It's Official - Celebrating 25 Years / and 45 Years!

August 2016 Newsletter Gary & Cherry Warrick / Cru Communique

Celebrating 25 years as Cru staff! It's official! This summer marked our 25th year as Cru staff! We joined full-time with Cru in 1991, after several years of serving as volunteers with Cru. We praise God for 25 years, and we look ahead to more years! This summer also marked another milestone, as we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary! And we thank God for the great gift of our marriage, and the joy of living life together! We celebrated both of these very special milestones in July with an 18-day Pacific Coast Trip (click here). Our 25-year award gift from Cru enabled us to make this dream trip come true! Our days visiting two of Cherry's brothers & a sis-in-law, driving along the beautiful Pacific Coast, and then visiting our son, Seth, in San Francisco, were so memorable! We thank God for the gift of that trip, and for the milestones that we have celebrated!  The photo above was taken on our last day along the coast before flying home on July 29th. It's also official that another summer has come to a close, and a new school year has started up again! It has been a good summer of Cru for high school students in our area through what we call Cru Summer! Jake (our full-time staff team member) along with Abbie (a volunteer with Cru for a number of years) coached a group of college students to lead our Cru Summer program! The college leaders met once each week, and then in turn, led the student meetings each week. It was an amazing time for both the college leaders, and the high school students! The photo above was taken at the end-of-summer event held on Aug. 8th. Click here to see more photos.  These weeks we are meeting with some amazing individuals who help make Cru happen on the campuses we are on: our student leaders! In the photo above you see three of these student leaders who are juniors at one of our Cru campuses. They are an encouragement to us with their passion and desire to help lead their peers in a relationship with Christ, and are the ones who really  do make Cru a reality on their campuses. And also, Cru Omaha would not even exist without the gifted and passionate adult volunteers who serve with us. We are focusing on meeting with each group of these volunteers during the month of August - meeting with them in their own surroundings, on their campuses - catching up with their lives, and encouraging them at the start of a new year of reaching students. We are so grateful for each one of our 20+ volunteers! PRAISE GOD WITH US ... 1) For the healing God has brought to Gary after his health concerns earlier this year. His two outpatient heart procedures (in April, and in May) have taken care of the earlier concerns. Thank you for your prayers! 2) For the restful, refreshing trip that we had during the summer - beyond what we even dreamed of. 3) For Jake, our part-time staff member, who is now full-time staff and raising his initial full-time financial support at this time. He is a great gift to our team! 4) For the volunteers who work with Cru Omaha, giving of their time and energy to reach students, while they also work at their own full-time jobs. They are the ones who make this all possible! PLEASE PRAY: 1) For Jake Loftis, as he is raising financial support to be able to devote himself full-time to reaching students. 2) For our volunteers (about 20 at this time) who unselfishly serve and love the high school students on our Cru campuses. Pray for us as we meet together with them this month.

We also thank YOU - those who pray for us, and also those who give financially so that we can devote full-time to reaching middle school and high school students in the Omaha area for Jesus! As a couple, we are being drawn to more faithful and fervent prayer than even before - the Gospel is so needed, and so necessary in our day. Please join us, our staff team and our volunteers, in praying for many students to be introduced to know God intimately during this coming school year. "Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things He has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. it is the way we know God, the way we finally treat Godas God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life. We must learn to pray. We have to." (Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God) Thank you for being part of Cru Omaha through your gifts and your prayers! Gary & Cherry Gary & Cherry Warrick / Cru Omaha Home/Office 402 468-5345 / Cell 402 659-3340 PO Box 184, Fort Calhoun, NE  68023 cruomaha.com / garyandcherry.com pursuingheart.blogspot.com Click here to donate to our staff account.

Our Pacific Coast Trip

Our long-awaited trip to the Pacific Coast,

celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary,

and 25 years as Cru staff!

Also, this was our first trip out to visit Lee & Cheryl, and Loren (two of Cherry's brothers and a sis-in-law) since their move to the Portland area, and also ... our first trip to visit our son Seth since he moved to San Francisco! We were so very excited! And so very thankful for our 25-year bonus from Cru to help fund the trip! A four-part trip, over 18 days ...

Sharing just a few of our many, many photos, starting in this post with a few photos from the first part of our trip:

Portland area - July 12-16

Time with Lee & Cheryl, and Loren

Day 1 (July 12) - flying from Omaha to Portland, 
with a glimpse of majestic Mt. Adams as we neared Portland

Visiting the beautiful Portland Japanese Garden, and also the Rose Garden
on our first afternoon, the day of our arrival

Day 2 (July 13) - a day driving through the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge ...
in this photo, a view of Multnomah Falls

A picnic with this amazing close-up view of the Columbia River

Day 3 (July 14) - a two-hour drive up into Washington to view Mount St. Helens

So proud of my brother, Lee, for his research on the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens as a volcanologist for the Smithsonian - his name even included on a display in the visitor center 

Another view of beautiful Mount St. Helens 

Day 4 (July 15) - a one-hour drive to Mt. Hood, and to Timberline Lodge,
built in 1936 at 6,000 feet elevation, about halfway up Mt. Hood

A view up Mt. Hood through the visitor center window

Another view of Mt. Hood, from Trillium Lake

Enjoying our last evening meal of our visit
with Lee & Cheryl, and Loren ...
fresh salmon, caught from the Columbia River by a neighbor 

Our visit came to an end much too soon ... it was such a sweet time with family. Such beautiful sites to see, and the best gift of all was the great conversation and connection together with those we love. 

Besides our days staying with Lee & Cheryl in their relaxing, gorgeous retirement home, it was also a real treat to see Loren's spacious 10th-floor apartment in nearby Portland. We treasure our time together, and have many, many photos to help keep the memories close.

We picked up our rental car the morning of  Day 5 (July 16), and after a few more hours together with Loren in Portland, continued on with our 18-day trip, driving to the Pacific Coast ...

(to be continued)