Dorina, a television broadcast journalist in Albania, invited Djana, an International School Project staff member, onto one of the country’s most watched TV shows to discuss marriage and family life. Before the show, Djana explained her faith to Dorina and gave her a Christian book about marriage and family life.                       

Next, Djana invited Dorina to participate in the English camp   that the ministry organized every summer with teachers and other professionals. During the camp,

participants heard the gospel several times and were invited to accept Jesus.

Dorina hesitated, asking questions about faith like, “Why should we pray, when God knows everything?”

Dorina took part in the camp in 2019, then returned again in 2020 because she wanted to know God more. During the second camp, she prayed and received Christ into her life. She said, “I have discovered that when I pray, God changes me.”

Since then, Dorina has studied the Book of Romans with a group. She prays for opportunities to share her faith with other women.

She also prays for her husband and relatives to accept Jesus. And she regularly takes one of her colleagues to church, and she prays for and shares Jesus with that colleague. I enjoy telling stories about how God is working through the International School Project.

I also want to invite you to join a 30-minute webinar hosted by an ISP leader.  You’ll learn more about ISP’s techniques and how you can be salt and light to your peers. For more information, send an email to info@ISPonline.org

God is at work around the world. Thank you for the invaluable part you play in helping us tell these stories. Please continue to pray for us as we plan, collect and write stories like these to encourage the body of Christ.

—Anne Marie, for the Winzes  

At long last, our family was together the last week of May. We celebrated Christmas together in 2019, but by Easter of 2020, Anne Marie and I canceled a planned trip to visit Michael in Wisconsin.

On our Monday together, we celebrated all four birthdays with steaks on the grill and a berry-covered cake Bethany baked (below). Tuesday, we visited Anne Marie’s parents near Tampa. Friday was declared our Mothers and Fathers Days — the day started with Michael and Bethany making brunch.

It all brought to mind the days when our prayer letters regularly included updates about kids church events, dance recitals and track meets. We no longer update you about Michael and Bethany frequently, so here’s what they are doing now.

Michael continues in his fifth year working for a medical software company in Wisconsin. He likes life there and continues to run year-round and bike. With the fading of COIVD-19, he hopes to rejoin group runs and play ultimate frisbee. He also follows a local soccer team. 

Bethany works from home for a branding company, helping other companies represent themselves accurately to their clients and potential clients. She likes living in Tennessee and recently moved to a house with a large back yard. That’s great news for her two Samoyed dogs, Rhema and Glory (joining us, right).

Now that their visits are over, Anne Marie and I have moved on to planning our teams’ summers. Along with continuing writing and editing, those we supervise will have vacations, take classes and engage in other summer activities.

We’d appreciate your prayers for wisdom as we plan and lead our team through the season. We’re grateful for your generosity and prayers for us.

— Mark, for the Winz family

Last month, our team got some good news. After all the turmoil 2020 brought, the work we did was recognized by the Evangelical Press Association. Cru Storylines was declared the best digital publication that represents an organization. In addition, we won six awards for specific items — articles and photos — that we published.

One article, “When Telling Stories Goes Beyond the Campfire,” won two awards — for Feature Article (combining writing and photography) and for the best Controlled-Light Photo (shown above). Our photo team also won two other awards: ““Taking Sight and Salvation to El Salvador” (Photo Feature) and Best Use of Photography among all digital publications.

Two articles won awards for writing: “How a Trip Across the Street Led to Change Across the Globe” (Interview Article) and “Peace to the Far and Near: How God is Using Digital Ministry” (Evangelism Article). The last article was named the best one in that category. The judge said, “This is both an inspirational and practical article on how to be a fruitful Christ-follower through digital ministry. What’s more, there are links to additional resources for those who want to go deeper, as this article motivates readers to do so.”

The judge’s comments were a highlight for our team. We want every issue to show people how God is at work, and to motivate our readers to build disciples and introduce people to Jesus. And in 2020, we especially wanted to show how to do that digitally. 

Next, I’m helping edit an article for the July issue of Cru Storylines that will show how a new online tool from Cru is especially helping women grow in their faith.

Her.Bible is an online audio Bible narrated by women from many cultures and walks of life. Some women find it especially helpful if they come from traumatic backgrounds.

Becca, my coworker who wrote the story, interviewed one woman who was rescued from human trafficking. Because she’d been treated abusively by men, hearing an audio Bible in men’s voices was troubling. Another woman suffers from a learning disability that makes reading difficult. She’s found that the audio Bible helps her faith grow.      

As you think of us over the next few weeks, please pray that the work we both do will help people everywhere make disciples and follow Christ more closely. We’re grateful for your prayers and generosity.

— Mark, for the Winz family

Recently, I interviewed Elena, an English teacher in Moldova, a small country in Eastern Europe sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. 

Last September, teachers in her city began teaching in person after being out of their classrooms since the spring due to COVID-19. Elena and six friends had formed an International School Project group, and they wanted to help.

They gave masks to teachers in schools across the city. The masks came with a bookmark, thanking teachers for their selfless work and inviting them to be part of a Facebook group. The teachers were grateful. Some even cried because they’d been remembered. 

When the virus surged, some schools shut down completely and others stayed open half-time. Educators who had never taught using video conferencing were told they must teach online. Some students didn’t have computers but might be able to follow along on a cell phone. 

In December, 20 teachers who wanted face-to-face contact attended an in-person ISP Christmas party. They wore masks and sat socially distanced from each other. At the party, Elena and her friends invited the teachers to a parenting class featuring ISP curriculum. 

Now, every morning at 8:15, Elena and other teachers gather in her classroom to pray for each other, their students, the school and their country. When I asked if they had seen anything happen as a result of prayer, she offered a modest answer. 

She told me while some schools across the city had completely shut down and others had moved to half-time in person instruction because of COVID-19, her school had remained open for the entire school year.

God is at work around the world through teachers, even during a pandemic. This month, please pray for me as I write Elena’s story for our upcoming newsletter.

Thank you for your prayers and generous gifts. You allow us to continue following the call God has placed on our lives. We’re so grateful. And please let us know how we can pray for you, too.

— Anne Marie — 

How have you adjusted to COVID-19? For Anne Marie and me, the changes came in our personal lives for the most part. We haven’t seen Michael, our son, or my dad in more than a year. This week, our daughter, Bethany, celebrated her birthday with several online parties.  

Our work moved home, but our jobs changed little. Anne Marie canceled a trip. We both miss being with our teams in person. But our writing, editing and planning goes on.  

But for Cru staff members who don’t work in offices, everything changed. In the current issue of Cru Storylines, my coworker Mike Chapman reports about a ministry in New York City that had to adjust. The ministry, called Street2Street, brings together Wall Street professionals with teens in the city who want to play basketball. Here’s a bit of the story:

Woody [Woodfin, a Cru staff member] set up a Zoom account, trained his staff and moved Street2Street online. All through the spring, they provided online academic help, chapel and even physical workouts.

Discovering that after Street2Street’s activities, all the kids were staying online to play networked video games, Woody wanted in. His staff members started playing video games with the kids and hosting virtual tournaments. When the pandemic hit, New York City closed down more than 100 neighborhood parks. “Kids want to stay in their own neighborhood,” Woody says, “so they’re gonna be looking for stuff to do, probably online. If they do, they’ll find us playing video games.”

As of the end of 2020, hundreds of kids are involved with Street2Street online. The ministry has accomplished its goal of reaching 20,000 kids, and their 20th “neighborhood” was virtual. “Because the post-COVID world is going to be scared,” Woody says, “we’re going to continue virtual events and activities.” They’re also establishing a Street2Street community center with athletic training, academic support and spiritual enrichment.

You can read the rest at Cru.org/Storylines under the title “New Nets Bring New Life.” Mike used the phone to interview people for the story, but how could we show the story?

Our photo team wasn’t able to travel. After planning with our editorial team, one of our photographers, Guy Gerrard, developed a plan. He went to a local Orland basketball court and photographed players. Since these weren’t the Street2Street players from New York, we didn’t want to simply show the photos. Guy turned several photos, like the one above, into illustrations.

This month, as you think of us, would you pray that both of our teams will continue to successfully do our work in the midst of COVID-19, and for our Cru staff members around the world to continue finding ways to proclaim the gospel?

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, three friends and I agreed to give up candy for Lent, the season before Easter. During that time, our family visited my grandmother in the nearby town of Oxford.

In Oxford, there was a store that sold a wide variety of Jolly Ranchers hard candy. In Holdrege, I could get some flavors of Jolly Ranchers. Sour green apple, cinnamon and grape were easy to find. But in Oxford, they sold watermelon, lemon and other exotic flavors.

So, having forgotten the agreement in my excitement, I ate a few and took several home. When I realized what I’d done, I felt guilty. I put what was left in on a shelf until Easter passed.

But the good news is that while Lent is often seen as a time of sacrifice, it is really about God’s forgiveness. Lent is a time to prepare our hearts for Good Friday and Easter. Those holidays remind us of God’s love — that He offered His Son’s life for our sins and that we can enjoy a new resurrection life.

How do you celebrate Lent? Or, for that matter, do you celebrate Lent? Many times, I let this important season slide by. But this year, I’ve thought a lot about it.

Our team produced a series of devotionals for the season that are available through our website. Anne Marie and I each wrote one. You can sign up to get them via email from the Lent 2021 page on Cru.org.

The one I wrote includes an anecdote from 2013 about the friendship a group from my church here in Orlando enjoyed while sorting coins (shown here). The coins came from fountains at a local theme park. The park donated them to a home for children with serious disabilities. But the wet, dirty and mixed coins weren’t bankable. The group needed to clean and sort them.

As they worked, they were serving the home’s children in the spirit of generosity that Jesus modeled. God’s Spirit empowered them to serve, and to enjoy the fellowship.

This month, as you think of us, would you pray that those devotionals will help people grow in their faith? As always, we’re grateful for your friendship, prayers and generosity.

Oh, and you might wonder: After enjoying those Jolly Ranchers, did I admit my failing to my three friends? No, I confess now, I didn’t. (Dan, Randy and Scott, if you read this, I hope you can forgive me five decades later.)

— Mark, for the Winz family

NOTE: This letter contains sensitive information. Please don’t forward or post it on a website.

Dear Friend,

Every Christmas, teachers in Russia host evangelistic parties for their peers and students. Despite the pandemic, they pressed forward in 2020.

Several Russian teachers gave their students Bibles. One teacher said, “Praise the Lord! On Christmas Eve, the children again heard the story of the birth of their Savior, made a nativity scene, and received a children’s Bible as a gift.” (In the photo above, you can see them with their Bibles.)

Irina has been praying for gospel opportunities since participating in a six-week ISP Bible study where she learned how to share the gospel with her colleagues.

“I prayed for one of my colleagues,” she explains. “God brought us closer [and in the process], I learned a lot about her. I gave her a Bible today. It turned out that she had dreamed of getting a Bible. She recognizes what a precious gift it is and said that she would definitely read it. [I] thank God for this wonderful project that is leading us on the right path.”

Ludmila received permission from her students’ parents to give away Bibles. Now, Ludmila and her students are studying the English text of the Bible together. (In the photo on the right, one of the students reads his Bible.) 

Please pray for those who now have Bibles to grow to know God, and for new believers to grow in their faith. Pray, too, for Christian teachers who will help guide these new believers.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support. Your gifts allow us to help teachers and students in Russia and around the world hear the gospel. We’re so grateful.

— Anne Marie

How are you? We pray that you and your family are healthy and safe, and that you are continuing to grow in your faith, even in the midst of our current pandemic.

Even though Mark and I and the teams we’re on have been unable to travel and collect stories during this time, we’re hearing stories from all over the world about how God is at work in people’s lives. Previously, International School Project staff members traveled the world training teachers how to deepen their faith and reach their peers with the gospel.

Now, our team members meet with teachers online via Zoom to plan both virtual and in-person outreaches. Later this month, six teams of Mongolian teachers plan to travel to cities in their country where there are existing teacher communities.

They will train Christian teachers to explain their faith to their peers and help them grow in faith. They’ll also hold professional training events for teachers in those cities. A seventh team will travel to a new city and seek to establish a teacher community there.

In Cambodia, teachers from cities across the country join a weekly prayer and planning video call. In several of the cities, teachers are planning professional training events as well as evangelism and discipleship training for teachers who are ready to reach out to their peers.

In Ecuador, our local staff members have opened up new ministries in three cities. Most of the work was done via video calls. They host a weekly call so teachers can pray with each other and encourage each other.

God continues to open doors for us to reach teachers around the world, who are some of the most influential members of their societies.

Pray for teachers in Mongolia, Cambodia and Ecuador to grow in their faith and introduce their co-workers to Christ. Pray for Mark and I and our teams as we help Cru staff members around the world tell the stories of how God is at work in their lives and help disciple people through digital methods.

Thank you for your generous gifts and prayers for our ministry. You allow us to continue doing the work God has called us to do.

— Anne Marie —

Over the last year, I’ve learned new vocabulary words. As our team works more closely with other Cru teams, we’ve found that each team uses different terms to talk about work. If we’re going to be effective, we need to learn each other’s languages. I’ve actually leaned back on some of the training I took before moving to the Philippines.

This week, I’ll be in online meetings every afternoon as part of a “narrative workshop,” one of those new terms. The workshop includes Cru communicators from across the US and from different branches of Cru, such as the Campus Ministry, Athletes in Action, FamilyLife and others.

We’ll look for themes that we can all incorporate into our work throughout 2021.

This year, our overall focus was division and reconciliation — both between people and God and between one another. You can see some of this play out on Cru.org, Cru’s main website, and our stories in Cru Storylines.

People feel separated from God in light of COVID-19. They are asking, Where is God and how is He at work? Cru.org addresses some of these questions directly, while our stories show how God’s people are responding with caring and innovation.

Our story, “Summer Missions Went Virtual,” shows how between February and May, Cru leaders changed all of their efforts to send students overseas for summer missions. Leaders and students “traveled” online to places like Australia (shown in the photo above), Russia and others, and connected with students via Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. People in those places heard about God’s love and grew spiritually with help from people who were in the U.S.

As our team cannot travel right now, we had to search our files for photos to illustrate the story. Our writers did interviews by phone and online. So much has changed, but we still share how God is reconciling people to Himself.

As you think of us this week and in the near future, please pray for the narrative workshop and that our teams will continue to learn how to our work with no international travel through the end of this year. And please pray for wisdom for both of Anne Marie and me as we supervise the work of communicators telling the good news of what God is doing around the world.

We’re grateful for your partnership and prayers.

Let me tell you about two new friends, Samuel and Amal, from Lebanon. We met during an online Bible study sponsored by the International School Project. You likely heard about the explosion that rocked Beirut earlier this month. The explosion flattened the port and damaged buildings across the city up to six miles away, as shown in the before and after photos. 

When the explosion happened, Samuel and Amal, ISP staff members,  were 25 miles away in the mountains. Had they been at their apartment in Beirut, less than a mile from the port, they likely wouldn’t have survived. The blast blew doors and windows into their home, and broken glass covered their floors and furniture. “We badly need your prayers,” Samuel said. They verified that our staff members and key teachers survived the blast unharmed, but they, too, suffered damage to their homes. 

Earlier this year, Samuel and Amal led ministries to students and teachers at multiple schools. Every week, they hosted assemblies during school hours and club meetings during recess. On March 15, when the city shut down because of COVID-19, they continued, but with online meetings. They discussed topics like fear, worry, surrender, and God’s care for teachers and students during and after the virus. 

Nana, another staff member, started a Facebook page for teachers. She posted a video viewed by 9,300 people. She received messages from 27 people. Teachers are still asking questions, and they want to know more about starting a relationship with Christ. 

Samuel and Amal, and Nana, will rebuild their apartments, and help their neighbors. They also plan to help teachers repair their homes. Schools were closed before the blast. Now, before they can reopen, they have to be repaired. 

Will you take a minute and pray for our staff members and key teachers as they clean up? Ask God to help them repair the damage and to be able to help others around them. Pray that they will have opportunities to talk about their faith as they work.

Thank you for your prayers and generosity. Your gifts allow us to continue the work God has called us to do.

— Anne Marie, for the Winzes