The Foundations of Trust

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-5

After a talk I heard this spring by the leader of HR for Intervarsity and the director of True Face, I’ve been pondering repentance and forgiveness this year.  I want to share a bit about what I am learning.

Repentance is acknowledging something that we have done which is sinful, or negatively impacting another person or our relationship with God.  It’s the idea of “changing how we see something.”  Repentance also includes these ideas: “to perceive afterwards;” “to reconsider;” “to be very observant;” “to be acutely aware.”  Repentance depends on us taking time to understand our impact on others…taking time to listen and understand.  For all of us, being understood is close to the feeling of being loved.

We are commanded to extend and express forgiveness to someone who has done something that has a negative impact on us.  But to help us forgive for that impact, we need to talk about what was done to us and the consequences and losses we experienced.  And we need to forgive for these consequences as well as the act itself.

What struck me with this is that both repentance and forgiveness require that we consider the impact we have on others, as well as consider the impact of sin against us.  I am not always aware of how my actions impact others.  I’ve been considering “how am I doing at forgiving others?,” and “how am I impacting others?”

One major point of the talk I heard is that these two acts are the foundations for trust in relationships and organizations.  I am trying to take steps of faith in both of these areas.

Thank you!

This month we celebrate God’s blessing to us by setting aside time to acknowledge and thank Him for everything we have.  We cannot do that without counting the incredible miracle and blessing it is to have a team of financial supporters that allow us to serve with Cru.  There is no way for us to adequately express how grateful we are for your sacrificial investment in our lives and ministry.  It is humbling, and yet the whole way this works glorifies the Lord.  It is an amazing to experience the body of Christ working in unity to help fulfill the Great Commission and see others come to experience Him.

Thank you.  We are imperfect people who are are asking God to use us, and He has led you to help us be able to do this for almost 34 years.  It is at times beyond comprehension that he has brought us together to do this.

We are so grateful for you,

Making a Difference and Stepping out in Faith

Your Impact

As I have mentioned before, I continue to assist the GAiN leadership team with strategic planning and helping them follow through on strategy initiatives.  The simplest way to describe what GAiN does is help Cru ministries around he world have access, gain credibility, and increase their effectiveness through Food and Agriculture, Clean Water, and Critical Aid programs. I received the following story last week from their Communications Team.

“Traumatized by war and living away from home, refugees in East Africa struggle to find food. Thanks to a recent shipment of GAiN meals, 980 refugee families, along with prison inmates, orphans, and university students, joyfully received nourishing meals made possible through the support of partners like you. 
But they were not hungry for food alone. They were also starving for hope. As the meals were delivered, GAiN field partners had the opportunity to minister to many and introduce them to Jesus. As a result, 235 people responded to the eternal hope of Jesus, 89 of them joined a discipleship group, and a church has been established for this refugee community. God worked in the worst of circumstances to meet immediate physical needs — and to give suffering people hope for eternity. As the humanitarian partner of Cru®, Global Aid Network® (GAiN®) expresses the kindness of Jesus in the toughest places on earth by relieving suffering, restoring dignity, and revealing hope.”

Many times the drilling or repair of a well will open up opportunities for our national staff to share the gospel, and multiple churches will be established in a new region of a country.  The work we do to help GAiN is increasing their capacity to go to more locations and serve more people.  Their goal is to increase the number of countries they serve from 31 to 50 and to increase the number of containers they ship from 44 to 150 by 2023.

GAiN has also been implementing a name change this year.  Because GAiN is a global brand, with Cru having GAiNs in Germany, Canada, and other countries, the US team has been limited in how they can talk about the ministry connection as openly as some countries are comfortable with.  By changing the name to Unto, they are able to be talk more about how their work brings people to Christ.

Trying something new

This is Macy’s softball team, the Vipers.  Of the 11 girls on the team, two are brand new to softball, but only 2 have played more than a couple of years.  And, we have no pitcher, which is softball, is kind of a major deal.  So, I set expectations low, and we focused on different kinds of success.  So far, 3 girls have tried pitching in games, and everyone is getting opportunities to try something new.  Despite our lack of experience, we did win a game and took this picture to celebrate!  

I always learn life lessons while coaching.  Like being willing to try something even if you are not sure you can do it.  We minister to others by taking a gulp and stepping up and saying the first word.  We trust God for things we can’t see how He will provide.  Thanks for investing in us as we walk by faith.

We are glad to be on the same team with you!

This week we had practice in costume.  I'm the horse monk.  Yes, I know it makes no sense.  Macy is the banana.

Today is the last day of summer (officially), and we haven’t given you a report on our summer yet!  We are sorry we’ve been slow in sharing with you!

We had a great summer in Colorado.  Dayna did a super job as the nurse for Cru19.  For five weeks the childcare had about 200 staff children whose parents were taking seminary classes, team leader training, or preparing for the staff conference.  For the last 7 days, they had over 900 children during the staff conference!

The job was challenging and tiring, but she really enjoyed it!  She did trainings for the 200 counselors including use and care of emergency medication for the children who needed them. She also supervised a Certified Nurse Assistant who worked in the elementary age kids.  She received many compliments about what a good job she did and has already been asked to serve as the nurse at Cru21.   

This week she went to an orientation here in Orlando to volunteer at a clinic for the uninsured below the poverty level.  Thank you for your prayers and gifts to help her serve in this way.

You may not have heard of Finishing the Task (finishingthetask.com), but among the missions community, it is a well known, small organization led by Paul Eshleman (the man who produced and ran the JESUS Film Project until 2004).  The purpose is to identify all of the unreached people groups in the world, and specifically those that no mission group is attempting to reach. They help denominations and missions organizations adopt these unengaged, unreached people groups to make efforts to go there with the gospel.

Earlier this year, Cru’s President asked me to help them transition as Paul steps down as director.  This month we transitioned the ministry to Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Community Church (and author of The Purpose Driven Life).  Paul is remaining on the team as well.  I was really encouraged as I interacted with many leaders in missions who care deeply about reaching every people group in the world with the gospel.  And I am encouraged about the future of this key ministry. 

I took on another big project this fall:  coaching Macy's Babe Ruth softball team.  We have 11 girls, and NO pitchers among them!  We are making this year all about improvement!  We are having fun in spite of looong games!

Thank you for partnering with us,

Nurse Dayna

I’m so proud of Dayna.  Let me tell you a story about one reason why.  

Last summer Cru emailed all of our staff who had a nursing degree.  They explained that Colorado law requires that the childcare we provide for our summer staff conferences have an RN on site. The email asked if anyone was willing to serve in that role for the months of June and July, 2019.

Dayna replied, but explained that her nursing license was inactive, and knew there was a long process to obtain it.  After talking with her, they really wanted her to do it because of her experience on staff, and because she has raised 5 children herself!  So, she signed up for the refresher course.

One of her classmates, who also had a Bachelor’s in Nursing, said about the class, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life!”  After 80 hours of class time, the exam, and completing four straight weekends of two twelve hour shifts in a cardiac unit, Dayna received high reviews and received her Florida Nursing License!  It was an immense amount of work and she persevered!  We all celebrated!  We leave May 29 for Fort Collins, CO so she can be the “school nurse” for our summer training conferences.

Because this is Dayna’s summer staff assignment, we need to raise additional support to cover the costs of housing, travel, and conference fees.  

To help with this, our office team is providing a matching gift of $3,000 to cover the additional expenses.   Would you consider helping us with a special gift to help Dayna complete her awesome journey?  If you are able to help with a gift, please visit give.cru.org/0374749.  In the space for a note, indicate "summer match."

Thank you for how you help us and Cru is reach people with the gospel.  We are honored to serve with you.

With love and thanks,

Impacting Leaders Around the World

     

The last week in January I was able to do something I really enjoyed as I helped design and deliver a unique training for some of our newer national level Human Resource leaders from around the world.

Thirteen staff from around the world converged on our international headquarters in Orlando to attend the 2019 LDHR (Leadership Development and Human Resources) Centre of Excellence. They came from Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, the US, Italy, and Chile. The goal of the time was to increase their proficiency in key elements of Leadership Development and Human Resources.

The participants learned LDHR principles to apply as they do their job, how to make positive culture changes, and processes to use to help staff grow and develop. Each participant was assigned a personal coach to help them process the content and to plan how they would apply it when they returned home. The coaches will continue to meet with the participants for the next three months to help ensure learning is applied.

God truly blessed. The sharing at the end of the week reinforced the strategic importance of this effort. We are excited to see the worldwide effect this will have on developing our ministry.

I especially enjoyed teaching our Mongolian staff how to Punt, Pass and Kick during our annual HQ Super Bowl party, and I made sure Sainbileg Oyunbaatar (Saina) had the proper team uniform to wear!

Saina wrote in his prayer letter:

"I really want to give glory and praise to God. He showed His will in many ways that He wanted us to grow and develop in 2019. I think one of the opportunities was a trip to the USA. Leadership Development Human Resources (LDHR) organized a five-day training at the Campus Crusade Headquarters in Orlando, Florida, USA. I was one of the three people from Mongolia. I learnt several things from the leaders’ experience who serve in front of God faithfully, and wise solutions which lean on God. I realized a need in my ministry that I need to serve my staff more in God’s love, because they made a decision to serve Him. Furthermore, I thank God again and again that I am serving Him for the last eleven years through CCC. Also I felt many times that 'I am in the right place where I have to stand.'"

    

Thank you for investing in our lives and ministry, and for impacting the world with God's love.

With much love,