Team

Conference Weeks

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International Resource Staff from Brazil, Thailand, South Africa and the Philippines

The second half of February is booked with great opportunities. From February 20 through March 3rd, I am participating in three Birmingham conferences: The Campus Outreach Resource Connect, a College Missions Retreat and the Briarwood Presbyterian World Missions Conference.

The Resource Connect is an annual conference for Campus Outreach staff who have what we call "resource" roles. The idea behind the Resource staff for Campus Outreach is more than administrative, office or operations staff. Since Campus Outreach is specifically a college ministry, the resource staff and resource teams are those who help resource, support and serve the campus ministries while also being vitally engaged in the main thrust of the campus ministries. The Resource Connect is a time to encourage, support and collaborate between resource staff and teams. It is always an encouraging time for those staff who are often behind the scenes and making things happen. The last Resource Connect I participated in was in 2018, so it was a joy to reconnect with these valuable staff, including four international staff I personally connected with and helped process after the Resource Connect wrapped up.

I will also be participating in the World Missions Conference at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. Briarwood is Campus Outreach's founding church. This is a church that is committed to missions: including teaching, sending and supporting. Briarwood has been one of our cornerstone financial partners for 20 years. The last time I was in the country to participate in their World Missions Conference was in 2004. I am excited to participate and share what God has done in Brazil and to share about what our new season of life and ministry will bring with Campus Outreach Serve.

Right before the Briarwood Missions Conference, I am participating in a College Missions Conference where I get to have dozens of conversations with college students who are considering the next steps after graduating and how their place in the Kingdom of God affects their decisions. I, also, am participating in a Q&A with a panel of missionaries and will be teaching on Sunday morning.

If anyone will be at the Briarwood World Missions conference this year, please stop by our booth so we can reconnect.

More about CO SERVE

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As a global ministry, Campus Outreach continues to be an interdenominational college ministry targeting strategic college campuses with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Founded in 1978 at Briarwood Presbyterian Church (Birmingham, AL), Campus Outreach has grown to impact over 100 campuses in over 30 regions in 12 countries.

Campus Outreach SERVE was formed in 2019 as an equipping, resourcing, and serving agency that will help the entire CO movement respond to global churches requesting help in building leaders. As we "empower and expand CO ministries under the authority of local churches", we will reach more students, develop more laborers, and deploy more leaders.

See these two videos for more about how my new role fits into the overall global mission of Campus Outreach through the CO SERVE team.

What is CO SERVE? from Campus Outreach on Vimeo.

5 minute (3:20 on 1.5 speed) video about what CO SERVE is and how it fits into the global mission of Campus Outreach.

What does CO SERVE do? from Campus Outreach on Vimeo.

4 min video (2:40 at 1.5 speed) with more about what CO SERVE does and how it services Campus Outreach Regions and Staff

2022 Year in Review & Year-End Giving

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This year brought many things, both rewarding and challenging. 2022 was much different than the previous two COVID years here in Belo Horizonte. I want to review quickly and celebrate with all our partners what God has done.

Personal & Family:

  • Celebrating 20 years in Brazil with Campus Outreach

  • Kids - growing and maturing in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man

  • Decision about the next 10 years of our life and ministry in the USA

  • God providing for our 20-year campaign

  • Facing stress, sadness and excitement about new chapter in the US in 2023

Campus Ministry:

  • Back on campus full-time after 2 years

  • New contacts, new conversations, new doors open to the gospel

  • New life! Students coming to Christ

  • Reinventing ourselves as a ministry at UFMG

Team:

  • National leadership growing and leading

  • New Campus Director thinking for the movement

  • Hiring new staff, both Brazilian and American

  • Transitioning current staff to new opportunities in the marketplace.

  • New intercultural families forming

Year-End Giving:

Thank you to everyone who gives faithfully and sacrificially throughout the year. If anyone would like to make a year-end gift beyond your current giving, please follow the link here. These gifts help us make up for the monthly support we currently lack and finish the year in a strong support situation. LINK to Online Giving - https://www.campusoutreach.org/donate/jon-elam/

Strengthening in 2022

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This second half of 2022 has been invested in specific ways in our ministry, our team, our church and our family (more on this post). Over the entire network of Campus Outreach the emphasis on "strengthening" has been repeated and encouraged. Seeing how the book of Acts clearly states this as an emphasis in the early church has been very encouraging. ​​Here are just a few examples: 

  • Acts 15:32 - "strengthen the brothers" was the focus of the Jerusalem leaders in visiting Antioch.

  • Acts 15:41 - "strengthen the churches" was the focus for Paul and Silas.

  • Acts 16:5 - "the churches were strengthened" was the result of Paul and Silas' ministry.

  • Acts 18:23 - "strengthen the disciples" was the focus of Paul's missionary team.

I want to highlight a few ways we are focused on STRENGTHENING on the following fronts:

CAMPUS MINISTRY

The first half of 2022 was our initial return to the campus after 2 years of pandemic hiatus. UFMG returned to in-person classes, and we were trying to find our bearings and also make new connections with the 50% turnover in the past two pandemic years. The second semester of this year provided us with more opportunity to organize our staff and think strategically about how and where to invest in relationships. God has really opened doors for us. Specifically, our team has made significant relationships and been able to engage in spiritual and significant conversations at the Physical Education/Physical Therapy college and the Engineering school. With so much unknown at the beginning of 2022, God has STRENGTHENED our initiatives and our impact on the campus.

COBH TEAM

Earlier in October, we had what used to be an annual Staff Retreat and Training that we call Staff Stimulus. The last one we had was in 2019. This year was a time to get away from the routine, spend quality time together and STRENGTHEN our interaction with training presentations and discussions about community and contextualization. Our church pastoral staff and our Brazilian Advisory Board joined us this year and God used it to open up some important conversations about how we think about the culture and context in which we are inserted on the campus and also about our fellowship as part of the body of Christ and a ministry team. 

CH CHURCH

Campus Outreach has a rock solid commitment to the local church, and our tenure in Brazil has had a lot of investment to STRENGTHEN our hub church. I have served as an elder since 2007, Tathiana spent 10+ years as the volunteer children's director and more recently I have walked side-by-side with our new pastor who was confirmed right at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020.

A memorable event in the past weeks is Pedro Albuquerque - my friend, former discipleship brother, my co-laborer and now my boss! - was confirmed as an elder in our hub church, Comunidade Horizonte. It was a celebration of God's desire to see this ministry and this church be led by godly men who are committed to the local church. 

Also, Tathiana and I have had a drive to STRENGTHEN some of the marriages of leaders in our church. From opening up some impactful counseling tools that have helped us with some couples with young families to pre-marital counseling with one girl from Tathiana's last discipleship group. It isn't easy, it requires a lot of personal energy and spiritual warfare. Our desire is to see these couples have an impact because of their spiritual and emotional maturity in their homes.

God is moving and active in our midst, please pray that we would be used as agents for His love here in Belo Horizonte.

20 years of Teams

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In celebrating the past twenty years in Brazil for our 20/20 Giving Campaign, I want to highlight the privilege of serving with a TEAM over these two decades; a dedicated, faithful, multifaceted and multicultural team. Campus Outreach holds teams as a value, as an important part of who we are and what we do in ministry on the campus. Not only are the ministerial benefits significant, but my personal experience and growth has been multiplied so much more because of the teams with whom I have served.

Although our team is constantly shifting and changing, my experiences on the CO team in Belo Horizonte can be characterized by the following chapters of my 20 years and my role on the teams which they span.

2002

Newby: 2002-2004

When I arrived in Belo Horizonte, the original launch team that landed 4-5 years previously was still here. They had paved the way for many things and had understood the need for contextualizing our ministry approach. I looked up to them all. During this time the first generations of Brazilian staff were hired. This was a time to really learn about personal ministry and my understanding of the gospel in real life. 

2007

Growth: 2005-2007

There was growth in three specific areas in the second chapter. First, our team and our campus communities were growing because of the fruit of new believers, discipleship and new staff. Still, the majority of the original launch team was still laboring with their young families. Second, I began my new family! Tathiana were married in December of 2006. Thirdly, 2007 also birthed the church plant of Comunidade Horizonte, our local church authority.

2010

Baptism by Fire: 2008-2011

August 2008 began one of the hardest seasons of my life. It, also, was the season that God moved me to embrace the leadership He had in store for me and the personal growth and maturity in my sanctification to become more like Jesus. Our team had many staff leave, both in harmonious, need-based transitions and also in contentious, combative division. This affected both our growing campus ministry and our young church. This was also within my first two years of marriage. It was very, very hard. This chapter resulted in a renewing of resolve and an opportunity to step-up to lead when others had stepped away.

2018

Resource Director: 2012-2018

For about seven years, I had the joy of contributing to our mission and our team via our operations. I took on a role I knew I was gifted and prepared for, but in which I had no experience, nor a subteam to work alongside me. Our renewed team and once again growing movement was in need of structure for the long-haul. It was sweet to provide in these ways in order for the campus ministry to push forward in confidence knowing that the operations were being handled. We developed and recruited what we call a Resource Team, and I handed the reins to that team off because God had prepared others to take over.

2022

Experienced Veteran: 2019-2022

The current chapter began in 2019, when I was already serving on our Leadership Team, and when I made the move back to the campus and to shepherding staff and executing our strategic plans. The team is younger (or we are just older) and I now meet freshmen who were born after I moved to Brazil. However, that's what a veteran is. Even as a church "elder" on our session of elders, I continue to see God using our gifts, experience and commitment to the gospel ministry here in Belo Horizonte and Brazil. 

60% - The Good and The Ugly

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Sixty percent (60%) is more than half, but not quite full. Sometimes 60% is really good. Sometimes it's just plain ugly.

Let's get to the ugly first:

  • 60% is about how normal our return to Brazil has been since January 23rd. When we expected schools to start-up in February, COVID-19 got in the way. In Belo Horizonte, elementary schools have been delayed from starting in-person classes for the new school year until Feb 14th. Our kids, and Tathiana, thought that was really ugly. 

  • Our COBH team was planning our first team-building retreat since September of 2019. However, COVID-19 got in the way and we decided to cancel for now as we had several positive COVID tests pop-up on the team and in our church.

  • Our car needed some service, nothing major, but because of a lack of mechanics and parts caught in the supply chain issue, we are on day 4 of being "car-less". That limits what we can get out and do by about 60%.

  • Overall, life and ministry feel about 60%. That's not a complaint, it's still just the overall reality of a late-stage pandemic in a tropical metropolis.

The good 60%:

  • Our trip to the US for connection with family and supporters was really great. COVID-19 did limit us some, as during the end of the year the Omnicron variant was in full swing in Chattanooga, TN and Birmingham, AL. We had several meetings canceled and overall decided to not expose ourselves close to our return trip as not to test positive and risk not making our flight back to Brazil. So, the trip was a great 60%. It's better to have a 60% visit than not come at all!

  • Lastly, our 20/20 1-Time campaign celebrating 20 years on the field has closed its first 2 months, and we are happy to report that we are already at 60% of the goal, with over $12,000 in donations so far. Thank you to all who have donated, encouraged and prayed for this important campaign. 

Please continue to pray for us as we try to live-out 2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season."



"Uh oh, PEOPLE!" - Getting ready for 2022

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The past two pandemic years have challenged us and our relational ministry strategy. We are looking toward 2022, but not looking to "start back" where we left off in 2019. We are truly asking God to help us "start over", and there are some specific ways that will play out in 2022. 

Campus: The university in BH, UFMG, has altered their calendar due to COVID, so the current semester will continue until the end of February 2022. Then, the first semester of 2022 will officially begin in April. We expect UFMG to resume in-person classes, and also for our team to have at least limited access to the campus and to students! We may not be able to enter buildings, but we can take advantage of common spaces and the general buzz of people being back on campus for classes. One of our challenges and a reason to "start over" is that there has been a 50% turnover since we were last engaged in-person at UFMG. Half of the campus population has graduated and incoming students have come to replace them. There are students who are half-way through their college career and have never had a class on campus. We have never had a chance to meet 50% of the current student population. While this is intimidating, it is also a new opportunity to see where God will open doors at UFMG.

English Initiative: GringoEnglish, our English-instruction project, will start 2022 with in-person classes. Very exciting! We have revamped physical spaces, refined our strategy, tweaked teaching hours and clarified how we will use this front in our overall ministry efforts to "build laborers through the campus for the lost world". I have spent the second half of 2021 focusing on this portion of our team and efforts, and am really excited to see how 2022 will provide a new means for us to impact UFMG and Belo Horizonte. 

Church: Our church has been executing a "preparation strategy" during the second semester of 2021 in order to transition well into 2022. It is not enough to be desirous to re-engage in life as a community and in ministry in our city, but to be prepared, active and have momentum toward re-engagement. Our leadership has had many conversations, strategy sessions and the beginnings of corporate events to get us ready for 2022. It won't be perfect, but we are excited to think about 2022 and what God is going to do in us and through us in Belo Horizonte.