Karl & Liesl Kranich

Love and Marriage… Love and Marriage…

We’ve been thinking a lot about marriages lately. We’ve watched several people we know get engaged this summer, and seen them seek to build strong, healthy relationships from the start. We’ve also seen other marriages that have hit bumps in the road or have even fallen apart.

No one is immune to troubles, and as Christians we need to regularly and repeatedly seek God in growing our marriages, not tearing them down.

One tool Campus Crusade offers to all of us is the FamilyLife Marriage Conferences. The Weekend to Remember emphasizes a commitment to God’s timeless blueprints for marriage, communi-cation and commitment, romance and resolving conflict. Projects help couples focus on each other and resources are available to take home with you to continue the process.

If you are looking for a weekend getaway for you and your spouse, or find yourself living a life of isolation in your marriage…if you want to point a hurting couple toward help…if you would like to be catalysts for family or friends or church members in equipping homes to be all that God intends… go to www.familylife.com. You will find dates and locations and lots of other info there.

Consider:

Statistics show one in every two marriages fail. Divorce touches us all.

Is God bringing to mind a couple or family in need of help?

Might you be that couple? Does your marriage seem headed down the wrong track?

Are you financially able to scholarship a couple in distress who cannot afford the cost of the conference?

Can you be that person in your church or business that organizes a group to attend a local conference?

Are you blessed with a terrific marriage? Thank the Lord now for your spouse!!

Our Family

has had a lot to be thankful for. Anja just started 3rd grade this month and turned 9 yesterday! We love this blessing of a young lady God has entrusted to us and are praying for wisdom as we seek to teach her how to connect with God personally and grow to love Him, not just His blessings (something we keep working on ourselves). We are thankful for 12 years of marriage as well and for the privilege of serving God with Keynote these last couple of years. And so we are grateful for your partnership with us! God bless you all!

On Tuesday night, we celebrated what God did through the Keynote and Impact Movement Summer Project bands. The bands travelled 20,200 miles to perform 79 concerts in front of 9,008 people. But most importantly, 1,048 people said that they began a relationship with Jesus!

Students and staff shared what God has taught them this summer:

• Our talents and even our voices are not our own – they are tools to bring glory to God
• Everything we have is a gift from God
• He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to use us
• Everything we do, even how we set up and tear down before and after concerts, can show people that God is in us
• Learning to tell our God stories for tour is preparation for being ready to tell our God stories for the rest of our lives
• God doesn’t want us to fix our lives before we come to Him – we come broken to the One who fixes lives

Thank you for praying for the Summer Project, and thank you for your partnership in ministry with us!

Summer Project Concerts

New iPhone App Puts Evangelistic Tools at Your Fingertips

Keynote’s New Media Labs (which includes Karl) has developed an official Campus Crusade for Christ iPhone app. God Tools puts classic resources like Knowing God Personally, Satisfied? and the Four Spiritual Laws booklet directly onto your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. The app also includes a searchable library of questions from EveryStudent.com, and, for a limited time, a mobile version of Soularium, A Dialogue in Images. It’s available for free in the iTunes store. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, give it a try!

We’re already trying to figure out how to improve it and create similar tools for more kinds of mobile devices. Please join us in praying for this effort!

Summer Project Students Preparing to Tour

The Keynote Summer Project students, who have been here since June 7, are in their final week of rehearsals before going on tour. The four Keynote bands, along with the Impact Movement’s Level 3:16, will take the gospel to prisons, military bases, and other Campus Crusade for Christ summer project locations.

You can watch the dress rehearsals live online at www.keynotesummerproject.org/live on July 4, 5, and 6 at 7pm Eastern (the time is approximate — doors open at 6:30 with bands performing around 7)

Please pray that the bands would be ready and that God would use them to change lives for His glory!

In 2002, Mark and his wife, Karen, were looking for a place to attend church. He grew up in a Jewish family and she had grown up Catholic. They heard about BridgeWay Community Church and decided to check it out.

While there, Mark, still a seeker, heard about the Keynote Golf Challenge and Karen encouraged him to sign up. Mark ended up being paired for the day with Craig Parker, the pastor at BridgeWay. Even though their golfing skills were worlds apart, they ended up having a great time and Craig asked Mark a lot of questions about his spiritual journey.

As Mark was packing up things at the end of the day and walking to his car, the prize he received (a ceramic plate with the words, “You Are Loved” and “We Thank Our God Through Jesus Christ for You” – Romans 1:8 painted on it) fell out of the box. Mark watched as the plate hit the pavement and bounced but didn’t break. It was a reminder to him that God did love him and had given His only Son to die for him.

Not long after, Mark gave his life to Christ, got involved at the church and has played in the Keynote Golf Challenge every year since, raising more than $30,000!

Over the last 14 years, more than $1,500,000 has been raised through the Keynote Golf Challenge crazy events! As a result, Keynote has continued to offer innovative tools for outreach and training in communication around the globe!

The Keynote Golf Challenge is more than just raising money and playing a lot of golf! As you can see from Mark’s story, even the golfers can have a life-changing experience!

The Golf Challenges in May (California on May 10 and Indiana on May 24) have been one of the biggest ways God provides Keynote with the resources we need to serve as a ministry. This enables us to do concerts for free, turn the lights on at the office, buy needed equipment, etc. As you see, God has provided through many people using their talents (or even lack of talent – there’s a prize for the worst golfer, too) and their willingness to find sponsors to make Keynote’s ministry possible.

If you find yourself interested in ministering in a fun and crazy way, check out www.keynote.org/golf and see what it’s like. And we would love for all of you to pray for those involved in the challenge, the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors. The recent recession has affected so many of our generous supporters that it’s more important than ever for us to see God provide the resources needed.

On a personal note, we had a great time over spring break being involved in our dear friend’s wedding. Anja was a great flower girl, too. Since we’ve gotten back, it’s been non-stop doctors’ appointments for me (they multiply!). I would love for the doctors to have wisdom in sorting out what’s up with me and success in treating it. Karl, as ever, is wonderful and I’m blessed to celebrate 12 years with him as my husband this month! God is good! Thank you all for your care for us and your part in our ministry!

Hey, y’all! Spring is springin’ around here! We’ve got our first crop of daffodils beginning to open up and it’s so exciting (can you tell we’re still glad we moved north? ).  Anja is doing very well.  She’s thriving in school, has made some new friends in the neighborhood (which was an answer to prayer!) and gets to be a flower girl in her “Auntie’s” wedding in a couple weeks.  (So we’ll be traveling soon over spring break for the wedding).

Karl’s had a lot going on this month.  He and a couple of the guys went to a tech conference in Texas to get exposure to the “latest and greatest” in technology and social media.  Since social media changes practically at the speed of light, it’s good to see where things are going so that our ministry can spend time and resources on the best options for connecting with people now and in the future.  He also has been training not only Ryan, but a son of one of our staff, who volunteers after school   And, last but not least, his birthday is tomorrow!  Happy Birthday, Karl!

I have been working with some of our new staff over the last few months as they develop their Ministry Partner Teams and raise the support they need to serve full time with us.  Some have had God lead them away from serving with us, at least temporarily, as God has given them great opportunities to meet needs where they are.  Others are continuing to work hard and I would love if you would pray for all of our new staff to be able to grow spiritually and emotionally as God prepares them for ministry with us during this time.  And we thought you’d enjoy hearing about just one of the exciting things God is doing through our staff at Keynote.

When God uses dummies…

David Pendleton, Keynote’s comedy ventriloquist, spent time on various college campuses in South Dakota and Iowa recently.  Six shows were planned over the course of four days in conjunction with Campus Crusade for Christ ministries (Cru) on various campuses. Most of these ministries are “student-led” and coached by one or two staff members who serve all of the campuses in the area.

More than 600 students heard the gospel through one of David’s shows and 109 indicated a first-time decision to begin a relationship with God!  Many others indicated a desire to connect with a Bible study or meet with someone to talk more about God.

Student leaders have already begun contacting those who turned in cards, to talk more about their decision or their questions.  In fact, a couple of weeks ago we heard that 11 new students came to a Bible study as a result of David’s show!

Thank you for your part in reaching students for Christ as you serve us!  God bless you!