About Us
We met at Northern Illinois University, where Ryan majored in Visual Communications and Rachel studied Nursing. We got married in May 2003, joined staff with Campus Crusade for Christ the summer of 2004 and reported to our assignment in Indianapolis in July of 2006.
Now, several years later, we are celebrating 7 years of marriage, our sons Braden and Logan are doing great and our both joys in our lives. During those years, they have moved to Indianapolis and settled into their various roles within the ministry of CCC.
Fun Facts:
- Rachel told Ryan that she wouldn’t marry him if he joined staff with CCC.
- Our initial assignment was for Ryan to work in the regional office while Rachel joined the Indiana Cru team to work with campuses like Butler, IUPUI and Ivy Tech.
- Braden was born March 22nd, 2008 and Logan followed just 18 months later on September 12th, 2009.
- Both boys were born very early on Saturday mornings!
Campus Ministry
After becoming a Christian her freshman year of college, Rachel began meeting with older students who showed her what it meant to truly walk with God. She joined staff so she could in turn, teach college students how they could grow in their faith. She also grew to love initiating spiritual conversations with students who weren’t Christians and to share the Gospel with them. Her main assignment for the first two years was at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), working with the students there, as well as launching new ministries across the state and offering distance coaching to student leaders where there is no nearby staff.
Since the birth of Braden, her role has shifted quite dramatically. Instead of spending her time on campus, she offers her experience and administrative gifts to help support her team. She helps run the website, Indianacru.com, keeps the volunteers on campus up-to-date with the ministry’s happenings, and has recently started helping the Human Resource Team with intern applications. She really enjoys this last role in particular, because she gets to be a part of sending new missionaries out into the field.
Utilizing Technology
Ryan works with the Great Lakes Regional Team in the area of web development to help reach college students throughout the region with the Gospel. He uses his gifts to support staff that are on campus, on the front lines, talking with and leading students to Christ everyday. His job is to supply these staff with new tools and strategies they can use to reach students in a continually changing culture.
Ryan has been spending his time developing the web presence of the Great Lakes Region as well as work with other developers on new web applications to effectively solve ministry problems. Some of these tools have helped to extend the arm of the Great Lakes Region or help our staff have more efficient communications and connectedness.
Impacting the World
Together, Ryan and Rachel not only work to see the students in Indianapolis reached with the Gospel, but also the students throughout the states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio and students around the world. In 2007, they took a team of 12 to New Zealand, to introduce them to the ministry there. Since then, they have been a part of helping to equip and send students all around the world.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
- Romans 10.14-15
Rachel has helped the Sending team in Indianapolis prepare students to go overseas to some of our partnership locations for a one year STINT (Short Term International) assignment. One of the students Rachel discipled during one of our summer projects is currently in Berlin, Germany working with college students.
Ryan helps to support the staff in the regional office who are focused on sending students and staff to our 13 partnership locations around the world and cultivate those partnership relationships.
We want every student we interact with to be Sent, wherever God leads them. This means that whether they go to the marketplace, the college campus, or overseas, they are positioned for ministry. Throught their involvement with CCC, they have been called, trained and equipped to impact the world.