Globalscope, CMF’s campus ministry outreach, will hold a 5k run to raise funds for its seven international campus communities on August 3, 2013.

The event will be held at Heritage Christian Church in Fayetteville, Ga. Registration for the run is $25 in advance and $30 on race day and includes a race t-shirt and refreshments. And even if you’re not a runner, there are still ways you can help, says Race Director Lukas Fortunato, a member of the Globalscope staff.

“We’ll need volunteers helping with set-up on Friday, Aug. 3, and on race day we’ll need volunteers handing out race numbers, holding signs, manning water stations, cleaning the facilities, and so on,” he said.

Lukas is also recruiting sponsors who can assist the event with financial donations or gifts of goods and services.

To learn more about the event and register to run, volunteer or serve as a sponsor, please visit the CMF here.

The partnership between the Globalscope Puebla campus ministry (El Pozo) and Mosaico, the new CMF church plant in Cholula, is already showing  tangible fruits of success, reports El Pozo team leader Kami Burns.

CMF missionaries Todd and Tonja Hancock, who previously worked with two churches in Mexico City,  moved to Cholula in August 2011 to work with a group of El Pozo alumni to plant a new church. The new group is currently meeting in the campus ministry pole barn. This past weekend El Pozo and Mosaico celebrated the baptisms of two young people who have ties to both ministries.

Carlos is a paramedic on the campus of the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla who became connected with Mosaico through the El Pozo campus ministry.  Tania is a student who came to El Pozo with friends, got involved in the activities, started reading the Bible with Courtney Wilson, a team member, and decided to give her life to Jesus this past weekend.

Tania’s baptism was especially meaningful to the El Pozo group. She asked her friend Beto to assist Courtney during the baptism because of the role he’s played in her walk with Jesus. Beto was baptized and became a Christian at El Pozo just last year, yet he’s already a key player in the student leadership group.

Seeing a church grow out of their campus ministry is just beyond rewarding, Kami says.

“We believe in the power of the local church to change our world,” she said, “and seeing Mosaico grow from idea to conception to birth to a baby church has been a learning experience for me, and I’m just sitting in the audience! To see Mosaico reaching people that El Pozo ordinarily wouldn’t, like Carlos, is such a blessing.”

When Beth Jarvis Silliman and the Globalscope Germany team began their ministry to college students in Tübingen three years ago they weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms by the Christian community there. They were using different model to reach the unreached than that used by other Christian ministries there, and many just didn’t understand their approach, said Beth.

“I remember I tried to meet with a minister to share what we were doing in our early days in Tübingen, only to be rejected,” said Beth. “I got a stern, dismissive email instead of the meeting I’d asked for.”

Over time, though, this has changed, as other Christians, churches and ministries have come to see that Unterwegs is making a difference in students’ lives. Last month, Beth and her teammates were further affirmed and encouraged when they had their very first opportunity to make a presentation to area preachers and campus ministry leaders about Unterwegs.

“We shared our vision of being a Christian community for non-Christians and about how we serve as a community of and for students, regardless of where they are in their relationships with God,” said Beth. Afterwards, one pastor commended them: “You are accomplishing what we can’t; you are reaching non-Christians. Thank God you are here.”

The leader of another student ministry mentioned how he struggles to get the Christians in his group to bring non-Christians to their events, but that he himself was actually invited to Unterwegs by a non-Christian friend! “I visited Unterwegs,” said another ministry leader, “and you really do feel an intense sense of love right when you walk in. They are making a unique difference.”

Unterwegs is the only campus ministry at Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen specifically geared toward non-Christian students. It provides a place where students can find a community, watch a soccer match, get coffee, meet friends and, most importantly, explore a relationship with God through teaching and worship. It is making a visible difference in the lives of the students who attend.

The ministry is based in a house strategically located just off the main campus, between the main student area and the gym and sports fields. The team is currently paying rent of $900 a month for this great facility, but needs help making future payments so they can continue their fruitful ministry. You can find out more about how to support this ministry project here.

The CMF Member Care and Globalscope divisions recently pooled their resources to hold their annual retreats together at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis in late July. Informative classes, shared stories, relaxing activities and focused prayer times were all features that contributed to an uplifting and encouraging week.

Attendees included 15 furloughing missionaries and their 14 children plus 53 Globalscopers. That total included members of the GS Steering Committee and 16 GS recruits, who were a new addition this year.

Roy Lawson, CMF’s International Consultant, was the main speaker on the topic, “On the Way to Personal Holiness.” Executive Director Doug Priest shared “The State of CMF,” Debbie Palich & Kent Fillinger, Projects + Partnerships division, talked about “What’s Up with Partner Churches,” and the Communications division shared “Tools to Help You Communicate with Your Partners.” Roy Lawson and Robyn Priest also presented separate sessions for men and women only.

Twelve of the Globalscope campus ministers were saying good-bye and moving on to other ministries, so this year’s Celebration was more focused on training the next generation than it has been in the past. “It was an encouraging and inspiring week,” said GS Director Phil Tatum. “We got to hear about the years’ biggest successes and also some of our biggest struggles.”

Kami Burns, the GS team leader in Puebla, Mexico, enjoys the yearly Celebration because it’s a gathering of so many people with similar passions, gifts and jobs, all together to share and collaborate. “It’s the one week out of the year when I feel normal!” she added.

The missionaries especially appreciated the programs provided for their children while they were in classes. “The experience that our kids had was probably my favorite aspect of the retreat,” wrote one. “Their teachers were great and I love the interaction they had with other kids.”

“All in all, it was a fabulous week for all of us,” said Phil Tatum, “and we’ll definitely consider combining the events in the future.”

All six of CMF’s Globalscope campus ministry teams are currently featured in “Around the World,” a series of posts by campus ministers working in other countries on a blog called “The Heart of Campus Ministry.”

The blog was started by the Association of Collegiate Ministries (ACM), and is managed by Justin Wallace, Campus Minister and Teaching Pastor with Impact Charlotte. It was designed as a resource for those who work with college students in the U.S. and abroad.

Each writer was asked to answer these questions about his ministry: 1) Where are you and how did your ministry begin?  2) What are the challenges to your ministry?  3) What do you see God doing? Globalscope staffers who wrote the blog entries were Kami Burns, Puebla, Mexico; Beth Jarvis Silliman, Tubingen, Germany; Lukas Fortunato, Santiago, Chile; Jesse Bentley, Salamanca, Spain; Robert Braden, Birmingham, England; and Michal Ruth Penwell, Bangkok, Thailand.

In his introduction to the posts Justin Wallace writes, “I can’t think of a greater risk and reward than starting campus ministry work around the world.” These writers definitely agree! You can read their inspiring stories at heartofcampusministry.com.