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Support
This season of thanksgiving, we give thanks to you who support us in so many ways. As Jesus said, "...unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:23-26
Thank you each for being living examples of wheat that has produced beyond imagination!
Jon, Tathiana and family
We love to be involved in what God is doing here, and the small strides are reason for celebration. We hope God will explode a new season of students coming to know Jesus and be burdened with a desire to be used by God to make the good news of the gospel of grace known through all walks of Brazilian life and to the ends of the world.
Here are some brief highlights in numbers to help summarize:
10 years: it has been this long since our Belo Horizonte campus teams have had a dedicated Area Director.
5: the number of new campus staff we have transitioned to our team in the past 18 months - and the possibility of 2 more in 2019.
35: number of full-time students who will participate in our Beach Project in December 2018.
115: participants in our annual Investigative Retreat in June.
3: new Christians on campus who were baptized and joined our local church!
80%: discount we were awarded for Sara to attend preschool 3x/week next year.
3: new monthly support partners in 2018
$470: total in cancelled monthly support pledges over the past 2 years.
-($1000): current negative support account balance.
As we approach the end of 2018, we close one chapter in a current role and home of the previous 7 years, and look toward 2019 and a new role (see post for more), we are entering in #GIVINGTUESDAY with a special request for Year-End Giving. I am sharing this opportunity for Year-End Giving, much as Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.” (Philippians 4:10). Thank you for your continued concern, prayer, pledges and care!
Please send an email to jon.elam@campusoutreach for more info that will not be publicly posted.
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
I am very excited to let you know that the Campus Outreach online giving platform is getting a major upgrade. Our new online giving platform will be powered by iDonate via the Campus Outreach Global Resource Center in Birmingham, AL. This service facilitates giving through debit and credit cards and non-cash gifts.
Each staff will have their own personalized donate page. AFTER DECEMBER 1st, 2017, mine will be www.campusoutreach.org/donate/jon-elam
Key New Features:
Our online giving platform is powered by iDonate.com via the Campus Outreach Global Resource Center. This service facilitates giving via debit/credit card and non-cash gifts for all CO franchises that elect to participate. Gifts are made through CO Global, Inc. and receipted directly by the appropriate CO franchise. Please direct questions or comments to giving@campusoutreach.org.
This information will be sent via physical mail to all current supporters from Campus Outreach in Birmingham. To see a PDF of the letter, click the icon to the left.
Over the past months I have felt a desire to send a family update. I believe this is a way to connect with you, our friends and supporters, with our family.
Isaac has made significant progress in his social interaction and speech development. His therapist is very happy with his development, and his evaluation scores put him in a not-at-risk position of the autism spectrum. However, he still has a hard time making new friends and describing details due to a limited vocabulary. He has a hard time remember names, also. We have continued to speak only Portuguese at home in order to help him. He told us several months ago that he “decided” to not speak at school, which is odd since he talks all the time at home and with other people in other environments. We believe it is in part due to his shyness, insecurity and his strong desire not to make a mistake. Due to these issues e some other factors, Isaac’s therapist suggested we increase his speech therapy sessions per week.
Currently, Isaac has 1 session with his therapist and 3 speech therapy sessions per week. That has generated a lot of extra getting around in during the day and extra financial strain. Together with his first year of school, the busy routine in a big city has been tiring and stressful, not only for Jon and I, but also for Isaac. We have good days and bad days, trying to trust in God’s provision and goodness. The truth that I seem to constantly forget is that God loves our little boy more than we do.
Sara is growing up, both in size and in personalty. She is a spunky and extroverted 1-year-old. She loves dogs and cats and destroying anything her brother builds. She spent the Brazilian winter months sick with ear infections, colds and allergies. She has begun a 6-month preventative treatment for asthma because of all these respiratory blights.
At the end of August, I underwent surgery in my right leg to remove screws and a plate from a childhood surgery that had begun to cause inflammation throughout my upper leg. My recovery has gone reasonably well, and I continue to walk with help of a cane and a noticeable limp. I imagine it will take several more months before I am back to normal. My doctor suggested I do water aerobics to gain flexibility and strength, but I have yet to begin.
Jon had 2 full-time jobs these past months - house dad and missionary. I am very thankful for his selfless service to me and the family. Beyond a doubt, the surgery was one more stress factor for our family, we’ve been exhausted!
Friends have continued to tell me that this difficult phase will pass. We are asking God to send challenges one at a time. I do believe God uses the “storm” to reveal himself and, also, reveal the sin in our own hearts. Oh, that my hope would be in His word!
Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I would like to ask for your prayers in these areas:
Thank you for all your care and support! - Tathiana
Our annual Summer Project (in Portuguese: Prosa na Praia) for 2017 is almost here! Our team will spend January 24-31 with a group of students and recent graduates. We are returning to Cabo Frio beach in the state of Rio de Janeiro for the third year.
For this year's edition we made a decision to invest in a better option for housing to facilitate a project that is attractive to students and, also, provides an environment conducive to building community and a shared experience for the students who will attend. Since most Brazilian universities do not have campus housing, time with students is always a challenge, and our Summer Project allows for us to create a unique experience that we rarely get throughout the year with students. Our project is 8 days and involves talks, discussion groups, bible studies and a leadership training option for room leaders. Our project has a more evangelistic scope, continuing with relationships built over the previous year, or even years! For that reason the “greenhouse” effect of relationships and gospel conversations makes this project a great tool for our ministry.
As a team, we made the decision to cover the ensuing deficit that we knew would be incurred with available funds and staff participation. However, an added challenge to the 2017 Project began in October of 2016. Our main campus focus, UFMG, had classes suspended because of a student occupation in protest of a change in Legislation to the Ministry of Education, that was followed by a professor strike. Both these events have severely limited our recruitment for lack of contact with students on campus, and we do not expect to reach the contractual minimum of spots at the hotel.
I ask for prayer for our Summer Project for the following requests:
Last year was the scenario of the unfortunate, the lamentable, the debacle know as " The Great Update Drought of 2015". Supporters and Prayer partners, I have nothing to say except the mediocre, "I'm sorry!" Or maybe, "bad missionary, bad!"
So, 2016 rushes in with a series of BLOG posts and I will begin with a lackluster job of recapping 2015 for all, hitting only a few highlights.
