SITC 2014

From Jessica's FB page:  "This summer I was blessed to have met a great group of 28 individuals who were not only a great joy to be around but also inspiring people of God! It was an awesome summer spent in Milwaukee! Even more so, I am blessed to have 5 of those members who will be close enough so that we can all grab coffee together this coming school year or grab some Asian cuisine (in Ryan's case Chipotle will do xD) as for the rest every day without seeing your face is just another day closer to when we met again! Love you all!"

This is how she feels.  And how they all feel about each other.  God did amazing things in every one of these lives this summer.  It was a great group of students, and I will miss them dearly...praying that God brings many of them back to serve in our city again!

SITC Banquet

Every year, we love summer project.  But once every few years, an especially special group of students descends upon Milwaukee.  For me, this was one of those years.  I had a wonderful time getting to know quite a few of our project students as we looked for jobs together, prayed together, and made memories together.

But alas, our time with the students is over, and although they will continue doing ministry in our city for another month, we will no longer see them on as regular a basis as we were.

Tonight, we had our mid-project banquet where the staff hand off their project jobs to the students.  As has become tradition, we ate in the flower room at Buca di beppo and had a great time...

Molly, the girl sitting on the other side of Jeff, is one of the students I worked with in finding a job.  She ended up with two part-time jobs and is splitting her time between McDonald's and a neighborhood day care.  Caro, the girl on the right who is purposefully not smiling (just to be funny) came to my house every other morning with our intern, Katharine, to pray.  Just to pray...just to begin our day in dependence on the Lord.  It was a wonderful time.

I am so incredibly grateful that God called me to join staff with Cru all those years ago.  Every single summer, I get to revisit the great privilege of pouring into the lives of college students who want to learn how to walk with Jesus for a lifetime.  And I get to do it with this guy...

What a blessed woman I am!

Summer in the City!

This summer, we were joined by 20 college students from around the country and several staff from both Cru Campus and Cru Inner City.  SITC is one of our favorite parts of the year, and this year did not disappoint.  Obviously, because of babies, we weren't as involved as usual, but we still were able to interact and have a good bit of input into the lives of these precious students.  What a privilege to see the Lord raise up so many young men and women to come to the city and bring His gospel here, both in word and in deed! 

This picture was taken at our mid-project banquet, where roles are passed from the staff to the students.  It is a special night, and it was fun to hear from those around me about what God was doing in and through them!

Intern Explosion--again!

Last year, I put up pictures of our new HLIC interns and titled it "Intern Explosion".  Here I am again, overjoyed at the fact that the Lord has raised up 13 interns who are assigned to 5 different Cru Inner City city teams....Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.  Pictured with me above are all of our interns for next year (7 new and 6 returners) and our 3 intern coaches as well as Janet and Debby, the ladies I get to work with on administration of our intern program.  It was such fun to get to spend this last weekend with them at their kickoff weekend, as they were trained and sent out.  They will report to their respective cities, Lord willing, in September.  Thank you, Father, for raising up these laborers for your harvest in the city!

A New York Minute, Part 1

It's 11 p.m. here on the east coast, and after weeks of no blogging, my mind is bursting with ideas, thoughts, memories to get down on paper.  It's quiet...Hoffbeast is sleeping, and unlike last night, the noises from the street below are almost non-existant.  It's the perfect moment to write again.

We are in NYC.  For Hoffbeast, it's only his 2nd time here.  For me, I was here last month.  It's my 7th trip, and I'm beginning to really like it here.  Mind you, four of those trips were drive ins where I was here for less than 12 hours.  Even so, I feel like I'm beginning to know my way around, and the city is becoming quite familiar.  It's an amazing place, really.

We are staying at a hotel in Queens, here for Christmas in New York, an annual donor event for HLIC.  This is our first year coming, and we are here with one other couple and about 60 of our closest new friends.  We experienced so very much in this one short day, from hearing Tim Keller speak to ministry site visits to the 9/11 Memorial to seeing the Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza.  I feel like such a privileged person....why do I get to have this life??!  God is gracious!

Our kids are being lovingly cared for by our dear friend, teammate, and loyal blog reader, Bridget.  THANK YOU, B!!!!!!  We miss them but know that they are being well cared for....we are grateful beyond words.

What was supposed to be a stream from my conscience has turned into an update on our whereabouts.  I think I'm continue the theme and leave you with some photographs from our day...

Tim Keller speaking to us with the beautiful Manhattan skyline behind him.  His devotional was, as expected, challenging, motivating, and Gospel-centered.

Our first foray into Manhattan...crossing over the East River on the Queensboro Bridge.  The new One World Trade (Freedom Tower) is seen in the distance next to the large building on the left.

Lunch was served at the HLIC-New York office.  Here, Glen introduces Pastor Andrew, one of our ministry partners in NYC.  The beautiful mural behind them was painted by Megan, one of our former Milwaukee SITC students.

A typical subway photograph, except...what do you think Hoffbeast is thinking?

The memorial waterfall pool on the footprint of the former north tower at the World Trade Center.

The north tower memorial with the lower portion of the new 1WTC behind it.

Radio City Music Hall, home of the famous Rockettes and the Christmas Extravaganza


Hoffbeast and me at Rockefeller Plaza.  The very beautiful Christmas tree had just been officially lit a few days before, and the crowd of people coming to see it was huge!  I wonder if it will be that busy all month long?!

Times Square on a Friday night

A statue of George M. Cohan, of Yankee Doodle Dandy fame, stands tall among the delightful chaos of Times Square.

The subway entry at Times Square...this station has to be one of the biggest in the city.  The underground network is fascinating and makes getting around NYC very easy!

Intern Explosion!

I love working with our interns!  This year, my role changed dramatically as I gave up directorship of the program after doing that job for 10 years.  The new director, Debby, was actually my New Staff field trainer when I first came on staff--she was a blessing to me then, and she's a blessing to me now as well!  I love working with her and am SO grateful that the Lord has raised her up for such a time as this.

I am continuing to be on the intern team, but my capacity has changed.  I am now working primarily with the placement part of the process as well as continuing in my role on the Intern Coordinator team with the ICs from the Campus Ministry of Cru.  In addition, I am helping Debby as she continues to transition into this role and acting as a consultant of sorts.

This year, we had 12 new interns accepted!  AMAZING!  Please pray with and for these precious ladies as they raise support this summer and prepare to move to their new cities in August/September.  May Jesus be glorified, and may our cities be CHANGED as these interns step out in faith and trust Him with this next year.

TWIN CITIES--Kristin, Becca, Alyssa, and Renae

CHICAGO--Brittnee and Toni (shown here with Chicago staff woman and MPD coach Bethany, center)

ATLANTA--Michelle (above) and Laura (below)

MILWAUKEE--Caitlin, Cheryl, Anna, and Katharine

Yes, we have FOUR interns joining our team this fall!  We are so excited about how God has led them to ministry and specifically to our city.  Three of the four were students on our summer project, so it's so fun to see them coming back!  We can't wait to be a tiny part of what God is doing in them as He breaks their hearts, motivates them toward ministry, and uses them in others' lives, growing them in Christ more and more as they go.

Praise God for what He will do in and through each of these women!

Drumroll, please....Team Christmas Card Pics!

Clearly, you can see why we love our team!  Thank you Kara, Bridget, Tang, Andrea, and Tim for making our lives so rich.  We love serving, laughing, and sometimes living with you!  We are so fortunate that we have people around us who pick us up when we're down, who go the extra mile over and over, and who care about the city as much as we do.  Who depend desperately on the Gospel, who love the poor and want His name to be glorified among them (us), and who give grace when we fail.  Who pull together when it has to get done, who celebrate each others' milestones and victories, and who point us to the Cross when we start to think too much of ourselves or too little of our Lord.  Who make us laugh, who we make laugh, and who smile really big for days when we hear that Packer tickets are available (shout out to our Vikings' fan, Tang, for putting up with babysitting for us).  Merry Christmas, Team-a-Leam!

(I had to throw in this extra one of the girls...they're so silly!)  :)

People in our lives = thankful hearts

This is probably as close to a wax museum as I am ever going to get.  This summer, our new intern, Bridget, put her creative skills to work during our Here's Life Inner City conference days.  Our leadership often puts something on the center of the tables for the use of the people who concentrate better by working with their hands.  On this particular day, there were crayons and construction paper.  And Bridget came up with this.  It is pretty incredible, really, especially the part where Kara actually looks like Kara.  It's just so perfect!

I continue, all the time, to be so thankful for our team.  We live close to them, we play with them, we pray with them, we eat with them, we watch Packer games with them....we share life.  And I can't imagine it any other way.

And in the last 24 hours, I have been reminded that just because someone leaves our team or moves away, it doesn't mean that they are ever far from our hearts and minds.  Yesterday morning at church, we talked for awhile in the hallway with Marcia (former intern) and her husband, Greg.  They were a big part of our lives for a number of years, and when I tell Marcia that I really miss seeing her, I mean it.  Last evening, I got a text from Megan, our former housemate and my dear friend.  We only live 10 minutes from Megan and her family, but we rarely see them.  I go about my day, and it's fine, but when I think about it, I miss Megan a lot and wish I could spend more time with her.  I often think about her when I drive past the hospital where she works, which I do nearly every day--often more than once.  Megan and I began making plans for our families to have dinner together...that'll be great.  Last night, another former house-and-teammate, Rachel, texted, and we ended up talking on the phone for over an hour.  She and Juan were on our team for a combined total of seven years, and the things that the Lord taught us during part of that time still effect me every day.  I haven't talked to Rachel in months, but last night, there were few pleasantries--we just jumped right back into life together.

Our staff/interns/housemates over the years--Rachel, Juan, Marcia, Megan, Kara, Andrea, Tim, Teresa, Noel, Bridget, and Tang....they have loved our children and tolerated enjoyed their time with us, too.  We are so grateful.  God has blessed us richly with the people in our lives...

As for the above picture, things are a little different now...Tim and Andrea's twins have names now, Teresa is in Ohio raising support to join the Jacksonville HLIC team full time, and Noel is in Kansas getting ready for her January wedding.  Not everyone is here every day, day in and day out, but they are still a part of us.

Thank you, Lord.

The sweet, cute, fun, beautiful, single ladies currently on our team--   (l to r) Bridget, Kara, and Tang.

Our Version of the Yellow Bus

Some kids have a yellow bus pull up in front of their house to take them to school.  Our kids have the A to Z truck!  This time each year, Hoffbeast drives to Madison and borrows a truck from his family's business.  And the kids LOVE it! 

Box of Love time is here, so for a week, the Hub gets to pretend that he's a delivery driver again, like he used to be before coming on staff.  This week, our smallest vehicle is our 12-passenger van--that's mine.  His is this huge truck which he will drive all around town as he picks up packed boxes, food donations, and empty boxes as well, then delivers them all to HeartLove Place, where we will have our HLIC Box of Love packing party on Saturday.  At one time, this truck will be packed nearly to the gills with food so that our partner churches can take Boxes of Love out into their communities and share the Gospel in word and in deed with their neighbors.  We, along with our partners, are hoping to pack 1200 boxes this year.  We're partnering with over 40 churches in our city to make it happen--to God be the glory! 

Interns to Staff

This summer, a lot of our HLIC staff are out here in Colorado taking classes; one of those includes Bethany, a former intern who is now on staff in Chicago.  Here I am in 2009 with that year's HLIC intern class:

What a joy it was tonight to join Bethany for her birthday dinner and realize that now, with Sam and Teresa joining staff this summer, that brings to 75% the number of interns from that year who have joined full-time with our ministry.  Praise God for raising up laborers for the harvest!  I have loved my years working with our interns, and as I think about turning the reigns over to someone else, it's great to be able to see these woman making longer-term commitments to full-time ministry.  When the above picture was taken, none of them had yet begun their internships.  Now, 3 of them are on staff and the other (Lauren) is teaching in the inner city.  And besides the statistics, the reality is that God has moved, growing, maturing, and changing these precious ladies into women who more readily reflect His image.  He has used them to disciple kids, empower ministry partners, and share Christ with women in prison.  He gets the glory, and we praise Him!

And here they are today.  Sam will be serving full-time with the Campus Ministry in Maryland; Bethany is on staff in Chicago; Teresa will be reporting to Jacksonville, where she will work in the prisons with the HLIC team there.  (p.s.  Our family hasn't seen Teresa--who lived with us during her intern year-for almost a year, so we are loving being out here together with her this summer!  We miss her so much!)