Michelle’s life was changed through the ministry of Cru on her campus. She loved the weekly meetings and attended all the conferences and participated in a Summer Project. She grew a ton through her Bible study and her times with her discipler.

Her plan had originally been to go to law school after graduation, but she began to dream about doing an internship with Cru. She wanted to give at least one year of her life to investing full-time in the lives of college students. So, during the Spring of her senior year, she applied for an internship.

She filled out all the paperwork, got the required references and waited for the call. After a couple long conversations with her evaluator, she received a decision. Due to some struggles in the area of moral purity, she was told that she could not intern in the fall. Michelle was devastated.

After talking this over with her discipler, she began to understand why this decision was made. She then started making some major life changes. She broke up with her current boyfriend, starting putting some limits of what she was watching and reading, and began having the people in her life help her pursue purity.

Yeah! Accepted interns at IKW 2012

Michelle went on to intern of her campus and spent the year investing in the lives of freshmen girls.

This is only one of over 150 stories of the students who apply every year to do an internship with Cru, both stateside and overseas. Over the past 3 years, Rachel has been one of the evalutors of these applications, both accepting interns/STINTers and making the hard decisions to tell an applicant that this is not the best time for them to intern.

IKW forms fiesta

On top of that, this Fall, Rachel took on an added responsibility. She kept track of the 165 applications that came in this year, noting who was evaluating each application and where they were in the process. Every applicant that received a “pre-acceptance” decision was sent a med/psych form, to determine if they were physically and emotionally healthy to go into full-time ministry. Rachel sent those out and received them, and if necessary, forwarded them onto the evaluator for further evaluation. If everything checked out, she called each applicant to give them Full Acceptance and communicated important information to them. She would then forward their information to the Sending Team, who then began the hiring process.

Rachel played a vital role in getting the 95 new interns/STINTers (the rest were declined, withdrew, or transferred to another region) into the field to invest in the lives of college students around the world. This role fit her strengths, giftings and passions perfectly. Thank you so much for your partnership and for making this possible!

Here is a little snapshot of what our family has been up to.

It seems like so long ago but, it was only 6 weeks ago that Taryn was born. She has been a joy to have in our home and we look forward to seeing what is next for the Strandt family on the horizon.

Most notably we will be enjoying part of our summer up in Chicago with 90 students. If you think of it, please pray as we prepare to take our family of 5 and transplant to the windy city.

Once a year there is a meeting of the minds down in Orlando, at our national headquarters for Cru. These minds are like me, individuals in various roles dealing with technology throughout the nation, helping field staff accomplish the mission that God has given us to our utmost effectiveness. We call ourselves a guild because we want to learn from and sharpen each other in the area of technology. More importantly, our focus is to give shape and direction for technology throughout the nation.

The biggest difference from 2011 to 2012 was the members around the table at our tech guild. Last year we had almost 15 staff and interns in the tech specialist role representing 6 of our 10 regional ministries throughout the US. This year it was me and a part time staff member from Minneapolis.

As this was a shock to my reality, it amazes me how an organization of our size functions with so little man power. My amazement is ultimately directed towards the Lord and His ability to do more than we can ask or imagine according to His will, and also an overwhelming gratitude for many of you who have given sacrificially to the mission that is before our organization.

Cru’s mission is the Great Commission, and we believe students are a driving force to accomplish it. That is why we reach college students and interact with them along their spiritual journey directing them towards Christ. Our vision is to Win, Build, and Send students into the world as Christ-centered laborers. At this time in history and in today’s culture it only makes sense to leverage technology to make this possible

I use the gifts that the Lord has given me to increase effectiveness, accelerate the mission and build capacity within our organization. You have helped, through your prayers and support, to put me in a place where I can use those gifts most effectively for the sake of the Gospel.

Thank you for being a part of the mission by putting me in such a strategic place not only where there is a need to impact students through our local teams, but also help move Cru forward to accomplish the mission throughout the nation and with our global partnerships.

If you had to fill in the rest of the sentence, how would you finish it? God is greater than _______.

Now imagine being with 2400 others finishing that sentence—it’s incredible! And, it’s not all about the same thing. Can you hear the resolve in their voices as they declare it?

• God is greater than my future.
• God is greater than my circumstances.God is greater than my past.
• God is greater than my sin.
• God is greater than my present.
• God is greater than the harm done to me, than my fears, my failures…

Each of the four days of this conference saw resolute commitments of yielding to Christ—mending a broken friendship, reading the Bible, breaking up with a boyfriend, choosing purity, deferring to parents, applying for a summer missions project, or committing to a year long ministry internship.

God has used our annual Winter Conference, IndyCC, as a trail marker of believing God for greater things every year.


You would have loved listening to our students from last summer on Crossroads as they wrestled with yielding control of their plans to Christ. Many of them are pursuing Internships and full time ministry in the coming years.

We gain an interesting perspective putting on a conference from the back of the room. You and us, together, have the privilege of seeing God at work in these lives as well as ours. You share in these eternal rewards—in this lasting fruit.

Thank you for journeying with us as we help show our students a clearer picture of who God is and what His Kingdom is all about. Would you take a moment and pray for our students? Pray that they would do the hard work of daily choosing to live knowing that “God is Greater Than…” Thanks.

We just wanted to give you a quick update or our current ministry financial needs. Many of you know that when the economy is hit, ministries are not immune. It causes us all to look at our own finances and make hard decisions about where to spend, save and give or in some cases, “Can I continue to give where I want to.”

We have had to make these same decisions with the Lord’s guidance but, more importantly we have seen the Lord continue to bless us. Even though our ministry is not “100%” funded, we have seen the Lord provide what our family has needed for almost 8 years of ministry now. We feel so blessed and trust that the Lord will continue to provide and will fully fund our ministry. You could be a part of the Lord continuing to work in our lives and in the lives of students around the world by helping us become fully funded.

A lot has happened in our family since we joined staff almost 8 years ago. This spring we will add a third member to our family rounding out our family of 5. We adjusted our goal recently to accommodate our growing family and desire to stay in ministry for the long hall and are hoping to see the Lord provide an additional $2000 of monthly support for our family and ministry.

You can find out more about our ministry on our website or feel free to contact us.

Summer projects are 2-10 week hotbeds of ministry all over the world that take place between May and Aug every year. These short chunks of time every year are probably the most impactful thing that we do in the campus ministry.

Not only are staff and students going to strategic locations for ministry every summer but they are taking giant leaps in their walks with the Lord and reaching other college students for Christ.

This last year 3500 students went on summer projects across the globe. That is 3500 students that now have changed lives and a closer walk with the Lord because of their summer. More than 100,000 people heard the gospel presented to them and together they saw 8000+ men and women enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

These are staggering results of what the Lord chooses to do in and through Campus Ministry Summer Projects around the world every year.

Let me step back a moment. What does it take to get there? How do these 3500 students decide how to spend their summer? Once they have decided to go on a summer project with Cru, how do they know where they should go?

Before a student maybe even knows what SP they want to go on or if they want to go at all, they need to know what a summer project is and what opportunities that are available to them for the summer.

gosummerproject.com is live now. Check out the website and read some stories from students who went on summer projects last year.

There is a long and thoughtful process that goes into the promotion of Summer Projects each year. We actually have a team at our national office in Orlando who is dedicated to evaluating, promoting and accelerating what we do on SP each year.

This past year the SP team in Orlando asked the Zero Canvas team (our design team in the Great Lakes) to take ownership of this process for SP 2012. Kristin Madeja, our team leader has a great post about the full process on her blog.

As we were finishing up the promotional materials and getting ready for the application process for SP 2012 to start this fall, they had no one to develop the website http://gosummerproject.com. I was asked to step in and finish what was started. I am thrilled that last week we were able to finish the site and students have already started applying for Summer 2012 through the website. In one week the gosummerproject website has had over 6000 unique visitors.

In a unique way you have helped fuel over 3500 students this next year who will give a summer of their lives to follow the Lord and see what He will do. Many of them are scared and will take leaps of faith this summer but will see the Lord do amazing things and forever change their lives.

Because of my unique combination of giftings in graphic design AND web development, and because I can devote my full attention to these projects, this vital tool can exist and be done the way the designers originally intended. Thank you for the part you have played in literally reaching the world for Christ this next summer.

What if I asked “What if____?” and filled in my blank any old way I wanted? AND what IF God responded to me specifically with something new? What if He surprised me as I give Him free reign in my life? What if He wants to do something new in my heart and my mind?

Can you answer that question? Rachel and I will be headed to Cinncinatti for our Regional Fall Staff Conference in a few short weeks to see how the Lord would have us answer that question.

Besides going to the conference, Rachel and I both have significant responsabilities during the conference.

As always, Ryan is in a tech role helping make the main meeting run well as well as leading the video team to stream our conference to our 150 International staff that are part of our region.

Rachel had taken on more responsability to help lead our Internship process in our region (yes, while she is pregnant) and will be helping to lead a training time during the weekend for our staff who will be evaluating Internship applications this coming spring for 2012.

September signifies the start of the fall and cooler temperatures. It is also right in the middle of a strategic time on campus we like to call the first 6 weeks. In the first 6 weeks of ministry on campus, each one of our ministries is ramping up and trying to get things off the ground.

As the Juniors, Sophomores and Freshmen from last year step up into leadership roles within the ministry, there is a brand new group of students who are making their way on campus. Most of them are Freshmen. These students are the key group that we try to introduce to the cru ministry during these first 6 weeks.

One of the main ways we try to connect with this group of students during the first 6 weeks on campus is through a short questionnaire. We ask questions like: How important is your spiritual life? Would you be interested in a small group bible study? Would you like to hear more about cru? Would you like to know more about a personal relationship with Jesus?

We use these questionnaires throughout the school year to connect with students on campus and engage in spiritual conversations with them.

Can you imagine trying to connect with 5000 freshman college students with a team of 10 or maybe 15 staff and a group of student leaders? This task feels insurmountable and often some of these contacts fall through the cracks. How can we make this questionnaire/contact card generation easier? And how do we make sure that we connect with each one of these students after we have their information? These are questions I love asking.

You may remember a project I was working on last year called Bonfire. Bonfire has been added to a nationwide cru software project called missionhub. Missionhub is a web application that helps to connect students with the ministry on their campus.

Beyond the campus ministry, the goal of missionhub is to connect students, ministries, churches, and local business professionals and others in the great commission. Missionhub will include many of the features that Bonfire possessed in the near future but the strength of missionhub right now is helping our ministries connect with students on campus.

Missionhub allows our staff to connect with students and retain their contacts in a streamlined way that is easier to manage. Instead of using contact cards (pen and paper), missionhub harnesses the power of facebook and social media to put students who volunteer their information into a database that our teams can access and even sort and assign to other members of the team.

Imagine if you were a staff member on campus and you could log into missionhub and see everyone on your campus who has filled out a survey. Not only that but you might be sitting in the lobby of a dorm on campus right now and you can see who lives in that dorm and pull up their phone number (which they have provided) and give them a call.

“Hey Matt, this is Ryan on staff with cru. I just pulled up the questionnaire you filled out last week in the quad and you mentioned you might be interested in hearing more about Bible study opportunities on campus. I lead a Bible study in your dorm and I am in the lobby right now. Do you have some time to get together?”

And you can do all this without carrying around a stack of contact cards or spending hours typing all the information into an excel file. Missionhub is completely mobile. You can access it anywhere on the go using a smart phone or iPad. The staff around the country are using this program as you read this. This is a great example of how I want to continue using my skills to help make ministry on campus more efficient so that more time can be spent engaging students with the Gospel.