Highlights from December

It is a highlight of our year when family comes home! And this year, we were so incredibly blessed to have ALL of our family home for Christmas! And when all are home now, that means 25 of us all together ... four daughters, two sons, four sons-in-law, a son's girlfriend, ten grandkids, a granddaughter's husband, and another granddaughter's boyfriend!

Twenty-five of our family + Gary's older single brother, and we were 26 around our table(s) for Family Christmas 2018 ...

We gathered at our home on Saturday, Dec. 29th, out-of-town family from Dallas, San Francisco, Brooklyn, and McCook NE, joining us and our two daughters & families who live nearby. 

It's such a treat to be together, and also that we can still all fit around our table(s) for Christmas Dinner. The six youngest grandkids eat at a table set up in our living room, but they join us for a family photo "around the table" in the dining room, and also while Gary/Dad/Grampa shares a short Christmas devotional before we enjoy our feast.

Our special Family Christmas Day together continued until 1 am the following morning ... gift-giving, games, a fun snack/appetizer spread in the evening, and more games ... so much joy and laughter, and many memories made. We are grateful to God for His blessings. Life is full of trials and hard times for all (including for our family), but also filled with such special gifts from God. We are filled with thanks for His gift of family.

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December was a very full month for us, as it usually is for everyone. Preparing for having family home, and also continuing with all the activities of Cru on our various campuses can make for a very busy time. But also a very blessed time.

Gary was in Dallas (Nov. 27 - Dec. 2) for the Annual Leadership Gathering of all Team Leaders with Cru, both with the college campus ministry and the high school ministry. While there in Dallas, he also was able to spend time one evening with family ... our daughter Cristy & Mark, and their family. And also blessed to go to a special Christmas Concert at Dallas Baptist University where our granddaughter Crystal and also her boyfriend Braden, attend. Crystal and Braden are both pursuing music-related majors while there, and had a part in the very special concert.

Back at home again, our days were filled with Christmas prep, a fun visit from our daughter Carrie & Tyler and their two children who now live in McCook, and various special musical and band programs that our four grandkids who live nearby were in during the month of December. We also greatly enjoyed time with our CityGroup (small group with our church, Citylight Omaha) at a sweet Christmas Party, and also an invitation from a couple within the group to be their guests at an amazing Christmas performance of the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.

And also, our weeks were filled with Cru ... staff meetings, student meetings, and all the day-to-day administration of Cru Omaha. We finished off the year so grateful for all that God is doing in students' lives. And also so grateful for blessing us with having Jake on our team. It is a joy to serve together with him, and with our 25 volunteers who make Cru Omaha a reality.

Students gathered on our various Cru campuses for Christmas parties near the end of the month. Here are photos of two of those fun gatherings ...

Cru Christmas Party at Central High in Omaha

Cru Christmas Party with Fort Calhoun students

And now, we are into another calendar year of family, Cru, and more! Thanks for visiting Our Cru Communique blog, and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Cru15 - Fort Collins, CO

Sharing memories of our Cru15 Staff Conference, held in Fort Collins, CO, last month. It was one of the best yet - uplifting, inspiring, and thought-provoking! So blessed that we could be there, and so thankful for the privilege of serving with Cru. Thank you to all our friends and support team who make it possible! 

We are now busy preparing for a new school year of ministry to high school and middle school students here in the Omaha area. School is already starting up, and our weeks have been filled since we returned from CO, getting together with volunteers and student leaders in preparation for a new school year. Thank you for praying for a fruitful year of students coming to know Jesus!

(Photos from our "Project Life" digital scrapbook, capturing memories of the summer.)

High School Ministry Days at Cru15

Hearing from our leader, Darryl Smith ...

Our Cru15 (Staff Conference) days started out with High School Ministry Days from Friday evening (July 10) through Sunday afternoon (July 12). What a great privilege to hear from our leaders and to connect with other staff. We always love these times together ...

After the opening BBQ Friday evening, held at a park in Fort Collins, we met for the next two days at Newsome Hall, part of Colorado State University campus.

Lunch together on Saturday between our morning and afternoon sessions ...

Our view of the Colorado mountains as we walked from Corbett Hall to Newsome Hall for our meetings ...

Beautiful Colorado sky view at dusk ...

Welcoming new staff who have joined since our last staff conference two years ago ...

Our last session together on Sunday afternoon was a Celebration and Awards time ... honoring staff for milestone years on staff (we will be awarded for 25 years at the Cru17 conference, two years from now!), and also welcoming the new staff who have joined since the last staff conference two years ago. It was exciting to have a record number of new staff join!

Such a blessed time to connect with our staff friends from across the U.S. And such a blessed privilege to hear from our leaders.

A few of the highlights from my (Cherry's) journal, notes taken during our sessions. 

From Darryl Smith:

• Scope - "every" has always been on God's heart. The Gospel is for everyone ... "make disciples of all the nations". 

• Passion and Compassion - both are important.

• Passion = brings focus.

• Compassion = brings scope.

• The Good Samaritan gives us a clear example of "compassion". Though his passion would not have been to minister to a Jew, the Samaritan was filled with compassion to help someone who was in need. Though our passion as High School staff, is for high school and middle school students, our compassion draws us to care for all those whom God cares for ... everyone.

• Always pursue First Love ... above what we do; our focus first of all is always the Gospel, always growing in our love relationship with Jesus. 

From worship songs:

• I will live to carry Your compassion ... by the power of Your Name.
• ... offer this heart, O God, completely to You.
• ... remind myself of all You've done ... I am Yours, forever Yours.

Special focuses:

• Tracy sharing how critical it is to reach middle school students - such a harassed culture, helpless; prime time to want to know Jesus.

• Sunday morning prayer focus led by Stephanie. The key to God's heart is prayer; the door to God's heart is Jesus. Prayer (communicating with and listening to God) ... our invitation to come "home" to ultimate intimacy and acceptance. Intercession = laying our pressing emotions and heart concerns for ourselves and others before the King.

These are just a few of the ways we heard from God through our time together; thoughts to carry with us. The biggest take-away from time with other High School staff with Cru is always ... the Gospel and growing in our love relationship with Jesus. This is always held up as of prime importance and focus. All ministry is an overflow from this ... 

Project Life: Cru Leadership Conference

Capturing the memories from our annual Cru Leadership Conference in Orlando! So thankful for time with other staff from across the nation ... we were refreshed and encouraged! 

After our conference, we were blessed with a very special gift ... a three-night stay at an Omni Hotel on Amelia Island, Florida. A gift from my Siebert brothers and their wives as a thank-you for the care that we give for our 93 year-old father. Click here for photos.

Cru High Leadership Conference

Once each year we travel to Florida for our Cru High Leadership Conference ... a time for the City MTL's (city directors) of Cru High to gather together for training and inspiration. It's a good time of year for this conference, as we can spend a few days in a warmer climate! This year the temps in Orlando were in the low 80's while we were there - a great contrast to the freezing temps we have been having in Nebraska. 

So thankful for this time to spend together with other staff, and to be encouraged and inspired by time in God's Word together. The time went by too quickly ...

Sharing our thanks to God through digital scrapbooking pages ...

Click here to view two more digital scrapbook pages (on Cherry's Pursuing Heart blog) from our time in Florida, including an evening at Disney World's "Magic Kingdom"!

DCC Planning in Denver

Student conferences are a big part of Cru, as conferences are a place where college and high school students are often impacted for eternity. And as staff, this requires a lot of prayer, planning, and concentrated effort, following God's leading to put on conferences that will meet students in their places of need, seeking to create a place where great spiritual growth can happen.

We traveled to Denver as a couple for the weekend of Sept. 20-22 to be part of one of these planning sessions in anticipation of DCC (Denver Christmas Conference), the student conference that takes place in Denver between Christmas and New Years. 

Students from our Omaha area campuses will be traveling to this conference in late December. Last year was our first year to bring students to this conference, as we had previously taken them to the FastBreak Conference in MN. We are grateful to be asked to join DCC with our high school students, and it is a valuable time to be in on the ground floor of planning this conference. Our presence is important, as we give input from the viewpoint of the high school students that we work with.

More detailed news about DCC 2013 will be coming in the near future, and will be posted on our Cru Omaha blog.

Cru Staff Conference 2013

We always look forward to our every-other-year Cru Staff Conference, and this year was no exception. And this year was our eleventh trip traveling to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, for this valuable time of training and learning together with other Cru staff. Our time in Fort Collins was broken down into three different segments.

 Cru High School Ministry Days

Our first few days were spent together with other Cru High staff from all across the nation, and some from around the world. Such a rich time: hearing from our Executive Director, Darryl Smith - always pointing us to First Love ... Level 316 leading us in worship (such a great time of worship!) ... and learning from other staff through discussions around our tables and over meals together. 

Finishing off our time together with ice-cream sundaes

Legacy Track

Next, and overlapping with Cru High Ministry Days, was the first-ever Legacy Track. A few days together with other staff who are over 60 - and yes, we qualify for that category! We loved our time of sharing and learning from fellow staff in the same season of life that we are in. It was one of the many highlights of our time in Colorado.

Visit with Uncle Sherwood & Aunt Marion

We had a morning and afternoon free after the first two segments of our time came to a close. We drove from Fort Collins to nearby Loveland, where we met up with Uncle Sherwood & Aunt Marion - a special treat to spend some together with this sweet couple! 

Cru Staff Conference

Our six days of all-staff conference started out with a County Fair - especially enjoyed by the families present. It brought back memories for us of when we attended conference with our kids ... all six of our kids were with us for our very first staff conference in 1991! And now, we are attending as "empty nesters" - how the years fly by! 

One of our Cru Omaha staff families enjoying the ferris wheel ...

Our next six days were filled with sessions - mornings, afternoons, and also evenings. A very full schedule of listening, learning, and connecting with staff. We took time our first full day to have lunch together with our Cru Omaha staff team - what a treat to have each of them there with us!

Mornings and evenings found all of staff (about 5,000!) in Moby Arena for great times of worship, and valuable learning times as we listened to our leaders (Steve Douglass, Steve Sellers, Mark Gauthier, and more), and also to speakers such as Alistair Begg, James White, and many others. Our journals are filled with notes, and we will be processing and integrating all that we heard and learned in the coming days and weeks.

Welcoming the new staff who have joined Cru since our last time together two years ago

An especially memorable time was when we were led through worship in some very creative ways, culminating in the lighting of candles signifying Jesus lighting our lives with His love. A breath-taking time as the creative team led us through the time of worship, using several different tangible objects to give extra meaning to truths of God's Word.

Afternoons were spent attending various seminars that were offered. We attended some very helpful ones, giving us new ideas for ministry partner development, more ideas on using technology, and thought-provoking insight on connecting with our changing culture and being able to love people and draw them to Jesus. 

We thank and praise God for allowing us to serve together with other staff of like-mind. A wide variety of ministries under Cru (the U.S. division of Campus Crusade for Christ) - and many different focuses - but all, with a common vision and common purpose. And what we love and appreciate most of all in serving with Cru is that we are always pointed to our First Love, pursuing Jesus with our whole hearts. And all the serving and ministry is an overflow from this.