One of the first articles I wrote when I became CRU’s Executive Director in 1993 was about the importance of Bible literacy for all, but especially for CRU’s leaders. Today, as I pen one of the last articles I will write in this role, I need to make the same point: reading the Bible is crucial.

How Mia got more than she bargained for! “When I first started going to CRU camps, I tuned out during the Christian time” says 14-year-old Mia. No doubt Mia is not alone. But there’s something special about CRU Camps that helps to awaken interest in even the most disinterested young person.

Heidi Woodhouse, CRU Captain at Barker College, knows the answer. David and Goliath, Noah and the Flood, Adam and Eve, The Cross of Christ… All names and phrases which were once familiar to Aussie kids but are now drawing a blank. Biblical literacy is on the decline, driven by the declining numbers of youth at church and Sunday School and a secular society that has branded Christianity irrelevant. 

Interview with CRU Summit Trainee, Reuben Kruger. Most people don’t realise how glorious and gruelling the two-year Summit Traineeship with CRU Educational Camps can be.

Training youngsters to prepare them for life and leadership is readily seen across the natural world — birds teaching their chicks to fly before they leave the nest, teenagers on L-plates learning to drive, big cats teaching their young how to hunt for food. CRU is no different.