On the day of Pentecost after the resurrection, appearances and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples. As Peter preached to the crowd that had gathered, he said, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Jewish people from all over the world responded, and 3000 were baptized and became the first church. Many must have returned to their own countries with amazing news to share!
In September, Steve participated in 4 conferences. One was a gathering of missionaries learning together about partnering to help accomplish the Great Commission. In one of those messages it was reported that daily over 70,000 people are coming to know Jesus! You could say that there is a Pentecost response to the gospel every hour of every day!
Still there are great swaths of earth’s people who have never heard of Jesus. Steve was involved in conferences with our Recruiters/Mobilizers, who help Cru with a variety of work to connect people with the opportunities they have to be part of going to the world with the good news. Teams were at the Together 2018 event in Dallas, TX, this month, where tens of thousands of young people from across the country gathered to consider next steps with Jesus. Later at Cru Winter Conferences and at the Urbana Missions Conference our recruiters will help explain options to go on mission with Cru. Steve’s part in this is helping get our opportunities ready and available online and in materials so people can consider them.
Along with Steve’s work with recruiting and sending out new missionaries, he has also been given an additional responsibility to help our campus national leaders manage information on all the campus workers around the US. Of course it takes computers and data to effectively care for and serve the 5,700 people who work in some capacity with the US Campus Ministry, active on 1300 universities in the US and hundreds more overseas. Many staff are in new roles due to a complete reorganization of the campus part of Cru in the last year. Steve’s other 2 conferences both engaged these leaders in future planning and allowed Steve to provide training regarding our Human Resource systems. The goal is to set us up to greatly expand outreach to students on more campuses throughout the country. Expansion means we have more staff to lead and care for across the country.
