To live is CHRIST!!!

It has been a wonderufl first few days here at New Staff Training or in Crusade language, "NST". We arrived after a long road trip that had us leaving Greensboro at 5 AM. It was around 3:30 pm when we got there. We first filled out some necessary paperwork and then from there we grabbed all of our belongings and moved into our "home" for the next 5 weeks. I'll have to admit, it was a pretty strange feeling moving back into a dorm room and not really knowing anybody. It felt like we were freshmen in college all over again except for the fact that I have a MUCH better looking roomate this time around. ;-) We have no complaints thought....we have been able to push our beds together to actually make it into a king sized bed! So in a way we have moved up in the world a little bit. But I'd take our mattress over the plastic ones we have here. Oh well! :-) We are thankful for the reminder of what it feels like for a freshmen on campus the first week or two.

I could go on and give you more boring details of our schedule etc, but I don't want to do that. Instead I want to briefly share the very first talk we heard at NST. I'm so thankful that this is the way the conference/training started off. The message was entitled, "The Most Important Thing". Keith Davies gave the message and he spoke from Phillipians 1:12-26. In this passage Paul is writing to Timothy and his servants from a Roman prison and is encouraging them to advance the gospel. He had 3 main points and here they are:

1. That CHRIST is Preached. (Phillipians 1:18)
   
2. That CHRIST is Exalted. (Phillipians 1:20)
   
3. That CHRIST is Experienced. (Phillipians 1:21-26)
   

And the Keith gave us 3 challenges as we start our ministries on our different campuses etc:

1. That the gospel is preached NO MATTER WHAT. (He reminded us that Paul was writing this letter from a Roman prison.)
2. We should be careful not to always get caught up in "ministry-related things" but to REMEMBER & PROCLAIM CHRIST!
   
3. That our commincation with our ministry partners and friends thru newsletters, blogs, etc would not be so much about us - but about what CHRIST is doing! (Phillipians 1:18 - "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.")

I was so thankful for this message. I really didn't think there could be a better way to start of this training time. It wasn't about how great Campus Crusade is (even though I do think they are great) or about what Campus Crusade is going to do...it was about Jesus Christ, what He did for us on the cross and how we can glorify Him!