A Gift from Cru - Advent Devotional

We wanted to share with you a gift of an advent devotional that Cru has produced.  You can either sign up to receive it as a daily email or get the entire devotional as a single pdf download (sent to you in an email).

Here are the first two days, yesterday and today.  Check them out to see if you would like to subscribe to the full devotional series.  

You can sign up to receive this devotional at:
https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/life-and-relationships/holidays/advent.html

Where are we now?

Where are we?

Yes, we are in Orlando. We are here for 11 months by invitation of a special program that Cru runs known as Lake Hart Stint. This is a unique developmental program for a select number of Cru staff designed to foster holistic growth in their relationships with God, self, and others. Lake Hart Stint seeks to help our staff flourish in ministry as they journey with others in giving everyone an opportunity to know Jesus.

50 adults and 53 children make up the Lake Hart Stint program that we are participating in. We all live in the same apartment complex and unique sense of community is being built. It has been a whirlwind of decisions and details since being invited to the program on May 29. We moved into an apartment in Orlando, FL on July 27. Only 3 days before we began our drive to Orlando, we finalized our adoption of Zachary (our foster son who has been in our home since he was 2 days old).

While participating in this program, Mike works in a role in US Staff Care. He serves on a core team that sees to all the initiatives for caring for almost 9,000 missionaries and employees. The main project Mike will work on is developing training specific to other Human Resource workers in Cru to train them in key aspects of their roles. This gives Mike an opportunity to use his HR knowledge, his technical expertise, and teaching background all in one role.

Given the fluid state of the pandemic, Leslie is participating in the program but without a designated role at the headquarters. Both Benjamin and Maddox are in school, 3rd grade and pre-K respectively. Their schools could be shut down on a moment’s notice, so we are thankful for the flexibility for Leslie to be considered for some project specific roles in the coming months which can accommodate the virtual learning that may come for our boys.

We are thankful for God’s guidance and provision in all that has happened in the last several weeks. We have a couple we know who are renting our Ohio house. We got both of our boys enrolled in school prior to their start dates. We would ask prayer for a few specifics.

We are navigating some medical needs and insurance. Maddox has nerve damage on a tooth and our Ohio dentist said we need to get it extracted. It has been difficult to work with insurance and providers here to take the notes from the Ohio dentist and just perform the procedure without repeating the diagnostics already done. Please pray for resolution to this in finding a dentist who will accommodate what insurance is asking.

The Bible, The Gospel & Jesus are not Quarantined!

We are certainly living in unusual times.  What’s normal?  As we all know well, the COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted some more drastically than others.  The world of sports has been brought to a grinding halt.  Like many others, our AIA staff have resorted and relied on the various digital platforms.  It’s incredible to see how this adaption has opened doors.  Praise the Lord!  Because of availability we are building deeper relationships with others we have already been working with and the busy schedules aren’t as much of a barrier prior to COVID-19.  

As we continue to persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been so inspired the last several months as we watched how our AIA co-workers quickly adapted to these unparalleled times and have been thinking of innovative ways to keep our mission moving forward.

One of these initiatives is UTC EVERY -- a unique virtual experience hosted by the AIA Ultimate Training Camp for EVERY athlete, EVERY sport, in EVERY location. It is designed to challenge the participant on their view of how God, life, and sport are connected using five Biblical Principles, interactive activities, and guided small group communities. 

Typically we host Ultimate Training camps in four locations each summer around the country for college athletes, but because of the current circumstances we had to cancel these events. This new initiative is allowing us to expose more athletes around the world to this curriculum. We had 714 campers/athletes registered and 27 different countries represented!

PRAISE: The technology worked for the mass amounts of participants.

PRAISE God used the event to draw the participants to Himself despite it being a virtual event.

PRAISE The creativity of the small group leaders as they connected with the athletes in their groups.

Coaches Guard Goes Down

Over the years, our Men’s Basketball staff have crisscrossed the country attending games, practices, and often having superficial conversations with high level coaches with the hope that one day the door would be open to go deeper into their lives. Well that day has come! Since their season abruptly ended and they are unable to work with their teams, many of these basketball coaches are open to having in-depth conversations about their personal and spiritual growth. Several of our staff are hosting small group video calls and are experiencing a vulnerability of these coaches they haven’t experienced before!