Our Funky Family

    October 2009

Autumn Greetings

 
            We hope that you are enjoying the fall season! We are still seeing temperatures of around 90 degrees most days (which is not a thrill when you are dreaming of crimson tipped leaves and hot cider!), but we have been told that a “cold front” is moving in later this week. We were excited until we found out that a “cold front” meant that our temperatures were going to dive all the way down to … 85 degrees! I guess that we won’t need our sweatshirts for a very long time yet.

 
This month we wanted to tell you about a part of our ministry that you haven’t heard much about lately. As you know, our work with Campus Crusade for Christ involves supporting missionary staff from all around the world. Mark is constantly using his technical skills to help our staff. However, we haven’t mentioned some of the opportunities we have had to bless the nearly 1000 people who work at the World Headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ. After all, even our local staff needs to receive a little extra support and encouragement now and then!

You See, I See, We all See the Emcee

        One way that Bonnie has been able to help in supporting our staff has been to serve as an emcee for various events. Bonnie really enjoyed the opportunity to work with the CCC Wives Retreat planning team. She also was honored to serve as the emcee and a speaker for the retreat. Nearly 200 women gathered for a super weekend as they were encouraged to dream with God about how they can best use their unique gifts and talents to bless others. Since Bonnie has often been described as … ahem… unique, she loved having the opportunity to encourage the staff women in this area. The weekend included great food, lots of fun, (including a performance by a Christian female improv group; and, yes, Bonnie performed too!) as well as great spiritual lessons.

Our Crusade “Family”

Campus Crusade also blesses our staff families by hosting movie nights on a big outdoor screen on the CCC Headquarters lawn. Staff families arrive with lawn chairs, blankets, and lots of mosquito repellant for an evening of great family fun and plenty of popcorn. Bonnie has really enjoyed emceeing these events. Her favorite movie was the 3-D version of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” because she was able to wear 3-D glasses AND a miner’s head lamp when introducing the movie. Oh boy!

We’re not sure about this one…

Our kids also get into the spirit of blessing our staff families by helping with special events. We all really enjoyed serving during last spring’s Easter Celebration. Nearly 1,000 people showed up for the Easter Celebration to hear a special children’s gospel presentation by CCC co-founder, Vonette Bright. There was also a huge Easter egg hunt as well as games. Our family was in charge of the temporary tattoo station and had a wild and busy time putting Easter tattoos on hundreds of children. We went home feeling so happy because we had such a blast with the kids!

Easter fun!

We know first-hand how it feels to live away from our families. Sometimes it is very hard and we yearn for more “family-like” connections in our lives. That is why we so appreciate any gatherings that help us to build relationships. Needless to say, we love having a chance to make our staff feel special and connected to their work family. We believe that the more secure our staff feel in their Godly calling to work at the World Headquarters, the better they will be able to minister with Campus Crusade for Christ.

We really have you to thank for the opportunities we’ve had to minister to our staff. Without you, we could not invest in supporting our staff so that our ministry can continue to win the world to Christ. We are very honored to have you as part of our ministry family; you are such a blessing to us!