02.07.08 b

I just got off the phone with Jordan Acer, a friend who has been in direct communication with our missionary contacts in India. He informed me that the medical costs have been covered, so those are no longer a problem! Please still pray for healing and if you feel led to help them financially, let me know!

02.07.08

Where to start? I seem to remember finding myself in a similar situation last year. It’s VERY well into the school year, and yet here I am just getting the first prayer letter of the year out.

Well, at this point I can either try to summarize everything that’s happened since my last correspondence, or I can get you up to date on what’s happening right now. I’m going to side with the latter since that’s probably more important right now.

My goal going into this year was to invest my time in three distinct areas: 1) communication, scheduling, and administration for the staff; 2) developing better relations with the University; and 3) continuing to build our ministry to students at the Ohio State University who struggle with same-gender attractions.

I’ve had opportunity to see a lot of success in the first two areas, but the third has been frustratingly slow in development. Since the beginning of the year I’ve gotten opportunities to minister to a number of students and staff across the Great Lakes Region struggling with same-gender attractions, but I haven’t gotten to do any outreach to the gay community. I would really like to pursue ministry aside from “preaching to the choir” of largely conservative Christians, but I’ve kept so busy with running activities that it has taken a back-burner this year. This quarter though, I’ve been approached by both students and staff who are eager to take steps to reach out and address this sensitive and extremely important topic on campus. We’re currently planning videos and a talk for our entire movement of 500 students to be conducted at our weekly meeting sometime Spring Quarter. Please pray for my motivation and that all our hearts would be enlarged to care for those who are struggling to reconcile their sexual attractions with faith in Christ.

Praises:

1) Like last year, I was in charge of the first outreach event of this school year: the Hog Roast! With all the people milling around it was hard to get a good count on how many students turned out, but we had at least 300 students attend! The president of the University, Gordon Gee, even stopped by. It was a great opportunity for new students at the University to get plugged into ministry and for all of us to reconnect after a long summer apart.

2) I’ve been trying to organize more events in conjunction with the University and on January 11^th the Ohio State University gave us a grant of over $1000 to host an alcohol alternative program called “Moonlight Madness” in the RPAC, our largest athletic facility. With over 400 students in attendance, it was the largest event focused specifically toward students that we have ever held… and it didn’t cost us anything! The whole event was organized by Lee McConkey, the student president of Campus Crusade, and me. We’re already making plans to do similar events in the future.

Although using University money means we aren’t allowed do traditional evangelism, events like this give us an opportunity to get students out of the dorms that we wouldn’t normally get to come to one of our events, and the University encourages us to do educational seminars in conjunction with events. On the schedule for next time are “What are the Teachings of Jesus?” and “What do Christians believe about the next life?” Though we can’t do evangelism, we CAN tell that students what we’d say if we WERE doing evangelism. Nice little loop-hole huh?

3) Soulfest: 150 Students drove to a meeting place off campus on Friday the 18^th to pray for the campus and for God’s will to be clear to us in the coming year. That time really was a great occasion for all of us to recharge and refocus not on what professors, parents or friends want for each of us, but rather what God has called us to: the advancement of His kingdom. Amidst hectic schedules and many other options for their Friday night, it was great to see the students’ hearts for prayer! Afterward about half the students stayed behind for a coffee house and free concert put on by the Jared Mahone Band.

4) We’re really working hard this year to support our overseas missionary partnerships in France and Venezuela. We’re excited to have 6 students signed up to spend their Spring Break in Nantes, France and another 11 going to Valencia, Venezuela! Please pray that

a) the students will be able to come up with funds to get to their respective countries

b) that the permanent staff and STINT’ers (Short Term INTernational) will be encouraged by the presence of the students

c) that their group effort would see lives changed and hearts won for Christ

d) and that the students spending a week overseas now would be challenged to have a heart for the nations and perhaps to return for a longer investment later!

Prayer Requests:

1) We’ve seen a number of students come to Christ this year on the campus and as I look at our movement in comparison to years past, I see a larger, stronger, better connected fellowship of believers than I’ve seen since I’ve been around. But we’re experiencing significant spiritual warfare. The first week back to campus Amber Bryant, a leader in our movement, lost a family member to the first murder in Columbus this year. She has such a big heart! I asked her how she was doing that week and she told me that neither she nor her family was doing well at all. Somehow she found it in her though to spontaneously bake a few dozen cookies for those of us who work to set up our weekly meeting each week. Her kindness and thoughtfulness despite, and perhaps even because of her suffering, really moved me. I know that both Amber and her family are still deeply hurt by their loss. When I talked to her yesterday, she told me that she is still having a really hard time. I think it’s been especially difficult for her to mourn her loss while she’s at school and away from her family. Please pray that God would somehow reveal Himself to Amber’s family through their loss and that He would extend to her specifically a sense of peace.

2) Paul, a student who has taken the year off due to family circumstances, could also use a lot of prayer. His father, a pharmacist, was arrested two weeks ago for running a meth-lab out of their family basement and is now looking at spending a long time in prison. His family is handling things very poorly and I really just wish Paul was back in Columbus right now. Please pray for Paul and his family.

3) My house (the physical structure) is doing especially poorly. The central foundation was undermined decades ago to make space for heating vents and now the house is sagging. It’s gotten to the point where the center of the house has actually sunk 4 or 5 inches. The floors are all sloped toward that central undermining spot. One of the walls is buckling, and the refrigerator is threatening to fall through to the first floor. I called our maintenance guys to take a look at a small waterfall that had sprouted between the second floor shower and the first floor bathroom sink this past week and when they noticed the slope of the floor they called their manager who in turn called the actual owner. Apparently this coming week will find a 30 ton jack, 5 new steel supports, a reworked heating system, a repaired central foundation, and some new beams in my basement. The man who will be doing the repairs was so concerned that he told me he called his insurance company to see if he was covered if the house actually fell down! We’re all praying the house doesn’t fall on our heads from this intervention. Feel free to join us :)

4) Chris Reed, one of my 11 housemates, found out an hour after returning from a mission trip to France this past summer that his father has esophageal cancer. Chris’s father has been receiving treatments and undergone surgery, but the doctors have now found cancer that has spread to his pancreas. There are 12 of us in my house this year and I don’t think that most of the guys including myself know just how to be there for Chris. I also don’t think it has hit home to many people, including Chris, that the doctors see his father’s condition at this point as terminal. Please pray that the doctors are proved wrong. That Mr. Reed will be restored to health. But whatever God’s will, please pray that He will be glorified and that God would show us how to meet Chris where he’s at through whatever lies ahead.

5) My host while I was in India, for the sake of security I’ll call him Papa, recently fell while trying to get on a bus. His hand was broken and he banged up his face pretty good losing a few teeth. He and his family have always lived solely on charity as missionaries and he has no health insurance so he’s currently praying that God will provide him with the 5000 rupees or roughly $625 in US dollars that he has incurred in medical costs. He really is serious about prayer. While we were in India his wife and daughter fasted and prayed for days at a time while we went about the country visiting churches and orphanages. It is neither safe nor economically profitable to be a Christian in India; let alone a pastor and a missionary. Please pray for Papa’s quick recovery, and if you feel led to help him pay for his health costs or to help equip his ministry through financial contribution, let me know and I’ll direct you in how to go about that.

Thank you all for your prayers and financial support! Believe it or not, this is a very condensed letter. There’s a lot more to be said in praise of what God’s doing and a lot more topics to be prayed over, but I’ll wait to share more so you don’t get tired of reading! Thank you so much for your prayers!

In Him,

Todd Isler

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If you want to support me this year in my internship but you really don't like writing checks or don't want to spend 41 cents on a stamp, Campus Crusade for Christ has a website where you can make an online donation.

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If you prefer good old-fashioned mail please make any checks payable to "Campus Crusade for Christ" and not myself. The IRS will not allow me to accept checks that have my name anywhere on them. Checks can be mailed to me at:

Todd Isler
5899 Smeltzer Rd
Prospect, OH 43342

Thanks!

Ocean City Summer Project 2007

On May 21^st I packed my bags and drove to Ocean City, NJ to prepare for the summer mission project there. When I arrived I was 1 of 37 staff members from around the country who were all coming off of a full year of ministry but chomping at the bit for an opportunity to work with the best and the brightest upcoming Christian youth! The Ocean City Summer Project (OC SP) is one of largest projects with 108 students this year. It actually started way back in 1965 and was the first Summer Project ever offered by CCC. Today we send approximately 3,500 students and staff from around the US to over 150 student projects each year!

But back to Ocean City… We arrived to find 3 large houses that needed a lot of attention in the week we had to work on them before students arrived. The largest, The Ambassador Inn, houses 80 people when project is in full swing. The Inn is a bit run down, but in a city where the upper floor of a standard-sized house sells for $700,000 we feel very fortunate to have generous supporters who have bought the large building solely for our ministry use of a little over 10 weeks each summer. The place isn’t exactly pretty and doing ministry in a tourist town isn’t quite cheap, but it’s well worth it to see the difference it makes in the spiritual growth of the students and the impact it makes in lives of locals and tourists.

The staff team spent our first week there getting the carpets rolled back out and the furniture in place ready for the students’ arrival. We prepared activities for the students, got to know each other as a team, and prayed a LOT that God would move in Ocean City over the summer and use us to help make that happen.

The students began to stream in one week after our arrival. It was strange to see so many people who we as a team didn’t know, and for the most part, who didn’t really know each other either. With Christ as our common denominator though, it wasn’t long before the whole group felt like one big family!

As I mentioned previously, Summer Projects last for about 10 weeks. We don’t really count the first week of the students’ time on project, as it’s mostly spent just with orientation and laying a foundation for what’s to come. After that though, each week has a title and specific goals that we aim for in order to: grow as a community of believers, grow in our relationship and desire for God, and grow in our influence within our target area… in our case Ocean City.

The titles of the weeks were: “Setting the Pace”, “Thirsting to Know HIM”, “Killing the Giants”, “All for One”, “World Vision”, and “Agape” week. After “Agape” week the staff left the project and it has continued under the leadership of student directors who now determine the subject matter for the project.

The weeks are largely structured the same with minor tweaks to compliment the topic of each week. To give you a better idea of what goes on, I’ll summarize my favorite week: “Killing the Giants” week.

The week started out June 16^th with the unveiling of a 15 foot tall “giant”. The students had just been presented with a challenge to set a goal to share their faith more in the coming week than they had ever done before. Each student turned in their anonymous goal on a sheet of paper and we tallied them up. Together we set a goal to share the Gospel with 5,105 people that week! The 15 foot tall giant suddenly made sense as we faced such a HUGE goal! We knew that we would get frustrated during the week, that the goal of sharing with so many people would seem insurmountable, that we would have hard conversations that would leave us questioning whether sharing our faith was worthwhile, and even that we would question whether we were out there to glorify God or to satisfy some arbitrary number. But we challenged the giant and stepped forward in faith that God’s will would be done through our faithful persistence. That night we stormed the boardwalk and had conversations like none other!

The next day was a Sunday so we went to Sunday school and then to church at Ocean City Baptist, our host church in Ocean City. After church I went out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant with the 4 student guys from my group and a group of 4 student girls and 1 staff woman named Laura.

Each staff member is assigned to 4 or 5 students in Ocean City. We call these Action Groups. The staff member leading each Action Group leads a Bible study Wednesday night each week with the students in their group and also meets with each of them individually for 2 hours each week for discipleship. The first hour of discipleship is spent spreading the Gospel on the boardwalk. The second hour is spent developing the student/disciple and challenging them in their walk with Christ. During the hour sometimes I talk to them about what they’ve been reading in the Bible that week. I might also ask them about the week’s sermon, or conversations they’ve had with people on the beach, or help keep them accountable to personal purity, or just ask them what they want to do after they graduate. I also plan out items for personal growth such as challenging them and giving them tools to read Scriptures more deeply, control anger, use the gifts God has given them or understand basic tenants of the Bible such as grace more in depth. Discipleship is in many ways the meat of Summer Project and for me it is the time of the week when I get the greatest opportunity to work with my guys.

But back to lunch. Each Action Group partners with one of the opposite gender for certain activities each week. We call those groups Impact groups. So to condense the last to paragraphs, my Impact Group went out to lunch after church. After lunch we headed out to the boardwalk and the beach for the afternoon for an outreach that lasted the duration of the day.

Monday is a “staff stuff” day each week so I met with the rest of the staff team for the day to debrief from the previous week, plan activities for the coming week, and break into smaller groups to work on individual projects. Monday the staff and students had dinner together at the Ambassador Inn and then we met for our weekly Monday evening message and then we headed out to do more evangelism on the boardwalk!

Tuesday morning the staff men met for our mandatory weekly basketball game from 9:00AM to 11:00AM and after that I spent my afternoon catching up on projects and meeting with one of my guys for discipleship. I was the Project Resource Director so a lot of my afternoon was spent doing responsibilities associated with that, but I won’t bore you with the details of all that.

Tuesday evening the students and staff picked up prepared sacked dinners and then spent 5:00PM to 8:00PM reading their Bibles, journaling, taking prayer walks or whatever else helped them to connect with God. We call this time each week “Date with Jesus” time. Afterwards we gathered at the church to talk about what God had put on our hearts that night and so far in the week. Then we closed with singing and headed out to the beach to spread the gospel even more! Many people stayed out until 2:00AM or later in pairs sharing the Gospel that week on the boardwalk and Tuesday was no exception!

Wednesday morning we had a brief staff meeting with a Bible study and then we spent the afternoon meeting with disciples followed by a group dinner at the Ambassador Inn, and then an Action Group Bible study. At 8:00PM we hit the boardwalk again to share the Gospel for the rest of the evening!

Thursday morning the staff men met at 9:00AM to practice for the student/staff softball game the next week. I was surprised to find that my first time ever playing softball I hit every ball that came at me.

After practice I met with one of my disciples in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the afternoon sharing the Gospel with people on the boardwalk. At 5:00PM we had a group dinner at the Ambassador Inn followed by a message out of Ephesians and then more time sharing on the boardwalk.

Friday is always the staff’s day off and I flew home to Ohio on Friday for a wedding and didn’t get back until Saturday evening. When I left we had made a good chunk out of our goal, but we weren’t quite on track with where we probably should have been. I got on my computer and changed my seat on the plane so I could have an aisle seat and have an opportunity to share the Gospel with as many people on the plane as possible, but I guess my request didn’t make it through because I was placed by a window seat and the man next to me put on headphones and slept through the whole flight.

While I was gone the students took as many opportunities as they could to share the Good News whenever they weren’t eating, sleeping, or at work. Friday and Saturday were both kept completely open so students could take the initiative to share in their free time. Saturday after a group dinner everyone piled into cars and headed up the road about 30 minutes to the casino town of Atlantic City for a special outreach! The crowd there is a bit different from what everyone was accustomed to in Ocean City. Ocean City is on a dry island so no alcohol is sold on the island. The thickest crowds are one the boardwalk between 10:00PM and 1:00AM or so and after that most people go home to bed. Atlantic City on the other hand is a casino town. Casinos, bars, and strip clubs line the streets and the population there is… well, a bit rougher.

A number of people were concerned at first, but the bottom line is that people are people, and the Gospel is for everyone! I didn’t return in time to help out with the outreach in Atlantic City, but I heard that it went well. At some point everyone returned to Ocean City and met up to tally the numbers for outreach. The numbers fell short so the students kept sharing and checking back periodically until the goal had been surpassed. In all the students initiated 10, 463 conversations that week, shared the Gospel with 5,226 people, and saw 256 people pray to receive Christ!

The last step of “Killing the Giants” week was rewarding. I got back to town just in time to run to the church basketball court and see 108 students pummel the 15 foot tall “giant” with softballs and then break it to pieces by charging the structure. The “giant” came down that week at the Ocean City Summer Project. People who have feared to share their faith for their entire life shared their faith that week 50 times or more. And God’s Word did not return void. 256 people prayed that they could enter into a lasting relationship with God.

Well, that’s how “Killing the Giants” week ended. I’d love to get to tell you about the other weeks I spent on Summer Project and how God has worked in the students’ lives, but just a brief overview of one week seems to have taken a good deal more words than I thought it would. Ask me sometime. I’d love to tell you. And please pray for the students still on Summer Project! They are growing, but they also face a lot of challenges. Pray that they can continue to spend every last ounce of their energy on furthering the Kingdom of God and that no overblown “giants” get in their way of fulfilling the commission God has given them!