First of all we have to apologize for not being very consistent in updating our blog while we've been on our summer project. The internet has been very sparse and when we do happen to find a connection, it has a very weak signal. So, thanks for bearing with us as we experience technical difficulties :)

Wow! Time has truly flown as we look ahead and realize there are only 2 weeks left for us in Yellowstone. As staff, we leave the park after about a month while the students continue their summer jobs and ministry opportunities at Old Faithful. It has been great getting to know the students a little more as the days have gone by. We just got back from a team prayer time where the students share about different opportunities they've had to build relationships with their coworkers. Many of our students have really stepped out in faith as they have gotten to know the people they work with each day. The awesome thing is that many of their coworkers are from different places around the world. So, our team has the opportunity to impact the world with the Gospel (many of these out of country workers only stay in the US for the summer then travel back home when they are finished working here)!!! How cool is that?!?!...we're reaching the world without actually having to travel to a different country!

Last night was the first day of fishing season and we had an outreach opportunity centered around fishing at Pumice Point along Lake Yellowstone. The students asked a number of their coworkers to join us as we spent much of the day catching fish and hanging out. Right around dinner time, all the fish that were caught were gutted and cooked right along the shoreline. Everyone was able to eat some of the delicious trout that was caught just a few hours before! While all of this was happening students mingled with "non-project" friends and showed them what it was like to be a part of a community of Christians. It was a great opportunity to build those friendships so that perhaps in the coming weeks of summer the awesome news of Christ may be shared with them. Please be praying for all the "non-project" friendships that are being built each day!

Personally, we have been doing great! God has allowed us to stay healthy since we've been out here. Olivia has been a wonderful traveler! Since the day we left, she has been the most pleasant baby we could ask for. It's amazing to see how much she has grown even since being out here! She's just about 3 months already! We have also truly enjoyed the staff team we have...John and Laura (who is Emily's sister) Iamaio with their two kids Hayden and Hannah, and John and Bonnie Yelverton a young couple who are staff at Yale. We're going through a book as a staff team, "Emotionally Healthy Church," and it has been great getting to know everyone on a deeper level.

So, we hope to update a little more often! Stay tuned! :)

We arrived in Yellowstone on Wednesday to cool temperatures (30's & 40's) and lot's of rain. Today Emily, Olivia, and I went for a hike around Old Faithful to see all of the geysers and got soaked from a rain shower we couldn't escape. Olivia slept the whole time so she didn't seem to mind the rain!

Before arriving in Yellowstone we spent a week in Bozeman, MT with our 16 students for our orientation for the Summer Project. We had a wonderful week of getting to know everyone, casting vision for the summer, drawing close to God, and some fun hikes. We stayed at a beautiful camp in the mountains called Mountain Top Ministries. On Tuesday, the day before we entered the park, we spent the day at Montana State University to get to know what the campus is like and meet students. We also did some outreach and sharing and saw 2 students come to Christ! Praise God!

Today was the students' first day of work. 11 of them are working in Housekeeping and the other 5 are working in food and beverage. It has been great to walk around the Old Faithful Inn and see all the rooms Nate used to clean when he was a housekeeper here in 2004. Tomorrow all the guys are going on a big hike and fishing trip back to the Lewis River channel. Should be a lot of fun. This is the area where Nate was charged by an elk 3 times the last time he was here.

Tonight is our first meeting with all of our students since arriving in the park. We will be splitting the students up into 4 ministry teams. The faith group team, employee team, community team, and the prayer and worship team. We are so excited to begin ministry here and look forward to God doing great things!

Thanks for praying about the Fisher meeting we had with the leadership team this past Monday! It went very well, and we got a lot accomplished for this coming semester. We were able to talk about this past semester and what went well and what didn't go well/what we can improve upon. We also talked about different teams/committees that we can set up to help Fisher Cru function more efficiently, and we figured out small group and weekly meeting formats. We were also able to fill in the calendar for the whole semester! It was such a productive and beneficial meeting! To top it all off, we had them stay for dinner, and it was so much fun to just hang out with the students. Thanks again for praying!!

Hey all! Just wanted to send out a quick prayer request for today. In a few hours, the Fisher leadership team is coming over to our house to plan for Fisher Cru next semester. Pray for wisdom and insight as we make decisions and talk about the future of Crusade at Fisher. We'll let you know how it goes!

So the last blog I (Emily) posted mentioned Meghan and Melissa at Fisher and how they're planning on going to BWC but just needed the funds. Since Meghan and Melissa decided they wanted to go to BWC, they were a little nervous about raising the amount of money they needed for the conference. I think that for college students, money is an issue anyway (I definitely remember my college days of easy mac and ramen for a meal! haha), but throw in a conference/event that calls for a college student to raise an extra couple/few hundred dollars...that can be a scary and daunting task! So, when a conference/event comes up in the CCC world, we encourage students to send out letters and make contacts with people in order to raise the funds they need for the particular conference. So, last week M and M send out a few letters each to some of the contacts they knew. They heard from a couple of them, but were still coming up short for the amount of money they needed to attend BWC. I continued to tell them not to worry about it because God would definitely provide for them if He wanted them to go to BWC. So, on Monday they went to the Campus Ministry office and talked with Father Joe (Fisher is a Catholic founded college so they still hold many ties to the Catholic church, and the Campus Ministry office is like the religious office on campus). They told him their situation with raising the funds for BWC. Long story short...God totally provided for M and M through Father Joe and the Campus Ministry office! A check was written to cover both their conference and travel expenses and gave them cash for their food expenses! God's provision is so amazing! Now, M and M are super excited to go to BWC and see what God is going to teach them while their there.

I (Emily) just got back home from Fisher. I had lunch with 2 of the girls involved with Fisher Cru - Meghan and Melissa! It was so encouraging to me! I really enjoyed spending time with them, and I am so thankful that I have been able to be more involved at Fisher this year. Meghan and Melissa are planning on going to Boston Winter Conference (the big Northeast winter conference for all the college students) at the beginning of January. We had the chance to talk about some of the details about letter writing and fundraising for the conference. Please be praying for them as they have to raise enough money to cover the conference, travel, and food for 5 days. Actually, be praying for all the students at Fisher that are thinking of going! I believe there's a group of about 5 thinking of going. Here's the BWC website in case you want to see what it's all about: www.bostonwinterconference.com

I (Nate) had the opportunity earlier in the week to go with a group of students to do a basketball outreach in Brooklyn. We went to a public park right next to 2 college Universities (NYU POLY and City Tech) and set up food/drinks and we also brought Bibles, books, and other materials. All of which were free. When we arrived at the park, there were already a bunch of college age guys playing basketball. So, me and 3 others jumped in and began playing basketball with these guys. Let me remind you this is Brooklyn, NY and we are 4 white guys coming in to play on a court where all of the guys playing could probably jump over our heads! At first they were like, "are you serious," but they graciously let us join in and play. Game after game we began getting to know some of these guys and they were amazed that we would just show up and give out free stuff. By the way, everyone loved all the free stuff we had, and it was gone very quickly! I don't think I have ever played that much basketball in my life! In between one of the games when everyone was grabbing drinks and food, one of our students named Tom asked if he could share his story with everyone. Most everyone was cool with it and stuck around. Tom then began to share his life story with everyone of how God had changed his life. He did a great job, and it was awesome afterwards to interact with everyone about Tom's story. Also, one of the guys that was hanging around came over to us and began talking, he had just been released from the hospital. He had been stabbed 6 times in the back. He showed us all the bandages and staples. He shared his story with us and we were able to share the story of Christ with him. It was amazing! All in all a great day!

So, I (Emily) realized that the last post that was written was titled We've Been Here Two Weeks. Now, we only have 2 weeks left! Ahh!!! Time is flying by for us in NYC! These past couple of weeks we have spent a lot of time on campuses in NYC area. We've also had a lot of time with our project team (the students and the Crusade staff). It has been such a blessing to get to know everyone. I want to just take a moment to brag on our students that we have here for this Summer Project.

There are 19 students from all over the United States that have chosen to come here to serve and do ministry for the summer. 1st of all, that alone is why we appreciate these students so much. They made the concious decision to do a Summer Project and they stepped out in faith not knowing what to expect. Many of them had jobs in previous summers that they decided to give up to come here. Some of them were apprehensive about raising funds. Some were just uncomfortable with the idea of NYC. Despite all of these reasons, and more, these students trusted God and obeyed His calling in their lives. To me, that is so admirable!

Another reason why we have grown to love our students on the Campus Track is because they have genuine hearts for the lost. I love seeing the passion they have to see lost people turn their lives over to Christ. It's amazing to see their compassion and love for people who don't know God. This is so evident each day as we go out to our campuses to do ministry. They are so eager to share their faith with students on these college campuses. Also, they share their faith with such boldness and assurance that God will be guiding each conversation that they have. I think back to my college experience and ask myself, "Did I ever have that much courage to step out and share my faith with complete strangers?"

One last reason (and there are definitely more I could tell of) that we have enjoyed being with these students is because of their love for each other. We have been blessed with a team of students that truly mesh well together. God has definitely answered our prayers of unity among the team. We have seen them encourage each other when one is feeling discouraged, laugh when someone is lauging, and cry when someone is crying. It brings joy to my heart to see the body of Christ acting the way it should among these students.

I haven't been able to take a picture of the whole Campus Track team, but when I do I will be sure to post it! I want you to be able to specifically see our wonderful team of staff and students!

So, it's been two weeks since we've been here and it's been great! It has taken some getting used to though. I think we both realized that we're not meant to live the city life haha :) I guess it's been awhile since we've last blogged, and since then the students have arrived. They got into the city last Tuesday. The campus track has 19 students from all over the US (mostly from the southeastern US). This past week has been great getting to know them better and hear about their lives and where they've come from. These students are pretty mature in their faith, and it has been really encouraging to us to be working with them. We've also been able to spend some time on some of the campuses in the NYC area. In the beginning of this week we split up to go to our different campuses. Once we got to our campuses, we did some prayerwalking and decoding (this is just asking different students questions about the school in order to find out more about what the school is like). It's been neat to do actual ministry on a campus!
On a non-summer project note...tomorrow we're flying to Buffalo til Sunday for my (Emily) brother's wedding! The rehearsal is tomorrow night and the wedding is on Saturday. We're really looking forward to it! We're looking forward to seeing family and spending a little time away from the busyness of NYC. I'll be sure to post some pictures from this wonderful celebration! :)
Here are some pictures from the two weeks we've been here!

Our group after an international student outreach
Us at Top of the Rock (Rockefellar), Empire State Bldg in the back
From L to R: Emily, Haley, Abigail, Charlotte, Andrea, Rebecca, and Katie - some of the staff women

(Nate) These first couple of days in NYC have been about orienting ourselves and getting used to the subway system. It has been a ton of fun traveling to different places and using the subway. At first, I have to admit, I was totally scared and nervous to ride the subway, but I'm coming around and I'm starting to enjoy it and feel comfortable.

The other night we went up to Times Square around 10pm. We were amazed to see hundreds of lawn chairs set up right in the middle of Broadway Ave. right in front of ESPN. There were tons of people just standing and sitting watching the NBA finals. They had the game playing on this HUGE HD screen on the side of this building. So we stalked a couple sitting in these lawn chairs and as soon as they stood up we snatched their chairs and enjoyed the game. I was AMAZED! I kept saying over and over, "we're in the middle of Times Square sitting here watching the NBA finals with thousands of other people!"

So anyways, that was one of my favorite highlights of sightseeing so far! More to come later!

So we made it safe and sound to NYC. It's been a long day! Our flight and taxi drive to Midtown went great and total travel time was about 2 hours. We can't believe we're actually here! It seems surreal! The apartments we are staying at are a part of The King's College, which is right in the center of Manhattan. If we look out our bedroom window, we can see Macy's out our window and the street right where the Thanksgiving Day parade goes through. We're also just a short walk from the Empire State Building (which houses some of The Kings College classrooms/meeting areas) and Times Square. It's been a pretty busy day today, and there will be many more ahead of us. We'll definitely have to get used to the busyness of our new schedule for the next 6 weeks. Be praying for us as the next 6 days will be spent orienting ourselves to the city, learning more about what our ministry will look like this summer, and getting to know our fellow Crusade staff members. We're glad you can stay updated through our blog! Keep checking back for updates :)

Long time no post! We've definitely been slacking big time lately! But, going to NYC for our Summer Project is a great motivation to get back on it and be more consistent this summer. So, we leave in a little over 12 hours from now for the Big Apple!!! We are so excited that it's finally here! We were just talking at dinner about how it's amazing that we get to go to NYC for half the summer as our JOB. God has blessed us so much, and we are so thankful that He called us to full-time college ministry. There is much anticipation going into this summer. This is our first summer staffing a Summer Project (we had both gone on Summer Projects as college students). We don't really know what to expect, but we do know that God will do amazing things this summer in NYC! Please keep us in your prayers... we'll keep you updated throughout the summer!

Here are some videos my wonderful friend Deb put together as part of the historian team at the Boston Winter Conference. As we wrote in our previous post we had such a great time in Boston with the students and staff of the Northeast. God is doing great things in the Northeast, and it was such an encouragement to spend some time watching that happen while we were in Boston. We hope you enjoy the videos (especially the one of Nate dancing it up)!

BWC 2009 Conference Review


Day of Outreach


We're All In This Together (performed by CCC staff - this is one of the reasons we love our job so much...how many people get to bust a move while they're working?!?!)

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since we've blogged anything! We just returned yesterday from Boston. We had our annual Boston Winter Conference for the entire northeast. Students and staff joined together for a time of worship, fun, speakers and outreach. It was an awesome week! Hopefully soon I will put up a video of one of my favorite moments from the conference...a bunch of us (including Nate and my brother in law) doing the HSM dance at the final meeting! It was so much fun! I will be sure to post some pictures very soon :)

So, we found out at the conference where we have been placed for our summer project! We will be spending 6 weeks in NYC:Tribeca! We are incredibly excited for this opportunity God has put in front of us. We heard that this summer project is an amazing one! There are 4 "tracks" that this project has: an arts track, a campus track, an inner city track, and an asian track. Most likely we'll be helping to lead the campus track. I'm sure we'll be updating you on our summer in more depth as the weeks go on!

Today I turn 26! Gross, that sounds kind of old when I think about it too much. Even though it was my birthday, I made banana pancakes (cue Jack Johnson song) for Nate and I this morning. Tonight we're having dinner with our fams at Red Robin! Yum yum yum! I love those huge fries they have!

December 17th is in a few short days, and December 17th is a bit of a significant day for us. It's the anniversary of our wedding day! 3 YEARS! On our way to campus yesterday we were talking about our wedding day, and although it was a beautiful, wonderful, memorable day, looking back we would've changed a few things. Some of these are just silly little details, but just thought we'd share these things in the form of a blog :)

1. )There would've been an aisle runner with tons of red rose petals scattered all the way down.

2. )We would've had a different photographer. Don't get me wrong...ours did a great job! The only problem was all our pictures are so traditional. I love the photo journalistic style, and the fun, out of the ordinary pictures. We don't have too many of those in our album.

3. )We would've had a later afternoon wedding which led into an evening reception.

4. )We would've had our reception at another location. Not many of our guests knew this, but when we got to the Strathallan we were informed that the woman we had been working with called in sick (This is the lady who knows all the little details and pretty much runs the show so the bride or her family don't have to). So basically none of the staff really knew what was going on other than what was written down on paper. The afternoon felt rushed and we didn't get the chance to mingle with our family and friends who were there to celebrate with us.

5. )The wedding night suite. Of course this is contingent on the reception location (a room was included at the Strathallan because we had our reception there). We were told that as a part of having the reception at the Strathallan they would specially decorate our room with rose petals, candles, and a bottle of champagne. When we stepped in the room there was none of that there, and we were a little disappointed. Little detail, but it would've been special :)

6.) We would've had DANCING! At the time we were too worried about pleasing other people rather than planning OUR wedding. And this is the short story of a much more detailed story. (Tip for you brides out there: DO WHAT YOU WANT and don't worry about what everyone else is telling you to NOT do). Maybe a little bitterness there, but we can live vicariously through dancing at other people's weddings! WOO HOO!

7.) We would've provided the transportation for our wedding party...ie had a huge limo bus where we could've all ridden together! It would've been so fun to be with our friends and spend time with them in the down time on such a special day.

So that's what we would've have changed. But the thing is, we'll never have a wedding day again so this is all just a should've, would've could've thing. But, we had the most special day as it was. We are so thankful that God has given us 3 wonderful years together, and we will ALWAYS remember what a blessing December 17, 2005 was!

You may be wondering what FBS stands for. Hmmm...Fantasticly Big Ship...Funny But Stupid...Fast But Slow...the possibilities are almost endless. But the FBS that we refer to is Freshman Bible Study!

I just thought I'd write about the weekly Bible study we had tonight with the freshman. We left tonight after the end of the Bible study feeling really encouraged. Let me give a little background: Last week was the first time we had FBS since the beginning of the 2nd quarter. We hadn't chosen a specific topic to study at that point, so we thought we'd switch up the style in which we run FBS. Here's one more piece of background: there are a wonderful group of freshman that are currently invovled in CCC. They get along well with each other, and we have grown in our relationships with them as well. They have no problem socially relating to us or each other (which is often a barrier at RIT). So, last week we decided to switch up the FBS style and decided to do a more formal discussion about more personal/spiritual issues and try to find out their thoughts on the past quarter. Basically, as soon as the informal mingling stopped and the more serious discussion started, it was almost as if a wall came up. It seemed very hard for many of the freshman to open up about what God taught them last quarter, or what they thought about CCC, or what they thought about the Friday night weekly meetings. It made for the time to be pretty awkward!

So, back to this week...we started a new study on the book of John and the life of Jesus. We studied John 1:1-16...talking about Jesus' and how he was there since creation...how John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus...that we become the children of God at the moment of salvation. Pretty basic stuff right?? They probably have heard all this before right?? Well tonight just seemed so amazingly unique! It really seemed like the students were eager to be involved and interested in discussion. They were asking questions, which showed they were really thinking about the passage. Of course there were still moments of awkward silence, but it seemed to be purposeful silence. Nate was able to clearly present the Gospel, and they listened intently! It was amazing to see God and the Holy Spirit were truly working throughout our FBS tonight.

FBS is probably the favorite part of our week in ministry. We have such an awesome awesome group of freshman! Continue to pray for these freshman and the FBS that meets every Wednesday night.

Well, hello all! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We had a great weekend, and its sort of a weekend that is still going. Saturday morning we left for Camp of the Woods in Speculator, NY and we are here until tomorrow morning. The northeast region of Campus Crusade is having their annual fall staff retreat. So, all of the staff in the northeast...about 175 staff and 100 staff kids...are here in the middle of the Adirondack mountains near Lake Pleasant freezing our bum bums off(sorry, I've been around my nephew and niece for the past few days:) ). Actually, it's not that bad. Camp of the Woods is a really nice place (think of snow camp facilities and a Holiday Inn combo), and we've been pretty impressed with how it's run as a camp. We have been able to meet and get to know a lot of other Crusade staff in the northeast, and it has been encouraging for us to be around other people in the ministry. We have been having times of worship and a speaker in the mornings and evenings. It has been great for us to kind of refocus ourselves and continue to develop the vision for ministry with Crusade. We have been able to spend some great time with the Rochester staff team as well. It's nice to be able to spend time with each other and not have to be doing work the whole time. Overall, it has been a relaxing time for us, and it will be a great lead into the Thanksgiving holiday!

So what are you doing for Thanksgiving this year? I enjoy hearing what other people's plans are! This year is a little different for us. Some family from Nate's mom's side is coming up to Rochester, and we're having his 2 cousins and their wives stay with us! We're so excited to have family stay with us! But as far as actual Thanksgiving day plans...we'll be at my parents for lunch, then we'll go home to wait for one of Nate's cousins and his wife arrive, then we'll head over to Nate's parents house for dinner(that is if we are still hungry)/dessert. So...busy busy day for us.

Anyway, hope you've had a great start to your week!

Yes yes, I know you're probably thinking...what the heck...she's crazy! But when I look outside the big picture window at our house and see the beauty of the whiteness and how it seems to make dead things look bright again I can't help but see how God has given us snow to remind us of His greatness (that's a huge run on sentence...sorry english loving people). I love the purity and cleanness of snow. Everytime it snows I am reminded of the passage in the Bible that even though our sins are like scarlet, God will make them as white as snow. How amazing is God to give us a picture of our sins being washed clean and then actually give us a tangible, real picture of that promise! So, even though Rochester winters are brutal and terribly long, I am thankful to God for giving us something to remind Him of His goodness, mercy, and forgiveness that is so freely offered!

Tonight is one of the 2 nights during the week that we actually have a free night...no meetings...no activities...no studies...nothing. So, what do we do on our free nights you may ask? Well, tonight was a night we caught up on some of our favorite TV shows (via the internet...ah, it's a wonderful thing) that we miss during the week. First we watched the latest episode of The Hills...shhh, don't tell Nate I told you he watches this show :) Then, we moved on to the next show that we just got into this summer...How I Met Your Mother. This weeks episode was about the group of friends and their quest to find the best burger in NYC. I'm not going to spend too much time explaining the details of the episode, because that's not really the point of this blog.

The point of this blog, and the reason for the title, is that after we finished watching the above mentioned TV show Nate spontaneously said, "lets go to Wendy's!" At first I was a little hesitant...only because I really wanted to go to Taco Bell instead. But knowing that a Taco Bell AND a Wendy's are right down the road from each other (yes, we did actually stop at both places to each get our preferred cravings satisfied), I gave in for the good cause of spontaneity. On went the shoes...in the car went the dog...off to late night drive through.

Anyway, 40 minutes and a few dollars later our tummys are sitting happily filled...all because of a tv show. It was definitely a fun and spontaneous moment for us! Thinking back to our marriage the past (almost) 3 years, we have never done anything like this. It was almost like an unplanned date night...it kind of felt like we were actually just dating again! It made us reminisce back to the days when we began to date and we would do fun stuff like that out of the blue. Haha...can you tell we never really go on dates anymore?!?

Thank you Wendy's and Taco Bell for satisfying our tastes and for bringing an "old married couple" back to the old days.

So, it's definitely been too too long since we've posted anything...so sorry!! We have been insanely busy, but that shouldn't stop us from putting up even a little blog here or there. So accept our humblest blogging apologies :)

As I said above, the past two weeks have been insanely busy! We're still in the midst of "follow-up frenzy"...following up with lots and lots of contacts we got from the first week at RIT. We're still trying to figure out how to coordinate schedules and best utilize our time on campus. 2 more CCC interns (Lauren and Debbie) joined our team in Rochester, so we are so thankful for more help!

Since the last blog about the 1st Friday night meeting, we've had 2 more since then. Each week Nate and John (another CCC staff member at RIT...and my brother in law) meet with Abe and Ryan (both students involved in planning/organizing for the weekly meetings) to discuss what went well/what needs to be improved for Friday nights. This has been a helpful time, because it seems as though each week the meetings have been tweaked ever so slightly in order to improve it for the next week. Overall, we've averaged about 60 students attending the Friday night meetings these past 3 weeks. We're praying for many more throughout the year!

This coming weekend is the Fall Retreat!!! This retreat includes all of upstate NY, so there will be students from all over NY joining together at Seneca Lake to spend time learning about God, reflecting on their relationship with God, fellowshiping with students from their own city and students from other cities, and having tons of fun! This is actually mine and Nate's first Crusade Fall Retreat! We're really excited for it! We can't wait to see our staff friends Joe and Jen too :) Joe and Jen were with us last summer as we all went through New Staff Training together. We've built an awesome friendship with them, and we're really looking forward to connecting with them again! Pray for our Fall Retreat! It was a goal of the RIT student leaders to have 50 students from RIT attend this weekend...pray that goal can be reached. Pray for students lives to be changed because of what they learn. Pray that meaningful friendships will be developed among the students.

Non-ministry related...hmm...our non-ministry lives have kind of become our ministry lives...it kind of all mushes together...which can be a good and bad thing. But, this is a silly personal life thing...so our puppy, Annie, was overly (and obnoxiously might I add) barking quite often. We decided something needed to be done! So, we bought this little collar for Annie that gives her a little bit of and electric shock each time she barks. Cruel???...absolutley! But SOOOO worth it! She has definitely calmed down a lot more since we started using it. She's such a sweet puppy, and we're so glad to have a "little one" around the house :)

Well, anyway...2 weeks caught up in about 3 paragraphs...NICE!