Recently, we’ve heard two amazing stories about the “JESUS” film. Cru staff members and a wide variety of partner churches and organizations use the film to proclaim the gospel and build disciples around the world. 

In a country in Asia where most people follow another religion, films from the Jesus Film Project were shown on national television. For a country where the gospel is not openly shared, this could be considered a miracle.

In March, as part of a Women’s Day celebration, they aired “Magdalena ,” a version of the “JESUS” film that focuses on Christ’s tender regard for women. Then the week leading up to Easter in April, the “Life of Jesus” movie, based on the Gospel of John, aired for three nights.

A police officer shared with a Cru leader that he had watched the movie with his wife and said that it was the first time they had heard of the gospel, and that they decided to learn more about Jesus.

More recently, in Nigeria, a church planting team visited a village. The people there were concerned as it was time to plant crops. However, there’d been no sign of clouds or rain for 23 days. The people had tried their traditional religious practices, but nothing worked.

A “JESUS” film team went to the drying village well and prayed. Later that day, a soaking rain fell. When they showed the film that night, the whole village turned out to watch and respond. (Click on this link to watch a video from Nigeria.)

  This month, would you pray that film teams showing “JESUS” around the world will find open doors and will see answered prayers? Also, please keep praying for Anne Marie’s recovery from an auto-immune problem. She’s making slow, but hopeful, progress. Thanks for praying, 

As always, we’re grateful for your prayers for us and your commitment to us.

Sincerely in Christ, — Mark, for the Winz family

Two weeks ago, I sat across from my supervisor for an end-of-the-year review. How is May the end of the year? That makes sense for Cru since the Campus ministry — where Cru started in 1951 — is still the largest part of our organization. We plan for the year in July and August, and we review the year in May and June.

Our online publishing teams also review our work at this time of year. When we mailed “Worldwide Challenge” magazine to people, we couldn’t know how much of it each person read. With online publishing, we can know how people respond.

Recently, we heard some great reports:

• In the year ending May 10, 2022, there were 7.7 million page views on our main website, Cru.org (shown above). That included 4.9 million new users who had never been on the site before.
• People didn’t just glance — they spent an average of more than six minutes on some pages.
• Our social media outreaches connected with 27.6 million people, and posts asking people to pray for Ukraine reached more than 100,000 accounts.
• More than 500,000 readers saw our email newsletters.
• More than 730,000 gospel presentation booklets were purchased through our online Cru store.
• Through our Legacy Video outreach, 616 videos were viewed for a total of more than 1 million minutes. Two Muslim-majority countries, where Christians often suffer persecution, were among the top 10 countries from which people accessed those videos. I think you’d enjoy the Legacy videos, which you can find at that link.

As you think of us over the next few weeks, please keep praying for Anne Marie’s health. She’s slowly gaining strength, but still has to pace herself. And ask God to empower us as we plan, write, edit and publish stories — that our work would help people around the world meet Jesus and grow in their faith.

Thank you for your prayers and partnership. We’re truly grateful.

Sincerely in Christ, Mark, for the Winz family

Three years ago, I joined the International School Project, a ministry of Cru that helps teachers around the world build discipleship communities. I planned to write and travel. It was a great opportunity, so I followed God’s leading.

When the pandemic started, I said goodbye to planned trips. I used the time to train the other writers on the team. They were quick studies and created wonderful work. I worked myself out of a job and my responsibilities gravitated toward administration.

I enjoyed the time working with people, managing projects is not part of my skill set. I prayed about what might come next. I sensed God’s leading me to write full time.

While I value reaching educators with the gospel and training them to reach their peers, I’m looking forward to a new opportunity.

Earlier this year, I tentatively began a conversation with my friends at Cru Storylines, our digital magazine. That led to an invitation to join their team. I accepted, and I started that role last week.

Next, I’ll start writing a story about giving thanks that will run in the November issue.

Thank you for praying for me as I take on this new role. My health has been an uphill battle. On a positive note, I have a diagnosis (myositis), a doctor, and a treatment plan. I can tell I’m making progress, but it’s going to take time for me to regain my strength. Please keep praying.

Thank you for the valuable part you play in the work God has called Mark and me to do together. Because of your prayers and generosity, we’re able to equip students and laypeople around the world to share the gospel with their peers.

Sincerely in Christ, — Anne Marie, for the Winz family

We’re grateful for your prayers as we continue to help build disciples around the world.  In our last letter, we asked you to pray for Ukraine and the surrounding countries. Here’s one story. 

“Is there war here?” Aleksander, a primary student, asked. He’s one of at least 2.5 million Ukrainian children who’ve moved to safer places since the Russian invasion began. He fled to the city of Ternopil with his mother.

They arrived at a school where Svitlana, an ISP trained educator, serves as principal. Her school has a bomb shelter in the basement. When air raid sirens scream, teachers and students shuffle and hide in the basement. Svitlana and other Christian educators in her school are reaching out to meet physical needs by providing food and makeshift beds for 24 people. They also offer spiritual and emotional support.

“The children who have arrived have nothing else,” Svitlana says. “Their parents are already deeply traumatized.”

While much attention has focused on Ukraine and neighboring countries, Cru’s work goes on around the world. Mark continues to serve as managing editor for Cru Storylines, while also overseeing other communications projects. His team is working on stories from New York, California, Africa and South America.

We’re thankful for your prayers for our health. Mark’s eye surgery went well and he’s adjusting to having good distance vision after being near-sighted for most of his life. He’s also doing physical therapy for a hip problem that is getting better.

We’re still trying to figure out what is going on with my health. In December, I began to have lower body weakness and pain, as well as shoulder pain. 

Blood tests indicated a serious autoimmune problem. With that information, I saw a rheumatologist. He requested more blood tests and a CT scan, which confirmed the diagnosis. 

As you think of us, please pray:

• For growing strength in my arms and legs as I take prescribed medications and continue with a physical therapy routine.
• For no side effects from the prescriptions. I’ve had some stomach pain from one of them. 
• For Mark’s continued adjustment to his eyesight, and to using reading glasses for close-up work.
• For both of our ministries to continue. So far, we’ve both been able to keep working almost full time around our medical appointments.  

Thanks again. We treasure having you as part of our lives.

Sincerely in Christ, Anne Marie, for the Winz family

Dear friend,

Thank you for your partnership with Mark and I through the work we are doing at Cru. This month, all eyes have been on Ukraine. Our hearts break as we hear about what’s going on there and think of the people caught up in war. 

The International School Project has strong teachers’ movements in both Ukraine and Russia. Other Cru ministries also work in both countries. Below are updates from teachers and leaders in Ukraine and the surrounding countries. These will give you a sense of their situation. Please join us in praying for them.

Natalie, a teacher in Ternopil, Ukraine: Thanks for your prayers. We are scared, but we are strong. We all pray together and believe God will hear our prayers. Pray for us, for the soldiers, the children, for our internal peace and PEACE. (Ephesians 3:20)

Oleg and Galina, ISP’s coordinators in Ukraine: Besides their routine duties, [teachers] are helping our army and thousands of refugees. Our teachers pray daily, encouraging one another. (Psalm 121:1-2)

Sergey, Teachers’ Ministry director in Ukraine: Thank God we are alive, our children are and also our staff. We have temporarily moved closer to western Ukraine, where Dina’s parents live. However, we have 9 people from Kiev who are not yet believers living in our dacha 60 km outside of Kiev. Pray for unbelievers to come to Christ as Christians welcome them into their homes. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Ala, a teacher in Kamyanets-Podilsky, Ukraine: It’s relatively quiet in my part of the country. The city and surrounding villages are accepting refugees and we are accommodating them in the schools, including in my school. There was an air raid, so we had to hide in the basement. We as Christians are calm; and I believe that it is God who gives peace in order to comfort others who are afraid. (Joshua 1:8-9)

Staff members and teachers in Moldova:  We are receiving refugees and are working 24 hours a day to find shelter, food and clothing for them. We are exhausted.  Tomorrow, we will spend several hours with the women and children in one center and will be looking for opportunities to share with them. Pray for strength to care for the refugees and opportunities to present Christ. (Isaiah 41:10)

Over the next few weeks, when you hear news of the war in Ukraine, please pray for these Christ-followers and others, and for peace to return.

Also, please pray for our health. Mark’s eye surgery is scheduled for March 17 — pray for a successful surgery and a quick and full recovery. I’m doing physical therapy to help solve my arm and shoulder problems.

Thank you so much for the valuable part you play in our lives. We’re grateful for your prayers and gifts.

Sincerely in Christ, Anne Marie, for the Winz family

Last Spring, 900 people live streamed the first Created For event to help them follow Jesus more closely. This year, I’m helping prepare for a second event in the series. They are sponsored by the City ministry of Cru.  

This event will help people discover the influence God has created them to make in the world, and to help them live out that influence through life’s challenges. Nine Christian leaders will speak for nine minutes each on the theme of Being while Becoming. The speakers will help followers of Jesus explore who God created them to be, the desire we all have to belong, and who we and our world could become.

In my new role as a communications team project manager, I meet with the nine people working to promote the event. During the meetings, we decide what needs to happen and who will do each task. Then, I set out a timeline and assign those tasks to each person. 

People on the team already have, or soon will, design a website, create and place advertisements like the one above, promote the event through social media (like Instagram, Twitter and others), and promote the event through email. We’ll start with the 900 people who attended last year and the more than 2,000 people who’ve contacted the City ministry in some way. And we’ll ask those people to invite their friends and coworkers to join.

You can sign up at cru.org/createdfor.

As you think of us in late February and March, please pray about these things.

• Ask God to draw the right people to tune into Created For, and for each person to grow in their faith.  
• Pray for both of us as we work through some medical issues. I’m preparing for eye surgery next month. Anne Marie is working on hand and arm strength — what we thought was carpal tunnel syndrome may be something different. We’re waiting to find out more.    

Thank you so much for praying for us.

Sincerely in Christ,

— Mark, for the Winz family

I just passed a test by getting a negative result. Yes, it was an at-home COVID-19 test. Anne Marie and I are being extra careful this week as we plan to host a friend in our home later this week. She’s visiting to train our writers team in editing.

The reason for this training is a significant change in the work that the writers do. Over the next few months, our team members will take on more editing work. They’ll all still write articles, and will also edit writing by Cru staff members from around the world. Many Cru staff members whose primary work involves evangelism and discipleship want to write about how God is working in their lives and ministries. Our team will help them get those articles published. 

Along with this, my role will change as of February 1. I’ll continue as the managing editor of Cru Storylines while adding a new role. As managing editor, I help our editor in chief by identifying the steps needed to complete each issue, set out a timeline, and then help assign work to get each issue done. Each story goes through about 50 steps from planning through publishing.

Now, I’ll serve as one of the project managers for the whole communications team at Cru’s headquarters. Based on my experience and strengths, we realized that I can help plan a wide variety of evangelism and discipleship communications products. I’ll help team leaders do what I’ve been doing for our digital magazine — identify the steps needed, plan a timeline and assign work to team members.

In order to fit this into my workload, I’ll pass the role of leading the writers team on to someone else. Melissa, one of our current writers, will take on that role moving forward.

As you think of us over the next few weeks, please pray these things.

• Ask God to keep us healthy as we interact with people at this week’s training, in our offices, at church and in other places.
• Pray for my adjustment to my new role, and that I’ll help with a wider variety of communications projects. 
• Pray for Anne Marie as her team continues to help teachers around the world share the gospel and build disciples.   

Thanks for your prayers and generosity.

Sincerely in Christ, Mark — for the Winz family

Although she didn’t study education, Melina Perez and her husband, Joel, teach at a private Christian academy. They are tasked with promoting the spiritual growth of students and teachers.

Last week, as part of my work with the International School Project, I interviewed Melina to hear more about how God is at work in her life in Quito, Ecuador.

“We always wanted to teach,” said Melina, who volunteers with ISP. “Unfortunately, I didn’t study to be a teacher, but it was my dream.”

So, when Melina heard about ISP, she was immediately interested in learning how ISP could help their students and faculty. “ISP has been equipping me with tools to work in the school with teachers,” she says.

Melina attended her first ISP conference in August 2019 when she served as a translator/interpreter. Since then, she has been a speaker for ISP events discussing topics such as trauma healing, and a facilitator for two online conferences.

I get excited when I see how teachers around the world, like Melina, are trusting God to multiply their influence and their opportunities to share the gospel with their peers and in their classrooms.

On a personal note, I recently showed a sample of my writing to an experienced author. It contained devotions I had written for our church community during the pandemic. He offered helpful feedback, and then he invited me to write a book.

If I can finish before Christmas, he will show it to editors at a Christian book publisher. No promises, but what an amazing opportunity. Please pray for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit as I plan and as I write.

Thank you so much for the valuable part you play in our lives. We’re grateful for your prayers and gifts.

Sincerely in Christ, Anne Marie, for the Winz family

In my early teens, I crept through the woods along a narrow river trying to keep a group of other boys in sight. I tried to keep quiet so they wouldn’t find me. I failed. But my attempt was sufficient to get an older Boy Scout’s initials in my Scout handbook. I was completing the tracking/trailing requirement that was then a badge requirement.

I hadn’t thought about that sneaky walk for several years. But when I was in Nebraska earlier this month, I recalled it as my dad and I looked down from the dam that turns the Republican River into a manageable flow. As we drove across the dam, we talked and recalled fishing trips and our family’s one attempt at camping in a tent. (Attempt, as Dad reminded me that my mom ended up sleeping in the car.) 

Dad reminisced as we drove through South-Central Nebraska. We stopped at my cousin’s farm and talked with his family.  We drove by the area where Dad’s family lived before he was born, to a small town where he started school, and through another small town where he graduated from high school. He still brags that he was third in his class, then smirks and reveals that his class had only three seniors.

Due to COVID-19 guidelines where he lives, we couldn’t go inside restaurants. Instead, we used the Runza drive-through. (For those of you not from Nebraska, that’s a fast-food chain with only six sites outside the state.) Dad favored chocolate shakes and fries, something he doesn’t usually get. We ate three meals in the parks in my hometown.

Around times of reminiscing with Dad, I connected with about a dozen friends in Nebraska. Thanks for praying for my trip. And thanks for praying for Anne Marie as she took part in a writers conference. She had a great time, and she has a fun opportunity before her. She’ll tell you more in our next letter.  

In the meantime, we’re getting ready for another trip. During the COVID-19 “shutdowns,” Anne Marie’s nephew got married. Now, at last, we’re planning to celebrate as a family. Anne Marie’s four sisters and brother plus some of their children will be there. During the next week, would you pray for all of us to stay safe and healthy as we travel for this family gathering?

Starting next week, we’ll finally feel fully back into life and work in Orlando. Would you pray for both of us as we continue to play leadership roles on our teams? Anne Marie’s director is on maternity leave. Pray for Anne Marie and the team as they re-organize their work after doing a digital upgrade. I continue to lead the writers working on Cru Storylines. Several stories that we’d begun working on for upcoming issues didn’t work out. Pray that we can find the right stories to inspire our readers to follow Christ closely and to share the gospel with people around them.

Thanks for your prayers and generosity.

— Mark, for the Winz family

I spent most of the week before last editing a group of webpages. It was a sad task, as I had to tell some Cru staff members that they must continue limiting ministry activities because of COVID-19.

Since last March, I’ve been the primary writer for Cru’s COVID-19 crisis team. Initially, we sent a weekly email to all U.S. staff members informing them about the changing situation. As things stabilized, we slowed the frequency. The 42^nd email went recently and I’m preparing the 43^rd.

As we informed staff members of the situation, we also put that information and even more onto web pages. The pages cover health, travel, facilities and meeting-size limits. At first, the tone was about closing things down. We added pages as needed, without an overall plan. We didn’t know from week to week what we would have to say next.  

Then, as we gained some increased freedom to meet and interact with people, the tone changed to “reengaging” with ministry activities. In June, I was hopeful that the day might come when we could remove all of those pages. But as cases continue arise in some places, we had to make a sad decision.

We decided to change the tone to continuing a ministry in a world that contains COVID-19, and that likely will for the foreseeable future. It gave me a chance to review the whole set of pages and to organize and update them.

The virus still affects us daily. Neither Anne Marie nor I go to our offices every day. We’re cautious about visiting Anne Marie’s parents in nearby Clearwater. And we haven’t visited my dad since November 2019 (shown in the photo above). We’ve also avoided other travel.

As you think of us over the next few weeks, would you pray as we both plan to begin to travel once more? In early September, we both have travel plans, but we won’t be traveling together.

• I plan to go to Nebraska the first several days of September to visit my dad and other people we haven’t seen for such a long time. Please pray for good health for me, my dad, and everyone I’ll visit. And pray that there won’t be too many limits on my visits with him due to restrictions in the place where he lives. 
• Anne Marie plans to take part in a writers conference in early September. Pray that she and all the participants will arrive in good health, and that everyone at the event will remain healthy. And pray that everyone there will leave inspired with better writing skills.

As always, we’re grateful for your generosity and prayers for us. And do let us know how we can pray for you.

— Mark, for the Winz family