This is an image from an outreach tool Cru uses called Soularium. The idea is to use creative images as a platform to have meaningful conversations, and this is the one I (Jeff) chose to show my testimony (or a powerful story of God engaging with my life). It mostly centered around my time in high school…

For the first 11 years of my Christian life, I was pretty miserable. That seemed ironic because I had the greatest gift in the world (salvation and the eternal God on my side) and because beneath the surface my main goal in life was to have a happy life. I looked for happiness in a lot of places (friends, popularity, and even good deeds); but everything seemed to hinge on my current circumstances (which were mostly out of my control), and I fell deeper into depression.

Everything changed one summer, when I was looking for a job. I ended up working maintenance at a Christian camp, even though bugs, kids, heat, and manual labor sounded like a nightmare to my teenage self. It was the hardest job I had ever done in my life… but I’d never been happier! How could that be? I wasn’t even trying to be happy!

Maybe that was the point. Happiness, I realized, isn’t like pleasure that happens when you give your body something it likes. It isn’t about your circumstances. Happiness is a side effect of doing what God made us to do. When we take our lives in our own hands and use them for something else, we feel broken and malfunctioning (especially when distractions die down).

I worked at that camp for 6 years, and every time summer rolled around, I felt like I came alive again. Seeing God work through me, I could tell that I was swimming with the current of God’s will for my life, and I eventually followed that path right into full-time ministry. It hasn’t been easy, but my life is full of meaning (rain or shine) and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Not everyone is called to full-time ministry. So what were we made for? Learn more: Cru.org/Missional

   God always knows exactly what He is doing; having us positioned in Orlando is no exception.  As Karen and I have gotten the green light from Cru leadership to innovate on reaching gaming students with the gospel, there has been a particular stirring of God’s people right around central FL.

     We’ve convened a team that includes a professional gamer, a world-champion martial artist, a social media streaming expert, an entertainment ministry veteran, high school missionaries, gaming parents, mental health champions, and event planning experts. They’re all coming together to lift up the name of Jesus here in the city and potentially around the world!

     At the same time, we’re discovering that our county is developing an esports program that will connect every school just like they do with traditional sports (see our friend JG on the left, who won a $15k scholarship last year)! Please pray as we seek to bless our city, and learn how to reach this audience with the gospel!

   In the calling all believers share (to love God, love our neighbor, & make disciples), Cru is known for specializing in teaching people that last part. Whether it is by being a light to family for years, striking up spiritual conversations with folks we meet, or gathering people together to discover God in larger numbers, it is our mission that everyone is given the opportunity to say “yes” to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

     While Karen and I have focused mostly on what individuals can do to reach those around them, there is also something powerful when we all work together—like the millions who came to faith through Billy Graham. Now, evangelists like him are hoping to put together the largest evangelistic mission in history, and they’re doing it in virtual reality.

     Since this is primarily a young adult platform, they’re asking us to follow up new believers, and those with questions. Please pray as my team investigates what part God wants us to play in what we hope will be a world-changing movement of God.

   As we at Cru have recognized the need to reach out to gaming students (since almost 90% of students play), we have been forming a network to research the best way to do it, and along with that came the need for a name. After many ideas, we settled on “One for All.” There are many aspects that add value to this identity, but most important is the biblical foundation.

     One: The word “’eḥāḏ” in Hebrew and “eis” in Greek convey the concept of absolute unity, which is a frequent theme throughout the entire Bible. We first hear that the marriage union is two becoming one in Genesis, but it is repeated by Jesus (Gen 2:24 & Mark 10:8). This reflects God’s own unity, as the same word is used to describe how God is three in one (Deut 6:4; Matt 28:19; John 17:22). This is the same word, the same unity, in Jesus’ prayer for us, asking that we be one so that the world believes in Him (John 17:20-23). Paul even says that believers being one is what it means to live out our faith (Eph 4:1-6).

     All: The word “kōl” in Hebrew and “pas” in Greek is also used in important aspects of the Bible. God made humans to rule “over all the earth” (Gen 1:26) and He foreshadowed the salvation through Jesus when He told Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3). Jesus sends his disciples—and us—to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” (Mark 16:15). And what is that gospel? That “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). Paul promises that one day “every tongue” will confess that Jesus is Lord (Phil 2:11).

     One for All: These words are possibly even more powerful when found together, as we dig into how the One died for All, Once and for All (Rom 5:18; 6:10; 2 Cor 5:14-15). So, let us all glorify the One in perfect harmony!

   Here I am, sitting behind a tech board while music thumps and 70 smiling college students pour through the door just off my right shoulder. The mood is exciting! They traveled from as far as California and Canada to be here at Cru HQ, and many of them had never met a Cru student from another campus. They are from smaller schools, and don’t get many glimpses of what God is doing beyond their little group. Now they’re spending the weekend together at Circle Summit and hearing from our top leaders.

   These students have grown up fast, learning how to start and manage a club, lead outreaches, disciple others, build mission trips, and engage with administration & other student organizations.

   For the last 10 years, Karen and I have served together with a team of missionaries who help students create gospel communities on campuses where we have no nearby staff. We have helped launch and build through coaching students, volunteers, and church leaders in every area of the country. Please pray as this work spreads the gospel far and wide!

   Now, imagine me (Jeff) surrounded by these students, playing games! Each batch of leaders took rotations of meeting with their campus coach, taking the Jesus Film Tour, trying out our evangelism and discipleship tools, and kicking back for some free time…

   That’s where I got them :). I got to play lots of games with different batches of students, but one of my most precious moments from the day was teaching a fun card game to a group of military cadets. These guys are ROTC cadets from all branches of the military who are leading gospel communities (called Valor) with their squads. I taught a game I learned in high school, and they promised to spread it throughout the armed forces. I was thrilled to teach so many students about how play builds relationships and how they can shine the gospel in the midst of fun. Please pray for these leaders to spread Christ’s love and Joy!

   Have you noticed that when you catch up with someone, their answer to “how are you?” almost always includes the words “busy” and/or “tired”? I believe one of the biggest reasons for this is our poor understanding or poor application of a “theology of work and rest.”

     In Tim Keller’s book, Every Good Endeavor, he explains that God’s good plan involved a constant cycle of work and rest since before sin entered the world (Gen 1:31-2:3). He says that work is “as much a basic human need as food,” and that rest is “actually a way to enjoy and honor the goodness of God’s creation and our own (Ex 20:8–11).”

     Since the fall (Gen 3:17-19), the curse of sin shows up in our vocation when we start to either despise work and crave leisure, or obsess over work and ignore rest. Sometimes it’s a sign that it’s just time to tip the balance back in the other direction, but often it can be a sign of idolatry creeping in. Keller explains that what makes work so exhausting (physically and emotionally) has to do with where we look for life. If we get our “sense of self” through productivity and success, we’ll burn out. If we work just for the paycheck so we can “enjoy real life,” our workweek feels like a pointless grind. Both attitudes are an attempt to earn your identity, which Keller calls “the work under the work.”

    But if we can experience gospel-rest in our hearts, if we can be free from the need to earn our salvation through our work, we will have a deep reservoir of refreshment that continually rejuvenates us, restores our perspective, and renews our passion.  Keller’s solution is to focus on who you are working for. “You are adopted into God’s family, so you already have your affirmation. You are justified in God’s sight, so you have nothing to prove. You have been saved through a dying sacrifice, so you are free to be a loving one. You are loved ceaselessly so you can work tirelessly in response to a quiet inner fullness (Is 40:31).”

One of our mentors likes to say, “It’s not about what you do, but what others do because of what you do.” We have tried to live that out by finding awesome people and accelerating them toward the mission God has put on their hearts.
This month, I had the honor to meet Garrett through a mutual friend. He leads the youth and young adults at a church just down the street from a campus with no known gospel presence. I was blessed to prayer walk the campus, Orange Tech, and show Garrett how to start conversations with students that can lead people to Jesus. We had a great time and met several interested students, including Alens, a Haitian student who is hungry to grow in his faith and be a light for Jesus on his campus. Please pray as I coach Garrett to coach Alens to reach OTC!
Two students at the local high school have been working with us as to reach their fellow gamers for Jesus. I just had the opportunity to meet their pastor parents, Gabriel and Jeanette, and hear their vision for raising kids to play video games safely and missionally. Here’s a 4-min video about mission (parenting part is coming).

In order to reach each student on every campus, we believe our missionaries around the world need to get better at partnering with volunteers and churches. The problem is that many of our local teams see partnering as a great idea that is just too risky, time consuming, and complex to try.
Karen and I worked together this month with a special strike force to build a model that will help our teams gain a clear vision for how to engage volunteers. What if all our 1,000 campus ministries in the US had two or three times the manpower? What if local churches, and people with a heart to pour into the next generation, had a clear on-ramp to meet and disciple students?

I believe the answer is that more students on each campus would be blessed, and more of the campuses that have nothing right now could have a vibrant community of people demonstrating God’s love. Please pray for direction, and favor with our local teams.

Have you ever felt distant from God? I’ve been there too (sometimes for years). You find yourself saying things like, “I wish I could just see Him, talk to Him, feel Him near me!” You wonder whether it’s your fault, that maybe some sin is causing Him to stop talking to you or whether you’re just not “doing it right.”

After a while, God’s apparent silence can make us doubt our own salvation or even doubt God’s existence (even if we’ve had powerful reassurances and interactions with Him in the past). There’s a song that says, “we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near.” Some people cry out, others go exploring other religions, while some just quietly let their faith in God get forgotten and swallowed up by all the “real world” experiences that we CAN see and feel. CS Lewis says (in Screwtape Letters), that we have an enemy who wants us to think of our car, our phone, and our lunch as real while spiritual things (including God) are just sort of pretend and fanciful, when the very opposite is true. That’s how a lot of us here in the US are taught, and anything else seems mystical and weird.

I have some encouragement, however! I’ve been reminded to hold God’s hand in the dark by trusting in His Word, when I can’t see the truth for myself. Here are a slew of promises about how close God is to you right now (Ps 34:18; Ps 139:7-10; Ps 145:18; Phil 4:5; Acts 17:27; Rom 8:38-39; 1 Cor 3:16; 1 John 4:16). The Bible even lists a Hall of Faith of people who had to trust God without seeing (Hebrews 11). God doesn’t leave us with just a “trust me,” though. He is constantly proclaiming His love for us (Zeph 3:17) and revealing Himself to us (Rom 1:19-20).
This powerful and vulnerable video by Tim Mackie illustrates how every single aspect of our life is a chance to tap into God’s presence if we just turn our focus toward Him. That lunch that seems “more real” than spiritual things may actually point to God! In a previous article on Abiding, we talk about what it means practically and scientifically to abide in Christ (John 15:4-9; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Col 3:1-3; Phil 4:8). Even when you feel distant from God and cry out to Him, let that very crying be a reassurance, because the Bible says that crying out to Him is evidence of the Spirit of God in us (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:26).