CCO ministry at Arcadia University

To Support This Ministry:

Greg, Ashley, Caedmon, Abigail, and Cole Sovereign
Make checks payable to CCO,
with our name on the memo line,
Spring Break in Nicaragua
and mail to CCO, 5912 Penn Ave, I was introduced to Henry, his wife, and their two sons in 2005. They were a mis-
Pittsburgh, PA 15206. sionary family in the capital city of Managua, Nicaragua. He was establishing a
“trade school” of sorts to teach the gospel and various trades to area kids so
Or give online: they would be better equipped to find jobs and help their families.
www.ccojubilee.org/donate Fast forward six years. I just returned from taking 13 students during spring
Your contribution is tax deductible.
break to work alongside Henry. Since I last saw him, he lost his wife to cancer
To contact us: and his ministry to unavoidable neglect as they traveled a lot to the US for his
310 S. Easton Rd Apt B123 wife’s cancer treatments. He recently remarried a woman with four adorable
Glenside, PA 19038 daughters. Henry started over to establish a Christian school which now has al-
gdsov@hotmail.com most 400 students. Together we marveled at the Job-esque nature of the past
610-888-1792 few years... new wife, new daughters, new home, and new ministry.
SovereignFamily.blogspot.com The team prepared songs, skits, crafts, and testimonies as tools to build relation-
ships and share the gospel. We spent the daytimes at the school and a few of
the evenings we participated in neighborhood outreaches. A couple of small work projects (setting up a privacy
shade around the kindergarten tent to reduce distractions and creating metal frames for two soccer goals) rounded
out the ministry week.
We had several open evenings that we used for team meetings. I see the purpose of short-term missions as three-
fold: 1) to share and live out the gospel 2) to encourage and advance the work of the local church or missionary 3)
to better understand the ways God equips us to take part in His kingdom work: Pray, Give, Go, Welcome, and Mobi-
lize. We spent several nights during the week studying and discussing the biblical basis for these ideas.
The Free Day on Saturday began early. The team participated in a 6am prayer service at the school then headed to
a beautiful lake in the crater of a volcano for swimming and lunch. We then made the obligatory trip to the market
to haggle over souvenirs. A fun way to wrap up a great trip!
 Jubilee 2011
In February Ashley and I took 21 students to Pittsburgh for the Jubilee Confer-
ence. The purpose of the weekend conference is challenge college students to
pursue faithfulness to God in all areas of life including academics, vocation, and
social justice issues. A student, Sarah, described her conference experience:
Jubilee was definitely a life changing experience for me. I learned so much
about myself, God, and what God wants from us as Christians. I learned
that we can serve God in our everyday lives no matter where we are or
what we chose to do with our lives in the future. God changes the world
through changed people. As long as we accept God into our hearts and
allow Him to work in us and through us, he can use us anywhere and in
any type of setting. Jubilee also taught me that Jesus uses unlikely people
to do incredible things.
You can read more students’ reactions in the March 7th article on our blog, sov-
ereignfamily.blogspot.com.

OCBP
The Ocean City Beach Project in
New Jersey is a CCO-run student
-leadership program. Up to 40
students live, play, eat, worship,
and learn in community for 8
weeks in the summer. We were
invited to be part of the team of
CCO staff who will these stu-
dents. We’ll move to Ocean City,
NJ in June and live as a family
among the students. We’re ex-
cited for the opportunity and
we’ll be blogging throughout the
summer!

Ashley’s Corner
It hardly seems like we could possibly be in the home stretch of this school year! Why does every year seem to go
faster than the previous one? Here are some family highlights from the past few months:
We surprised the kids one Sunday after church by taking them to Hershey Park… A few weeks later we enjoyed
Christmas in DC with the Sovereign family—the cousins are just crazy together… We had quite a bit of snow and the
kids LOVED it. They were out playing in it most days… Mimi and Granddaddy (my parents) came for a visit and to
keep the kids while we went to Jubilee in mid-February.
How are we doing?...Thanks for asking!
Greg: Just returned from a great mission trip to Nicaragua. Regaining energy!
Ashley: I’m great! Glad to have Greg back. 10 days without Daddy and we all fall apart a bit! I have really enjoyed
my girls small group study on Esther this semester. It is AWESOME to see the way the Word of God is lighting up
these girls’ hearts!
Caed: He is a RIOT. He keeps us laughing all the time. The other day at dinner Abby asked me if I had a job. Before I
could reply Caed said, “Yeah, it’s called being awesome!” I LOVE THAT KID! The biggest piece of news for Caed is
that a painting of his was entered in a state wide contest and is one of two winners from his school! It will be on
display in the PA Dept of Education building in Harrisburg this month!
Abby: She is really enjoying Kindergarten! Her best friend is a little girl named Maris and they have a secret club
with a secret handshake and everything! Abby continues to love her gymnastics class, drawing, and reading to Cole.
Cole: This poor kid is going to grow up and think he is the center of the universe! He is loved by EVERYONE. Since
December it seems like his vocabulary has taken off. He knows all the letters and even some of their sounds…he is
only 2! He is also a little ham like Caed. They make a great comedy duo!