Last weekend, our town, called the City Beautiful, the home to “the happiest place on earth,” broke. On Friday night, Christina Grimmie, a singer known for her participation in the NBC’s The Voice, suffered a fatal gunshot wound after performing a concert. The next Tuesday, 2-year-old Lane Graves, from Elkhorn, Nebr. lost his life during a tragic accident at Disney.

But the biggest shock came Sunday morning, when we learned that more than four dozen people lost their lives in a shooting rampage overnight at a nightclub frequented by gay men. There are no words.

We became #OneOrlando. People lined up for hours to give blood. Others offered food and water to those standing in line. Medical teams worked around the clock to save lives. Churches held vigils. Residents attended rallies, decrying the violence.

This quickly became personal. Two of the women I work with have sons who are gay. The women love their sons, and pray for them daily. We pray for them, too. Both of those mothers are members of Prayer for Prodigals, an online community of 700 people, mostly mothers, who love and pray for their prodigal children. Their stories are heartbreaking.

My boss, Judy Douglass knows first-hand what it means to raise and love a prodigal. Steve and Judy adopted Josh when he was 8 years old. For 20 years, Josh struggled, making poor choices. Judy rallied her friends around the world to pray for Josh, believing only God could change his heart. Soon, other staff mothers said to her, “Me, too. My husband and I are raising a prodigal and it’s breaking our hearts.”

So, Judy started Prayer for Prodigals where members post prayer requests for their children. This summer, I’m upgrading the website to make it more useful for our members as they post prayer requests and find helpful information about addiction, mental illness and treatment centers.

In Orlando, we’re still reeling from events earlier this month. Pray that we will love our neighbors well. And pray for me to be filled with the Spirit and to make wise decisions as I upgrade the Prayer for Prodigals website. If you love a prodigal, or you know someone who does, you can request an invitation to our community by sending an email to prayerforprodigals@gmail.com.

Thank you so much for your generosity and prayers for us. God is using your gifts to allow us to continue doing the work He has called us to do. Please let us know how we can pray for you.

On Tuesday afternoon, May 3, eleven of us split into three groups and hiked in the Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs. On different trails we used our five senses to make observations, and then write about the experience as part of a Writing for Life training.

I went with Diana and Jeen. In the photo above, you can see colors (rocks, trees and sky) and note some textures (tree bark, rock faces) we encountered. In three miles of hiking, we enjoyed the sound of birds and smell of pine trees. One group went to the park’s center; another group hiked seven miles around the park’s rock formations.

The next morning, we wrote about the experience simulating what it might be like to write about a location we visited on a ministry trip. Aside from Anne Marie and me, everyone in the room was a staff member with the International School Project, a branch of Cru. They take volunteers around the world to help teachers learn an ethics curriculum that uses the JESUS film.

In that process, first the teachers and then their students encounter the gospel message in this film form. Over time, teachers begin discipling other teachers and students. Anne Marie went to Taiwan with ISP in January to help teachers learn how to be more effective disciple makers. Amazingly, ISP is invited into public schools by governments even in some countries were traditional missionaries would not be welcomed.

As you think of us in May and June, please pray:

• That the ISP staff members we trained will be able to apply this training to become more effective writers as they take the gospel around the world.
• For some home repairs we need to do. Water leaked onto wood floors, so we need to fix the leak and then dry and repair two damaged walls and the floor.
• For both of our dads. Anne Marie’s dad, Jim, has been suffering back pain. My dad, Ross, has leg and lung problems.

As always, we’re grateful that you play a part in our lives.

This week we are in Colorado Springs teaching writing and other communications skills to a group of Cru staff members. The first three days of the week we taught and went through workshops in a classroom setting. (In the photo above, Anne Marie offers a positive comment to one of our class members.)

Today and Friday, we plan to meet with individuals and small groups to work through individual questions and concerns. Pray that we will meet with the right people, connect well and help find some solutions to problems.

Thanks so much.

April has been a celebration of God’s generosity to us, shown through his people. We’re so
grateful for the mix of people He has brought into our lives.

We were in Pennsylvania March 31 to April 14. While there, we enjoyed gracious hospitality as four families welcomed us into their homes for one night or more. We were treated to meals, cups of tea and coffee and treats. Two churches invited us to speak. And more than that, we enjoyed conversations that encouraged us.

Although Anne Marie’s parents moved from her hometown, it still feels like “home” as so many people welcomed us so warmly. The only part of the welcome that was not warm was the April 9 snowstorm —3 inches in Paoli, where we spent the night—that caught us off guard.

During our visit, we attended the Evangelical Press Association convention. Anne Marie fought off a bad cold to lead an eight-hour writing seminar over two days, and she spoke at an additional seminar. She trained professional communicators from at least seven different Christian organizations.

As the president of the association, I led a day-long board meeting and the short membership meeting, and helped with some behind the scenes work. We welcomed 260 participants from across the U.S. and even a few from overseas to learn for each other how to better proclaim the gospel and news of what God is doing in people’s lives.

During the convention, we collected five awards for Worldwide Challenge, including four for design and photography and one for the magazine as a whole.

As you think of us in April and early May, please pray:

• For rest and strength after two weeks of travel. Anne Marie travels again this week and both of us plan to travel together the first week of May.
• For strength and wisdom for Anne Marie as she travels to Dallas to teach a writing seminar on April 20.
• For strong preparation for both of us as we work with staff members in Colorado Springs to prepare a week-long training there planned for May 2-6.
• For Bethany, as she finishes her semester at college while still fighting the effects of Lyme disease.

As we count our blessings, know that we count you. Thanks for being part of our lives.

March so far for us: Michael moved, Bethany came home for most of a week, Anne Marie begin preparing for three training opportunities and I assigned 19 stories to writers and edited several others. It’s been a busy month, and it’s only half over.

On March 1, Bethany’s book, One Dress, One Year, came out. Our church in Orlando hosted a book signing when she came home for Spring break. During the break, she travelled to Toronto for an interview about the book for a Canadian television show. Now she’s back in Nashville with a semester and a half left until graduation.

Michael started training for his new job with the medical software company that sought him out. He’s preparing to be a technical problem solver, working with the tech support people who are helping those who use the company’s software.

Anne Marie is preparing to train writers who are part of the Evangelical Press Association in Lancaster, Penna., in early April. I will help at that event, too. In late April, she will join Judy Douglass to teach about online communications for leaders from a wide variety of Christian ministries. Then in May, the two of us plan to train a group of Cru staff members in writing and other communications skills.

In the Worldwide Challenge office, we continue to combine our magazine and the website, Cru.org, more effectively. I’m learning how to edit stories for online reading, which is a bit different from editing for a magazine. (In this photo,which photographer Guy Gerrard took as he walked by, I’m in my office.) Some stories will appear both places. Here’s a summary of one I edited last week:

Kenyan Wilson Kipsang won the New York and London Marathons in 2014 and hopes to compete in the 2016 Olympics. He sees God at work as he runs. This is his story:

“You can’t go to church to win a race or ask God for prize money. God’s main purpose for me is to worship and glorify His name.

“I really want to give back to the community. I own a hotel and I employ 25 people, and champion athletes come and train here because of the altitude.

“I don’t distance myself from people who don’t go to church. We celebrate together. I don’t want division between the community and the church.”

As you think of us this month, please pray:

• That I will continue to learn the new editing skills for my changing job.
• For wise planning for Anne Marie in light of the different training opportunities.
• That Bethany’s health and strength will grow as she is treated for Lyme disease.
• For Michael to settle in Madison and find a great housing and roommate situation. Specifically, we are praying that he will find a Christian roommate.

Bethany is home for Spring Break, and we’ve had fun seeing her book, One Dress, One Year in bookstores. She even offered to autograph a few copies. On March 6, she signed books at our church in Orlando. We’re so grateful for how our church has stood behind her and our whole family for the last 23 and a half years.

Please pray for her trip this week to Toronto, where she will be interviewed for a television show. Pray for strength and health as the trip includes one very early morning  and one late evening. And ask God to give her a great time as she visits Niagara Falls.

Here is Anne Marie’s report from her trip to Taiwan:

Five years ago, Wendy, a teacher in Taiwan, saw a poster advertising a conference that would help her teach better. She went and received curriculum to teach morals and ethics to her class. She became part of a worldwide movement of teachers called the International School Project, a ministry of Cru.

I met Wendy in Taiwan on a short-term missions trip with the International School Project last month. (In this photo, I’m leading a small group during the trip.) They have been hosting trips since 1991 when, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Cru staff members began showing the JESUS film in Moscow.

Today, teachers in 18 countries learn to use the curriculum and consider where they are on their own spiritual journeys.

When one of Wendy’s students stopped turning in his homework and bringing his books to class, found out he was failing eight out of 10 subjects. When Wendy called his parents to them about what had happened, she learned they were getting a divorce.

Quickly turning her attention to her student’s mom, Wendy explained the content from the Love, Sex and Dating lesson. Throughout the summer, the two women talked almost nightly. Eventually Wendy explained how the mom could trust Christ to forgive her sins. The mom and her husband stayed together, and their son, on the brink of being kicked out of school, showed up in Wendy’s classroom the following Fall with a notebook, ready to take notes. Today, he’s a third-year student at one of Taiwan’s universities.

After the conference ended, we met with teachers in their own cities to discuss how they could form movements of teachers at their schools who were growing in faith and explaining that faith to others as they also taught the curriculum.

I am now helping Cru staff members from the International School Project find ways to capture stories that show how God is at work building movements of teachers around the world. Mark and I plan to travel to Colorado Springs for a week to teach their staff members to write about teachers like Wendy.

Thank you so much for the very important role you play in our lives because you pray for us and give so generously to support the work God has called us to do. We’re grateful for your friendship and your generosity. Please let us know how we can pray for you.

Sincerely in Christ,
Anne Marie, for the Winz family

Anne Marie wrote to report this:

How are you? How has your New Year started? In the past month, our family celebrated two significant milestones.

First, Michael graduated from University of Central Florida with a degree in engineering after four and a half years of academic instruction and life experience. (The family after the graduation ceremony: Mark’s dad, Ross is at the left and my parents, Jim and Helen Larkins, are at the right.)

Second, Bethany returned to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville for the Spring semester. Last March, she came home so we could help her take care of her health. Shortly after that, she was diagnosed and treated for Lyme Disease. While she’s not cured, she’s undergoing treatment and wants to finish her degree.

Just like Michael and Bethany, I’m moving into a new opportunity. Mine is with Writing for Life. Seven months ago, at Cru 15, I spent time with my friends from the International School Project, a ministry of Cru. ISP was formed in 1991 with an invitation from the Russian Ministry of Education to help develop morals and ethics in their youth.

Teachers are strategic in influencing the direction of a nation. ISP staff members, in partnership with local and national ministries of education, sponsor conferences to equip educators in their classrooms and to help raise the moral standards in society.

ISP has trained more than 72,000 teachers in 14 countries, influencing more than 2,500,000 students and their parents.  ISP staff members have ministries that include Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Central America.

From January 21-31, I plan to travel to Taiwan and lead a small group of teachers who want to grow in their own faith and help their students grow in faith as well. I will also look for ways to help ISP collect stories about teachers and students who have trusted Christ to forgive their sins through the years.

Please pray that I will be a blessing to the Taiwanese teachers. Pray, too, that I will collect stories that best illustrate how ISP works. Thank you for the important part you play in our lives. We’re grateful for your prayers and your generosity.

Sincerely in Christ,

Anne Marie, for the Winz family

“But who sets direction for the writers in the ministry?” Susie asked. As one of two writers with Cru in Boston who traveled to Dallas for our training, she wanted to know if anyone could help give her and her co-worker, Michelle, some direction. (I’m coaching Michelle in this photo.)

“I think there’s a guild,” I answered. A group of Cru writers from the Campus ministry join a conference call every month to talk about projects they’re working on. Susie and Michelle are part of that group,

Yes, but it’s not enough,” Susie answered. I didn’t know how to respond. Ministries are encouraged to forge their own paths. Susie was looking for something more structured.

“What if I walked through this with you in the coming year. Would that be helpful?” I asked. Along with training teams at national events, I also coach writers for a year at a time.

“Will you do that?” Susie asked. “Of course,” I answered. I train, I coach and I equip writers to tell more powerful stories. Late last month, Mark and I traveled to Dallas with Becky, the new editor in chief of Worldwide Challenge, to train 21 writers. They came from various Cru ministries plus three other non-profits: Voice of the Martyrs, Mission to the World and Probe Ministries.

When we train, four things happen. First, everyone writes. Then I give feedback. We take extra time for meals so that we can have in-depth conversations and learn from each other. Finally, we give the writers time to rewrite what they first produced. These conferences work because we make space for writers, made in the image of God, to create by writing. Writers gain confidence and they do amazing work.

Please thank God for the people who came and for the things they learned while they were with us. Ask Him to increase their effectiveness as they begin to practice the things they learned. Please pray that God will give me and the leaders I’m talking to wisdom about what comes next. I have several opportunities, including a trip to Taiwan in January to consider.

Thank you very much for the important part you play in our lives. Through your prayers and generosity, Mark and I are able to do the work God has called us to do. Please let us know how we can pray for you.

– Anne Marie –