Mark and Dawn Michal REACHING TEENAGERS THROUGH Cru

We dream of the day when everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.

That day hasn't come yet, but we are trusting God and boldly moving forward telling people about Jesus until that day comes.

I (Mark) fell in love with Jesus in college. I felt God calling me to use my life for His glory so I started looking around for the best ways to do that.

When I heard that 80% of all Christians choose to follow Christ before they leave high school, I heard God calling me to invest in this age group. I discovered Cru after college and joined staff in 1998 to invest my life in reaching teenagers.

I now serve on our national leadership team as the Director of Innovation, developing tools and resources to help our staff and volunteers reach more teenagers for Christ.

See some of the tools I've worked on...

Small Groups for teenagers, led by teenagers

A guide to help our staff and volunteers launch a new ministry on a high school campus.

A website with training and resources to help anyone reach out to teenagers on their local public high school campus.

A series of videos to help our volunteers develop skills to better reach students on their campuses.

I (Dawn) gave my life to Christ during my senior year of college. My life was greatly impacted by the message of Jesus, and I traveled the world with Athletes in Action softball to spread this message to all who would listen. Although I had studied and landed a job to be an actuary, I felt a huge burden for what was going on in our public high schools. When I saw students responding to Jesus, growing in their faith, and sharing with others at their public high school, I wanted to be part of this ministry with Cru.

After years of working directly with teenagers, I have grown a heart to develop our staff and train them to be more effective in ministry. I now serve as our Staff Training coordinator, making sure our staff and interns are trained well to make a bigger impact.