Category Archives: training
What have John and Ellen been up to lately?
Dear Friends!
I sent out a brief message about the epic Conquer Leadership Conference I attended, but forgot to share it here! We’ll be sending out a post conference update soon!!! But for now, Click below for details of my post on 7/19:
CLICK IMAGE ABOVE for John’s update just before the Conference.
A Letter from our Mission’s Director about our new Mission 📝📬
Dear Friends,
We hope you had an amazing Easter, celebrating the new life we have because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! It was the first time I can remember being home with a sick family on Easter Sunday! It was a sad day to miss out on celebrating and worshiping with friends at church but our Easter Sunday was also new and refreshing in its own way. Like so many things in life, there were mixed emotions. We know the way the Lord has for us to walk in this life is fraught with difficulties but along the way there is Joy to be found with Christ and his Body as we walk together.
coaching hours to apply for certification. Once this training is completed, she will be better equipped to help people thrive in Christ in our ministry.
Please pray:
- for John as he “digests” the training from Pure Desire Ministries he attended last weekend in the Washington DC area. (This training conference focuses on equipping leaders to bring hope and healing to men, women, and their families in the areas of compulsive porn use and other related addictions)
- for our family to thrive in this very full season of life transitions and change
- for Ellen as she begins her transition as a coach serving missionaries at Cru Headquarters on her new team, while still attending classes
- for financial (and logisitical) provision for these trainings
- for health for our family, we have noticed that sicknesses tend to come at not-so-ideal times! 😦
Partners in His Harvest,
WITH God and Each Other at Cru17… and “I’m the Sign!”
WITH God and Each Other at Cru17
Every two years, thousands of Cru staff descend upon the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO for Cru’s national staff conference. This time the theme was “WITH”: what it means to be with God and in partnership with each other, both within Cru and in other organizations and churches.
Throughout the week, we were able to hear from a diverse panel of speakers, participate in seminars and workshops, and reconnect with friends from around the country. If you’d like to experience the conference for yourself, visit cru.org/cru17 to watch/hear the sessions, seminars, and interviews with the speakers. Thank you for praying and partnering with us financially so we could attend this conference and gain fresh insight and vision!
Family Update
With school just starting in recent weeks in our community, life in our house is a whirlwind in the mornings getting out the door and yet a little quieter during school hours! But our little guy still makes plenty of noise! 😉 We celebrated Noah’s 1st birthday in June and Maddie Mae’s 6th birthday in July with huge groups of little friends and their parents at our home, which is a gift to have opportunities, both spiritually and otherwise, to love on them!
Our little guy got his first handful of Snow up in the Mountains!!!
I’m the Sign!
This summer as students were getting ready to say their goodbyes, one student on the mission team sent with Cru to Czech Republic, Victor, and a Czech student named Frank, accidentally got off on the wrong tram stop and were separated from the rest of the group. Victor used the time they were alone to ask Frank where he stood with God. Frank said that he had heard about God and had even been in a Bible study before, but he was waiting for a sign. To which Victor replied rather emphatically, “I’m the sign!”
Victor on the Tram in the Czech Republic
Victor went on to explain that he had come all the way from the U.S. to tell him about Jesus, so what more did he need?! Frank went to church the next day and met with the pastor. He and Victor have been in communication as Frank is asking many questions. Victor’s response may have been a little surprising, but how significant that he realized that we are all signs pointing to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life! We pray that Frank will come to know Jesus as he continues asking questions and seeking to know the Truth. Isn’t it fun and encouraging to hear how young people are bold and step out in faith in these kind of ways?! It’s an honor to partner with you to send people like Victor out into all different parts of the world to bring the gospel to those lost and searching everywhere!
If you would like to download this update in PDF printable format, please click the image below.
We’re in Colorado!!
We are here in sunny high-altitude Colorado for the Cru Staff National Conference! We made it safe to Colorado State University in Fort Collins Sunday and have set up camp in one of the dorm rooms. Last time we were here was 4 years ago when we attended our New Staff Training and Cru National staff conference for that year. What a memorable time of challenging, growing, and building up that we experienced that summer! Thank you to all of you who helped make that possible in prayer and finances. We are here again but this time with a 2 year old girl in tow and another baby girl on the way in just a couple months! We are experiencing some great times of worship, training, engaging speakers, and great fellowship that is preparing us for the new road ahead. We even met up with new friends who will also be in the Leadership Development program we will be in this coming year in Orlando.
Please pray for our continuing search for some good tenants!
We are still searching for tenants to fill our TWO apartments in our 2-family home since we moved out this month and our current tenants of 2 years are moving out as well. We need to fill them by August 1st. We have shown the apartments to many people in the past month, and there are quite a number who have filled out a rental application but we haven’t come to a place of signing a lease with any of them yet. It is a our prayer before almost every meal and then some! =) In all seriousness, we know God will provide as we step forward in steps of faith but it is a harrowing experience since we only have 2 weeks left before the end of the month (and we move out of town before we even get to that point!) . We have other more expensive options for placing tenants but we hope we can manage the property ourselves. Please PRAY for us in this endeavor!
Thank You
Thank you so much for your support in prayer and finances and your partnership in the Gospel! We are so grateful for you!
By His Grace every day,
Is it the first time in your whole life!? and Please Pray for John’s Training Classes this week
HVCC Students gathered at our Directors' House for "Cru Connect" dinner and training time
We were sitting together in our local directors’ home when Jamie** said “Even though I’ve been raised going to church my whole life, it wasn’t until this year for the first time in my whole life that I actually finally have someone discipling me.”
Our local director casting vision to our students at a "Cru Connect" dinner and training time last week
Jamie is just one young student who is experiencing the gospel being lived out into her life through the spiritual multiplication process that God is using through Cru at our movement at Hudson Valley Community College. We are excited for her as she experiences this for the first time and takes steps of faith!
John will be conducting training classes the next few days for Cru Staff.
PLEASE PRAY for John as he conducts a training for our New York and New England Cru staff . He’ll be teaching them how to use new electronic tools for email, file sharing, team collaboration, scheduling, and more that many companies have reported have increased productivity 20-30% when all of the employees adopt and use the new software together. This is exciting because it will put tools in the hands of staff that will help us to live on Mission for the Kingdom even more effectively as we Win, Build, and Send students for Christ!
Thank you for partnering with us to make this happen for our students and for Our Lord!
Grateful for you and Jesus,
** student names changed for privacy
John and Ellen Fleming's Ministry Webpage 