Part 2: Ministry Front - 2019

View fullsize

(This update is going to be split into 2 parts, to help summarize and paint a picture of the past 6 months. This part is an update on the Ministry Front, the other in an update on the Family Front.)

The mere fact that 2019 has not seen a single update from us is an indication that it has been a busy year. Yes, the Family Front has been busy, but so has the Ministry Front. I will try to summarize below based on my current roles.

Area Director & Campus Director: My role as Area Director is to oversee the campus teams and help lead and coach the Campus Directors of each team. Interestingly, 2019 began without a Campus Director for either of our campus teams. Demps Dempsey, our Regional Director, and I stepped into interim Campus Director roles for 2019. That means a good bit more time back on campus, leading young staff directly in their personal ministries, and thinking for the strategy and execution on the campuses. My specific campus team at UFMG is composed of 6 staff. I, also, am trying to keep my ear to the ground for both campus teams and our English Initiative team in terms of relationships moving forward in their investigation of Jesus and discipleship. I have enjoyed being back to the grassroots, relationship-based reality of the campus dynamic. I have led two Bible Studies with students the past two semesters. However, both of these roles in themselves are full-time. Meaning, any given day has some give and take as to which “hat” I am wearing.

Resource/Admin: This year I fully handed the reigns of the Resource/Admin team to Pedro Albuquerque. He has done a wonderful job, and the Resource team continues to serve our entire team tirelessly and effectively. However, there were some things that I was not able to pass on last year to the Resource Team - most importantly the Visa and Residency processes in Brazil for our non-Brazilian staff (15+ American and 1 South African). In 2018, Brazil’s newly approved Immigration Laws were being put into action. We were only finding our bearings toward the end of 2018, and now in 2019 I am passing on the baton for these processes to the Resource Team with the help of Fabiana (Resource Staff) and her husband (our Legal consultant) - my Brazilian in-laws!

Leadership Team: The past 18 months have brought many conversations and meetings for the Leadership Team to help the entire team focus on contribution, team dynamics and health (physical, emotional/mental, spiritual). That has meant some hard and heavy conversations and some team members moving on or entering into a time of sabbatical/furlough. Also, the past 6 months have been exciting as we discuss the direction for our leadership structure for the next season - how to become more Brazilian, more contextualized and organizationally less dependent on outside resources. Next year, there will be more updates about what that will look like over the next 3-5 years.

Local Church: On September 16th, our church pastor, Daniel Souza, officially ended his tenure as our pastor at Comunidade Horizonte. His family’s four years at our church, his leadership and his teaching was transformative in the life of our church at just the right time. They left with many tears after making a difficult decision to move on to their next place of ministry. With Daniel’s absence, our church elders, myself included, will continue to lead the church. We will have an interim pastor who will take on the bulk of the teaching responsibilities for the next year as we seek God to call our next pastor. I will also be taking on some greater leadership as the Session President until our next pastor is installed.

It is a lot. I don’t pretend it’s not. But I have consciously been saying “no” to some other roles and appointments. Also, Tathiana and I have begun weekly counseling (some weeks individually, others together). Please pray that I, also, will be a loving husband, father and most importantly stay grounded in my relationship with Jesus through the Word and Prayer.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1:28-29)

Current Role 2018 + New Role 2019

View fullsize

Resource Team 2018 - CO Belo Horizonte (L to R: Luca Diorrane, Marquise Piton, Fabiana Vidal, Jon Elam, Pedro Albuquerque)

Since January 2011, I have been charged with the role and responsibility of being the Resource Director for our CO Belo Horizonte team. I started as the sole administrative staff at that time, transitioning from 9 years of fruitful experience as a campus staff. Today, I am very happy to have several co-laborers with me on the Resource Team (photo above) and to be able to pass the reins to Pedro Albuquerque, a young leader ready to work and serve.

Therefore, 2019 will usher in some changes for the Elam family.

View fullsize

Leadership Team 2018 - CO Belo Horizonte (L to R: Melanie Rogers, Demps Dempsey, Jon Elam, Priscila Albuquerque)

By means of days of prayer over the past 6 months, conversations with our Leadership Team (see photo) and current circumstances, I will be stepping into a an Area Director role for our team next year. This is a role that will have a direct connection to the campus ministries at UFMG and to our campus staff in a leadership, strategic execution and shepherding role.

My new Area Director role will not only mean change for me, but change for the whole family. Our office is currently located at our hub-church building on one side of the Belo Horizonte metropolis, and we have lived within walking distance of the office for my entire tenure as Resource Director. We will be moving across the city to be close to the campus teams at UFMG and, also, to the majority of our staff who live close to the campus. In terms of distance it is not even 10 miles, but in terms of commute and traffic, that’s anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Therefore, we will be making the move!

Isaac will be starting a new school, stepping into First Grade. Tathiana will be moving away from close proximity to her sister Fabiana (also on our Resource Team) for the first time. Fabiana and her husband Diego are an integral part of our family circle here in Belo Horizonte; every week our kids have several touches with their “tia & tio”. This might be one of the hardest changes we face. Also, Sara will start a preschool once we get settled.

We have prayerfully and consciously accepted this new role as part of what God has called us to with Campus Outreach. We are both apprehensive and excited about the changes on the horizon. Overall we believe this a good fit for us as a family and for our contribution to the ministry and mission for the next years. We want to be part of what God uses to build laborers in his harvest field NOW and FOR THE FUTURE (Matthew 9:37-38).

Please pray with us for a few specific things in light of this new role in 2019:

1. To find a new apartment that fits our needs of being close to staff & campus and a family of 4 with small children. An apartment’s size, location, layout, neighbors and noise are things that can ADD a lot of daily stress or CREATE a restful home life.
2. For Isaac’s transition to a new school and new social context (see Tathiana’s last update for more on Isaac).
3. For Jon to be able to transition well from a Resource role that is mainly task-oriented and execution to a role that is mainly management, shepherding and people-oriented.
4. For Tathiana to rest in God’s plan and to engage with our team now that our kids are a bit older, she has more free-time and we will be living close in close proximity to most of our team.
5. For Sara as she will begin a preschool program 3 days a week at the same school at which Isaac will enroll.

Campus Outreach 40-Year Celebration Booklet

Every supporter with a donation made since January 2016 will receive a booklet.

The 2018-19 school year marks 40 years of Campus Outreach! Forty years later, God has multiplied Campus Outreach to the point where the gospel is changing lives on 125 campuses in 23 US and 13 international locations.

Together with you and thousands like you, faithful supporters of this ministry, we are taking time this year to celebrate all that God has done over the last four decades. One of the things that Campus Outreach as network of ministries has done is produce a movement-wide publication with 40-year metrics, stories of impact, global maps, and spotlights for each CO franchise.

For anyone who has given a donation since 2016, your copy of this publication should arrive in the next few days. As you read through this 40 Year Impact Report, we want to say thank you!

Please take time to find all the Campus Outreach locations and staff you support, and pray for our ministry. As you explore the broader context, we hope you’ll get a glimpse of how your support is making a difference on a global scale. Your prayers and partnership are the foundation of all that God is doing.

If you did not receive a booklet and would like one, there is an electronic version available. You can also see more celebration of God’s work over 40 years of CO at the website: co40years.org

New Resource Teammates 2018

One objective our Resource (administrative) Team listed for 2017 was to recruit at least 1 more Resource staff during the year. We asked God to raise up people, we networked out and we had our eyes open. Before the end of 2017, we had 1 Brazilian intern on our team and 1 graduate from the US committed and preparing to join our team!

Luca Diorrane

The increasing work load for our growing team and ministry is one reason we wanted to focus our efforts on recruitment. Also, as a ministry committed to multiplication, we want to constantly renew our team and "work ourselves out of a job". God provided, and we are excited about the new faces around our Resource Team.

Luca Diorrane recently graduated from UFMG in Belo Horizonte, where he became a Christian late in his college career. He is a very talented guy with a desire to serve, administrative aptitude, a gifted musician, a member of a dance company, and a beast of a futsal player. After a short-term, overseas job opportunity fell through, we began to talk with him about an experience working with our Resource Team until the end of 2018. He accepted and we are glad to have him with us!

Marquise Piton

Marquise Piton is a South Florida native who graduated from Eastern Kentucky University where he played football and graduated in Network Security and Electronics. The CO Lexington Resource staff connected us to Marquise. After completing the application and interview process,  he decided to quit his job and fully commit to raising support and joining our team for a 2-year commitment. Marquise arrived in March, and is focusing on learning Portuguese, transitioning to a new culture and getting connected with students on campus. He will bring some much-needed technilogical specialization to our team.

I am leading a series of training sessions on the vision and practical side of being a Resource Staff (picture above). Both Luca and Marquise have embraced the vision, and each week they are engaging more and more in supporting the movement through our Resource Team. God provided and is raising others to "work ourselves out of job!" But don't worry, there is plenty to be done as we continue to be one of the only ministries focusing on college students in Brazil. 

Colleague For A Few Months

I’d like everyone to meet Paulino Oliviera. He is the newest member of our team, but will also be one of the first to leave our team.

I met Paulino at PUC-Minas in 2009 while he studied Economics, and over his years in college he stayed connected with our ministry as he investigated about Jesus. Shortly before graduating became a Christian and joined our church.

I sought to hire Paulino, even for a short stint, because he is go-getter and has skills in everything financial. God’s timing was quite good, because Paulino had just quit his job at one of the largest banks in Brazil to dedicate time to pursue entrance into a Master’s Degree program.

Paulino will spend the next months helping us answer some pertinent finance and tax questions, with some accounting issues mixed in there. He has already shown his professionalism, humility in his work and excellence in getting the job done!

Paulino was accepted to participate in a Brazilian Federal Government program and in August of this year will move to New York City to begin his Master’s Degree in Financial Engineering at NYU Poly, Brooklyn. He will study right next to the Financial Center of NYC, and, well – the world. Such a great opportunity for him to speak of his Savior!

Global Staff Conference 2013

View fullsize

We're leaving tomorrow, July 10th, for a packed-to-the-brim 7 weeks in the USA. All the passports are ready (Isaac has 2 of them) and the tickets printed out...now we just need to pack.

First off, we will be headed to Orlando, FL for the first ever Campus Outreach Global Staff Conference. Over 500 staffers and family from 5 continents will gather for a week of time togther for "Refueling, Relationships and Refocus". We are really excited because of the great teaching from 3 CO-partner church pastors (John Piper, Matt Chandler and Frank Barker), practical and pertinent seminars that relate directly to our ministry on the college campus and lives as staff, and the opportunity to get to know others who what we do around the globe.

The fact that Orlando is home to Disney and Universal studios ain't bad, either. Tathiana is ready to fulfill a childhood dream of going to Disney - and she get to do it with her sister, Fabiana, who also works with us!

After the Conference, we will be making the rounds with our team and individually in a short support-raising stint before heading back to Brazil at the end of August.

For more info about the conference, see: http://coglobalstaffconference.com

Growing Staff Team

Two new staff interns joined our team this year. Wellinton Alves and Nathália Santos are working part-time this year with our campus team at UFMG.

Working for a ministry like Campus Outreach is a hard decision for graduates here in Brazil. Most college graduates have a small window of opportunity to make the most of their new degree in the job market. One way we have chosen to ease the negative risk in coming on staff is to begin each new national staffer with a one-year internship. After this first year, we can better evaluate if staff is a good fit for the person, or if it would be best for them to continue on to the job market.

Wellinton and Nathália were both students at UFMG and are currently working on that campus. They both are working part-time in their field of study while also working part-time with Campus Outreach.