Our Autumn Overview

Our fall season has held quite a variety of things. From weekly staff meetings, to meetings with volunteers and student leaders, to the weekly student meetings on our seven Cru high school and middle school campuses. Fall is always a very full season of Cru activity and energy!

Our month of September was maybe even extra full for us, as we were also preparing our volunteers and student leaders to cover for us while we would be gone on our vacation trip from Sept. 27 through Oct. 16. It was unusual for us to plan a vacation trip near the beginning of a school year! 

We prayed, planned, and saved up our vacation days, and our money, to visit our son in NYC, and he had suggested that we come in the fall instead of during the heat of summer! So ... that's what we did! We also planned our trip around the time of the beautiful autumn colors in New Hampshire and Vermont, as we drove up there after time with our son. 

The highlight of our trip was our 5-day stay in NYC ... we loved our time visiting our son, Lance! The first day we arrived in the city, we also got to see my (Cherry's) brother and sister-in-law, Steve & Beverly, and one of their daughters, Izzy. Meeting up in Chinatown was such fun!

After our days with Lance, we drove north of the city to spend the weekend with Steve & Beverly ... such a treat! Then we headed up through Connecticut, Massachusetts, and into New Hampshire for a few days, and than a few days in Vermont, before we started the journey home. We had planned and hoped to be in NH and VT during peak fall color season, and amazingly, we hit it just right! It was simply gorgeous, as you can see from the digital scrapbook page below!

Our route back home took us by Niagara Falls, and then a very special overnight visit in Michigan with one of my (Cherry's) dearest friends from my childhood years in Japan. Though Debby and I have only seen each other three times since our childhood, our friendship continues, and it is always such a blessing for us to spend time with Debby and her husband Dave.

Just five days after our return home, we hosted three visiting Cru staff leaders for three days.  Our amazing Cru leadership try to visit staff regularly, giving encouragement and support. Bill came from Orlando (representing the leadership at our Cru headquarters). Scott (from Denver), and Nicole (from Dallas), are our new regional leaders who oversee and give support for our Cru Omaha team.

You can read more about their visit, and see more photos, by clicking here.

The first weekend of November held our annual Cru Harvest Party, hosted by a sweet, generous couple from our church, Citylight. Some students from four of our seven campuses came together for a fun evening of hot dogs, smores, games, hayrides, and an inspirational time around the campfire.

You are invited to read more, and see more photos about this evening, by clicking here.

Thank you so much for your interest in Cru Omaha, and in our lives as a couple and with our family! We love to give you these little updates, and we are so grateful for your prayers and support!

Wrapping Up Summer

Officially, the calendar still says it's summer for awhile yet, but in reality, the season has already made a change. The focus is now a new school year, both with our families, as well as for us who work with Cru. So here is one last post wrapping up some of our summer memories ... with family, and also with Cru.

We had a very special treat the first week of July ... a visit from our daughter Cristy together with her husband Mark, and the younger two of their four children, Luke and Brianna. Our grandkids are growing older, so two stayed behind: Crystal, with her summer job at DBU where she attends college, and also Abigail, who is now married and preparing for her first year of teaching after college graduation this past May! It's hard to keep up with everyone growing up and that also means that we are growing older, as well.

It was a wonderful time with family home! Then mid-way through the month, we headed off for Chadron State Park, in the northwest corner of our state, for a week of v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n. Our bigger trip of the year does not come until the fall season this year, but we knew that we needed a "week off" during our busy summer. We decided to stay fairly close to home, and reserved a cabin at one of Nebraska's state parks.

Our week away was just what we wished for, and more. Just the two of us ... resting, enjoying the beauty from our cabin deck, reading, extended devotional times ... it was glorious! And another special treat was driving back home to Omaha/Fort Calhoun via a stop in McCook. It was very fun to stop to see Carrie & Tyler, Cruz and Eva just three weeks after they moved into their new home there. We loved our visit with them, and getting acquainted with their new life there in McCook.

July and August have also been filled with Cru activity, as our involvement with students continues throughout the summer ...

Just a few days after our trip to Chadron State Park, we, together with some of our students, had the opportunity to partner with a group who serve the homeless in downtown Omaha once a week throughout the year. It was eye-opening, and heart-breaking, and such a joy to serve together providing a meal to nearly 175 of Omaha's homeless. You can read more and see photos by reading "Cru Summer Update" at CruOmaha.com.

Then at the beginning of August it was such a joy to have Jake & Chelsea, Eleanor and Audrey, over for a mid-morning breakfast gathering just five days after they returned from their month-long Cru mission to Tanzania, Africa. They, together with three other Cru staff, led a group of 16 college and high school aged students to love and serve students in Tanzania. We loved to hear many of the exciting things that happened, along with hearing about the challenges that were also present. You can read more and see photos of their trip by reading "Tanzania Summer Mission" at CruOmaha.com.

And now, as we near the end of August, schools have started up again, and we are very much involved meeting with our volunteers, our student leaders, and on campus in student meetings. On one of our campuses (Omaha North) a few of the students (above) joined us in a prayer walk around their campus at the start of this new school year.

Would you join us in praying for each of our campuses this year, as well? We desire to keep in touch often this school year, alerting friends and family to prayer needs, and also sharing what God is doing! You can check back here at GaryandCherry.com, as well as at CruOmaha.com for updates throughout the year.

Highlights from June

Continuing on with our desire to keep in touch with family and friends, we thought we'd keep on with sharing some updates from our summer. If there were a theme that we would pick for the month of June, it could be ... that it was a time for farewells. 

It was a time to savor times together with a daughter & son-in-law & two grandkids before they made a big move. These photos capture the special overnighter we had with Cruz and Eva before they moved from Omaha to McCook the end of June.

It was a blessing to be able to help our daughter and son-in-law, Carrie & Tyler, through the month with preparations for their move ... caring for the kids, providing freezer meals for their use, etc. A bittersweet time to have family move away; yet, we are thankful for how God has directed their move. And it is not as far away as it could be!

And June was filled with Cru ministry, as well. Though our regular Cru meetings on campus do not take place during the summer, we continue to still be involved with students throughout the summer. Our Cru Summer program provides an opportunity for students from our various area campuses to continue meeting. Students met in two different locations: a group in Washington County met in various student homes, and a group in Omaha met in a meeting room at Scooter's coffee shop. Each group of students used the Summer Connect video discipleship material provided by Cru. 

In addition to the Cru Summer gatherings during June, Jake & Chelsea (staff on our team) prepared to lead a team of high school and college students on a mission to Tanzania, Africa. In the photo below you see them with their two young daughters, as well as three high school students from our area. They left from Omaha's Eppley airport on June 27, joined a group of about 16 others in Chicago from across the nation, and flew to Tanzania for their month-long mission with Cru.

Bittersweet farewells, but a joy to hear news throughout the rest of the summer of how God used the team in Tanzania in amazing ways, and also of how our daughter and son-in-law, Carrie & Tyler, and two grandkids Cruz & Eva, are right where God wants them to be.

A Few Snapshots from the Month of May

Desiring to keep in touch with family and friends, we're sharing a few memories and snapshots from our month of May. As Cru staff, the month of May can often be one of the busiest months of the year. And it probably is the same for others, as well, with all the events that May can bring!

In the midst of finishing up another year of Cru on our seven area campuses, the month held a very significant event for our family! Our oldest granddaughter, Abigail, was married to her fiance, Addison. We couldn't have been more excited! They met at DBU (Dallas Baptist University), and both sense a deep calling to serve long-term overseas with World Venture to the country of Japan! With my (Cherry's) background as an MK (missionary kid) from Japan, this is especially exciting for me to have a granddaughter and her husband headed for that country!

We traveled to Dallas/Fort Worth for the beautiful wedding on May 20th. 

An added blessing for us was that all six of our (grown) children were able to be there for the wedding, as well ... a mini family reunion!

When we returned home from the wedding, we jumped right back into Cru responsibilities with finishing up the school year. Besides wrapping up student meetings, we took part in the big area fundraising program called Omaha Gives. We are so grateful for the funds that were brought in to help with funding our Cru Omaha Operating Account for the coming 2018-2019 school year.

That same week, we, together with Jake, the other full-time staff member here in the Omaha area, held the Cru Summer Kick-off event ... a fun time for students from various campus groups, and the start up of the summer program for students.

Our March 2018 Newsletter

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We've been trying out various formats for sending out our Cru Communique newsletter ... sending by postal mail, by email, or a combination. Our most recent choice has been to send our news in the format of a large-sized two-sided postcard. We hope that it is easier to read, as it is very visible when it arrives in the mail. 

We greatly appreciate the prayers and financial support that we receive from churches and from individuals, and want to keep in touch with you! 

Memories of Dad Siebert

Just 2 1/2 weeks after our wonderful Family Christmas, Cherry's 96 year-old father passed away after a fall and a heart attack. These pages taken from Cherry's digital scrapbook, share part of the story of Dad Siebert's passing.

It was a sudden passing, and though we are grieving our loss, we are also celebrating that our father received his wish of seeing his Savior and being re-united with our dear mother who passed away in 2007. It was so special to have Cherry's three brothers and two sisters-in-law here (from the east and west coasts). Along with other family and relatives, we had a sweet, memorable time together sharing memories. The Memorial Service on Jan. 18 was filled with tributes and memories from the 38 years that Cherry's parents spent in Japan as missionaries with SEND, Int'l.