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However you want to join with this journey, one thing is for sure: you can pray. We are so blessed to know that people care. That they want to see Canvas succeed. That they want to see students cared for - really cared for and loved so that they might ask us why we love them so much.

Thank you for being a part of this journey. If you’re not yet a partner with us, please consider it. If you are, we continue to be in awe of your faithfulness to make this happen. We cannot say thank you enough.

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Luke Batchelor is a guest author on CONSTANTjourney and a future Canvas team member. We’re excited to get Luke here in Birmingham full-time and are always thrilled to watch his journey toward arriving here. Click here to learn more about Luke and the rest of the team, or take a look at Luke’s own website.

This is a story about love, about how campus ministry can change a life and a story of God’s power in this world. Enjoy these words from Luke’s blog.

Luke

The thing about Campus ministry, about ministry in general, about how God works through the whole world is this…no investment fails to yield returns. Allow me to illustrate.

Thursday night I had the chance to revisit the ministry that played a crucial role in my spiritual development, the ministry I committed a year of my life to, the place I fell in love with campus ministry. Out under the dusky sky of a surprisingly cool August evening, in the heart of Georgia Tech’s campus, I got the chance to remember what it is I’m working for. I watched (it never ceases to amaze nor encourage me) as nearly 300 people came, ate, talked, threw frisbees and footballs, laid in the grass, hugged, laughed, in one word fellowshipped under the Atlantan skyline. I observed friends who had spent a summer in different parts of the country or even the world reunited for the first time at their beloved campus home, CCF. I joked with the freshmen I worked with as an intern, in perfect paternal fashion, exaggerating my emotions as I commented on “how quick they grow up.” They’re leaders in the ministry now. They came in as wide-eyed freshmen searching for a place to belong, questioning their role in this swiftly changing world, and now have found a chance to make a difference as the movers and shakers of the living organism that is Georgia Tech CCF. I stand on the periphery of the crowd, mostly watching. It’s their ministry now, not mine. And how my ex-freshmen shone! Circles of conversation formed, involving strangers and friends alike as people introduced themselves and shared their stories. Some had brought others for their first encounter with CCF. More were making those first-timers feel welcome, and honestly, it brought me back. Back to my freshman year and my early days at CCF.

I was brought to CCF by one of my earliest friends at Georgia Tech, Stevie Hale. He invited me one Thursday night to drop my soccer game in the middle of the quad, clean up a little bit, and go encounter what would eventually become my home away from home. It began a friendship that would span my entire college career, and beyond. But that’s beside the point. There were others with me that fine Thursday evening, including one whose name was Jeff.

And it was Jeff who I was thinking of in the summer air six year later when I was reminded of the power of the body of Christ. Jeff lived on my hall freshman year. He played soccer on our hall intramural team, and when we weren’t playing real soccer, we were probably trying to best each other on the virtual pitch of our Playstation’s FIFA ‘03. He was a kind-hearted bear of a boy and we got along well. In the summer before his Junior year at Tech he met Michelle and fell deeply in love with her. In fact he fell so in love with her that he accelerated his graduation date, and did the unthinkable so that he could marry her sooner: he graduated in three years!! They were married shortly after in Mexico. He enthusiastically invited the entire ministry to his wedding, forgetting the impoverished status of most college students. They moved to Ohio to start their life together, but kept in touch with their friends back in Atlanta.

Its a rainy Monday morning in Rome when I get the news. Michelle, Jeff’s Michelle, had been involved in a car wreck and had gone home to see Jesus, leaving her beloved husband behind in this life. My heart broke for the tragedy of death, for another reminder in a long line of them, of our world’s falleness, and the death that ensues. It broke for my friend Jeff and for the separation of loved ones from each other by death, that great void between us and those that have gone ahead, between Creation and God after the fall. And I take a minute to thank God for the redemption of Jesus and the knowledge that Jeff and Michelle will see each other again in a world absent death. And I thank God for places like CCF that share that love with people who search for hope in a world that can seem dark and hopeless.

And that’s what I mean by no investment is wasted. It was probably offhand that whoever brought Jeff to CCF did so. A friendly but innocuous invitation to a living body of believers and seekers. It wasn’t offered with the the knowledge of its life-altering or life-saving consequences. For you see, when Michelle died, Jeff called his friend and old campus minister Rick. They talked, they cried, and amidst the stories of their love and the tears for lost futures, Jeff made one thing clear. If it weren’t for CCF, he said, “I don’t think I would make it through this.” God uses our offhanded invitations and words of encouragement. Tiny actions land on fertile soil and sprout yielding, blossoming fruits that reveal God’s love to our world, as it happened with my friend Jeff.

On Thursday, as I watched the students interact, I remembered my friend Jeff and I wondered, who of these students will have loved ones die, who will encounter tragedy that seemingly has no explanation and will turn to their brother and sisters in Christ for the love given by the Holy Spirit, that will carry them through the hard times and keep them in touch with a God who loves them deeply, and whose heart breaks along with theirs at the way things are right now. God uses us to reveal Him in this world. Campus Ministry is like that, a place to be shown that God is real and moving, and most of all that he loves us in our darkest moments. Thank God for that. My prayers go out to my friend as he longs for the time when he will be reunited with his wife, as well as his Lord and Savior and they will all dance for joy. Amen.

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You can now better utilize your iPhone or iPod Touch for CONSTANTjourney.

CONSTANTjourney is now iPhone and iPod Touch enabled! If you own one of these devices, just browse to www.constantjourney.com in Safari and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

It seems that technology is changing our world dramatically these days. Two of those dramatic changes, in my opinion, are the iPhone and the iPod touch. Both are tremendous devices from Apple which are changing the way people communicate, connect and interact are are influencing a number of new devices from other companies.

We work very hard to make sure that those who care about this journey can get as much information as they’d like, in as many ways as possible. This is an incredibly important endeavor and we hope that some small thing like making our website ready to go for new technologies will help us over-communicate that importance and the differences that our friends and supporters make throughout the world.

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Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

Ryan Adams happens to be one of my favorite artists. I can listen to his album Easy Tiger over and over and over and he’s in a lot more movie soundtracks than you might realize. Songs for the movies Elizabethtown, The Rookie, Must Love Dogs, Sweet Home Alabama, Behind Enemy Lines and shows like Roswell, Smallville, Bones, Scrubs, The West Wing and ER are all on his resume.

And so I wasn’t completely surprised when I read yesterday that he has a secret to his success. This secret of his was highlighted recently on Lifehacker. I find it interesting enough to post here, let’s talk about this a little bit. Read the Lifehacker article:

Ryan Adams is one of the most prolific musicians in modern music. In the last eight years he averaged a release of one full studio album per year. In one year alone, he released three albums! Since 2000, he has contributed to dozens of other albums and movie soundtracks. One night I stumbled on one of his televised performances, which involved a question and answer session with the audience afterwards. One fan asked how he could write and release so many songs. His answer summed up his work philosophy, one we should all adopt if we want to be successful with our personal goals.

Read the rest of the article on Lifehacker.com.

So what do you think? Is it true that if you don’t take the simple action, then you cease to be. Does a song writer who doesn’t write songs cease to be a song writer? An author who doesn’t write cease to be an author? Is consistency the biggest factor in determining levels of success?

Side-note: I love Ryan Adams’ music.

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This is just one way that we hope to keep all those who are invested in this work up-to-date with how they are making a difference. If you’d like to become a supporter (and subsequently, receive these paper newsletters automatically, click here to let us know you’re ready to commit or click here to see a few ways that people have partnered with us. 

A huge ‘Thank You!’ to all who are giving and praying and encouraging!

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Birmingham is doing its bit to tackle global poverty after becoming the biggest city in the UK to win Fairtrade status. 

International pressure group the Fairtrade Licensing Organisation praised the city for its use of products guaranteed to give a fair price to farmers and producers in the developing world. 

Birmingham now has more than 145 shops, 86 catering businesses and 91 major employers which either sell or use produce awarded the fair trademark.

Birmingham City Council deputy leader Paul Tilsley said: “As one of the more advanced countries we have a responsibility to lead the way in buying goods that have been ethically sourced and produced.”

Albeit a trendy thing, Fairtrade, it’s nice to live in a city that seems to be doing its part to take issue with global poverty and injustice. Way to go, Birmingham.

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Ellen

Tonight is an exciting night for the Canvas crew as we’re helping our future intern Ellen (the first British intern the team will have) host a night of raising awareness for her partnership with Canvas. Tonight we’ll gather together at Pavilion Christian Community with other people who care about Ellen and care about ministering to students. We’ll be sharing more about what Canvas is all about, how Ellen will be making a difference with us, and how people can get involved with this work by supporting Ellen with prayer and finances.

It really is quite an exciting night to think about. As a team, we have set out a long range list of goals for Canvas and having a British intern was one of those long-term, we’ll-get-there-someday dreams. Yet, here we are. Tonight, celebrating and encouraging Ellen and her commitment to loving students in Birmingham will be a pleasure and we’re excited about the upcoming term and all that we anticipate and see God doing on the horizon.

We’re looking forward to welcome Ellen and all of the upcoming Canvas exchange students and missionary associates (the new CMF slang for intern). This is going to be an exciting time in the history of Canvas!

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Out and about in Selly Oak

Sometimes a photo can mean a lot to someone. Sometimes they can mean everything. This particular picture means everything to me.

It’s a message of what love can do. It’s a declaration that people matter and God is still reaching out. Click the photo for a larger view.

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For these and other photos, visit photos.constantjourney.com.

Take a look at some of his snapshots and then pray for him as he’s finishing up his support raising efforts. Click here to learn a little more about Jason and the rest of the team.

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The Cooksey Family on the Miller-Cooksey Camping Trip Extravaganza

We’re so excited about this week! Two of our good friends from central Indiana are coming to visit us and see this great place we call home. They’ll be with us for a week and we’re going to do some traveling together around this great country.

We’ve hired a car and together we’ll travel to Wales and Scotland to see some of the things that they have been hoping to see. We’ll see the section of Birmingham in which we live and work and we’ll even spend some time with some of our British friends - so Matt and Sharyn can ask all of those funny questions that we asked about 9 months ago.

We’ll be meeting them this afternoon at New Street Station and we can’t wait to experience that reunion of friends after much time has passed. We’re grateful for the blessing of long time friends and can’t wait to show them all that God is working out in this great place.

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