“Your most important responsibility as a Cru missionary, is keeping a healthy personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” 

I announced to the small ballroom containing 30 new Cru missionaries.  This is my (Scott) favorite thing to share with new missionaries!  It’s relieving and sobering all at the same time. 

These new missionaries work on a dozen campus teams throughout the Pacific Southwest.  Our team hosts this four-day training and development conference every year.  Basic training after your first semester on campus.  We call it First Year Field Training (FYFT).  I was the emcee, guiding them through our week in Santa Barbara.

After an exciting and frenzied first semester on campus, they are tired, excited, and hungry to gain more skill.  This conference is always a welcome change of pace.  A time to learn new skills, but also to rest and deepen their relationship with God.

We introduce some new tools like the “Thank-a-Prof” outreach, a new Ethnic Diversity survey, and how to transition a conversation to the gospel.  They get to experience “cross-pollination” with a different team and campus culture. And we also spend time emphasizing personal and spiritual growth.  Because “The essence of the Christian life is what God does in and through us, not what we do for God.” (from Cru’s booklet called Satisfied.  See also John 15:5)

Fun Fact!  Isla Vista (IV) is the dense community immediately adjacent to UC Santa Barbara.  It’s populated almost exclusively by students and young adults.

Praise & Prayer Requests!

• Praise God that a new staff woman named Sarah will be joining our LD Team when she reports!
• Praise God for providing a male leader for our Santa Monica Summer Mission!
• Praise God that Scott’s dad came through hip surgery well!  Pray for a good recovery.
• Pray for students making decisions about how to spend their summer.  That many would join a Cru Summer Mission.
• Pray for structural changes in our campus ministry to allow us to reach even more students with the gospel, more effectively.

Thank you for partnering with us to equip a new generation of campus missionaries!

“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5