Celebrating Lindsey’s Decision to Follow Christ!

Our daughter, Lindsey, put her faith in Christ several years ago.  But last Sunday, she followed the Lord’s command to be baptized.  As part of Lindsey’s baptism, the pastor asked her why she wants to be baptized.  Lindsey said,

“I want to be baptized because I want to let everyone know that I’m a Christian, and that I accepted Jesus into my life.”  (What a great reason!)
 
Please pray for Lindsey’s continued growth in the Lord.  Tammy is leading her and some friends in a girl’s small group Bible study on Friday afternoons.  And thank you for your partnership with us in the Gospel!

Bob's European Road Trip!

A great help to my ministry has been Bob, a fellow Campus Crusade for Christ staff member.  I invited him to help me with a software training in Germany back in 2006.  Since then he’s been working full-time in helping to train and support other missionaries and ministries in the effective use of our software.  And he’s doing an awesome job of it.  He’s truly gifted for this unique role.

 

Bob is not a technologist, but he has a passion to help our ministry be more effective in managing its resources.  He really enjoys learning new systems and then communication to others how to take advantage of them.

 

Leaving tonight, Bob will be taking his wife and two boys on a marathon six week road trip through Europe!  He will meet with and provide training and coaching to eleven of our national ministries!  You can see his prayer calendar below to get a glimpse of what his itinerary will look like.

 

The best way to truly understand what the local ministry needs is to sit next to them as they do their work.  Bob will have many opportunities to do just this.  His feedback will be invaluable as he returns from his trip.  Please pray for him and his family as they embark on this adventure.  And please pray that I’m able to respond quickly to any software issues he may run into.

Thank you for your investment in our ministry.  Like Bob, you are wonderful partners with us as we each do our part in reaching others with the Gospel!

Financial Programmers Unite 2012!

Last month, God brought together a group of Campus Crusade for Christ missionaries from around the world who serve as software developers.  Together we build tools that help keep the ministry running smoothly.

It was a great time for us to share all that we’ve been working on.  Often it’s hard to see how our pieces of the puzzle fit together.  Many of those in attendance were developing software that connects to my software over the Internet.  I received some helpful feedback, and I was encouraged make these connections in person.

One of the connections I made was with Daniel KO, from South Korea.  He and his team have developed some great tools to help their staff run their ministry.  But he was looking for ways to help their staff in the area of fund development.  I showed him my software.  Thankfully my software was already translated into Korean!  He’s very interested in our software, so I’ll be in contact with him soon to help make this happen.

A verse that seems to really fit is Exodus 18:18, "The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone."  Thank you so much for your continued support that helps sustain us as we serve the Lord in ministry!

Helping Jeannie Throw Off Everything that Hinders

God’s been teaching me (Tammy) lately about the importance of “running the race” without hindrances. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul explains the need for discipline and focus in living for Christ. He says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

In Hebrews 12, it says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.” That’s a description of someone letting go of things that slow you down. It might be sin, or it might be the concerns of life. Jesus talks about this in the parable of the sower. The seed that fell in the “thorny soil” was “choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures” and did not produce a crop.

It’s been my joy to share what I’ve been learning with Jeannie, a missionary serving with the Jesus Film Project. She was feeling overwhelmed with too many things to do and not enough time to do them all. So she asked me to help coach her in the area of time management. I’m glad she did, because God used me to help her be more effective in her ministry … which means more people will hear the Good News of Christ! I was able to help her think about those things God uniquely called her to do. It struck me how clear her calling from God was. She soon realized that she had to say “No” to some the “good” things that were taking time away from the “best” things God had called her to. Several days later I got a phone call from her. With enthusiasm she shared, “This frees me to be wholeheartedly doing what God has called me to do today, and I can now actually accomplish more for the kingdom!” What a joy to be able to help her move forward in her ministry!

Thank you for praying for my friend who recently came to Christ! I have met with her several times since we last wrote to follow up with her and let her know more about what it means to be a child of Christ. She has really been grasping the key principles of following Christ, such as complete forgiveness by grace. This is especially encouraging to see as she has a background in a works-based religion. Please continue to pray for her as she grows in her new faith!

Many of you have been asking about my heart condition and how it affects my day to day life. Right now, I’m not experiencing any symptoms from the condition. At this point, the doctor wants to monitor it every 6 months with an echocardiogram. At the point when I do begin to experience fatigue after exercise, that will be a significant determining factor for when the surgery will happen. Thank you so much for your prayers. We appreciate you so much!

On Good Friday we visited the Holy Land Experience. 

Rachel is in front of the temple portion of the world’s

largest indoor scale model of Jerusalem

around the time of Christ.

Welcoming a New Sister in Christ!

Just a couple weeks ago, one of Rachel’s classmates came over for a play date. As the girls enjoyed playing together, I (Tammy) began to talk with the girl’s mother. After finding out that she and her husband are from a country we had visited 10 years ago to record a language of The Jesus Film.  I could tell she was moved.

This gave me a tremendous opportunity to enter into a spiritual conversation with her. It shared how I accepted Christ into my life at a young age, and how God had given me peace during childhood cancer, and how I can rely on Him now despite the uncertainty of a heart issue. After explaining the gospel to her using the Four Spiritual Laws, she made the decision to pray right there and receive Christ into her life! What an amazing privilege it was for me to be a part of this!  Please pray for as she grows in her new faith!

I believe God may have planned this amazing event to prepare me for my next week. Many of you will remember that I was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis about six years ago. At the time, I was told that surgery to replace my aortic valve could be anywhere between 2 years and 35 years. Just last week my cardiologist told me that he thinks I’ll need my aortic valve replaced will be within the next couple years. He believes my valve is getting worse, and he wants me to come in and have it checked out more often. That’s not the news I wanted to hear!

How am I doing with all of this? I’m doing really well, actually! God has worked in amazing ways to grow my faith in the past six years. And, as you might imagine, seeing my friend invite Christ into her life just days before the news came was a very timely and powerful reminder of how big our God is. While my faith may falter and I have an anxious thought now and then, I continue to be amazed by the peace that comes as I turn my anxious thoughts over to Him. Our God is truly amazing!!

We will keep you posted on how things are going with my condition. Feel free to ask us any questions or interact with us about this letter through email or phone. We would love to hear from you! And as always, thank you so much for your prayers and your financial partnership with us in the Kingdom!

Helping Missionaries Raise Funds in Multiple Currencies

Our mission is to help as many missionaries as possible save as much time as possible, so that more time is freed up for spreading the Gospel. Recently I’ve been adding a new feature to our software that does both: it allows more missionaries to have more time to spread the Gospel.

Missionaries Who Raise Support in Multiple Currencies

Recently, I’ve been adding the ability for our software to track support in multiple currencies. The challenge for me is that this is an area where I have no direct experience. Tammy and I receive our ministry support is US Dollars. We get paid in US Dollars. We pay bills in US Dollars. We don’t think about “exchange rates” very often!

Most missionaries deal with more than one currency on a daily basis. One of our missionary friends in Germany receives their support in US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros and Swiss Francs! They get paid in US Dollars; they pay bills in Euros. They need to keep a calculator nearby when using our software to stay current. This takes time and mental energy away from more important things.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could help thousands of missionaries keep this area of their life more simple and less time consuming?

Please pray for us:

• That we would have wisdom and guidance from the Lord as we work on this feature.
• That the end result would truly help missionaries to save more time.
• Also, please pray for Troy as he will soon be training a small group of fund developers within our ministry on how to use our software as they raise funds for big ministry projects in Asia.

Thank you for your joining with us on this journey of serving the Lord. Through your prayers and/or financial support, you’re freeing us up to make a difference in the lives of thousands of missionaries, and our prayer is that God uses this time to reach many more lost people who need Christ. We who know Christ are so blessed to be part of his family. God is so good!

Helping Equip SIM Missionaries

Wouldn’t it be great if we could take the tools we’ve developed for helping missionaries, and help other missions agencies use it as well? Of course! It’s always so much fun for me to let you know when this happens. Last week I had a phone conference with one such organization as they were celebrating a successful rollout of our software: SIM (Serving in Mission - http://www.sim.org/).

My involvement with SIM started earlier this year when I participated in the Funding Your Ministry conference. I met Doug Christensen, their director of support development. He is responsible to see that all their missionaries are fully funded so that they can focus on what God has called them to do.

SIM has been promoting the use of our software for a few years, but their organization didn’t fully support the web-based connection for their missionaries to use our tool most effectively. They needed help customizing our web-based tool to better fit into their organization.

Since then, I’ve been working with SIM’s technical department on providing this web-based connection. Last week they had it ready in time for a training conference, and they trained the first 120 of their more than 600 missionaries on how to use it.

Bernie Bergen had this to say, “As SIM director of IT (Information Technology), it gives me a tool to recommend to our new missionary candidates that’s much better than just note cards and spreadsheets. Everyone is excited by the prospect of a REAL TOOL!”

We give God all the glory for using us to help this wonderful ministry be more equipped.

Celebrating the 10,000 Missionaries Using our Software

Back in January of 2001, Troy first published our software for helping missionaries available onto our personal website. At the time we thought, “Maybe this will help a few of our friends who are in ministry.” We were shocked when 60 of our fellow staff began to use our software within the first month. By that summer, the total number was up to 500 missionaries. The total number of missionaries using our software has been increasing since then at about 1,000 more per year.

As of a few months ago, the total number of missionaries actively using our software is now 10,000! That’s 10,000 missionaries that now have about 5 more hours per month (based on a survey) to do what God has called them to do. All those saved hours are roughly equivalent to sending out 300 more full time missionaries! Through your prayers and/or financial support, you’ve been a big part of this. So please celebrate with us in how God has chosen to use us this way.

Our prayer is that God will use us to accelerate the Gospel much how he used the first seven deacons chosen by the apostles in Acts 6. The apostles were taking on too many responsibilities within their ministry, and they were losing their ability to focus on what God had called them to focus on. This was slowing down ministry in a big way. Still, these extra responsibilities were important. So they chose “seven men full of faith” to take over this responsibility (of distributing food to the widows). The result of sharing this load was “the word of God spread rapidly” (Acts 6:7).

We pray, and ask for your prayers that we would be full of faith, and see similar results as we seek to share the load and help other missionaries focus on what God has called them to.

Those 10,000 missionaries using our software are composed of many individuals with a special calling from God. Here’s some encouraging emails we recently received from a few of these missionaries:

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This software is helps workers with limited time and lots of other stuff going on to see the world transformed by God's amazing love. This tool enhances their ability to do just that! I would say it’s a strategic Kingdom investment.


−Missionary in China, LDi

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Your software saves me soooo much time, which I can then use accordingly to do the work God has called me to! Thanks!

−Missionary in Indonesia, The Navigators

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We are just starting out as missionaries and it's wonderful to have such a time saving program. Thank you!

− Missionary in Papua New Guinea, New Tribes Mission

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It is a truly fantastic program that makes organizing and contact information such a breeze to go through.

−Missionary in Japan, The Navigators

Investing in Nancy's Mission

I‘d like to introduce you to a friend God brought into my life recently. As a young woman just out of college, Nancy Wilson began work as a dolphin trainer for Six Flags. It was during that time that God began calling her to serve Him. Early on, she began a ministry to high school students with Student Venture, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. After 25 years as Associate National Director of Student Venture, she now represents Campus Crusade as Global Ambassador as well as a spokesperson for Story Runners. God has given her an incredible speaking ministry, reaching multitudes with the gospel worldwide. She has authored four books including Chosen With a Mission and In Pursuit of the Ideal. Nancy is woman who has a zest for life and a passion for sharing her love for Jesus with everyone she meets, and I consider it a joy to call her my friend.

About two years ago, after hearing about my organizing ministry through a mutual friend, Nancy asked for my help with her office. As I began to come alongside of Nancy as well as other friends, I made a key decision. Rather than organizing their space for them, which would be very easy to do, I set out to teach and coach my co-laborers on how to make lasting changes. Instead of giving them a fish, so to speak, I wanted to teach them how to fish. My ultimate goal was to help them to increase their effectiveness in ministry. Doing this seemed like a task beyond my ability, and I knew God would have to accomplish this through me. Since the very beginning, this ministry has been a journey of faith, anticipating God’s power and strength along the way.

This past month I spent some time with my friend once again and was encouraged by the testimony of what God had done since the last time I had helped her with organization. It had been over a year since I had consulted Nancy, and the evidence of God at work was clear. Nancy’s words below describe it best.

“It has been such a gift for me to have Tammy as my very own expert organizer and consultant, as I have needed to learn the art of organization and simplification. As an author and speaker, who travels all the time, I have been overwhelmed with having so much to manage. Tammy has been willing to counsel me on how to let go of some of the past material and resources that may have encumbered me, which more than helped me to move forward! She has been a patient friend, coming alongside me, to teach me how to think strategically with my home and space. I feel I have a new perspective on how to streamline my life towards the mission He has called me to! I’m grateful for your investment in Tammy’s ministry, as she has graciously invested in mine….all for the furtherance of the Gospel in our generation!”

Thank you for partnering with us so that we can continue to help missionaries like Nancy to be more effective in reaching people for Jesus! It is a privilege to serve God with you.

Summer Wrap-up, New Name Coming!

We’re back! Thanks to all who prayed for our safe travel. We made it back home to Orlando after an adventurous summer of trusting in God and seeing him deliver. He provided not only through our financial support, but also in our physical health, spiritual growth, and by growing our ministry as well.

After we left South Dakota, we spent a week in Fort Collins, Colorado for our staff conference with Campus Crusade for Christ. This was a great time to hear from many challenging speakers, and to fellowship with our fellow staff. There was one speaker that really stood out to us. David Platt gave our final talk, and he really helped us to remember God’s sovereignty as we head back to our ministry assignments. His talk was centered on Isaiah 6, “Here am I. Send me!”. You can find his talk at: http://www.ccci.org/csu

You may have about our name change. During our conference, our organization’s future name change was announced. Historically, the word “Crusade” has been a stumbling block with Muslims. We love Muslims, and we want to share the love of Christ with them. Also, “Campus” was losing its meaning since, as an organization, we have grown way past the college campus. The new name announced was “Cru”. This will take effect in 2012. Tammy and I will miss our old name, but we love the fact that our leadership is willing to make difficult changes for the sake of advancing the Gospel!

To be more specific, the name “Cru” was announced as the new name for just the U.S. ministry. Some Campus Crusade national ministries have used Campus Crusade in their name, but many other have not. For example, in France our ministry is called “Agape France”. Tammy and I work in the International/Global leadership umbrella organization, and we will continue to call ourselves “Campus Crusade for Christ”.

Confusing? We agree! Please call us or email us if you have any questions.

Tammy left for the summer knowing that there was a growth in her Thyroid. We scheduled the biopsy for after we returned to Florida. We received the results, and it was not cancerous. We praise the Lord for this!

During the summer, God also took care of our ministry in some special ways. Being on the road, Troy wasn’t able to respond to email as he would normally. But through our technical support forums, many other missionaries jumped in and helped out. Also, as of last count, there are now about 9,000 missionaries using our software (up from about 8,000 last time we checked)!

About to worship with 5,000 fellow missionaries!

You can pray for us. We’re back in Florida, and ready for ministry. There are many things we could be doing. But we want to do what’s most effective given our limited time. And we want to walk closely and humbly with God, letting his power work through us. We don’t want to labor in vain. Thank for being part of our journey!

Our Faith Adventure this Summer

Our summer has been an exciting adventure in trusting God. We’ve seen God work in amazing ways!

Leading up to this summer, God’s been emphasizing to us our need to depend on Christ by faith and prayer in everything we do. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. But too often we don’t invite the Holy Spirit to empower and direct us in our daily lives.

Someone has said, “The Christian life is not difficult – it’s impossible.” Only one person has ever lived the Christian life, and that was Jesus Christ. Just as we can’t earn our salvation through good works, in the same way we can’t become better Christians by working harder. We come to Christ by faith, and we live the Christian life by faith.

Every so often, Tammy and I take a few weeks away from our ministry assignment and reach out to find new partners who can join with us in supporting our ministry. This summer we’ve been visiting Troy’s home town of Mitchell, South Dakota.

One of the challenges of meeting with people is that it’s often difficult to reach people on the phone. People are busy enjoying the summer, we understand. One night, Tammy and Lindsey were out walking while I was making calls. Tammy asked Lindsey to join her in praying for daddy. Together they prayed for folks to answer the phone and that God would be working in people’s hearts.

A few days later, we were reconnecting with some friends about our ministry. Our friend shared that she usually doesn’t answer the phone, but just lets the machine get it. But that night she answered the phone, and we were able to get connected that week! That same week, many people shared how God had put us on their heart, and they were thinking about supporting our ministry! God was definitely at work! How fun that our kids were able to see this first hand!

It’s been 4 weeks now, and God has blessed us with 46 appointments, 8 new financial partners, and many more prayer partners. Not only that, but through our appointments, God used us to minister to many who were having a tough time. Also, we were blessed with the opportunity to clarify the Gospel with one couple. God led us to just the right people, and we give him all the glory.

(Picture on left is the World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.)

Making a Financial ConneXion

Imagine for a moment that your boss announces to you that a serious problem has occurred with the company’s computer systems. Important accounting data has been lost, and it will take some time for them to recover it. Not only that, but he tells you that the paycheck you were expecting that day will be delayed for days, maybe weeks, until the problem is resolved! Scenarios just like this have been all too common in many of our international offices around the globe due to a lack of reliable systems.

For instance, in 2008, one of our ministries in South America was broken into and all the office computers were stolen. There were no reliable backups of their financial data. It took three weeks to piece their accounting system back together!

There are so many things that can take out a computer system: theft, floods, fires, disgruntled employees, Windows updates, and the pervasive red dust in Mali! And, sadly, all of these things have happened to a local CCC ministry somewhere in the world within the past few years.

When these critical financial systems are stolen or not working, it doesn’t just hurt just the accountants. It hurts the entire ministry.

Thankfully, things are changing. Through a special partnership between the financial and technology teams at Campus Crusade for Christ’s world headquarters, a web-based system called “Financial ConneXion” was developed to address these needs. Troy has been part of this partnership by helping to ensure his donation processing software runs well on this new platform, and has consulted them on other technology issues related to the project.


Back in the day: Helping a local CCC ministry setup
automatic backups of their financial data (in 2007).

 How has this helped? This system allows our financial managers and accountants to do what they do best, and to not worry about backups, software installations and theft. It also allows them to login over the internet and to do their work remotely (even from home), something they couldn’t do before. This means that our staff are more productive, and the entire ministry runs more smoothly and securely. This project went live last year, but the demand has been great. Just this month, we added our 50th national ministry to this system. More are waiting!

Thank you again for your part in serving the body of Christ through us! Through your prayers and support you help to enable the gospel to be spread around the world!