Encouragement from summer projects

We shared some in our most recent monthly update, but as students return from summer projects, we've gotten to hear more stories of what the Lord did through them.  I was encouraged and I hope you will be too!

Brenda, who will be a junior at MSU this year shared that her summer project to East Asia had the opportunity to initiate over 350 spiritual conversations, to share the gospel 112 times and to see 30 students place their faith in Jesus!

Kelsey, also an MSU junior who went to Montevideo, Uruguay shared that her team initiated 623 conversations and were able to share the gospel 207 times.  From those conversations, they had 27 students give their lives to Christ. They also had the opportunity to work in an orphanage outside of Montevideo and show the children's version of the JesusFilm to the kids they worked with.

We've also heard encouraging things from Kyle and Kayla, two MSU students who were at North Myrtle Beach, SC on project this summer, Mariah, a Gustavus junior who went to Miami, Ellie, an MSU junior who was on project in inner city Chicago, and Josh, who was on an operations & technology project in Fort Collins, CO this summer.  Thank you for your prayers for these students. Please pray that students would bring the things they learned back to southern Minnesota this fall and challenge other students to take steps of faith as well.

As for us, our team starts meeting tomorrow to plan for the semester. We're excited about what's ahead even though we know it will be a busy fall for our family especially.  Our team is welcoming two new interns, Nikki and Ashlinn, and are grateful for how they will increase our capacity and provide a female presence on campuses like South Central College and Gustavus, where we only had men working last year. Please pray that we would come together as a team and that our planning would be Spirit-led.

We'll have stories soon about the beginning of the school year as well as our new baby - less than two weeks til due day!

summer fun!

In the past week, we were able to travel to Cedar Falls to see some of my family that was in town and to Alexandria to spend the 4th with Matt's family on the lake. Maggie got to meet a bunch of new people and have some new experiences, including her first boat ride!

Maggie learns new words everyday, but lately she's learned a few that have really brought smiles to our faces. The other day she came out holding her children's Bible and said 'Jesus!'  Obviously we read her a few stories about Jesus! She loves that Jesus started out as a baby.  Neat to think of how children can relate to Jesus because he started life much like they do.  She also learned to say 'Bible' and brings it to us regularly to hear more stories.

We're 6 weeks from the arrival of baby girl #2 and have most things in place though I still don't feel ready! Maggie's been practicing feeding her babies and tucking them in so I think she'll be a great helper!

Here are a few pics from our travels:

Family picnic at the park!

Exploring the 'Kid's Kingdom' near Cedar Falls.

In the 'USS Maggie' with Nana & Papa.
She also went for a few rides in a real boat ;)

That your joy may be full

I (Kristin) have been spending some time reading and praying over John 15 lately. Just now as I was reading, the graciousness of Jesus' words in John 15:11 struck me anew:

"These things I have spoken to you, that MY joy may be in you, and that YOUR joy may be full."

He says these things to his disciples to encourage them as the cross looms before him....but he also says these things for our benefit because they're true for us as well....that our joy may be FULL...not lacking anything - no shadow of want or need.  What a gracious Savior we have!

A Month of Travels

We started the month of May off by heading to Alexandria, MN for our annual regional staff conference, called 'MayDaze'.  We spent 3 days connecting with staff friends from around the region, hearing updates from the year, and learning from speaker Sharon Hersh. Maggie spent some quality time with her Nana and Papa across the lake and schedules worked out so we were able to see both of Matt's brothers and their wives! We hadn't been to Alexandria since Thanksgiving, so it was refreshing to spend a few days there...though we're hoping the lake won't be frozen on our next trip!

The week following MayDaze was finals week at MSU, so we spent some time connecting with students before they took off for their various summer pursuits. Then Maggie went south to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa in Iowa and I (Kristin) flew to Richmond, VA for a good friend's wedding. Amidst driving Maggie and I all over the place, Matt was able to host a college friend who currently lives in Sioux Falls.

Now that our family is all back together again, we've been able to enjoy some nice summer weather. Maggie is loving her bike trailer and asks to go for bike rides whenever she see it. :) Many of our international friends have left or are leaving soon for the summer and some are leaving for good. We were able to have seven of them over last night for dinner and lawn games to say our good-byes. It was truly a blessing that our lives were able to intersect with theirs for a year even though its hard to see them go, not knowing if we'll see them again. A few, however, will return in the fall and we're hopeful for how we can deepen those relationships.

We'll spend our summer preparing for the arrival of our new baby girl and building our team of ministry partners so our family is in a healthy place financially once she arrives and classes start up again in the fall.  We'll continue to keep you updated here!

Here are a few pictures of our recent activities....

Playing bubble with Grandpa in Cedar Falls!

Our family with some of our int'l friends at MSU's int'l festival in April. We'll miss them!

I joined staff with these girls in 2007 and we've done a lot of life together since then! From L-R, Kirstin directs the team in the Pittsburgh metro, Ginny & her husband are transitioning to a role overseeing ethnic ministries in the Mid-Atlantic, and Katherine just married Michael, an Aussie she met while on stint. It was fun to celebrate with her!

Ready for summer!

Summer projects!

We didn't have room in our monthly update for all the things we wanted to share about summer projects, so consider this a bonus :)

The school newspaper at Southwest Minnesota State actually wrote an article about 4 Cru students from there who are going on summer project.  Check it out here. Kind of neat how clear they were about the spiritual component.

Also, we wanted to share this picture from a recent conference called "Kingdom Called".  All students who are going overseas on summer projects, interning, or stinting (overseas internship) with Cru this summer attended.  I just love seeing the quantity of laborers preparing to go into the harvest!  Praise God for the faith of these college students from around the Upper Midwest!

(click image to enlarge)

A Reason for Hope

Our pastor was going to be out of town this past weekend for a retreat, so he asked Matt if he'd be willing to fill in for him and preach at all three services on Sunday. Matt took up the challenge and gave a talk on A Reason for Hope, looking at 1 Peter 1. With the events of the week, the sermon topic seemed well timed...neat that the Lord put that passage on Matt's heart during the prior week.This was Matt's first time preaching in a church and he looked like a natural! We were grateful he had the opportunity!

These are from a few weeks back, but Maggie had her first Easter egg hunt this year.  Here are some pictures!

Success! She found mini reeses' inside!

This was a dress my mom made for me as
 a little girl. It was perfect for Maggie ;)

Jesus week!

The school year is winding down - less than a month left! But we're still seeking ways to share the Good News of Jesus with students around southern Minnesota. Last week at South Central College, in North Mankato, students organized 'Cru week' and had daily events to connect with students there.  This week at MSU, student leaders organized 'Jesus week' with the hope of sharing the gospel but also to give younger students an opportunity to learn how to share their faith with others.

Today, students are using an evangelistic tool that Cru developed called 'Soularium'. Soularium is a set of 50 pictures that students can choose from to describe their lives, how they view God, and their spiritual journey. We've found it to be a fun way to learn the story of whoever we're sharing with and a natural way to transition to spiritual conversation.  Two girls I work with, Nikki and Brenda, are leading the charge today as students use Soularium.

Please pray for our students as they step out in faith and pray that lives could be touched in eternal ways this week.  We're excited to see what the Holy Spirit might do in the hearts of students!

from our MSU CRU facebook page: Throughout the week we will be sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the campus of Minnesota State University! Tomorrow we will be interviewing students on their views of Jesus, so meet at Jazzman's at 2 pm if you want to be a part of that! Everyone's welcome! We will also have more details for the upcoming week at our weekly meeting at 9 pm on Tuesday!

Check out Cru's facebook page for more info during the week: http://www.facebook.com/mankatocru