Paul & Sue Johnson

Cru Momentum Europe--Paul and Sue Johnson
cru.org

Sue and I thank God for your friendship (especially the warm fellowship we've enjoyed whenever we've been able to visit your congregation), faithful prayer cover, and financial generosity. When the Evangelical Covenant Church of Springfield (now Plumtree Church) commissioned us for the Lord's service and we reported to our first assignment with Cru's Executive Ministries (EM) in August of 1999, Christ Presbyterian Church began a partnership with us that has continued for over 26 years! 

Starting in 2007, our ministry with the EM national office transitioned into missions as we spent the next decade splitting our time between the South Eastern US and Eastern Europe based in Poland. During that period, Cru replaced EM with its new global strategy for reaching people of influence, LeaderImpact (LI). Then in 2017 we relocated full-time to Albania for 7 1/2 years. In Albania, the region's most repressive Communist regime had declared itself the world's first Atheist nation in 1967. Fifty years later when we arrived, 70% of the population affiliated with Islam, 12% affiliated with the Orthodox Church, and 8% affiliated with the Catholic Church. However, almost everyone had a nominal faith because religion had been so severely stamped out during Communism. 

While those years in Albania were certainly challenging, they were also fruitful as the Lord gave us remarkable favor with senior business leaders, entrepreneurs, and towards the end, even some administrators in the national government. Currently, LI Albania has outreach events and small groups meeting in Tirana, the capital, as well as 2 historic port cities, Durres and Vlore. Several of the small group facilitators in those cities are products of the ministry, having come to faith or been built in their faith through LI.

In June 2024, Sue and I moved back to the US, joining Cru's Momentum Europe (ME) team that mobilizes American business leaders to pray, go, and give to support missionaries in Europe serving with LI, Christian Embassy and Pilgrim Walks. At the end of May this year, we helped guide an ME mission trip to Italy. One of our goals was to assist in the planting of a new Pilgrim House on the Via Francigena near the ancient walled city of Lucca. Cru's most fruitful ministry in all of Europe is on the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago) in Spain, the most traveled pilgrim route on the continent. Since Pilgrim traffic on the Via in Italy has been doubling every year, Cru was eager to locate a hospitality facility there to be able to share the gospel with more pilgrims. We're thanking God that this new Pilgrim House will open next Spring. Then we spent June in Albania encouraging our LI teammates, disciples, and meeting with our friends who have not yet given their lives to Christ.   

Currently Sue and I are leading the planning team for ME’s annual conference for March 2026. The Renew! Conference will be in Greenville SC, with most of our meetings taking place at historic First Presbyterian Church. We are blessed to have two great speakers for this event. Horst Schulze, who is the co-founder of the celebrated Ritz Charlton Hotel Group, has volunteered for us in Greece and Romania. Sandy Shugart PhD, is the retired President for an award-winning community college in FL while he was also the Board Chairman for the largest health system in Orlando with 8 hospitals. He has spoken for ME outreach events twice in Ireland and 3 times in Albania. Please pray for just the right leaders to attend this event to encourage them to begin or increase the investment of their LIFE (Leadership, Influence, Finances and Expertise) to reach their peers in Europe.

For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. Isaiah 61:11

God is clearly on the move among leaders in Europe. In the past 4 years, LI has grown from 17 cities to 37, with scores of small groups and 100’s of disciples! We pray for the Lord to protect and cause these sprouts to grow so that someday soon, the leaders of Europe will again be a blessing to the nations by exporting their faith in Christ.

We are so grateful for your assistance as we serve with Momentum Europe by activating leaders, and providing resources and funding to meet the needs of Cru’s missionaries there.  We thank God and Christ Presbyterian Church that together we've taken the Gospel to Europe and seen increasing numbers of leader's lives transformed.