Dear Family and Friends:

Hotels and flights are booked. Rental cars are unavailable. Dorm rooms and campus gathering places will be buzzing. And thousands of missionaries get to hear what God is doing in other Crusade ministries and receive prophetic challenges and encouragements toward continued work in their own.

This is what happens every two years in Ft. Collins, Colorado, as Campus Crusade for Christ staff members travel there for our required National Staff Conference. We remember being encouraged by Chip Ingram in 2007 and Joe Stowell in 2005. A video montage showed some speakers from past conferences: J. Vernon McGee, Swindoll, Hendricks, Piper, Blackaby…

…and of course Crusade leaders such as Bill Bright, Steve Douglass, Josh McDowell, Dennis Rainey, Crawford Loritts and Paul Eshleman.

So we’re looking forward to being blessed by the program. But this year’s conference is special. Because the past couple of years have seen an explosion in our relatively tiny ministry. (GMO) I was just looking at our prayer letter from 2007, in which I thanked you for your part in making 1,000,000 indicated decisions for Christ by November of that year possible. That meant well over 3,000 each day. That’s plenty of reason to get excited!

But last month, we recorded an average of 29,000 indicated decisions for Christ each day!

One of my co-workers ran some numbers when we first started seeing such increases this year. And suddenly the electrifying news started to seem, well, still thrilling…but almost a bit overwhelming! Like a roller coaster ride, we’re not really in charge of the brakes! How were we going to care for so many people? Our challenge is that, while we’re seeing gradual “additions” to our staff since Cindy and I joined—Andy, John, Nick and Debbie—we’re seeing exponential growth in the harvest!

What we’re asking for now, (and we’re asking you to pray for), is that He would call senior Crusade staff members to our team at our ministry fair blitz at the Staff Conference. We’ll be recruiting volunteers to answer e-mails, especially in other languages. We also need new full-time staff. Crusade staff members are the best candidates, since they won’t need two years to raise their initial support. Most of our current team has transferred from other ministries, in fact. Everything is above-board and encouraged by Campus Crusade for Christ, of course. Please pray that God will greatly bless our efforts to raise awareness about our staffing needs. (Luke 10:2)

We also are asking that if you are able, would you prayerfully consider giving a special gift to help us cover the expenses for this vital conference? Our expenses will include transportation, housing, conference fees and other expenses. This is above and beyond the monthly support we already raise. If you can help with a gift of $200, $300, or some other amount, please make your check payable to Campus Crusade for Christ and mail it back to us in the enclosed envelope. We are so grateful for your care, your prayers, and your investment in us to make our ministry more fruitful!

Love in Christ,

P.S. Please see our latest photos!

Mike and Cindy Skinner
"One day closer!" (Romans 13:11)