Merry Christmas from the Browns

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a wonderful time celebrating the amazing love of God.

With love, 

Barrett, Dayna, Macy and our other offspring who no longer live with us (see below)

Our Christmas 2021 Update

 

Macy is 18 and is taking her classes at Valencia CC for her senior year. 

She is applying to a lot of colleges and is looking forward to playing softball again this spring.

 

Luke is nearing the end of his graduate program at UVA and plans to defend his thesis this spring. 

He played on 4 rec sports teams this fall, then strained his foot.  He has been sad about not

being able to storm the field at UVA this year.

 

Aubrey has mostly worked from home this year with Cru’s compensation and recruiting team and

runs Cru’s LinkedIn presence.  She requests that you follow Cru on LinkedIn! She lives nearby

and we see her often.

 

Cara and Perry Johnson are extremely busy with Zeke (3), Titus (2) and Bowen (8m). 

Perry is in his second year as a professor at UC Irvine and they are settling into their new home,

neighborhood and church.

 

Catelin lives just down the street and works with Orlando Health’s Talent Management. She worked

to improve their onboarding process as they hire 100-200 employees each week! She bought

a new car this year and enjoys solo visits to Disney.

 

Dayna continues to volunteer one or two mornings a week as a nurse at a Shepherd’s Hope clinic. 

She is also helping Macy in her college application process.

 

Barrett coached Macy’s fall softball team this fall to an undefeated season.  He is helping

with a lot of different projects with Cru.  At home he laid sod, and then destroyed a lot of the

yard trying to kill weeds.  So, yeah.

 

God bless you as you celebrate God’s wonderful love!

The Browns

Giving at the end of the year

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed Dayna's birthday present: the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit.  It was very nice and a great beginning to the Christmas season.

Beautiful, and the music was awesome!

I sent the following letter to our partners in early December, but it case you didn't see it, I thought I'd post it here. 

Bayang Mognanguele from Chad shared the response of a church leader who received Cru's church planting training.

"I have been a leader in my church for over twenty years, but when I look back, I don't see even one disciple I have trained.  Instead, I have condemned people because of their behavior.  Through this training, I believe that God is giving me the grace to rectify myself by training at least one."

We have been reminded so often that it is one invitation, one conversation, one training, one changed life that can make a world of difference to help  people experience God's grace and truth. 

We appreciate your partnership with our ministry.  Your prayers and gfits allow us to impact poeple here in the U.S. and all over the world in the little ways that change lives.  It is our honor to partner with you to help every person know Him.

Every year a large portion of the support we need with Cru coms in December.  Many people do their giving during this month, and some give special gifts.  We know this has been a challenging year for many, but if you are able to provide a gift in December, it will help us stay engaged full time next year.

The easiest way to give is to visit give.cru.org/0374749 and indicate how you would like to help.  You can also send a check made out to Cru to our address (4126 Stonewall Drive, Orlando, FL  32812).  If you need a tax deductible receipt it needs to be received or postmarked by December 31.

We are grateful to you for your faithfulness to the Lord and your friendship with us as we serve with Cru.  We love partnering with you and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season.

With love and thanks,

Thank you

Aubrey and I packing seeds for Unto in
Cru's Annex

This is Thanksgiving week, and every year we
can't help but give thanks for you, the team of people who give generously to allow us to serve with Cru.  Some have been with us a year or two, and some have been with us for the last 36 years.  We have to give God the glory.  Many times I have doubted whether we could continue to serve with Cru, and He uses you and many others to provide what we need.

Thank you.  It is our privilege to partner with you and serve with Cru.  

Want to hear some stories to give thanks for?  Here are some recent stories of what God is doing around the world.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

New Life: Longa Lambogo from Unto® on Vimeo.

South Asia:

Idregith has a vision for new churches. Since 2010, he has been coaching 19 church planters and three mentors in a South Asian country. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, Idregith couldn’t visit any of his teams. He asked God to show him what to do during the lockdown. God spoke to him: “Share the good news with your neighbors.” 

He first reached out to 10 of his neighbors. All of them prayed and received Christ. He felt God’s favor was on him, and he continued telling more people about Jesus. In eight months, he has shared the gospel with 300 people from the majority religion, and 180 of them have given their hearts to Jesus. 

Idregith has four house churches and 12 Pray-Care-Share groups, which will most likely grow into churches. He also has trained seven lay leaders who have started their own Pray-Care-Share groups. 

United States:

Zach’s drinking had started to become more of a “Monday through Sunday” thing. Sobbing in his bed, feeling unfulfilled and without a future, Zach texted Trevor, his older brother, “I’m so sick of this lifestyle.” Trevor’s reply? “Go to Cru®.” 

Trevor had encountered God through Cru a few years earlier as a student. At the time, 16-year-old Zach hadn’t understood how the angry brother he’d known his whole life had been able to change. 

Feeling empty, doubtful, and conspicuous on that unseasonably warm Minnesota night, Zach walked into a church where students had gathered to experience Cru’s virtual Winter Conference. He heard the band playing a song tailored just for him, and the weight fell away. 

“Like a toddler in a new world” is how Zach sums up his semester experience of salvation, discipleship, Bible study, church — “ups with a few downs.” Realizing, as he says, “You can’t have one foot in and the other out,” Zach moved away from his party friends mid-May, opting instead for gym workouts and basketball. He spent four weeks involved in intensive evangelism and discipleship at Cru’s North Myrtle Beach Summer Mission. 

Ready to reach others back on campus, Zach met up with some of his old buddies, enduring their taunts of “preacher boy.” He agreed with them, saying, “You’re right. I’m not better than you. We all need help.” 

Zach plans to leverage some of his newly discovered giftings, helping to reach out to other students, initiating Christian community in the dorms, and emceeing Cru’s weekly meeting. 

Digital Impact:

“Everything has changed now. All of the old things are gone, and everything is new. I am a newborn. Now I have a new life because God came for us. I know about Jesus Christ. God loves us. It is not like [my country’s religion]. Now I understand everything! Everyone who truly follows Jesus is part of the family of Christ! NOTHING IS ABLE TO SEPARATE us from God’s love. I want to talk to other people about this! Everyone around me is [a non-Christian]. Father, thank You that I am Your precious daughter. Amen.” — new believer, a 15-year-old girl in a closed nation. 

The teenager quoted above is among thousands from a tech-savvy generation who are coming to Christ through digital evangelism in the most challenging parts of the world. What God is doing to reach them — through technology and the internet — is most exciting, something never before seen. The gospel is breaking through. 

Thank you for all you do to love others and share the grace and truth of the gospel to those around you.  And thank you for investing in our lives and ministry.

With love,

PS  Pink Panthers all the way!

Macy and I just finished her last Babe Ruth softball season!  I was able to coach her and the team, and we finished with an undefeated record!  We had a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to play together this fall!

A New Normal

Cru's hype video:

Cru weekly meeting hype video from Creative One Media on Vimeo.

Our media team put together this hype video for the beginning of Cru meetings this fall.  I thought we she open our monthly update with it!

Family Together!

We have had a great visit with Cara, Perry, Zeke, Titus and Bowen, and Luke also came down from Virginia so the whole family was together for over a week!  It was wonderful.  

Macy is 18!

On the 7th Macy entered adulthood!  She and Aubrey went to the Harry Styles concert together and had a wonderful time.  She is busy applying for colleges now and we are attempting to complete the FAFSA!

Campus and Unto

This fall Unto and Campus have worked together to provide opportunities for college students to be involved in relieving suffering, restoring dignity, and revealing hope.  One is a drive for school supplies that will be delivered to some of the toughest places on earth to provide access, credibility, and greater effectiveness to our national ministries.  College students will also participate in relief for Hurricane Ida in Louisiana.  These kinds of opportunities allow our campus staff to engage students that might not normally look into Cru.

What are you doing now?

Dayna continues to volunteer at Shepherd's Hope one or two mornings a week, and is the nurse consultant for our Staff Conference next summer.  

I've got a few things I've had my hand in with Cru:

• I continue to lead the project to transform our world headquarter from a cubicle environment to an activity based hybrid/mobile environment.  We are about finished with 1/4 of the headquarters this month...still a long way to go.
• I have helped our Cru City global ministry to assist them in clarifying their strategy for reaching Eastern and Western Europe and Russia.  The timing is good because our global reorganization just combined these areas under new leadership.
• I facilitated Unto's leadership off site to discuss organizational trust.  One of the 5 emphases for Cru globallys is to "move into the missional gap," so we also talked about Unto's role with that emphasis.
• I have been working with one of our HR leaders who is considering what an integrated Talent Management process looks like for Cru...from new staff orientation to retirement.

Thank you for your kindness and faithfulness to allow us to serve with Cru.  There are so many cool things happening around the world that you are impacting.  

Pray for Cru

There are a lot of transitions happening in Cru right now...a global reorganization, new leadership, adjusting to ministry during covid, a HQ under construction, and cultural issues that all of christendom is wrestling with.  Pray for good progress and encouragement for our staff.

Thanks for your partnership with us in helping everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus!

The Impact Behind the Scenes

One year out…

Dayna is continuing to prepare childcare for our staff conference in Milwaukee next summer.  She is responsible for planning the care of the hundreds of newborn to 5 year olds.  

They made the decision to host the childcare for this age in the convention center, so the parents will be nearby.  She is learning a lot about Wisconsin childcare regulations and they will have to hire a lot of local workers for those two weeks.

As you think of us, pray for wisdom as she learns and plans with others, and that it will be a great experience for the families.

Impact Behind the Scenes

Finishing the Task is a coordinated effort among many churches and missionary agencies to identify the unreached and unengaged people groups around the world, and encourage people to adopt them and send people to actually go. It is a very encouraging effort among many missionary groups. 

A couple of years ago, our director, Paul Eshelman, was ready to step down from leading this effort, and Cru’s President at the time, Steve Douglass, asked me (Barrett) to recommend the best transition for this team.

After many trips, countless interviews with the stakeholders of this effort, I made the recommendation to transition Finishing the Task from being facilitated by Cru to be led by Rick Warren and be facilitated by a team at Saddleback. Steve Douglass took my recommendation and we made the transition. 

Some were not happy about that decision, and just like anything, the other options were also viable, so I hoped and prayed that God would confirm the decision. And He has. 

Finishing the Task leadership

Rick has brought this group of leaders to help lead in Finishing the Task. It includes several Cru leaders, and others from other groups, including Wycliffe. They want a Bible translation for all languages, a strategy to share the good news with every person, and a church for every 1,000 people worldwide.

Recently, Rick announced a transition process as he is stepping down as Pastor of Saddleback Community Church. One of the 11 reasons for the transition is so that the can give more attention to leading Finishing the Task. I’m very encouraged that this effort is showing greater momentum with this move. 

Sometimes we play a small part in helping make something successful. Thank you for investing in our lives and ministry so we can impact the world. 

With love and thanks,

A little back to normal

A few trips

We are both doing a bit of traveling recently. I just returned from California for a two week visit with our daughter Cara and Perry and their family, and I was glad  to meet little Bowen for the first time.  I had a wonderful time with the whole Johnson family.

Bowen (2 mo), Titus (18 mo) , Zeke (3 yrs) and Grandpa Barrett

While I was gone Dayna traveled with a Cru group to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a few days to explore the location for our Cru staff conference next summer. She inspected the potential locations for childcare during the conference. This is the first location change for our staff conference in over 40 years, so there is a lot to learn! 

Today I'm headed to Dallas to work with our Unto team for their quarterly off site. I have been facilitating these strategy meetings for the last 5 years.  This will be my first ministry trip in 17 months! We both have received our second vaccine shots, so we feel a bit more comfortable traveling now. 

Small Steps forward 

Cru’s Headquarters, which we call Lake Hart (because it is near Lake Hart) is reopening today as well.  As you can imagine, it may be a tougher adjustment to go back to working in an office than it was having to work at home! 

Cru has begun a renovation of our campus that will allow us to support more staff without building another building. I am leading the team to transform our headquarters from a cubicle based environment, where each department and ministry had their own real estate, and each person had a desk, to a shared neighborhood based environment, based on activity based working.  

This was both a stewardship decision, and a decision to support the way our staff are actually working, support increased collaboration, innovation, and to demonstrate care to our staff and visitors so that everyone feels welcome and has a place. We are one year into a 2+ year project and we have finished the first of 8 floors. Here are a couple of videos of me talking about the project and get a look at the first space. 

 

March 4 Update

June 15 update (your get the early release)

 I think it looks great, and I'm excited staff can come in and actually use the space now!

Thank you for investing in our lives and ministry,

Grandson #3

Early morning on April 2nd, our daughter Cara texted to say that her water broke!  Within an hour Dayna was at the airport and arrived in California by 5:30 pm (thanks Southwest).   We are thrilled that our 3rd grandson, Bowen Mark Johnson and his mom are doing well.  

Aubrey has also been there to help and soon Macy, and then Catelin will take trips to help Cara and Perry through the challenges of 3 under 3!  I hope to get my turn as soon as possible!

Bowen Mark Johnson
6 lbs, 2 oz, April 2, 2021

Grandma does her thing!

 Last month I asked you to pray for the planning meetings for Unto, Cru’s humanitarian ministry.  They went very well.  I introduced them to a tool to help identify and develop future leaders, and they plan to clarify  some cross-team processes, like field reporting and how they work with US field ministry (like hosting a seed packing event on a U.S. Campus).  I’ll be facilitating the second group.

Unto is doing a great job with clarity of their mission and how they resource and serve Cru’s global ministry.  A  short video report was just produced by a show in Texas about their work.  In it you will hear clearly their purpose and strategy.  You can watch the video here.   

Last week Dayna was asked to be a childcare director for our staff conference to be held in the summer of 2022, so she will be working with that team starting this month to be sure we are prepared for that conference.

Thanks for investing in our family and ministry.  We are honored and grateful to partner with you .  You are helping us to come alongside Cru ministries like Unto to help them be more effective in their calling.

With love and thanks,

Working Together

Two weekends ago we had 7 pallets of sod delivered for us to lay down.  That is 4,400 square feet of sod.  Heavy sod.  Chinch bugs and tree removals had done a lot of damage. Two friends came Friday night and and four more Saturday morning to help us and together we laid down all 7 pallets in about 7 hours.  It’s a hands on job, one piece at a time.  As I add it up, it took 27 man hours to finish!

There is absolutely no way I could have done that work alone.  As it was, I was exhausted, sore and took a nap after we finished!  

Unto, Cru’s humanitarian ministry, helps in a similar way.

In a Syrian refugee camp, a woman named A’isha and her child arrived and she was introduced to Christ by Christians in the camp.  Her life changed significantly and she says people say she “bubbles over with joy,” despite her loss.  Unto has partnered with her to provide blankets, tarps, and other supplies to help her share the gospel with other refugees. 

She has seen God answer prayers and despite opportunities to leave, she stays to care for others and lead others to Christ.  Click this sentence to watch a two minute video of her story.  

Beginning March 22, I’ll be facilitating the Unto leadership team’s quarterly strategy meetings, like I have for 5+ years.  For the last year, these quarterly meetings have all been virtual.  Instead of the time to share meals, talk, and take walks, we limit the meetings to three hours a day and focus on key elements of their strategic plan.  As you think of us, please pray for these meetings.

The work that Unto does around the world is truly amazing.  They come alongside our staff and partners and prioritize the toughest places on earth.  Places where the gospel has not made much headway.  

As they bring clean water, food & agriculture, and critical aid it provides access, credibility and effective ministry for our staff.  Often these open the doors to show the Jesus Film and plant churches. Even during the pandemic they have been able to ship containers of aid to our staff and partners, despite not being able to travel  personally to assist them.

That’s the way I think about what Jesus has called us to…a task that is  impossible to go at alone.  Thank you for your friendship and support so we can finish the task together. 

Grandson Titus saying hi! 
His baby brother arrives in April!

35 Years Together

We met Clark and Virginia Corbly on their back porch in 1986.  After we introduced our ministry, we invited them to become financial partners as we were just beginning to raise support with Cru.  They stepped back into the house and began a little argument about what they could do.  We heard Virginia assert strongly, “They are helping our young people!”  When they returned they agreed to support us for $12 per month!  And they supported us the rest of their lives.  They were among our first partners.

This month marks the 35th year that Dayna and I have served with Cru!  As newlyweds, we flew to California to attend our New Staff Orientation and returned home to build our financial support team.

As we have raised support over the years, some partners have said, “I wouldn’t want to have to raise support like you do.”  I understand, because there is some discomfort with asking people to invest in us and our ministry.  However, I would not want us to serve as a missionaries without the team of people that is investing in us, praying for us, and that care deeply about the work we do with Cru.

We started raising support in Cincinnati, OH, and there are people still on our team that joined us that first year (you know who you are!).  Some of our original partners who were dear to us have died.  Faith Free Church and Anderson Hills UMC, where Dayna grew up, have been a faithful support through these years.

Many more have joined our team throughout these years and even within the last year.  Our support team is now spread across the country.  It is encouraging to us to have your generous and faithful help. We want to celebrate you during this milestone year and to thank you!  It is humbling to know the sacrifices you make financially to enable us to serve with Cru.  We are honored by your faithfulness to the Lord and to us.

Because of your investment, we have been able to serve in many different ways.  We have worked with Cru high school, the Campus ministry, The Jesus Film Project, International Sending, as Cru’s Global Crisis Manager, and HR Director for our World Headquarters and half of our US Staff Overseas.

Over the last 6 years we’ve invested in many parts of Cru:  Providing nursing care for our staff conference, Unto, Athletes in Action, The Jesus Film Project, our Communications Teams, developing online training for all Cru staff, coaching leaders, developing Cru’s compensation philosophy, assisting several senior leader transitions, and a renovation of our World Headquarters.

Reaching every person with the saving knowledge of the gospel is an amazing purpose in which to invest our lives.  Thank you for joining us on this 35 year adventure!  God bless you for all you do to keep us on the job!

With love and thanks,

The clarity of our calling

 

In August 2020, Steve Seller was named Cru’s new president.  The most powerful part of the installation ceremony was when Cru national leaders from around the world recited the mission of Cru in their own languages.  They all said the same thing, wherever they were:

“To help fulfill the great commission, by winning, building and sending, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and helping the body of Christ do evangelism and discipleship.”

If you are really interested, you can take 10 minutes to hear Steve Sellers on "We are defined by our calling" at our staff conference in 2019.  For me, this was  highlight of the staff conference that summer.

The audiences we reach might look different: athletes, students, business men and women, soldiers, etc.  Our ethnic/international outreaches might look different: Destino, Epic, Nations, Bridges, etc.  Our strategies might look different: Unto, Cru City, Inner City, Cru Military, etc.  But, the purpose and mission is the same.

This is what gives me confidence in Cru…we share the same calling around the world and in every part of Cru.

There is a lot of change happening in the world right now.  Obviously, the pandemic has altered all of our lives and how we work.  Cru is not alone in having to relearn how we follow our calling in light of this new reality.  Politics has been a disruptive force this year, and countries around the world have their own unique challenges, as do we.

That is why being clear about our calling is so important.  We need to know who we are; what we are called to do.  As we begin this new year, I wanted to remind myself and you, as our partners, what it is we are called to do as Cru.  Thank you for helping Dayna and I serve with Cru.  

This month Dayna, Macy and I drove to Florida State University for an impromptu college visit for Macy.  College visits are almost all virtual this year, so we took a self guided walking tour of campus.  We have also watched some campus tours on Youtube for Macy to get an idea of some of the schools she is considering.  

In California, Perry is starting to teach his first courses at UC Irvine, where only 40% of the students are on campus, and all of the classes are virtual.  

Cru’s headquarters, normally bustling with up to 1,000 staff is only allowing about 25-50 essential workers inside, so we are all working from home, like many of you.  It is a strange time.  We pray that you stay healthy and rest in Him.

With love and thanks,