"What an AWESOME night!"

 “What an awesome night!!!  I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about the upcoming year and spending it with CCF!!”  - New freshman Meredith's Facebook status after the first Dinner and a Message last week. 

Wow. That’s all I can say. We ended last spring’s semester with momentum, on a high, and the summer just seemed to keep us moving. All summer we worked on “beautifying” CCF, growing deeper through Bible Studies, reading books together, and preparing for this year. 

But, things really picked up at the end of July when the Interns started. Adrian, Elizabeth, Josh and Laura have added a tremendous amount of energy and effort and love to CCF. They are amazing. They have propelled our ministry forward and are helping take it to the next level of excitement and excellence. The house looks incredible both outside AND inside now– it’s clean, neat, creatively painted, hospitable, and fun.  And you should see their flyers! If we gave out medals for good flyers – they would all win!

We are so excited about this year. It’s off to a fantastic start. We are meeting lots of cool and interesting people and our student leaders are working hard to make CCF a loving, wonderful place. And people are responding. In the last week we have had a Muslim student, a Buddhist student, multiple students who are “unsure of their faith” or “not very religious”, and a bunch of other “non-traditional” (in the Bible-belt-Christian sense) students attend different events – and have a great time. We LOVE it!

Numbers aren’t everything, but they are exciting because they represent souls. So, let me throw some numbers out from the last 2 weeks.

9 - residents at the Campus House.

22 - leaders at our Leadership Retreat.

20 - new freshmen at CCF for our freshmen ice cream socials (before school even started).

50 - students at our welcome to school party.

130  - at our first Fat Mondays.

90 - at the first Dinner and a Message (30 of them were new. Many of those were the same freshmen I noted above!).  

65 - at Fun til Four. (20 until 4am!)

195 - at our 2^nd Fat Mondays.

Yea baby!!

Our Kickoff Retreat is this weekend and already 20 people have signed up. We’ll let you know how that goes. We want 50. After all, who wouldn't want to come hear Ric and Sarah White?!

Our theme this year at CCF is “Authentic Christianity” and that’s what we are trying to do – live out our faith. Things are going really well! There is excitement in the air. God is doing great things in people’s lives, already.  We’re tired, but so so happy for all that God is doing! Please keep us in your prayers, it’s just getting started!

I hope you are well and I hope to hear from all of you soon!

In Him,

Angela

CCF is a GREAT Matchmaker!

What's up Hasbeens!

Initial Thoughts: As you know, CCF is a really fantastic place to meet people when you're a student. In fact, one of those people may have turned out to be YOUR SPOUSE! Angela, Beau, and myself (Becca) have ALL met our significant others at CCF and we go to "CCF Weddings" all the time. We LOVE them. We love that people find someone at CCF who is worthy of their lifelong love and is someone that God created to fit beautifully with them in the holy covenant of Christian marriage. It's freaking cool! This summer alone we've witnessed 2 CCF weddings: the wedding of alums Scott Lowe & Hayley McNash, who met at Fat Mondays (our weekly on-campus outreach lunch) about halfway through their respective college careers. They grew in faith here at CCF and served God in love and are a couple that our current students look up to. Also just this week we saw current student Kim Vongo and alum Shaun Polston commit their lives and marriage to God. As Shaun said in his self-written vows, they met while playing 4-Square on campus (which is, by the way, a super-fun way to do outreach!) with a bunch of CCFers. As a staff, we really feel like God is moving when students come as students and meet the person they were created to be with, even if sometimes it takes a while for them to realize it :) Any of you two or three faithful Hasbeen blog readers have a similar story? We've love to hear it! Leave comments and tell us how you meet your spouse through CCF!

Weekly Update: INTERNS ARE COMING on Thursday! Elizabeth Davidson, Josh Rogers, Adrian Perez, and Laura McDonald are gonna be our fantastic four this year and we are SO stoked to get them on board with us. Keep praying for them and their incredible upcoming year of growth and service!

Exciting Thing Happening Today: We had our last summertime half-Monday today and we were pretty sad to see it go. (Yes, you read it right - we take Monday mornings off in the summer to further our extreme summer rejuvenation period. It's awesome!) Angela spent her morning hanging out with her kids, Abby & Dylan. Beau slept until lunchtime. Becca played video games with her husband and took her dog to play the IM fields. Now we get back to the craziness that is Fall in Athens - pray for our sanity!!!

Other CCF News: We have our leadership retreat coming on August 6-7. Pray for our student leaders as they learn about their roles for next year and start seeking God's will for CCF.

That's it for this week, folks! Look for some awesome ramblings from my esteemed coworkers Beau Mason soon, and tell your friends to subscribe to our blog! 

Yours,

Becca

P.S. For your enjoyment:Polstons on the left, Lowes on the right.

Walk the talk, sucker!

So, lately the idea of being an authentic Christian has been constantly on my mind. I’ve been asking myself, Gary (my husband), our staff and leaders to think about what that means, what that looks like in our lives. It’s our theme for this summer and likely for this fall as well. Do people see something different, something Christ-like when they look at me? Am I really walking the talk?

Well, these questions led to me start a small group on James this summer. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean James is the “do what it says” book, after all. In our first week, I challenged our students that we shouldn’t just read to learn more, but also to evaluate our lives and try our best to live out what we find – to apply these truths and really live more authentic Christian lives. And with that we dug in to the first few verses of this crazy challenging book. Here’s what we found:

James 1: 2-4 (NIV) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Good stuff, right? So, we discussed trials in our lives and how we actually face them. The common answer I got from the more churched students was, “I try and persevere and get through.” That’s good, no doubt. But, I wanted them to go further. James says not just to persevere, but to consider it “pure joy” whenever we face trials. “How do we do that?” I boldly challenged them.

And, I have to admit, I was pleased at myself. I got them digging deeper, challenging their status quo answers and faith, etc. But, God was just getting started with me, He’s so sneaky. Because that night after waking up when my 6 year old Abby woke up to go to the bathroom (always around 4am!), I couldn’t get back to sleep. My mind started racing about things, specifically, the trials we are going through at CCF right now. (Incidentally, it’s been a great year at CCF. We’ve seen incredible spiritual growth in our students, 4 baptisms, a great closeness in the group, so many good things.) Our one big trial right now, and it’s a biggie, is money. How are we going to get more money? How can we make ends meet? And, how am I going to help do this, since I’ve never done serious fundraising and really hate all things financial? I stayed awake for hours praying and worrying.

I awoke the next morning feeling tired, but a little better. My worry had been replaced by my typical thoughts: “I know God will provide, it’s just tough right now. We just have to keep praying, trust Him, get the word out. We can get through this, all we need to do is, persevere”… aw man! I couldn’t believe it. Not 24 hours since I had taught and tried to drive home the point that James makes (that, if we have real faith in God, if we have the wisdom to accept that He is in control of circumstances and will work them out for the good, then we should not just get through trials, we should have JOY as we face them), bam! In my face. Thanks a lot God.

Now, I know I can’t complain, it’s what I asked for, but the timing… really God? His ways are never quite as we expect, are they?

So, I’m trying to learn better how to walk the talk. My evaluations so far have shown I have a ways to go. I’m challenging and encouraging our staff and students to try and live authentic Christian lives as well. I really believe it’s the only way to make a difference in this world and glorify God. (If you want some good reading on this subject, check out the book UnChristian by David Kinnaman).

I challenge you to join us and do the same. We’re all in this together anyway. Look at your life: how you spend your time, how you spend your money, how you handle trials, how you treat those outside the church, etc. Does everything reflect Christ? Does the world see something different in you when they look at you? Is it something they want? Are you living an authentic Christian life? Pray about it and act. I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. It’s just, well, sometimes we get inundated with everything that surrounds us and we kind of start to blend in too much. Or, maybe we just don’t take the time to think about it, to evaluate, to make changes. We need to.

Thanks for reading my crazy thoughts (I know I write pretty stream of conscious and that drives some folks nuts). I love you guys! Please keep in touch – I love hearing from you, we all do. Please shine like lights in this world. Please let other CCF alums know about our blog, our Facebook page for alums (uga ccf alumni association), and our needs. Again, we are all in this together.

Oh, and if you have the means, we need more money, could you help? (I’m asking you with a joyful smile upon my face :).

Trying to live like Him,

Angela

(p.s. if you want to know more about our finances, or just to catch up, please don’t hesitate to send me a message or call.)

summer, marriages, and field day

Hello CCF Has Beens!

Welcome to my first ever blog! I have to say I feel so young, so hip, so... at a loss for what to say. :) I've read one or two blogs of people and it seems that random rambling is the norm, so I'm not worried about my blogging ability. Who else has more randomness potential than me? If you know me at all you will know the answer is clear: very few if any.

So, lets jump in. We'll start with the relevant. We just finished what was an incredible year. Lots of spiritual growth, great students, and millions of events that many of you will remember and love: Costume Corn Maze, Open Mic Nites, Mexico Mission trip, retreats, a Semi-formal, Parents Banquet, Field Day, Year End Steak Soiree (what was our annual Steakout has gotten all fancy), game nights, frisbee at Herty Field, Dinner and a Messages (formerly TGiT, formerly Tuesday night worship), Bible Studies, great worship, etc. etc. It was great and it was a lot of fun. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. They made a difference. Seriously, we couldn't do this without your support because this year, like every year was a lot of work. Thank you!

As a staff, we are tired, but, now it's summer, and I am one happy camper. I mean did you ever spend a summer in Athens? Do you remember what it's like? It's amazing! The perfect unwind, kick your feet up, refresh yourself time. I LOVE it! First, there are almost no cars! The 5 points traffic - gone! The other random traffic spots around town - empty. Want to eat at any restaurant on a Friday night - just walk right in. I can be home in 8 minutes (it usually takes me a whopping 15 - sorry all of you Atlanta people :). It's really a refreshing break from the chaos that we enjoy and love for most of the year. The only thing I don't like is not having students constantly in the Campus House. Oh, they'll be here by Through Session in June, but for now it's Maymester  - just listen to the wind howl, my co-worker Beau burp and sing, and watch the tumbleweeds roll. I love it and I hate it. Of course, part of the problem right now is that Becca is gone. She's about to get married and felt it important to "have a day or two to get ready" - whatever! :) I'm so happy for her, but honestly, she should have taken all of us with her and not left us here to be bored. I mean, I'm really helpful in the hair and dress department. Right?

Of course, today I wasn't bored because today, with CCF being deserted and Athens being a ghost town, I thought I would volunteer my morning and help at my daughter Abby's first Field Day. I mean, I remember Field Day vividly and used to love it. The 3 legged races, the 50 yard dashes, the long jumps, tug of wars, the blue ribbons. Some of you may say I am a bit overly competitive (whatever ;), but has anyone been to Field Day lately? Abby is 5 (almost 6, she would want me to say) and finishing Kindergarten. Old enough for some good, healthy competition in my book. Well, Field Day was NOTHING like I remember. I manned the all-important "Bubble Station". That's right, we gave them bubbles and they blew them. Where's the competition in that? I tried to make it more competitive by seeing who could make the biggest bubble and who could blow the most, but there were no awards or ribbons and one girl actually told me it wasn't nice to say someone had blown a bigger bubble than someone else. I quickly corrected her, letting her know that there was nothing wrong with recognizing and acknowledging a huge bubble. Did I make a difference in her life? I hope so. Some of the other stations included hippity hopping - which was a relay race, o.k. I could get into that except there was no official start and end, no winners or losers. There was a Moonwalking bouncy place, a snack station (really???), chalk drawing - again with no one judging these things, a jump rope station - which was just a place for them to jump ropes, and a "rocket launch" station where they got to "shoot" a foam rocket. Where is the competition in any of this? Where are the ribbons? What has happened to Field Day people? Where is the competition that has obsessed and controlled my life for so long?  I felt a little cheated, but I did feel better when one of Abby's teachers told me I should put her into sports because it was clear she didn't just want to hippity hop, she wanted to WIN. Sigh, there's always a silver lining somewhere. I love that girl!! 

Well, I guess I'll wrap this up. Looking back through this, I think my first attempt at randomness succeeded. Who knows where we'll go next? Commentaries on the mice living in the campus house (its a problem because they use more than their fair share of toilet paper)? It's likely. A look at how good I have gotten on Mario Kart? I think that may be necessary. Maybe a report on things we actually do? Unlikely. Of course, my co-workers may never let me do this again, but since they aren't here, I'm sending it. :)

If you are a CCF Alum and reading this, know that I love you. I miss you and I love to hear how you're doing, so keep in touch. Also, know that I am sorry. Really no one should have to read this, ever. Maybe I'll get Beau to blog next....

Angela out!

Melonbowl IV in less than 2 weeks!

Dear Hasbeens: 

Initial Thoughts:We just got back from Spring Break and we are exhausted! Our build was incredible, our journey was incredible, and God was speaking to me on multiple occasions. I realize it's not all about me but this week was great not just for our students but also for our staff. We also had a fantastic time hanging out with Brittany Girle, who is living out her life of service for God in everything she does at Casas. She inspires me to do great things for God every time I go down there and I'm thankful that she still loves building houses with our group!

 

Weekly Update: This week is a recovery week from Spring Break and a getting ready week for Spring Retreat!!! We don't really slow down until Summer starts so pray for our energy! Speaking of the Spring Retreat (and Melonbowl IV) you alums are all invited to our alumni tailgate at the fifth annual guys vs. girls flag football game - wear your team colors (pink for girls, blue for boys - duh!) and bring a snack! If you've never come it's a great time to see current CCFers bonding and to catch up with other Hasbeens! It's Saturday April 2 around 2 PM but come up anytime! We can't wait to see you!

Exciting Thing Happening Today:  I'm about to email Amanda Dunn, who is the brand new wife of Nick Dunn (a former CCF intern - 2007-2008) about our Spring Retreat because she and Nick are speaking at it!!! They're talking about healthy relationships, God, sex, & the bible and the way all these things relate to each other.

Other CCF News: We baptized another student a few weeks ago! Tim Ashmen was involved in a church small group with Fledge Fiamingo, Fledge brought him to CCF, Tim got to know Jesus, and then Fledge baptized him in the super sketchy/super fun swimming hole our students play in during the summer. It was aaaawesome!!!!!

Yours,

Becca

 

P.S. Here's our team with alums Brittany Girle and David Godzisz! Enjoy us in all our dirty/stinky/nasty glory!

Mexico!

HELLO HASBEENS! Our Mexico Mission Trip fundraising goal of $10,000 has almost been met! We lack only $1,700. This Saturday's fundraisers (Yard Sale @ CCF @ 8 AM and the Concert @ Dog Ear Books downtown @ 630 PM) are great opportunities for you to show your love & support to our current students by showing up & spending money! Also, we would LOVE to see your beautiful faces again :) Stay in touch, we love you! -Becca

 I left this message on Facebook today but  since I can use more characters here I thought I would elaborate! We have 13 people total going (10 students!) who have been raising money since November 2010. We've been praying and making calls and hosting events and having meetings and we're really psyched. Keep us in your prayers as we travel to Acuna, Mexico to meet up with one of our very own, Brittany Girle, who will lead us in building our house. 

Specific prayer requests:
safety as we drive over 2,400 miles round-trip
compassion as we are stuck in a van with the same people for 43 hours
the Gonzales family, who is going to be living in this house
for students to see love as their mission

We can't wait to post pictures and let you guys know how it went! Thanks for loving CCF!

-Becca

P.S. For your viewing pleasure, CCF Staffers post-pieing....

Snow vs. Spring 2011!

Dear Hasbeens:

Initial Thoughts: Christmas was an awesome break, especially when it extended into mid-January. Snowpocalypse 2011 made us cancel our first Fat Mondays (because school was closed!) and our first Dinner and a Message (because our parking lot was paved with ice!). However we're rocking and rolling since our slow start and are getting going with our small groups and Winter Retreat signups (over 40 people will be there!)!

Weekly Update: Recent Alum Emilie Mannheim came back to us! She spoke last night at DaaM about her experiences on the boat with Operation Mobilization. Her stories are awesome, you guys should contact her and catch up. She won't stay still (I think she was born with a travel bug) but I think she'll be in the Atlanta area for a couple more months.

Exciting Thing Happening Today: It's Friday, therefore I have free time to hang out with people (and blog, apparently)! I got to have "blunch" at Waffle House with Hattie McClean, who was in England for Globalscope last semester. At 2 I get to hang out with former intern/CCF Alum Sarah Thomas at her favorite Athens restaurant, Marty's at Midday. If I make it to tonight without putting on the pounds I'll be proud of myself! Later today I'm meeting with a couple of girls who have some big things to talk about and then finally I'll get to spend an evening with my fiance - our first evening together since Monday!

Other CCF News: Our focus this semester is Making a Difference - in ourselves, in Athens, and in the world. We have a team of 11 students (plus Beau, Intern Angellica, and myself) going to Acuna, Mexico to build a house with Casas por Cristo, and thereby making a difference in the life of the Gonzales family. Alum Brittany Girle is leading our build and we're excited to see her again! If any of you alums have found your pockets especially loaded with Christmas money, please please send some to help support our team. We need around $10,000 to fund the whole trip so anything you can help with will be greatly appreciated!

Yours,

Becca

P.S. This is what the first Monday of the semester was like in Athens! Lots of snow and lots of canceled classes and lots of people finding fun things to do instead of working ;)