Andy and I were driving to Costco and on the side of the road was a flashing sign which read, “Ecpect Delays!!” You know, ecpectations do not always work out, like that sign!
In late January, I was over the moon to be working at Cru’s Winter Conference for Florida college students. I was asked to head up the Information Desk team. I have worked the Info Desk at no fewer than 10 National Staff Conferences, both in Colorado and Wisconsin. I had great ecpectations about interacting with students and staff.
Several days before the conference, I was asked to surrender my room so more students could stay in the hotel (the number of kids attending topped 300!). Thus, I became a commuter. I didn’t ecpect that! When we arrived to set up for registration, the information office was filled with supplies and things to fill bags for each student (fruit, granola bars, water). Our team worked registration up to the time of the first meeting. I ecpected we’d start our work that afternoon/evening. Worse, our information office was placed in a room “down the hall, to the right, down another hall through the main lobby, to the right, and then past one room down a third hall.” I ecpected that we would be accessible.
Did anything good come from this conference? Yes, of course! Students learned how to grow closer to God and how to be involved in His work around the globe. Because I was a commuter, I got to carpool with a staff woman who HATES driving on Interstate 4. God used me to take that anxiety off her plate, we had lots of good conversations, and got to catch dinner together one evening.
I got to see one of the students I had worked with on the summer internship mission last summer because Tate is a student at University of Central Florida. There were students whom I had taught when Rachel was at Trace Academy (third to eighth grades). Kyle is now a Cru staff member at University of Florida, Luke is also with Cru with The Jesus Film, Mandy is a Cru staff member at Florida State, and her siblings Trenton and Aaron are students at University of Central Florida. Josh, another student at UCF, and his sister also attended Trace Academy. These were unecpected surprises!
The last week of February, everyone at headquarters got to hear from Ney Bailey, a woman who has been with Cru for 63 years!!!! It is always good to hear stories from the early days of Cru’s ministry. She talked about a time when Dr. Bill Bright (founder of Cru) asked the people who were then on staff (all 25 of them!) to pray for 1000 men and women to join the ministry. Ney related that several of them looked to one another, facial expressions of doubt. “1000? Suuuuure!”
“And yet, today we have more than 19,000 staff worldwide,” Ney communicated. We are called to ministry by a miracle working God, but I bet Ney never ecpected to see that reality in her lifetime.
One thing I love about Cru is the ministry’s willingness to try new things. Recently a few staff members reached out to a new groups of students — gamers! At an outreach at the Univ of South Florida, students played video, board, and emcee games, and were in a cosplay contest (dressing up as characters). Then they used conversational surveys, a brief spiritual message, and discussion groups to engage the students spiritually.
Only about 15 of the 100+ attendees were previously involved with Cru, so this outreach connected with new and different students. I love how the staff at USF identified this new way to reach students with the gospel. The after-event follow-up included 48 comment cards, 17 social media posts, and 19+ new Discord (a social app) members invited to in-person and Discord discovery Bible studies.
While our “ecpectations” may not be met, we serve a God who promises to be faithful in ways that far exceed our expectations. Andy and I are seeing that we can expect great things from this generation of believers. And we love that we are a part of reaching them, not only with the good news of Christ, but also with the life-changing opportunities to be involved with God’s work.
Thank you so much for your partnership with us!
The Kelloggs 