Let us not become weary of doing good.

Thank you for standing with us and supporting us as we serve with Cru.  It is an honor to serve with you to help introduce others to Jesus Christ.

Cru is a missionary sending ministry.  The most important work of Cru is working directly with people on college campuses, high schools, the military, and all around the world.  Every other part of the organization (finance, HR, technology, donations, etc) is necessary to support them, but only exist to see those staff and students be able to share the gospel, disciple others, and send them to reach others.

Recently, I've been asked to take on an assignment at Cru to lead change as we reorganize our HR system, and it has been overwhelming and challenging.  The last two months have been, well, really too busy.  I really think it will be better for our staff for years to come, so I'm glad it is happening,  but honestly, I'm feeling kind of like I'm holding on for dear life!

When I'm in a period like this, I am encouraged when I hear about a story like the one below.  This is the story of a Thai staff member, Joy.  A year ago, she joined the Digital Cohort of the Next Gen program with no experience at all. She simply brought her mustard seed of faith.

God honored that step. Today, Joy is training others and helping churches in Thailand enter the digital harvest, seeing real fruit along the way. What I like about this video is that she took a risk to try something new, and she identifies what she is learning along the way. Take five minutes to watch her story.

You are a part of Joy's story and the impact she is having.  It might seem far away, but the staff I'm helping are helping staff like Joy all over the world.  

Chapter 6 of Galatians closes with several admonitions, and one of them stood out to me today.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."  Galatians 6:9-10.

To be honest, I think Dayna and I are feeling weary.  It's not that we don't want to do good, but this year has been wearing on us, especially emotionally between the family challenges we have faced, our culture in the U.S, and the busyness of the ministry.

Thank you for praying for us, for supporting our work, and for you friendship.  

With love and thanks,

PS  Catelin is doing well.  She is taking two medications that impact her energy and have other side effects, but we recently acknowledged that she has technically been cancer free for over one year last month!  She is preparing for reconstruction surgery in early December.  Thank for your prayers for her.

Significant moments

July was a month of significant moments for us.  

Cru25

Our staff conference in Milwaukee was really good.  They aren't all this good.

I missed having Dayna with me, but I was so encouraged by the messages shared by our leadership, and by the stories of God working around the world.  Here's one story of a how our Church Movements team is helping churches with evangelism.

Former staff member and current board member Crawford Loritts was a highlight for me.  God used him to speak to me about some areas of my life that I need to address related to holding a 10 year grudge that was still bothering me.  It led to a meaningful prayer experience with a couple of other staff men.

This was the first staff conference for our Cru's new president, David Robbins.  He has continued to call us as staff to maintain our first love, walk in humility, dependent on the Spirit.  I am more hopeful about the future of Cru than I have ever been.

David Robbins, Cru President

Apart from the meetings and time with friends, I enjoyed visiting my aunt in Chicago on the way up, taking morning bike rides to the closest McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin, and walking along their river walk.  I did miss Dayna, who was with Cara in California.

Family

Cara and her family arrived in Orlando on July 23, and after a visit to Perry's family in Lakeland, we got to have a house full with everyone here together.  We played in the blow up pool in the backyard and went to the science center.  

Probably a highlight, because we had to take two cars everywhere, were the car "races" to see which car would get home first.  After multiple races involving 6 different cars, it was determined (by a 7 year old boy's ruling) that the 2007 Lincoln Town Car was the Orlando Champion (he just happened to be in that car).

This was also a time that we could talk about the loss of Lumina Hope, Cara and Perry's 22 week old baby, who died and was delivered on July 8.  It was good to be with them, cry with them, talk together and support each other.  It is a deep loss that will be with us forever.  We were so glad we were all able to be together during this time.

Thank you for your prayers for them, and us.  We heard from so many of
you who understood the kind of pain it is to lose a baby.

We are grateful for your partnership, your generous support, and for your prayers.

Thanks for standing with us as we serve with Cru.

With love,

Milwaukee Again!

In mid-July Cru is headed back to Milwaukee for Cru25. This staff conference is the only time we have almost all of the 6,000 staff (and lots of kids) together.   

Dayna and Barrett at Cru22

We'll focus on our calling, our priorities, how we are doing as a ministry, worship together and connect with each other.  This summer is important because we have a new President, a new Athletes in Action director, a new FamilyLife director, and the Josh McDowell Ministry is becoming SightLine. 

Barrett be headed there solo this summer. Dayna received an exemption to be able to be with Catelin when she has a few procedures during that time, but she can watch virtually.

Can you help us this month?

This is one of the expenses that we need to cover from our staff ministry account, and we need to raise $2,300 to cover my flight, conference fees, hotel and food.  Would you please consider making a special gift before the end of July to help us cover this expense this summer?  

It's easy to make a gift at give.cru.org/0374749, or if you want, mail a check made to Cru to our address on the right.  Thank you for considering this, and praying for us.

An update on Catelin

Thank you for your prayers for our daughter Catelin.  She really is doing well. She's finished all of the chemo and radiation, and is beginning some hormone medication that she'll take for years.  After such a rough year, she seems brighter, happier, and lighter.  For the next 5 months she can recover before reconstruction surgery in December.  We continue to take our nightly walks, which I treasure.

Where'd he go?

After having a pretty visible role with the transformation of our headquarters for 4+ years, this last 10 months I have been working on a few projects with Cru that will be largely invisible to most of Cru staff, but are foundational for us to be able to better support them as they are called to win people to Christ, build them in their faith, and send them to reach others.  (One is Cru's job architecture and the other a learning management system so we can better train our staff).

At times it’s tedious work, but I like working on high leverage things that will make a big difference for the experience of our staff…where they feel they have what they need to serve effectively for a long time. 

And that is what you do for us.  You prayers and support provide what we need to serve with Cru.  We are now in our 39th year!  We are honored and thankful to have you by our side.

With love, 

P.S.  Thanks again for considering a special gift for our summer staff conference.