Cru Blair Middle

November was a big month for our Cru Blair High movement, as they moved their weekly meetings to their campus. Click here to read about it. And also, we are so thankful for the doors opening in Blair for our Cru Blair Middle School to also have access to meeting on campus!

Joy, our volunteer who leads Cru Blair Middle School, continues to hold their weekly meetings in her home (as the school is not available during the after school hours that they meet), but several times a year they will be taking advantage to the availability of meeting on campus for special events.

Nov. 18 was their first time to do so, and thirty-four students, family, and friends met in the Otte Blair Middle School Art Room for a fun Gratitude and Gaming night! 

Please pray that this open door on campus will result with many more students coming to middle school Cru events, and most importantly, coming to know Jesus.

Cru Blair Moves to Campus

After a number of years of dreaming and praying for this, it has happened! Our Cru Blair group now has started holding their weekly student meetings in the Blair High School building! They have been given the use of the Home Ec rooms for their Monday night meetings.

To celebrate what God has done in opening up this door, they held a Mustache Bash Kickoff event on the Monday after Halloween Day, Nov. 4. Thirty students came to their high school for this Cru event.

We're thankful for all those who prayed for this move, and we are thankful for our part-time staff, Jake & Chelsea, who are heading up this new direction for Cru Blair. 

This also signifies a change in the leadership of Cru Blair, as Jake steps up his leadership as a result of our other part-time staff guy, Andy, needing to transition to his new full-time role as Student Ministries Coach at Country Bible Church. And how grateful we are that Andy will also continue to work alongside Jake in an affiliate role with Cru now. They make a great team, and we praise God for them!

Please pray for those students who have been part of Cru Blair, that they will be energized and motivated by this change in location, and they will be burdened to help draw more students to Jesus on their campus.

Cru Central High Meetings

Students from Central High in Omaha have been holding weekly Cru meetings since the beginning of the school year. Our volunteers, along with our student leaders have been doing a great job starting off this newest Cru movement. 

Meetings were held for the first month or so at Bemis Park, and since then we have moved to a room made available for us at Citylight Church. Both of these locations are in the general area of Central High, which has made it easy for students to come.

The student meetings are held on Thursday evenings from 6-8 pm, and the last meeting of October happened to be on Halloween Day. We came up with the idea of meeting on the front lawn at Citylight, to roast s'mores over a firepit, and also hand out treats to kids from the neighborhood who would happen to come by. 

Ethan, a student leader, led the students in a fun game around the fire a bit later in the evening, followed with a talk by Kent, one of our volunteers. Kent related well with the students, encouraging them to have God at the focal point of their lives, instead of focusing on the various masks that we often put on. 

The students and volunteers who meet each Thursday are connecting well, growth is happening, and we are thankful to God for the start of what He wants to do in students' lives at Central High. Please pray for the students who are a part of our meetings, and for many more to be drawn to Jesus.

Another School Year for Cru Fort Calhoun

Another year of Cru meetings has started up for students at Fort Calhoun High! Gary meets with the five student leaders, and also a college volunteer (and former FC student leader) every other week for prayer, planning, and pizza in our basement family room. Then Josh (our college volunteer) and the five student leaders lead the student meetings the other two weeks of each month.

Students participating in an opening "ice breaker" game.

The students met recently and watched the video "Staci's Story", the story of a godly girl who died suddenly and the impact her testimony had on her high school peers. The students then gathered in small groups to discuss the impact the Gospel can have, and what kind of impact they are having with their peers on their campus.

Students gathering in small groups ...

The students in each small group became very serious and were obviously thinking through these issues very deeply. Our student leaders did a great job facilitating the deep discussions.

 Another of the four small groups ...

Cru FC is off to a great start this new school year, with seven new students at the most recent meeting. One of these new students shared how he had never been to anything like this before, but his mom had been wanting him to become involved in something that would make him a better person. He was very interested, and asked a lot of questions. Our college leader, Josh, gave him a Bible to take home with him. Please pray for the new students who are coming, and for many students to be given the opportunity to know and follow Jesus this school year.

Our Newest Cru Campus

After about a year of following God through open doors of connections, and a year of weekly early morning prayer times at Central High in Omaha, Cru Central is now a reality!

We began weekly student meetings  in August, first meeting for three weeks at Bemis Park, and then just recently moving to Citylight Church, just blocks from Central High. And possibly moving to meeting on campus in the near future, if that avenue works out.

College volunteer, Stephane, sharing at our very first student meeting this school year.

It has been an exciting journey as we have followed God's direction! And we are amazed at the leadership that He is raising up for this new campus movement.

We are so blessed to be starting out with four passionate, gifted student leaders. They are actively taking ownership of Cru Central - we are so thankful for Ethan, Ryan, Nick, and Maddie. They are full of life and fun, are active in leading the meetings, and in sharing their lives and their faith with their peers.

And alongside us as staff, God is raising up an awesome group of college and adult volunteers. Bryant, Athletic Trainer at Central, and his wife, Angie, are an integral part of how God is opening up this new campus to Cru. Along with this couple, we are also thankful for a group of Dundee moms who meet to pray for students, and also help with food and other needs.

Other volunteers are coming alongside us through a new CityGroup formed at Citylight Church, which is located near Central High. We began attending this new church about six months ago, and were approached by the leadership to lead one of their dozen or so CityGroups, smaller groups within the church, each one focused on a different mission in the city. We are in the beginning stages of forming this new CityGroup, specifically focused on working together with us as Cru in starting up a student movement at Central High.

Small group discussion time at our second meeting.

We are thanking God for the group of like-minded, passionate individuals that He is raising up - young college and adult leaders, each with a heart for reaching high school students at Central High. We are so thankful for Shelby, Erica, and Ashley. And also for Stephane, a transfer college guy from NY (and originally from Haiti). These volunteer leaders are amazing - we love serving together with them.

Students and volunteer leaders connecting together at our third meeting.

It has been a good beginning month of connecting with students in our weekly meetings, and we are watching with anticipation to see all that God will do in the lives of Central students this year. Will you please join us in praying that many students at Central will come to know Jesus this school year? 

Summer Venture Finale

It was a great summer for our Cru students ...

Weekly Summer Venture meeting with Omaha South students

Student ministry during the summer looks a bit different than during the school year. Many of the Cru High ministries across the nation do not meet regularly during the summer months, but several years ago we began what we call Summer Venture in our Omaha area. 

Under the leadership and coaching of our two part-time staff guys, Andy & Jake, eleven college volunteers played an active part in our Summer Venture program these past few months. Andy & Jake met with the college students (most of them former Cru High students) each Monday night, and then the following evening the college students divided up into teams to lead groups of high school students - in Blair, Fort Calhoun, Logan View, and at Marrs in Omaha. 

These four Summer Venture groups, as well as the Omaha South group (which was led by adult volunteers) all went through the study The Gospel Centered Life. It was a time of growth for the students, as well as the leaders. 

And on August 6th, the three groups that were in more close proximity to each other (Blair, Fort Calhoun, and Logan View) gathered for a fun Summer Venture finale evening. They started off their time together by dividing into four teams for some competitive games ...

Four teams ready for crazy, fun competition!

After the games, they gathered back indoors for a time of worship ...

And to hear one of the college volunteers share his story of coming to Jesus ...

It was a summer of incredible opportunity ... for students, as well for our college volunteers. The students were challenged as they studied and shared together, and our college volunteers had a great opportunity to grow in leadership as they led the meetings. And Jake & Andy did an amazing job of coaching our college volunteers. 

Cru High Staff Team

What a privilege it is to serve together with others of like mind and heart! On a mission to Win! Build! and Send! middle school and high school students. With the mind and heart to ...

Build spiritual movements

on every campus

so that every student

has a chance to know and follow Jesus Christ.

These two photos were taken exactly one week ago today while our Cru Omaha staff team was in Colorado for our every-other-year Cru Staff Conference. Although most of our time was spent in meetings with all of the U.S. based Cru staff (nearly 5,000), we also had some sessions with just the Cru High School staff. The ministry within Cru that is focused on reaching middle school and high school students.

Besides the staff pictured here (and there are some staff who are missing from the photo), there are many, many volunteers who come alongside us in this mission. On our Cru Omaha team alone, we have about 25-30 volunteers who work together with us! Wouldn't it be fun to have a photo of all of us together - staff, and also volunteers, from each city where Cru High School is active?

We are so thankful to be part of the mission of this Cru High School team. Our leader, Darryl Smith (to the very right in the photo) was with us here in Omaha this past spring for a few days of school assemblies. We are grateful for his leadership, always pointing us to Jesus and following Him as our First Love. And all else will flow from this as we reach out to students.

Cru Staff Conference 2013

Every other summer we travel to Fort Collins, Colorado, to join thousands of other Cru staff for 7-10 days of learning and training. This year our whole staff team was able to be there - and we met for a lunch together on the first full day of staff conference (see photo below).

Staff Conference (on the campus of Colorado State University) was divided into two main sections: several days with Cru High School staff together (about 300 of us from across our nation) ... and then six days with all of Cru staff together (about 5,000!). There are many different ministries under Cru - ministry to high school students, college students, to families, military, inner city, teachers, businessmen and women, Jesus Film ministry, and many more categories. What an amazing time to all be together to learn and grow together.

Our whole time together was a very rich time of listening to our leaders, and other speakers who were brought in, attending afternoon seminars covering a wide variety of topics (all so helpful for life and ministry), and connecting with and learning from other staff.

Our opening night - welcoming all the new staff since the last conference two years ago ...

We as a staff team are taking home many insights and ideas from our time together, and we thank God for this very valuable time together. We will be processing all that we learned and will be integrating it into our hearts and minds in the days and weeks ahead. Of primary importance in our time together (as is true of all of our staff conferences) is that we are pointed to Jesus first of all, and encouraged to follow Him as our First Love. Above ministry, above anything else - for everything will flow from Him as we follow Him.

(For more photos, click here to view our Family/Ministry blog.)

Rocky Mountain Getaway 2013

Each June hundreds of students gather at the beautiful YMCA of the Rockies for the Cru Getaway conference. We were granted a medical leave for several weeks in June (to help a family member going through a difficult medical situation in Ohio), and Debi is on MPD leave this summer, raising needed funds for her staff account. So we relied totally on our two part-time staff guys, Jake & Andy, to transport our students to this conference. (Thanks, Jake & Andy!) They were accompanied by Clay, a local youth pastor. Our students joined other students from our region for an amazing, impactful Getaway at the foot of the Rockies near Estes Park.

The students met for great worship times, inspiring teaching, and also for smaller training seminars - all focused on helping them grow in their personal relationship with Jesus, and then in equipping them to make an impact on their campuses back home.

In one of the main sessions, one of our students, Allen (photo below), was given the opportunity to share his story of coming to know Jesus. From a tumultuous background, Christ has made a huge difference in his life - and now, Allen is active in sharing his faith with his peers at Omaha South High.

We thank God for the growth in our students' lives from attending the Getaway. Jeremy (pictured below), one of our Cru Fort Calhoun students, was one of those who was greatly impacted by the speakers and training sessions. Please pray for Allen and Jeremy, as well as all the other students who were at the Getaway - that God will continue to use the lessons taught there in their lives ... and also in other students' lives as they hear what God did during that time.

Thank you for your prayers that make all of this life-change possible. All praise to God for His work in the lives of students!

School's End Bash

Each spring, our Cru students from Blair and Fort Calhoun gather to celebrate the completion of another year of schooling, and another year of meeting together as Cru students. This year the celebration took on the form of a paintball event. Todd & Angela, staff members in the area, opened up their spacious country home and yard for our event.

We're thankful for Andy & Jake, part-time staff members, who passionately lead the Cru Blair group, and for Debi (full-time staff), and Jared (volunteer) who work with Gary in the leadership of Cru Fort Calhoun. Both groups have had a great year with significant spiritual and numerical growth.

Please pray for our staff, volunteers, and student leaders, as we gear up for another year of impacting students on these two campuses.

More Beginnings of Cru Central High

Memorial Park in central Omaha was the location for an event for Central High students in mid-May. Our three student leaders (photo below), working together with Gary, planned this event in preparation for kicking off Cru at Central high this coming 2013-2014 school year. And together with some FCA leadership at Central, we brought in Josh Jones, a well-known former Central High and also Creighton athlete. 

God is at work in drawing students, as well as volunteers, together to open up this campus for Cru in the 2013-2014 school year. Please join us in praying for many students to come to know Jesus this coming year, and for all the various ethnic groups on campus to be impacted for eternity. Central High is the largest campus in Omaha, as well as in Nebraska. Click here to read more of how God has been opening up the doors on this campus.

We thank God for Drew, Ethan, and Ryan - and for all the other student leaders, and also adult volunteers whom God is drawing together to be part of the team that He will use in reaching many students on this needy campus. Please pray for this mission field, right in the midst of the city of Omaha.

Time to Celebrate Our Seniors

May was a month full of graduations and open houses - especially busy for our staff team. Working with high school students means that every year groups of our students graduate, and move on into their college years. We pray that they are more fully equipped for all that life holds for them. And we thank God for the incredible opportunity that we have had to build into their lives, and for many of them, to actually have been the ones whom God has used to draw them into a personal relationship with Him.

One of these graduations was in Fort Calhoun, a small town just north of Omaha. We have been part of a vibrant, growing Cru ministry focused on students at Fort Calhoun High. And as the graduating seniors came in the auditorium for their graduation ceremony, we took photo after photo of those who have been an integral part of Cru. Going through the names in the program, we discovered that about one third of the graduating class have been part of Cru at some point in their high school years.

We are so grateful for the student leaders who have played a big part in what God has been doing on this small town campus. One of the main student leaders for our Cru movement in recent years was one of the graduates this year. We will certainly miss Josh (in photo above) as a student leader this coming year. But, as he will be attending college in the area, he hopes to continue on as a Cru volunteer for the 2013-2014 school year!

Please pray for each of our Cru student graduates - from Fort Calhoun High, and also from all the other Cru campuses in our area - that they will continue to grow in their faith, and that they will connect with others on their college campuses who are also desiring to make an impact for Jesus.

Middle School - Key Time for Impact

Most of our Cru High groups center around senior high students, but a few are focused on middle school students. Our newest middle school group started up this past school year, focusing on students from Blair Otte Middle School.

Joy Curry, a mom of a middle school student herself, approached one of our staff members about a year ago, sharing her desire to be a volunteer with Cru High. This past school year she has faithfully and passionately been leading a group of Blair Otte Middle School students. These students are being encouraged and challenged in their faith, and have chosen to even continue meeting throughout the summer. We thank God for Joy and her love and leadership of these students.

Please pray for each student who has been part of this Cru group, and for many more to be drawn to Jesus through this coming school year. The middle school years are very impactful years. 

This past spring these students joined our senior high students at the Blair YMCA to hear our National Director, Darryl Smith, share from his heart about how each of them, as students, can make an impact on their campuses. One of the middle school students was in tears at the end of Darryl's talk - and shared with one of our staff members how he was broken for his peers, and desired for God to use him to make on impact on their lives. Please pray for this student, and for many others who are growing in their faith, and are wanting to make a difference.

Beginnings of Cru Central High

Fifteen 8th grade students gathered at a home in Dundee in mid-April ... the beginnings of something significant! And also of significance is that the gathering was led by three upperclassmen students at Central High.

We have been following God's leading step-by-step since last fall for the opening up of Cru at Central High School. Through connections with a staff person at Central, Gary has been meeting with a small prayer group at 6:30 am at Central High one morning a week for most of this past school year. Several students have joined this small prayer group, which has turned into a small discipleship time, as well. 

And from this prayer time, God has been opening up the way for more. A group of moms, burdened to pray for students at Central, including some of their own eighth graders who will be attending there in the fall of 2013, came in contact with our team. And plans were made to have an event this spring, in anticipation of Cru starting in the fall of 2013.

And the doors continued to open. Gary connected several months ago with three amazing young men, all upperclassmen at Central, who want to take leadership in impacting their peers at Central. 

Prayers at Central 

plus moms who pray 

plus upperclassmen praying for a way to impact their school 

and all led by God 

to carry His heart for the students at Central

These three upperclassmen (Ethan, Drew, and Ryan) led an event for the eighth grade students in mid-April. Providing a fun connection with them, and challenging them to follow Christ as they look ahead to attending Central High this next fall. And inviting them to be part of Cru Central High, impacting their campus for Christ. 

Beginnings - witnessing God at work,

and expectancy for what God will do.

Please pray for these 8th grade students, for the upperclassmen student leaders (Ethan, Drew, and Ryan), and for others whom God is drawing together to reach their campus. And please pray for movements to begin in all the various ethnic groups represented at Central High.

The mission of Cru High ...

That every student on every campus

has the chance to 
know and follow Jesus Christ.

Seven Assemblies at South High

There were nine school assemblies at Omaha South High on Tuesday, April 16. And at each of SEVEN of those nine assemblies, several hundred students were privileged to hear our Cru High National Director, Darryl Smith, share his talk on "making right choices".  Since the school was having a day of testing and needed an assembly speaker each hour for the students who were not in a test - Darryl was given the honor and challenge of speaking all day long, except for a lunch break!

South High student, Allen, introducing Darryl at the start of an assembly

This seven-assembly speaking marathon came about as a result of one of our Cru South students, Allen, who attended our Cru FastBreak Conference in Minnesota in December 2011. He was impacted by Darryl's influence at FastBreak, and took the initiative to invite Darryl to come speak to his friends and peers at South High. Little did we know at that point that Darryl would be willing and able to come to Omaha to speak at SEVEN assemblies at South High instead of the usual one assembly. We thank God for this amazing opportunity - and we also thank God for giving Darryl the energy and strength needed!

Darryl connected deeply with the students, and after each assembly, he invited the students to come back for an after-school pizza party. Where he would share the biggest right choice that he made in his life: to love and follow Jesus.

The students were drawn into his story of how his wrong choices as a teen and young adult ended up in prison time. And how it was there that he made the most important choice of all - to respond to Jesus.

Of the one hundred students who came to hear Darryl share of Jesus, nearly one fourth of them communicated to us on the comment cards that they wanted to make the same choice that Darryl had made. Please pray for these students, and for all the others who heard him throughout the day. And please pray for the South High teachers and staff who volunteer with us, as they follow-up with the twenty-five students, and with other interested students.

And would you thank God, together with us as staff and volunteers, for His Spirit at work in the lives of students in Omaha and surrounding areas. And for the privilege we had recently of having Darryl in several of our schools.

Challenge to Blair & Fort Calhoun Students

We could not resist having Darryl Smith (our Cru High National Director) speak to our students in Blair and Fort Calhoun, too, when he came to do assemblies at a few Omaha schools. So Monday evening, April 15, found him at the Blair YMCA with a combined group of Cru students from both Blair and Fort Calhoun.

These students were in for a heartfelt challenge from Darryl - to take it seriously to be lights on their campuses. Taking seriously the mission of Cru High - WINNING, BUILDING, and SENDING. The students were impacted as Darryl shared from God's Word - challenging them with the unique opportunity they have to make a difference on their campuses.

Please pray for the students who were impacted in significant ways from Darryl's challenge. There were some good conversations afterwards, students sharing with each other or with some of our staff team.

Assembly and Free Pizza at Accelere

Assembly at Accelere - a small section of the group of about a hundred students ...

When life throws some roadblocks in the way of high school graduation, there is still a way. And Accelere Alternative, a unique Omaha school for 17-21 year olds, is one of those ways at a second chance to gain a high school diploma.

On Monday, April 15, the one hundred students at Accelere had the opportunity to hear from Darryl Smith, our Cru High National Director, as he shared in a school assembly about making right choices. Sharing authentically from his own life. After the assembly, about fifty of those one hundred students made the choice to join us for a free pizza lunch at the Boys and Girls Club building next door, to hear more.

About fifty students responded to the pizza lunch invitation, and to hear more ...

Over their noon break from classes, these fifty students heard Darryl share of his choices as a teen and as a young adult, growing up in the inner city, of selling drugs, of landing in jail. And it was there that he made the most important choice of his life - to accept God's Love for him, and to surrender his life to God, for His purposes. Darryl's story connected deeply with these students.

A few of them had shared with him between the assembly and the pizza lunch - that they are empty, looking for something that is missing. Some in desperate situations, some of them parents already, at the same time as finishing up their high school.

And some responded, wanting to know more about this Love that Darryl talked about ... and many took a step in opening their hearts to Jesus.

Debi praying with some of the students after Darryl's talk ...

We praise God for open doors. For Accelere opening it's doors for us to hold Cru meetings with students over their lunch hour one day each week. For the open door to have Darryl come in for an assembly this week. And most of all, for His Spirit at work in students' lives, and for open hearts to His Love.

Please pray for these students. Many of the students have huge burdens in their lives. Pray for those who are open to listen, to hear, and to follow Jesus. The One who can give meaning and purpose. And please pray for those who are blinded and cannot see or listen.

Pray for Students at Omaha South

PLEASE PRAY - TUESDAY, April 16, AT OMAHA SOUTH!

God has opened up a unique opportunity for students at Omaha South. Our Cru High National Director, Darryl Smith, will be with us from Orlando, and will be sharing with students throughout the school hours, and also after school at Omaha South. 

Darryl will be speaking at seven assemblies throughout the day, sharing his talk on making right choices. Students will be invited to come to a concluding meeting after school - for FREE PIZZA, and to ...

Listen to Darryl's amazing story.

After making wrong choices and dealing drugs,

he landed in prison.

God met him there and

he experienced a radical turn around.

He has since devoted his life to

helping young adults make good choices in their lives.

We praise God for this unique opportunity, and ask for your prayers for many students at Omaha South to come to know Jesus, just as Darryl did in his young adult years. 

Pray for Students at Accelere

Every Thursday noon some of the students at Accelere Alternative walk a short distance from their campus in the Blackburn High building to the Boys and Girls Club building across the parking lot. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and all are students who have returned to finish high school as 17-21 year olds. They come to the Cru Accelere meeting for free pizza, and for a chance to hear about how they can have a personal relationship with God.

One of our volunteers with Cru Omaha, Ron Smith, is leading the meeting in the photo above. We are so grateful for Ron. He is involved with Abide Ministries, and has offered of his time to pour his life and heart into the students at Accelere. The students love him, and he has a way of communicating with them on their level.

Last week Gary led the meeting in Ron's absence, and the thirty students present that day gave their whole attention as he shared from his life - how knowing Jesus can make all the difference, and how God is present with us through all that life brings our way. There were a few students who came for the very first time. We are amazed at this opportunity God has opened up for Cru meetings during their lunch break.

PLEASE PRAY FOR STUDENTS AT ACCELERE 
MONDAY, APRIL 15

Accelere students will have a special lunch opportunity this next Monday. Our Cru National Director, Darryl Smith, will be with us from Orlando, and will be sharing his talk on making right choices, and emphasizing the best right choice a young adult can make: that is, to respond to Jesus and follow Him. Darryl comes from a background of wrong choices as a young adult, which led to some time in prison. Which is where he met Jesus, forever changing his life. Darryl will surely connect with these students.

Bellevue West

We are always watching to see where God is at work in opening up new campuses for Cru High. Debi, our full-time staff gal, has been connecting with some volunteers and students who are interested in helping with starting up Cru High at Bellevue West High School. And we praise God for opening up the doors for the beginning steps!

Debi shares with us, "We started the studies at Chick-fil-A, but since then Mikaela (one of the student leaders) and some of the girls spoke with a teacher who was more than happy to host the Bible Study in her room."

These girls are committed to be part of the beginnings of Cru at Bellevue West - they meet at the very early hour of 6:45 am to study and pray together! Debi shared, "It is a girls' study, with the desire to grow to include non-Christians. Their study this week was talking about walking in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Please pray for Mikaela and Caitie, upperclassmen at Bellevue West, as they seek to impact their peers for Christ on their campus.

Cru Lock-In at Omaha YMCA

The Fremont YMCA has been the place where we have held our area-wide Lock-In for years, but this year we made the big step of moving the Lock-In to Omaha. More campuses are opening up in the Omaha area, and it just made more sense to have it there. Working out the details took some extra time, so our annual Cru Lock-In was held in January this year, instead of the usual early December time.

We were excited to have 65 students show up for our first Lock-In at the downtown YMCA! Students came from Blair, Fort Calhoun, and also from a number of Omaha schools, including Omaha South, Omaha North, Marrs Middle, and Bellevue West.

After registration of the students from 9-10 pm on Saturday, January 19, we had them gather in groups (mixing up the students from the various schools) for some opening get-acquainted activities. Our 19 staff and volunteers actively helped with this, and also throughout the entire night.

After a few hours of various sports activities in the YMCA, the students gathered back together for pizza ...

Following the pizza break, we gave the students an opportunity to hear one of our college volunteers share her story of her high school days, and of coming to know and follow Jesus. Then, Lee Bickerstaff, on staff with Cru's college ministry, shared with the students how they could know God personally.

Of the 65 students present, there were quite a few who expressed interest in learning more (for some, it was their first exposure to Cru High School), and we also praise God that 14 of the students who were at the Lock-In, responded on the comment cards that they desire to put their faith in Christ.

Please join us in thanking God for a GREAT night together with these 65 students - for the 19 staff and volunteers who helped - and for lasting impact on all of the students as a result.

The pizza boxes were emptied, everyone made it home safely the next morning, we developed a great relationship with the staff at the downtown Omaha YMCA (they have invited us to come there for future Cru events) - and we pray that God will continue to draw these 65 students closer and closer to Him. Please pray for our various Cru ministries as we touch base with these, and other students, in the coming days and weeks ...