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GOD’S SMALL WORLD

Brianna and Mary at an “Ugly Sweater Party”
Brianna and Mary at an
“Ugly Sweater Party”

Karen and I have been able to bless people and launch ministries because of the help of our supporters, and Cherryville Baptist is a great example. Because they think of us and come to us for help, we’ve been able to connect their young people to Christian communities away from home.
Brianna is the newest installment in that story. At University of New Haven in CT, she got involved in a Christian club, but they decided they wanted to be more than just a “club.” They wanted to effect eternity by reaching their campus with the love of Jesus Christ. So, they changed their name to Cru and God has blessed their efforts to build community with dozens of students, but they weren’t connected to other campuses, tools or missionaries.
Brianna reached out to us because we spoke at her home church and she introduced me to Mary, the club president. Now Mary is plugging in with our Summer Connect program (below) and blown away by the ideas and structural help we’ve been able to provide.
Pray for Brianna and Mary as they seek to support each other and step out in faith to reach their classmates for Christ!

Birthday Party – Arthur turns 7!

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Arthur chasing Katherine in “Pikachu, I choose you,” our version of Duck, Duck, Goose! He won his trainer badge here.

Karen and I made a plan, about the kind of family we wanted to be and that included goals for the short term and long term.

We want to be a home where our kids feel comfortable inviting their friends to play, where we can be a part of that process and not wonder what they’re up to and with whom.  At the same time, we’ve got some anxiety about visitors and especially young ones.  Deciding that God does not give us a spirit of fear, nor does He want us to be controlled by it, we set the goal of throwing Arthur his first birthday party with friends.  Lest that should shock anyone, he only started having friends his own age about a year ago.

Of course, we went all out.  Arthur chose the theme and we went to work, turning paper plates into masks, printing pictures over our friend’s “cornhole” target, decorating ping pong balls and an exercise ball and of course decorating a cake all to his favorite theme.  It was exhausting for sure preparing, herding children through games and then cleaning up, but it’s not every day your young man turns seven and everyone had a blast that they won’t soon forget.

It’s a small step, maybe, but I think it’s important to set goals that define our family’s values and give our kids (Prov 22:6).  I found some good tips in the book, “Raising a Modern Day Knight“

#Pray2020

“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.” Revelation 7:9

#Pray2020Envision this: believers who love God and who are making new disciples distributed in such a way around the world that every person would know someone who truly follows Jesus. In every high rise, in every neighborhood, in every village, every school, there they are–Christ followers loving more people to Jesus.

But nothing will happen apart from God’s Spirit moving in response to prayer. Let’s join together to ask Him for this bold goal. June 20, 2015, starts a countdown of 2,020 days until the end of the year 2020. Let’s take this moment to seize the opportunity before us.

You are invited to join together with believers everywhere to pray daily for
10 Million Christ-centered multiplying disciples by end of 2020

There are two steps that you can take right now.

Pray daily for God to move powerfully…
This simple prayer “Lord, mold our hearts to be one with Your heart. Multiply our lives through others. Mobilize laborers through our prayers and ministry efforts.” Some are praying at 20:20 (8:20pm) daily. Choose your time and pray.

Invite others to join you.
Distribute this invitation to friends, at church, small groups, etc.
Use your social media networks to spread the word. #pray2020 will be the identifier. On June 20, post to Facebook or tweet “I’m in” along with #pray2020.
Check pray2020.org for added information and resources on pray2020.

Help Send us to the Missionary Training Conference!

Find out more at Cru15.Cru.orgWe are so excited to tell you about our US Staff Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado this summer!

As we gather with over 5,000 fellow missionaries and hear from our leadership, we know God will broaden our perspective for the world, equip us to be more effective in our ministry roles (through new tools like EveryStudent.info & the Perspective Cards App) and enable us to go forth to bear even more fruit. This 10-day ministry training trip costs us about $250 per day including transportation, conference fees, meals and lodging.

Would yoy give a special gift (by clicking here) to help us attend this missionary training? A gift of any amount is helpful, so please take some time to pray and see what God puts on your heart. Whether you are able to give at this time or not, please know how much we appreciate your prayers and support.

You can follow along with us as well as listen/watch archived sessions from last conference at Cru15.Cru.org.

Thank you so much for your vital role with us in sending lifetime laborers like Chad around the world with the love of Christ!

Summer Connect – 1,300 students staying strong with the Lord away from school!

Students who go on one of our 200+ mission trips come back changed forever, saying it was the best experience with God in their lives.  But only about 5% of our students get to go, while the rest live and work at home often falling away from their walk with God without the thriving community they had on campus.

That’s why I’ve been a part of creating this online mission trip that takes them through daily devotions and weekly faith step challenges using apps, social media, etc.  Every Sunday night, they all gather in a web conf (from as far as Iceland) to share what God’s been doing in their lives and to hear from our top speakers!

Please pray for these students, and the impact they can have for the kingdom!  You can get a sneak peak into what they’re up to THIS WEEK through the schedule below, and ANYONE can sign up (for free now) at cru.org/SummerConnect.

Your Walk with God: June 7th – 13th

Sunday Night LIVE

 

Darryl Smith encouraged us to courageously take the gospel to the world in light of God’s promises, presence and power. We trained you in the My Cru App and Platform. Miss SNL this week? No worries subscribe to our YouTube channel see what you missed.

 

Small Group Discussion/Individual Study Options

 

WEEKLY Opportunities & Training

My Cru

  • Need help connecting to My Cru. Text “Summer” to 85005 then Start Here with this tutorial.
  • Spiritual Pathways – Daily Devotional
  • Daily Step of Faith

 

Watch

 

Listen

Read

 

Questions or have feedback?

My Cru – Training.Development@cru.org, Sunday Night Live – SummerConnect@cru.org,

Coaching or Encouragement – SummerConnect@cru.org

Reaching Filmmakers who Reach the World

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Watch Chad’s video at PartnerWithCru.org/BeyondTheMask

I want you to hear from Chad, a movie director whose life you have been a part of changing when he was a student! Now, he’s giving back and giving students a chance to impact even more people for Jesus:

He quit grad school to make a movie, which didn’t do well, landing him in big debt.  Deciding to go back to school and unable to afford rent, he moved in with some Cru students who discipled him through the bitterness of “God, I thought you called me to make this film.  Why did you make it fail?”

They taught him valuable lessons in where he finds his identity and focusing on relationship and obedience over success (details in my interview with him here).  Then, that film started to pick up speed again (Chad believes it is NO COINCIDENCIDENTAL TIMING).

Now, Chad has made an AWESOME action film with a subtle gospel message (in theaters today) and I’ve helped him develop a strategy for our students across the US to bring a friend and have spiritual conversations in the parking lot: details here.  We’re also building a Christian student filmmaker ministry with the help of directors from Fireproof, Hillsong, Disney’s Mulan, and others!

This is your fruit as well because of your financial and prayer partnership with us. Together we play a significant part in equipping people like Chad to become lifetime laborers in the harvest to reach people in schools, neighborhoods, theaters and campuses around the world for Christ.

Against the Darkness

Picture2In March, 6-million people turn Panama City Beach, FL into the “Spring Break Capital of the World.”  The police chief responded to a recent shooting saying, “drunk students with drugs and guns is a recipe for disaster.”  Cru is bringing hope.

This year, almost 3,000 students and staff shared with 5,202 vacationers and saw 508 give their lives to Jesus on the spot.  When they weren’t out on the beach sharing, our students were growing in their faith through seminars and packing 125,000 meals for “Feeding Children Everywhere.”  See this video.

Picture1     One of my students who was impacted by the trip was Gabriel, who teamed up with Bowling Green University to come and share his faith on the beach.  He was blown away by just how dark things were spiritually.  In frustration, he prayed that God would use him before taking a break from the beach to have lunch.  Then some partying students nearby engaged him in conversation (who happened to also be from Bowling Green).  These students were still hurting from a shooting that had happened on their own campus, and God used Gabe to minister to them.  Gabe really experienced God’s goodness & faithfulness!

Body of Christ Working Together

Picture1My goal is to see Cru partner with churches and students, to see the gospel advanced until everyone knows that they can have a loving relationship with their Creator! An image of that came together this month at an Easter festival in the field behind our local community college.

GO Church coordinated with students from high school and college to help set up and run 10 inflatables and carnival rides.  I got to lead a team of Cru missionaries who spoke one-on-one with visitors and shared the gospel as well as opportunities to plug into God’s mission around the world.  Karen’s gifts kicked into high-gear as she loved on people and got to really connect with them.  I was even able to use my recent training on reaching folks with an Indian background—Cecil and Lu, from a Hindu family, seemed to really appreciate our conversation.

In the end, the pastor’s outreach team shared the gospel and around 30 people made decisions for Christ and my team sought them out for follow-up.  Please pray that Easter draws many to Him!