2011-05 Ministry Update

Two Significant Advances:

• Video Training
• Mobile Phone Applications

Transitioning Volunteer Training to VIDEO

Today, 58% of adults after college will never read another book! Instead they spend 4 hours a day watching TV and 3 hrs listening to the radio. They absorb info still, but not in written form. And since more than 50% in the US prefer to hear than read, we’ve felt the need to adapt our training. Who has the time, or interest, in reading a 3-ring binder training manual? Our goal has been to shorten, simplify, and when possible, convert to interactive video. We want to value the time of volunteers. They shouldn’t spend all of their volunteer hours in training, but rather being freed up to minister to students.

Going Mobile! -- iPhone & Android

Most adults can remember life in the “B.C.” days... not “before Christ,” but “before CELLPHONES.” Hard to imagine that most teenagers have never known life without such technologies. Very soon, especially for students, mobile phones will overtake the computer as the most popular way to get on the Web! My hope is that Student Venture will quickly advance our digital strategies to be fully prepared for these rapidly changing times. We’re creating Campus Crusade’s first ever mobile app for training staff & volunteers!


Our goal: Train Student Venture volunteers in a new way; using the most popular personal electronic device of every high school student, their mobile phone. Create a custom mobile application on both iPhone and Android platforms for Student Venture.


Our ambitious launch date: July 15, in time for SV's all staff training this summer. This initial “1.0” in-house demonstration will include enough functionality for SV staff and volunteers to get an idea of what is being developed. When it is launched, Student Venture's app will be offered in the iTunes App Store and the Google Android App Store as a free application to users.


Primary initial purpose of the phase 1.0 mobile application: To deliver SV's new volunteer training curriculum with video and textual content to Student Venture's volunteers.



History: The company helping us develop the mLearning app has been refining their skills the last 18 months where they launched a pilot project in Kenya for Nairobi School of Theology. A Kenyan newspaper reported last week that two different groups took the same course - one group participated remotely using a mobile phone, the other group attended physical classes at the university.


Statistics from pilot: Only 60% of the students who attended the physical classroom completed the course (40% drop out rate); yet, 100% of the mLearning remote students completed the same course!


Observations: “What we noticed is that students who physically came to attend lectures rarely made it through all the classes because of busy schedules and heavy traffic. Those who used the mobile phones had an easier time as they could comfortably access all the content.”

Web Evangelism Statistics

Here are stats from two of our evangelistic websites. We are continually trying to learn ways to tweak our marketing campaigns using Google Ads to make it easier for those searching for God online.

THE HOME FRONT:

Two Major Surgeries - On Same Day...

Cole: adenoids removed + tubes put in his ears
Ben: adenoids & tonsils removed

Family Watched Final Launch of the Endeavor Space Shuttle

We took our kids on a 5 hour round-trip drive to the east coast to watch the final launch of the Endeavor Space Shuttle.

Going Bass Fishing

The retention pond behind our house has provided some family entertainment. One recent evening, Laura caught this 4.5 LBS bass. I couldn’t allow my sweet wife to beat me, so I caught this 5 LBS bass about 30 minutes later!

Cooper Lost His First Tooth

Cooper and Ben Playing T-Ball

Cooper & Benjamin are wrapping up their first season playing T-Ball. It has been hilarious watching. At this entry level, the only objective is to let everyone hit while the opposing team attempts to field the ball & throw it to first base.

Pictured above, Ben’s throwing the ball to Cooper on 1st base. Cooper said, “Ben threw the ball at my face. I put my glove up so I wouldn’t get hit & the ball landed inside it!”

Residential Burglaries

We’ve had some drama in our neighborhood lately -helicopters, police dogs, undercover cops, deputies in our front yard with guns drawn! There is evidence that the L.A. gang, The Crips, have moved in. (I guess gated communities only keep honest people out.) Within a 38 day timespan, there were 7 separate residential burglaries on our street! And over the last 4 years, our kid’s dvd player has been stolen out of our van. The police have arrested two kids so far, but I don’t believe that’ll be the end of the crime, but we’re shopping for another DVD player!

Family Pics

Grateful for your Partnership,

Thank you for undergirding our family and our ministry in your prayers.

Complete Letter

 click on the images below to enlarge to a size where you can read them:

Changed Lives :: Indianapolis, Students Reaching Their Friends

When our Executive Team discusses the different groups of people who can partner with us to reach out to students, we make sure our list includes “other students”. Students are most likely to listen to their fellow students when they share with them.  Students-reaching-students is a unique relationship because students share the same experiences and challenges and can easily relate.  When students share how God has rescued them from hopelessness and emptiness, students listen!
 
Often people don’t believe that students can lead other students to Christ or help them grow in their faith, but in Student Venture, we see every day that they can!
 
Thank you, dear friends, for supporting us and for caring about the hearts of students.  We consider it a joy to share this mission with you.

From High School to College

by Mark and Dawn Michal, staff in Indianapolis
 
Jacey (second from left) is a Sophomore at a different high school (Lawrence North) but has been coming to our meetings for a few years now.  She has had a heart to start a Student Venture ministry at her school and started this year with a Bible Study for her cross-country team.  The girls who have been coming to her study after practice range "from far from Christ" to "marginally Christian".
 
Jacey was able to bring four of her team members with her to the Student Venture Fastbreak Conference.  All of them grew spiritually and one of them, Abby, accepted Christ for the first time in her life!
 
Abby is so excited about her new relationship with Christ and Jacey is blown away by this change in her friend.  This is such a perfect example of how a teenager can make a difference.
 
Jacey could have easily just considered our Student Venture meetings a place for her to grow, but, instead, she saw it as a launching point to reach out to her friends.  She worked hard to get her friends to her small groups, stepped out and risked her relationships, and as a result, her friends are coming to Christ!

Changed Lives :: Coaching Center

The SV Coaching Center is comprised of staff who work via long distance with volunteers who wish to begin Student Venture in their area.  The Coaches train these volunteers, teaching them how to do ministry with high school students, and walking through the challenges, joys and “how-tos”.  These staff offer years of experience to help guide and teach those who have no experience but who do have a heart for high school students. This strategy is a way for ministry to happen in areas where Student Venture does not have staff.

Once again, we delight is God’s creativity in reaching people’s hearts.

Your support is important in reaching teenagers in whatever way God leads us.  You are a vital part of this ministry, and we value your involvement.      


And the Beat goes On
by Scott Livermore, SV Coaching Center
The heartbeat is a sign of life.  It can also be used as a metaphor for passion.  In Melissa’s case, I think it captures both of these ideas.

“All I have thought about since my seventh grade year was to do what Lindsey did with us.”  The heart of Melissa was captured not as much by the solid biblical interaction she received from her high school-aged spiritual mentor, but more that a peer cared enough about her and her friends to invest their life in them.  Move forward to her sophomore year in high school, Melissa began to meet with 2 seventh grade girls who would be the core of what now consists of more than 10 girls.  When she told her story to the girls, about how a high school student invested in her, the girls said that they too want to lead younger women when they get to high school.  Recently, one of the girls took a first step in that direction.

Kacy, an eighth grader and a basketball player, invited the team to her house.  They had food and interacted with one another after practice and then Kacy shared how she trusted Christ as her Savior and encouraged her friends to do the same.  Afterwards, Melissa stood up and shared how the girls could place their faith in Christ.  Eight of the girls who attended indicated that they trusted Christ and several others have asked to get together and talk more about the content of the meeting!

Melissa’s heartbeat for discipleship was fostered by the heart of her teenage mentor.  And it is Melissa’s heartbeat that has placed some of those seeds in the heart of Kacy and the rest of her girls.  It appears those seeds are being nurtured and will soon bloom into a new generation of spiritual laborers.

And the beat goes on.

Crutsinger 2009_05 Prayer Letter

Here is our prayer letter for this month featuring:

• Discipleship Project Beta
  
• Houston Fastbreak Workshop
  
• SLI Module 4: El Salvador
  
• Leadership Conference
  
• Dad’s Cancer
  
• Baby Boy #3, Due date
  
• Thank You
  

click on the images below to enlarge them to a size where you can read them:

click on the images above to enlarge them to a size where you can read them...

Here's the text:
May 2009 Crutsinger Prayer Update

Emerging Strategies = "The Cutting Edge of Strategic Learning, Innovation and Resource Development to Accelerate the Ministry of Turning Lost Students into Christ-Centered Laborers"

“Essentials” Discipleship Project Update

OVERVIEW:  The Essentials of Spiritual Growth and Multiplication has now become a proven tool that has been used effectively in multiple contexts.  The purpose of the Assessment and Expansion Project is to fine tune the resource itself (assessment) and then seek to significantly increase its worldwide usage (expansion).  We have completed the first eight lessons.  I have about 75 staff around the country being beta testers.  The initial feedback is very encouraging!  Even the high school students using them as they disciple their peers have communicated their excitement.

    Have you made intensive efforts towards spiritual growth and multiplication with limited results?  We have observed that the lack of success is not due to a lack of effort.  The secret is to make it easy.

     Steve Douglass, Campus Crusade President, invested significant personal time to help us craft a single innovative resource that encapsulates many of the best practices seen globally. Essentials is very unique. It is not like other discipleship resources.

     Since 2005, hundreds of field staff and students have wrestled with the Essentials content resulting in significant modifications.  It has been revised over and over again, maximized to the point where you will quickly see your small group participants experience, first-hand, the core DNA of Win, Build, and Send.  It is new, yet you can have complete confidence in proven results.

     I guarantee that you and other small group leaders will easily grasp the Essentials strategy in this intuitive framework.  In the redesign, I’ve strived to make the discipleship process extremely easy to understand, experience, and replicate.

     Few resources are able to bridge multiple people groups like Essentials. Essentials has proven to be effective with a variety of ethnic, international, high school, university and adult audiences.  At it’s core, Essentials is about experiences and discussions – two universal ways to connect with anyone.

     I now want to invite you to test it out!  Because of your partnership with our family, I want to resource you, but I also want to listen to you.  Being a digital resource, I will still continue to make ongoing improvements in response to your personal expertise and advice.

     To show our appreciation for you, I want to give you a free beta copy of Essentials of Spiritual Growth and Multiplication.  If Essentials does not live up to your standards, you can always resort to other options for discipleship materials.

To download your free copy, visit

http://essentials.ccci.org

Houston Fastbreak

   The current Houston director, Barry Bowling, was the SV staffer who started SV in my high school when I was still a student in 1985.  Many things I learned when he discipled me shaped my passion for student multiplication.  Over this past Winter break, I flew to Texas to visit the 2009 Houston Fastbreak Student Conference.  I was able to help Barry with a student leader workshop focusing on multiplying discipleship.  What an encouragement to see students of multiple ethnicities being raised up to directly impact their own campuses.  Some of these students were already using the Essentials discipleship strategy!  Pray these students and those from all our conferences nationwide remain connected to the Father and committed to His plans.

Senior Leadership Module 4 - El Salvador

   I am in the final stretch of my two year Senior Leadership Initiative.  We met in El Salvador where our theme was “the relationships of the leader.”   One assignment involved us interviewing 5 highly influential business leaders in their country, inquiring about the importance of relationships to their effectiveness as leaders.  Also during the week we covered volumes of very practical content: Leadership Derailers, Coaching Over Distance, Leading with Questions, Five Components of a Healthy Team, Developing Trust as a Leader, Feedback Culture, Managing Conflict, and Importance of Self Awareness.  The highlight for me was hearing from three global Campus Crusade leaders who each shared openly about their “Leadership Journey.”

SV National Leadership Conference

   What percentage of your time are you working IN your organization, and what percentage of your time are you working ON it? In our National Team role, we find that in order to build Student Venture into a stronger and healthier ministry for the long run, we need to pull back from being immersed in the work that needs to be done.  We have the responsibility to make whatever necessary changes organizationally to accomplish our mission through short term and long term strategies.

   Last week, we returned from our annual SV National Leadership Conference where we hosted all of our SV city directors.  This is only our second opportunity to meet together since the transition to our current National Team.  We went to great effort to roll out our new National Strategic Planning Process and align our directors with it.  Based on the evaluations, it looks like we achieved our goal that the directors would leave the conference empowered, encouraged, aligned and informed.

Dad’s Cancer

   My father (Howard) has another scheduled biopsy May 20 on an enlarging spot seen on his latest CT scan of his lungs.  Please continue to pray.  He’s been off chemo and radiation for a few months which has helped him recover quite a bit.

Homefront - Baby on the Way!

   Laura is counting the days until the birth of our third little boy!  We’re due around June 26.  With just a few weeks left, we are scurrying around trying to get ready.  Cooper and Ben can’t wait to meet their baby brother.  We still can’t believe we’re going to have three boys!

   Yesterday we decided the time had arrived for Benjamin to have his first haircut.  It was hard for us to depart with his long bright blond curls.  Howard believes all our kids are destined for future baldness, so he wanted Ben to cherish these days with hair!

   Benjamin is obsessed with any sports “ball” and Cooper is our social butterfly who loves to be at preschool with his friends.

Thank You

   Knowing that you are partnering with and praying for our ministry and our family is so encouraging.  We are grateful and humbled.  You are making an impact in students everywhere!

Grateful for your Partnership,
Howard & Laura Crutsinger

November, Prayer Letter Update - Page 1 & 2

Here is our prayer letter for this month featuring:

• Essentials of Spiritual Growth & Multiplication Project
• Senior Leadership Module 3
• Will It Solve The Problem?
• Dad’s Cancer
• Launching SV in College Towns
• Thank You

click on the images below to enlarge them to a size where you can read them:





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Here's the text:
November 2008 Crutsinger Prayer Update

Emerging Strategies = "The Cutting Edge of Strategic Learning, Innovation and Resource Development to Accelerate the Ministry of Turning Lost Students into Christ-Centered Laborers"

Essentials of Spiritual Growth & Multiplication Project
We are creating a discipleship tool written by Campus Crusade President Steve Douglass to help students grow in Christ and get involved in ministry and spiritual multiplication as soon as possible.
Globally there are 3 “Styles of Learning”:

• Literary
• Primary Orality (cannot read)
• Secondary Orality (can, but will not read)

Today, 58% of adults after college will never read another book. 2/3 of the world can’t, don’t, or won’t read… therefore they cannot hear our message through text. They are deaf to the Gospel b/c it is not presented to them in a way that gets to their heart. Ironically, 90% of all Christian ministry today occurs through literate communication styles! My department’s goal in resource development is to incorporate several active learning strategies: visual, hands-on, immediate application, discussion, memory, arts, video & easy transferability.

This “Essentials” series takes into account that today’s high school and college students are post-modern in philosophy and are secondary oral learners (people who can read but do not prefer to learn by reading). They are highly relational and make sense of the world through their experiences, story and discussion.

How it works: No lectures here—the group discovers Biblical truth together through a directed discussion around a passage of Scripture rather than a workbook or other written materials. Group leaders are provided with a session preparation checklist and lead from a group discussion outline. Group members keep a “mini-journal” that records what they learn from each discussion, and action to take and a person to tell.

So, what’s the big deal? We presented our design concept to Steve Douglass and he loved it! We are praying this new delivery method and new layout will exponentially increase and radically deepen spiritual multiplication all over the country!

Please pray we get a field test version of the first four lessons complete by Feb. 4.

Senior Leadership Module 3
We had a great module focusing on “execution” with a particular spin on how you have to adjust from doing things yourself to execute well through others. The basis was the “Stellar Execution” model by Bob Lewis. Each component has 2 axes—”defined” and “practiced or applied”. Four components are: 1) Achieving strategic clarity; 2) Building leadership competency; 3) Acquiring process capability; and 4) Creating a culture of accountability.

We took a Backstage Magic Tour at Disney giving us a look at a large company with a great reputation for executing well everyday. We then did an assessment of 3 national CCC ministries – Canada, US Ministries, US Campus- by teams using the stellar execution model. We identified strengths and gaps in the current level of execution, as well as developed an action plan to bridge the gaps. Included was a “start, stop, keep, improve” exercise for the first component- strategic clarity.

In the final afternoon, we looked at the character structure of a leader and how that impacts the ability to execute well. The “Growth Model” is something we use to teach about creating the right environment for character growth—based on Henry Cloud’s work (Changes that Heal). We considered what the impact of a leader who is “all truth, no grace,” or “all grace, no truth.” We discussed how a leader’s ability in love/bonding, responsibility/self-control, forgiveness (dealing with both good and bad), and authority impact execution.

I will have to report on progress made in “execution” within Student Venture during Module 4 in April 09.

Will It Solve The Problem?
My SLI team of six were “hired” (for free) by the National Team of Campus Ministries to solve a critical two part problem. Our vision: 1) All strategic roles are filled. 2) Veteran staff find ways to move into strategic roles that fit them well. Our mission: 1) Analyze the cultural problem of veteran staff not moving into strategic organizational roles. 2) Propose a blueprint for cultural change that will address this problem. After six months of intense research, on October 20, we presented our Strategic Solution: Four steps to capturing the contributions of our most experienced staff. A principle and founder of a multi-million dollar firm that consults the nuclear power industry read our report very carefully and he was thoroughly impressed saying, “there are many important findings in this report, as well as some great solutions.” He also said that in the business world you would pay $100,000 for a study and report like this. Pray that the implementation of our solution would achieve the desired results!

Dad’s Cancer
My father (Howard) is doing great battling his brain and lung cancer. Dec 15 will be his one year anniversary of the diagnosis. He is currently on chemo and radiation sabbatical until the doctors conclude if further treatment is necessary. He is a trooper! Please pray his medical reports continue to come back with good news.

Launching SV in College Towns
Kendra is a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and active in the Cru (college) ministry. She is married to Nate, a farmer. During the summer of 2007, she worked at a summer camp for teens. When she got back to school in the fall she asked one girl from the camp, who lived near IUP, if she wanted to be in a small group. This soon expanded to include up to 20 girls from the basketball team and the cheerleaders. Kendra recognized that students can lead and she began to help some of the girls reach their friends. As the year progressed they saw other college students and a mom get involved. Because Kendra was familiar with Student Venture, she and Nate took some students SV’s Fastbreak in New York in February. Kendra began to sense the tug to consider interning with Student Venture.

During this past summer, Kendra and Nate began a weekly co-ed Bible study. IUP local leader, Phil Floyd, and Student Venture coach, Shawn Basone, are working together to help Kendra keep Win/Build/Send in their Bible Study’s DNA. During a training segment of each week, they are taking time to go through the CoJourners evangelism training. They are being purposeful about taking students out to share their faith. Recently, they invited a staff member in the region to lead an evangelism training. Kendra was encouraged to have about 15 teens and 15 college students come out. College and high school students paired up to go out witnessing. According to Kendra some of the college students had either never shared their faith or it was the first time since Summer Project. They were encouraged by the younger kids’ faith. Some of these students continue to look for sharing opportunities. Kendra and Lizzie went out to follow up a girl that came to their Bible study. After they went through the Gospel, the girl said she had already trusted Christ when she attended Kendra’s study.

In the coming weeks, Kendra and the teens are planning an outreach that will include students from two different high schools. They are already recruiting high school students to go to the Winter Conference, where they will have a high school student track. And they are making plans to take a group of IUP and high school students on a Student Venture mission to St. Petersburg, Russia in the Spring. College students, a USCM staff, a SV staff and others in the region are all working together to see an exciting ministry among high schools students grow. Please pray many other SV movements will be launched by college students!

Thank You
Helping provide national leadership to Student Venture is a huge honor and responsibility. We see your partnership as being critical. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Grateful for your Partnership,
Howard & Laura Crutsinger

April, Prayer Letter Update - Page 1 & 2

Here is our prayer letter for this month featuring:

• My Dad's New Battle With Cancer
• SV Leadership Conference
• Starting SV in College Towns
• Car Wrecked
• Benjamin’s 1st B-Day
• Thank You

click on the images below to enlarge them to a size where you can read them:





click on the images above to enlarge them to a size where you can read them...

Here's the text:
April 2008 Prayer Update New Battle With Cancer
On Dec 13, 2007, I called my dad to wish him happy birthday. He talked about how he must have food poising because of how bad he felt. Two days later, my mom took him to the hospital to see what was causing the vertigo and slurred speech. They first thought it was an inner ear infection, but after running tests, diagnosed him with a one inch tumor in the back of his brain & two other tumors in his lungs. They advised immediate brain surgery as he was just days away death. He has “stage 4 squamous (non-small cell) cell lung cancer”. On Christmas Eve, my dad underwent surgery to remove the brain tumor. The doctors were not sure he’d survive the surgery, so treating the lungs was irrelevant at the time.

Since then, he’s had at least 75 doctor appointments, 5 weeks of daily localized radiation on the brain, then chemo on the lungs, and now 5 more weeks of radiation on the lungs. For a couple of months, every week was filled with more and more unfavorable news... He developed blood clots in his leg that broke loose and went to the lungs, he came down with pneumonia, they found a fracture in his back, and was even diagnosed with sleep apnea. I find comfort that God is the One to determine timelines for life and health, though the stats from some of the doctors are bleak, we are optimistic that he’ll pull through. By God’s grace, he is making small steps of progress.

Please pray that the medical treatments would aggressively attack the cancer with minimal negative side effects. Pray my dad would become a pleasant willing participant in this process. Please also pray for my mom who is exhausted with all of the new caregiving responsibilities, doctors’ appoints, and transportation needs. She is a trooper! Clinging to James 1:2-8; Romans 8:28

SV Leadership Conference
We hosted our annual SV Leadership Conference. I spoke to all of our city leaders about resources that could help them more effectively reach the students on their campuses. The emphasis was on distinguishing the difference between “bible study” and “discipleship”. Our materials must be easily transferable. We have to be strategic in how we raise up the next generation of student leaders, if they are going to become active participants in spiritual multiplication. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Starting SV in College Towns
We finished a creative training resource to walk college students through a “START” process telling how we launch Student Venture on a high school campus. Pray God raises up leaders to open new campuses for thousands of students to hear about Christ. To see the whole booklet, visit: http://www.gocampus.org/preview/start.pdf

Car Wrecked
I (Howard) am without a car until I can find a replacement. Laura drove my car since she left the kids at home with me so she could attend a monthly SV women’s meeting. She was waiting at a red light. The light turned green. Laura pulled out. And WHAM! She got side-swiped by a guy who ran the red light. Fortunately she was not hurt, but my car was totaled.

Benjamin’s 1st B-Day
We celebrated Benjamin’s first birthday (Jan 31). We had a small group of friends over to watch him dive into his own smash cake. It was great fun! Benjamin is sooo close to walking. His bright blue eyes and his cackling laugh make us smile.

Cooper got his first haircut, often tackles daddy when he gets home from work, corrects Benjamin when he chews on electrical cords, and loves to play. He’s got enough energy to compete with the Energizer bunny. “More bible, daddy!” is often heard before he’s put to bed - I’m sure it’s his manipulative tactic to stay awake longer, but we take full advantage of it.

Thank You
We are so appreciative for your partnership in our ministry. Your prayers and support enable us to be involved in providing national leadership to Student Venture. We have the best group of staff and interns within SV. I long for the day when kids involved in each of their ministries get to approach you in heaven to thank you for your investment in their lives!

Grateful for your Partnership,
Howard & Laura