After unusual circumstances rendered this past Christmas one of the most hectic in our memory, it is a pleasure to be “snow bound” and working at home today . . . quite an unusual experience and only the third time in our memory since moving to GA.

On top of the regular hustle-and-bustle stresses common to most people at Christmas time, our Cru-New Life Resources office team was downsizing and facing the monumental task of physically relocating to another office suite across town by December 31st.

All of us in the office labored to clean out desks, file cabinets, and boxes upon boxes of ministry related materials which had been accumulating since long before Betty and I joined this team fifteen years ago. We all carried on our normal functions while deciding what to move to the new location and how to dispose of everything else.

In the midst of these unusual demands at the office, we were coordinating Christmas plans with our two daughters and their families. Angela’s family would be driving from Virginia to join us for eight days. Our local daughter, Ruth Ann, and her family would host Angela’s family for the first four days. Betty and I would join them for dinner each night after work. Then Betty and I would host Angela’s family over the long Christmas weekend for a wonderful Barr-Craven-Parsons reunion.

A curve ball got thrown into the works, however, when Ruth Ann and her daughter, Anna, came down with the “flu.” They could neither host nor participate in activities with Angela’s family until they felt much better and all danger of sharing germs was past.

Angela and Huber’s family came directly to our house instead. And our office supervisor graciously allowed Betty and me significant leeway in our work schedules for three days, so that we could enjoy and meet the needs of hosting our visiting family.

By Christmas Eve Ruth Ann was well enough for her and her son Jackson to join us for a late afternoon church service. On Christmas Day the whole Craven family was finally able to join the rest of the family at our (Papi and BB’s) house.

Ruth Ann and son Jackson (on the right) joined us and  Angela and Huber’s family for a Christmas Eve service.  Steven and Anna Craven were absent due to Anna’s “flu.”

Betty and I returned to our team on December 27th to help complete the office move. Despite our best efforts, however, when we locked the doors at the old office on Saturday afternoon, December 30th, we were still nowhere near being done. How very grateful we were when our landlord granted a grace period so that our team could finish clearing out the old office on January 2nd.

Now, let us explain the “why” of all this feverish activity. The publishing and distribution arm for Cru ministry materials is expanding. The various functions previously handled by our office are being divided among three separate groups.

A team in Philadelphia will oversee the evaluation of ministry needs and development of new ministry materials.

A technology and communications team at Cru headquarters in Orlando will be responsible for the visual presentation of resources on the web store and make many resources available as web downloads.

Our operations team here in Georgia will handle the many details related to getting these evangelism, discipleship, and training tools into the hands of our fellow Cru staff members, churches, other ministries and many other ministering Christians.

Please pray with us that our three separate but connected teams will function smoothly together as we labor to help fulfill the Great Commission.

God bless you in this New Year,