During May, followers of Jesus around the world plan to work together for a common goal. Go2020 is a joint effort of dozens of Christian churches and organizations, including Cru, to invite people to pray for those around them, show love to those they pray for, and  find ways to tell them about Jesus’ love.

Our team is working with others at Cru and beyond to help motivate those we have contact with to take those three steps.

First, a few months ago we began planning how to encourage the readers of Cru Storylines to participate. While there was information available from other sources, we asked Cru’s video team to produce a video that we trust will encourage people to take part. The video features Daryl Smith, Cru’s co-director for North America and Oceania.

Next, I worked with a team made up of people from several Cru departments to create a page on our main website, Cru.org. I wrote the words for the site and found Cru resources to help people take these three steps. We included the video, a Cru.org editor worked on it, and a designer put the items together and made sure the links worked.

Within two weeks, we went from having a concept to having the page ready to post. You can see it all at Cru.org/Go2020. If you want to learn more, you can see the main Go2020 page for the U.S. at Go2020usa.com, and for the world Go2020.world/home.

Our team continues to work on such projects to help disciple people around the world online, in partnership with a growing number of Cru departments and other organizations. 

Over the next few weeks, would you pray for Anne Marie as she takes on leadership over some parts of the International School Project’s communications work while a coworker is away from work to give birth. Also, please pray for our daughter, Bethany, as she starts a new job and moves back to Nashville. We’ll miss her, but we’re excited for her new opportunity.

We’re grateful for your prayers and partnership in our ministry.

“What would you ask God if you saw Him?” Oksana asked her 5th graders as they looked at a table covered with 50 photographs. The images are part of Soularium, an ice breaker tool designed by Cru. She asked students to choose an image that represented the question they would ask, then to write the question.

• “How much longer will my mother live?” a boy wrote, choosing an abandoned kitten image.
• “What can You [God] do?” another student, who chose a photograph of a broken glass, wrote.

Oksana shared with the International School Project team: “We listen to people and the Holy Spirit! He directs us to serve people and to share the gospel! In the next homeroom period I plan to share with the children that the Lord answers each one of us. In the DreamMakers-DreamBreakers elementary curriculum, one of the last lessons mentions a letter from God to people. I want to pray about how best to share this with the students.”

Teachers like Oksana, who attended ISP’s DreamMakers-DreamBreakers conference, trust God to help them creatively find ways to pass the gospel message on to their students. Oksana also reaches out to her colleagues, sometimes in the face of  opposition.

Last spring, Oksana planned an ISP seminar in her city. Before it even started, some teachers asked the school director to forbid the seminar. Fortunately, the school director supported Oksana, so the seminar was held and was successful.

Afterwards, the teachers who resisted Oksana wrote a letter to the local education authority. Oksana was summoned to speak before this board. She immediately asked teachers in the ISP social network group to pray for her. Within minutes, replies flooded in from teachers — some giving Scripture, others promising to pray, and others who summarized the teacher’s legal rights. God answered their prayers. Many other teachers defended Oksana, and she was cleared to continue her work in the school.

Oksana is one of hundreds of teachers across Russia serving as volunteer missionaries in their schools, communities, and country.

Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support as we serve people like Oksana. This month, please pray for Mark and me as we plan for a video training that Cru leaders have asked us to produce which will train writers around the world.

May God richly bless you as you continue to trust Him.

—Much love, Anne Marie, for the Winz family

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed your Christmas and other holiday celebrations. We enjoyed ours.

Michael spent a week in Orlando, so all four of us were together for the first time since last Christmas. We went to church on Christmas Eve, then enjoyed dinner and watched our favorite Christmas movies. Over the week, we played games, completed four jigsaw puzzles and played miniature golf.

We also enjoyed good meals together. Anne Marie coordinated the kitchen and cooked most meals, but we all got in on the act. Bethany baked desserts and did some cooking. Michael cooked macaroni and cheese and Thai stir-fry. And being in Florida allowed me to cook part of three meals outside on the grill.   

Now, we begin the new year with gratitude for last year and with anticipation of all the opportunities 2020 will bring.

Anne Marie is taking on some additional communication work on the International School Project communications team. One of her coworkers is preparing to give birth this spring, so Anne Marie will help fill the gap at work. She also plans at least two trips this year.

Mark’s team continues settling in after their move. He was the point person for the physical move and they are working at their new desks. At the same time, Mark is still coordinating moving some shared team items, setting up new archival storage for past publications and getting office supplies in place.        

Over the next few weeks, would you pray for Mark and his team to complete the move process and to get back to work on Cru Storylines.

We’re grateful for your prayers and partnership in our ministry, and we wish you all the best in the new year and beyond.

Last week, in Mongolia, 75 teachers from five schools attended an International School Project conference. They learned how to talk to their students about developing morals and values to help them make better decisions.

Teachers gathered in small groups after each keynote talk to discuss what they’d heard. A facilitator, a Mongolian teacher who’d attended a previous ISP event, led the conversations.

Twice during the conference, small group facilitators shared their testimonies, explaining how they came to follow Jesus. Some were nervous as they shared, but most of the group members responded positively and asked lots of questions. 

However, one older woman angrily objected. She said to the others, “They are trying to force us into their faith!” Before the facilitator could respond, two younger teachers said that because the speakers had taught so many helpful principles, they wanted to hear whatever the facilitators had to say. 

One of my favorite parts of my new job is collecting reports like this one. Thanks for praying for my transition to this new work. 

After the conference, teachers split into communities based on where they live. They’ll meet for prayer, Bible study and professional development during the coming year. 

Over the next few weeks, please pray: 

• for teachers who attended the conference in Mongolia to join communities where they can both find and offer encouragement  in their faith, and 
• for Mark and me as we travel to visit Mark’s dad, Ross, and visit friends in Omaha.    

We wish you a very happy Thanksgiving later this month. We’re so thankful for your faithful prayers and generous gifts. We’re grateful for your friendship.

— Anne Marie, for the Winz family

Last week, Anne Marie and I gathered around a table with five other Cru staff members to pray for most of a day. We heard great stories about God’s work in people’s lives.

On October 1, Cru staff members around the world gathered in different places for one of our twice-a-year days of prayer. We usually gather with our teams in Orlando, but this time, we joined the Philadelphia area team. It was a refreshing opportunity.

We prayed for Heather, who worked at a club as an “exotic dancer” until Christ changed her life. She showed up at a church Bible study and connected with the women she met there. One of them, a Cru staff member, began a long-term friendship that has included a difficult journey for both Heather and the staff family. Now, Heather works in a department store and speaks at outreaches about how Jesus changed her life.

We prayed for a new believer from a middle eastern country. He grew up a Muslim, and spent the summer going through a “discover the Bible” study with a Bridges staff member. Bridges is Cru’s outreach to students from other countries who are studying in the United States.

We prayed for a burgeoning Cru ministry at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Established in 1837, that school was the first such institute in the country for African Americans. We also prayed for a new outreach at Temple University to sororities and fraternities. The staff member who leads that is seeing progress after a long time of praying and trusting God for open doors to these groups.

Praying for campus ministries fit with something we started this summer. At our Cru staff conference, we learned about an effort by 20 organizations to begin Christian movements on campuses that may not have them. The first step is for someone to prayer-walk each campus.

We stopped at three campuses in Nebraska where there was no record of a prayer walk. We walked and prayed for God to begin spiritual movements on each. There are still more than 2,500 campuses that need to be prayed for. You might find a campus near you on the website everycampus.com/.

We’re grateful for your prayers for us. We just returned from our trip to Pennsylvania. It was greatly encouraging as we connected with friends and two churches.

Over the next few weeks, please pray for Anne Marie in her new role with the International School Project. Please also pray for her mother, Helen, who is facing some health challenges.

Thank you for your prayers and partnership in our ministry.

Last week, I walked to the space that will be our team’s new office. In one sense, it isn’t far: 77 steps from my desk to the top of a stairway, down 24 stairs, then another 236 steps leading into another building.

In another sense, the move feels like a long trip. For about 20 years, since Cru moved into these buildings, my office has been within sight of its current location.

But the coming physical move won’t be the biggest change — our new responsibilities are more important. We’ll merge with another team, and together, continue our current work while writing for more Cru publications, websites and smartphone apps.

We’ve already begun writing how-to articles for Cru’s MissionHub app. It helps followers of Christ build disciples by showing their friends how they can know God more fully. You can try it out at get.missionhub.com.

Meanwhile, we’re gathering stories for Cru Storylines from Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Texas, Colorado and El Salvador. We’re preparing a video about a refugee from Cuba who met Christ through the JESUS film. And we’re researching possible stories from Sri Lanka, Australia, California, Georgia and Washington, D.C. God is at work all over the world.

I look forward to our team’s new opportunities. Over the next few weeks, would you pray for our transition as we form a new team and begin doing writing projects for other Cru ministries? And would you pray for Anne Marie and me, as we visit friends and churches in Pennsylvania between Sept. 20 and Oct. 7.

We’re grateful for your prayers and generosity.

— Mark, for the Winz family —

On a Wednesday afternoon, Anne Marie took a microphone to the front of a dormitory meeting at Colorado State University (above).  She introduced speakers to Cru staff members during our staff conference, Cru19.
 
This was part of Cru’s Bloggers-Authors Meetup, a series of events she’s helped with over the last few years. These events help Cru staff members be more successful writers. Our staff conference gave us a chance to be together as Cru staff writers.
 
The conference filled a bit more than a week of our month-long trip to five states in July and August. We visited friends, ministry partners and family members in Nebraska and neighboring states. It’s good to be back in Orlando again.

 
Thank you for praying for our trip. We’re grateful that you are part of our team of ministry partners. 

Chantha, now a 33-year-old teacher in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, trusted  Christ while working as a housekeeper for a pastor and his family in Malaysia. They treated her with love and respect, and taught her to speak English. When she attended church with them, she heard the gospel and trusted Christ to forgive her sins. Later, she returned to Cambodia and became a school teacher. 

At a recent International School Project Dream Makers conference in Cambodia, she learned about life maps, a way for students and teachers to tell their life stories by drawing pictures of important events in their lives. It’s a powerful exercise that takes place at each conference. Teachers draw their life maps and share them with their small groups of teachers. 

Knowing most of her small group members were Buddhists, Chantha was concerned they might not understand her decision to follow Christ. She hesitatingly showed them her life map. The teachers in her group warmly embraced her and her story. 

On the last day of the conference, an official from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports gave a speech and invited some of the teachers to share their life maps. In front of the entire group, Chantha explained her life map. The government official complimented her for including her faith journey in her story and referred back to her story three more times as he finished his talk. 

Teachers in 30 countries around the world attend conferences like this one. They learn exercises — like making life maps — so they can better understand their own stories and talk to their students about morals and values. 

As you think of us over the next few weeks, please pray for safe travel and good connections with people. We plan to be at our Cru staff conference in Colorado July 18-26. On the way there and back, we plan to visit family members, friends and churches in Nebraska and surrounding states. We’ll be on the road from July 11 to August 3. And please let us know how we can pray for you.

— Anne Marie, for the Winzes —

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Last week, a man on a bicycle left Washington, D.C. He plans to arrive in Fort Collins, Colorado, by July 18. Our team is playing a small role in this journey.

He’s carrying all he thinks he’ll need, including camping gear and a bike repair kit. He plans to ride about 60 miles a day, day after day, for almost six weeks. (I’m impressed. I recently biked 60 miles in one day, and I had no interest in getting on my bike the next day.)

A couple weeks ago, I got an email asking if our team of writers and editors would help raise the profile of a little-known part of Cru. Dennis plans to bike almost 2,000 miles doing a kind of bike-a-thon to raise money. Along the way, he hopes to post online updates. But as he’d be on his own and not carrying a laptop, he would need help with those updates.

Unlike most Cru fundraising efforts, this one is asking Cru staff members to give. The part of Cru he’s already begun raising money for, the Ethnic Ministry Fund, provides matching funds to help those from different ethnicities reach their ministry locations. Staff members from minority cultures often find fundraising more challenging than those who are part of the majority.

Dennis, like many of us, sees this need as crucial to Cru’s long-term success. So, as he thought about riding a long distance, he decided he wanted to help meet this need.

For our team, this work will be a stretch. Typically, it takes a few months to prepare an issue of Cru Storylines, as it always did for the magazine. For this project, we need to work fast, doing several updates on a webpage for Cru staff members each week. We’re building a new set of skills that will help our future work.

That will be challenging, but that’s the easy part. Dennis is doing the hard part. If you’re somewhere between D.C. and Fort Collins over the next few weeks, keep an eye out for our Cru bike rider.

As you think of us, please pray for safety and health for Dennis as he travels and for the fund to benefit from his work. Pray for me and our team to effectively communicate the progress of Dennis’ ride. And pray for Anne Marie as she continues adjusting to her new role with the International School Project.

We’re grateful for your generosity, prayers and friendship.

— Mark, for the Winzes —

KJ grew up following Islam in Gambia, a sliver of a country in West Africa. Eleven years ago, a missionary from Nigeria showed the JESUS film in KJ’s village.  He began following Christ. Facing persecution, he had to walk to the next village to shop as those in his village refused to do business with him. He now helps lead a church in his village, has planted churches in two others and is working to start a fourth.

This is one of three stories about people from Muslim cultures turning to Christ that we’re working on for Cru Storylines^TM. We rarely get to tell such stories as we need to protect these believers and ministries. Yet in some places, believers are bold enough to share their stories.

 In Great Britain, an immigrant from Iran who grew up Muslim helps lead a ministry. She and her husband, also a Christ-follower who grew up following Islam, take the gospel to other Muslim immigrant families through FamilyLife^®, a Cru^® outreach.

On campuses across North Africa and the Middle East, where virtually every student is Muslim, teams of Christians visit to tell about Christ. Because their time in these countries is short — up to a year, but sometimes shorter — they can take risks that long-term missionaries cannot. If they face trouble, they can leave earlier than planned with little damage to ongoing ministry.

We’re preparing a story about a young man who came to Christ thanks to such an outreach. Because we cannot show his photo, we’ll show the story in a series of illustrations — almost like a true-life comic book. This is a new process for our team.

While my team works on such stories, Anne Marie continues writing about the work of the International School Project. Their work, likewise, often takes place in countries where we must report only carefully. Read more about ISP at http://www.isponline.org/.

Thanks for praying for Anne Marie as she works on her article from Cambodia. She’s made great progress, with some work still to go. As you think of us over the next few weeks, would you pray for wisdom as we make our summer travel plans? We’ll be in Colorado for our bi-annual Cru staff conference, and will be visiting friends and churches on the way.

Thank you so much for praying for us, and for your generosity.

Since we can’t show you photos from these stories, above is a photo of us at the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City. We visited there during the Evangelical Press Association convention last month.