“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!

We had the honor of hearing again from Francis Chan at our conference.  His challenge first was to be people who love the Lord and spend more time broken and in awe before Him.  People have said Bill Bright wasn’t the most dynamic speaker, but everyone could tell he was in love with Jesus.

Francis’ next message was about unity of the Church.  He said all our strategies don’t compare to the word of God that says when we’re unified we will watch what happens (John 17:20-23).

He illustrated this concept so well by holding up a single Lego piece.  He said, “This is what I did for so much of my life, ‘hey, look at me!’” We all laughed at the ridiculous image of one Lego bragging about itself.  “I really think I’m
sharper than the other pieces and try to draw attention to me, yet that’s not really the point of a Lego is it?”

He quoted 1 Peter 2:4-5 talking about how we are all blocks in the spiritual temple.  The temple is where the fire comes down (2 Chron 7:1-3; Acts 2:1-4) when we are unified; and when people see the fire come down, then they will believe (Phil 1:27-28).

Holding up a temple built out of Legos, he added his own piece somewhere near the back saying, “I wanna be a part of th
is, God!  Make me a janitor, just fit me in there somewhere!  What an honor to be stacked up on top of other saints.  All I wanna see is something real happen, and that’s going to take my humbling myself.”  Please pray this for all our hearts!

PS – You can listen to Francis Chan’s talk and other great messages here.