Eyeglass Fingerprints.

Since grade 5 I've worn either glasses or contacts. In Elementary school I was definitely the geeky kid with the huge frames. By 7th grade I had the trifecta:  glasses were joined by braces and a short haircut that I didn't really know how to style. I also wore sweater vests (they were "in" then, I swear).

By grade 9, the braces were gone and so were the glasses (don't worry - the sweater vests were LONG gone by then). Replaced by fancy new contacts, all of my old clunky frames were banished to the back of the top dresser drawer.

10+ years later, and I'm back to the glasses. Even though I've had them for almost 6 months, I still find myself forgetting they are there. Quite frequently, I try to itch my eye and end up with a nice smudge on the lens. Annoying. I just did it a few minutes ago, hence this post.

So, here comes the analogy (I have a friend writing a book of analogies, maybe this will get a feature in it?) When you go from no glasses to glasses, or glasses to no glasses, you have to retrain your brain so you act differently.

The same is true for us living the Christian life. I remember wearing my glasses the first time in 5th grade, and sitting in the back of the class. Every time I looked up from my textbook, I would squint at the board, and then remember I didn't need to squint.

I don't need to wonder in the back of my mind what people are thinking of me when I'm having a conversation with them. I can focus on the conversation and the needs of the other people, because my identity is secure in Christ. I don't need to do nice things for them just so they like me more; I can serve them out of love.

Maybe this analogy is a stretch, but I think both situations involved a pattern of thinking before we act; retraining our brains to help us understand what's going in.

TCX: A short life- lived well.

There are some things in life we can't explain. We ask, why? We wonder, how can this be? We think, what's the purpose in this?

The death of a young person, a life cut short, nears the top of a list of things that cause me to ask why. This past August, Sean, a student leader involved in Cru at UW-La Crosse, was killed in a car accident.

Sean had just returned home from a summer in North Myrtle Beach on a missions project with Cru. There were 99 other college students with him in NMB. On our US projects, Cru staff leave halfway through the summer and hand over the project to student leaders. Sean was one of the students who took over leadership of the project.

I never met Sean, but the fact that he was put in charge of 99 other college students living missionally on the beach, when they all could have been off doing other things, speaks highly of his character.

Sean's dad Steve spoke the final night of TCX, and shared how he had prayed that his son would become a leader among men, even before Sean began walking with Christ. Even though his life was cut short, Sean had an eternal impact on hundreds of lives in La Crosse and North Myrtle Beach.


Read more about Sean's story here.

TCX: Housing Woe - Be Gone!

TCX has come and gone - another 1500 college students packed into the downtown Minneapolis Hilton, hungry to learn more about God and his plan for their lives. We train, challenge, encourage, equip and admonish these students, with the hope that they will become spiritual multipliers for the rest of their lives, not just during their college years.

I'm continually amazed at what God chooses to do in the lives of college students. He works so intricately, so fine-tuned and detailed, so that his plans are orchestrated perfectly. And he does this in the lives of everyone...at the same time. Incredibly mind-blowing!

There are some great stories on the TCX blog (shout-out to my awesome roommate for working so diligently to capture what God's doing during and after the conference!). You can also watch video testimonies of students, and even see some of the main ballroom sessions broadcast over our livestream feed.

If you poke around a little, you'll even see yours truly on the blog, giving a quick explanation of my direct role in TCX. Talk about God orchestrating things perfectly...on Sunday night, in the middle of our conference, we ran out of hotel rooms. The Hilton was 100% booked up. But by the grace of God, we only had a few students show up to register and we could fill up the rooms that had empty spots.

The next day was New Years' Eve - always a popular night for the downtown hotels. I briefly talked through scenarios with a coworkers - what would we do if we still didn't have any rooms today? Could we work out the same contracted rate we have with the Hilton, with another hotel nearby? And what if those specific hotels don't have any vacancies??"

The Hilton did run out of rooms again on December 31 - and we had about 6 students, a mix of male and female, show up that afternoon asking for a room. But, we had a few guests that were scheduled to stay the night of the 31st who were no longer needing their rooms. Our 6 students fit perfectly into those two rooms.

I was pretty anxious about the housing situation all week ("who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6:27)) - but no need to worry -- especially for a problem that didn't even exist.

[This is the first in a series of posts about TCX, our annual student conference for the Upper Midwest Region of Cru. How many posts in this series, you ask? Time will tell].

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