"Leadership that Transforms Lives"

Dear Friend,

I wanted to update you on the Santiago Fall Retreat that occurred in the coastal city of Isla Negra last weekend. At the retreat the Campus Crusade for Christ full-time and short-term missionaries working on universities here in Santiago invited students with whom they have been building relationships and talking with about God. The theme of the talks for the weekend was “Leadership that Transforms Lives.” Students were challenged to see themselves as leaders who will have an influence over those in their family, classmates, work and society. Our speaker, Mario Bloise, the director of Campus Crusade Argentina also challenged them to consider Jesus as the model of servant leadership and as the one who could reconcile them with God.

The weekend was full of significant conversations and steps forward as the 35 students processed the challenge to consider Jesus as we enjoyed beautiful fall weather on the Chilean coast. Also at the retreat were Christian students from 3 universities where we do not currently have a ministry who are interested in partnering with us to raise up movements that will reach their classmates for Christ.

Please pray that:
the students who were at the retreat who have not yet placed their faith in Christ would embrace the Savior.
Christian students at the retreat would have a passion to reach out to their classmates in their universities
Student movements would be started at these 3 universities where there currently is no ministry.

Thank you for praying for students here in Santiago.

In His Grace,

Doug

“…They realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” Nehemiah 6:15

“…They realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” Nehemiah 6:16

The smiling faces above are of the Campus Crusade students and staff that recently were reminded of how God’s works to accomplish His will as we step out and trust Him. The first week of July those in the photo above along with 5 other Campus Crusade students and staff will be traveling a half-a-world-away to participate in Campus Mission 2007 in Seoul, South Korea. More than 20,000 young people from all over the world are expected to participate in this historic missions conference that is focused on finishing the task of evangelizing students all over the world.

The first Herculean challenge these students faced (after talking with their parents of course) was to raise $2000 a piece by April 30th. Keep in mind the average household income in Chile is $500 – and on top of that these are broke college students! Through the generosity of family, friends and church members along with some fund raising activities, all of the 13 had the money needed to buy the tickets by the deadline – that’s over $26,000! As we met together on May 1st to see how God had provided, we reflected on Nehemiah 6:16 which refers to Nehemiah and those returning from the Babylonian captivity and how they were able to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in only 52 days, a seemingly impossible task: “they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” God has provided and helped these staff and students in the seemingly impossible task of overcoming this first challenge in attending this life-changing conference in Korea, and we want to tell the story to everyone who will listen!

Please join with us in praising God for His provision. More challenges are ahead, like the remaining $500 per person they will need by June 15 and the long two-day trip to fly to Korea (they will be traveling through South Africa and Malaysia)! Please pray that the Lord would prepare this team of 13 for the challenges they will face and that their hearts would be responsive to answer the call to finish the task of evangelizing students all over the world.

For more information on the conference they will be attending, go to http://www.cm2007.net/. We’ll keep you posted!

In His Grace,

Doug and Carey Holm

“Achieving Authentic Success”

Dear Praying Friend,

The picture above is of the 36 professionals, business people and leaders that took part in “Achieving Authentic Success””, a one-day seminar in personal leadership development and life coaching that Campus Crusade Chile put on as part of a longer term plan of reaching professionals and leaders here in Santiago. Rolando Justiniano, the director of Campus Crusade South America and the one spearheading these seminars in countries all over Latin America (http://www.futureachievement.com/), gave the seminar to an eager group of Chileans that are desiring to use what they learned in reaching out to others. Our plan is to have two more seminars during the year to train and raise up a leadership team that could continue to use the seminars to reach out to peers and colleagues. Please pray that God would raise up some key leaders from this group to become facilitators of future seminars and outreaches.

Meeting Students & Professors at the Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade in Chile) Booth at the University of Santiago

With the beginning of school in March, the campus teams in Santiago and Concepcion have been meeting students and sharing the gospel in relational settings such as English clubs, Freshmen Orientations and entering classrooms to let students know who we are and what we are doing on campus. Though the beginning of school has been a little rough with unexpected shutdowns and cancellations due to student demonstrations, over 1,000 students were exposed to Campus Crusade in the first few weeks of class. Please pray for students’ hearts to be open and tender to the gospel as this initial contact with them is followed up.

Currently this week the Family Life ministry of Campus Crusade ( http://www.familylifetoday.org/ ) is here in Santiago training pastors and church leaders in how to lead the Home Builders Bible study series and put on weekend marriage conferences to help strengthen marriages. Doug is participating in the training while Carey is holding down the fort at home. In September of last year we were part of putting on a marriage conference with a church near Santiago and we see that it is a very strategic ministry here in Chile where family is a high value and so many marriages are falling apart. Please pray that God would use this strategy to strengthen healthy marriages, restore broken marriages and to reach those who do not know His Son.

Thanks for praying! We could not keep doing what we do without your prayers.

Doug and Carey