Joe and Allison http://www.joeandallison.com/ en-US Copyright 2008 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:52:03 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss A SLO Student's First Textbook Priola fam.jpgYesterday we had a killer time passing out "Freshman Survival Kits" (FSKs). Each year over 5,000 new students descend upon our little Central Coast. For many of them, it is the first time they are away from home for a good period of time. They all come with their one goal in mind,...looking for a place to plug in and belong. They are seeking a place where they can be known and have an identity. Our goal is to make that first place a community of Christ followers who will love and walk with them through their collegiate years seeking to help them grow into all that God has made them to be. One way we can initiate contact with them is by distributing FSKs. FSKs are a goodie bag of gospel oriented material (a book, a cd, free music downloads, a frisbee with our website, a dvd, etc) that gives every student an opportunity to hear more about who we are and who Christ is. When the students recieve an FSK, they fill out a little survey that provides an opportunity for them to ask for more information about spiritual things, get connected to a small group, find out who God is, as well as other things. Well, yesterday, with the help of over 75 amazing student leaders, we distributed over 3,000 FSKs to students! Just think, the very first textbook a student gets when they come to Cal Poly is the Word of God. Pretty dang cool, eh?

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/09/post_1.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/09/post_1.html newsletters Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:52:03 -0800 A SLO Student's First Textbook Priola fam.jpg
Yesterday we had a killer time passing out "Freshman Survival Kits" (FSKs). Each year over 5,000 new students descend upon our little Central Coast. For many of them, it is the first time they are away from home for a good period of time. They all come with their one goal in mind,...looking for a place to plug in and belong. They are seeking a place where they can be known and have an identity. Our goal is to make that first place a community of Christ followers who will love and walk with them through their collegiate years seeking to help them grow into all that God has made them to be. One way we can initiate contact with them is by distributing FSKs. FSKs are a goodie bag of gospel oriented material (a book, a cd, free music downloads, a frisbee with our website, a dvd, etc) that gives every student an opportunity to hear more about who we are and who Christ is. When the students recieve an FSK, they fill out a little survey that provides an opportunity for them to ask for more information about spiritual things, get connected to a small group, find out who God is, as well as other things. Well, yesterday, with the help of over 75 amazing student leaders, we distributed over 3,000 FSKs to students! Just think, the very first textbook a student gets when they come to Cal Poly is the Word of God. Pretty dang cool, eh?

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/09/post.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/09/post.html newsletters Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:41:41 -0800 A Little Break from the Hustle and Bustle of Our Summer Although we never really had a getaway as a family this summer beyond a day or two, we were able to capitalize on a wedding I was officiating in the Bay Area. We took an afternoon between the rehearsal and the wedding day to go into San Francisco and walk around Fisherman's Wharf. The highlight for Mikela was seeing the seals and riding the merry-go-round. Ahhh, the little things in life. The highlight for us was just all being together for a bit.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/08/a_little_break_from_the_hustle.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/08/a_little_break_from_the_hustle.html family_updates Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:26:24 -0800 Here We Go! Fall is once again upon us. In a way, we are kind of sad. Allison and I both feel a sense of loss in that our summer was so crazy. We didn't have the time, nor the money of course, to take a family vacation. We were on the road (and away from our own beds) since mid June. We are feeling a bit of exhaustion and some overwhelm as we consider what awaits us with Cal Poly about to start up. On the other hand, we are excited to see God at work back on campus. He has allowed us to see so many fun and exciting things in our ministry here in SLO. It is such a rich place of growth and activity. We are grateful,...and therefore, we will ready ourselves for another go. You never know,...this could be our last.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/08/here_we_go.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/08/here_we_go.html newsletters Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:19:02 -0800 "Sent Ones" We have been blessed by the Lord to be able to work with such tremendous students over our years on staff at Cal Poly. We realize many labor in full-time ministry and never have a chance to experience what we are privileged to do on a yearly basis. We are surrounded by amazing students committed to God's call on all followers to be "sent ones" to the world. This past year was no different. This Spring we officially sent out 21 students who are heading off for a year overseas in full-time missions. That is just 21 going out with Campus Crusade!...not to mention several others heading out all over to work in churches and in the mission field with other churches and missions organizations. This is our largest group of short term student missionaries that we have sent out from SLO Crusade. It is amazing to see the Lord's kindness in all of this, as well as the pay off for all of the years of prayer, discipling and casting vision the need to be world Christians. Join us in both celebrating and praying for our students heading out for a year to: El Salvador, East Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, as well as the difficult U.S. locations in Boston and San Francisco. LORD, we thank you for these wonderful students who really set the example for all of us to be open-handed with our lives!

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/06/sent_ones.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/06/sent_ones.html newsletters Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:43:20 -0800 The Missionaries Allison and Joe Priola were married in November of 2000. Since then, the two have been ministering to university students all over the world by working with Campus Crusade for Christ on both the Cal Poly SLO and Cuesta College campuses. Allison is currently in her ninth year on staff, while Joe is in the midst of his eigth.

The two met back in 1995 while Freshman attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Although they had slightly different paths through the bulk of their college years, both Joe and Allison were actively involved in ministry to college student while students themselves. When they came to Cal Poly their Freshman year, the local Campus Crusade campus ministry was stumbling along with 5 staff and about 15 students. Throughout their next fours years as students, they were priviledged to be a part of an amazing moving of God not only on the campus of Cal Poly, but also throughout much of the Central Coast. As their faith and walks with Christ grew, they became increasingly involved in serving in the campus ministry. By the time the two were ready to graduate in 1999, Campus Crusade's campus ministry at Cal Poly SLO had grown to one of the largest college movements in all of the U.S. In four short years, the campus ministry grew from just 15 students to over 400 students. Today, the ministry continues to be lively and healthy, by the grace of God, with over 900 students involved in small group Bible Studies. There are over 125 trained and active Bible Study leaders helping us reach not only Cal Poly and Cuesta College, but also the world! This growth can be explained by nothing less than the working of God and His Spirit amongst the campus and community.

Joe and Allison deeply believe that in reaching the university today, the world can be reached tomorrow. Less than 1% of the world is even privileged enough to go to college. By reaching this strategic place, the world's future leaders will be able to influence their communities for Christ.

While at one time serving as the Campus Directors together, Joe and Allison continue to serve as Sr. Staff on the Cal Poly SLO and Cuesta College campuses. Their heart is that San Luis Obispo will be one of the greatest "sending" regions to the world. Their vision is that not only will every student on the campuses in San Luis Obispo have an opportunity to hear and respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ, but that every student involved in the campus ministry of SLO Crusade will be equipped to be fully devoted followers of Christ and spiritual mulitipliers to the world. Regardless if the students graduate and work in the marketplace in the Silicon Valley, teach 7th grade science, or live somewhere overseas, the vision is that every student be raised up to reach the world for Christ.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/the_missionaries.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/the_missionaries.html About Us Sun, 11 May 2008 20:02:03 -0800 Where Will You Be in 10,000 Years? This past week we held a campus wide survey-outreach campaign called the "10,000 Year Survey". It simply was a 9 question survey that sought to engage the campus community in a healthy conversation about personal opinions about life after death. Every person has views and opinions about such a subject, but what we have found is that most people don't take the time to discuss their opinions about. The university campus is a great place to have discussions like such. It really was a fun week of dialoguing with college students and faculty about what they thought. Each and every survey was submitted into a hopper for a chance at several gift certificates to iTunes Music Store. Also, every question was tallied to get an overall view of where people were at. I had several wonderful and friendly conversations with students myself. What I found was that people hold all kinds of views, but many of the views are more like reactions to the questions rather than thoughful. What I mean is that many students would contradict themselves all over the survey. Many people would answer based on what emotion they experienced from the question too. What one notices is that every person has opinions on such things like the afterlife, but take very little time to investigate if there own opinions are reasonable and coherent as a whole body of work. For example, a common opinion was that students believed that they would share the afterlife with friends and family, but at the same time suggest that we probably will just ceast to exist! Huh? On another strange note, I was sort of shocked to hear how popular reincarnation seems to be amongst college students these days. It was sort of sad to think. All in all, it was a fun week to get out there and have some fun conversations with students. Our students loved it, and we counted over 600 surveys were completed! They want to know when we can do something like that again. Now comes the tricky part in teaching them that they can do it ANY TIME they want....they just have to open their mouths and be a loving and kind witness wherever they are at.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/where_will_you_be_in_10000_yea.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/where_will_you_be_in_10000_yea.html newsletters Sun, 11 May 2008 19:14:30 -0800 Happy Mother's Day Mikela's joy.jpg
We celebrated our Mother's Day weekend with lots of family in our little home on the Central Coast. It sure was fun and full as we all had a chance to enjoy this beautiful place together. Baby Kai turned five weeks old today. Time flies!!! It is really sad to think our little boy is changing and growing soooo much. Mikela absolutely adores him too. We posted some new pics in the "Photo Gallery" (see above link). We are all learning to be a family and enjoy the moments together. Life, especially this time of year for us Crusade Staffers, is full of transition and change. Pray as we wrap up campus ministry soon and head into our summer assignments.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/happy_mothers_day.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/05/happy_mothers_day.html family_updates Sun, 11 May 2008 18:55:18 -0800 John Piper visits the Central Coast Last week, pastor, author and speaker John Piper visited the Central Coast for a weekend conference from his "Desiring God Ministries". On Sunday night we were able to co-host a special event where he spoke to a mostly college audience in the Cal Poly basketball gym. The whole weekend can be summed up with one phrase: JESUS SAVES FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM. More to come on the two topics in our newsletter.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/04/john_piper_visits_the_central.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/04/john_piper_visits_the_central.html newsletters Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:33:20 -0800 He's here....please welcome Kai William Priola kitchen2.jpgOn Sunday afternoon April 6, 2008 at 2:22pm, we welcomed in our new son Kai William Priola. We are so stoked to meet him. After another long labor for Allison, Kai was unexpectedly delivered via c-section. Mother and baby are great. We are all getting some decent sleep. Kai is pretty mellow, sleeping most of the day and night. Lets hope it stays this way for a bit. Please check out new family pics on the "Photo Gallery" section up above. If you click on one photo, it will take you to a bunch more where you can watch a short slideshow. We are grateful to the Lord for this little gem, as He has blessed us beyond belief.

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/04/hes_hereplease_welcome_kai_wil_1.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/04/hes_hereplease_welcome_kai_wil_1.html family_updates Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:19:49 -0800 Thailand and Back
Allison and I just returned from a shepherding trip to Thailand where we spent 5 days with our students who are spending a year in East Asia. They are currently on a mid-year break and were intending a conference for students and staff within our minsitry who are serving overseas. It was a sweet time for Allison and I to join with them, and spend time with our students individually and as a team. Our time consisted of examining their past 5 months of minsitry in order to affirm the things that they need to be focusing on, as well as making mid-course adjustments and changes in strategy and schedules to streamline their last 6 months in-country. In addition to working on ministry strategy and objectives, we also spent time with them walking individuals through hard life stuff such as adjusting to new culture, a new team, and full-time ministry. It was a fruitful and effective time.

Allison and I both love and thrive in the roles of coaching, encouraging, teaching and shepherding. It was a fantatic time for the two of us to travel together (which is less and less as our family grows). Allison did well, all things considered such as being 6.5 months pregnant. It was a looooong flight (18 hrs.), but Allison and baby Kai did great.
tland.jpg

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/03/thailand_and_back_1.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/03/thailand_and_back_1.html family_updates Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:58:55 -0800 Challenges of Ministry....Calling all Leaders The Lord has blessed us with an incredible place to minister at Cal Poly SLO. Even more so, the Lord has given us wonderful men and women over the years to work with, raise up, and send out. It is a blessing for us to be called to such people. Over the years, we have had incredible leaders to be able to grow alongside of. When I speak of leadership, I suppose I must qualify that by saying that leadership is not simply a positional thing. We can lead others around us, and it does not have to be from a place of position, but really a posture of humble servanthood, sacrifice, and as a person of influence. Jesus teaches specifically about this in Matthew 20, and of course models it throughout his ministry. Over the years hear, SLO Crusade has been a movement that was overwhelmed with solid leadership, especially from men. Men leading the way we are called to lead is a beautiful thing. It is not leading by lording over, submitting others to one's own will, and being demanding others. Although we are not seeing those negative attributes in our leadership overtly, I believe we are in some ways missing a deep internalization of Christ's portrait of leadership.

Sadly, that begins with me and my Staff Team. We need to be asking the Lord for his help and power, through the Holy Spirit to live and lead as Christ would have us do so. We are in desperate need of seeing men in our movement obediently walk and lead in the ways that God calls us to. The lack of men leading in the church is not just a local one, but a problem plaguing the church worldwide. Join me and my guys that I lead in praying for change. As men, we need to reject the sins of passivism, laziness, selfishness, and choosing to create and follow our own paths. We need the Lord to work in us to walk by faith and to lead obediently. We need change in our own very lives through the Holy Spirit so that we will demonstrate to men in the church around us and be catalysts for this tragic and horrible culture of men who do not lead. For God's glory and not ours.....

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/02/challenges_of_ministrycalling.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2008/02/challenges_of_ministrycalling.html newsletters Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:19:32 -0800 Winter Conference 2007 We wish you a Merry Christmas! We hope your Christmas day (yesterday) was filled with God's love and peace, and that you were able to share that with your friends and family. Ours was filled with commutes from LaVerne to San Clemente and back to LaVerne. Too much! Tomorrow, December 27th, we are headed down to San Diego for our annual Winter Conference. Upon arrival, we will begin conference preparations in order to welcome in over 1,000 students from over 50 campuses in California, Arizona and Hawaii. The conference serves to refocus all of our eyes back on Jesus, as well as maintain a proper perspective on life here in this world. The conference is packed with "eternal perspective" talks and seminars. It will also provide as an opportunity for our students to hear of all the opportunities for Summer Projects both overseas and stateside, as well as cast vision for students to consider one year overseas "Stints" in seven of our partnership countries such as East Asia, Kazakstan, El Salvador, Australia, amongst others. Pray for me, Joe, as I will be giving a seminar on "Leaving a Legacy Through Discipleship". I hope it will be well attended.... We are grateful for your love and support. We humbly appreciate all of your prayers and financial investment in this ministry. Your involvement is vital, and we hope you take joy in knowing your giving is affecting eternity!

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/12/winter_conference_2007.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/12/winter_conference_2007.html newsletters Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:58:36 -0800 Crossroads Conferences for Seniors (click here for pic) This past weekend our Pacific Southwest Region of Campus Crusade hosted a conference for graduating seniors. It was an invite only retreat up into the mountains of San Bernadino. Only 130 students from California, Arizona, and Hawaii were asked to join the regional staff for a weekend of getting blasted with eternal perspective. The retreat was purposed to help our students develop a biblical framework for which they all can make decisions about what is next for their life. They heard talks on "Knowing God's Will", "Stewardship", "Living In LIght of Eternity" and more. We were blessed to have Roger Hershey as our speaker. Roger has been speaking to college students on these topics for over 30 years and is clearly annointed. His 45 year walk with God is a model for how all of us ought to walk. I deeply respect him. I pray that I will one day emulate the walk of a man like Roger and make 1/10th of an impact on the Kingdom of God that he does. Our students were blown out of their seats all weekend. I think I was too. This is by far our most favorite conference with our students all year. It serves to re-envigorate us for the Mission. The worship was fantastic. The converstations with our students well past midnight were challenging and rich. The teaching was deeply challenging to the soul. I am going to try and track down the talks and get you the website address for you all to listen to them too!

Crossroads.jpg

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/12/crossroads_conferences_for_sen.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/12/crossroads_conferences_for_sen.html newsletters Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:06:25 -0800 Baby News!...No, seriously. Well, in case you missed our last newsletter or you just don't get it we thought we should tell you. WE ARE HAVING A BABY BOY! Kai William will be joining us near or on April 9th. We are all really excited, but I (Joe) believe I am still living a bit in disbelief. Mikela is super, super excited. The other day Mikela and I were hanging out and I asked her if she was excited to being getting a brother. Her reply was priceless. Her eyes got all big and she yelled, "Kai! Kai!" She was beaming with joy. I'll try to get some ultrasound pics up for you soon. In the meantime, enjoy a recent family pick. On a PRAYER note, please be praying for us as we have a lot of financial support raising to do. Please pray as we are in need of raising about $700/mo due to loss of monthly support and a bit of a need to increase in light of our growing family. All that needs to happen by May. We are not in a panic because we trust in our Lord. He is faithful, and in Him we will trust.
blog pic.jpg

]]> http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/11/baby_newsno_seriously.html http://www.joeandallison.com/2007/11/baby_newsno_seriously.html family_updates Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:57:13 -0800