Go.

Everyone, Everywhere

The Bible is clear that God loves everyone, and calls us to go to everyone with the good news of his love, forgiveness, and new life.  

In Matthew 28:19  Jesus said to "go and make disciples of all nations."

2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

Cru is always asking the question, "how do we get to everyone?"

It's why Cru started the high school ministry that God used to lead Dayna and I to Jesus. Another student shared the gospel with Dayna, and I went to an outreach held at the middle school next to my high school.  They came to where we were.

It's why we send staff around the world and why we have ministries in over 180 countries.  And it's why many of those countries are sending staff and students to the least reached locations.

USA Today just ran a story about a small team of Cru staff that are finding ways to reach into the virtual world.  It's a good article.  I don't love the title, but the story is really about going to where people are to introduce Jesus.

Click here to read the article.

Summer Adventures

Dayna and I visited Cara's family in California in late July, and before that I went with Cara and her boys to the Grand Canyon.  It was truly and adventure.  Cara is expecting, and has not been feeling well, so it was nice that we could be with her. (see more below)

Last week we moved Macy into her apartment in Auburn, where she is beginning her masters program and Behavioral Analysis.  She is very excited about the program and loves Auburn so far.

Macy met Aubie

Requesting prayer.

It is very much an honor for us to have your partnership, and for you to share in our calling to ministry with Cru.  We appreciate your prayers for us, and want to ask you to pray with us about a couple of things.

• It’s a long story, but Barrett spent a night in the ER last week after an ocular migraine resulted in some “brain fog” issues for about an hour.  Lots of tests were taken, and more is to come.  He got a new medicine to take. Brain scans found nothing, as expected (haha), but they did find a hole in his heart and will figure out if that needs to be repaired. He has more procedures scheduled to look at that. He is doing well overall.


• Navigating life.  Every stage of life has new ways where each of us need to trust God and learn to walk in the Spirit with new challenges.  Pray for our finances, healthcare decisions, marriage and being parents to our adult children.  

We appreciate your partnership in our ministry, but even more as friends who care about us.  Thank you.  We could not be here without you.

With love and thanks,

PS. here are some fun videos from my time with the boys. They are both pretty silly.

I made an AI song about our Grand Canyon trip and made this video.

June is HOT!

 

It’s hot I know it is hot everywhere this summer, but as I write this we are on our 10th day with a broken AC at our house!  We have two portable units running that cool our kitchen and our bedroom, and the new unit is sitting in our garage.  We hope to have it installed by the time Macy comes home with three friends this weekend, but it has been a long week or so! What we’re up to At Cru, I end up helping in many different ways.  Mainly, I’m still leading change management for our huge HR changes that involve a new HR operating model, a new job framework, and a new Human Capital Management system.  By the way, I named our new HCM the “HR Hub.”  Genius isn’t it?  I even “wrote” a few songs about our new HR.  AI is amazing. You can listen to one here. And a little jingle. I know it's silly and cheesy. Recently I was  asked to help review our internal audit function, so I guess you can say that I get to audit Audit!  More about that in the future. When Cru asked Dayna to renew her nursing license so she could be the nurse at our staff conference, it also opened up doors to use that license to serve the community.  Dayna recently received the “A Team” award for 1,800 hours of volunteering at Shepherd’s Hope, a ministry for those that don’t have health insurance. When Tim, who has been partnering with us for 40 years, was in town recently, he said, “Your job is a lot different than when you were working with students!”  It really is.  It’s wild how many different things we have done with Cru over the years.   But, it does all support those individual conversations about Jesus, and the invitation to know Him, grow in a relationship with Him, and go to tell others about Him.  The HR changes are all about that.  So is audit.  Whatever we have done, it all supports reaching everyone with the gospel. Thanks for partnering with us.  We can’t express how much your faithful friendship and support mean to us.  We can’t be here without you!   With love and thanks,

After our primary goal of getting an AC for the house, we have some other plans for the summer. We are all taking turns visiting Cara and her family.  Luke and Catelin head out for July 4 and Dayna and I will be there later that month.

Milestones

 

Macy’s Graduation

Earlier this month we celebrated with Macy as she graduated from the University of Florida!  She graduated with degrees in Psychology and Criminology, and will be headed to Auburn University to get a Masters in Behavioral Analysis.  We are very proud of her!

Macy set a goal to graduate with the highest GPA of all her siblings.  Unfortunately for them, she did it!

We visited Auburn after she accepted their offer and she has already found a place to live with two other students!

Cru Mission Trips

When Covid hit in 2020-2021, Cru’s mission trips numbers dropped to zero!.  The numbers are coming back with a flourish.

This Spring Break Cru also sent almost 2400 students on 75 short Filters of Hope trips. Click here to read the official report with stories.

We sent students to another 60 locations around the world for other short spring break trips, and 800 students and staff met in Daytona Beach for evangelism and training. Stateside and International summer missions will be launching in June!  These are life changing experiences for students.

Have you ever seen Cru's annual report?  If you love details, you'll love it, and if you love stories, you'll love it.  Take a look at it by clicking on this image.

Thank you for being a part of it all! 

With love,