Being a part of it all

 

Last week Rick Warren visited Cru's Headquarters at Lake Hart.  He is leading Finishing the Task, a collaborative effort to find every unengaged, unreached people group in the world and connect them with a church or ministry that will commit to sending to that group.  In his presentation, he said, "there has never been an evangelistic tool as effective as The Jesus Film."  

On June 1, we opened Wings A and B at our Lake Hart campus.  These wings will house the Jesus Film Project neighborhood.  Here is the ribbon cutting.

Josh Newell, the director and ribbon cutter recently shared some reports illustrating Rick's quote.  Take a few minutes to watch these. I know you will be encouraged.

Malee's Story is a four and one half minute reenactment of a true story of life change from the country of Cambodia.  Through an ad on Facebook, Malee found hope and freedom.

A Time to Plant is a 2 minute video on the power of God displayed to a community through the prayers of a Jesus Film Team.

You are a part of these stories.  Through your partnership with our ministry you are investing in the effectiveness of this ministry.  In the last few years Dayna and I helped with Rick Warren's transition to leading Finishing the Task, helped coach the Jesus Film Project leadership team in succession strategies, and have been helping prepare the Jesus Film Project office and studio space through our Transforming Lake Hart Project.  I think it's all pretty amazing.

Give thanks to God for how he is using this ministry, and your investment in the Great Commission.

We are so thankful for your investment in our lives and ministry.

With love,

 

P.S.  Tonight Cara, Perry, Zeke, Titus and Bowen arrive for a 2 week Grandkid Fest!  We are so excited.  I borrowed a bounce house and we have the canoe ready for some rides!

Crisis management is about making ministry happen

 For 10 years I served as Cru's Global Crisis Manager.  For the last several months I've been helping Unto work through the changes Cru made to our Crisis Management system due to COVID, and to navigate the permissions required to enter and exit some countries.  After a lengthy moratorium on international travel, many doors are opening for renewed ministry travel.  

As you may know, Cru has ministries in almost every country of the world, and we have a large number of Ukrainian staff (click to read about ministry in Ukraine before the war).  I heard recently that we still have 77 Ukrainian staff still living in Ukraine.  Some of them are serving in the military in defense of their country.  Please pray for these staff and all that Cru is doing to assist them in this difficult crisis.

Unto is working with our European ministries to bring humanitarian relief to refugees, and when possible, to those inside the country.  We just worked through permissions for 4 of our U.S. staff to travel and explore how we can best come alongside those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

In May we will conduct a training for all Unto staff that travel to the toughest places on earth to help them prepare for situations that may threaten them or their ministry.  With the proper preparation and communication, we can release staff to serve in many locations that are in the most need.  Crisis management is about identifying and mitigating both the probability and impact of a crisis, and doing a thorough job gives Cru leadership confidence in allowing trips to continue.

Thank you for supporting our ministry with Cru.  The ways we are able to assist teams like Unto give lift to all they do.  And we've been able to come alongside ministries like StoryRunners, The Jesus Film Project, and our Global Vice President's teams in different ways, all in the last few months.

We are grateful for the privilege of partnering with you.

With love and thanks,

Still hanging around...

 Yes, we are still here.  I'm sorry I haven't written lately.  We have been pretty busy with Cru and I keep forgetting to set aside time to write.

First, I want you to see this 5 minute video that is on Cru's LinkedIn page.  Our daughter Aubrey put together a series of interviews with Cru staff to share about their calling. I helped get them set up with a studio and green screen and I was the first one to be interviewed...their guinea pig. There are others that are very encouraging also. You have my official encouragement to follow Cru on LinkedIn.  Aubrey will thank you!

My Cru Calling

I have been helping Unto work out their crisis management process with all of their staff that travel internationally.  Covid has led countries to establish many different rules for entry and exit, so that is a big learning curve for them.  We are also training each traveling staff in the crisis management process so that they are equipped to support each other in case there is an incident.

Speaking of Unto, they are working with Campus Crusade for Christ's humanitarian arms, GAiN in Europe to respond to the Ukrainian crisis.  You can read about that here.

I'm also helping StoryRunners, Athletes in Action, The Jesus Film Project, and others with different engagements.

But most of my time is taken up by the Transformation of our headquarters.  Soon, the second phase of our project will be complete, and 1/2 of the campus will be ready to use.  One quarter of the campus is under construction, and the last 1/4 of the campus is in the pre-design phase with lots of interviews and workshops to help us know how to design.  Included in this last phase is an updated board room, which will be a collaboration and learning center, where the board will meet three times per year.

Take a look at a short video of the new space one of our staff made:

The President of Power To Change, Cru's Canadian ministry, met with me and we will talk with his team because they are currently building a new headquarters and he would like to implement a more mobile and hybrid workspace for their 150 HQ staff.

Thank you for your faithful and generous partnership with us.  We are honored by your investment in our lives and ministry.