THE SLAMERS

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!

We share this only to give you a greater glimpse of the scope and significance of God’s work that you are a part of through your prayer and financial partnership. We couldn’t do so without you, and wouldn’t want to. We love being a part of God’s work in this generation of college students, and we love doing so with you!

PRAISE & PRAYER REQUESTS!

• Praise God with us for the development of new tools that enable spiritual growth and life change!
• Please pray for the 1600 students on summer mission trips right now!
• Pray especially against the enemy getting footholds in the lives of students, but for the Lord to capture their hearts.
• Praise God with us that Ethan graduated from homeschool high school this month and is headed to Biola University with his sister in the Fall!

“For we are his [God’s]workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

-Ephesians 2:10

Hat Yai, Thailand is the location of one of our newest summer mission trips. This summer will only be the second time we have sent a summer mission to that location in Thailand. It is a religiously diverse area in the south of Thailand, but less than 1% of the population are Christian. 12 students from campuses in Texas, Washington, and Montana, will leave on June 18th for a 6-week summer mission. They will be led by two young Cru staff couples. Thanks for praying for God to fill our summer missions! The couple from Texas that is leading is an answer to that prayer, as they stepped in to lead the trip last minute!

Students will have a unique opportunity to learn the culture through immersion, gain a greater perspective on God’s work in the world, share their faith with Thai college students, and be equipped to share their faith back on their own campus. We love helping to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission by sending “mission trips to every culture and ethnic group, joining in what God is already doing, to share the gospel, grow multiplying disciples, and launch/build movements.” 

Family News from Becky

On Sunday, April 21st, my mom, Janet Stroman, passed away peacefully, with my stepdad by her side. Her 4 1/2 year battle with Parkinson’s and Dementia is over. We all have been grieving a slow grief as we really lost her in stages over the last few years, but now we grieve her presence. We do grieve with hope, as we rejoice that her body and brain are restored and she is with her Heavenly Father! We are so thankful for my stepdad and his family, my brother and his family, and how we all rallied as a team to care for my mom. Please keep our whole family in your prayers as we adjust to life without mom/ grandma and as we remember and celebrate her life! She loved her family, the outdoors, traveling, reading, and being a voice for those in need. 

“Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” – John 11:25-26 

PRAISE & PRAYER REQUESTS!

* Praise God for 1,600 students going on more than 100 other summer mission trips as well!

* Please pray for the leaders and students preparing to go and raising support for their summer ministry. 

In the middle of January, we joined staff from around the west to host our annual student Winter Conference in Orange County. 800 students came from 13 different states to attend this four-day conference. “Winter Conference is a gathering of college students experiencing Jesus, growing together in our faith, and discovering our place the mission of God.”

It was a true family ministry weekend for us! Becky helped register all the students the day they arrived. A couple of mornings later, she led a moms’ time for the Cru staff moms at the conference. Ethan and Sarah both invited friends to Winter Conference, and Ethan even got to be a part of the Bema, a dramatic enactment of the judgment seat of Christ. It was powerful!

Scott worked a prayer table at the Festival of Opportunities one night, and had some significant connections. Ben from Oregon Institute of Technology(OIT) recognized Scott from last year’s Winter Conference! It turns out he went on a mission trip to El Salvador after their conversation last year. Ben said the trip was a “turning point in his life.” He was ready to courageously head back to campus. He has shared his faith on campus regularly and even seen one student put their faith in Christ for the first time!

Four Arab American students from the University of Washington came up to the prayer table as well. After grabbing a copy of “More Than a Carpenter” in Arabic and asking how they could get more, they sat down together to pray for God to move in the Arabic world!

On the Day of Outreach, students and staff took steps of faith and initiated 1364 conversations, 355 spiritual conversations, 77 gospel conversations, and saw 6 decisions for Christ!

Thank you, for investing with us in this work, and all God is doing among this generation of college students! 

PRAISE & PRAYER REQUESTS!

* Praise God for the work He did in students’ lives at Winter Conference!

* Praise God for over 900 students already accepted on summer mission trips!

* Please pray for the many spring break trips happening all over the world right now! For fruitul ministry and changed lives.

* Please continue to pray for God to fill up our mission trips this summer. 

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 

January is a big month in the summer mission trip realm with Cru. We pull all of our upcoming trip leaders together for a three-day training conference at the beginning of the month. They receive vision, direction, resourcing, and equipping for their summer mission trips, as well as build relationships with others who are leading trips like theirs. 

From upfront, we give the vision of a summer mission trip, the heart of a leader, and wisdom on leading teams. During the middle of the day, team leaders could chose from over 30 breakout seminars ranging from “Welcome to the Operations Team Leader Role” to “Sending Multi-Ethnic Teams to the World” to “Best Practices for Leading Internationally.” Scott lead a seminar on reviewing student applications, and co-lead two others; “Addressing Mental Health Challenges” and “International Risk and Crisis Management.” Here is what a couple of team leaders said were highlights from their conference experience:

“Learning each step of planning for the summer, learning priorities of things we want to plan, and being reminded of the vision for summer mission.”

“Seeing so many leaders in one place made me feel like everything didn’t depend on me alone, and that there were people in place to support me and others that were going alongside me as well.”

It is a humbling experience to be among these new and seasoned leaders. Last year, God used men and women just like these to lead teams of students to share His gospel over 26,000 times and saw over 3,800 people proclaim faith in Christ! Imagine what God will do this summer!

PRAISE & PRAYER REQUESTS!

• Praise God for the 300+ summer mission team leaders in place, and for a successful training conference!
• Please pray for these leaders as they review student applications, develop summer calendars, and plan outreaches.
• Please pray for God to bring over 1,800 students on mission trips with Cru this summer.

We have returned from our summer-long sabbatical and have just begun our Cru ministry again this week.  We will share more about our sabbatical next month, but this month we wanted to pass along a story from one of the 90+ summer missions that you helped send out. Jessica Butlig is the oldest daughter of some of our dearest friends, and she went on a Cru High School trip to Fiji and New Zealand this summer. It was pretty epic! We’ll let her share some of the story in her own words.

“On July 1st I arrived in Suva, Fiji. My team and I then met the Cru Fijian Student-Life who helped us immensely during our time in Fiji. I was able to connect with many of them and learn so much about their culture. The schedule throughout my two weeks in Fiji consisted of visiting Gospel High School each day to lead classroom periods throughout the day while sharing the gospel. Our classroom schedule consisted of an introduction, a game, a gospel presentation, a testimony, and small groups where we had many spiritual conversations. I had the opportunity to share the gospel 20+ times in different class periods. The start of sharing the gospel was scary for me but the Lord gave me so much strength and courage that I was able to share with such confidence. My team helped me so much by encouraging me and giving me several tips to improve. Words can’t describe the feeling I felt in front of each class, there would be times I would forget what to say yet God would speak through me. I felt His peace so consistent as I shared and was able to add my style to the gospel presentation with human visuals and explaining more in-depth. My favorite part of sharing the gospel was leading the salvation prayer out loud and hearing voices repeat after me as students prayed to receive Christ right in front of me. It was an unreal and truly beautiful moment to experience.” 

Jessica sharing the gospel in a Fijian classroom.

Here are some statistics from our time on mission in Fiji:

· Spiritual Conversations: 563  · Group Evangelism: 2706

· Group Evangelism Decisions: 470  · Total number of Classrooms: 55

· Total number of schools visited: 7

Praise & Prayer Requests!

• Praise God with us for the work He did this summer in and through Jessica and her team!  Also for the 90+ other trips that you helped to send out this summer!
• Praise God for a wonderful and necessary sabbatical for us and our family! We are excited to jump back into ministry this fall!
• Please pray for fruit in students’ live who went this summer, and for us as we reengage with our teams.
• Please pray for the selection of next summer’s mission trip team leaders, as that has already begun this month!