Introducing Miss Annaleigh Viera Sharp!!

We welcomed Annaleigh on April 19th at 5:18pm.  She weighed 8 1/2 lbs. and was 21 in. long.  We feel so blessed by God’s gift of our daughter; she is the answer to so many prayers.  Her name is a combination of Brooks’ first name Anna, and her Mother and sisters’ shared name Leigh and together it means “field of grace.”  Viera is the Slovak word for faith.  Brooks and  I met in Slovakia so  it holds a very special place in our hearts, just like Annaleigh.

Summer Cru

 This summer we will be on assignment in Knoxville.  We are trying something new and have formed a partnership with our home church, West Park Baptist Church.  We will be hosting a weekly meeting on Tuesday nights for college students in Knoxville.  We are inviting any student from any of the schools in the area.  We are also inviting recent high school grads in hopes that they will be able to meet and connect with people who are going to the same school that they will be attending.  For these rising freshmen, we will be teaching on transitioning to college and we’ll also have times for any student on being leaders on their respective campuses and how to launch movements where they live!

We will also be getting things ready for UT to start back in the Fall and trying to line up leadership on the campuses that we launched this past year.  We will be spending time with church leaders and students in town trying to set things up to reach students on these campuses.  Please join us in praying for God to raise up leaders and volunteers to help lead and shepherd at the different locations.

Prayer Request:

-Praises for Annaleigh and for Brooks doing well after delivery!

-For Brooks and I to be able to get some rest this   summer and be able to recuperate after a busy year and to get ready for a busy fall coming soon.

-For God to raise up staff to come alongside us (please pray for full time and volunteer staff).

-That the church partnerships that we are        developing would effectively reach out around the Knoxville Area.

-For us to be able to raise some additional  monthly support this summer.

-For our personal walks with God and that we would minister to others out of an overflow of that relationship.

-For Summer Cru taking place between May 22 and August 3rd.

-For the  many students we have all over the world this summer.  We have over 20 students on Cru related projects this summer around the world and many others serving in the church and at camps all around the USA!

Quick Update

Hey Yall,
 Sorry for the delay in writing!

Things have been going really well this semester. We wanted to quickly write and ask for your prayers this weekend. We are having our annual men's/women's retreats this weekend. Would you please be praying for God to work and bless this time? Would you pray for students to come out an have open hearts, and also for safety.

Baby Sharp is doing very well and we are getting ready to come soon! We are 10 weeks away and are so blessed. Brooks is doing very well and the doctor says everything looks good.

We will be sending out a newsletter soon. Thank you so much for your support and prayers!!

B&B

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.