Doug Radunzel's Mission Field Journal
International School Project
2010 August 4
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8
Dear Friends,
Over thirty years ago, JoAnn was living in Vienna, Austria. We had not yet met. She was one of the first single women to venture to Vienna to help begin the work of Campus Crusade for Christ in Eastern Europe. It was a very different world then. The Cold War was being waged. Russia was only one of several republics that made up the former Soviet Union. Eastern Europe was known as the East Block and followed Communist ideals. It was powerful and atheistic. It could be, and often was, dangerous if you were known to be a Christian. Beginning a Christian outreach of any kind in this part of the world was challenging and, some thought, foolhardy.
It was during this time that JoAnn and a fellow single woman were asked to travel to Hungary to see if there was a possibility of starting a ministry there. Armed with addresses on old scraps of paper of two pastors who had attended a small Christian gathering in Yugoslavia (which also does not exist as a country anymore) some years before, JoAnn and Sally drove into Budapest in hopes of meeting these pastors. It was a scary thought, wondering if they would meet these pastors or find someone else unfriendly to Christian missionaries at those addresses. However, it worked, and the ministry in Hungary was born. Today the area office for Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe and Russia is located in Budapest. A year ago, the area staff training conference took place in Lake Balaton, Hungary. About 500 nationals from all over Eastern Europe attended. A Pole is now the director of the area. JoAnn and many others were faithful, and now we see the fruit of those labors. It is amazing to reminisce about how the Spirit worked in a place many thought unreachable 30 years ago.
That is one of the things I like about International School Project (ISP). You never know which public school teachers will respond to the Gospel. One ISP team recently returned from Guatemala. We were expecting about 400 teachers to attend. We had the funds raised and the delegates recruited. Everything was set. However, 618 teachers showed up. It is a nice problem, in a sense, to have. However, our small groups averaged 18 and were too large to have effective conversations. It worked, but please continue to pray that we recruit more delegates to avoid this problem. Since this trip, a state in Guatemala has officially approved our curriculum as their main method of teaching morals and ethics. They don’t deal with issues of separation of church and state.
I recently attended a central-Asian dynamics conference in Seattle, Washington, and my daughter Debbie returned from her Campus Crusade for Christ outreach in Germany, stories for a future Kirk Courier.
Cause for Praise
Campus Crusade for Christ Kazakhstan has given permission
for us to be one of their prominent outreaches. This is protocol for us, and it will help a lot.
Request for Prayer
You may have heard of the 10 aid workers killed in Afghanistan
over the August 7–8 weekend. Our church has a strong relationship to Afghanistan, and many from our congregation knew well the workers, so there were a lot of tears last Sunday.
I would also ask you to pray for our staff in Moscow.You probably are aware of the fires breaking out all over Russia due to hot and dry weather. It is pretty serious. One problem is that some old Soviet arsenal buildings are in danger of burning. Evidently they still have some of the bombs in them.
This has been a very interesting year with hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, mudslides and now these fires. They have all affected us.
Thank you for your participation and prayers for our work!
Doug Radunzel
Email Doug Radunzel
2010 April 19
Easter greetings. You may recall that from 1992–1996 my family and I lived in Moscow, Russia where I directed the Christian literature distribution for Campus Crusade for Christ. It a was huge task. I am told that it was the largest distribution of Christian literature in the history of the former Soviet Union. Four-thousand tons—50,000,000 Bibles, books, and training material! Graham Memorial is one of only two churches that financially supports us, so you played a role in the history of Russia.
I have many fond memories of Russia and a few bizarre ones, as well. We rented a warehouse on the northern side of Moscow to hold all of our literature. On the warehouse grounds was a Cold War bunker that we also rented. I often think how ironic it was that this bunker that had been used to protect Russians from Americans was now being used by an American to distribute Bibles and books to offer eternal life to Russians. This facility was not large enough to hold the volume of material we had.
In the process of searching for a new place, a Russian realtor brought us to a complex in southern Moscow. It had three football-field-sized buildings on its grounds. We were led into one. I was stunned. Before me from wall to wall were 50-foot piles of books beginning to crumble from lack of attention, a common problem for literature, I learned. We had to be careful as we walked around for fear of piles collapsing on us. We literally walked on four-to-five feet of fallen books. In places, the floor had collapsed, and books were cascading into the 30-foot-high basement below, where there were even more books. In the corner, a dozen people were ripping off the covers and throwing the books into a shredder to sell for other paper products. The books all had one name in the title—Lenin—in scores of languages. I was standing in the distribution center for the propaganda department of the founder of the Communist party. We were told the other two buildings contained the same thing. When we returned to our car, shredded paper and pages swirled around us in the wind and cold. I turned to my co-worker and said, “This is a good object lesson on choosing your philosophy of life carefully.” I remember it well.
Our faith depends on written information. Though the Bible is complete in itself, we are fortunate in our culture to also have written tools such as commentaries, tracts, books, devotional material, hymn books, and study materials. International School Project (ISP) has a curriculum we give to each teacher who attends one of our conferences along with a Bible and a half-dozen books. Not all countries or cultures have the luxury of the volume of literature we have.
I have mentioned from time to time that my wife, JoAnn, has been working on a marriage curriculum that was finally finished in written form a few weeks ago for Biblical Education by Extension (BEE). She was honored recently at the BEE headquarters for her work. A few years ago, she travelled to Vietnam to teach the information in the marriage curriculum for BEE. The trip went well, but JoAnn thought the curriculum could be improved. The leadership agreed and asked for her input. The course is offered online for free to all who would like to have it, but now it is also in written form as well. It has been a lot of work writing and editing over many weeks and weekend retreats. I think it will be a useful written tool in the arsenal of their mission. I doubt it will end up in the ash heap of history, as I witnessed in Moscow.
This is one of the more unusual adventures I have had in my life, and I thank you for playing a part. I have had my share!
Doug Radunzel
Email Doug Radunzel
2010 March 12
Dear Friends,
It was special to worship with you on Christmas Eve, gain some insights into the life of Simeon, and participate in the Advent Reading.
Year 2010 has been eventful for us so far. Our fourth International School Project (ISP) delegation will leave this week for Kyrgyzstan. Our largest-ever delegation, 55 members, returned this week from Guatemala. We have now held over 900 ISP convocations since the early 1990s, attended by about 70,000 public-school teachers. Our conferences and forums are interesting and informative for the teachers who attend and often give them an opportunity to share their lives and voice concerns as educators. The main objective, however, is to lead public-school teachers to Christ and encourage them to join a growing association of teachers worldwide who use their profession to encourage students to know Christ. If this doesn’t happen, our time is wasted. Please pray that it continues to happen. Pray also for me and the ISP recruiting team I work with that we would recruit the necessary delegates for each trip. We have a number of alumni who go on two-to-three trips per year or to the same country yearly. However, we always need new people to join us. Thanks!
As you know, on January 12 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. The next day my son and his wife called to say the Second Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Divison, their brigade, was deploying to Haiti to help in the disaster. We followed events on the news. My daughter-in-law, Jill, flew in within a few days while my son Joel remained at Ft. Bragg to organize all the supplies, including trucks and trailers to sustain 3,500 troops. Then he flew down. Both are captains and had a lot of responsibility. Jill served for a time as the Liaison Officer for Samaritan’s Purse and was fortunate to show Michael W. Smith around for a day. They both slept in the mud, ate the famous MREs (Meal Ready to Eat), and showered periodically—if they had their own water—reported my son. The 82nd distributed about 15,000,000 pounds of food, water, and medical supplies and treated over 10,000 injuries.
Many Christian missions pitched in to help. Campus Crusade for Christ had 1,000,000 meals already in Haiti in preparation for the hurricane season that is about to begin. One of the men I work with here in Colorado Springs, who is also with ISP, was in the process of adopting two Haitian orphans. Their plight was aired by Soledad O’Brien of CNN and Geraldo Rivera of Fox News. The process of adoption was speeded up so they now have two additions to their family.
My wife was honored a week ago for helping to write a badly needed updated marriage curriculum for Biblical Education by Extension, or BEE for short. I’ll save that for a future message.
Thank you for your support and prayers. As Joel was the supply officer in charge to make the mission in Haiti a success, you are part of the supply system that makes our mission work. Much appreciation!
Blessings,
Doug Radunzel
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 November 01
Dear Friends,
Yesterday, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. JoAnn and I were living north of Munich, Germany at the time. I was sharing the Gospel with Olympic Athletes in Eastern Europe with Athletes in Action. JoAnn had been working behind the Iron Curtain for five years before I met her, and we travelled there together for 10 years. We had no idea in the Autumn of 1989 that, when the border guards at Sopron, Hungary allowed East Germans to escape to Austria, it would lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe by Christmas. We are very thankful to God for allowing us to have lived in Europe during this time and witness these historic events first hand. You were part of it as well with your prayers and support.
JoAnn helped pioneer Campus Crusade for Christ work during those dark and dangerous days. She began Campus Crusade for Christ in Hungary. A lot has happened in 20 years. More than 500 national Campus Crusade for Christ staff now minister in their own countries throughout Eastern Europe. The leadership of the area was recently transferred from an American to a young Polish man. God is Great!
There are rumblings going on in another part of the world. God is doing amazing things in the Middle East. Since I last wrote to you, I travelled to one of these countries that is much in the news and in quite a bit of turmoil. Thank you for your prayers and support. I flew out of Denver on October 14. I joined 13 other International School Project staff in Dulles, then Frankfurt, Germany and then Istanbul, Turkey. We spent one night in Istanbul before we flew to the country of destination where we conducted two ISP conferences. I have been asked not to mention the country name in any publications. Feel free to contact me for additional information. I plan to be in California for Christmas and would enjoy telling you more about this adventure in person. I lead a discussion group of 15 teachers in one city and 10 in the second.
This was a first for us. We have never taken the ISP work so deep into an Islamic country. Apart from some upset stomachs, it went surprisingly well. We were hoping that 75–100 teachers might attend the two conferences we scheduled. In the first city, 109 teachers came along with 10 translators. In the second city, 93 teachers and 15 translators attended. We could have hosted a third conference for 30 more teachers but we ran out of time and space, so we folded eight of these teachers into the second conference. We had to be very careful. Most of the teachers were from the Muslim faith. However we have nationals who live there permanently who can follow up with the contacts we generated. They were thrilled to have over 200 teachers of influence to meet with in the next few weeks. Pray that this first step in this tough part of the world will eventually lead to future conferences where we can be more open with the Gospel.
At the same time this conference was taking place 413 Ukrainian teachers were attending three ISP conference where 83 indicated decisions for Christ with another 100 wanting to become part of the ISP movement in the Ukraine. Pray that someday this will take place in the country I was in.
Everyone was grateful to America and our troops for giving them a taste of freedom and helping make their country safer. I went through 19 security check points. Most schools, businesses, restaurants and tourist sites are tightly guarded. I don’t think I have seen so many AK-47s in one place. But I felt safe. We all felt like we were doing something historic and unique. We felt God’s pleasure in what we were doing. I feel we moved God’s kingdom forward just a little.
Thank you again for holding the rope!
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 October 01
A Recap While on the Road- travelers include Doug Radunzel and 12 other delegates, the ISP director, several of the better ISP speakers, and long-time alumni
- Doug calls himself the donkey, as he will carry a lot of cash, medicine, defibrillating machines, curriculum DVDs, and books.
- two conferences scheduled in each of 20 cities
- one city might be near danger, but, otherwise, the trip should be a safe and routine
- ISP hopes that local leaders will honor our invitation documents
- we have found and booked hotels, conference sites, and flights
- generally, we all fly out on the same day
- most of us meet in Dulles, continue to a Middle East city, and then on to the countryside
- the return trip order is Middle East, Frankfurt, Denver
- between 90 and 100 teachers, representing various religious backgrounds but predominantly Muslim, will attend each conference
- this will be ISPs first translation into Arabic
- these Standard Dream Maker conferences explain the importance of developing a moral and ethical foundation for education departments
- the Gospel and the Bible to be woven into the discussions
- unusual Jesus Film funding has resulted in a completely paid trip Prayer Requests
- safety and health
- that this will be not a hit-and-run operation, but lead to future trips
- for some sightseeing opportunity, perhaps, Babylon
- that we not step on toes
- that we are very flexible
Email Doug Radunzel
2010 September 01
September is becoming a month for memorable events. Seventy years ago on September, World War II began when Adolf Hitler ordered 40 German divisions to attack Poland. Twenty years ago JoAnn and I and my young family were living north of Munich, West Germany sharing Christ with athletes in Eastern Europe.
On a Saturday in September I turned on Armed Forces Radio to catch the news. JoAnn and I were startled to hear that Hungary announced it was opening its borders and allowing anyone, including people from other East Bloc countries, to flee to Western Europe. It caught us completely by surprise. The Hungarian/Austrian border was soon flooded with people trying to get to the West and taste freedom for the first time in there lives. We could hear champagne corks popping in the background. We were concerned that Soviet tanks might roll in. They didn’t and the Communist game in Europe came to an abrupt end with the Berlin Wall coming down by Christmas.
Eight years ago today I was taking my daughter to her school when it was announced that a plane might have hit the World Trade Center. I thought it was just an accident. Later at work, JoAnn called and told me the rest of the story.
These events probably have touched all of our lives in some way. Three of my uncles and my father in law fought in WW II. My wife’s mother and three of her uncles served in the Navy during the war. Two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we were able to move to Moscow, Russia where I directed the largest distribution of Christian literature in history of the former Soviet Union. Nine-eleven solidified my son’s decision to go to West Point where he met his wife. They were part of the surge in Iraq.
My son and his wife are captains now and serve with the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. We recently flew out to watch my daughter-in-law became a company commander. She also received a Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge, a rare award for women in the military.
These world events have allowed the Gospel to be taken into historically closed countries. There is another wall that is showing signs of cracking. This time it is in historically closed countries of the Middle East. The International School Project has been invited to one of these countries to host one of our conferences in October. I have asked and been accepted to be a part of the delegation that will travel there. I can’t disclose the country right now for security reasons. If you have a need to know feel free to call me. This is a unique ministry opportunity to slip through the crack in the wall. I am glad to be part of it.
We saw that God moves in marvelous ways and when He decides to bring about change He can do it quickly. We feel very privileged to have played a role in sharing the Gospel in tough areas during these dramatic events. You have played a role as well with your prayers and finances. Keep us in your prayers.
Email Doug Radunzel
The atheist text printed on the red bus reads, "There probably is no God." The text printed on the black bus reads, "And if there is, go to . . . gottkennen.de"
2009 August 01
Hallo meine Familie und Freunden!
I knew God was going to be faithful in doing amazing things on my trip to Berlin, but I didn’t expect it to be as great as it ended up being. It was because of your support both financially and through prayer that this was even possible and for that I thank you so much!
We started off our trip to Berlin in Indianapolis where our team of 22, seven staff and 15 students, met for the first time. My team was the biggest encouragement to me while I was there and many of them became great friends that I will keep for a lifetime.
The majority of our trip was spent on the college campuses in Berlin. The three campuses are Humboldt Universitat, Freie Universitat, and Technische Universitat. Our team of 22 was split up into three groups to go on the three campuses. I was placed at the Humboldt campus with four other students.
Every week day we would go to the Mensa (cafeteria) for food and sit down with a student to strike up a conversation. After having lunch with the students, my partner and I would go to the older part of the Humboldt campus to a courtyard where many of the students would hang out in between classes.
That is where we would do picture surveys with the students using a tool called Soularium. Through this we would get them talking about God and their beliefs and eventually share the Gospel. This is what all of our days on campus looked like, and every day we saw God do amazing things! Our team would meet for about a half hour when we got back and there was never a day when no one had an amazing story to share. While we were there our team got to share the Gospel 205 times and talk to people from 42 different nations!
One of the days on campus my partner, Hannah, and I got to talk with a girl named Jeannine. We quickly found out that she had spent a year in Texas on an exchange and, therefore, she had very good English. We ended up talking to her for an hour and half that day. She shared with us that she really wanted what we had with our faith but that there was just a wall that she couldn’t get past. We got her contact information and ended up meeting with her four more times and each time sharing more and more with her about our faith. In the end she decided that she still wasn’t ready to make a decision. She will continue to be in my prayers and we will continue to stay in touch. I could see that God has already been working in her life and can’t wait to see what He does in her life in the months to come.
God showed me his heart for the nations and matched my heart to His and especially for the German students in Berlin. I’m excited to go back to Colorado State University this fall and bring with me everything I learned from this trip. I’m excited to seek the lost that are right where I live. I will be heading into my junior year, excited to be part of the leadership team for Campus Crusade for Christ on my campus and see what God has in store for me there!
Thank you so much again for all your support this summer!
Debbie Radunzel, Doug's daughter
2009 July 01
Hallo from Berlin!
Right now I am at the midpoint of my summer project in Berlin and I have already seen God do amazing things! The past two and a half weeks have been amazing!
Let me just explain a little bit of what we do every day here in this city of Berlin. We as a team split up into three teams and go to the three main university campuses that are in Berlin. These three Universities are Humboldt Universitat, Freie Universitat and Technische Universitat. The group that I am part of goes to Humboldt everyday.
Each day looks a little like this: We go in pairs to get lunch and sit down with a German student for lunch. We initiate conversation and within a couple minutes are hopefully finding out about their beliefs in God and religion. After lunch we walk around the campus finding students that are sitting outside of the Mensa’s (dining halls) and initiate conversation with them by asking them if they will take part in a survey we are conducting. Usually people are willing to take part. We sit down and ask them questions about their life and God and spirituality. Already through doing this I have gotten to share the gospel over 10 times myself and as a team we have the shared the gospel with about 150 students. At the end of every day on campus we get together as a team and share stories of people we have talked to. So far I have never gone to that meeting and not heard an amazing story of something God did on campus. Our God is so faithful, and he fulfills his promises!
When talking to students the responses we hear the most are that they don’t believe in God and that they don’t believe they need God in their life. This breaks my heart for all the students in Berlin. All of these campuses need to be bombarded with prayer.
I just want to thank you again for your support of sending me here to Berlin. I believe that we as a team are making a difference here and you were a huge part of making that happen! Thank you!
Debbie Radunzel, Doug's daughter
2009 June 01
Dear Friends,
Three days ago, we celebrated Mother’s Day. In 1992, we moved from Munich, Germany, to Moscow, Russia. Our pastor moved with us. He is now the pastor of Danube Bible church in Budapest, Hungary. He reminded me this week of the advice the mother of Jesus gave at the wedding in Cana. Jesus had just refused eating necessary bread when he was starving during his 40-day fast, but then gave luxurious wine to people who had already drunk. Mary told the servants, “Do everything He tells you.” Could there be any greater counsel than that?
Jesus also tells us to “Go into all the world and make disciples.” Thank you for helping us do that. In my last two messages, I mentioned the situation that my wife JoAnn was having trying to find people to help her answer the German responses to a website established by Campus Crusade for Christ. There is now a group of five people working together to handle the German speakers. JoAnn has noticed within the past few months that many Austrians have accepted Christ. I met JoAnn in Vienna, Austria. Austria has been known for a long time as the graveyard for missions. Now, in these days, after many years of work and prayer, Austrians are coming to faith. Thank you for praying for my wife and this critical work. I am proud of her for taking on this challenge. She is one of only a handful of Americans who mastered the German language, and her skill has served her well.
So far, The International School Project (ISP) has completed 15 Convocations for 2009, with more than 1,500 international public school teachers attending. The team that traveled to Russia returned this week. Our busy summer is about to begin. I have been able to recruit many first-timers for most of the trips.
People often ask me how I find new recruits. Our ISP alumni provide referrals. Mission conferences, the web, and churches help, also. One tool I find very helpful is the Finishers Project. It began a few years ago to help people investigate mission opportunities and for missions to explain their work. I have received inquiries from more than 2,000 people over the past few years. Each week, I gain another 15–25 new contacts. Sometimes more! Seldom less! I call, email, and write each one to tell describe ISP. Please visit Finishers Project. If you complete the contact form and mention The International School Project, I or someone from our recruiting department will contact you. The Finishers recently upgraded their website. Pray that this will help generate more contacts for missions.
We have a busy summer planned. Four of my kids—including my daughter-in-law—will be on four different continents in June. Our huge Campus Crusade for Christ conference will take place in July at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. We also will be attending our daughter’s graduation from grad school at Azusa Pacific University. Then we’ll attend our daughter-in-law’s change of command ceremony at Ft. Bragg, where she will become a company commander.
Thank you for your investments and involvement with us.
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 May 01
Easter greetings. In four days, we celebrate the Resurrection.
Thank you for your recent financial support that allows me to recruit North Americans to travel to remote locations around the world to tell public-school teachers that Christ has risen from the dead and to encourage them to integrate this message into their student lesson plans.
Our seventh delegation for 2009 left this week, bound for two cities in eastern Russia. So far, we have had nine convocations in cities in Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine. Your dollars have been invested in the lives of more than a thousand teachers in the past three months. Visit us at International School Project, and join us.
Thank you also for your prayers. Keep them coming! In my last message, I asked you to pray for additional German speakers to help my wife, JoAnn, answer the responders to Global Media Outreach a website developed by Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). JoAnn is now the only person in the world receiving messages in and responding to those messages in German. It can be overwhelming at times, and sadly, some requests for information go unanswered. But God has answered our prayers in an unlikely way, as He often does.
From 1984–1992, we lived in Germany and shared the Gospel through Athletes In Action (AIA), primarily with Eastern European athletes. An AIA track athlete, Steve, his wife, and four kids joined us. They were a great help but could commit to only two years. Steve studied but never became proficient in German. When a missionary returns to America, second-language learning usually ceases. I thought this was Steve’s case. However, after I sent out a plea for additional German speakers, Steve responded. I was surprised to learn that he not only has kept up his German, but he also meets periodically with German friends who critique his progress. He has decided to join the work. And, a German believer who teachers German at his children’s school in Pennsylvania will be helping Steve. And, unknown to Steve, one of his pastors who has been answering in English to responders to the Campus Crusade for Christ website will help out, too. Praise God, and thank you!
Keep our work in your prayers. Deadlines, phone calls, letters, e-mails, and meetings fill my days. Computer viruses, schedule changes, and illnesses among our staff and delegates can easily derail us.
“. . . he has risen, just as he said.” Matthew 28:6 (NIV)
Prayer requests- that we continue to have favor with educational departments in countries we visit
- that teachers respond to the Gospel
- that we can continue to expand to other countries where we have been asked to come
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 April 01
“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”
Proverbs 18:22 (NIV)
Easter greetings! God gave me a wonderful wife. I met JoAnn while on a short-term mission trip to Eastern Europe in 1978. She had been travelling behind the Iron Curtain for a couple of years when it was a bit dangerous. In fact, JoAnn began the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) ministry in Hungary. At that time, the entire Campus Crusade for Christ staff in that area could meet for training in the living room of the director’s home in Vienna, Austria. Last year, their staff training took place near Lake Balaton, Hungary, and more than 500 staff members attended.
In addition to taking care of me, JoAnn corrects college term papers for my two daughters, often comments on U.S. Army regulations for my son and his wife in the 82nd Airborne Division, leads two Moms in Touch prayer groups, brings food and meals to wounded warriors, and continues to upgrade a curriculum for pastors’ wives in Southeast Asia.
A couple of years ago, Campus Crusade for Christ established the website Global Media Outreach in order to introduce to the World Wide Web audience a series of current events tied to discussions about Christ. Every day, thousands of web users respond. A few months ago, JoAnn volunteered to be one of the hundreds who answers the people who visit the website and submit comments.
The website is now translated into many languages, and JoAnn was asked to take the German responders and is the only one who answers the German responses in the German language. We were told that two others would join JoAnn in responding in German, but that did not work.
To date, JoAnn has answered more than 3,000 messages from many countries. She corresponds with about three new people a day, however, last Saturday, she responded to more than 40. It has been very encouraging for us to see the response by German speakers. It has always been JoAnn’s prayer that Germans would come to faith in Christ. JoAnn has led hundreds to Christ over the internet. She is seeing the fruit of her prayers on the computer.
One last thing! My connection to Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church is through Dick and Jauhree Walker, who knew my wife before I did.
Prayer Request- that God would raise up additional people to help JoAnn take on the challenge of CCC web correspondence
Thank you for your participation with us.
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 March 01
Athletes in Action (AIA) again hosted the Super Bowl Breakfast at which Bart Starr gave his eponymous award to Warrick Dunn for volunteer work on homes for single moms. Usually about 2,000 attend the breakfast, but this year, they decided to sell bleacher seats with a catered box breakfast at an indoor arena. More than 7,000 people showed up. Tony Dungy, just-retired coach of the Baltimore Colts, was the guest speaker and emcee. I know Tony from past AIA events, and I once gave a chapel talk to the Green Bay Packers when Bart Starr was the coach. The military and about 50 churches in the area received live camera feeds. A total of 61 people made decisions to accept Christ, and another 1,099 made rededications to the Lord. Thanks for your prayers.
One of my responsibilities as a recruiter is to represent International School Project (ISP) at mission conferences, sponsored by area churches or mission agencies. In January, JoAnn and I travelled to Portland, Oregon to represent ISP at an event called Mission ConneXion Northwest. Sunset Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon hosted the event. We were told to expect 10,000 people. By the time the conference concluded, 15,000 people had attended 125 mission-topic workshops and visited more than 80 organizations who had set up mission displays. I was very encouraged. Delegations from Spokane, Seattle, and Sacramento attended to explore hosting their own conferences. On Friday and all day Saturday, JoAnn, a fellow recruiter from Orlando, and I manned our booth, handed out our literature, answered questions about ISP, and encouraged visitors to consider going on a trip with us this year. Some of the people I recruited over the past couple years, who live in the area, came by. Campus Crusade for Christ’s Josh McDowell was the main speaker, and his topic was the threat Islamic extremism poses to the West and how Christians can play a huge role in winning people in the Middle East to Christ.
After Mission ConneXion, JoAnn and I travelled on to Seattle, met with ministry partners, and spoke in a Russia church in Mt. Vernon, Washington. When I returned to Colorado Springs, I was surprised to learn that a member of the church had decided to apply for an ISP trip to Russia. Praise God! He won’t need a translator! The Northwest has been plagued this year with snowstorms, floods, and avalanches, but God gave us wonderful weather during our entire trip.
This past weekend, I represented ISP at a mission conference here in Colorado Springs, hosted by Village Seven Presbyterian Church. Tonight I will make a presentation at the monthly outreach commission meeting for Covenant Presbyterian Church.
You can watch part of my presentation. View Video»
I enjoy attending these conferences and meeting potential delegates. I am proud to represent ISP and think we have a nice-looking display. Many people are surprised to learn the extent of how we have cultivated good relationships with many national education departments. In Matthew 9:38 Jesus says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Please join me in praying for laborers to join us this year in the ISP adventure. Thank you for your participation with us.
Email Doug Radunzel
2009 February 01
I can get away with wishing you a Merry Christmas today, January 7, because this is the day of Russian Christmas. It is not nearly as festive as Christmas in the US, but it is a national holiday and observed by believers in Christ. New Year’s Eve is the bigger holiday, when family and friends get together to exchange gifts, feast, set off fireworks, and stay awake until dawn.
I trust your holiday was special. I enjoy Christmas and feel a bit sad when it is over. My whole family was home, including my son and his wife from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where they serve with the US Army 82nd Airborne Division. Everyone has trickled back home now. My youngest daughter, Debbie, attended the Campus Crusade for Christ Christmas conference in Denver and will return to college at Colorado State tomorrow.
We have more than 30 International School Project (ISP) conferences scheduled for 2009 so far. It is our most ambitious schedule since we began in the early 1990s. Our first team arrived in Russia this week. We will conduct convocations in Russia, the Ukraine, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Guatemala. I am hopeful that we can return to Armenia. We will be introducing our work in a lot of new cities.
Next week I will travel to Portland, Oregon, to attend Mission ConneXion Northwest. In past years, more than 15,000 people have attended this event to explore and learn about serving God on the international mission field. Josh McDowell will be the featured speaker. We will have a booth and our ISP display set up to explain our work and encourage people to consider going on a trip.
May our great God continue to bless you in 2009! Snovem Godem (Russian for happy New Year) and a Gute Rutsch (German for a good slide into the new year.)
Prayer Requests- for me and my fellow recruiters that the Lord will raise up the people we need for each ISP trip
- that our work will lead to teachers coming to Christ and being a voice for Christ in their schools
Email Doug Radunzel