A New Year of Impact

When you meet Jesus, He changes Everything!

Today, just like years ago, meeting Jesus is a life changing encounter. For me, it was at a Campus Outreach New Years Conference back in 1986. I was a sophomore in college and Dr. Frank Barker was the main rally speaker. He shared about the grace of God through Jesus Christ in a way that made sense to me and Jesus compelled my surrender to Him! My life has been forever changed!

My prayer for this year's New Year's Conference is that God would use it to bring students into a saving relationship with Jesus and for many more young Christian students to make decisions to follow Jesus and "become fishers of men" (Just like Mark 1:17 says).

I will be in Chattanooga meeting with students and staff discussing opportunities for ministry and service after college. Pray God would use these conversations to encourage and challenge students to take their next step!

Along with the 1,500+ students at the Chattanooga NYC, CO will host thousands of other students at three other conferences going on in other parts of the country (Jacksonville, FL, Washington, DC, & Milwaukee, WI). These conferences will be a culmination of all the evangelistic conversations and studies from this fall back on campus! Pray that God would cause the seeds of the gospel to take root in the hearts of many students!

Please pray they will "follow Jesus, and become fishers of men!" Mark 1:17

Watch a video promo of NYC 2013

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Mark 1:17

New Staff Training

L-R: Cody Ray, Ashley Cook, Karesse Faull, Elizabeth Chaplin, & Dustin Karish

I am so excited to tell you about a group of new young staff in our office this week. We are pumped to be leading them through New Staff Training and Orientation. We pray that this time will help prepare their hearts, minds, and spirits for the battles that lie ahead! Will you take a moment and pray for our time with them this week? Would you pray for their protection and effectiveness as they launch out to see God raise up laborers through them? Lord willing they will be serving in New Zealand, Thailand, and here in the USA. 

Thank you for your willingness to partner with us to Build Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World! Your prayers, encouragement, and financial support continue to be an integral part of God developing and deploying Leaders and Laborers for God's Kingdom!

"When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" Matthew 9:36-38   "He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply all your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

Important Need...

As most of you know Wendy and I are funded in the ministry through financial support from individuals and churches. Our supporters are our ministry partners! Without them we could not do the ministry we do, yet through our partnership they have the unique privilege to partner with us in developing and mobilizing gospel-centered kingdom leaders and movements around the world! 

The past year has been a difficult year for our faithful support team (job losses, business difficulties, healthcare changes, etc...). Due to our low support levels we are currently in a salary reduction situation where we are only able to receive 1/5 our normal salary. We are constantly reminded that all our provisions come from the hand of the Lord and we are learning to be content in whatever our circumstances!

Would you pray with us for God to continue to raise up the families and churches He would desire to partner with us in developing and mobilizing gospel-centered kingdom leaders and movements? I am currently meeting with families and churches to share about what God is doing through Campus Outreach and how they can partner with us in this! We are trusting God for 27 more families or churches to partner with us at $100 per month or the annual equivalent to reach full funding again! We know God may lead some to do more and others less, but all sacrificial gifts are a fragrant offering before the Lord.

If you would like to make a gift you can access My Personal Donation Page by clicking make a gift.

If you are already a current ministry partner you may click HERE and choose New User Registration at the bottom. Once setup, our financial ofice will link this new online account with your current giving account. Once activated you will be able to view your giving history, update personal information, adjust your giving options, and many other features.

Thank you so much for your partnership with us and Campus Outreach to Glorify God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World!

Exciting New Online Giving Option

Dear Supporters and Friends,

We have received exciting news from the Campus Outreach Financial Office! As of September 17, 2013, a new online giving system is up and running. This new system will allow our supporters the option to create an account, view their giving history, manage current gifts, initiate new gifts, and update their contact information.

To donate to the ministry of Russell and Wendy Long click here.  To set up an online giving account and view your giving history, update your personal information or many other features, you will need to click here and then choose New User Registration at the bottom. The financial office will link this to your existing giving account in our system.

Thank you for your support of Campus Outreach. We hope and pray that this new feature will make the support process more convenient for you, and will help the ministry as a whole in our mission to Glorify God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World.

Thanks! RGL

01 Ambassadors Gold Win Liberty Cup

Ryan Leib is with Wendy Collins Long and 2 others.

September 11, 2013

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  Russell Long 2013 Liberty Cup Champions! Way to go boys!

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Briarwood Soccer Club Family Celebrates BASSMASTER Angler of the Year Award

Aaron Martens of Leeds, Ala., wins the 2013 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, a coveted honor in bass fishing. His wife, Lesley, and children Spencer (left) and Jordan (right) joined him in celebrating his second AOY title.

Join with us in celebrating Aaron Martens' Bassmaster Angler of the Year Award. Incredible dedication and perseverance! His daughter Jordan plays soccer on the U11 Lady Ambassadors with Briarwood Soccer Club same club as my three children play for.

Training and Preparing Teams...

It was such an encouraging week to be with these young graduates who have committed to serve the Lord through Short Term International Teams (STINT). This is an opportunity Campus Outreach is developing to help mobilize trained graduates into strategic two year international ministry opportunities around the world. We met with teams preparing for deployment to Malaysia, Kenya, and Thailand.

Please pray for these teams as they prepare to deploy to some of the world's difficult places where the Gospel message is opposed at every point.

Pray as well for the crops of students to follow them. We are trusting God for 200 students a year to be mobilized into these strategic STINT opportunities. Pictured above was a meeting with some of the students in the Raleigh, NC area who are interested in considering a STINT upon graduation.

First Week of School...

Monday began a new school year for our crew! We now have two in high school (Luke -10th and Levi -9th) and two in middle school (John -7th and Emmi -6th). What an adventure! We are so proud of them!

Levi and Luke with Hannah Blazer and Meg Dempsey
(their childhood friends from our team in Brazil)

John's soccer team - U13 Briarwood Ambassadors
2013 Liberty Cup Champions - August

Emmi working her moves against a much larger opponent last Saturday
in their season opener for U12 Briarwood Lady Ambassadors.

Pray with us that our children would grow to become the salt and light of Jesus to those around them!

Deploying Laborers...

Thank you for your partnership in this ministry that makes it possible to be a part of Training and Mobilizing Christ-like Leaders Around the World! We could not do this apart from your prayers and financial support! Thank you for investing in God's Kingdom work with us! (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)

This week we had the privilege to provide the training and preparations for four of our staff preparing to move overseas to their long-term ministry assignments. This is such a huge transition for them not only as laborers, but in life as well: leaving their families and support systems to encounter new culture, new team, new language, and new responsibilities. Pray with us that they will abide in the power of the holy spirit as they seek to walk in the reality of their gospel identity, community, and mission! Pray God will use them as instruments in His hands, reconciling the world unto Himself! (2 Corinthians 5:11-21)

L-R: Lee Cunningham (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Rev. Cheely, Erin Duncan (Brisbane, Australia),
and Brandon & Michelle Brown (Khon Kaen, Thailand)

During these training sessions we seek to help them become aware of what they are about to encounter and experience, giving them a vocabulary and basic understanding to be able to process and grow through this process. In addition to Gospel Identity, Community, and Mission we also covered such topics as: First Term Expectations, Cultural Awareness and Adaptation, Culturally Relevant Communication, Longevity, and Team Development.

Special Guests...

Nathalia, Priscilla, Claudia, Russell, & Wendy

Since the Global Staff Conference last month we have been blessed with having many of our international staff in town for training and development. It has been a joy and a blessing to serve and assist them. We have enjoyed having several of them from Brazil stay with us in our home! The children have enjoyed practicing their Portuguese. We are so grateful to you for helping make this possible!

Seeing the Impact of CO Global Conference...

What impact did this conference have in the lives of individual staff and teams? Here are a few glimpses of what some staff have been saying...

"It was one of the most humbling, edifying, and vision building experiences of my time on staff..."

"We are all so refueled and I feel like God reignited my heart for the Gospel going forth..."

"I'm excited and empowered to go back to the campus and give my life away..."



2013 Global Staff Conference Recap from Campus Outreach on Vimeo.

Click the image above to watch a brief conference recap video highlighting some of what God did last week!

CO Global Staff Conference Update

Thank you for your prayers last week for our Global Staff Conference.  It was incredibly humbling, edifying and vision building to reflect on all that God has done and is doing through CO in the world.  What a privilege we have to be a part of this work of building laborers on the campus to launch them into the world.

Pictured above are the 600+ Campus Outreach Staff from around the world who participated in last week's first-ever CO Global Staff Conference! Throughout the week, God continued to do "far more abundantly" than all that we were asking or thinking! John Piper, Frank Barker, Matt Chandler, and several CO Directors spoke during the main sessions about our CO Vision and Values:

• Glorifying God
• Compelled by God's Love and Committed to Following Hard after Christ
• Believing in God's Promises and Praying for God's Action
• Developing Leaders
• Growth Through Multiplication
• Reaching the Lost

Click here to watch Piper's, Barker's, and Chandler's messages to the staff. Great stuff!

God used the week in the lives of our staff to 

Refocus us on the vision God has called us to, 

Refuel us for the next season of life and ministry, 

Relationally Connect with Him and with one another, and 

Recommit to living lives abandoned to His glory.

It is so exciting to think about the Gospel influence these staff will have in the lives of thousands of students on the 94 campuses around the world where CO is engaged in evangelism and discipleship!

Click here to go to the 30 Days of Devotion flowing out of the conference.

Thank you for partnering with us in this great work!

  

Russell Long
Global Resource Team

Campus Outreach

Summer of Impact...

Summer is such a busy time for Campus Outreach and this year is no exception. God is blessing us with much growth and development this summer. We are blessed with over 2,300 students on Summer Leadership Training Projects, International Projects, and Cross-Cultural Projects in the US and around the world this summer. What a privilege to partner together with you to see God raising up laborers for the lost world!

Please pray with us that God will use this time to grow them in their...

• Relationship with God
• Vision for the world
• Understanding of how God has designed them for His glory and impact!

Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in or trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for Good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Great Campus Visit to Berry College in Rome, GA

Thank you for praying with us as we seek to help every CO graduate from every campus mobilize into strategic environments with clear next steps after college! 

Ford Hall at Berry College in rome, GA

This week (Wed & Thur) I had the privilege of  visiting Berry College up in Rome, GA casting vision for service in God's kingdom through their gifts and talents beyond their college years. We are so thankful for the growth of every believer while in college, but the real impact is through the multiplied lives they will lead and impact for a life time!

It was a great time encouraging staff and students. I met with all the campus and region staff and many of the student leaders. I also participated in the "Preparing to Launch" study with all the graduating seniors involved with our ministry at Berry. It was great time of perspective, vision, and challenge. I also had the privilege of sharing at the weekly campus wide meeting. There were hundreds of students there desiring to learn and grow in their relationship with God.

Thanks for your partnership! God is building laborers on the campus for the lost world!

Follow Up From the Leadership Conferences

Thank you for your prayers! The training went well last week! God is so good! We had leaders from San Diego to Washington DC and Minneapolis to  Houston. I am so thankful to God and His faithfulness who has raised up laborers from the campus who are serving him full-time advancing the Kingdom across the world. We also had three staff in from three of our international teams in Brazil, thailand and South Africa. Thank you for your partnership in developing these key leaders!

Beyond time on our vision and values we invested focus time to help our young leaders understand that their growth as a leader will be shaped by their growth in three key areas:

• Service
• Leadership
• Management

These three areas are all linked together and each affect the other like legs on a three legged stool. If you remove one the others will suffer. If you strengthen in one and don't develop in the others you become out of balance and it will limit your influence over time. God has created it that way and Christ is our perfect example of these areas.

We also invest a good portion of our time helping them evaluate where they are and where their region is to identify the next developmental steps for them. Coming out of this time each region developed key developmental goals for this year that would truly push God's mission to build labors on the campus for the lost world forward in every area.

Please continue praying with us as we seek to help every CO graduate from every campus mobilize into strategic next steps after college! This week (Wed & Thur)  I will be visiting Berry College up in Rome, GA casting vision for service in God's kingdom through your gifts and talents beyond your college years. We are so thankful for the growth of every believer while in college, but the real impact is through the multiplied lives they will lead and impact for a life time!

Thanks for your partnership!

Investing In Leadership Development

Please pray with us this week as we seek to invest in the development of our ministry's Resource and Mobilization Staff. These 70 plus staff from across the country and around the world are at many different levels of leadership development; Some new staff, just beginning and some veteran staff, with years of experience. Our Resource Staff are the "backbone or infrastructure" through which our ministry continues to develop and expand. These staff serve and support every campus staff and training event we host from planning, organizing, leading, to evaluating. It is their work that multiplies the time, energy, and impact of the campus ministry. Our Mobilization Staff are geared toward helping more of our graduates effectively mobilize to life and ministry beyond the campus. They are engaged personally with every graduate to help them develop a plan for the next phase of life. Since our vision is "Glorifying God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World," we desire to be good stewards of the ministry fruit God has given us.

• Please pray that first and foremost God would be glorified in all that we do. 
• Pray that each staff would be more encouraged and equipped to effectively complete their mission.
• Pray God would use this time of fellowship and stimulus to promote personal growth and development among our staff.
• Pray God would continue to raise up more leaders/laborers from the campus for the lost world!
• Pray God would help us more effectively mobilize more of them.

Developing New Staff

Training for New CO Staff

What a great privilege to encourage and train 30+ recent graduates from across the country who are preparing to come on staff with the Campus Outreach Ministry. We had new staff from CO regions in Minneapolis, MN, Indianapolis, IN, Charleston, SC, Greenville, SC, Charlotte, NC, Daytona, FL, Augusta, GA, Atlanta, GA, and Birmingham, AL. We also participated in the first ever CO staff coaching clinic along with 10 other directors from across the country. Please pray for these young laborers as they seek to develop Supporter Teams to pray, give, and labor with them to Glorify God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World.

Pictured here are some of the new staff who participated in the training.

Thank you for your partnership in making this possible!

Many New Commitments Through NYC

Here is a video recap from one of the six New Years Conferences Campus Outreach hosted over the Christmas and News Year's break. Thousands of students were challenged with who is Jesus Christ and how to grow and walk in a personal relationship with Him.

"Thankful for this past week and all that God revealed to me at NYC! Definitely life Changing" -Dixon, University of Memphis

"It was great at NYC seeing God answering my prayers by saving one of my friends." - Dillon, University of Memphis

Praise God with us for the hundreds of students who committed to follow Christ and for the many more who committed to a deeper walk with Jesus and many more who committed to multiply their life into the lives of others. Pray for them and the staff as they seek to follow them up and help them each take the next step in their relationship with God.

Click on this link to Conference Media to listen to speakers at the Main Rallys and Seminars at this conferene!

Thank you for your partnership in making this possible!