Staff and Volunteers

We love our volunteers! As a small staff team of three, we continually are so grateful for the 20+ volunteers that work alongside us. And it's probably safe to say that Cru Omaha would not be able to exist without the dedicated volunteers God has blessed us with. 

These two photos (above and below) were taken at one of our volunteer training sessions. We met in March at Cups Cafe in Omaha for a great sharing and training time. Our volunteers who were present represented our Cru groups at Omaha North, Omaha Central, Accelere Alternative School, Blair Otte Middle School, and Marrs Middle School. It was a valuable time together.

Also, as a staff team of three (Gary, Jake, and Cherry who is taking the photo below), we value input from our regional leaders. 

We are grateful for our visit from Scott (left in photo above) in early May, as he met with us for encouragement and advice as we evaluated the school year 2018-2019, and gave input for the new school year coming up.

As we step into summer ministry, we are grateful for recently graduated students who step up, and desire to come alongside our other volunteers. 

The photo above shows a few of our recently graduated student leaders from Fort Calhoun HS and also Omaha Central HS as they met with us as staff and other volunteers. It was a great time making plans together for our Cru Summer program. 

Cru Staff Visit in October

It was a beautiful fall day to pick up two Cru staff friends from the airport. Scott flew in from Denver, and Nicole from Dallas. The next day we were joined by Bill from Orlando. It was a special few days together. We love how our Cru leaders like to stay in close touch with staff around the country, visiting when they can, and always, bringing encouragement and helpful ideas. Scott, and also Nicole are our new regional Mission Directors, overseeing and also offering their help to our staff team here in Omaha. Bill is from our Cru headquarters in Orlando, and gives oversight (along with others) to our team here, as well.

A stop after the airport, to prayer walk and meet students on an Omaha college campus,
assisting the vision of Cru staff in our region who work on college campuses.

A treat to also meet up with a former student from one of our Cru High campuses.

A fun gathering at Scooter's with staff, a volunteer, and a few high school students.

Nicole, getting to know Shar and Quisha, two Cru Central student leaders.

Our home was the gathering place for our two days together. From there we drove into Omaha to view the five campuses where we meet regularly with high school and middle students. Also our visiting staff were able to visit two of our Washington County student gatherings.

We're thankful for leadership from Orlando, Denver, and Dallas who encourage and pray for us in Omaha. Our meetings were centered on sharing from God's Word, prayer, giving input on our plans for this school year, helping us with staff development and team development, as well as visiting some of our campuses. One of our biggest prayers is for more staff to join our Cru Omaha team of three, and for more volunteers to join with our nearly 25 volunteers who are an integral part of our team.

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.

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. 

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.

Student-Led Movements

Student leaders are the key at Fort Calhoun High School SV. They have been instrumental in bringing over 50 of their fellow students to SV meetings in the past two years.

Small discussion groups at these SV meetings are led by these student leaders who are passionate about their peers coming to know Christ and grow in Him. Sometimes some of the new students who come are wary of being pressured into something new that they're not sure about. Our student leaders do a great job of giving these new students the freedom to share and discuss where they are coming from without putting them down. Even so, some new students become defensive and argumentative.

This happened recently with several new students the same evening. But our student leaders did such a great job showing them respect and friendship not only at the SV meeting, but also in school over the next week. And these new students have been back every week since, and with a completely different attitude. Now, they are sharing very positively about Christ in the small groups.

In fact, we were surprised and impressed to read the following facebook status of one of these new students recently:

"I love Jesus and you know what 

I'm not afraid to talk to you about Him! 

Anyone want to have a nice talk about Jesus 

and His love for us? 

Today show someone that your a Christian 

and your proud of it!"

What our student leaders are modeling before their peers is exactly what Campus Crusade president, Steve Douglass, recently wrote about in an article to CCC staff:

As I write this, I am flying back from a meeting with many of our global leaders. Some of these leaders are focused on student-led movement. I had the privilege of talking with a number of them informally concerning university students today and how to minister to them. There were some trends we had all observed. One was that students are increasingly interested in knowing if the Christian life really works.

We discussed the importance of building relationships with interested students. Life-to-life connection helps people discover how they can have the kind of relationship with God that we have.

One thing some global campus leaders and I discussed is the change in how students prefer to learn. Today's students seem to absorb more lessons from discussions with their friends than from listening to a lecture or reading a book. This "oral learning" trend has a major impact on how we can best disciple students. Lectures need to be shorter and have fewer points. Teaching sessions need to be frequently interspersed with times of discussion in small groups. We need to allow for "self-discovery".

We thank God for raising up the student leaders at Fort Calhoun High, and praise Him for their peers who are coming to know Jesus. Please pray for these leaders, and for the friends that they are bringing to our Student Venture meetings.