This spring and summer is becoming a season of travel for us. Anne Marie will take five trips, and I will take four, between now and July.
During the first week of April, Anne Marie plans to be in Dallas for the Outcomes conference, a meeting of influential people who are part of the Christian Leadership Alliance. Anne Marie and Judy Douglass, her director, will present a seminar about moving communications from print to digital.
On Friday, April 7, both of us plan to arrive in Chicago for the Evangelical Press Association convention. That weekend, I’ll preside over the organization’s board meeting, my last as president of the board. The next three days, we’ll attend the convention.
In May, we plan two trips. First, we’ll be together as a family in Nashville. Bethany finished college in December, but her small college only has graduation ceremonies in May.
Then, Anne Marie and I have been invited to teach a writing conference in Italy. Anne Marie’s first Writing for Life training was in India. Since then, we’ve done seven trainings in Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. Ceil, who took the training in Ohio and then sponsored our training in Texas, now serves with Cru in Italy. She thinks Writing for Life will benefit some of Cru’s staff members there, and has invited us to come.
In July, we plan to be in Colorado and Nebraska for our Cru staff conference and to visit friends.
As we prepare for these longer trips, Anne Marie has taken a few short trips to Tampa (and will likely take a few more) to visit her family after her father’s surgery last month. He’s facing a long recovery. (The photo above, from last Christmas, shows Anne Marie’s parents, Jim and Helen, Anne Marie, Michael and Bethany.)
While in Orlando, we’re busy getting work done ahead of and around these trips. My team writes and edits articles for our website, Cru.org. We’re also preparing a new emailed newsletter. We hope to start it soon, but we’re moving slowly to make sure we get it right. I also edited our annual report. If you’d like to see it online, you can click on this link: https://www.cru.org/content/dam/cru/about/2016-cru-annual-report.pdf.
Anne Marie and the team she works with continues to find ways to more effectively produce their websites and digital newsletter.
As you think of us over the next month, please pray:
- for Jim, Anne Marie’s father, to fully recover from surgery,
- for Anne Marie and Judy as they prepare for and then present their session at the Outcomes conference, and
- for wisdom for me and the EPA board as I look to finish my term with them well.
Thanks for your prayers, friendship and gifts. And let us know how we can pray for you.