Karl & Liesl Kranich

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!

blue sky nine will be performing on Saturday, 3/13/2010 at 7:30pm eastern, and you can participate online!  Liesl and I will be busy at other places, but hopefully you will be available.

You’ll be able to watch at www.keynote.org/blueskynine/live

Hey, y’all!  We’ve told you a bit about how our bands and artists go to college campuses and help the Campus Ministry.  We’ve told you how we partner with the Military ministry as well.  But I’m not sure if we’ve told you how in the last couple of years, we’ve been able to partner with ministries outside Campus Crusade for Christ who work with inmates.  Here are a couple of great stories from those times.

blue sky nine (bsn) played in Ellsworth Correctional Facility (a medium security prison), in Ellsworth, KS in April 2009. While there, Laura (bsn’s lead singer) got in a conversation with one of the inmates, Tom (name changed). He kept talking about how he was 28 and hadn’t done anything with his life. She could sense that he really wanted to turn things around. Laura encouraged him to press into God and ask him to help to stay away from the friends that steered him towards the life he didn’t want to lead anymore. Then she and other band members prayed with him and encouraged him to take steps towards God. After they returned home, God led Laura to pray for Tom every day.

This past fall, bsn returned to Ellsworth. Tom was still there, and he was surprised when Laura remembered him and their conversation in April. Before the band left, Tom handed Laura a poem he had written about his relationship with God.

Fastforward to Christmas: Laura received a card in the mail from Tom telling her about how things have been getting better for him. He’d been able to mend some of the bridges he burnt with his family — they even came to see him on Thanksgiving. He said he wanted to write and let her know how much blue sky nine and our conversations helped him.

David Pendleton & Co. (David uses ventriloquism and comedy to share with people)

David Pendleton performed at an Indianapolis prison as an outreach for the Indy Christmas Conference. After his performance, the students spent time sharing one-on-one with the inmates. Here is a story from a student at Miami University (Ohio):

I have shared my testimony several times, but I have never really told someone how they can accept Christ. Before Christmas conference I didn’t really know the words to say. I had the amazing opportunity to witness someone being led to Christ first hand. I went on a prison outreach during conference. I was extremely afraid and was highly doubting my ability to share the gospel to an inmate…. I ended up with an 18 year old kid … I was completely overwhelmed….I tried reading the cards they gave us but it wasn’t going anywhere. Then a staff guy named David Pendleton sat down with us. He saw that I was struggling and ended up sharing the gospel with the kid. It was absolutely amazing to see the Spirit speak through him….David made a great illustration. He told the inmate, “It’s as if I were to walk into the prison and change clothes with you. You would walk out and I would stay here and serve your sentence for you.” It was at that moment that I saw in Robert’s eyes that he truly understood.

I love how David not only led the prisoner to Jesus in a way he could understand, but also opened the student’s eyes to how he could learn to share his faith better. God is so good! Praying we’ll all see the opportunities to reach out to others around us. God bless you!

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