Summer Link India 2011 Preparations

This weekend, we had our Summer Link India retreat to prepare for six weeks in India! There will be 3 staff members and 9 students traveling to India from June 23rd-August 4th.

We had a blast hanging out together, laughing, playing catch phrase, water skiing, and wake boarding. Team leader Chad Ferrell did an excellent job of opening God's Word and teaching on the gospel in Ephesians 2 and how to engage the culture as seen in Acts 17. We also spent time practicing 2-3 minute testimonies and learning more about Hinduism. It is our hope that this weekend helped prepare students as they have to cope with cultural differences and culture shock in India.

Above everything else, we emphasized to our students the importance of walking with God before they leave for India and while they are in India. The best way to overcome culture shock and the American ethnocentrism so inherent to our natures is to be saturated with the truth of the gospel. We want our students to be humble learners of the culture and to engage the millions of lost people in India with the gospel through tears of compassion.

In preparing to leave for India, I have been reading through Acts. One of my favorite passages in Acts is Acts 20:19-24,
"You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."


Please join with me in pr@ying that our students would serve the Lord in all humility, even in the face of fear, cultural differences, and persecutions. Pray that like Paul, we would speak in boldness being constrained and directed by the Holy Spirit. Pray that we would not account our lives as having any value if only we may finish the course and ministry we have received from Jesus to testify to the gospel.

If you would like to stay updated with our group over the summer, check out our blog at: http//summerlinkindia.blogspot.com.

Our whole team! Front row: Jenna, Christy, Chad; Back row: Anna Grace, Corey, Jared, Sean, Joel, Aubrey, Abbie, Lindsey, and Jordan

Written by Jenna Wayment

Upperclassmen Men's CP Group

Hey everyone,

This past year I've had the opportunity to lead an upperclassmen men's small group (connection point group).  What a blessing they have been to me, the church, and the Clemson community.  This group composed of two men I have led in past small groups since their freshman year.  Also, there were three men from the India SummerLink trip I led this past summer.  One guy that was sent my way as he hungers for discipleship.  Another who played football with me in our annual Crossbowl football game.  Another who longed to evangelize.  And someone who had once attended a small group in a previous year, left, and  came back as his friends asked him to come.

Why bother to tell about each person?  Each person testifies the Gospel in the life of Crosspoint.  Men who desire and pursue Biblical fellowship as freshman, men who take the Gospel overseas to the unengaged and unreached peoples, men who desire growth and discipleship, men who attend and engage in churchwide fellowships, men who desire to reach the lost, and men who bring other men to engage in the Gospel in a small group.

Our small group studied Ephesians and a book by Mark Dever called What is a Healthy Church?  We passed out water to Greek intramural flag football games, cooked out for some of the Greek students, and prayer walked in the Greek quads.  We went camping together, took the upperclass women's group camping, and served the ladies supper one night.  We prayed for each other and encouraged one another to live the Gospel.    We discussed the importance of articulating the Gospel on a platform, how to listen to those speaking on platforms, and how to healthily respond after hearing someone speaking the Gospel on a platform.

These men live the Gospel and the Spirit continues to teach them.  It has been a joy to lead these men and serve alongside them.

Written by Heath Fulmer