THE SLAMERS

God is doing some great things through our local Inland Empire Cru movements and we want to recount them for you. We hope they will give you even greater context for what God is doing in the lives of college students.

Our friends Leo and Jodi work with our Inland Empire Cru team. There are almost two dozen campuses and over 200,000 students! Last month, they “helped train and equip several young adults from one of our partner churches to launch a new Cru ministry at Chaffey College. Armed with free donuts, they initiated with dozens of students to tell them about Cru and invite them to an informational meeting. We had ten students, a faculty advisor, and a few folks from the community.”

Leo and Jodi also noted that, “God is opening doors to launch another new ministry at Crafton Hills College. We recently met up with several Crafton students and a local pastor who are hoping to launch a new ministry in the fall. In the meantime, they have formed a core group that is meeting to study the Bible and pray for the campus.”

Summer Missions

1,491 students are currently accepted to our 2023 summer missions! Over 230 are already taking advantage of our matching scholarships as they invite friends to join them.

We are about a week away from rolling out our new Summer Mission cooperative structure to our Cru staff. It will enable our staff to invest and recruit for specific summer missions. It’s very exciting to see the vision we have been working on for over a year come to fruition! Pray it rolls out smoothly and and serves our staff and students well.

http://www.cru.org/summer

Sabbatical Request!

We have been cleared to take our first 90-day sabbatical this summer as we enter year 28 of full time ministry!  We are really looking forward to recharging, resting, and looking to Jesus and His purposes for us for the long-haul.  We would love to be able to spend some of that time away from home and normal distractions of life.  We are praying and planning for our time. If you have access to homes or vacation rentals that you would be willing to share with us, would you please let us know. Depending on the location, it might be just what the Lord would have for us. We would greatly appreciate it!

Praises & Prayer Requests

• Praise God with us for the new “outposts of the Kingdom” he’s establishing on campuses right here in the Inland Empire!
• Please pray for the Inland Empire Cru team as they seek to start a new movement at College of the Desert.
• Please pray for students as they finish the Spring semester/quarter and prepare for their summers and for wise and fruitful investment of their summers.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8

March is a pivotal month in the summer mission trip space. It is historically our biggest month for student applications, but with pending airline ticket purchases and housing deposits due, team leaders can start to get nervous when they are not seeing student applications rolling in. For most, that will change by April. But, without the Spirit of God, all our efforts will not do a thing. So, we pray, and ask you to pray for God to move in the lives of students to desire to invest part of their summer in taking a step of faith to expand His kingdom, and for many to do so on a Cru Summer Mission Trip!
We currently have 2,600 students in the application process, and we already have 900 accepted!  (Last year at this time we had 700 accepted students).  We continue to see the Lord rebuild our summer missions since the pandemic. Thank you for engaging with us in God’s grand mission among college students!

New Cru Resources
If you are looking for devotional content for Holy Week, try this one that Cru has put together: The Path of the Cross and Resurrection.

Need help starting conversations about Jesus? Try this resource, which is a partnership between Cru and Everycampus: Good Friday Project.

Praise & Prayer Requests!

• Praise God with us for over 900 students that took the step of faith to apply and are now anticipating what God will do on a summer mission trip!
• Please pray that the Lord would raise up more students to invest part of their summer on a mission trip!
• Please pray for our summer mission team as we form up and roll out a new model for trip ownership this spring.

“And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”” – Luke 10:2

Click on the video above to watch our January update now, or go to the previous post for the print version.

Happy New Year!  So much happened in the month of January that this is an extra-long update, with lots of pictures. Hang in there!

As you know, we serve nationally with Cru’s short-term mission department, called the Mission Trip Team.  Every January our team hosts a conference to train the coming summer’s mission trip leaders (mostly Cru staff).  This year the Summer Mission Team Leaders’ Conference was in New Orleans.  

260 of our Summer Mission team leaders came together to get vision, training, resources, and to rub shoulders with others who are doing the same. In addition to giving overall direction and leadership, Scott lead or co-lead five seminar times on the following topics:  “Start Here” (an orientation for first-time leaders), Risk and Crisis Management, Reviewing Summer Mission Applications, Mental Health, and Sexual Wholeness.  As you can tell, Scott focuses on the people care side of mission trips.

It was wonderful to be able to help and resource so many trip leaders, and to meet them in person.  One fun connection was with a student named Clare who attended one of our Thailand trips last year, and was attending this year as a student leader.  Last summer Scott received a call from Clare’s trip leader at 4:30 in the morning!  She had lost her passport while on a layover in Switzerland and was desperate for help in what to do.  Scott invested the time for the situation to be adequately resolved.  Apparently she was looking forward to meeting Scott the whole conference to say “thank you” in person! 

Scott, Becky, Ethan (and Sarah) were so excited to be back at our annual SoCal student Winter Conference in mid January, especially after not having one on the West Coast for the last three years.  It’s a four-day, three-night conference for college students from all over the west.  500 students attended for worship, teaching from God’s word, sharing their faith, and connecting with other students.

As the representative from Cru’s national Mission Trip Team, Scott shared about Summer Mission trips at the main meeting.  He also helped with the Festival of Opportunities, where students could explore all the opportunities Cru has for them, from one-week mission trips, to year-long internships, or long-term roles on staff with Cru.  

Scott also met with students during the conference that had questions about Cru opportunities.  Jonah, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student, went on a Cru summer mission trip to Central Asia last summer.  He wanted to learn more about an opportunity to go back to Central Asia as a teacher.  Cru has a partnership with a missions organization that equips teachers to be evangelistic in their teaching around the world.  Scott connected Jonah with the director of Teach with Cru and prayed with him for his future.  We love helping students seize opportunities to use how God has made them for His purposes!

Becky really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with other staff moms!  One last highlight was the joy of having our own college student, Sarah, bring a few friends from BIOLA for some of the conference!

Thank you for partnering with us to see the name of Jesus glorified among college students in every nation!

Praise & Prayer Requests!

• Praise God with us for the wonderful work he has done through both the Summer Mission Team Leaders’ Conference and SoCal Winter Conference this January!
• Pray for the nearly 300 trip leaders who will take about 1,500 students on faith-filled mission trips this summer!
• Please pray for our sabbatical plans as we prepare for the summer. We want to use the time wisely.

Special Request!

We have been cleared to take our first 90-day sabbatical this summer!  We are very excited to recharge, rest, and refocus on Jesus and his purposes for us for the long-haul.  We would love to be able to spend some of that time away from home and normal distractions of life.  We would like to start planning for our time. If you have access to homes or vacation rentals that you would be willing to share with us, would you please let us know.  We would greatly appreciate it!

“I’m gonna try to get back into my faith this year”, Ryan said, resolutely. Ryan had grown up Christian, but walked away from God during high school. Now, in his freshman year at UC Irvine, he was coming back to his faith and Cru sounded like a good place to do that. He thanked me (Scott) for the info, as he walked away with a smile.

Every September I help UCI Cru with their pre-semester outreach at the “Anteater Involvement Fair.” It is an annual event that exposes students to the professional and social clubs and organizations on campus.

I joined Cru staff and involved UCI student leaders, to pass out hundreds of free gifts, and initiate just as many conversations with new students. After surveying most of those students about their interest in a community of faith, or learning more, 239 responded ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’! Please pray for these staff and students to have tons of gospel conversations and to get many students connected in Christian community this fall.

Summer 2022 Sending Report

The numbers are in! Last summer 1,714 students participated in a Cru Summer Mission, the gospel was shared 11,440 times, and 385 decisions for Christ were made!! On top of that, students were developed and trained to live lives for Jesus. Here’s what one student said,

“I learned how to start spiritual conversations and share the gospel this summer so I feel more equipped to talk to my friends from home that are not believers and more excited to share on my campus as well.”

For the full report, send an email to Scott at scott.slamer@cru.org. 

Praise & Prayer Requests!

Praise God for the incredible work He did this past summer, and is doing on campus this Fall!

Pray for Cru movements everywhere to connect students (like Ryan) with Jesus, and attract them to a solid community of faith.

Pray for students who were on a summer mission, to put into practice the new things they learned and experienced about living life for Jesus.

Praise the Lord that Becky & Ethan have established some good rhythms for Ethan’s school and activities. Please pray for us to rest in the Lord and seek Him alone!

“[Jesus speaking] Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”

Luke 10:19 

Cru 22 was our biennial conference for US Cru staff. It was one week to gather staff from the four corners of the country for worship, fellowship, teaching, and direction. We were encouraged by many things, but especially reiterating our call to be faithful to follow Jesus Christ, and lead others in doing the same. Here are some snapshots from the conference. 

Praises & Prayer Requests

Outreach continues on campuses across the country throughout the spring! Please pray! In this pic, Destino (Cru’s Latino-focused ministry) seeks key student volunteers to launch a ministry at the University of Central Florida.

As always, thank you for your prayers and support,