In April, we took a spring break trip to Quebec City and Montreal. Liesl and Anja got to practice French, and we all felt like we had a bit of a European adventure in North America.

The biggest news is that after 26 years (for Karl) and 24 years (for Liesl), weâ€re no longer serving with Cru.

Before that, though, we enjoyed one last summer in Colorado on Cruâ€s staff conference team. It was great to spend time with our Cru friends from all over the country, and Anja had her first paying job at the Coffee House.

In the fall, Karl started working at Liberty Mutual Insurance, working with document management systems. He likes his team, the work, and the simple commute to 96th and Meridian in Indianapolis.

Liesl has been volunteering at the first (hopefully annual) Carmel Christkindlmarkt. It lets her combine her loves of Germany, Christmas, and singing, which is awesome. Check it out next year — I’m sure it will happen again. www.carmelchristkindlmarkt.com

Anja is in 10th grade and is learning to drive (slowly, since sheâ€s not very motivated). So far, so good!

We continue to enjoy worshiping and serving at Christ Community Church.

In the midst of this season that can be busy and stressful, we pray that each one of us can find some time to rest in the peace and joy that God offers in Christ.

We feel like we served people well in Colorado at Cru17, the conference for all Cru staff in the U.S.  The theme of the conference was WITH: a time to connect with God, one another and the greater body of Christ.

Thereâ€s so much we could say about the conference, but …

We have big news!

For the past year or so, God has been building a sense of restlessness in me (Karl).  After much prayer, career assessments, and counsel, we have decided that itâ€s time to move on from Cru and try something new.

This is a huge step for us – this summer we celebrated 26 (Karl) and 24 (Liesl) years with Cru.  Both of us joined Cru right out of college, and we met at Cruâ€s headquarters.  The idea of moving on is full of sadness and anxiety, but also excitement and anticipation.

Thank you so much your partnership WITH us in the gospel!  Your prayers and gifts have yielded much fruit as we have built and maintained systems that keep Cruâ€s ministries going and help our field staff share the gospel more effectively.  We continue to be humbled by the dedication that you have shown us, and look forward to keeping in touch.

If you are giving through direct deposit or an automated credit card gift, please consider transferring that to another Cru missionary.  Let us know if you’d like some suggestions.  You can contact the Cru donation team at (888) 278-7233.

Regarding our next steps, my original plan was to start looking for a job in August after we got back from Colorado.  But an amazing series of events has led to me accepting a job offer at Liberty Mutual Insurance about 20 minutes from our home.  I’m really enjoying the work and my new team.

If you have any questions, please call, email, or use our contact form.  And once again, thank you for your involvement in our decades of ministry with Cru!

Tech Team: Mike, me, David, and Jason

Thank you for praying for our time in Colorado! We are enjoying friends that we havenâ€t seen for a long time, and our calendars are full of opportunities to serve our fellow Cru staff.

Liesl has been coordinating the worship for our staff meetings, and has received very encouraging feedback. Worshiping our great God together keeps us focused on why weâ€re here – to equip our staff to take the gospel to the world!

Many of our staff have just completed two weeks of Bible and/or leadership classes, and others have just arrived for the final 2 weeks of classes. My team is now beginning to plan how weâ€ll get Internet connections to all the places that will be set up for the all-staff conference at the end of the summer: coffee house tent, staff help tent, partnership tents, and the Moby arena for large group meetings.

We will also be welcoming 3 more members to the team to help us with everyoneâ€s tech needs. Please pray that we stay healthy and serve well!

Liesl, Nate, and Glen leading worship

Tech support

Itâ€s time again for our biannual Cru trip to Fort Collins, Colorado. We will be part of training and equipping 200 new Cru missionaries, preparing another 150 through cross-cultural training for global assignments, and helping another 1,000+ expand their knowledge of the Bible and develop leadership and ministry skills.

The training tracks begin June 12, but the conference team shows up early, and a few more of us show up first to begin the setup. I (Karl) will start driving on Memorial Day so that I can start work on June 1. Liesl and Anja will fly out the following weekend, since Anja will still have finals after I leave.

Once again, Iâ€ll be leading a small tech team that helps keep everything running smoothly. Liesl will help out with my team and coordinate worship for the conference team meetings, and Anja is going to work in the Cru-run coffee house.

From July 16 to 24, all the Cru staff in the US will gather for “Cru17”, our time for training, connection, and encouragement. This is also a time when many staff who donâ€t have a technology person near them bring their broken equipment and tech questions to my team.

Please pray that our team serves them well. And pray that everyone leaves Colorado better equipped to serve God and to be used by Him to draw many to Himself.

“My best friend from home came from a Christian family so I thought, I donâ€t know if I need to text her or not and so I texted her the link to the video. She texted me back and said ‘I literally just cried. Iâ€ve been feeling really hopeless and horrible lately. And last night I prayed for a sign that Iâ€m still worth it, that Iâ€m still meant to live, and that God still cares for me and today you sent that to me.â€Â This is insane. Iâ€m literally in tears.”

We can praise God for how He is constantly at work in the lives of people, no matter what they’re going through.

We got this story from one of Keynoteâ€s former Interns, Erica, who now works on digital strategies globally.  Feel free to share the Falling Plates video with your friends, too!

Here is the official update from the whole 3 weeks of Big Break Conferences from our staff who were there:

Big Break was filled with God moments. Some we had the sweet experience of watching unfold before our eyes and others we only heard about, but we know that lives were changed for eternity. The students were reminded that meeting with the Father is essential. They were given time to sit and listen to Jesus. They heard that ministry is pointless if it doesn’t overflow from our moments with the Father; those moments lead to an outpouring of the gospel as our relationship with Him overcomes our distractions and fears. Lives were forever changed.

Then there were the afternoons of outreach. Outreach opportunities happened both on the beach and over many social media platforms. In our three weeks, students and staff initiated 11,170 spiritual conversations digitally. 3,024 of them turned into gospel conversations, with 104 making a decision to follow Christ. And that’s not all! 601 future appointments were set up with a friend or family member. Dream and pray with us about what God can do in those 601 appointments!

Don’t forget the beach conversations! 3,338 conversations were initiated on the beach this year and 1,470 turned into gospel conversations, with 222 making a decision to follow Christ!

One last highlight was prayer. From a night of prayer and speakers emphasizing the importance of prayer, to a large prayer room that facilitated learning and praying every day from morning until night, prayer was a significant and integrated part of the conference. Students loved it and many communicated they are returning to campus with a vision and heart to pray!  (A bunch of our Indy staff worked these conferences and designed the prayer room! It looked fantastic and clearly made a difference in how the students connected with God.)

Thanks for praising God with us for all Heâ€s doing!

I want to talk about this because we, the church, need to understand that this happens to believers. We need to understand that it can happen to any of us given enough difficult circumstances. We are all capable of doing the unthinkable.

Secondly, I want us to be ready to be helpful to each other, to be a safe place to help each other so that this happens less.

In light of that I wanted to talk about some of the causes of suicide, chiefly mental illness. I think mental illness is hard for all of us to understand and so we can shy away from helping out of fear of doing it wrong, or just lack of understanding whatâ€s happening. I know I feel this way.

However, we can add pain to people who are suffering through our beliefs and choices. We need to understand that much mental illness is not stemming from sin, itâ€s more a condition of our fallen world and broken bodies.

I had a coworker who loved the Lord whole heartedly, yet was bi-polar. He was a great role model for me to understand, because I watched how he handled his condition and I knew how he loved the Lord even when his mind and body chemistry betrayed him. For example, one time when he was manic he stared into the sun looking for Jesus to come, burning spots into his retinas. Since he knew he at times would not be able to reason properly, he had a network of friends and coworkers who had his permission to intervene if his meds got imbalanced. They had learned what to look for and he cooperated as best he could. We can learn a lot from his and their example.
In other cases, such as the man who ended his life yesterday, sin is involved. Hereâ€s an excerpt of the email he sent out yesterday to his friends. After doing something really bad that became public he said,

“In the months that followed, I felt myself slipping emotionally and spiritually. I tried to reach out to a few close friends and I never heard from two of them again. Having friends turn their back on me probably hurt the most and I went into a shell. I didnâ€t want any of my other friends to hurt me, so I didnâ€t tell anyone else. Perhaps this wasnâ€t smart on my part, but itâ€s what happened.
I just donâ€t have any more fight in me. The thought of finding a new career, interviewing for new jobs, and having to explain why certain things were on my record was just too much for me to handle. Donâ€t feel bad for me. My story is one of self-inflicted wounds, both figuratively and here at the end, literally. Iâ€m so sorry for the pain this action will cause others, especially those closest to me.

What is heartbreaking is seeing how many responded instantly to this email with love and pleas for him not to follow through, but it was too late.

We, as believers, will sin. And weâ€ll watch friends back away from the Lord. Or weâ€ll back away from them because they do something abhorrent. But Christ came to save sinners. We are recipients of this and we are his body to reach out to sinners with truth and grace covered in love. Oh that we wouldnâ€t weary of doing what is good and right! Iâ€m preaching to myself.

He gave up because of shame and isolation. We need to create environments personally and in our church communities that counteract that. I think itâ€s especially hard for men, since opening up emotionally and being vulnerable is even harder for them. We wonâ€t catch everyone who chooses the path of hiding sin and isolating, but if we consciously try to make safe connections with each other, it will help.

Lastly, we need to know when to call for help. The national suicide hotline is 1-800-273-8255. We also can have our churches research local resources and well trained Christian counselors so that we are ready to help fully swiftly. Thank you all for bearing with me and trusting God to work in and through us.

“We have been broken for several years. This weekend we were hoping to rekindle our faith and marriage, or part ways. What you shared, and what you shared personally, helped us to know that we could write a new story together”.
– Wife, married 25 years

“It has reminded me of things I already knew but allowed myself to neglect through a pile of excuses. This has damaged my vertical relationship. I have been in a spiritual low for a while. This has hurt everyone I hold dear. I canâ€t waste any more time. None of my excuses hold water.”
– Husband, married 4 years

“Through the speakers sharing their experience with bringing porn into marriage, it opened up conversations weâ€ve never been able to have. Iâ€m thankful that light was shed on this area”.
– Wife, married 4 years

“Iâ€m so glad that my mom pretty much “forced” my fiancé and I to attend this conference. My mom registered us after we got engaged – without our consent. This was probably the best surprise sheâ€s done for us. This weekend was very informative and really gave us tools to prepare for our marriage. I didnâ€t know these conferences existed. Iâ€m also happy that there were areas that focused on “pre-married” and not just married/re-married couples”.
– Female, pre-married

As you can see, marriages have many pitfalls, from wrong expectations to porn use to poor communication to selfishness. And the poor communication isnâ€t always just with your spouse, but with God himself. Our marriages are precious, and worth the effort of saving and making work well as God designed. Karl and I have been fortunate to attend the Weekend to Remember several times over the years and we just registered online to go to the Columbus weekend this fall, because itâ€s worth it.

And thanks to FamilyLifeâ€s generosity, we are able to offer you the opportunity to attend the Weekend to Remember marriage getaway at 75% off the regular registration rate! (now thru December 2017).

The getaway will feature two and a half days of practical teaching and insights from the nationâ€s top marriage experts, along with plenty of time to relax and enjoy stress-free time alone.

To take advantage of this opportunity, simply visit FamilyLife.com/Locations to select a date and location that works for you. Then enter promo code: CruThanks at checkout to receive your discount.

If you have any questions and if you decide to attend, let us know. Weâ€d love to pray for you during that weekend.

Another new thing is that Iâ€m in a class, too, not just Anja. Cru staff can join straight out of college without a seminary degree. In light of that, Cru has all of our staff take condensed theology classes, a total of eleven, for what we call the Institute of Biblical Studies certification. These classes are a big part of what happens every summer, especially the years weâ€re in Colorado – thatâ€s part of what the Conference team we work on makes happen.

Other times a ministry location brings in a professor and many staff in that region (like Indy ☺) take an intensive one week version of the class. This happened at our office last week with our staff delving into the depths of physics and philosophy and so much more as they learned more about Apologetics (which means testifying and providing reasoned defense, not apologizing like it sounds).

In recent years, technology has made it possible to do the classes online. Normally Iâ€ve taken one every year or so in Colorado, but last year Karl and I did the apologetics class online together (and Iâ€m so glad we did it together, it is a lot to chew on and really made my brain hurt!). So now I am taking my very last class! Itâ€s about Systematic Theology, focusing on God, the Bible and the Holy Spirit. I thought Iâ€d share just a tiny bit of what Iâ€m learning. Maybe it will whet your appetite to study it, too.

Systematic Theology answers this: What does the whole Bible teach us today about any given topic? It treats topics in a carefully organized way, it is gospel-centered, and seeks to accurately handle all the relevant Bible passages.

All people live by some theology, some view of God and the world, and believers formulate their own understanding as we learn more about God, but much of what we do is disjointed. That can lead to picking and choosing a scripture out of context, misunderstanding the whole of Godâ€s character or His expectations of us.

Since we are both finite in our ability to retain all of our knowledge and we still have the effects of sin marring our comprehension and desire to follow God perfectly, we all need to continually examine what we think we know and compare it to the whole of Godâ€s word. But, since our time is finite as well as our minds, doing an entire, complete search of each topic every time – well it just wouldnâ€t happen.

Thatâ€s where studying Systematic Theology can help. Itâ€s a resource that you can use to check your personal theology against and it can point you to the Biblical sources for your own research. And ultimately, the more you genuinely know and understand God and his character, the more you will love and obey Him and the more abundantly youâ€ll see/understand Him active in your life. Weâ€re using Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem if you want to check it out. He designed it so you can study topically instead of needing to read it all at once or in a specific order. It is meaty, so you have to think, but Iâ€ve found that my awe of God grows every time I put the effort in to digest some of it. This is a way we can love God with our minds as well as our heart and soul and strength. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Itâ€s been a crazy, but good month so far, with so much to be thankful for in the midst of a very messy, sin-filled world. We see God providing for people in the midst of their brokenness.

In light of this, we wanted to highlight the latest band being sent out of the Indy Cru office. Itâ€s a brand new team with new content, called Anthem City. Their goal is to bring hope to those who are marginalized by others or by their own choices by introducing them to the one who chose to join them in this messy life in order to save us all from our sin and ourselves. We got to witness the dress rehearsal and it brought me to tears, it was so good. Their performance breathed new life and meaning into songs we already know well and the testimony sprinkled throughout was powerful. Here are a couple of excerpts from their updates:

Nov. 17th– Last night we had a wonderful show down in Bloomington, IN. We teamed up with Wheeler Mission Menâ€s addiction recovery program at Camp Hunt. These guys are taking 6 months to start their journey of being drug or alcohol free and at the same time learning how to walk with God. It is an amazing atmosphere and program.

The little chapel made for a great intimate atmosphere as we rocked out Transiberian Orchestra’s version of Carol of the Bells. Roughly 70 people were in attendance. The common theme we heard after the concert was “I have heard these christmas songs all of my life and this is the first time I understood them and why they are so important”. We did do comment cards and there were 5 first time decisions for Christ and a bunch of recommitments. Praise the Lord for his love and grace upon those men!…

Nov. 28th—One show recently was on Nov. 22nd at Westville Correctional Facility. We were blessed to perform in an auditorium that had its nuances and unique odor, but it was a great huge room that allowed us to be loud! 110 men were in attendance and they were into the whole show! 17 new brothers in Christ and 60 recommitted to a life with Jesus!!! Praise God! The band was blessed to have post concert conversations with the guys and story after story of hardship and desperation. Scanning the room I saw smiles and prayers being lifted, God worked hard in that room that night and chaplain Brian was impressed… He wants us back to help expand his ministry.

Keep praying as our schedule is ramping up big time starting tomorrow Nov. 29th. 8 concerts in 9 days. As well, crazy equipment issues keep showing up. And they are different ones at different venues. So, I am slightly suspicious the enemy is trying to thwart our efforts. Pray to keep him at bay and that those distractions are not evident to the audience.

As for us, Karlâ€s been busy doing more international email migrations. This time it was Latin America, and itâ€s amazing how many unexpected issues can come up. We also housed more students for MC training, only 4 this time so my laundry pile was modest by comparison to some of the other training weekends ☺. Itâ€s always fun to interact with them. Lastly, since Karl works for a team in Orlando, they occasionally would like us to show up face to face, so we will be heading to FL for a few days next week. Weâ€re thankful for a couple of people who will be able to be the adult presence in Anjaâ€s life while weâ€re gone. Wishing you eyes to see and ears to hear what Godâ€s up to in your messy world this Christmas season,

Cru founded a project called “Indigitous”. The names comes from a combination of “Indigenous” + “Digital”.

• Indigenous because it reflects our desire for locally-generated strategies that work in each generation, language and culture.
• Digital because we believe digital tools, resources, platforms and strategies can accelerate Godâ€s mission.

Indigitous is a partnership between several missions organizations and aims to “Connect you with people on a common mission, strategies that are effective and projects that are on the cutting edge of missional innovation.”

November 4 – 6, Indigitous is sponsoring a worldwide hackathon that will bring people together in 28 different cities to work on 14 global challenges. People can also participate virtually from wherever they are. This will involve people with talents in coding, problem solving, business planning, social network savvy, graphic design, understanding people, storytelling, and more. Since one of the cities is Orlando, many of my friends at Cruâ€s headquarters will be helping to facilitate the event or work on a challenge.

Mike Novak, President and CEO of Educational Media Foundation, says “The goal of K-LOVE & Air1 has always been to expand the reach of our faith-based messages, with an ongoing emphasis on the younger generation. We use music, short-form educational ministry features and on-air personalities who tie it all together. K-LOVE is extremely honored and excited to be part of Indigitous #Hack. This is the place to be, for anyone wanting to impact the world in a powerful way.”

Please pray that significant progress is made on these technical challenges, so that Godâ€s kingdom is advanced. Also, even though time is short, please forward this opportunity on to those who have digital talents and a heart for the gospel. If they canâ€t help with this one, perhaps they can connect with Indigitous and get involved in the future.

Read more about Indigitous and the hackathon at Indigitous.org/hack.

Going Google
In 2013, Cru in the US started using Google for mail, calendar, contacts, document sharing, and video conferencing. I love how Googleâ€s tools allow us to work together across great distances.

Now weâ€re encouraging our ministries around the world to join us in the Cru Google system. Last weekend we migrated our Czech Republic staff, and weâ€re making plans for Latin America, South Africa, and other areas. Please pray that we plan carefully and communicate clearly as we work with teams around the globe to make this happen.

Redesigned Online Giving Site
An increasing amount donations to Cru come through our online giving site at give.cru.org. The site works well on a full-sized computer, but doesnâ€t resize well for use on mobile devices.

As more and more people interact with the web on phones and tablets, we need to make sure that all of our web sites are “responsive” – that is, they respond to the screen size. Itâ€s never good when you have to scroll left and right to view an entire web page or fill out a form online.

Hereâ€s a fun experiment: browse to www.cru.org on a laptop or desktop, then gradually shrink the width of your web browser. Images that were beside each other will shrink, then stack on top of each other or disappear.

We would love to have this project done before the peak end-of-year giving season. Please pray that we can build all of the features and get rid of all of the bugs quickly!

Our family has been involved this month in sending teams internationally! Karl went to Chicago to work on the staff and STINTers†(1 year interns) computers that needed to be configured to work securely from within closed countries. We had a total of 697 participants of various types go through the doors of the Global STINT Briefing! This includes 98 STINT Team Leaders and 311 STINTers who are being sent to 43 countries, plus 14 International Campus Staff (ICS) who attended.

Even Anja got to help by babysitting for the keytarist of the band “Stone” so that she could get in practice time before a month-long tour in Australia. They are able to do outreach in the schools, which is an incredible opportunity. As youâ€ll see below, theyâ€re having amazing results and heartbreaking challenges on this tour and would be grateful for your prayers.

August 24
Show #1: 88 students attended and 12 indicated decisions to trust Christ!!!! Three wanted more info and the rest just rocked out with us like rockstars. Halfway through our set, this one kid started yelling, “One more song!”, which was good since we had about 7 more songs. Glad we were prepared for that. Whew!

Show #2: 201 students were in attendance and 34 accepted Christ!!!!!! Go God!!!! This was a seriously truncated set since we had only 30 minutes from bell to bell. I was quite amazed that we had so little time to build rapport and share the gospel, yet still got such a great response from the students.

-Continue to pray for favor with all those we play for
-Pray that we will love one another well, even as the days get busier
-Pray for our van situation. It’s still not operational and we’ve been having to arrange different rides, which separate us as a team.

August 28
Hey everyone. Well, while ministry is going great here, we’ve hit some snags and hiccups along the way that have the potential to be very discouraging.

While our van finally made it to the shop, it will not be ready in time for the next leg of our journey to the Outback. Thanks to some amazing people, we’ve worked out rides so we’re grateful for that.

We received news yesterday morning that our host for today’s four shows has died suddenly. We were all in shock and very saddened by this news. It turns out that he was the lone person at this school who was reaching these kids, so this is quite a loss for them. Please pray for this school as they hold a memorial service today to celebrate his life and mourn his loss. Pray that God will use this situation to draw students and teachers to himself in a way that our concerts never could have.

Here is an encouraging story of the fruit of our work and your gifts and prayers…

Ryan and Troy were best friends in high school, and naturally became roommates when they arrived at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

A believer coming from a solid youth group, Ryan was eager to get involved with Cru. He enjoyed having the Cru community and Christ-centered direction in his life.

Troy had a different experience. Finding friends was hard. College-level academics were hard. The final straw was when Troyâ€s long-time girlfriend broke up with him. One night in October, each lying in his dorm room bed and talking across the darkened room, Troy finally told Ryan, “Sure, Iâ€ll go to one of those Cru meetings with you.”

After a few weeks, Ryan came up to staff member Dennis Leskowski. “Hey, Dennis! Troy has been joining us at Cru and he loves it. Heâ€s learning a lot about Jesus. He wants to know how to accept Christ in his life. Would you meet with him and share the gospel?”

As a Cru staff missionary, Dennis was excited. Immediately, he looked Ryan in the eyes and said, “No, I wonâ€t.” Ryan looked stunned. “How about you and I get together?” Dennis asked. “Iâ€ll teach you how to share the gospel, and you can introduce Troy to Jesus yourself.”

A few days afterwards, Ryan stood next to Dennis after a Cru Thursday night meeting. They faced a crowd of people where Troy, talking lively, was in the middle. Both men smiled as Ryan commented, “Iâ€ve seen Troy happy over the years. But Iâ€ve never seen him have joy like this. He is a completely different person, because of Jesus.”

Ryan and Troy grew and developed over their years as students. Ryan became an instrumental leader as Grand Valley State Universityâ€s Cru movement grew from 35 students during his freshman year, to 650 students during his senior year. He led people to Christ, taught others about sharing their faith, led small groups and led in other ways.

As a track athlete, Troy helped to form and lead the Grand Valley Athletes in Action movement that eventually saw more than 40 student athletes involved on a regular basis. He too learned how to share his faith and led others to Christ.

“Today,” Dennis said, “They have graduated, love Jesus, and are making an impact in their companies, communities, and churches.”

Friends at New Staff Training with Dr. and Mrs. Bright, 1991

caught mid-sentence while shutting down the mainframe, 1999

On July 25, I will celebrate 25 years with Cru! In July of 1991, I was in Colorado for Campus Crusade for Christâ€s New Staff Training. In August I started to find my team of ministry partners, and by December I was in Orlando. Itâ€s hard to believe that so many years have passed since I packed my things into a U-Haul truck and embarked on this wonderful adventure.

Some of my favorite memories include:

• working with an amazing group of talented and committed missionaries
• a guys†Bible study group that encouraged each other and had amazing adventures backpacking together
• many other wonderful friends in Florida and later in Indiana
• experiencing grace from my coworkers when I messed up or things didnâ€t go according to plan
• helping to install the first Internet connection at CCCâ€s headquarters (the first Orlando headquarters, “Sunport”)
• retiring the mainframe
• building the infrastructure and moving into our current headquarters, Lake Hart
• meeting Liesl, marrying, and having Anja!
• moving to Indiana to work with Keynote
• tech-missionary trips to Hungary, Turkey, Thailand (and Xenia, Ohio)

All of this was made possible by you, our faithful team of ministry partners! Thank you so much for standing with us financially and with your prayers – some of you for 25 years. We have each been blessed so that we can be a blessing to others, and God is using us together to extend His kingdom throughout the earth!

Bruce says: “Julie and I have been speaking at these FamilyLife ‘Weekend to Remember†events now for nearly 20 years. Every Friday night as conferences begin, we look out at the crowd and realize there are so many untold stories in the faces we see. As the weekend unfolds, prayer requests start getting turned in, couples begin approaching us with questions, and it’s then you begin to crack the surface. You begin to realize the magnitude of human drama represented in the room. There are definitely stories of those who experience pain, brokenness and even hopelessness – but there are also the stories of joy, gratitude, and restoration. What’s amazing to us? God knows every one. And He divinely draws each couple there to accomplish His eternal purposes in their marriages and families.”

Comments from attendees:

“Before this weekend, I was positive my marriage was over. This conference has breathed Godâ€s life into it. Our relationship has been renewed. Looking forward to see what God has in store for us. We both have decided to surrender our lives and family to God.” – Married 9 years

“This was a great reminder to not take my commission as a husband and father for granted. Anyone can be my replacement at work and even do a better job, but I am the only one that God has put on this earth to be a Father to my children and husband to my wife.” – Married 18 years

“I had no idea what it meant to be a wife and did not know that I should put my husband before my children. I learned so much and am excited to go home and try out my new tools.” – Married 9 years

“Rescued us from drifting too far into “isolation” and bringing us back to the oneness we both so desire and pray for.” – Married 13 years

“As a second time attendee, I had my hesitancies that it would be just a replay of learned concepts, but much like the Word of God which is fresh and new each time we study it, there have been new revelations and commitments that I have made to stand in the gap for my marriage and family.” – Married 12 years

We hold marriage in such high regard for the sake of our walk with God, our children, and our witness to the world. Itâ€s worth investing in. As you can see from the comments, itâ€s not just for marriages that are on the rocks, but for everyone who wants to grow closer to each other and to the Lord. We highly recommend it. If you are interested in learning more, check out www.familylife.com and click on “Events”.

Imagine hosting 11 college students! We had the privilege of hosting the Ball State University students who attended the Spring 2016 Worship Arts Weekend.

Some comments from the students:
“It is so helpful and transformed what worship looked like on our campus. It also helped to reorient my heart towards God in a powerful way this year and I am so thankful for that.”

“Just thank you. You guys challenged me this weekend, helped me grow and connect with God. You guys taught me so much this weekend and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Tuesday was Cruâ€s semiannual Worldwide Day of prayer, and we were joined by Jeff and Jo Boehlke, our friends from southern Indiana.

Jeff and I both work remotely for the same team in Orlando, and spend a lot of time working together on Cruâ€s Google system.

Our team is also working on projects to improve Cruâ€s financial system, web hosting, and other systems. We appreciate your prayers for wisdom and the ability to make quick progress!

How would you react if you saw hundreds of cars backed up trying to get to a ferry port? I would probably just get stressed, but the founders of Operation Transit saw an opportunity for the gospel.

Each year, thousands of North Africans travel from their workplaces in Europe back home to visit family in places where the gospel is not easily shared. But as they wait in European ports, ministry teams with Operation Transit (a partnership that Cru is involved in) pass out gospel materials. Our friends Allen and Deedee Iobst help lead this ministry and report that teams distributed almost 220,000 items in 2015.

Theyâ€ve also been experimenting with different types of technology, which always gets me excited. Theyâ€re working on USB thumb drives that will contain gospel materials, and even portable wifi routers that create mini web sites from which passersby can download films and books.

Theyâ€re always looking for families and church teams to join them for 12-day sessions throughout the summer. If youâ€re interested, contact us and we’ll connect you with Allen and Deedee.

God produces a constant stream of encouraging stories from Operation Transit. In their latest newsletter, Allen and Deedee report:

“Recently, five ladies from a couple of churches in Madrid came down to help us with our outreach. One day they faced a day-long downpour. But something extraordinary happened: exactly when the cars drove off the ferry boat, the rain stopped just long enough for effective Bible distribution. Then the rain would start up again, until the next boat arrived! On another day, the same team met increasing opposition from the port police. Then one of the ladies explained: ‘What we are doing is helping you. We are sharing the love of Jesus, and if they accept it, it will change everything for the better.†The official agreed, saying ‘I didnâ€t realize that.†He went on to explain our outreach to his colleague. After that, the same port police who had been discouraging the work began actively encouraging travelers to accept the gospel packets!”

Because of the location of this work, they have also been wrestling with how to respond to the refugee crisis. “We can respond to the newcomers with fear, or we can respond with love. We can realize that the Lord may be sending people into Europe not just to find safety or jobs, but also to find Godâ€s grace. We can choose to take the opportunity to share Godâ€s love in truly helpful ways.” Please pray for these opportunities!

Weâ€re excited about the tools that Cru has been developing to help Christians everywhere share the gospel. One that keeps getting better is the Jesus Film Media app. It contains:

1. The Jesus Film (script completely from the book of Luke) in 1356 languages – and increasing all the time!
2. Magdalena, the life of Jesus as seen through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, in 130 languages
3. The Story of Jesus for Children in 158 languages
4. Many other training and conversation-starting films

Hereâ€s a story that was reported to us about God using this app to bring glory to Himself:

“On weekends, I drive to Washington, D.C., to see my mom, who is 93 and lives in a senior care facility,” says a private school teacher near the Capital. “[My mom] has an aide to help her whose name is Matilda—a woman from Sierra Leone who was raised a Muslim.”

“Recently, I shared my new JESUS Film Media app on my mobile phone with Matilda. She was excited to see her language as a choice to see the evangelistic film, so I sent the link to her.
Matilda insisted that Hannah, another facility aide, would want to see the film, too.

“I found Hannah, and she was thrilled to see her own language from Eritrea available. She is a Christian and couldnâ€t wait to send it to her daughter who doesnâ€t know the Lord. She felt that watching the movie in their native tongue might answer some of her daughterâ€s questions.

“Then I received a call that Hannah and Matilda were sharing the app with all the other aides from various countries; because of them, it has become the talk of the care center! This is how easy it is to be a digital missionary.”

Wherever we are, weâ€re representing Christ. Now you can share the gospel with those around you who donâ€t have English as their heart language – you can be a digital missionary! Youâ€ll find this app and GodTools in the Apple and Google app stores.

One sticking point in their relationship: Although Vonette had grown up in church, she wasnâ€t serious about her faith. She felt Bill was too serious. “I decided Bill had become a religious fanatic and that somehow he must be rescued from this fanaticism,” Vonette later wrote. “At the same time, Bill was beginning to think that perhaps I was not a Christian. He knew he could not marry me until there was a change in my spiritual life.”

[Later on at a retreat] “It was there that Henrietta Mears led me to the Lord,” The Brights married in December of 1948. Soon after the wedding, the Brights began to set a list of goals and priorities. Among those goals was a pledge to live holy lives and to become witnesses for Christ. They eventually wrote up what they called a contract with the Lord, where they surrendered their hopes for material gain and pledged themselves to Godâ€s kingdom. 

They launched Campus Crusade at UCLA in 1951, with the idea that they could help “win the campus today, win the world tomorrow.” Today the organization reports having more than 25,000 staff members and 300,000 volunteers working in 173 countries.

Vonetteâ€s ministry focused especially on prayer. “The greatest contribution that Iâ€ve made had to be this call to prayer when there were so few leaders mobilizing people to pray,” she told CT in 1997. “Your single-minded focus on the power of intercessory prayer has been both an encouragement to my life and a model for the church,” Billy Graham told Vonette in a 2011 letter.

My personal memories of her are that she was a gracious, funny, kind woman who cared about the people of the world, loved Jesus, her husband and family, her staff family and she served us all, like when sheâ€d dress up every Easter as Mother Goose to read to our children. Or when she got excited about going to a Harley Davidson store (really! The Christian Bikerâ€s Association even led the procession at her funeral). Youâ€re welcome to learn more about her life and ministry at vonettebright.cru.org.

Shifting gears here back to us, Karl and I will be in Venice attending the Christ United Methodist Missions Conference February 5-7.  We also invite you to join us at the Paneraâ€s at 4179 Tamiami Trl S, Venice, FL 34293 between 2-4pm Saturday the 6th.  With time being short, we still want to see you if you can come!

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
– 1 Chronicles 16:8

In the spirit of the season, here are some of the many reasons we have to be thankful…

Liesl and I are thankful to have finished an online class in Apologetics (giving reasons for our faith).  Weâ€ve learned so much about how to interact with and challenge the ideas that come against biblical Christianity.  We both enjoyed and recommend Tim Kellerâ€s book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.  Keller deals with “defeater beliefs” that prevent people from believing in God and then provides positive reasons to believe.  The class also made us thankful for people who are gifted as philosophers – we are not!

I (Karl) am thankful for the challenge of starting a new job within Cru!  I have rejoined the headquarters Information Technology team (now called “Digital Products and Services”).  After a few reorganizations at headquarters, this is now the team that solves technology problems and creates tools for our ministries all around the world.

Cru is trusting God for 10 million Christ-centered, multiplying disciples by 2020.  If thatâ€s going to happen, we also need to trust God for better systems to plan and keep track of whatâ€s going on around the world.

We will remain in Indiana and continue to help out with the regional office here, but I will spend most of my time working remotely with an Orlando-based team.  The combination of working in a small office and supporting large, global systems really motivates me.

Of course, we are so thankful for you!  Your prayers and gifts keep us going.  Itâ€s hard to believe that we have been in ministry for 24 and 22 years, and many of you have been with us the whole time.  Be encouraged!  God is building His kingdom and the gospel is changing lives.