Conference Weeks

February 24, 2024 in Admin & Resource, Int'l Resourcing, Team

*International Resource Staff from Brazil, Thailand, South Africa and the Philippines*

The second half of February is booked with great opportunities. From February 20 through March 3rd, I am participating in three Birmingham conferences: The Campus Outreach Resource Connect, a College Missions Retreat and the Briarwood Presbyterian World Missions Conference.

The Resource Connect is an annual conference for Campus Outreach staff who have what we call "resource" roles. The idea behind the Resource staff for Campus Outreach is more than administrative, office or operations staff. Since Campus Outreach is specifically a college ministry, the resource staff and resource teams are those who help resource, support and serve the campus ministries while also being vitally engaged in the main thrust of the campus ministries. The Resource Connect is a time to encourage, support and collaborate between resource staff and teams. It is always an encouraging time for those staff who are often behind the scenes and making things happen. The last Resource Connect I participated in was in 2018, so it was a joy to reconnect with these valuable staff, including four international staff I personally connected with and helped process after the Resource Connect wrapped up.

I will also be participating in the World Missions Conference at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. Briarwood is Campus Outreach's founding church. This is a church that is committed to missions: including teaching, sending and supporting. Briarwood has been one of our cornerstone financial partners for 20 years. The last time I was in the country to participate in their World Missions Conference was in 2004. I am excited to participate and share what God has done in Brazil and to share about what our new season of life and ministry will bring with Campus Outreach Serve.

Right before the Briarwood Missions Conference, I am participating in a College Missions Conference where I get to have dozens of conversations with college students who are considering the next steps after graduating and how their place in the Kingdom of God affects their decisions. I, also, am participating in a Q&A with a panel of missionaries and will be teaching on Sunday morning.

If anyone will be at the Briarwood World Missions conference this year, please stop by our booth so we can reconnect.

20 years of Teams

April 13, 2022 in Team, Personal, Admin & Resource, Campus

In celebrating the past twenty years in Brazil for our 20/20 Giving Campaign, I want to highlight the privilege of serving with a TEAM over these two decades; a dedicated, faithful, multifaceted and multicultural team. Campus Outreach holds teams as a value, as an important part of who we are and what we do in ministry on the campus. Not only are the ministerial benefits significant, but my personal experience and growth has been multiplied so much more because of the teams with whom I have served.

Although our team is constantly shifting and changing, my experiences on the CO team in Belo Horizonte can be characterized by the following chapters of my 20 years and my role on the teams which they span.

Newby: 2002-2004

When I arrived in Belo Horizonte, the original launch team that landed 4-5 years previously was still here. They had paved the way for many things and had understood the need for contextualizing our ministry approach. I looked up to them all. During this time the first generations of Brazilian staff were hired. This was a time to really learn about personal ministry and my understanding of the gospel in real life.

Growth: 2005-2007

There was growth in three specific areas in the second chapter. First, our team and our campus communities were growing because of the fruit of new believers, discipleship and new staff. Still, the majority of the original launch team was still laboring with their young families. Second, I began my new family! Tathiana were married in December of 2006. Thirdly, 2007 also birthed the church plant of Comunidade Horizonte, our local church authority.

Baptism by Fire: 2008-2011

August 2008 began one of the hardest seasons of my life. It, also, was the season that God moved me to embrace the leadership He had in store for me and the personal growth and maturity in my sanctification to become more like Jesus. Our team had many staff leave, both in harmonious, need-based transitions and also in contentious, combative division. This affected both our growing campus ministry and our young church. This was also within my first two years of marriage. It was very, very hard. This chapter resulted in a renewing of resolve and an opportunity to step-up to lead when others had stepped away.

Resource Director: 2012-2018

For about seven years, I had the joy of contributing to our mission and our team via our operations. I took on a role I knew I was gifted and prepared for, but in which I had no experience, nor a subteam to work alongside me. Our renewed team and once again growing movement was in need of structure for the long-haul. It was sweet to provide in these ways in order for the campus ministry to push forward in confidence knowing that the operations were being handled. We developed and recruited what we call a Resource Team, and I handed the reins to that team off because God had prepared others to take over.

Experienced Veteran: 2019-2022

The current chapter began in 2019, when I was already serving on our Leadership Team, and when I made the move back to the campus and to shepherding staff and executing our strategic plans. The team is younger (or we are just older) and I now meet freshmen who were born after I moved to Brazil. However, that's what a veteran is. Even as a church "elder" on our session of elders, I continue to see God using our gifts, experience and commitment to the gospel ministry here in Belo Horizonte and Brazil.

Current Role 2018 + New Role 2019

November 19, 2018 in Team, Campus, Personal, Admin & Resource

*Resource Team 2018 - CO Belo Horizonte (L to R: Luca Diorrane, Marquise Piton, Fabiana Vidal, Jon Elam, Pedro Albuquerque)*

Since January 2011, I have been charged with the role and responsibility of being the Resource Director for our CO Belo Horizonte team. I started as the sole administrative staff at that time, transitioning from 9 years of fruitful experience as a campus staff. Today, I am very happy to have several co-laborers with me on the Resource Team (photo above) and to be able to pass the reins to Pedro Albuquerque, a young leader ready to work and serve.

Therefore, 2019 will usher in some changes for the Elam family.

*Leadership Team 2018 - CO Belo Horizonte (L to R: Melanie Rogers, Demps Dempsey, Jon Elam, Priscila Albuquerque)*

By means of days of prayer over the past 6 months, conversations with our Leadership Team (see photo) and current circumstances, I will be stepping into a an Area Director role for our team next year. This is a role that will have a direct connection to the campus ministries at UFMG and to our campus staff in a leadership, strategic execution and shepherding role.

My new Area Director role will not only mean change for me, but change for the whole family. Our office is currently located at our hub-church building on one side of the Belo Horizonte metropolis, and we have lived within walking distance of the office for my entire tenure as Resource Director. We will be moving across the city to be close to the campus teams at UFMG and, also, to the majority of our staff who live close to the campus. In terms of distance it is not even 10 miles, but in terms of commute and traffic, that’s anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Therefore, we will be making the move!

Isaac will be starting a new school, stepping into First Grade. Tathiana will be moving away from close proximity to her sister Fabiana (also on our Resource Team) for the first time. Fabiana and her husband Diego are an integral part of our family circle here in Belo Horizonte; every week our kids have several touches with their “tia & tio”. This might be one of the hardest changes we face. Also, Sara will start a preschool once we get settled.

We have prayerfully and consciously accepted this new role as part of what God has called us to with Campus Outreach. We are both apprehensive and excited about the changes on the horizon. Overall we believe this a good fit for us as a family and for our contribution to the ministry and mission for the next years. We want to be part of what God uses to build laborers in his harvest field NOW and FOR THE FUTURE (Matthew 9:37-38).

Please pray with us for a few specific things in light of this new role in 2019:

To find a new apartment that fits our needs of being close to staff & campus and a family of 4 with small children. An apartment’s size, location, layout, neighbors and noise are things that can ADD a lot of daily stress or CREATE a restful home life.
For Isaac’s transition to a new school and new social context (see Tathiana’s last update for more on Isaac).
For Jon to be able to transition well from a Resource role that is mainly task-oriented and execution to a role that is mainly management, shepherding and people-oriented.
For Tathiana to rest in God’s plan and to engage with our team now that our kids are a bit older, she has more free-time and we will be living close in close proximity to most of our team.
For Sara as she will begin a preschool program 3 days a week at the same school at which Isaac will enroll.

New Resource Teammates 2018

June 01, 2018 in Admin & Resource, Team

One objective our Resource (administrative) Team listed for 2017 was to recruit at least 1 more Resource staff during the year. We asked God to raise up people, we networked out and we had our eyes open. Before the end of 2017, we had 1 Brazilian intern on our team and 1 graduate from the US committed and preparing to join our team!

Luca Diorrane

The increasing work load for our growing team and ministry is one reason we wanted to focus our efforts on recruitment. Also, as a ministry committed to multiplication, we want to constantly renew our team and "work ourselves out of a job". God provided, and we are excited about the new faces around our Resource Team.

Luca Diorrane recently graduated from UFMG in Belo Horizonte, where he became a Christian late in his college career. He is a very talented guy with a desire to serve, administrative aptitude, a gifted musician, a member of a dance company, and a beast of a futsal player. After a short-term, overseas job opportunity fell through, we began to talk with him about an experience working with our Resource Team until the end of 2018. He accepted and we are glad to have him with us!

Marquise Piton is a South Florida native who graduated from Eastern Kentucky University where he played football and graduated in Network Security and Electronics. The CO Lexington Resource staff connected us to Marquise. After completing the application and interview process, he decided to quit his job and fully commit to raising support and joining our team for a 2-year commitment. Marquise arrived in March, and is focusing on learning Portuguese, transitioning to a new culture and getting connected with students on campus. He will bring some much-needed technilogical specialization to our team.

I am leading a series of training sessions on the vision and practical side of being a Resource Staff (picture above). Both Luca and Marquise have embraced the vision, and each week they are engaging more and more in supporting the movement through our Resource Team. God provided and is raising others to "work ourselves out of job!" But don't worry, there is plenty to be done as we continue to be one of the only ministries focusing on college students in Brazil.

Leadership Team 2016

September 12, 2016 in Admin & Resource, Personal

A big change in my role this year has been participation in a newly formed Leadership Team for CO Belo Horizonte. It is a small group of veteran staff, each with an Area of Responsibility seeking to maintain and direct the Vision, to Shepherd our team and to be primarily Executive in our decisions.

In July of this year (2016), our Director, Demps Dempsey, and his family began a 1 year Sabbatical. Leading up to this, there was much discussion about how to fill the leadership gap during his absence, but also in how to move towards sustainability in our Brazilian context looking towards the future. The idea of a specific leadership team collective, rather than a top-down single Director was discussed as something that might be an option for our reality. So this current Leadership Team is our first trial run. Then, when Demps returns, the goal is for him to be freed-up to focus on coaching, shepherding and vison-casting for the future and expansion with the Leadership team functioning to guide the grassroots ministry and infrastructure.

So, this next year is sure to be the busiest ever, with retaining my Resource Director responsibilities, Leadership Team, participation in church leadership as an elder, and still leading myself and my family with a new baby arriving in October. It's a lot, but I am trying very hard to remember what the Lord said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Please pray with me that I may have the same response as Paul did, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

Computer Theft

March 04, 2016 in Personal, Admin & Resource

Tracking my stolen Macbook... the name had already been changed to "gaga"

The bad news is someone broke into our office and stole my notebook computer and new backpack about one month ago. It happened in broad daylight on a Monday during lunch, and we're not sure how. But the tracking option on my computer sure tells me it was not in my office anymore and that someone tried to connect it to the internet.

The good news is that I had recently met another American staying for two months in Belo Horizonte, and he sold me his computer that was newer than my stolen one and in really good condition. Buying this computer from him in Brazil was much, much cheaper than buying one from a store in Brazil, and also cheaper than purchasing in the US and having to declare it in customs upon entry into Brazil and pay the tariffs. (Thanks Rob Adams Films!) God oddly works things out when we sometimes don't think He will.

So, this was a round about way of getting a computer upgrade! Our office insurance should help pay for some of the loss, but my backpack and cherished items like my Swiss Army knife that I got for my 15th birthday are gone, and that's hard to be cheerful about.

Just wanted to share the ups and downs from the field.

The Great Update Drought of 2015

January 26, 2016 in Personal, Admin & Resource, Support

Last year was the scenario of the unfortunate, the lamentable, the debacle know as " The Great Update Drought of 2015". Supporters and Prayer partners, I have nothing to say except the mediocre, "I'm sorry!" Or maybe, "bad missionary, bad!"

So, 2016 rushes in with a series of BLOG posts and I will begin with a lackluster job of recapping 2015 for all, hitting only a few highlights.

The last post of 2015 was in April, after we spent 4 month in the US on the support trail to be positioned for the next life-phase of ministry in Belo Horizonte. God provided new partners and new support through long-time supporters. Also, the economic reality in Brazil has not been a good one, so the Brazilian currency in relation to the US Dollar has fallen, meaning out purchasing power increased without an increase in salary. Summarized, we are financially ready for the next years barring a sharp fall-off of support or an economic 180º here in Brazil.
As director of the Resource (administrative) Team, 2015 was an important year to consolidate my team. Fabiana really embraced her role and did an amazing job in my absence. We hired Pedro Albuquerque, a recent grad from UFMG and member of my discipleship group. And both Pedro and Fabiana got married during between August and December. They will both continue on full-time with our Resource Team.
Our UFMG campus team continued their coffee-shop discussion groups through out the year, and were a great way to initiate and go deeper in personal conversations about God alongside other Bible-studies and individual times with students. It all cumulated to our summer project in jan 2016, which you can read more about here!
Tathiana and I began to lead a Regional small-group at our church, and has given us the opportunity to grow our pastoral role in the church and invite non-campus friends to events where the central focus is on Jesus.