If you haven't heard, Campus Crusade for Christ has changed our name to Cru. While the move was made to increase our effectiveness in evangelism and remove the confusion regarding the scope of the organization, people have taken to jumping all over the name change as a shift to liberalism or political correctness. I assure you, neither is the case. We would simply not be involved with an organization like that and would be some of the first to jump ship if that were the case. The name change isn't the first time though that our organization has been criticized.
When Bill and Vonette started CCC in 1951, people said they were crazy to leave a lucrative career in business. People said, "Oh poor Bill Bright" pitying his decision. Virtually no one was reaching out to college students at the time. Today the campus ministry is involved at 1,140 campuses in the U.S. alone.
People were critical of Bill Bright when he felt God leading him to start a Gospel conversation with the fact that "God loves you" while everyone else was starting with the sinfulness of man. Today what is known as the 4-Spiritual laws has been shared billions of times to simply communicate the Gospel, resulting in millions coming to know Christ through it.
When CCC began to work with illusionist Andre Cole, people scoffed saying there was no role for illusions in sharing the Gospel. Today Andre has shared the Gospel, through his show, in more countries than any other person alive.
When Paul Eshelman suggested making the story of Jesus into a movie, people laughed. Today the JESUS Film, which depicts the Gospel of Luke, has been translated into over 1,100 languages, and resulted in over 6 BILLION exposures to the Gospel and over 200 million decisions to follow Christ. Three quarters of the churches planted worldwide from 1990 to 2000 used the JESUS film as part of the church planting process.
Now we have changed our name to increase our effectiveness in bringing more to know Jesus Christ, but people claim we have abandoned our first love. They fear we are a victim of political correctness or secular pressure.
From just a few examples from our history, I think you can tell we have never paid too much attention to critics. We have been focused on God and clung to the Gospel. Instead of doubting God's calling, we have better spent our time proclaiming the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Doubts and fears seem to slip away when you wholeheartedly seek Him.
Changing our name was not a removal of Christ from our organization. Jesus Christ always has been and always will be the foundation of everything that we do. Without Christ we would not exist as an organization. Our statement of faith (http://www.ccci.org/about-us/statement-of-faith/index.htm) and mission (http://www.ccci.org/about-us/index.htm) have remained the same since our calling from God has remained constant, to fulfill the Great Commission by preaching the message of Jesus Christ to all.
Our hope and prayer is that people would stop seeing our name and start seeing Jesus Christ. As Francis Chan stated at the Cru national staff conference, "There is but one name that truly matters and that is the name of Jesus Christ."
I say all this with hope for the future and what God will do through Chassity and I. Currently though, our hearts are heavy, our minds are full and we are growing weary. Besides our schedules being full we have had so many obstacles in the last 6 weeks that have taken our focus from what we came here to do.
Before we left for Colorado, Chass had abdominal pains and we were forced to go to the ER for what they thought could be appendicitis. Afters two days of stressful tests, travel back and forth to Erie and hours of work missed, we came away with no diagnosis and a $1200 bill.
With hopes the worst was behind us we set out for Fort Collins, Colorado in Chassity's little red Ford Focus. The trip went well and we were very excited to begin new staff training with Campus Crusade for Christ. However, after being here only two weeks, Chassity's Focus began to make a horrible noise. Luckily it was at the place we were taking our seminary courses and she was able to easily park it and shut it down. We were relieved to find that her car was still under the extended warranty she had purchased when she bought the vehicle so we had it towed to a local Ford dealership. The mess that ensued was something I pray I will never have to relive.
The dealer quickly contacted the warranty service with our case, requiring their authorization prior to diagnosing the problem. They told us as soon as the work was authorized they'd begin work. They also told us that they'd be able to give us a loner/rental car once the warranty service cleared the work.
Although Chassity's car has only 65,000 miles on it, the shop was fairly certain it was the transmission and so we were very relieved to have the warranty. However, after several days the warranty service requested documentation to prove that the transmission had been properly maintained. Chassity's father sent in the records showing that each time the car was serviced the transmission was checked. The warranty company then responded claiming these records were inadequate. They demanded proof the fluid had been switched out, something we had no record of.
We fought with the warranty service for another week trying to get them to do what they had paid to do to no avail. I was so incredibly suprised how rude and uncaring the warranty service people were. They left us without a car for two and a half weeks half way across the country and couldn't even show some kindness towards us.
The Ford dealership was great in being patient with us but told us the repair would cost $3600, almost half the value of the car. Knowing we couldn't afford this, I called around to get an estimate on the price of a new transmission. Luckily I found a place here in Fort Collins that offered free towing, the same warranty on the work as the ford dealership and quoted me a price of $2335. I they called up Ford, paid their price for "diagnosing my problem," and had the car taken to the AAMCO shop.
The car has now been there since last Saturday. They've had numerous problems getting the transmission apart and reassembled. They finished the assembly on Saturday only to find it was making a grinding noise. They had to take the entire thing apart again only to discover one of the teeth on the 3rd gear was chipped. Thankfully the owner has been exceedingly kind and helpful but the stress of the situation has been overwhelming.
Here we sit, just two days from our intended departure from Fort Collins with no car, wondering constantly when it will be finished and how much it will cost. To be honest, I have no idea if we'll be able to pay for it. I have money saved, but recent college grads don't have that kind of money sitting around for emergencies.
Apart from this there has been constant stress from outside situations I simply won't go into, one being the name change of CCC to Cru. Chass and I both support the change knowing it will allow more to see the message of Christ instead of just our organization's name. Chassity and I are at our wits end. We are weary and we know it. We've sought to find rest in the Lord but the odds just keep stacking up against us. I feel like a man standing at the foot of a cliff that I simply cannot climb. I know God is going to have to take me over but I don't know how or when. I am glad there are things in life that require faith and not just my work alone. My prayer is simply that He would reach down and rescue us. Please pray.
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