Anne Marie and Steven, one of the 15 writers in our class last week, were almost late for lunch on the second day of our training. He stopped her to ask if we might be willing to train the 30 or so writers who work on the magazine and website he edits. What a strong endorsement

Our 15 students came in with solid credentials. Eleven work for Evangelical Press Association member publications. The other four are freelance writers, and three have won EPA writing awards. Still, they felt we could help them improve their skills.

As usual, we started by telling the class (above) that they won’t start writing until the fourth of five steps. They learned to gather information, sort the information they gather and then organize it before they write. After writing, they rewrite the story before publishing it. Our two-day training took place before the EPA conference formally started. (Below, Anne Marie stands by the sign that helped class members find our meeting room.)

The rest of the week, as local communications professionals, we helped host the conference. On Thursday morning, Steve Douglass, Cru’s president, and Dela Adadevoh, Cru’s vice president for area leaders around the world, joined Rev. Gabriel Salguero, a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals, to discuss the role of mass communications in world evangelization in the next decade.

Then early Thursday afternoon, Judy Douglass, Anne Marie’s director, spoke at EPA’s luncheon. As the founding editor of Cru’s Worldwide Challenge magazine and a former EPA board member, she fit in well with the group. We helped our Cru staff friends get situated for both events.

As you think of us in the next few weeks, would you pray for two things:

• Please pray for us to apply lessons we learned during EPA to our work.
• Pray for our trip to visit friends and ministry partners in the Southeastern U.S., as we plan a trip in late April and early May. Pray we’ll connect well with several families.

Thank you for playing an important role in our lives.