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!