Lynn’s Italy Update

Personal Update

We hope you had a blessed Easter. Ours was good. We enjoyed being able to celebrate our Risen Lord with our church family. One of the highlights for Dave was being able to share the gospel with a couple of people at the Easter egg hunt that our church sponsored the day before Easter. One indicated a desire to trust Christ.

Italy Update

Our AIA team met with an Italian named Stefano (pictured middle in the grey sweatshirt), a soccer coach who lives near Torino and is applying to be an Accredited Volunteer with AIA.

If someone asked about your dreams for your life in the future, how would you answer?  During a meeting in Torino with an Italian named Stefano, his response to this question surprised our whole group. With tears in his eyes, Stefano shared with us that he had been praying to God about this very question. He told us that meeting leaders from Athletes in Action and thinking about a future with Athletes in Action is his dream — a place to combine his love for sport, love for Italian people and love for Jesus.

Stefano is in the extreme minority as a young adult Christian in Italy, and he shared with us about how isolating this can be. For those of us who were in Italy recently, our dream is that God would raise up hundreds of Italians like Stefano in Torino, Milano, Roma, Napoli, and many other cities across Italy who will in turn bring the good news of the gospel to the nation of Italy.

Another highlight of the trip was the opportunity to serve a new church plant that is focusing on ministering to the special needs community in their city. AIA staff and college students led a sports’ clinic for approximately 20 special needs adults. Everyone loved it! It also provided us with a foretaste of what it would be like to bring a team of volunteers to serve at the World Special Olympics next year. 

Please pray for the planning that still needs to take place for a trip to serve both churches and athletes in conjunction with the World Special Olympics in March of 2025. We want to provide a platform for partnership with local churches, ministries, and Athletes in Action to reach the city of Torino while also serving at the Special Olympics as volunteers. 

Dave & Lynn

AIA staff and college students led a sports’ clinic for approximately 20 special needs adults.

Our team was able to find our way into the arena that will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2025 World Special Olympics. We spent time praying in the arena for all the nations who will come and for many gospel conversations to take place here.

Christian Radio DJ and his wife (in the front) who desire to reach Torino for Christ. 

A passionate goal keeper and Lynn at the special needs event.

Meeting a contact from the IMB at a coffee shop in Torino.

Lynn with Alice (in the middle) and Kelly (AIA staff). Alice serves with a college ministry seeking to reach both International and Italian college students.

Italy

Personal News

We hope you are doing well. Earlier this month we were grateful to be able to have dinner with Dave’s sister and her husband while she was in town for a work event. It is not often we get visitors from the West Coast. We have also gotten to see Jamie recently because she was home from college for spring break. Katelyn’s birthday celebration and Easter will round out an enjoyable month of family time.

Ministry Updates

In a few days, Lynn leaves for Italy with many Athletes in Action staff and students. The focus of the time is preparing for volunteer opportunities, outreaches, and other events at the World Special Olympics that will be held in Torino in March of 2025. We also will be partnering with Italian Athletes in Action staff in many other ways as well, helping them do an outreach at a local church, sharing the Good News with college and pro athletes, and more. We look forward to sharing more when Lynn returns.

Recently, Lynn hosted an informational lunch for Cru staff who are looking at opportunities to serve in new areas of ministry. She was very encouraged that over 25 staff attended to learn about opportunities to serve with Athletes in Action. AIA has some unique roles they are trying to fill, and there was great interest among the lunch attendees in many of these positions. Pray that the Lord would raise up more laborers so that thousands more athletes of all ages have the opportunity to come to know Christ and grow in their faith.

Dave always loves opportunities to serve other ministries besides Cru. Recently, he has assisted Youth Alive, First Priority, and others by providing information to help them reach more young people with the gospel. This is what one of the leaders shared about Dave’s work, “Being able to delineate Youth Alive specific data, while also having it included as part of the whole, was critical for our Youth Alive missionaries to begin seeing the value of this powerful tool.” 

Dave has also been assisting Cru City staff as they determine where to place four Cru staff missionaries who are moving from their home countries to the United States from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. These missionaries will help establish movements to help reach the 2.6 million Africans from these and other nations who currently reside in the United States. Half of these Africans are naturalized citizens and half are immigrants and refugees. Please pray for these missionaries as they move to a new land.

Thanks for your partnership with us in the Lord’s work. You are making an eternal difference in lives here in the U.S. and around the world.

Dave & Lynn

Reaching Everyone

Personal News

We hope you are doing well. All is fine here. This is birthday month for both of us. Each year, as some of you know, Dave hosts a Heart’s or Spade’s tournament for his birthday celebration. This year 24 men gathered in our home for a great night of food, fellowship, and cards. It was so fun to have neighbors, friends from church, co-workers, and others in our home. This year, for the first time in 8 years, Dave won his own tournament. Everyone is already looking forward to next year.

Ministry Update

Approximately 18 million people are living in the New York City metro area. Another 12 million or more reside in the Los Angeles metro. Chicago has 9 million and Houston has almost 7 million.  There are hundreds of other cities around the nation whose populations are over 500,000 people. 

Cru City, Cru’s outreach to cities, is tasked to see cities reached with the good news of the gospel. How in the world does a ministry that has about 800 staff reach so many millions of people? This is a question that Cru City leadership has been praying about and pondering.

One of the key ways to reach a city is to start by reaching sub-groups in the city. For example, it is much easier to think about ways to reach teachers, government officials, or medical professionals than it is to think about ways to reach an entire city. Another example of a subgroup is different immigrant communities. When a city’s population is broken down into much smaller components, it is easier to plan outreaches, events, and other strategies to reach a smaller portion of the city.

Since the fall, Dave and a small team of Cru City staff have been working diligently on a survey that will go out to Cru City staff this week. This survey is focused on assessing where Cru City staff are currently ministering and where they might be able to focus in the future. The ultimate goal is that millions more people would hear the good news of the gospel, grow in their faith, and ultimately be a part of reaching others in their affinity groups and communities.

Please pray that this survey would bear much fruit, helping Cru City leaders cast vision and direction for the future. Jeremiah, speaking on behalf of the Lord, exhorts the people of Israel to “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jer. 29:7). May the Lord of the harvest draw people of our cities to Himself.

Dave & Lynn

P.S. Here’s a video that shares more about the survey.   

http://www.tinyurl.com/CityFeb24

Football teammates outreach

Personal News

Happy New Year, Friends! We hope you had a blessed holiday season. It was wonderful to have all four of our children, plus Katelyn, here with us. We have also enjoyed having Dave’s dad here for an extended visit. Now everyone has headed back to work and school. We are looking forward to what God has planned for this year. We are trusting Him for many new things.

Ministry Update

Todd and Karen Langerveld serve with Athletes in Action at a university in the San Gabriel Valley of southern California. This fall, they spent a significant portion of their time working to follow up with over 60 first-year football players who signed up to have an informal conversation about God with someone from AIA. At the same time, their staff team had already been training 12 of the older football players to have spiritual conversations by asking exploring questions, and to share the gospel using a simple tool called “The Gospel in a Verse.”

The overwhelming response from the first-year players has given the older guys a great opportunity to put into practice what they have been learning! Todd challenged the older guys to take a faith step to reach out to their new teammates who expressed interest in God. Each of them had the same initial reaction to potentially having these conversations: “I am pretty nervous to do this, but I am also excited because I think it is something God wants me to do!”

After two and a half weeks, a lot of prayer, and 18 conversations, the older guys have seen 16 of the 18 teammates they talked with trust Jesus Christ with them! The two who didn’t receive Christ were already Christians.

Many of the new players shared a similar sentiment after these conversations: “I feel so relieved like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders!” Every one of the 18 new guys have asked to be discipled weekly.

Please pray for these new believers as they begin to learn and grow in their faith in the midst of much spiritual darkness on their team and on their campus. Also, please pray for the staff in this area as they continue to reach out to the remaining 40 players who have signed up to have these conversations.

We are grateful to be a part of helping resource and equip staff like these to reach athletes and others with the good news of the gospel. Thanks for your partnership with us in this work.

Dave & Lynn

Please pray for the upcoming Super Bowl Breakfast, on February 10 in Las Vegas. It is Athletes in Actions’s premiere outreach event. For more info visit superbowlbreakfast.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

In today’s world, hope can be difficult to come by. We are so grateful that, when life and circumstances feel hopeless, we can look to Jesus as our source of hope and strength. As Titus 2:13 says, Jesus is “our blessed hope.” Our prayer for you this season is that you would find your hope in Him.

This year has flown so quickly. Here are a few quick updates on the Meritt family.

Dave continues to enjoy providing information and data that helps Cru and other missions organizations see better how to reach out to spaces where people have not yet had the opportunity to know and follow Christ. He has also spent more time listening to audiobooks, serving at church, and getting more exercise. Swimming and walking have been his activities of choice.

Lynn loves helping create a healthy culture for staff throughout Cru and Athletes in Action. Getting to pour into and develop healthy leaders has been a highlight of her year. In her spare time, she really loves reading! Books have opened doors to new ideas and growth opportunities. Lynn has also enjoyed deepening relationships with family and friends this year, watching lots of sports, and working out on a regular basis.

Justin celebrated his fifth anniversary working for Cru this past June. He enjoys serving the staff and ministry through his role. In his spare time, he does lots of reading, listening to podcasts, and hanging out with friends. He’s also thoroughly enjoyed picking up a new sport this year. He currently plays volleyball a couple times a week with friends from work and church. 

Jeremy and Katelyn have now been married for over a year. Jeremy took on a new role with a new company this year (still in the space industry). Katelyn loves spending quality time with her friends and family. They moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a three-bedroom townhome (rental) in August. They love having the extra space and their own offices. Getting it all set up and organized has kept them busy in their spare time.

Julie finished up her internship program this past May. The Lord led her to stay up in the Nashville area where she is currently working. She will begin a master’s program (online) this coming January while continuing to work at her current job. She really enjoys hanging with friends and has gotten involved in a Bible study at her church.

Jamie transferred to a new school this fall. She has loved her time there! Studying, hanging out with friends, and being a community group leader is keeping her occupied. She still reads a ton and is building an amazing library here at home. She kept busy over the summer and Thanksgiving holiday babysitting and nannying.

We hope you have a truly blessed Christmas celebrating Jesus! 

Dave & Lynn

AIA Team Leader Training

Personal News

We hope each of you are doing well. You are often in our thoughts and prayers. As the holidays approach, we know that there can be many mixed feelings and experiences. We rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning. We are looking forward to having both Jamie and Julie here with us for Thanksgiving. It will be the first time we have all been together since June.

Ministry Update

One of Lynn’s favorite job responsibilities is helping develop staff. She does this in a variety of ways, but one of her favorites is Team Leader Training. This training is for AIA staff who are stepping into leading a team or taking on a supervisory role. This is her third year participating in and/or leading in the new team leader space. 

She just finished a week helping lead the Athletes in Action Team Leader Training Conference in Orlando which is the in-person part of Team Leader Training. The rest of the program is virtual. It was such a great week! The team leaders spent time learning together, being exposed to leaders from various Cru ministries, participating in in-depth learning experiences, and developmental growth. 

One of the highlights of the week was the opportunity the team leaders had to participate in a “leadership challenge.” Their process groups prepared for an interview with a high-level Cru leader, interviewed the leader, and then did a presentation of what they had learned about leadership over the course of about 24 hours. This was very challenging for the team leaders, but they learned so much. Lynn loved being able to expose her fellow AIA staff to Cru leaders she has worked with in various ways. It was also a blessing for her to hear about all that the new team leaders learned. They are a great group and we know that they are going to have an impact for Christ as they step into new leadership roles and pioneer in new spaces around the United States and the rest of the world.

Thanks for allowing us to engage in the Lord’s work here in the US and around the world. We are grateful for you.

Dave & Lynn

Cru City update

Personal News

It’s so hard to believe it is October already. This year has flown by. September was a slightly quieter month for us in terms of activities and travel. We loved having some free weekends to relax and catch up on chores around the house. This month Lynn has traveled to Ohio for Athletes in Action Executive Leadership Council meetings. She also visited Jamie in Virginia and spent time with all the AIA staff in Raleigh. Dave spent about 10 days in Oregon visiting family and ministry partners.

Ministry Update

Cru City, the Cru ministry that Dave serves with, has a vision of Uniquely Restoring Every Community with the Good News of Jesus. They are currently focusing on reaching and bringing salvation and restoration to the major metropolitan areas of the United States. Cru City does this through a concerted focus on the subgroups that exist in cities – young professionals, refugees, executive and government officials, artists and writers, and others. Here is a window into the work Cru City staff are doing to reach those in our cities for Christ while at the same time seeking to bring dignity and restoration to those in need. 

Throughout the country, many Cru City staff are engaged in evangelism and discipleship in relational settings. Imagine groups of men and women sitting in an office or coffee shop with their Bibles open learning more about Jesus and how they can walk more closely with Him.

However, discipleship does not only occur in offices, homes, or coffee shops. Cru City staff are also engaging in evangelism and discipleship in prisons and with refugees. This might mean helping a refugee find housing or a job. It could be sharing Christ with prisoners who then reach out to their fellow inmates with the Good News. It also involves meeting with an artist at his gallery. It could be fellowshipping over coffee with a Muslim woman to provide community and a listening ear – building a relationship that leads to openness to the gospel.

Cru City staff also help encourage pastors and leaders in churches throughout the nation, providing them with the encouragement and support they need. Many church planters have persevered in ministry and kept their churches open as a result of the support they have received from Cru City staff. New churches are being planted in refugee and immigrant communities through the efforts of Cru City.

Dave has given assistance to many of these staff as they engage in ministry. The information, support, and data he provides help them be more effective in their efforts to reach cities for Christ. 

Thanks for allowing us to engage in the Lord’s work here in the US and around the world. We are grateful for you.

Dave & Lynn

Jamaica Football Outreach

Personal News

It is hard to believe that it is already September. This past month flew by for us. We kept busy with Jamie’s college move-in, several work trips for Lynn, and a variety of special projects for Dave. The next few weeks should be a little calmer. Later this month, we are looking forward to seeing Julie in Tennessee. We are also hoping to experience some fall weather while we are there.

Ministry Update

Jamaica is a country that is really close to our hearts. Lynn is half Jamaican due to the fact that her mom was born and raised there prior to coming to the States for college. That side of the family has been there for several generations. So, it has been exciting for us to hear about the work that Athletes in Action is doing in Jamaica. 

Watch more at https://tinyurl.com/JamaicaAIA

This summer, a group of pro football players and coaches traveled to Jamaica. Their purpose was to partner with AIA Jamaica to accelerate the ministry there. One of the highlights of the time was a camp they put on in partnership with the Jamaican-American Football Association. This association was started by a man whose vision is to use the sport of football to help students get off the streets while learning to play football. At the camp, participants learned how to play football, but they also had the opportunity to learn more about Jesus and how they could know Him personally.

As a result of the pro players’ presence, many young people had the chance to hear the gospel. The pro football players and coaches were also greatly impacted by their experience. This effort was so successful that plans are already being made for future camps and additional opportunities for ministry.

With the start of the school year, Cru ministries here in the US are ramping up. We are grateful to God for His presence as we help lead within Cru at a national level. Your partnership with us in the Lord’s work allows us to labor full-time in the harvest.

Dave & Lynn

Prayer Requests and Praises

1. Praise God for the lives that were changed through the pro football outreaches in Jamaica.
2. Praise God that Jamie is doing well after transferring to a new school.
3. Pray for God to move as various Cru ministries, including Cru City and Athletes in Action, make a concerted effort to work together to reach new areas that have not heard the message of the gospel before.
4. Pray for Dave as he will be traveling to Oregon October 9th to visit his dad and connect with ministry partners.

Summer AIA Baseball

Personal News

Jeremy and Katelyn recently celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary and we just finished helping them move into a new place. This coming week we will help move Jamie into her college dorm room for the start of her second year at college. She is transferring to a new school that has her intended major. Shortly after that Lynn will fly up to AIA headquarters in Ohio to be part of some meetings there.  

Ministry

This summer, athletes from all across the country have had the opportunity to grow in their faith and athletic skills through numerous camps, trips, leagues, and events led and sponsored by Athletes in Action. Here is just one example of a life that was impacted.

Hunter Reagan, from Marian University, played for the Xenia Scouts, an AIA summer team.

Q: Briefly tell us about your experience.

Every day we start with a team lift in the AIA training facility, which has a full staff of strength and conditioning coaches. From there, we go to team time where we have devotionals, hear testimonies, and pray for each other. Being around guys deep in their faith has been a good place for me this summer.

Q: How did you grow in your faith and sport?

This experience helped me grow in being consistent with my faith walk. Being in the word every day and relating with guys on a spiritual level has helped me grow. Hearing how others deal with their struggles through God is helpful.

Getting consistent innings as a pitcher is helpful. I learned how to train on my off days to prepare for my next appearance. I also learned what it takes to come into a game at any point.

Q: What is the most impactful part of the summer? 

My spiritual growth alongside the baseball growth is a unique experience. Being able to combine my faith and sport is huge for me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow as a total athlete.

We appreciate your partnership with us in the Lord’s work. We are grateful for the impact you have through your prayers and gifts.

Dave & Lynn

Summer Ministry

Personal News

We are having a fairly quiet summer in terms of activities and travel. This has allowed us to do some projects around the house that we have been putting off. It has also enabled us to focus on some new ministry projects. At the end of this month, Dave and Lynn will head to New Mexico to see ministry partners, visit Lynn’s mom, and attend Lynn’s 40th high school reunion.

Ministry Update

Lifest

Lifest is a Christian music festival held annually in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It features performances by Christian artists and bands, as well as guest speakers, workshops, and other activities centered around faith and Christian living. This year Campus Alliance, of which Dave is an integral part through the technological support he provides, had a big push to adopt schools by praying for students & educators, caring for others through love & service, and/or sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. At Lifest over 227 schools were adopted of which 68% were brand new adoptions. God also used the team to help several students come to Christ. In addition to helping several students adopt their school, the team also helped them understand the gospel personally and they put their faith in Christ for the first time. This same thing happened again with an entire family. We praise God for how he is working to see new campus ministries launched. 

Women’s World Cup 

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is just days from kick-off! Soon, players, coaches, and fans from 32 nations will gather in Australia, New Zealand, and around televisions across the globe to witness what promises to be an event full of inspiration for the next generation of soccer players and fans of the “beautiful” game. While they gather, we will no doubt witness greatness on the field. However, the desire is for athletes, coaches, and fans to experience greatness beyond this moment.  A number of Cru staff from Athletes in Action, the Jesus Film, and other Cru ministries around the world will be in New Zealand and Australia to share the love of Jesus with those who attend. There will be many opportunities to share the gospel and lead chapels and Bible studies with players and coaches from a number of different countries, including the US. (Lynn’s good friend and co-worker is one of the chaplains for the US Women’s Team). There are also other events planned for fans, family members, and others. Will you pray for God to move in significant ways during this time?

We appreciate your partnership with us in the Lord’s work. 

Dave & Lynn