. Osa was somewhat fascinated and asked many questions. One of our students asked, "Osa, what do you think of Jesus?".  Osa replied "Swedes don't talk or know much about God, I think after hearing you talk it is because we do not know this Jesus that you have talked about. If we knew this Jesus as you do, we would talk about Him."  It is a beautiful thing to see somebody who previously had no idea of God in her life, know is putting the gospel together in her life.

There have been many other things going on this summer as well. Another short story is of how God is reaching the many refugees here. There are alot of Afghan and Farsi refugees in the city. They are hurting and broken people. God has raised up a couple on staff with Crusade to reach out to these people in Uppsala. Yesterday we were able to see a Farsi woman place her faith in Christ. Many of these people are without hope and broken. It is amazing to see God reach out to them, restore and redeem them.

Thank you so much for reading. I will post pictures below. Please continue to pray for us as we close things down and have final meetings with students. Also please be in prayer for those who are still lacking support in funding this trip.
Thank you so much once again!
Britton and Brooks

This is one of our students, who came contact with a girl who trusted Christ in the states but didn't know any believers in Sweden. They have been going over how to study the Bible. This young believer is currently reaching out to the Muslim community in Stockholm.

To meet students we have several cookouts in the park. We invite Swedish friends that we have met and it is a relaxed environment to be able to talk about things more.

Cultural Moment: This is what happens after a Swedish High School Graduation. They get into the backs of trailers and ride around town for hours. These are decorated with tree limbs and they throw presents to the crowd and the crowd throws presents back....this was hilarious...the sailor hats they are all wearing are their graduation hats....we thought they looked funny, but then realized for some reason we were cardboard squares on our head when we graduate....suddenly sailor hats made more sense.

Cultural Moment #2: We were able to go to a Swedish Soccer game which was hilarious. This is in the 1918 Olympic Stadium....the green awning on our right was where the royalty sat to watch the games.

This was at our MidProject Retreat. God blessed us with being able to go to a monastery, that is housed in an old castle. We had to leave our hostel in Uppsala because they had a big group coming in that booked before us. So through a friend found out about this place. When hearing what we do, they gave us an amazing discount and God really blessed us there. It was so refreshing to take a break for a couple of days to reflect and recharge!! One of the coolest moments was when doing a tour of the castle they led us to a music room and asked if anyone played the piano to demonstrate the acoustics. One of our students did, and he played the song I have linked to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4wUfZD6oc  . It was one of those moments that time just stopped and God's beauty was on display. Hope you enjoy the song!

This is what happens when you live in a shoebox for a room for to long! The viking and the princess!