This Wednesday is the first day of Lent. I’ll tell you what our team is doing to help people celebrate Lent and Easter below. But first, I invite you to thank God with us for what He’s done recently.

Our 2023 Advent devotional series, covering the Gospel of John, featured work by 17 writers from multiple countries. Anne Marie wrote six of the daily devotionals. We used various methods to distribute them — including email, text, social media, and apps like YouVersion and Whatsapp. More than 15,000 subscribers from nearly 40 countries signed up, including countries “closed” to missionaries. (The image above shows some ways the series was distributed.)

The Cru newsletter, which goes out by email three times each month, has 65,000 subscribers. They see our Cru Storylines feature articles along with other information from several Cru ministries to encourage them and help them grow in faith. And our main website, Cru.org, had more than 6 million visitors in the past year. Our team creates and edits articles and resources for the site. The site reaches people from nearly every country in the world.

As we praise God for those successes, we’re trying a new tactic this spring. Instead of daily emails for Lent, we’re offering pages with links to articles — some new and some that already exist — which will let the reader learn about the season on their own.

We’ve found that over Lent’s 40 days, the closer we get to Easter, fewer and fewer people open emails we send. With this plan, each person can work through the lessons at his or her own pace.

You can find those materials by going to Cru.org and clicking on some of the links in the gold “Easter Truth & Reflections” bar at the top of the page (as shown in the second image).

We’re grateful for your prayers and partnership. As you think of us this month, please continue to pray for Anne Marie’s health. She’s still battling an autoimmune disease. Pray that some new medications will be more effective, and for the symptoms and constant pain to recede.

Sincerely in Christ, — Mark, for the Winz family