An evening in France.

It was a typical Wednesday evening. Every knock on the front door brought more and more students into the warm living room, complete with festive fall decorations and sweet family photos. As coats were shed, they were eagerly collected by a sassy seven year old, clearly excited by the number of guests that had arrived.

Greeting each other with "Bonsoir" (good evening) and bise ("bees"; kisses on the cheek), students made their way through the living room into the kitchen, offering their contributions to the potluck meal: bottled beverages, a container of crackers, baguettes. Huge pots of chili simmered on the stove, the aroma filling the house.

After supper, the 21 students crammed into the living room for the weekly ministry training. This week, they would learn how to share their faith using a Cru tool called "Soularium," a photo survey with fifty different 4 x 6 picture cards. Asking a few simple questions about the images on these cards can easily lead to a conversation about the Gospel:

"What images would you choose to describe your life right now?"
"Which images do you wish described your life?"
"What image describes what you believe about God?"
"What image best represents what you wish were true about your spiritual journey right now?"

By the way, this ministry training took place in Montpellier, a small town on the southern coast of France. But it could have taken place anywhere in the world. The greetings would be different, and so would the food, but the purpose of the meeting would be the same:  how can we help others explain and share their faith in a relevant and meaningful way? Because every day we come into contact with people who are seeking fulfillment and joy and purpose for their lives. They know there's something more to the life they are living.

"But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened. But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." - 1 Peter 3.14-15

Ops: Order In The Chaos.

Do you ever watch those CSI type shows where the agents/scientists/detectives go to crime scenes and figure out who killed/abducted/stole something or someone?

Do you ever notice that in every one of those shows, there's a man/woman, (who is just a little bit nerdy), who stays behind in the lab to run experiments, do research, process paperwork, etc? At least once per show, the agents/scientists/detectives called the nerdy lab man/woman because they need help with finding someone or something. These lab people bring a little bit of order to the chaos of trying to solve a murder/abduction/robbery. They are incredibly important to the show - and so are the detectives. They couldn't exist in the way they do without each other.

The video below showcases The Ops team:  the nerdy lab men/women of Cru. :) Enjoy!

(Double click on it to make it full screen).

Vision Trip #1 :: East Asia

Every fall, my coworker Pete takes a group of businessmen/women to visit our teams in East Asia for a week long vision trip. They put together professional resumes, and prepare 20-30 minute presentations on topics like entrepreneurship, insurance, law, and many more. They will weave their faith stories in to conversations with students, sharing the truth of the Gospel with people who've never heard the name of Jesus.

The group leaves this Sunday. Here's a shot of them below, preparing for their trip at a briefing meeting that I ran last month. Please pray for safe travels, bold faith and divine appointments for this group!

East Asia Update.

"·      “We’ve been praying for you. Will you help us reach our campus?”

These are sweet words for any Cru staff member to hear, but when your goal is to reach 600,000 students on 67 campuses, it's got to be mind-blowing.

This is the goal of our partnership team in East Asia (the team I worked with this summer when I went there on project). God has given this team a great vision, to reach each one of the campuses in their area of the city - 67, to be exact. This equates to more than a half million college students to reach.

This team of 12 (9 Americans and 3 French) has been seeking to gain access to new campuses this fall. In a few weeks, 16 businessmen and women will travel to this city on a vision trip, to help this team develop more connections on more campuses. The in-country team is working hard to set up appointments in classrooms, where these men and women will present on business topics.

Throughout the team has been met with both opposition and invitation. Several campuses have denied the team entry onto campus (in this country, universities have only a few gated entrances, and are guarded by officials who may or may not allow foreigners in to the campus).

One day, a student came up to the team leader, Ben, and upon finding out he was a Christian, the student asked if Ben could help him reach his campus with the Gospel. One team member, Matt, was not allowed entrance into a university. So, he decided just to wait outside the gate and meet Asian students as they were walking in and out of the entrance.

Despite human opposition, God is using the faithfulness of the staff here to launch and grow spiritual movements all over the city. Pray that God would reward their steadfast faith and boldness in reaching Asians with the Gospel

Country Meets City.

What a week. It was exhausting (but good) due to lots of unpacking, sorting, and organizing. I moved to a new apartment, with a new roommate, in a new neighborhood this week. She and I have spent many hours getting settled in, arranging living room furniture, hanging pictures and paintings, re-arranging the living room furniture, washing dishes...and re-re-arranging the living room furniture, just one more time.

Contrasting all the new-ness is our old, old apartment in an old, old 4plex. We've got crooked doorways and creeky floors and radiator heat. My key sticks in the lock. The pipes make noises I haven't heard since I was a kid, growing up in our old peach and white house on the farm.

These things are oddly comforting. It's here that I see country meeting the city- and I think I'm going to like it. The longer I live in Minneapolis, the more I realize I really enjoy the city. And as that feeling grows, so does my love for country living.

It's the weirdest thing, feeling at home in both the country and city, two places at once. There are so many opportunities that exist in a big city. One of my favorite things has been experiencing other cultures through the friends I've made.

A big factor in this has been my church. Today we had another multi-cultural potluck, with Korean bulgogi, Cameroonian fried plantains, black beans and rice, African fry bread, Chicken Wings and German Potato Salad - to name just a few! My church is made up of people who grew up all over the world, who bring new perspectives to life and faith. Totally different from the hotdish and jello salads of rural church potlucks.

Yet...there's something about those rural potlucks that I love. Thick black coffee. Homemade dinner rolls, homemade pies, homemade everything.

Then there are the simple errands to the hardware store or checking fence line. Roaming gravel roads in a dust-covered truck. Taking in a sunset on a horizon of nothing but grass.

I can't get away from the country, even here in the city. I am cleaning up some old shed windows to hang in my bedroom. My duvet cover looks like it came from living room wallpaper in an old farm house. I've got a canvas photo of my dad's old orange chevy truck, and mason jars on almost every single bookcase in the apartment. I love these things. They feel like a piece of me, sitting on a shelf for everyone to see, a glimpse into country life.

These items are as much a part of me as my skinny jeans, road bike, and my affinity of Starbucks. It's a weird combo, country-meets-city, but I am learning to embrace it and enjoy it.

Humbling Homegoing.

A big brick sign, weathered and worn, welcomed us to town. We drove slowly, turning the radio off to match the peacefulness of rural life that we were observing. There were just a few lonely cars at the only hotel in town, a few cars at the library, a few at the Lutheran Church. We turned right, and into a quiet downtown with sleepy storefronts. The bank on the corner advertised the arrival of a new ATM with a hand-written, neon green poster board sign hanging in the front window.

Thanks to the addition of a new gas station and cafe, the town's only grocery store was a flurry of activity. Down a few more blocks, we hit the high school, with dusty cars and trucks in the parking lot, and a handful of bikes left haphazardly unchained on the sidewalk.

This is my town. My hometown, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. When I walked across that stage on graduation day 8 years ago, I knew I was leaving the only home I'd ever known.

I couldn't have been happier. I was nervous, sure- moving to a new city and starting college was a huge step for me, a shy, small-town kid. But I was so ready to move on and move up in the world. When I walked across that stage on graduation day, I had a desire to keep on walking out the door of the school and never look back. I felt like leaving would finally give me a chance to be who I really was. To live my life the way I wanted to, without everyone watching me.

This week I found myself back in town for a few hours. Some of my coworkers were putting on outreach event at the high school. Familiar things met me at every turn - the band room, the gym, the auditorium. At one point, we walked through the drama department storage room. Senior year, my friends and I had painted our names on the back of an old prop desk. Sure enough, the desk was still there, along with my nickname and the names of the other '04 seniors in blue paint.

We set up for the even for an hour or two in the morning, during which I ran into a couple of the teachers I had during my high school years. We enjoyed a homemade lunch in the basement of one of the churches in town: hot dish, buttered buns and pickles, among other items. My high school librarian was there pouring milk and kool-aid for each of the guests. I got to chat with her and some of the church ladies after the meal for awhile. I sat next to Ed, an 85 year old man who has spent his whole life on the same farm site. His dad grew up on it, too. He runs sound at the church, and visits the county prison each week to tell others about Jesus.

It was pretty surreal being back. Humbling, too. I see things differently now when I look back on my years there. Our past is our past, and we can't change it. It's part of us, even when we try to ignore it, wish it away or pretend like it didn't happen. Even if we didn't have the best experiences, they still had a hand in shaping us into who we are.

It was a privilege to grow up in that small town. There are kids there growing up and having the same experiences I had. So many of them are growing up without spiritual input in any way. Those that do go to church still may not know or understand a relationship with God is available. Someone needs to tell them. I could. Or will I let my pride stand in the way?

An Unbroken Chain.

Do you ever look back on your life and think, how did I get here???

I'm sure you have. I think it's natural to reflect on the things that have led you to where you are today, and the things that have shaped you to be who you are.

I've always been interested in the Holocaust era of history. During my junior year, Holocaust survivor and Minnesotan Henry Oertelt came to my high school and shared some of his incredible life experiences. I remember being so enthralled with his story that I bummed $10 from someone (which I probably never paid back, now that I think about it), to purchase his book:  An Unbroken Chain: My journey through the Nazi Holocaust. He even signed the inside cover.

It was an obviously sad story, but still I was attracted to the idea that there were these links in the chain of his life that were imperative to his survival of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Growing up, I loved the concept of fate/destiny/serendipity. I just knew in my heart of hearts that there was this mysterious...something that linked seemingly random events together into meaningful and significant moments.

Lately I've been a bit reflective on my own journey to where I am today. In a way, I'm living a life I never dreamed of; yet, it's exactly what I wanted.

Some links in my chain that I'm grateful for:

• Growing up on a farm with a hard-working family. While I didn't always (often) enjoy it at the time, I'm so grateful for learning how to put in an honest day's work. I've learned a lot of life lessons from tough days on the farm, like seeing the tangible benefits of discipline. 
• My parents. Along with teaching me about hard work, they taught me how to save and spend appropriately. I hated saving the birthday and Christmas money I received every year, unable to spend any of it. But when freshman year of college rolled around, and I had to pay for expensive textbooks, tuition, and a dorm room, I was incredibly grateful.
• Uncommon experiences with other cultures:
• My family hosted a Brazilian foreign exchange student while in high school (something I still wonder about to this day - we were definitely not the type of family to sign up for something like this!) This created a new interest for me - learning about other countries.
• When I joined staff, I was in a core group of 7 other women to connect with. Five of these woman had just returned from STINT, all over the world. For six weeks I got to hear story after story of God at work all over the world. I think that is a huge reason I said yes to doing the WSN Ops role at work.

 There are a lot of other links in my chain I'd love to tell you about, but you get the idea. If you've got some time this week, I encourage you to think about what links in your chain have led you to where you are today. It has been really encouraging for me to look back and see God's hand at work in my life, especially in the midst of transition and change.

Finishings.

In about two weeks, I will hit one of my favorite times of the year.

The first week back in the office will be over, and I'll have learned everyone's name and new cubical placements, caught up on everyone's summers, and settled in for another year of ministry. Football seasons will be just getting underway, and the hope of a decent season is still intact. Cooler weather settles in (I hope), along with changing leaves and beautiful landscapes to capture with my lens.

...And a certain pumpkin-flavored drink will appear at one of my favorite coffee shops down the road.

I have another simple reason for enjoying this time of year:  time is on my side. The new (school) year is just beginning. I only have a small number of very important things to work on, that don't take too much brain power. Meaning I can spend a majority of my time and energy mentally and physically preparing for the craziness that is ahead. I can reorganize my desk and filing system, clean out my e-mail folders, and update files and processes.

I love this stuff. Taking time to reorganize, realign and reformat things at the beginning will make me more effective when I get to my busy work seasons (TCX, SPDT, KC...all the important times of the year are apparently represented by acronyms).

The "beginning" stage is typically the most fun stage for me (diving into why that is true would take another post altogether). But lately I've been finishing things, and that's been fun, too. Here are a couple huge things I've been working on that will be finished soon, or have recently finished:

1. Preaching my first sermon.
Last week my pastor was out of town and I stepped in for him to preach a sermon on Evangelism. I had a 3 month lead time on this project, which included 6 weeks in East Asia where I didn't give one thought to the sermon, so I needed the lead time. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment for this project, which included a ton of prep work I didn't anticipate.

2. Closing the Books on Our Summer Projects.
From Nov 1 to Sept 1, my schedule is packed with summer project planning and prep. We're just 2 weeks away from wrapping up our finances and student accounts. I love our SP's, but I can't wait for the books to be closed on this season. Luckily I've had some awesome help throughout the summer to ensure the books will in fact get closed in a proper way.

3. Finding an apartment.
The hunt for a new place to live has been arduous, to say the least. It started in March with trying to find a new roommate. Now two weeks before I get kicked out of my apartment, I have a roommate... but still working on that place to live. We're still figuring things out, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I think. I'm growing in areas of patience and perseverance with this one.

4. Reading.
It seems a little weird to include this one, but I'm notorious for reading 7 books at one time and finishing none of them. I started and finished two books during my 6 weeks in East Asia, and have recently finished 2 more that I began before I left. Now, on to the other 3 I'm in the middle of...

For someone who loves to start new projects, but struggles to finish them, putting the cover on the box that contains these major tasks, and putting the box on a shelf in a closet and closing the door, feels really good. Here's to a new year, complete with many startings and finishings!

Resisting a Rest.

Do you take all of your vacation days every year? 

I took my first full week of vacation last week, (and I now have that I-need-a-vacation-from-my-vacation feeling). My first year at my first job out of college, I didn’t even know how many vacation days I had. I think I took 2. I had that gotta-get-ahead-because-I’m-young-and-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing mentality. I wanted to prove myself to my coworkers, my parents - but mostly, to myself

Add those sky-high expectations that I set upon myself to my arrival in a new city where I didn’t know anyone, and reporting to my job right before a 6 month stretch of craziness, and you have a recipe for burnout. And bitterness. And they definitely both happened.

The problem is, we think rest is for whimps. Taking a break means we're weak. Having boundaries shows you don't really care about your work. If you really wanted to be the best, you'd push yourself harder.

During the Olympic coverage tonight, Minneapolis/St. Paul's NBC station had a spotlight on teen swimming sensation Missy “The Missle” Franklin. The report mentions that she takes weekends off, refuses to go pro, and that she’s a normal teenager (as normal as you can be when you're an Olympic Champion at 17).

Her coach designs creative workouts in a way that avoids burnout. Her parents don’t push her, but encourage her to enjoy the process. This rest/work balance is not a new idea, but it could be one that becomes more central after Missy’s Olympic success.

Matthew Edlund, M.D. has spent two decades researching rest, sleep, performance and public health. Edlund is the author of several books on the subject, including “The Power of Rest,” a book detailing how to actively rest - physically, mentally, socially and spiritually – to control regeneration and maximize efforts of passive forms of rest (like sleep). He claims that active rest techniques, performed within a minute, can call you down or revive you when tired, while improving productivity.

The NBC article also quotes Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the U of M, on the idea of rest/work balance: "Missy Franklin is living proof that there are many pathways to elite performance."

Edlund’s website claims that using rest can “actively rebuild body and brain... active rest can improve the public health, and is a skill everyone needs.”

How contrary this is to our fast-paced, competitive, work-obsessed culture. Why rest when you can just take a shot of caffeine in your favorite form and boost productivity? (Guilty). Last May, after my biggest work weekend of the year, I was totally burned out. A dear friend suggested a take a day off. My response? I have to work. It’s already a 3 day weekend (Memorial Day was the following Monday). I can’t dare take 4 days off in a row!

I took her strong advice and took 4 days off. It was glorious! It took at least 36 hours to calm my anxiety about the work weekend, and all the projects I wanted to catch up on over the summer. Once I fully disengaged from mulling over my mental to-do list, I was able to get some solid rest.

There's another facet to this idea that resting can make us more productive. If you have a strong resistance to rest, there might be an alarming reason. It might be that we obsess over our work because we base our self-worth on what we do. When that happens, rest is impossible.

Or, when I fear what my coworkers will think of me if I take a personal day, I'm hurting not just me, but my team, too. It creates disunity and competition.

When we work weekends and travel out of town for conferences, Cru gives us comp days proportionate to the amount of time we were gone. I'm grateful that my boss always encourages me and my teammates to take these days off. And once a month, we are encouraged to take a half or whole day off to spend with the Lord.

What are your thoughts on rest and productivity? On rest and our values as a society?

Code Words.

One of my childhood dreams was to be in the CIA or FBI. The allure of living a double life was so intriguing and exciting to me. Walking around town like a normal person, yet having this secret identity, and this super significant mission that no one new about (and I couldn't tell them or I'd have to...you know).

I feel like I got a glimpse into that this summer. Not necessarily from the secret mission part, but from the code words we used. In an effect to draw the least amount of attention to us as possible, we'd use code words out in public (and usually in private, too). We even had a code word for when someone didn't use the appropriate code word:  mango.

Here's a brief paragraph, something that I'd probably say when telling a teammate about my day:

Today I disked at Dragon with Abby. We talked about how the book explains the HS and why it's important when we're doing EV, and just living a cool life in general. Dad's been teaching her about that lately and I've been rapping about it, so it was fun to talk about it. Over lunch we met with this girl Caroline, who has an American professor that's been taking her to building, which is awesome. We had an sp convo with her but haven't shared the 4 boys yet - maybe we can during our next go time. I'm excited for Iron Man on Saturday so we can learn how to do 7 ups - I know the gathering at Star Wars has been sharing the G and has had people PRC so now they can learn how to do 7 ups.

I think that's the bulk of our code words! Most of them make sense when used in a sentence but at least right away we had to really think about what we were going to say before we said it.

East Asian Food.

One of the most common questions I get about my summer in Asia is, "How was the food?" Truthfully, I was a little worried about the local cuisine. I've had some not-so-great experiences with spicy Thai food here in the cities, but I figured I'd be ok. (I actually didn't have stomach issues with any of the authentic asian food. The Asian version of American food was a different story!).

Here's a pretty typical meal for 8 people - 4 or 5 meat and veggie dishes, rice, soup and tea. Most tables had a lazy susan spinner in the middle. Every single meal was eaten with chopsticks (except at Pizza Hut!)

I'm not someone who likes to share my food, and I actually rarely eat with other people, so this style of eating was a little strange at first. But I quickly grew to really enjoy it. Our schedule was so busy that mealtimes were one of the best chances to really get to know fellow project students and staff.

Even the chopsticks became familiar and fun to use - my poor skills made me eat slower, which is probably more healthy, anyway. Several times we ended up playing a game of 'grab the peanut,' where we'd spin the lazy susan and see how many peanuts we could grab with our chopsticks. A messy but ridiculously fun game. Here's a shot of Rebekah and Becca attempting to grab a fish ball with their chopsticks - easier said than done!

One great thing about East Asia is all the awesome street vendor food. In Brazil we were instructed to eat at your own risk (aka: do not eat it at all). We tried all kinds of street vendor food in East Asia, especially for breakfast and lunch. One of my favorites was the breakfast sandwiches: a pocket of fried dough, with some type of brown sauce, a meat that tasted like chicken, lettuce, and strings of potatoes. YUM. And only $4 kuai (about 60 cents US). Plus the man and woman selling them were always so chipper early in the morning :)

Bill Gates follows Jesus.

If I told you I met Bill Gates this summer, would you believe me?

Well, I did. He is a student at a university where we did ministry in East Asia. The first time someone from my summer project mentioned that they met "Bill Gates," we all chuckled. I can't even remember who met him first, or where. I think it was at an English club. It's typical for students in East Asia to give themselves an English name (or to have a friend give them an English name). Some other fun names were heard were Magnet, Jet- and one of my favorites, Adolf (more on him another time!)

Throughout the summer, Bill Gates kept popping up in conversations (and every time, I'd chuckle at his name...easily amused, I guess). After Andrew, a student on project, met with him a couple of times, Bill Gates decided he wanted to follow Jesus. Andrew had the opportunity to teach him about prayer, quiet times, and many other things. Who knows where Bill Gates will end up in the future!

One Week Home.

I'm back from the Orient! Been back a week actually, and a crazy week it has been. I was not expecting major jet lag or any sort of culture shock. But there have been quite a few surprising things to experience this week.

Today I was greeted at my church with a very warm welcome. It was so good to be back at New City and the authentic and caring community present there. We didn't even get through verse 1 of the first song and I teared up, overwhelmed at the ease with which we were able to sing whatever we wanted, as loud as we wanted. Not so in East Asia.

Throughout the service, I felt small moments of anxiety, which I quickly realized was due to the atmosphere. I was sitting in a room with 20 other white people who were not speaking in proper code. I pulled out my Bible - which was not covered. I actually caught myself looking around a couple times to see if people were watching us! And all of this occurred at our small church plant - I can't imagine being back at a huge "cool building" (I mean, "Christian church").

I remember moving to Minneapolis two years ago and being so overwhelmed; like it or not, this bustling, confusing, sometimes dirty city was now my home.

Since being home, I catch myself day dreaming when I'm driving and biking and walking: I know that I don't have to watch out for a large van barreling driving down the sidewalk straight for me. Sirens and airplanes and car horns that once bothered me throughout the day are not even noticed anymore.

The sun is blinding. (On a good day in East Asia, you could look directly at the sun, which was only the size of a quarter due to the thick layer of pollution constantly present in the atmosphere). I had a love/hate relationship with the smog. It made the sky as full gray as a winter day - but it kept the temperature a little cooler. When you're walking several miles a day with a heavy backpack in 95+ degree weather, the smog isn't so bad.

I can't wait to go home to the farm in a few weeks to take in the rolling hills and peaceful surroundings!

Sending a Sender.

It was a weird spring for me this year, as I labored to send out teams of students and staff on mission projects this summer, but also prepared to go myself.

Now more than ever before, I see the importance of a support team to stay in the US while people are sent out around the world with the Gospel. Being a 'sender' myself, I recognize the strategy and significance - but this summer I step into the 'go-er' role (I know, probably not a word...).

A few weeks ago we had our Briefing conference, where 150 people gathered together before being sent out to 6 countries for the summer. As I sat with my team learning about security issues and campus guards and code words, a dozen people worked behind the scenes to ensure that these 150 people could go to the world with the Gospel this summer. As I type this from my international dorm in a rather large city in East Asia, I see the importance of people back home that can directly support what we are here to do: take the hope of Christ to Asian college students.

Speaking of support teams, I can't forget about the awesome financial and prayer partners I have! The senders at my office would not have a job to do if it wasn't for faithful friends who give and pray generously - not only to me, but to all our summer project students. More than $500,000 came in this spring for these 6 projects. That's a LOT of givers- and lots of pray-ers who go before the Lord to ask for provision for others. If you're a sender, giver, or prayer, thanks for what you do!

Leading Worship!

Last weekend was our annual May Daze staff conference. Once a year, all 200+ midwest Cru staff get together for a long weekend. I've only been staff with Cru for 3 years, but already I am experiencing the wonderful, tight-knit family present in this group of people. I was so very encouraged to hear at this conference what God is doing in the lives of college students around the world - and to just spend time hanging out and reflecting on my year with people who understand what it's like to be a missionary.

As a member of the region's operations team, I get the chance to serve our staff at a lot of conferences, assisting in setting up, running and packing up after events. I love being a part of the behind-the-scenes experience of a conference, and it's fun to do it with such great people that love our staff and love operations.

This year, however, I got the chance to do something totally out of my comfort zone - lead worship for these 200+ people! I've lead worship in various capacities before (Cru, Vespers, Church, small conferences) - but never such a large crowd, and never in front of this crowd that normally sees me behind the scenes. I connect very deeply to God through music, and place a very high value on creating an environment where people can easily enter into and meet with the Lord. I have never felt very confident as a musician, but I've always loved singing.

Leading this weekend scared me (...a lot...) but I knew this opportunity would be a huge chance for me to grow in some significant ways in my walk with God. Before each worship session I had to continually lay down before the Lord my fear of man, and remind myself that the Lord has given me this huge passion and small gifting, and He would get the glory if I was obedient to combine these two things, and share it with others, when he asked me to.

Kingdom Called

A few weeks ago, all of the international summer project teams gathered together in Minneapolis for a training conference, named Kingdom Called. This is probably my favorite conference of the year (I think I say that about every conference!).

Saturday night of the conference, I spoke to the students about some of details regarding their summer project. As I looked out on the room full of college students that I am sending to the world, I felt totally astounded and grateful that God would choose use me to play such a vital role in fulfilling his Great Commission.

One summer can change everything. When I ventured out to Sao Paulo, Brazil as a college student on a summer project, I had no idea God would stir such a passion in my heart for telling others about the life I have found in Christ. That same passion is still present 5 years later, and I pray every day that it will never leave.

There have been many highlights this spring in my ministry:

• Running a national webinar training for college students raising financial support for international summer projects. I also coached 3 other Cru staff to lead these webinars, and together we trained over 300 students from across the United States.
• Seeing over 90 students apply to in the Ghana Summer Project - about half of them were selected to participate (and 30 of them are women!)
• Preparing for my own summer project in East Asia. I can't wait to share Jesus with east asian college students and help train and coach the female college students on my project.

Here's a shot of me on stage speaking to the students about a website that helps them track their financial support that they raise for summer project.

The Legacy Project

I love learning the history of Campus Crusade. So much has happened in the last 60 years! Awhile back, the Legacy Project was started as an initiative to benefit young leaders, by connecting us to our organizational heritage. There are dozens and dozens of videos. Check out this one from a Jacquie, a staff woman from Madison, WI, about her husband's military ministry:



Click here for more info on the legacy project.

10 days to 10 months

Vision trips give students just a small glimpse of the work God is doing around the world. Sometimes, a glimpse is all you need. A year ago, we sent out a 10-day vision trip from the U of M to East Asia. Little did Amber know, she would return there a few months later for 10 month STINT (short-term international trip). This year, our vision trips resulted in six STINTers returning overseas this fall to be a part of reaching people with the Gospel. We see firsthand how God uses short-term trips to lead to long-term investment in overseas missions: showing the need for laborers and growing hearts for the lost, which leads to more people praying for, giving to and participating in overseas missions in the future. Only God can transform a 10 day experience into a 10 month - or even a 10 year - investment.