In our goal to get local churches and Cru missionaries working together to reach young people, Full Sail University has been one of my guinea pigs.  It is my hope that Cru leaders on other campuses will see what’s going on there and begin to reproduce similar relationships with local churches near them until EVERY campus is working closely with local believers to win, build and send students for Jesus Christ.

So far, I’ve seen about a dozen churches connect to the campus for one-time or ongoing ministry with the students, but no one has invested more in these students than Pastor Red (pictured on the left).  He dedicates at least two hours every Friday to feed, pray for, and encourage the young men and women passing through the campus on their busy ways.  I’ve gotten to help Pastor Red team up with Steve Rivera (pictured right). Steve (along with a team he has recruited) volunteers his time outside of the Jesus Film master studio to share the gospel here at his alma mater.  These two warriors of love are a consistent presence and blessing on the campus.

This month, Pastor Red and I had the opportunity to speak to newly-trained Cru staff members about what partnership can look like.  The new missionaries were blown away.  Many of them have a heart for similar partnership but weren’t sure it could work or how to get started. God used us to give them hope and ideas!

After we parted, Pastor Red went to Full Sail where he and Steve immediately entered a conversation with a film student named Raul.  Raul then prayed to invite Jesus into his life!  Praise God for Raul, Steve, Pastor Red, and partnerships!

Last month, I talked about a growing trend of unity among churches even of different denominations.  I’ve got an awesome example here in Orlando to share.

Every month, a gathering of pastors and ministry leaders from around central FL come to a different location for an event called Collaborate.  We worship, pray and plan how to work together in practical ways to reach this area for Christ!  They gathered at Cru headquarters this month and, after our US director spoke, they invited me to talk about how churches can reach high school and college students.  Pray for those ongoing connections!

Also this month, we kicked off a collaborative outreach initiative called 40 Days of Love.  I am partnering with 100 other churches & ministries representing 60k believers in central FL to share the love of Jesus with at least 10 people each.  You can join us!  Watch this video and jump in with your family and also take a moment to pray now.

Have you ever struggled to read certain parts of the Bible?  Maybe you do okay with some books, but you feel bad skipping big sections of stuff that doesn’t make much sense or is boring.  I remember being very proud when I first completed an entire read-through of the Bible, but I get intimidated diving back into books like the prophets that I remember as a lot lot lot of yelling (though certainly justified).

However, we’ve recently found a series of short animated videos with voice-over that explain each book of the Bible with incredible clarity!  The visuals help us follow what’s happening and even visualize the structure of the book.  I’m so glad to have these and not miss on the artistic and beautiful nuances of these amazing books, and also come to understand how the people of the day would receive and relate to them.  Finally, it helps answer really tough questions, like this one here on Joshua which explains at one point why God would seem to call for the extermination of an entire people.

God is an infinitely deeper well than we can fathom; but since He asks us to dive in and try, I praise God for the people who make creative tools that can help us 🙂

“Keep me and my family in prayer.  I was a victim in pulse shooting.”

This text came in one morning from Luis, one of the over 90 Full Sail students who registered to go to our Captain America movie outreach a few weeks prior, which had sparked great conversations/friendships. I had no idea what doors the event was going to open in meeting deep needs of Orlando students.

Luis identified himself as an veteran and a film major who wanted to meet Christian students on campus.  When asked who would win in the movie, he said “I already won!” because of the opportunity to be part of the event.  A few weeks later, we were saddened to hear that he had been hurt…but really glad he reached out to us.

    Luis attended Latin Night at
The Pulse night club on June 12th when the devastating terrorist attack occurred.  He was trampled by others while trying to escape, suffering severe injuries to his leg, back and neck.

     Like Luis, this attack left a lot of Orlando students very lost and confused.  To meet this new need, pastors helped set up discussion tables on campus where we could pray for people, help them process and meet any needs that were surfaced.

We texted everyone who had attended a Cru event, and many have engaged!  When Luis responded with the text above, I got to chat and pray with him and he is excited to have us be his “family away from home.” Through him, we can bless many others affected by this tragedy.  As violence rears up all over the world, we will answer with the love of Jesus (Romans 12:21)!

     Just weeks ago, I met Pastor Mark from Longview, TX who is interested in launching Cru at Kilgore College.  He has already been running a comic book club there, seeing how speaking the heart language of youth opens amazing doors to minister to people who wouldn’t set foot in a church.

     Mark is spending his vacation here in Orlando with us, learning about the ministry of Cru.  He got to have dinner with Steve and Judy Douglass (he is the President of Cru and she is Global Director of Women’s Resources).  He got to tour the JESUS Film and learn of our Anime and cartoon projects.  He shared the gospel with Cru at Full Sail, giving out ur manga gospel comic and inviting students to our Ben Hur outreach.  I even got to show him Legacy, a comic I’ve written that has Bible studies tied to each adventure.

    Mark also brought along 2 students from UT Tyler who learned to share their faith and want to launch Cru at their school now. Pray for Mark, Collin & Hailie!