Three quick stories

Washington, D.C.

It was the day of outreach at Winter Conference and it also happened to be Travis’ birthday. To celebrate, he and friends from Radford University stopped by an ice cream shop before going into the city to engage people in spiritual conversations. Travis noticed that Breanna, who was working at the shop, had no customers. He decided to talk with her.

After sharing a little about their purpose that day, he asked, “Did you grow up with any religious background?” “No,” she said, “but I have been thinking about this exact thing for the past three days! This is crazy!” Travis shared the gospel with her, and right there, over the register, she placed her faith in Christ.

Liberia

On January 6, 2024, Kpana, a student involved with the movement, wrote about her desire to start discipleship groups with 20 people and see two individuals emerge as new leaders.  A year later, when she reread her letter, she exclaimed, "I not only started discipleship groups with 22 people, but I also have two individuals actively sharing their faith and starting their own groups!

Croatia

A summer project team of staff and students told the story of Caterina, a freshman at a university in Croatia, who grew up religious. When she experienced tragedy, she began questioning if God was real. She chose to study philosophy, wanting to figure out, as she said, “the purpose of life.”

When project students asked Caterina,“If it were possible to know God, how much would you want to know him, on a 1 to 10 scale?” she answered, “10.”

“She had so many questions — it really seemed she was understanding the message,” one of the students said. Caterina decided to put her trust in Christ. A student commented, “The joy on her face was indescribable! She expressed excitement to share this message with her sister and her friends."

Last Friday I welcomed and gave a tour to 25 college interns who will be working at our headquarters this summer.  They will be working on video, finance, marketing, and other professional jobs.  I told them that everything they do, and all of the work at our headquarters, is helping stories like these happen around the world.

Now, we have some good news and bad news.

First the Good News  

Catelin finished her four weeks of radiation! She went every morning at 7 and got to ring another bell.  It's another great milestone.  She's now starting some hormone therapy that will go one for years, but now the focus is on preparing for reconstruction surgery in December.

Doesn't her hair look great?  It's growing back pretty quickly!

The Bad News

The bad news is that we unexpectedly lost our dog, Brexit on May 15.  I was out of town, so Dayna got help from Catelin and Aubrey at 4 am and took him to the emergency vet, where he passed away on the x-ray table.  Turns out that he had internal bleeding from a cancer (hemangiosarcoma) and we didn't know it.  It's fast growing and often there are no symptoms until something like this happens.  It's amazing how much a part of our family he became.  He was not quite 9 years old, and we miss him a lot.

Brexit was the only dog we've had as a family, and everyone was excited when we agreed to get him.  He became everyone's dog and loved us all.  Aubrey made this video to show how we determined his name, and to announce his arrival. He went to the Grand Canyon and Colorado with us in 2019, and had some great adventures.  We gave him a good life and he gave us great love back.

Thank you for your love and partnership with us.  Together, you and we are able to help these stories happen.  We all play a part in helping people find Jesus.  We always give thanks for you and so appreciate your friendship.

With love,