La Lumière: January 2022
May and I were recently asked how we see God working, which is a great question! I love to share testimonies from the conversations I have online because God's fingerprints are so clear. Much of what we do, however, is building with our eyes on the long term. May shoulders a lot of responsibility for the "Make Giving Easy" project, a platform of donation websites to help Cru ministries all over the world. The vision is for anyone to be able to make a local donation quickly and easily, before their coffee gets cold. Feel free to insert another hot drink of your choice into that illustration. This is a vitally important goal for the gospel work of Cru to continue! May's team has grown from four people to nine and is culturally diverse, from Eastern and Western Europe, North America, and Central Asia. She coaches those working with new countries as they customize the local site to fit their needs. She guides their primary developer in making improvements and eliminating bugs. May researches payment gateways and is connecting the platform to the global financial system. How do we see God working? Progress, one step after another, cutting a bit-sized piece off of the elephant at a time. One specific example is accommodating for unusual giving methods, like providing staff a way to transfer cash they receive directly from donors to the central office along with the donor's information. More complex than it might sound, this information must be accurate, convenient enough for the staff to use and detailed enough for finances. This was initially done for India, and they're finding that a lot of other countries need this functionality. Progress! This may not be as flashy as a direct testimony, but the impact for God's kingdom is still significant.
Efrem with friends from the summer project in Orlando.
Dan and May with their parents and new friends.
A picture from the late night photography shoot.
Praise
- that some great opportunities are opening up for Efrem's choices.
Please pray
- for continued progress for the global Make Giving Easy team.
- that God gives the doctors insight into Dan's wrist pain, and for quick healing.
- for wisdom and guidance for Efrem and Silas for their future studies.
For a few months now I, Dan, have been dealing with pain in my left wrist getting progressively worse. It might be an echo of a fall on my bike a few years back. Bad enough to get me to the doctor, there have been x-rays and an ultrasound done. Treatments have covered both extremes of the pendulum swing, from wearing a brace to immobilize it to having physical therapy to aggressively bend and stretch where it hurts! Next week I will have an MRI done and am praying it will shed some light on the source of the pain and give the doctors a clear path forward. Would you please pray with me? I recognize that in the big scheme of things it's not a big deal. But it would be nice to work out again, do dishes without wincing, and play the bass guitar at the national staff conference next month, which always feeds my soul. Please let us know how we can pray for you as well! Thanks.
