Cru, Leadership & Service

Mentorship

Right now I'm mentoring a younger student who is newer in his faith, and an older Christian man is mentoring me. Neither is an official position; we just meet regularly and talk honestly.

Mentoring someone has shown me that my instinct is to jump straight to the answer, like I would with a design problem. That usually doesn't help. Asking good questions and understanding where he's coming from works a lot better, and so does just showing up consistently. Being mentored has taught me the other side of it: taking feedback, being held accountable, and remembering I still have plenty to learn.

Lake Tahoe Summer Mission

Summer 2025 · South Lake Tahoe, California · 8 weeks

In 2025 I spent eight weeks in South Lake Tahoe with 66 other college students. We all worked jobs in town during the week, studied the Bible together in small groups, and had teaching and training nights in the evenings. On Sunday afternoons we went out in pairs to the beaches to talk with people about God.

To be honest, the first day I stepped onto Pope Beach I was terrified. Walking up to strangers and asking what they believe is not something that comes naturally to me. It got easier with practice. I learned to start with questions, listen to what people actually thought, and stay respectful when the conversation went somewhere I didn't expect. I talked with lifelong Christians, people who had walked away from God, and people with some very unusual beliefs.

Halfway through the summer the Cru staff left on purpose and handed the mission over to the students. Some students were appointed to leadership positions, and the rest of us were put on task forces. I was on the teaching and training night task force, where I helped set up and run the tech for worship and the evening sessions.

We missed the staff, but I'm glad they left. It made the mission ours, and I got to watch a lot of people step up to the challenge and come out better for it.

Mongolia Summer Mission

Summer 2026 · Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia · 18 days

This summer I went to Mongolia with a team of 21 Americans. It was the first time Cru had ever sent a summer mission team there, so there were plenty of unknowns. Mongolian culture seems to run on the motto "We'll figure it out," and that quickly became our team's motto too.

We worked with the Mongolian Cru staff and students (they call it Campus Life), mostly at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. They knew the language and the culture, so we followed their lead. Early on we figured out that a random American talking to someone once doesn't change much. What mattered was building actual friendships through meals, basketball, ping pong, and follow-up conversations.

One of those follow-ups was a lunch with a student that turned into several hours of him asking questions about religion and Christianity. I did my best to answer them and to understand where he was coming from.

Our team and the Campus Life students also put on an outreach event with games and activities. We spent the day before inviting students on several campuses, and more than 80 people RSVP'd.

After the ministry part of the trip wrapped up, we got to see more of the country. I rode a horse for the first time, and after a few minutes of instruction they basically let me figure it out myself. That would never happen in America! The best part was driving five hours into the countryside to stay with the father of one of the Campus Life leaders. He's a nomad who lives in a ger (a yurt), with no running water and limited electricity. He fed us a traditional meal that used nearly every part of a sheep. Seeing how his family lives made me realize how much I take for granted.