Anne Marie traveled to Romania in 2018 to report about how the “Jesus” Film was being used to plant churches. A couple who are part of the Romani people group —historically known as Gypsies — had planted 11 churches.  

That same year, I went to Slovakia to report about Cru’s campus ministry. Students from the U.S. visited there for a summer mission trip to share the gospel while teaching English in Speak Out camps for high school students. 

Since August 2017, Cru Storylines has published 122 articles, and we’re working on five more. Those articles covered ministry in 28 countries and 18 states. We’ve reported on 20 different ministries of Cru. The campus ministry was represented the most — 28 times. Other ministries in articles we’ve worked on as editors include Athletes in Action, City and FamilyLife. (Some older articles are still on this website while we update our content.)

For most of those 126 articles, I played a role in planning and scheduling them so the writers, photographers and editors could coordinate well. Cru Storylines takes about half of my work time as a project manager. I also managed our 2023 Advent devotional and am working on an Easter-themed devotional series for 2024.

Anne Marie recently edited an article about a long-time staff member who was trained as spiritual director. In that role, the staff member helps people to discover a deeper understanding of God’s extravagant love for them. Anne Marie has also trained writers on our team and is coaching two writers on other Cru teams.

She’s done that while continuing to battle an autoimmune disease. She’s had more than 60 medical appointments in the last year. Among those were 12 infusions of medication and two outpatient surgeries. The treatments are paying off. She feels much better than she did a year ago.

Then, on Saturday, Nov. 4, we were driving to a memorial service. On Interstate 4, the major road through Orlando, traffic in front of us stopped. We were able to stop, but a car behind us couldn’t stop in time. The “chain reaction” accident left our car and two cars disabled. We weren’t seriously injured, but both had aches that were treated during the next two week.

Later that week, we learned that the car was totaled and needs to be replaced. The insurance company paid us for the 15-year-old car’s value. Of course, that’s not enough to get a reliable car now. Please pray for us to find a replacement car soon.

Thanks so much for your prayers and generosity. We’re so thankful that we get to tell these stories to help make disciples around the work by our online content.

Sincerely in Christ,  Mark and Anne Marie