Wildwood, New Jersey......Treasuring Jesus and Changing the World
My journey towards spending my summer as a part of the Cru Wildwood Summer Project started just under a year ago when I had the life changing opportunity to spend a couple weeks on a missions trip in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While in Malaysia I was exposed first-hand to Christianity outside of the United States, and began to truly understand the Gospel as something that the people around the world so desperately need and desire. I also realized that I myself am personally called to spread the Gospel to the nations.
Fast forward to around January, when I was trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do this summer. That's when I first started really hearing about summer projects through Campus Crusade for Christ and all of the amazing opportunities that were a part of them. So as I began to look at the different projects, the one that caught my eye from the very beginning was Wildwood. Wildwood summer project is built around two things, treasuring Jesus and changing the world. I remember reading the first paragraph on the information page of Wildwood, and almost immediately feeling God start pushing me towards it.
"We are convinced that, as we see Jesus for who he truly is, as our hearts are captivated to worship him more deeply, and as we Treasure Jesus more dearly, we will be compelled to Change the World. We won’t be able to help BUT share the gospel with our friends, to bring justice to the unjust, to redeem the things that are broken, and to, quite literally, change the face of the entire world around us. "
However what makes Wildwood unique as far as summer projects is all the international students there, in fact there's literally thousands of international students that work there over the summer. That was really the deciding factor for me, because the more I prayed about it the more I realized what an unique and amazing opportunity to both grow my faith as well as share it with people literally from all around the world! So in late February I submitted my application, and a few weeks letter I was accepted. I then began the process of preparing myself as well as raising both financial and prayer support. (I'm still doing both and I'd like to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting me! You can view my support letter here and my prayer card here.)
So what will I be doing in Wildwood? Well I will be living in a big house just 2 blocks from the beach with 67 other students just like me. There's going to be 20 staff members that will be mentoring and leading us through the summer as we grow in our faith. All of the students are will get jobs along the Wildwood boardwalk, where we will have the chance to interact and share the Gospel with our co-workers (many of which will be international students) we will also be running bible studies, outreaches, events, and a myriad of other things as we try to impact WIldwood, New Jersey and all of the people we come in contact with for God's Kingdom!
And all of that brings me up to where I am now, with just a few more days until I pack up and head to Wildwood for the summer of a lifetime! So please consider supporting me especially with your prayers, and I will be blogging all the stuff that I experience in Wildwood during this summer, so check back every once and a while to see how God is working!
-Chris
My journey towards spending my summer as a part of the Cru Wildwood Summer Project started just under a year ago when I had the life changing opportunity to spend a couple weeks on a missions trip in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While in Malaysia I was exposed first-hand to Christianity outside of the United States, and began to truly understand the Gospel as something that the people around the world so desperately need and desire. I also realized that I myself am personally called to spread the Gospel to the nations.
Fast forward to around January, when I was trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do this summer. That's when I first started really hearing about summer projects through Campus Crusade for Christ and all of the amazing opportunities that were a part of them. So as I began to look at the different projects, the one that caught my eye from the very beginning was Wildwood. Wildwood summer project is built around two things, treasuring Jesus and changing the world. I remember reading the first paragraph on the information page of Wildwood, and almost immediately feeling God start pushing me towards it.
"We are convinced that, as we see Jesus for who he truly is, as our hearts are captivated to worship him more deeply, and as we Treasure Jesus more dearly, we will be compelled to Change the World. We won’t be able to help BUT share the gospel with our friends, to bring justice to the unjust, to redeem the things that are broken, and to, quite literally, change the face of the entire world around us. "
However what makes Wildwood unique as far as summer projects is all the international students there, in fact there's literally thousands of international students that work there over the summer. That was really the deciding factor for me, because the more I prayed about it the more I realized what an unique and amazing opportunity to both grow my faith as well as share it with people literally from all around the world! So in late February I submitted my application, and a few weeks letter I was accepted. I then began the process of preparing myself as well as raising both financial and prayer support. (I'm still doing both and I'd like to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting me! You can view my support letter here and my prayer card here.)
So what will I be doing in Wildwood? Well I will be living in a big house just 2 blocks from the beach with 67 other students just like me. There's going to be 20 staff members that will be mentoring and leading us through the summer as we grow in our faith. All of the students are will get jobs along the Wildwood boardwalk, where we will have the chance to interact and share the Gospel with our co-workers (many of which will be international students) we will also be running bible studies, outreaches, events, and a myriad of other things as we try to impact WIldwood, New Jersey and all of the people we come in contact with for God's Kingdom!
And all of that brings me up to where I am now, with just a few more days until I pack up and head to Wildwood for the summer of a lifetime! So please consider supporting me especially with your prayers, and I will be blogging all the stuff that I experience in Wildwood during this summer, so check back every once and a while to see how God is working!
-Chris
Hello Christopher. I just wanted to say I'm tickled to see you are going to Wildwood, NJ. I spent several happy weeks there during multiple summers as a teen, as my father preached in the Boardwalk Chapel there for a week at a time. I think the Chapel is still there. Perhaps you can stop in for a visit.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great summer!
:-)
Mrs. Smith (a friend of your parents and mom of Zach & Erin & Caroline)