Downtown Denver, CO from the hotel

Denver is cold in January.  For a Southern Californian, I(Scott) was scraping together every piece of winter-like clothing I have just to make the trip.  But it’s the setting for some really great ministry preparation each year.

Becky and I have traveled to Denver each January for the past few years.  It’s where Cru does their training for Summer Mission leaders.  Since we led in Santa Monica the last three years, we attended these trainings.

As a central location in the US, it has also become the location of several other concurrent meetings and trainings.  Beginning last year, I attended the Summer Placement Coordinators “guild” as well.  It’s a meeting of the Cru staff from around the country who do summer placement for their region, like I do in the Pacific Southwest.  That’s why I was there again this year.  We had a fantastic time of sharing best practices, new ideas, and solving problems in areas that aren’t working.

Outside of the meetings though, I had the privilege of going to dinner with two Cru staff and one student, who will be leading a summer mission to East Asia this summer.  They asked if I would help them to connect and work together as a team.  This was the first time all three of them were together.  We had a great Thai dinner and I led them through a fun sharing time where they learned about each other personally, and a little bit of their work styles.  Pray with me that they work together and lead well this summer in East Asia!

Chris, Erin, and Laura will lead a team to East Asia this summer!