Mourning the loss

Our fellow Cru staff and good friend Matt Guilford is an artist.  He was processing his response to the shooting and created this piece, and allowed me to share it with you.

The orange O represents Orlando, the ribbon represents the LGBT community that was targeted, and the drop of blood represents the graphic violence experienced.  

The names are those that were killed in the attack are listed with their ages.

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May God’s love, grace and truth bring healing to our city.

Thoughts on the Orlando Shootings

The day we wrote our last update, Christina Grimmie was killed in a theater 5 miles from our home.  The next day 49 people were killed and 53 injured at the Pulse Nightclub shooting, also 5 miles from our home. 

In October we will have lived in Orlando 25 years.  We love this city.  Our hearts are broken over the terrorist attack/hate crimes that happened here last week.

What most people know about Orlando is Disney World.  Orlando has a relatively small downtown and we live in a close suburb.   We drive past Pulse several times a week.  It is a very popular club.  We consider the area part of our “neighborhood.”

Last week in our Target store an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking for a moment of silence honoring the lives lost.  Two of their employees had been killed in the mass shooting at Pulse.

The victims of this crime are people we shop with, walk past, etc.  Downtown Orlando has a relatively large LGBT community that is very much a part of the everyday life of the city and our lives.  Friends of our kids’ friends died in the attack.  It is horribly sad.

We also are extremely proud of the way the city has responded.  We have friends who are first responders who were involved.  They have done an incredible job, especially considering the size of our city!  Orlando churches have responded with kindness, offering free funerals, counseling, and other resources.  The city of Orlando created a fund to provide for those impacted by the shooting.

When we heard about the attack I was surprised by the feelings I had.  I had a huge sense of sadness, but also a resolve.  We were going to do what we could to help, but part of that was going where we normally go and doing what we normally do.  Some of us tried to get tickets to the Orlando City soccer game (which was sold out). We went to Disney.  We shopped our regular stores in the area.

Please join us in praying for Orlando, especially the victims and their families.  This really is a great place to live.

With love,

Tell me the truth!

Coming out of the ocean, I ran up the beach and met my friend Pam.  I didn’t know as I was walking up to her that an unsightly “thing” was hanging out of my left nostril .

Pam didn’t know what to do.  So, she said nothing.  She kept talking to me, hoping that by chance I might notice and wipe it away.  I did not, and so we kept talking with this “thing” sitting under my nose.

After about 5 minutes, Dayna joined us, and immediately said, “Hey, you have a big “thing” under your nose!”  

“Pam! How could you not say something?”  

Pam said. “After the first minute passed, it just got too awkward to say anything about it!”

It can be hard to tell someone something they need to hear.  In fact, we often don’t even tell truth that would be pretty easy to tell, like telling someone they have done a good job. 

A few years ago I helped create a process that asked Cru supervisors to have conversations with each staff to establish expectations and give helpful feedback on how they did.  It sounds simple, but it just had not been happening much. One staff member said, “I’ve been on staff 24 years and no one has ever given me feedback on my role.”

The process works so that the final conversations take place during the month of May.  All over our HQ, you could see staff sitting together talking about their jobs and their growth.  It is a beautiful thing to see. 

It’s not perfect, but it’s becoming more the norm that our staff are getting feedback.  It helps us as Cru be better stewards of those He has raised up…everyone’s role matters.  It’s one of the things with Cru I’m most pleased to have been a part of because it helps us be more effective in all we do.

Thanks for your partnership,

Be careful what you joke about

Thirty Years of Memories
As we celebrate 30 years with Cru, we are sharing fun stories that have happened during that time.

Our office team moved to a more open cubicle design.  My desk was at the end of a row and  was open to the walkway.  As people turned the corner, they’d often walk right through my office.  As the director, I wanted to model adjusting to the open plan by taking the most "exposed" desk area.

The whole open concept was new to all of us, so I talked to the whole team that we'd need to get use to it, and we would have have "office norms," like not going up and talking to anyone just because you see them.   

And then, as a joke, I announced that another office norm would be that we don’t walk through people’s desk areas.  Since no one else had my same desk setup, I was obviously sending a clear message!

This is what I found when I got back to my desk that afternoon.