This summer, we were invited to visit Crossroads Church of Denver, Colorado. Crossroads is a large American Baptist church that has decided to partner with our ministry, and they invited us to come and meet the membership.

This is huge ABC church with lots of kids, lots of old people, lots of families. Dinner with the missions committee for me was one of those special moments in time. It was so nice, sitting around a table filled with Christian, mission-minded moms, sharing our stories and struggles. I felt like I found a new group of friends.

And this visit started with a special friendship, forged on the golf links of Green Lake!

At the last in-person World Mission Conference, Larry was invited to play golf with IM’s Ray Schooler, the GRR executive minister Paul Gibson, and IM board member Joe Zepeda. Joe is on the missions committee of Crossroads church. Larry had a great time with these guys, and we acknowledge the Lord’s fun work of bringing brothers together.

So when Joe contacted us to let us know his church was interested in partnering with our ministry, we rejoiced that the Lord used Larry’s favorite pastime to connect us to a new church outside our region!

To celebrate our anniversary, we traveled to Denver by train—it was a new adventure! You won’t be surprised that Larry (the actual outgoing one) struck up conversations with fun folks along the way, including an unassuming former DEA agent and an Amish family on vacation!

When we got to Denver, the MLB All-Star festivities were in full swing. So to speak. We caught some of that excitement, and even got to visit the Botanical Garden.

On Sunday, we were hoppin’! First, we shared our story with their senior Sunday school class. You could almost feel the spiritual energy of these prayer warriors. They blessed us with their loving attention and questions, and promised to post our prayer cards on their refrigerators and pray for us daily.

Then we attended both of the morning worship services. They played our video at the beginning then brought us on stage to be re-commissioned. The members stretched out their hands as they asked the Lord to lead us into a new year of service.

We joined the missions committee handing out popsicles between services and meeting lots of interested folks. People who had been on different mission trips, and people who have a longing to see God moving around the world.

We had such a nice time getting to know this church family. Crossroads is big, but like all of us, they are still affected by COVID. A large percentage of their members are still worshipping online, and they are reshuffling their previous three campuses to better serve the community and their membership in these strange new times. Please pray for them as you and your church are facing the same. We believe God is still in control and is doing a new thing!

Pastor Matt talked about Larry in his sermon the following Sunday. (Click the blue to watch) It really touched Larry that the pastor used his work to illustrate the importance of doing justice.

to watch our awesome video—feel free to share it with your church!

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Thanks again for your continued interest in and support of our ministry! Let’s continue living in Jesus’ love and serving him together!