A New School Year of Cru

The summer has flown by, and another year of Cru ministry to high school and middle school students is here! You can see the excitement of these students at South High as they gathered together again the end of August for their first Cru meeting of this new school year!

There were familiar faces, and new faces ... each one full of potential, and each one loved deeply by God. Please pray for many students to come to know and follow Jesus during this new school year at South, and also at each of our other area campuses. 

All signs reveal that God is preparing us for a great school year ahead. Thank you so much for your prayers as we reach out to so many active, impressionable youth!

Cru Volunteer Gathering

We love our volunteers! And it is always such a treat when we can gather them together in one place. They are busy people, many with full-time jobs or full-time college classes, while also volunteering of their time to reach high school and middle school students for Jesus! Cru Omaha could not exist without them; they are an integral part of what God is doing in the lives of students here in our area.

The group above (a portion of our volunteers) met with us recently in our home. We shared hopes, dreams, ideas, and plans for the various campuses we each work with this school year. We then prayed together for God to anoint movements for Christ among students at each of these campuses.

Please join us in these prayers! Pray for all our volunteers. They are such a dedicated group. They love teenagers so much and passionately want them to know the joy of following Christ! 

Please pray also for more volunteers. There are some campuses where volunteers led ministries last year but where we won't be able to have Cru groups this year unless we find willing capable volunteers!

Cru Summer - Final Event

Time is fleeting! Every moment we have with students is critical. "Teenagers are like wet cement, just waiting for someone to make a lasting impression" is a quote used often in the Cru - High School ministry. That's why we determine every summer to take advantage of some of those hours teens often waste or use unproductively.

God used our Cru Summer program very productively again this year to help area teens focus on God and His plan for their lives. We discussed topics like: Our Identity in Christ, Listening to God, Peer Pressure, Sexual Sin, Suffering, Forgiveness, Pride & Arrogance, and Temptations. Each lesson was created by the college student volunteers who based the lesson around a character of the Bible. There were great, in-depth discussions where students were really connecting with each other and with God in ways that were life-changing.

Our closing Cru Summer event was a Tournament of Champions, with teams competing in fun, creative competition. As always, the students really got into it, with the winning team really hamming it up!

A huge thank you goes to Jake for leading this effort so well, and to all the college students who really gave themselves to this project and to these high school students this summer.

Now we transition into restarting our Cru groups on 10 different campuses! Please pray for each campus, and for our staff, volunteers, and student leaders. Pray that God would work mightily in and through them to create movements for Christ on every campus!

Cru Summer College Volunteers

The summer is quickly drawing to a close, with many high schools and middle schools starting up in the next few weeks.

And with the close of another summer, comes the completion of another summer of "Cru Summer". Our part-time guy, Jake, did an amazing job of leading our college volunteers (pictured above), who in turn, led our summer ministry with high school students here in the Omaha area. (Jake is to the right in this photo, third from the front, with the gray t-shirt.)

Jake, Andy (affiliate staff), and Gary met with these college volunteers each Sunday evening throughout the summer, building into their lives, and coaching them to lead the high school "Cru Summer" Monday events.

These college volunteers did an incredible job! We are so proud of them, and thank God for their hearts for Him, and for high school students. They gathered for final time together this summer ... starting out at Aroma's coffee shop, then moved to Five Guys (photo above), and then to a late-night bowling activity together. 

Cru Ministry Days

Cru Omaha is a part of a larger group of Cru staff who work specifically with high school and middle school students across the nation and around the world. We all gathered last month in Fort Collins, CO, for a few days of "Ministry Days" together before the Cru15 conference (the 10-day staff conference for all of the thousands of Cru staff together). 

There are several hundred "Cru - High School" staff, focused on reaching high school and middle school students. And Cru Omaha is just one of the many locations where staff serve. If we could add to these several hundred (pictured above), and include all of the many, many volunteers who are coached by our staff - we would be overflowing into many photos! A key part of "Cru - High School" and what makes it so impactful in the lives of high school and middle school students, is the partnerships and volunteers who are an integral part of this movement of reaching students for Jesus.

We are thankful to be part of this amazing group of staff, and were greatly encouraged and motivated as we heard from our leaders and as we connected with other staff while in Fort Collins. We love how the focus of our time together is always, first of all, on Jesus - not on strategies or plans, but on keeping our main focus on the main thing.

Click to read more about the ministry of Cru - High School.

(Photo: courtesy of Jim Trewin)