Currently, about 40 members of the greater Campus America family are gathered in the lovely and quiet hills of northwestern Massachusetts. We called students to join us for our 10-day Northfield 2010 gathering on the historic Northfield campus, founded by D.L. Moody in the late 1800s and home of the future C.S. Lewis College. As we rolled up to the campus last week, we were stunned at the natural beauty of this place and the rich history it carries.

In 1886, D.L. Moody hosted a summer gathering much like this one. What resulted was the birth of the Student Volunteer Movement, which sent out tens of thousands of students as international missionaries over the span of a few decades. Needless to say, we are overwhelmed at the fact that we have gathered here, in the midst of our 2010 Year of Prayer.

In our first few days of gathering, we have taken on a slower pace and have spent time enjoying the campus. During our opening night and our first morning together we were joined by Pete Greig, who made a transatlantic jaunt just to be with us for 24 hours. We hope to post audio of his timely and powerful messages to our site soon. We have had a wonderful variety of experiences so far—everything from frolicking around campus during the first-ever “Northfield Olympics” to sweet times of worship, teaching and prayer. We have also spent time painting the graffiti-laden basements of campus buildings and cleaning up the many other buildings under renovation. We are honored to be part of these projects that are in anticipation of the fall 2012 launch of the C.S. Lewis College.

Also joining us for the gathering and sharing in the teaching responsibilities is Maureen Menard (VP of YWAM International), who traveled from South Africa to join us for the week. Trent Sheppard is also on hand, along with most of the Campus America National Team. Our friend and fellow Campus America teammate Nathan Chud is leading our times of worship. He has also been hard at work finishing a worship album of his songs, in conjunction with Campus America, which will release (God-willing) on August 1. We have a few samplers from the album up on the Campus America site, along with an exclusive full-length track. The title of the album, “Moratorium,” goes perfectly with our focused time of rest, fellowship, worship, prayer and teaching during our gathering.

With a deep awareness of the vast multitudes of data, images, and words clamoring for our attention, especially as college students, the thought of ‘adding to the noise’ (props Jon Foreman for this phrase) is both vulnerable and intimidating for an artist of any kind,” Nate shared. “The album is intentionally entitled ‘Moratorium’ for this reason. I like to think of this collection of songs as a pause in the midst of the madness…a deep sigh around a well-balanced meal.

Our gathering wraps up on August 1 and we are so looking forward to continuing to breathe deeply together and prepare for the fall semester. Already we know that God is moving in the hearts of those gathered, and we hope and pray that this move will be perpetuated as students return to their campuses. I will surely have more to share next time I write! We will have stories, videos, photos and audio from Northfield 2010 and the remainder of the Year of Prayer posted at www.campusamerica.org, as well as our Facebook fan page and a steady stream of updates on our Twitter feed. You know the drill—go check it out if you’d like!

Breathe deeply with us,
Rachel