About
Nicole began working with the Student Ministry of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) in 1996, after she graduated from Oregon State University. Since then she has worked with university students in the US and around the world. After working with the Campus Ministry at the University of Washington in Seattle, she then spent 10 years in Florence, Italy serving as the Campus Director at the University of Florence and then as the National Student Director for Italy. She found her way back to Portland, Oregon for four years to work on the Northwest Regional Global Missions Team for Cru, helping to mobilize staff, students and faculty to go to the world, and also coaching Cru Interns serving internationally to help launch Student Led Movements around the world.
In the fall of 2016, Nicole moved back overseas to work with Cru (called Agape UK) in Britain and to serve as the Associate Student Director for the UK. She is helping to coach and develop Agape Staff and also part of the local student team in London. After nearly 20 years of working with University students, she still loves getting to see students come to know Christ, to grow in their faith and to challenge them to come help change the world.
Nicole says, “When I think about being a part of helping to fulfill the Great Commission by launching Student Led Movements around the world, what I envision are movements of students from every tribe, tongue and nation who are boldly declaring, ‘I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.’ Students who have understood the truth of the gospel, are growing in their faith who love Jesus above all other things and are galvanized to not only reach their own campuses, but are compelled to mobilize others to go to and make disciples.”
Hello Friends!
I hope Spring is Springing wherever you are. I am enjoying seeing all the daffodils and snowdrops and the ornamental plum tree in my garden is brightly blooming. The week before Lent I was reading a devotional I started at the beginning of the year. In anticipation of Lent, that day’s reading was focusing on the Cross. I was struck by these words from John Stott, former Rector of All Souls Langham Place in London, “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross..in the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” There was something I found so powerful and comforting about what Stott said, and I want to carry these words with me into this Lenten Season.
What is Blooming in the Spring
In my last update, I mentioned that we would be partnering with my Church (Christ Church London) and an organisation called LICC to run a one day event called “ReWork” for those in their first decade of work. LICC has been running ReWork for several years, because they have a heart to see those I that first decade of work, understand why their everyday work matters to God, what it looks like to live out faith amongst their colleagues and to see how God is working through them in the workplace. I was happy that a couple of people from the Recent Graduates group that I co-lead with another staff person in London and a couple of friends from the community group I lead were able to be a part of it. The feedback has been great; people especially love that they get an hour with a mentor from the same field or similar field of work on the day of the seminar. One of my friends who came was having a hard time at work and she told me that as she was beginning to feel frustrated, she remembered what we had talked about and was able to see the value her work had and why it mattered to God. And that is really at the heart of ReWork, that Christians would feel equipped to live out their discipleship to Jesus in the 9-5.
February has been a full month, and right after ReWork, some of our staff took a group students and young professionals from London to Lisbon, Portugal for something we call “City Exchange.” We have been encouraging our teams to do this for a few years, where they take students and visit another Agape Ministry for a few days to get to experience ministry and mission in a different cultural context. We see the impact that this can have on students as they often come back with renewed vision for their own campus and sometimes God uses it to move their hearts to consider stepping out in faith and joining us as an intern when they graduate. It also is a blessing to the local movement they partner with. While they were there, they joined the team in Lisbon to do Evangelism on two different campuses. It wasn’t a long trip, but the team were able to connect with some students that the local team can follow up with.
Starting on Sunday we will have student teams joining us from the US to spend a week on campus sharing their faith and connecting with students. This year is unique, because every city will have a spring break team during March (Belfast, London, Newcastle, and Birmingham). For many students who come, this is a massive step of faith for them, so please pray that they would be bold and trust Jesus to give them the words to say in conversation with students. And please pray that the Lord would work through them to connect our teams to more students on campus. Last year in London one of the students they met, and we got to follow up with came to faith in Christ about a month after the team left and an is now being discipled and sharing her faith in Jesus with others.
Here is picture of Our Lisbon City Exchange Team.
With Love and Gratitude for your Partnership in the Gospel,
Nicole
Update
Prayer Requests
- The Sierra Leone Workplace Global Project March 29th to April 5th. I am going with my friends Jerry and Suzanne, who are leading an Agape Workplace group in Cambridge. Pray for our time there, for good health for our team, that we would be blessing to the Sierra Leonean staff, and that we would all grow in our faith.
- Please pray that the Lord would raise up interns for the coming year. We would love to see a new intern in every city next year. We have people who are considering it but pray that the Lord would lead them to join with us. The deadline is coming up next week.
- Please pray for me over the coming months as I work on re-raising some monthly support that I have lost over the past few years. Pray that God would remind me of how he has been faithful to provide for me all these years and I can trust him to do it again.