Christmas Greetings!

Merry Christmas

In lieu of (or in addition to) a traditional Christmas Card, 

please accept this reasonable facsimile of a Christmas Greeting! 😆😆

We give thanks to God for you.

We hope that you and your family have a meaningful Christmas 

celebrating God's matchless love and grace to the world.

With love,

and all of us

Our Covid 2020 Christmas Update

(no, none of us have had it...yet.)

Barrett, Dayna, Aubrey, Macy, Luke, Catelin, Cara, Titus, Perry and Zeke

2020 has been a rough year in many ways. Barrett’s Dad suffered a traumatic injury from surgery that resulted in two months of hospitalization. Our family came together and loved Billy well, but we were all devastated by his death on March 15. We are so grateful for the time we had with him those last two months.  In many ways, we are all still recovering.

Macy is doing 11th grade online with her dual enrollment classes at Valencia College.  While the high school softball season was cut short last spring, she is looking forward to playing again this year.

 

Luke is about to start his last year of his Materials Science program at UVA.  He is researching corrosion on aluminum alloys in ocean water environments. He is helping lead the high school ministry at his church.

 

Aubrey really struggled this year. She found her team at Cru to be a great support to her.  The highlight of the year was being able to spend Thanksgiving with the whole family despite all odds. She enjoyed spending a month in Cali helping Cara and Perry move, teaching Zeke to somersault and helping Titus satisfy his thrill seeker nature on the big kids slide repeatedly. 

Cara & Perry Johnson Perry is now an Assistant Professor at UC Irvine and Cara still works remotely part time for EBA in Baltimore.  They recently moved to Orange County, CA and a new home.  Zeke (2) and Titus (1) are growing fast and looking forward to welcoming another brother in April!  

 

Catelin works in Talent Development at Orlando Health and her team quickly pivoted to offer classes exclusively online.  She visited Ohio and California this year, and found spending time with non-local family very comforting.   She had her gall bladder removed in November and now enjoys foods that were off limits for years!

 

Dayna was volunteering at Shepherd’s Hope clinic, but that ended with COVID. She is adjusting to all the new normals. She really enjoyed seeing everyone over Thanksgiving in California and is looking forward to Christmas.

Barrett spent 10 days in California during May helping with grandkids while Cara’s back was hurting. That was a very healing time. He spent another 10 days helping them move into their new home in November.  Among other things he is leading a challenging space transformation project for Cru’s World Headquarters.

 

Your kindness is felt around the world.

Chimanimami, Zimbabwe suffered significant impact from Typhoon Idai 1.5 years ago.  Our staff Alec and Itai worked hard to help in this area, and Unto partnered with them to provide a shipping container full of shoes, wheelchairs, and more.  Unto also provided the community 5 wells, 2,000 people received bucket water filters, and 1,000 children received school supplies.

“He takes the time to sit with us in our suffering.”

–said about Alec

Because of this partnership, 12 churches were planted, and 22 pastors completed church planting and discipleship training. You and I are helping provide clarity for Unto’s strategy and greater effectiveness to reach people, like in Chimanimani.

Unto is Cru’s compassion ministry. With your help, I’m able to come alongside Unto’s leadership team to clarify their strategy, which has led to greater effectiveness. They aim to demonstrate humanitarian kindness to help Cru staff and ministries gain access, build credibility, and increase effectiveness in ministry. Because Cru has a ministry presence in over 190 countries, this humanitarian aid is hand delivered by our caring staff.

As we heard this story, it helped put into perspective the many challenges we are facing here, as significant as they are. You and we get to have an incredibly significant impact on the lives of so many people for eternity.

This strange year has resulted in the loss of some of our ongoing support for our ministry with Cru. Next year we will need to take some time to develop additional support, but we want to invite you to consider a special gift at the end of this year to help us begin next year on a solid footing.

We are praying to receive an additional $5,000 in special gifts to replace lost support, and help us continue to focus on our ministry. We recognize this year has been challenging for many, but if you are able to provide an additional gift in December, it will allow us to continue to stay engaged full time.

The easiest way to give is to visit give.cru.org/0374749, and indicate how you would like to help. 

We are grateful to you for your faithfulness to the Lord, and your friendship with us we serve with Cru. It is an honor to partner with you.

With love and thanks,