Perhaps you have heard of the Braga name around CRU? Well, the Braga lineage has been heavily involved and faithfully supporting CRU since the 1950s. In 2023, David Braga was elected as Chair of the CRU Board. Let’s get to know David and his heart for CRU.
David with his wife and three daughters
Who is in your family?
I’m married to Karen. We’re into our 30th year, so next anniversary, I’m going to have to be ready for that! We’ve got three daughters — Emily, Sarah and Rachel.
If you had a free weekend, how would you choose to spend it?
I really switch off when we go to stay somewhere by the beach. I love doing landscape photography. Occasionally, I’ll get up early at 4am to take sunrise photos somewhere. I got the ‘sunrise bug’ from ending up on a Ken Duncan photography workshop one time. (It’d be really helpful if sunrise happened at 11am, but it doesn’t!) One of my daughters will even come along for the ride sometimes which is nice. It’s an amazing way of experiencing God’s creation.
How did you come to faith?
I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian family, which then leaves you with that awkward position of when you’ve got to take ownership of the faith for yourself. It became clear for me when I went on CRU’s January Leadership Camp (JLC) during school. Everyone there was heavily involved in their CRU Group at school and I wasn’t. That made me think, oh wow, this actually has to mean something. You’ve got to take your faith seriously.
So, I spent the next year, Year 12, looking at whether the Christian faith had enough substance that I could trust it. I thought it’s either true or it’s not, and as you can see, I got to the end of that year and, by asking many questions that were important to me, I decided that this has substance and truth to it.
David on Cricket Camp at Galston in 1984
How did you first hear about CRU?
All four of my grandparents were involved in CRU since the 1950s, so I grew up knowing about CRU. My grandfather was a civil engineer and provided the original designs for the buildings that have become CRU Galston Gorge and CRU Lake Mac. He chaired the Senior Crusader Fellowship, and he was also Chair of CRU himself between 1957 and 1960. His wife Nora founded the CRU Women’s Fellowship.
My parents attended CRU Groups at school, led on camps and became teachers of the CRU Groups in the schools they were working at. They also helped with the working parties that my grandfather led to build CRU’s campsites. My daughters have attended CRU Groups at school, they’ve been on camps, and they’ve also led and directed camps.
I’m third generation in my family’s history with CRU; my daughters are fourth generation, so it’s a lovely story of God’s provision through families across generations.
This is something that I think is really special about CRU — the ability to speak from generation to generation. The way CRU brings the good news of Jesus to each generation through its camping ministry and schools ministry is powerful and it changes lives.
David at Saturday Night Meeting in 1989
Where do you see CRU five years from now?
Every five or six years, we get a whole new school generation. So, that’s like another hundred thousand people who we have the opportunity to present the gospel to. It’s another generation of young Christians who have an opportunity for discipleship and growth. So, if we keep doing what we’re doing, we should have that sort of impact.
As an organisation, we hope to have continued the development of the CRU Lake Mac site. In our ministries, if we can keep developing CRU Day Camps, which has only been in existence for a short period of time, that’s a whole new set of people who can be reached. And CRU West — the ability to take the CRU model and continue to expand it into other parts of Australia, like Perth, is an incredibly powerful way to engage with the gospel.
Through those avenues, through more schools, different camping programmes, continuing the improvement of the sites that we’re blessed with, it’s all about reaching more people to bring them into God’s kingdom.
How would you encourage CRU’s supporters?
If you look at the big picture, with people attending church less, we need to be able to get the good news of Jesus into their lives. This keeps us all very motivated, but I think the way we engage with CRU can change over our lifetime. I’m not peer-aged for kids at school anymore, so I wouldn’t be the best camp leader, but now I have different skills that I have developed over my lifetime that I can bring to CRU. There’s a way for everyone to be a partner of this ministry, contributing as part of the vast CRU family.
FUN FACT!
“Our family reads Psalm 103 on every birthday, and dad has found written evidence of that being done as far back as the 1850s. That’s about 170 years!”