Doing the Dishes

Settling In

Thank you for your prayers for our ‘settling in.’ We are in a rhythm here in Charlotte! Catherine and I spent four hours one afternoon getting new driver’s licenses (ugh!). Dad and I have found the best route to Costco and Home Depot (ya gotta know that!). We realize that we will eventually be consolidating two households into one, so Catherine and dad are working hard to distribute various things to the wider Kellogg family, then we’ll be ready to move when we find a house. Dad’s lease runs out in February, so we feel a growing sense of urgency to find a house by then. And being close by, we got to help celebrate Miss Murphy’s 5th birthday by going apple picking (see some pictures on the next page)! In the midst of all that, Catherine and I are still enjoying our work with Cru.

Doing the Dishes

“Everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.” This statement by one of Catherine’s team leaders has become a motivational statement for Catherine and her team as they serve our front-line missionaries. While behind-the-scenes work is less glamorous, when there are no clean dishes, everything grinds to a halt!

Cru, like most organizations, has specific guidelines for how they communicate. Is it Biblical or biblical? Winter Conferences or winter conferences? They are things that add up to consistency. If parents or the media are reading about Cru online and see spelling or grammatical errors, it erodes credibility. This summer, Catherine and her team helped revise Cru’s written “style” guide to ensure accuracy and consistency across the ministry. It took more than 100 emails back and forth and many hours of work to finalize the new version. Now all of the communicators in the ministry can be on the same page.

Also (Always) Doing the Dishes

My team is all about “doing the dishes”. Actually, our primary responsibilities are the dishes. Technology does not equal evangelism, yet these days, using tech is inescapable. If your technology tools are a stumbling block, we have failed to do our job well. One area my team is responsible for is a product called Okta (OCK-tuh). It’s an “identity management” service. Think user names, passwords, secret questions, text message verification, etc. We make decisions like, “Is an eight character password secure enough?” (No, it is not!) “Do I need a special character in my password?” (Not really.) While these questions can seem mundane, public announcements of data breaches happen nearly every week. Catherine got a letter in the mail just yesterday that her data had been compromised. Cru holds the value of the integrity of its data with highest regard. Cru’s reputation is on the line! The goal is to keep our staff and our donors safe, and yet somehow keep Okta invisible. To do the dishes without breaking one. To help enable our staff to do the evangelism and discipleship that God has called them to do.

We Don’t Usually Cheer for Ohio State…

This story moved our hearts, a reminder of why we do what we do:

Several senior members of the Ohio State University football team wanted to come out of the locker room onto center stage on their campus. They wanted to make a difference, “we wanted to start a revival”. TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka and J.T. Tuimoloau, and former running back, Kamryn Babb, (along with leaders of several campus ministries and local churches) held a testimony and baptism event in the middle of campus. More than 1000 students came to hear the stories of the players, and more than 50 students were baptized.

Look for these godly young men the next time you watch an OSU football game. I have been, and it’s fun to watch them. Whether through the campus ministry, technology, or through young men who want to bring God’s love to their campus, the world will only be reached as people are willing to do the dishes.

P.S. Catherine, dad, and I were relatively untouched by Hurricane Helene. Becca and Zach lost power and were off of work for several days. Of course, we can not say the same for the cities 2 hours north of us. Cady and Kevin and family (and Cru HQ) were relatively untouched by Hurricane Milton. Praises, and continued prayers for the people of Western North Carolina, N. Georgia, Tennessee, and Coastal Florida.