Recognition is nice!

We are so proud!

We have mentioned quite a few times that Dayna is a volunteer registered nurse at Shepherd's Hope as part of her Cru ministry.  Shepherd's Hope is the largest organization in the Central Florida area providing medical care to the uninsured.  They have 5 clinics and hundreds of volunteers.  

This summer Dayna was chosen as Volunteer Nurse of the year!  We are very proud of her and realize what an honor it is for her to be chosen.  It really is a great group and I'm glad Dayna is able to use her nursing skills there.

Family time

In August all of our kids, son in law and grandkids were at our house for a week. It was really great to have everyone around!

I hosted a conference!

When I became an "internal consultant/coach/project manager/etc" about 7 years ago, there hadn't been a lot of success in making that role work in Cru.  But after 6 years, my boss, Cru's CFO, asked me to facilitate the ability to provide more consulting inside Cru.  

I have had some folks begin reporting to me.  I have the small Transformation Center of Excellence team, focusing on Process Improvement, two consultants with different skillsets than me, and that's it.  

But, as we planned a time together to help us know how to do that "come alongside" role, we discovered other teams and people who are in the space of project managers, coaches, and consultants.  So, less than 2 weeks ago, we had a conference for 20 people for 1 1/2 days, and it went very well!  

One team shared that they felt underutilized, invisible, and not sure how to make a better contribution.  They were encouraged to know others were serving in similar roles.  I've had two invitations after that gathering to talk about how to better approach these kinds of engagements in Cru. 

I love working on "high leverage" projects that will impact our staff and their ability to focus on and accomplish the mission God has called us to.  Thank you for supporting us with your finances and prayers to allow us to serve as missionaries with Cru.

With love and thanks,

Cru's New President

Today Cru commissioned our 4th president, David Robbins.  Below is a video of the service, but I started it about 40 minutes in where various National Directors from around the world affirm our calling.  I found that encouraging and visionary.  Following that is David's 20 minute address if you want to hear from him.

We are encouraged by the Board of Director's selection of David Robbins and look forward to serving with him.   If you'd like to watch the entire commissioning service, you can watch it here.

Thanks for your partnership with Cru.

A busy time at Cru

In 2017 I asked Cru leadership if I could "just help people" for a while for my job.  I had been the HR director for our headquarters and half of our staff overseas, and after a reorganization, I found myself in a position to respond to requests from some of our leaders to help them.  They agreed to let me report to our CFO, Mark, for a year to do that.

After the first year, Mark said it was time to find another place to serve because "it doesn't make sense for you to report to Finance if you aren't doing finance."  I suggested that as a member of Cru's leadership team, he should care about all of the work I'm doing because I'm helping parts of Cru be more effective.  Mark was reluctant, but agreed to  let it ride another year.

East Rotunda almost done.

Seven years later still report to Mark.  And I have been able to respond to many requests for help, with a wide variety of opportunities.  I told someone recently that my job is to be "caulk" and help with some of the gaps in Cru.  I've helped with engagements with the Jesus Film Project, Unto, StoryRunners, HR projects,  leadership transitions, organizational design, and of course, our Lake Hart renovation the last 4 years.

This past year Mark asked me to have Nate, who leads a Transformation Center of Excellence, report to me, and this summer Steve, who has been an operations leader for the Campus ministry, and lives in Minnesota, will join us half time as a consultant.  Now there are 5 of us helping solve problems, coach leaders, and fill gaps, with a couple others doing similar work alongside.  And none of us do finance.

The nice thing about this job is that Cru leaders are genuinely appreciative because they are asking for help with something that they aren't making progress on, or don't know how to move forward. The hard part is that we can't address all of the gaps we see!

There has been a lot going on around Cru lately:

The biggest news is that Cru has named a new President.  David Robbins has been leading our FamilyLife Ministry, and at 46 is a youngest leader since Bill Bright was 46!  He is Cru's 4th President, and everyone seems genuinely excited about this selection.

In Xenia, Ohio, Athletes in Action has just dedicated the John Wooden Family Fieldhouse, which will be a great base for ministry for athletes from around the world.

Unto, a ministry I have worked with a lot, is relocating their headquarters from Dallas to Orlando.  Working out of our Lake Hart headquarters will save them $300,000 per year!

Our Summer

Our summer fun will kick into high gear when Cara and her family will arrive in July for a week, and then the following week all of the girls will head to California for a week together, while the boys (Luke, me, and Brexit, our dog) will stay in hot Orlando!  

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support that allow us to serve with Cru.  

P.S.  Here is a quick update I made for our Lake Hart staff in May.