It is now Sunday and we headed off to a small Community church close to campus. The pastor was great and spoke from his heart being transparent with the congregation. We headed back to CSU for lunch then off to 'Old Town' where we toured a late 1800's home. It was very close to period in all the furnishings and restoration. Amazing how far we have come.
We headed to Denver about 5 to meet one of my friends from National Seminar days and had a great dinner with them. We got back to CSU about 10:30p and crashed. Busy day for a day off from meetings.
Harold
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Day 5 - Staff Conference
It is now Saturday and the media has now had two days of what we referred to as a 'firestorm'. They spent 2 days blasting what we did with the name change and we were dropping Christ from the ministry to be politically correct. Of course they had no clue what they were talking about. On Friday, Steve Sellers was able to talk about the name change of FOX and was able to use the name of Jesus 16 times and explained that we have in no way changed what we do. We just needed a new name for the new culture.
We spent part of the afternoon in break out seminars and we took our first shift greeting people at the tent. We say over 30 couples and some singles take the tour. It was very busy for 3 hours and hot. I had a bug take bites out of my neck during that time. Had about 6 bites before our shift was over.
The day ended with our evening meeting and they sent us off to the first break (Sunday) for most of CCC staff. After meetings all week this was a welcome time for most.
The evening ended with Tim Hawkins doing his comedy for us. He had about 4000 in attendance and had us laughing until 10:30p. It was good to laugh after being pretty serious all week.
Harold
We spent part of the afternoon in break out seminars and we took our first shift greeting people at the tent. We say over 30 couples and some singles take the tour. It was very busy for 3 hours and hot. I had a bug take bites out of my neck during that time. Had about 6 bites before our shift was over.
The day ended with our evening meeting and they sent us off to the first break (Sunday) for most of CCC staff. After meetings all week this was a welcome time for most.
The evening ended with Tim Hawkins doing his comedy for us. He had about 4000 in attendance and had us laughing until 10:30p. It was good to laugh after being pretty serious all week.
Harold
Day 4 - Staff Conference
This day became a rather quiet day due to the other ministries having special meetings. We met as a ministry to welcome new staff at a lunch. Dennis Rainey spoke for a half hour and encouraged the new staff to finish the race of raising support and gave a vision of what the future may look like at FamilyLife. Very exciting. I recorded the whole lunch and then we did an interview with Dennis afterwards. To see it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY_dwj79MjU
This will also give you a fly over of our tent that was used all week to give the rest of CCC staff a picture of what FamilyLife does and to recruit some new people to FamilyLife that are in need of changing ministries for various reasons.
The day ended with our evening meeting with lots of praise and worship as usual.
Harold
This will also give you a fly over of our tent that was used all week to give the rest of CCC staff a picture of what FamilyLife does and to recruit some new people to FamilyLife that are in need of changing ministries for various reasons.
The day ended with our evening meeting with lots of praise and worship as usual.
Harold
Friday, July 22, 2011
Day 3 - Staff Conference
We had an incredible day of R&R. FamilyLife staff had the day off due to all the other ministries meeting together individually. Since we have staff meetings twice a month, we don't need the meetings, thus a day off.
We met one of our ministry partners (Charlotte's childhood pastor) and had a wonderful time of fellowship and reminiscing. I actually knew many of the same people that they did, so it was real interesting.
About 3, we headed up to Estes Park to view God's creation. We were blown away with all the spender and majesty of God. We found a $1600 antique in one of the stores that goes perfectly in our eating area at home. (Just kidding, great idea but totally impractical).
Harold
We met one of our ministry partners (Charlotte's childhood pastor) and had a wonderful time of fellowship and reminiscing. I actually knew many of the same people that they did, so it was real interesting.
About 3, we headed up to Estes Park to view God's creation. We were blown away with all the spender and majesty of God. We found a $1600 antique in one of the stores that goes perfectly in our eating area at home. (Just kidding, great idea but totally impractical).
Harold
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Day 2 - Staff Conference
Another incredible day with Francis Chan. A real call to action to get your heart right with God. Here is a brief overview of the events of the morning.
9a Praise and Worship
9:30a Francis Chan spoke
10:15a Call to action from Francis Chan - This was a spiritual revival among the 5000 staff, most on their knees before God, some weeping.
10:50a Praise and Worship - Ended up being over an hour of Praising God. We sang many hymns including 'Holy, Holy, Holy' again.
11:25a Session ends - all of the planned events from 10:15 - 11:30 were scrapped.
One or two workshop/seminars took most of the afternoon and then our evening session was with Steve Sellers taking questions on the name change. All in all, it won't take place until early 2012 and only after letting people, including donors, get used to the change. "Cru" is not an acronym, or short for Crusade. It will be developed as time moves on by most ministries relating it to their specific work.
Dennis Rainey gave a short talk on the impact of Art of Marriage. 100,000 people have view the series in just five months. We want to put our tools into the hands of volunteers instead of us running everything. This will be the strategy for all of CCC over the next few years. 'It is not about us, it is about Him.'
We so appreciate those of you who are along side us and the opportunity to be here.
Harold
9a Praise and Worship
9:30a Francis Chan spoke
10:15a Call to action from Francis Chan - This was a spiritual revival among the 5000 staff, most on their knees before God, some weeping.
10:50a Praise and Worship - Ended up being over an hour of Praising God. We sang many hymns including 'Holy, Holy, Holy' again.
11:25a Session ends - all of the planned events from 10:15 - 11:30 were scrapped.
One or two workshop/seminars took most of the afternoon and then our evening session was with Steve Sellers taking questions on the name change. All in all, it won't take place until early 2012 and only after letting people, including donors, get used to the change. "Cru" is not an acronym, or short for Crusade. It will be developed as time moves on by most ministries relating it to their specific work.
Dennis Rainey gave a short talk on the impact of Art of Marriage. 100,000 people have view the series in just five months. We want to put our tools into the hands of volunteers instead of us running everything. This will be the strategy for all of CCC over the next few years. 'It is not about us, it is about Him.'
We so appreciate those of you who are along side us and the opportunity to be here.
Harold
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Day 1 - Staff Conference
This will probably be our longest blog of the entire conference, but what a historic day that we were honored to be part of it. I imagine the biggest news was the name change. As you can see it is simple. Is it an acronym? Is it an abbreviation? I have no clue, except that this is the name that God selected, not CCC. Therefore, we love it. 
You may be asking, how did God select it? The biggest and most obvious was when they got down to the last 5, only 4 had been chosen, but they needed 5 for research. The name "cru" was not one of the 4 and was added to make 5. No one believed it was the right name, but they needed 5 names. After all the praying, researching, surveying, and all the stuff marketing people are supposed to do, "cru" was the overwhelmingly chosen. So, once again, did CCC pick the name, no, GOD did.
You may be asking, how did God select it? The biggest and most obvious was when they got down to the last 5, only 4 had been chosen, but they needed 5 for research. The name "cru" was not one of the 4 and was added to make 5. No one believed it was the right name, but they needed 5 names. After all the praying, researching, surveying, and all the stuff marketing people are supposed to do, "cru" was the overwhelmingly chosen. So, once again, did CCC pick the name, no, GOD did.So, now that we have that out of the way, the best part of the day was our session with Francis Chan. What a man of God is all I can say. We started the day with 30 min of praise and worship. Hearing 5,000 people praising God together is only an earthly example of what we will experience in heaven. Was it emotional? You bet.
Then it was Francis Chan's turn. Here are the highlights:
Don't let people talk us out of what God wants us to do
There is power & purity in His book through the Holy Spirit
Is Jesus the most important thing in my life or is He my life? Rev. 3
It is not about mustering up more commitment, it is about being more yielded to Jesus.
This was followed with about a half hour of prayer and confession, individually and in small groups, which ended in more praise and worship and ultimately singing 'Holy, Holy, Holy'. Imagine hearing 5,000 people singing that! It doesn't get much better here on earth.
The remainder of the day, we recorded our FamilyLife tent to send a clip back to Little Rock for the staff there to see, listened to Josh McDowell be 'frank' with teens and parents about all the consequences of intimacy before marriage. Twenty-five possible diseases that can be transmitted and only four have a cure. This is worse than AIDS and HIV, and the media is pushing it under the rug.
More pictures tomorrow.
Harold
Then it was Francis Chan's turn. Here are the highlights:Don't let people talk us out of what God wants us to do
There is power & purity in His book through the Holy Spirit
Is Jesus the most important thing in my life or is He my life? Rev. 3
It is not about mustering up more commitment, it is about being more yielded to Jesus.
This was followed with about a half hour of prayer and confession, individually and in small groups, which ended in more praise and worship and ultimately singing 'Holy, Holy, Holy'. Imagine hearing 5,000 people singing that! It doesn't get much better here on earth.
The remainder of the day, we recorded our FamilyLife tent to send a clip back to Little Rock for the staff there to see, listened to Josh McDowell be 'frank' with teens and parents about all the consequences of intimacy before marriage. Twenty-five possible diseases that can be transmitted and only four have a cure. This is worse than AIDS and HIV, and the media is pushing it under the rug.
More pictures tomorrow.
Harold
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
We Have Arrived
Since our last post, we have been through Tulsa for a weekend and killed every bug in Kansas with the car (we have proof). Last night, we opened the conference with 'The County Fair', which ended up being a time of food, fun, and fellowship. We crashed at 9p after gaining an hour yesterday, which made it 10p Little Rock time.
Today begins our conference of meetings and introducing the rest of Campus Crusade staff to FamilyLife through 'The Journey Home', an audio/visual experience outside of the main meeting area. I will have a few pics of the tent tomorrow. Pray that God will provide 40-50 CCC staff, whom He is stirring to make a change, to see the vision and possibly be led to FamilyLife as City HomeBuilder Directors. FamilyLife has moved to a more regional model to better meet needs of churches and individuals. (This will not affect those of us in video.)
The new name for CCC will be announced today. Pray that this will not put a damper on the conference and negative opinions will be kept to a minimum.
Now, the weather. Folks in Tulsa were jealous of us going to Colorado due to the heat everyone was experiencing especially in Tulsa. We arrived in Ft. Collins to a temperature of 97ยบ. What's the deal? Looks like we will see low to mid 90's with no relief until next week.
Time to go to work, my Starbucks cup is empty and breakfast is calling. More from Francis Chan tomorrow and the new CCC name.
Hal
Today begins our conference of meetings and introducing the rest of Campus Crusade staff to FamilyLife through 'The Journey Home', an audio/visual experience outside of the main meeting area. I will have a few pics of the tent tomorrow. Pray that God will provide 40-50 CCC staff, whom He is stirring to make a change, to see the vision and possibly be led to FamilyLife as City HomeBuilder Directors. FamilyLife has moved to a more regional model to better meet needs of churches and individuals. (This will not affect those of us in video.)
The new name for CCC will be announced today. Pray that this will not put a damper on the conference and negative opinions will be kept to a minimum.
Now, the weather. Folks in Tulsa were jealous of us going to Colorado due to the heat everyone was experiencing especially in Tulsa. We arrived in Ft. Collins to a temperature of 97ยบ. What's the deal? Looks like we will see low to mid 90's with no relief until next week.
Time to go to work, my Starbucks cup is empty and breakfast is calling. More from Francis Chan tomorrow and the new CCC name.
Hal
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Crusade Staff Conference
Twenty days left and we head off to Colorado for Campus Crusade Staff Conference. It is so hard to believe that only 2 years ago we were there, still working on initial support and looking forward to what God would do with us at FamilyLife. Now, we are going to the conference as senior staff (simply meaning, we have reported to our job at FamilyLife).
This year promises to be completely different for a few reasons:
1. We are the ones welcoming New Staff and trying to make them feel comfortable. There will probably be about 15 new staff families coming this year.
2. FamilyLife is putting up a tent at the entrance to the main arena where all the meetings are held. It is designed to make all staff aware of what FamilyLife does and to show them resources available to help them in each of their individual ministries. Our intent is to recruit between 40 & 50 family units to FamilyLife to fit our new regional model (they won't move to Little Rock). Since most of the ministries under Campus Crusade are not used to being at a central location, but in the field, this is a perfect opportunity for those who have reached the end of their career as staff ministering to college age kids, to move into a ministry that reaches marriages & families for Christ.
3. Campus Crusade will most likely announce their new name. This is going to be very stressful to a majority of the staff since the current name holds emotional connection in some way, either they came to know the Lord through Campus or this is the mission organization God called them to. In any case, please pray since we are just people and very emotional at times.
4. We will be away from the office and I will be backed up when I return.
I will be attempting to blog each day beginning on July 18th to keep you updated on what we are doing. "Starbucks, here I come". (Last time I woke up each morning around 5 and would do my Bible reading and blog at Starbucks since the cafeteria didn't open until 7:30a)
Harold
This year promises to be completely different for a few reasons:
1. We are the ones welcoming New Staff and trying to make them feel comfortable. There will probably be about 15 new staff families coming this year.
2. FamilyLife is putting up a tent at the entrance to the main arena where all the meetings are held. It is designed to make all staff aware of what FamilyLife does and to show them resources available to help them in each of their individual ministries. Our intent is to recruit between 40 & 50 family units to FamilyLife to fit our new regional model (they won't move to Little Rock). Since most of the ministries under Campus Crusade are not used to being at a central location, but in the field, this is a perfect opportunity for those who have reached the end of their career as staff ministering to college age kids, to move into a ministry that reaches marriages & families for Christ.
3. Campus Crusade will most likely announce their new name. This is going to be very stressful to a majority of the staff since the current name holds emotional connection in some way, either they came to know the Lord through Campus or this is the mission organization God called them to. In any case, please pray since we are just people and very emotional at times.
4. We will be away from the office and I will be backed up when I return.
I will be attempting to blog each day beginning on July 18th to keep you updated on what we are doing. "Starbucks, here I come". (Last time I woke up each morning around 5 and would do my Bible reading and blog at Starbucks since the cafeteria didn't open until 7:30a)
Harold
Thursday, March 31, 2011
eMentoring
I've been working quite a bit lately on a training series that will be used to train mentors that will in turn be able to help counsel people that are struggling in their marriages. It is exciting to see how God is using the videos we created to help others in their marriages.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Directing/Producing
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Art of Marriage
We have been praying for this weekend for over a year now ever since Hal began to be involved shooting and editing parts of the Art of Marriage. We have been hearing of the successes of this video all weekend and hearing about all the salvation's through this video. God is blessing our hard work to release this. PTL
Saturday, December 18, 2010
News Update
Thought I would write a short update since our last post was over 2 months ago. We have been very busy and blogging is drifting towards the bottom of priorities now.
We continue to be very involved in FamilyLife videos and Charlotte is loving the reception desk along with recruiting other staff wives to take a shifts at the reception desk. She has had the opportunity to meet many of the radio guests since Wednesdays is recording day and Wednesday is her work day.
Art of Marriage is so close to being released (January) that it is hard to believe that we have been working on this for over a year. Speaking of a year, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of moving to Little Rock on Nov 4 and working at FamilyLife on Dec 7. Where does time go?
Thanksgiving was not as eventful as usual this year since 4 of the kids were not able to come, but we still had Hal's niece and family stay for a couple of days and Hal's parents came. Christmas on the other hand will bring everyone together except David and Sarah Beth.
I guess the other big piece of news is leaving one church for another. When we arrived in Little Rock, our intention was to visit a bunch of churches to see what was out there and after 11 different churches we settled on a church similar to our church in Tulsa. After 8 months of attending, Hal playing in the orchestra, we realized that Amy (youngest at 13) was not making any friends and Charlotte was not finding an area of ministry. Therefore, we opted to start attending a very large Bible church in Little Rock. Amy already had friends there from a Bible study she is in, and Charlotte was able to start helping in the nursery right away, which she loves. But poor Hal, no orchestra. Not really, playing trumpet is not what God wants me to do right now, so I've plugged into the TV ministry (no surprise there) and is directing the church service. The strange thing about that is that I directed church services 30 years ago at Redwood Chapel in Castro Valley, CA and never expected to do it again. Remember the saying 'it's like riding a bike', the first rehearsal I switched and directed and it was like I never left, it all came back.
Christmas is almost upon us, Hal has hand surgery on Tuesday, kids will all be here, mom and dad are coming and we have the privilege of celebrating Christ's birth. How awesome.
Hal
We continue to be very involved in FamilyLife videos and Charlotte is loving the reception desk along with recruiting other staff wives to take a shifts at the reception desk. She has had the opportunity to meet many of the radio guests since Wednesdays is recording day and Wednesday is her work day.
Art of Marriage is so close to being released (January) that it is hard to believe that we have been working on this for over a year. Speaking of a year, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of moving to Little Rock on Nov 4 and working at FamilyLife on Dec 7. Where does time go?
Thanksgiving was not as eventful as usual this year since 4 of the kids were not able to come, but we still had Hal's niece and family stay for a couple of days and Hal's parents came. Christmas on the other hand will bring everyone together except David and Sarah Beth.
I guess the other big piece of news is leaving one church for another. When we arrived in Little Rock, our intention was to visit a bunch of churches to see what was out there and after 11 different churches we settled on a church similar to our church in Tulsa. After 8 months of attending, Hal playing in the orchestra, we realized that Amy (youngest at 13) was not making any friends and Charlotte was not finding an area of ministry. Therefore, we opted to start attending a very large Bible church in Little Rock. Amy already had friends there from a Bible study she is in, and Charlotte was able to start helping in the nursery right away, which she loves. But poor Hal, no orchestra. Not really, playing trumpet is not what God wants me to do right now, so I've plugged into the TV ministry (no surprise there) and is directing the church service. The strange thing about that is that I directed church services 30 years ago at Redwood Chapel in Castro Valley, CA and never expected to do it again. Remember the saying 'it's like riding a bike', the first rehearsal I switched and directed and it was like I never left, it all came back.
Christmas is almost upon us, Hal has hand surgery on Tuesday, kids will all be here, mom and dad are coming and we have the privilege of celebrating Christ's birth. How awesome.
Hal
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Campus Crusade Day of Prayer
We just returned from a day away from the office praying. Instead of sharing all the details, I would like to post some prayer requests for FamilyLife specifically. As FamilyLife is launching the largest quantity of resources, mostly targeted for churches, we are now overwhelmed with a new task before us. At our Weekend to Remember Getaways, we have set aside a time after sessions to share with people how they can be involved in reaching people in their church, neighborhood, work place, and community with the message of a godly marriage and the plan of salvation. The response has been overwhelming. So far we have seen 1500 people in the first four weekends of Getaways respond, asking for help in reaching others in their communities. FamilyLife has coded this HOMEBUILDERS. Here are the requests related to our new task that God only knows how we can solve:
Thank you for your continued prayer support as we work supporting all these products in the video department.
Hal
- We would be able to find missionary staff to facilitate and communicate with these people that have expressed the desire to reach their community.
- That the Art of Marriage videos would have 1000 showings around the United States on 2-11-11.
- That we would continue to have people at the Weekend to Remember express the desire to volunteer to reach their communities.
- For donors to the ministry to give above and beyond so we do not have to have layoffs of paid staff and we can have the necessary tools to work with.
- That the 'LifeReady' product would be a complete tool in reaching families within a church. LifeReady has different parts; Marriage, College, Women, Men, and family.
Thank you for your continued prayer support as we work supporting all these products in the video department.
Hal
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Safely back in Little Rock
After 4500 miles in July and a short trip to Dallas of 600+ miles, it is nice to be where we now call home and not traveling. We had an exceptional time of renewing friendships with some partners and an incredible time of fellowship. Our travels took us through Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, and back to Arkansas. Whew!
Kristi arrived on time at the Little Rock airport on July 31 after 1 week in the states training and 4 weeks in Ireland on an evangelical mission trip. Kristi was able to lead one girl to the Lord. To read more about her trip http://www.kristielisabeth.blogspot.com/
School is getting ready to start, year 2 home schooling with Amy.
Charlotte is now working at the reception desk at FamilyLife 5-9 hours a week. This is a dream come true.
I continue to work on the Art of Marriage video, Weekend to Remember video for China, and other miscellaneous projects throughout each week. One big challenge coming up the end of the month, I have to take 2 Bible classes at FamilyLife as part of our continuing education. One is Biblical Doctrine, the other is Bible Study Methods. I will be attending 8 hours of classes for 8 days with a final at the end. Pray I will do well on the final as I am not a great test taker.
Hal
Kristi arrived on time at the Little Rock airport on July 31 after 1 week in the states training and 4 weeks in Ireland on an evangelical mission trip. Kristi was able to lead one girl to the Lord. To read more about her trip http://www.kristielisabeth.blogspot.com/
School is getting ready to start, year 2 home schooling with Amy.
Charlotte is now working at the reception desk at FamilyLife 5-9 hours a week. This is a dream come true.
I continue to work on the Art of Marriage video, Weekend to Remember video for China, and other miscellaneous projects throughout each week. One big challenge coming up the end of the month, I have to take 2 Bible classes at FamilyLife as part of our continuing education. One is Biblical Doctrine, the other is Bible Study Methods. I will be attending 8 hours of classes for 8 days with a final at the end. Pray I will do well on the final as I am not a great test taker.
Hal
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Texas and Beyond
We have arrived home safely after 2 weeks of travel visiting ministry partners. We racked up 4500 miles on the car traveling from Little Rock to OKC to Montrose, CO to Amarillo, TX to San Antonio to Austin to Houston to KC to Tulsa to Little Rock.
This week we are in Staff Conference and will see the premier of Art of Marriage over the weekend. This is the main project I have worked on since arriving at FamilyLife. We also will have 3 of our ministry partners in this weekend to enjoy this also.
Next week is family week for 3 days. The entire family (ALL the kids and grandson) will arrive Sunday and leave Wednesday morning. Is our plate full? Just for about 5 days.
Kristi arrives home Saturday at 10pm after her 5 week mission trip to Ireland. Can't wait to hear the stories.
Hal
This week we are in Staff Conference and will see the premier of Art of Marriage over the weekend. This is the main project I have worked on since arriving at FamilyLife. We also will have 3 of our ministry partners in this weekend to enjoy this also.
Next week is family week for 3 days. The entire family (ALL the kids and grandson) will arrive Sunday and leave Wednesday morning. Is our plate full? Just for about 5 days.
Kristi arrives home Saturday at 10pm after her 5 week mission trip to Ireland. Can't wait to hear the stories.
Hal
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