As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m looking back on 2025 with gratitude. I hope you’re able to do the same. What were the year’s highlights for you?
At work, I’m grateful that I could help our Cru® communications team develop and distribute our 2025 Easter devotional messages and our soon-to-come Christmas devotional. I also helped our Cru Storylines® team transition to a process that will allow us to report more articles and to do so more quickly. Our final article in the previous process was published a few weeks ago. You can see all those articles at Storylines.Cru.org.
We’re thankful to see God at work in our local church. This year, church members are sharing three-minute testimonies about how Jesus has changed their lives both at church and elsewhere. Anne Marie led a brief training for the congregation in January, and in March, I got to tell my story. Also, we’re grateful for our Sunday school class. We’ve studied the gospel of John and prayer together, and we pray for and assist each other week to week.
I’m grateful for family times this year. We had a refreshing time with Michael and Bethany in Wisconsin this summer. We went there for our Cru staff conference, and since they both live there, we took a week of vacation to visit them before the event.
Then late last month, we traveled to my hometown to celebrate my dad’s 90th birthday (right). His birthday is in late December, but we wanted to celebrate before winter sets in. More than 30 of us gathered to honor him. We shared stories before singing and cutting the cake. And he told everyone his favorite joke.
And in it all, I’m thankful for you. Your partnership, prayers and friendship are crucial to this ministry. Please pray for my team and our work on a Christmas devotional. It’s designed to help and encourage Jesus’ followers to effectively share the gospel during the season that is named for our Savior.
Sincerely in Christ, — Mark
