We share our lives with them…

Dennissa Young is a performance artist, currently living in Boston, but moving here in June. She had been doing ministry with Cru in the Middle East until most recently and—while eager to return there—was being re-directed to spend a few years stateside to gain more experience and training. At first she was reluctant to join us because of her heart’s desire to return to the Middle East. We understood, and—after giving our best pitch over a several hour long video call—invited her to visit us during a very busy week on the calendar.

So, in early February we picked her up at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport for a jam-packed week of events. We had planned a Curator’s Codex (David McGaw from last month’s newsletter) as well as our usual annual celebration of Mardi Gras—the way our community anticipates Easter. These, along with several on-going events and meetings made for a pretty full time.

After just a couple days into her visit, we noticed a dramatic shift in Dennissa’s demeanor. To her credit, she jumped right in to help us from the start, and after seeing what we do and how we do it and who we do it with, we believe it profoundly changed her mind about spending a few years with us in ministry. Toward the end of the week, as we were evaluating her time, she summed up what we have seen God create in our community with her paraphrase of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, “we loved them so much we shared our lives with them.” She was in, and immediately began to make plans to get back to us as soon as possible.

Last time we talked with Dennissa she had about 60% of her funds raised and is planning to move to Rock Hill in June. Please pray for her success in this!

Our team is expanding, and we too need prayer as it seems evident that God wants to use us to help prepare more artists to extend His Kingdom.