march update!

Dear friends and family:

First off, I am so massively sorry for how late this post is. So much has happened, it's difficult to know where to start! I'll dive right into the updates on Uganda:

• In January, I was notified that I would be able to use a $3,000 stipend from my school to cover part of the cost of the trip. That money has been credited to my account, and $985 have also come in from family and friends. This means a total of $3,985 has been raise, and there's only $265 left to raise! I have several verbal commitments which will most likely cover those last dollars. This means the money part is - for the most part - all taken care of! I am so excited and amazed at how God has provided so fast. So many wonderful and kind families back home (and all over the US really) have generously supported me both financially and in prayer. I am incredibly grateful for this.
  
• Last month, I traveled to New Haven, CT to meet the rest of the Uganda team. We had a day-long training session where we focused on getting to know one another, becoming familiar with Ugandan culture, praying, and reading scripture together. It was wonderful, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with all the awesome students and IV staff workers. Many of us have decided to memorize specific chapters from the scripture, so that - as a team - we will have a good-sized chunk of the bible committed to memory!
• As part of preparation, we're required to read several pieces of literature related to missions, to Uganda, as well as to a few other topics. One of these books was a short yet especially powerful piece called Girl Soldier by Faith McDonnell (a human rights activist) and Grace Akallo (a former child soldier). It jumps between historical overviews of the conflict(s) in Uganda and Grace's story as a child soldier in the Lord's Resistance Army. I highly recommend the book to anyone who has a heart for children or who has a desire to learn more about the world. (As a warning, it is very disturbing and graphic at times.) Check out Amazon to find our more.
  
• Please be praying for all the little details, as well as for the other team members, particularly for us students who are in the thick of midterms with finals not too far off.
  
• I will be going home for Spring Break next week - and I'll go to get most of my vaccinations during that time. Since I was in India last summer, I only need to get two extra vaccines: Yellow Fever and Rabies. Oh, I just can't wait. I love shots!
  

I hope you have a blessed March, and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or other thoughts!

In Christ,
Camille
crgross[at]colby[dot]edu

support letter.

Hi again! Here's a copy of my support letter. Please feel free to contact me with anything!

::

It is with excitement that I write to share about an opportunity for service God has put in my life for summer 2011. During my first semester at college, I’ve become convinced that God is calling me to continually live outside of myself. And this is why I will be working overseas with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship’s Uganda Global Project during May-July of 2011. I know God has provided this internship in Uganda to show me how to continue to reach out to those around me.

I will be spending 1 month working alongside 12 team members, and our goal will simply be to serve others. Over our month overseas, we will be moving throughout Uganda, staying at and visiting churches, meeting local college students, as well as serving several ministries.

I would like to ask you to be a partner with me in this internship: First, I ask you to pray for the project by asking God to reveal His love through the lives of each team member. I feel this is the most important aspect of support. This will be a challenging adventure, but I am confident that Christ has incredible plans for each team member. Second, please pray that God would provide for all of the project costs. I need to raise $4,250 to cover expenses such as transportation, food, and room & board. I ask you to consider supporting me financially or through prayer. Checks can be made out to IVCF with "Camille Uganda GP" on the memo line. Please contact me by email for information about where to send checks (crgross[at]colby[dot]edu).

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to speak with you! Please feel free to call or send an email. (Visit http://gp.intervarsity.org/projects/uganda-new-england-internship for more information.)

In Christ,
Camille
crgross[at]colby[dot]edu

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Revelation 3:20

uganda.

Hi friends:

I'm starting posting back up because this summer I'll be going to Uganda with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). I want people to be able to follow all the things Jesus is doing and will do through this whole crazy process as I get ready to go. So here's the break down:

• I'm leaving May 28, 2011 and returning July 3, 2011.
  
• I'll be going along with 12 other team members from New England IVCF schools.
• We'll be working with several efforts helping impoverished children.
• I'M SO EXCITED! But I'm also terrified.
  

I just finished my first semester in college, and I can't begin to tell you all the things God did in my life during that time. He taught me so many different things, but I feel like the biggest thing He taught me was that selfishness really doesn't help anything. It was really hard to learn that - because as a college student, it feels like everything is supposed to be about ME! But it shouldn't be, and I am seeing that more and more every day. It's a very hard thing to grasp, and it's even harder to live like it's true. Here are a couple verses that have been super important to me over the past several months:

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:2-3

I hope that you'll join me on this journey and stay updated on all that's going on! I'll be posting my support letter soon, so keep an eye out for that, too!

In Him,
Camille

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 3:1-3

Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire

Hello amigos.

Many of you may have seen this music video made my Sarah McLachlan, but if not, here it is. It's wonderful. I like it. It's a little bit too thought provoking.

Watch and think. It's pretty self-explanatory.

-C&C

selling girls on Craigslist...?

Well, hello folks.

I know it's been quite a while. I've been traveling across the universe this summer (oh you know...New Jersey, South Carolina, India - the usual). But I wanted to jump back on track with this post about how the internet can be used to support and stabilize human trafficking. Here's an article on how children can be sold on Craigslist to men or anyone (in the US and other countries). Not to blame or condemn Craigslist or the internet - it's just something to think about.

Here's the link, check it out:

Q+A: Selling Girls on Craigslist

Seems kind of pointless to boycott the site or something like that. It seems more like this new "adult services" (which sounds rather sketchy to me...oh wait, it is) is a window for all sorts of creepiness. So what? Email them? Maybe. Never hurt to try.

-C&C

like sufjan?

Like Sufjan?

Well, you can buy his music AND help provide freedom for women on the other side of the world. Sufjan Stevens teamed up with Welcome Wagon (a cute couple duo: Thomas Vito & Monique Aiuto) for Purity of the Heart is to Will One Thing, a four-song EP of the group's signature folksy tunes; it includes an early demo of "Up On a Mountain," recorded around a kitchen table with Sufjan and Vito playing guitars (so artsy), as well as the first song Vito ever wrote-- "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood." And you can buy it (exclusively) from iTunes for (only!) $3.96-- and each cent of that will work towards freeing women from sex trade in India.

Welcome Wagon and Asthmatic Kitty (their producing record label) are partnering with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana 2009's International Poverty Track and FreeSet Global in an effort to help end the sex trade industry in the Sonagachi red light district, Kolkata, India’s most infamous sex trade community.

SO what should you do?

• Download Welcome Wagon's EP from iTunes.

All the proceeds will go toward launching a new dignified career for women who want to escape the sex trade.

And where exactly do the proceeds go?

FreeSet Global is an organization based in India (my mother country) that works to sustainably employ women out of the sex trade industry. Since their inception, they've come to be known for a variety of fair trade, organic jute handbags (which you might want to check out here). Looking forward, the company is reaching to increase the amount of women they can rescue from the sex trade industry in Sonagacchi, by developing a new T-shirt line.

The proceeds from The Welcome Wagon's EP will be solely donated to the development of FreeSet Global’s new T-Shirt facility.

every

single

cent

Downloading the EP will help to save over 45 women trapped in the sex trade industry (including their families) and create a sustainable work for future generations of women in Sonagacchi who are working towards climbing the ladder of economic development.

Kind of awesome. So if you like music, and you want to help people, what are you waiting for?

check it out

Peace out, peoples. Enjoy your new muzac. I know I love it. So much love for Sufjan&co.

-C&C

how to be like gary neville in one easy step (plus lots of working out)

Do you play (or try to play) soccer? Football? Basketball? Or do you own one of those super cool sports balls required to play said games? It's probably from Dick's; at least, I'm pretty sure that's where all my soccer balls are from. Well, those sports balls, among a million other things as well, are generally made somewhere across the universe, then shipped to your doorstep (or your Target or whatever). And guess what? Yeah, a lot of times they're made by children in foreign countries (like the one million hand-stitched soccer balls that come into the US from India every year). As in: kids in Pakistan under the age of 14 work up to 10 hours a day stitching leather balls for about $1.20 a day (uh, that would by you roughly 1/3 of a Big Mac : click here to read more). And to boot, the people who take over after the kids use creepy chemicals and such which make people die and pollute everything under the sun. Yup.

So this guy:

does not like creepy chemicals (or slave labor I should hope). You should be like him, because clearly he's awesome. (He's also Gary Neville, the captain of Manchester United, a beastly football [as in soccer] team that plays in the English Premier League [in other words: he's a professional soccer player who plays better than you ever dreamed you could]. ManU's basically the top football team in Britain. Essentially. Mostly.) Yes, he may be a green-frenzied hippy (people of that sort happen to be awesome), but he's doing good things with his life.

And then there's these people who call themselves Fair Trade Sports, and they are also cool like Gary Neville-- mostly because they make soccer balls that look like this:

And then, also, they don't use slave labor. Or creepy chemicals. So if you're thinking about buying a soccer ball, a football, a basketball, a squash ball, a rugby ball (or whatever they're called), well then, you should go here:

fairtradesports.com

Then, someday, you may be like Gary Neville.

--C&C