Category: Family

Posted on

A “Golden” Opportunity

Helping out our Cru Military ministry at the FamilyLife Conference in Anaheim

Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about marriage. In November, Jen and I attended a Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference hosted by FamilyLife. It was excellent. If you haven’t been to one, we highly recommend it.

In February, Jen and I helped out at a Weekend to Remember Conference in Anaheim. There were a number of military couples attending and our Cru Military ministry had a special booth and specific resources to help military families navigate the unique marital struggles they encounter.

In February, our church embarked on a 3 year plan that will lay the foundation for the next 45 years. One of the initiatives that is laid out as part of the “Dream Now” vision is strengthening families. A statistic that was shared is that 70% of all marriages in Orange County end in divorce.

We know all too well how the breakdown of the family has impacted the Young Adults of today. The landscape of families has encountered a seismic shift in the last 40-50 years.

An often quoted statistic about the spiritual influence men have with their family

When I was a kid, I didn’t know anyone whose parents were divorced. Today, divorce is so common that it’s almost strange to meet a Young Adult whose parents are still together.

All of this has created some unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to ministry.

Young Adults are less likely to have a strong extended family to rely on for support, whether it’s emotional or financial.

Because the nuclear family has been so fractured over the past 50 years, many Young Adults are longing for older adults who can provide mentoring and sage life advice that older family members have traditionally provided. I can’t tell you how often a Young Adult has mentioned to me or to Jen that they have nobody in their life who is older with whom they can discuss life issues.

For the last few years, I’ve been very involved in men’s ministry at our church (Jen is also very involved in the women’s ministry). I do some occasional teaching and I give leadership to a group of men who meet early on a weekly basis.

I’ve enjoyed applying all of the ministry training and experience I’ve accrued over the years to help older guys grow in their spiritual lives.

As I’ve connected with men over the years, I’ve realized that spiritually speaking, old guys have the same needs as young guys. Men want to make a difference and they want their lives to count. Men often want to take steps to grow spiritually but many times, they don’t know what to do beyond attending church, giving money and being involved in a small group.

Lately, we’ve been wondering if we can somehow “marry” our day job (Young Adults) with our part-time ministry to older adults.

Young Adults overwhelmingly indicate they want older people in their lives to function as mentors and even spiritual guides.

Older adults often communicate a strong desire to make an impact in others, particularly the younger generation.

Partnering with Cru Military at a Family Life Conference. Multiple ministries collaborating and intersecting.

What if we could help older Christians take steps to mentor and influence the young adults around them?

We’ve actually had this idea for a while but it’s been brought to the forefront more recently as God has provided numerous situations and personal examples that have made this need obvious and undeniable.

Our vision is not just to mentor Young Adults directly, though we are doing that. What we really want to do is to multiply our impact by equipping others, particularly older, wiser and more mature believers to take steps to pour into and impact Young adults. We believe that there is a golden opportunity for those who are entering their golden years!

Perhaps that sounds interesting. If so, let us know. We’d love to hear your thoughts and provide support and help for you to take meaningful steps that would enable you to make an impact in the lives of others!

Thank you for your continued prayers and partnership that enables us to minister to Young Adults…and Old Adults as well!

Posted on

What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar….or a Coke?

January marked the 35th anniversary of me (Dave) being on staff with Cru. As I reflect back on the many years of ministry, I’m amazed at all God has done in the lives of the students, staff and Young Adults to whom we’ve ministered. What follows is the story of one student whose life was impacted at San Jose State University and the many ways he and his family continue to make an impact for the Lord today.

It was the fall of 1990 and we were on campus at San Jose State University for Registration Day, a day when students could change their classes, settle their schedules and get their books for the Fall Semester.

Our goal was to surface students who had a spiritual interest and since we really wanted to engage with freshmen, we set up a large banner that said “Freshmen, Stop Here!”

Over the years, the “Freshmen STOP Here” banner was effective in drawing new students to our table.

We offered ice cold Coca-Cola drinks in exchange for filling out a spiritual interest questionnaire.

One of the students who filled out a card was Dexter. I still remember his bright smile and friendly demeanor. I flagged his card to ensure that I wasted no time in getting back in touch with this potentially “hot” lead.

What I didn’t know was that Dexter wasn’t his real name and the phone number was not his home number. Being a Cru Staff “NEWB”, I wasn’t yet wise to all the tricks that students use to feign interest in order to get free stuff.

Not long afterwards, I called “Dexter” to set up an appointment to meet. Dexter had decided to put his work number down instead of his home number. And instead of using his real name, he gave a stage name that he had used as part of a dance group. He knew that if he got a call at work from someone asking for “Dexter”, he would know it was someone from this “Campus Crusade” group (as we were known back in those days) and he could avoid the call if he desired.

I was oblivious to all of this of course. I just called the number, which turned out to be an Office Club. I didn’t know any better so I asked for Dexter. Someone on the other end put me on hold while Dexter was paged.

Dexter was surprised to hear his stage name being paged. He thought the call would never go through because there were no “Dexters” who worked there. So why the person chose to page for Dexter in the first place remains a mystery. 

Dexter ended up answering the phone and amazingly, he agreed to meet with me.

When we met on campus, I learned that Dexter was a fairly new Christian. I also learned that he wasn’t a freshman. He was a sophomore who recently changed majors, so he was a “freshman” in his major. He stretched the truth on the questionnaire so that he could get a free Coke. We had a good laugh about that.

Maricar and Rauderick (Dexter) are actively planting churches, building disciples and reaching the lost around the world.

Dexter (whose real name is Rauderick) and I hit it off and began meeting regularly for discipleship and ministry training. He ended up becoming a leader in the Cru ministry at SJSU.

A few years later when Jen and I moved to Davis to start the Cru ministry there, Rauderick drove over from the Bay Area and brought us an overhead projector from his job at Office Club that we were able to use for our weekly meetings (yes, those were still the days when we used transparencies for worship music!)

Today, Rauderick is living in the South Bay Area with his wife Maricar and their 4 children, three of whom are in college. He works as a clinic director in San Francisco, providing mental health services and care for those who are most marginalized. But that’s just his day job.

For the past 23 years, Rauderick has been living out his passion for the gospel as a bi-vocational pastor, providing spiritual care and direction to those in his congregation.

Rauderick has a passion for making Jesus known. He and Maricar have been involved in numerous church plants and are active in world missions, training missionaries in the Middle East and pastors in Vietnam.

Raud and Maricar also have a heart for families. They love counseling and mentoring couples using HomeBuilders materials produced by Cru’s FamilyLife ministry.

For the past 35 years, we’ve sought to make disciples of all the nations, raising up leaders and laborers who could make an impact for Christ wherever the Lord might lead.

To me, Rauderick (aka Dexter) is an amazing example of a former disciple who exemplifies our vision: to raise up disciples who will walk with Jesus and become life-time laborers, impacting those around them for His kingdom purposes.

Please pray for Rauderick and Maricar as they lead their family and those under their care. And please continue to pray for us as we seek to raise up others in this younger generation who will become life-time laborers, just like Rauderick and Maricar!

The De Silva Family
Isabel (front), Gabrielle (middle left), Samuel (back left), Abigail (back middle), Maricar & Rauderick (back right)

 

Header photo by Mahbod Akhzami on Unsplash

Freshmen Stop Here photo by Dave Lowe

Other photos courtesy of Rauderick and Maricar De Silva

Posted on

A Recent “Weekend to Remember”

Last month, Jen and I attended a “Weekend to Remember” Getaway Conference sponsored by FamilyLife, which is a ministry of Cru. 

We’ve found this weekend conference to be a great way to reflect on and invest in our marriage. It really is one of the best resources our ministry offers. 

We’ve attended this conference a few times over our 30 years of marriage but it actually had been over 15 years since our last conference, so it seemed like a good time for a refresher. And being in LaJolla was not a bad selling point!

But we had a secondary reason for attending this particular conference. 

Of all the Weekend to Remember Conferences FamilyLife puts on each year, a select few are labeled as “Military Friendly”. What that means is that military couples who attend are given additional opportunities to connect and are provided with additional resources to help navigate the unique challenges that military families experience.

We were able to greet military couples when they arrived, give them a goodie bag and alert them to the lounge and a special breakout session just for them.

Families are extremely important to God. In the Old Testament, God is portrayed as a Father and the Nation of Israel are His people.

The New Testament continues the theme by showing that when people of any race or ethnicity put their faith in Jesus and His death, they are adopted into God’s family as His sons and daughters.

The family unit is an important building block culture. Study after study demonstrates that many of the problems we are experiencing in our culture – the rise in crime, exponential drug use, failing education system, etc. – find their roots in the breakdown of the traditional family. There is no doubt that healthy families result in healthier communities.

Keeping families together is hard enough these days. But military families experience additional challenges that civilian families don’t. From frequent moves to long-term deployments, military families have an added layer of complexity that must be navigated and considered. 

We had tons of FREE resources available for military families to help them navigate the specific pressures that come with military service.

Our goal at this conference was simply to be available to military couples and provide resources that might help them in their current situation.

Over 25 military couples attended the conference. We were able to greet couples when they checked in and then alert them to a special lounge we had prepared for their own use during the conference.

In addition, we had a special breakout session for military couples where we were able to highlight resources and opportunities Cru Military provides for Military families beyond the weekend getaway.

It was nice for us to experience a short getaway given all that we’ve experienced this Fall in our own family. It was also nice to be able to meet some military couples who were in attendance, hear their stories and provide encouragement and resources to help them lead their families well while serving our country. 

If you’ve never attended a Weekend to Remember Getaway, we highly recommend it. Even if you have done one before, it’s never a bad idea to invest in your marriage. 

Reach out to us if you’re interested and we would be glad to give you more information!

Posted on

The Long Goodbye

On Thursday, October 26th, we said goodbye to my father-in-law, Cliff Bloom.

While his passing was somewhat sudden at the end, in many ways it was a long goodbye, as Cliff suffered from the cruel disease of Alzheimers which forces its victims to endure a slow demise mentally.

Classic Cliff – a big smile and ready to greet you with a hug!

Even though Cliff’s cognitive abilities were in decline over the last several years, his long-term memory remained mostly intact.

Cliff was born in the Philadelphia area and thanks to his dad’s employment as a civilian engineer with the Army Corps of engineers, Cliff lived an adventurous life growing up in various parts of the world that most people only read about.

Cliff loved to regale others with stories of what it was like living in Morocco or Turkey as a teenager, or the camaraderie he enjoyed with fellow cadets at Sewanee Military Academy where he attended high school.

Cliff started college at Georgetown but when his parents settled in Oklahoma he ended up transferring to Southeastern Oklahoma University. When asked how he ended up at such a small school that was off the beaten path, Cliff told the story:

“I set out in the car from my parents house and I wasn’t sure where I was going. I happened upon this small school where I saw a bunch of students who were having fun. A bunch of students were standing in a line and when I asked what they were in line for, they said they were registering for classes. I got in line and registered myself.”

Joshua (left) and Jacob pose with their grandpa (ca. 2007)

Upon graduation, Cliff attended Officer Candidate School where he commissioned as an officer in the Navy, serving our country for several years during the Viet Nam war.

Cliff was extremely patriotic and loved history and learning about other cultures. He was a people person. To Cliff, strangers were just friends he hadn’t met yet.

Less than 2 years after Jen and I were married, we learned that Cliff was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Though it was benign, he developed a serious infection as a result of the surgery and it left him partially disabled. Life suddenly changed for Cliff, who was no longer able to do the active things he enjoyed, like cycling and golf.

I never once heard Cliff complain about his situation. He was an extremely positive person who loved to laugh and joke around with others. He always sought to make the best of his circumstances.

Family Christmas photo (December 2015)
Front (L-R): Susan, Cliff, Jen, Dave.
Back (L-R): Kyle and Thomas (our nephews), Jacob, Joshua, Debbie (Jen’s sister), Steve (brother-in-law)

Whenever we would visit Jen’s family, Cliff was always there to greet us with a big smile and big hug. He had a way of making you feel loved and special. He was an encourager at heart and he would often tell his kids and grandkids how proud he was of them.

The beauty of the gospel is that there is hope beyond this life. Though Cliff will be sorely missed, we take comfort in knowing that He is with Jesus now and he is no longer suffering from any of the health or memory complications that afflicted him in recent years. He is alive and fully redeemed!

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for us and our family as we grieve Cliff’s passing and seek to celebrate his life and legacy!

Posted on

Serving Those Who Serve

Last month was a significant milestone in our family as we saw both of our boys graduate and commission on consecutive days over Memorial Day weekend.

Jacob receives his diploma from Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin

It was definitely a crazy itinerary that required lots of intellectual flexibility and some strategic planning. I’m still not sure how we managed to shove all of our luggage plus 4 years of Jacob’s stuff in the back of his car while driving up and down the Northeast corridor.

After all the ceremonies were over, we all managed to make it home, where we were looking forward to about a month together as a family. Quite honestly, this was going to be the longest extended time together since early 2020 when our boys were forced to finish the school year online because of Covid.

Joshua takes his officer oath of commissioning.

A few days after we returned, Joshua started experiencing some stomach pain. At first, we thought it might have been due to something he ate that didn’t sit right but after about 2 days, it got so bad that he could hardly move. I ended up taking him to the ER where we learned that he had appendicitis and needed an emergency appendectomy.

Joshua recovered fairly quickly but was limited early on in what he was able to do physically. We’re grateful that he’s doing better. The circumstances could have been much worse in terms of the timing and location.

The car is loaded up with a loft bed we found locally in the Monterey area.

Last weekend, we all drove to Monterey to drop Jacob off and help him move into his new apartment. Most of the few days we were there were spent scavenging the area for cheap items to furnish an apartment for 3 guys who literally had nothing but the clothes on their back and a few uniforms. Their apartment is not likely to be featured on an HGTV home show but they’re in a decent situation now. It is truly a bachelor pad.

All true bachelor pads must include a free couch picked up from the side of the road. To be fair, this one was a Crate & Barrel model that was pretty clean. SCORE!

Joshua has about a week left at home before he flies to the East Coast where he’ll spend 3 months at Fort Jackson in South Carolina to be trained as a finance officer. After that, he will report to his first duty station in Vicenza, Italy.

It all sounds very exciting and adventurous but we’re learning very quickly that the life of military families is complicated and filled with hardships that non-military families don’t usually experience.

Military personnel are constantly moving and there is a lot expected of them. They don’t have the same freedoms that others do. Even taking a weekend to get away often requires approval from the chain of command.

For the last year, Jen and I have been thinking and praying about how we can help serve those in our military community. We are especially interested in ministering to those who are Young Adults, since that is our primary audience of ministry already.

Last spring, we reached out to some folks in the Military ministry of Cru to see what it might look like to collaborate and serve those who serve.

It turns out that the largest Marine base in the country is just 30 minutes away from us. Of course, I’ve been aware of Camp Pendleton for years as any time we we trek south down the 5 Freeway, we drive right by the base.

But there is not much of the base that is visible from the highway so one might not realize just how expansive it really is.

Camp Pendleton is located between San Clemente (Orange County) and Oceanside (North San Diego County) and serves about 100,000 people (Marines and their families)

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to take a tour of Camp Pendleton with a new friend of mine who does some volunteer ministry with Cru there. I was amazed at how big the base is and how many people are stationed and live there. I was told that Camp Pendleton serves about 100,000 Marines. Many are not unlike our two boys – thrust into a new situation, feeling out of place, knowing nobody while experiencing the weight of expectation that comes with military duty.

We are not changing jobs, but simply looking at ways to serve a community of young people who live near us whose vocation also happens to be “military”.

Please pray for us as we move forward to see how we might minister to Young Adult military personnel in the same way we continue to serve Young adults in the civilian community.

And please pray for our boys, Jacob and Joshua, as they transition to young officers. Pray for them to adjust well and find strong, spiritual connections that can help them navigate the challenges that await them.

Posted on

LIVESTREAM LINK – 2023 U.S. Naval Academy Graduation/Commissioning Ceremony

It seems like just yesterday we were dropping off our boys at their respective academies for a 47-month adventure that is culminating this weekend with graduation ceremonies at the Naval Academy (Friday, 5/26 at 9:00 a.m. EASTERN TIME) and at West Point (Saturday, 5/27 at 9:00 a.m. EASTERN TIME).

Though it wasn’t an option for us to invite you all to be here in person, there is the opportunity to livestream these events, in the comfort of your own home.

If you’d like to livestream the Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony, you can do so via the following YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW42p3ufvLQ

Unfortunately, the West Point livestream link has still not been provided so I will endeavor to send a follow-up email with that link tomorrow night. However, after the Navy ceremony, we will need to make our way to West Point on Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. The trip is normally about 5 hours. I’m anticipating a much longer drive because of the holiday weekend. I will do my best to get the link to you as soon as I have it.

Above is a screenshot of the Graduation Timeline

Jacob will be in the group of Distinguished Graduates (Top 100) who get their diplomas first, starting at 10:55. They will go in order of merit (class standing). Jacob is 66th in his class so he should be the 66th Midshipman announced.

Above is a screenshot of the Graduation layout


“DG” stands for Distinguished Grads. Jacob will be in this group, most likely in the second row stage left.

The numbers represent the individual companies (there are 30 companies). Most Mids will get their diplomas with their company. Jacob is in 30th company so instead of being one of the last to get called, he will be one of the first.

Also, most Midshipman will shake the hand of one person as they get their diploma. However, distinguished graduates get to shake the hands of all dignitaries on the stage as they receive their diplomas.

Some Praises and Prayer Requests

    • We made it here safely and are enjoying our time in Annapolis.
    • Joshua got approval to leave West Point this week to join us in Annapolis to see Jacob graduate. He arrived in Annapolis Wednesday mid-day. He will need to report to West Point very early Saturday morning for graduation.
    • We were able to ship out 3 very large boxes of Jacob’s personal items back to our home in Mission Viejo. Cost a small fortune but it’s definitely a weight off the shoulders as we navigate this weekend. 
    • About 75% of the Mids who are graduating (Jacob included) still don’t have their orders. This complicates things with shipping of items and so forth. Jacob is trusting that he will be able to get reimbursed for shipping his stuff home. Pray that ALL Mids would get their orders via email before graduation.
    • Pray for us to enjoy all of the festivities this weekend. Pray for flexibility and patience. We have a tight window to get to West Point and a very busy schedule.
    • My Uncle and Aunt are attending the West Point ceremony with us. We will need to coordinate meeting up before-hand. Pray for everything to work out logistically.
    • Did I mention praying for patience and flexible attitudes?
Posted on

A Big Bang Theory Tribute to my Mom

L-R: Howard, Raj, Sheldon, Leonard and Penny

One of my favorite sitcoms is The Big Bang Theory, which follows a group of brainy, socially awkward nerds who work at Cal Tech and struggle to figure out how to navigate life both professionally and socially. 

One of the main characters is a Jewish engineer named Howard Wolowitz (far left in the picture), who, in many ways typifies the stereotypical nerdy Millennial. He lives at home with his mother, who does his laundry, cooks for him and generally treats him like he’s still a child.

In the show, Howard’s mother is never seen but her voice is always heard yelling from another room. It’s actually quite comical. Unfortunately, the real life actress who played Mrs. Wolowitz died unexpectedly in the middle of season 8. As a result, the writers of the show decided that her character would also be written out of the show via an unexpected passing.

In the season 8 episode “The Leftover Thermalization”, there is a power outage and Howard realizes that the food his mom had cooked and stored in the freezer would soon spoil and be gone forever, and so too would one of the last sensory connections to his mother’s memory.

You may know that on Sunday, September 11th, my mother finally succumbed to her weeks long battle with pneumonia. She is now at peace in the presence of her savior, Jesus Christ.

A few days after my mom’s passing, I drove out to spend a few days with my dad, mostly so he wouldn’t have to be alone so soon after my mom’s death.

We found the last of my mom’s spaghetti in the freezer.

One of the first things I wanted to do was survey the food situation. Did we need to go to the grocery store? What was in the house to eat? Truthfully, the food was always my mom’s department, so I wanted to make sure that while I was there, we weren’t eating snacks and junk food for dinner.

As we were charting a plan for meals for the next few days, I had a Big Bang Theory moment when my dad produced a container of my mom’s spaghetti sauce from the freezer. I thought, “this is the last time I will ever eat anything my mom has made.” It was a surreal moment but it reminded me of the one quality that I think most typified my mom, and that was her selflessness.

My mom and dad with Jacob (right) and Joshua (left) – Thanksgiving 2013

One of the ways my mom demonstrated selflessness was through her cooking. Growing up, my mom always made sure everyone was fed and she was pretty good at it.

When I was in 2nd grade, my mom went back to work to help add to the family income. Still, she always found a way to make sure dinner was on the table. 

In high school, my mom went back to school to get her AA degree. Even then, despite the busyness of work AND school, she always had dinner prepared for us to heat up and serve, even when she wasn’t present to eat with us.

My mom with granddaughters Shaina (right) and Charissa – Thanksgiving 2009.

When I was in college, I would often come home very late from studying or working. There was always a plate in the refrigerator for me to heat up.

My mom typified kindness and service to others. She rarely complained even though she worked long hours meeting the needs of others before attending to herself.

She was the glue that held our family together. She stayed connected to me and my siblings even when we weren’t connected to each other.

In the Big Bang Theory episode, Howard decides to invite all his friends over for one last feast of enjoying the cooking of his mom, allowing each person to fondly reflect on how Mrs. Wolowitz had impacted them.

The last photo I took with my mom – Mother’s Day 2022

While my dad and I enjoyed the last of my mom’s spaghetti sauce, we reflected on her kindness and her sacrificial love demonstrated in so many ways, including her cooking.

Though my mom’s presence will be dearly missed, I thank God that she knew and loved Jesus and that she is in God’s presence, free from the health issues that increasingly affected her in her later years.

I thank God that in Christ, we have hope beyond this life, and that through Jesus, we have the assurance that being separated from our loved ones is but a temporary arrangement.  

Rest in Peace Mom!

Posted on

Casting Away 2019

A few nights ago, while channel surfing, I stumbled across the Golden Globes broadcast. Tom Hanks was being honored with the Cecil B. DeMille award for his lasting impact on the movie industry.

During the monologue outlining Mr. Hanks’ long and illustrious career, there were short clips of the many noteworthy films he has starred in, including Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13 and Cast Away.

The short clip of Cast Away showed a scene where Hanks is talking to a face-painted Volleyball he has named Wilson.

Tom Hanks, paints “Wilson” the volleyball, in the movie Cast Away

If you’re not familiar with the movie, the following may be considered a spoiler alert. In the movie, Hanks is the lone survivor of a FedEx plane crash where he finds himself stranded on a deserted island with only a few salvageable packages, one of which is a volleyball.

Hanks paints a face on the volleyball and since it is a Wilson branded ball, he begins calling it Wilson. Throughout the movie, Hanks talks to the ball as if it’s a real person, even responding to the ball as if it has talked back to him.

Jen and Jacob share an embrace in August at the beginning of Plebe Parent Weekend at the U.S. Naval Academy.

This strange dialogue might lead the viewer to conclude that Hanks, being alone on a small deserted island with no human contact, is going mad. But as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Hanks’ dialogue with Wilson doesn’t indicate a step into insanity, but instead it’s a step to prevent insanity.

Hanks becomes so connected to Wilson that the movie-viewer can feel the anguish as Wilson begins to drift away beyond reach during Hanks’ attempted island escape.

As weird as this may seem, I can relate a bit to that feeling of anguish as the ball floats away. Numerous times this past year, we’ve had to say goodbye to our boys, and they have had to say goodbye to each other. Each time, there is a profound sense of sadness as we go our separate ways.

Jacob (left) and Joshua are all smiles after seeing each other right before Thanksgiving for the first time in months.

Even with amazing technological advancements such as texting and video chat, there still exists a deep longing and profound desire to to be with the people you love.

It appears that as humans we’ve been created with a deep need for human connection; our souls long for the physical presence of others.

In our ministry to Young Professionals, we know that this need and longing for connection IS the biggest need and challenge that they face. All of the most recent research and our own experience affirms that this is the case. Young Adults are desperately seeking meaningful connections with people who are in their life-stage.

Pray for Jacob (left) and Joshua as they enter the 2nd semester of their frosh year apart from each other.

In the past few years, we’ve positioned ourselves well to minister to Young Professionals by providing Leadership Development, Vocational Discipleship and professional level coaching. Yet a primary need and problem is helping Young Professionals develop significant connections with others.

As we reflect back on the lessons of 2019 and look forward to 2020, we would appreciate your prayers in these areas:

  1. Pray for Jen and me to pursue and maintain significant relationships that would feed our souls and encourage us to press on as we face new challenges.
  2. Pray for our boys to develop deep relational connections with others at their respective academies. 
  3. Pray for us to help the Young Professionals we encounter forge solid friendships with others that will spur them to continue to walk with Jesus and serve Him wherever they are.

We are grateful for you and your ministry to us. May you be richly blessed in 2020!

Posted on

A Few God Moments at Cru19

Moby Gym at Colorado State University

In many ways, this year’s Cru staff conference was similar to previous ones. We met at Colorado State University. There were lots of people. There were lots of meetings with some great and inspiring speakers. We saw old friends and made a few new friends.

However, the things I remember most about our time at Cru19 are the ways in which God seemed to meet us right where we’re at, in our present life situation.

Bob Beaton (left), 1959 Graduate of the US Naval Academy, has worked with Midshipman at his alma mater for nearly 20 years!

Early in the conference Jen and I received a text from a person Jen works with in her side role of National Leadership Development. He wanted to connect us with a man he knew named Bob Beaton who is on staff with Cru at the Naval Academy. I texted Bob and we arranged to meet. It turns out, Bob is a 1959 graduate of the Naval Academy and after a long military career, joined Cru’s staff in 1994. In 2000, Bob started the Cru ministry at the Naval Academy and while he stepped down from leading the movement a few years ago, Bob is still active in ministering to Midshipmen (aka “Mids”) at the Yard (the US Naval Academy Campus).

Not long after that, Jen and I bumped into one of our former UC Davis students in the lobby of our hotel (one of the fun things about these conferences is running into people you haven’t connected with in a while). Her husband mentioned that they personally know the Cru Director at the Naval Academy and they introduced us to Kyle via text. Kyle and I were able to meet a few days later during an afternoon break.

After sharing introductions, I asked Kyle if he knew anything about our family. He said he only knew that we had a son who was entering the Naval Academy. I began to share a bit more, including the fact that Jacob has a twin brother, Joshua, who is at West Point.

Kyle Sponaugle (right) has been the director of the Cru ministry at the Naval Academy since 2008.

At that point, Kyle interrupted me and quickly pulled out his phone where he pulled up a photo and said, “I think I’ve already met your son.” The photo showed about 15 Plebes (that is what they call 1st year students) who were at the first Cru Bible study just a few weeks prior. Jacob was front and center in that photo. Kyle then went on to share that Jacob had talked with him after the group time and asked for prayer for his twin brother who is at West Point. Jacob never shared that his parents are on staff with Cru and that he is a staff kid.

It was amazing to find out that Jacob has already been pursuing a spiritual community on his own and we were able to connect with the leaders of that community at our national conference.

Jacob (Front Row, 4th from the right) at the Cru Navy Bible Study

A few days into the conference, we were scheduled to get phone calls from both Jacob and Joshua, ON THE SAME DAY! There are limited opportunities to talk to our boys during the summer training so we were pretty excited to hear from them. The problem was we had no idea the exact time they would call….we only had a Cable TV-like window of 5 hours where we knew a phone call would likely take place.

Joshua was all smiles on his FaceTime call to us during Cru19.

As it turned out, Jacob and Joshua both ended up calling us AT THE SAME TIME! It was a bit of a panic but we ended up getting them on our different phones where they were able to talk to each other via speaker phone. I think it was just what they both needed since the biggest challenge for them is that they are away from each other for the first time in their lives.

In the end, God provided inspiring and visionary speakers, just as we expected. He also refreshed us by connecting us to friends and colleagues we had not seen in a while. But the bonus was providing those moments that calmed our hearts as parents, allowing us a glimpse into what He’s doing in the lives of our sons who are no longer with us. Thank you for your continued prayers. They mean the world to us!