Sometimes you are just walking in obedience to your call and you don’t realize in the moment how God might be using it. About 4 years ago I(Scott) started work on completely updating our application for summer mission trips. It hadn’t been done in decades and we had been receiving complaints about its function. The update process involved input from every level of the campus ministry, and from a wide variety of staff and students. After 18 months and tons of work, it was complete, and we held our breath as it rolled out, Fall of 2022. 

“This is a major leap forward for us in reducing a barrier to Summer Mission attendance,” wrote Dan Trenda, Cru Director of Mission Trips.

Not only was it a hit within the campus ministry, but soon I was being asked by other Cru ministries to glean from it. Even ministries outside of Cru had seen our application and wanted to use it as a foundation for their own, which we were happy to do. 

Since the new application rolled out, over 6,000 students have worked through the application, and that is just within the campus ministry of Cru. Each application is a springboard for discipleship conversations for most students, and the beginning of a life-changing summer mission trip for many! Through the filter of this application, summer mission teams are formed that go all over the U.S. and to 30 different countries annually. The Lord uses these summer missions experiences as a huge spiritual milestone for each student involved. These teams also increase the reach of our ministries in each country and ultimately lead to more people from every tribe, tongue, and nation knowing who Jesus is and giving them the opportunity to know Him!