| Those of you who know me might have heard, I am getting ready to go to Slovakia for a year with Campus Crusade for Christ. Below is the support letter I'm sending out that kinda explains how God called me to go on this. I've been kinda stressing about how I am going to raise all the money I need for this trip...but God has kept reminding me, I'm not the one doing it, He is. That being said...in addition to needing support help, I also need contacts bad. So if you, your parents, or anyone you know that might be interested in helping me out, please don't hesitate to contact me :).
Aaron
======================================================================
I would like to take a moment
to share with you the calling that God has placed in my life. This coming year, I have an opportunity to go
to Slovakia
for a year to share the gospel with students through the Short Term
International (STINT) team that Campus Crusade for Christ is sending. It has been quite interesting how God has
gotten me to this point.
Roughly a year ago during my junior year of college,
a friend of mine, Katy, was asking me what I was going to be doing after
school, and at that point I really had no idea.
She mentioned to me that I should apply for STINT. During this time, I had student loans in the
back of my mind that I really wanted to get rid of by getting a job before I
thought about doing anything else and so I dismissed the idea and didn’t really
think anymore on it. During my last
semester of school, I was hanging out with my friend again and she brought up
STINT again and this time I didn’t have the student loans excuse. This past December, my grandmother passed
away, and she left me enough money so that I could pay off all of my student
loans. God got rid of that excuse that I
put in my way. Up to that point I had
been praying consistently for God to show me what He wanted me to do after
school, and it was becoming increasingly clear that this was it.
My friend then encouraged me to meet with a friend of
hers, Matt, who had gone to Slovakia
before and so I met him for dinner. We
talked about STINT and about the country, and afterwards he asked me if I wanted
to go to the Crusade meeting that night.
Since I normally didn’t have much to do on Tuesday nights I decided to
go. I usually attend Fellowship of
Christian Athletes meetings on Thursday nights since that is where I have my
core group of friends. That night the
speaker spoke on Exodus 3 and how God was calling Moses to go to Egypt and bring
the Israelites out and how Moses kept coming up with excuses for God of why he
could not go. The speaker then asked,
“Is God calling you to do something? Are
you coming up with excuses for Him?” At
that moment I couldn’t help but think about what was going on in my life at the
time. Just as Moses’ excuses were
answered by God, He kept removing mine.
Even while I was thinking this though and was scared of raising support,
I knew that God had been faithful in so many other areas of my life that I
really had no reason to believe that God would not provide everything I needed
for this opportunity.
I started to fill out the application for STINT
online and after a day or so, I received an e-mail from one of Crusade’s
coordinators for the STINT program that said that I was an answer to prayer
because they needed people to go to Slovakia. I filled out all of my application materials
and after reviewing it, they accepted me.
Matt and Katy told me stories from their time in Slovakia about
the Slovak people and specifically the students are hungry for the Gospel. Slovakia
was under communist rule under the Soviet Union
and religion was suppressed by the government.
Since then, however, the people have become increasingly atheistic. The people of Slovakia desperately need to hear
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The
opportunity is there for evangelism, and I feel that God is calling me to go
and help.
My goal is to leave for Slovakia on August 19th,
but before I go, I face the challenge of raising my financial support. Like many other mission organizations, Campus
Crusade for Christ workers must raise all of their financial support. I am currently in the process of sending out
letters and asking churches and friends to join me as a “ministry
partner”—someone who will pray for me and sponsor my ministry. Only so much can be said in a letter, though,
so if you have further questions or would be willing to talk to me about
donating, please call or e-mail me and I can tell you how to go about giving to
this ministry. Also it is possible to
donate by going to http://give.ccci.org/give/0597385. Campus Crusade is a 501(c)3 organization so
donations are tax deductible. Thank you
in advance for considering this opportunity.
In Christ,
Aaron Hassell
510 Village Rest Court
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
ahassel@clemson.edu
864-506-2434
|
