A Letter from Lane Dennis Regarding the Flood

Dear Friends,

As you may have heard, the Crossway building was flooded recently, on Thursday, April 17, during the extraordinary downpour that hit the Chicago area. The area surrounding our building was underwater for many blocks, and we ended up with 20 inches of water in our building. The effect of the flood was to wipe out all of our first-floor offices, about 35 in all.

The entire Crossway staff has responded tremendously, working tirelessly to get us up and running the next day—relocating key staff, moving vital IT resources, and setting up customer service teams at our off-site warehouse. However, everything on the first floor will need to be rebuilt, and all the furniture replaced, a process that will take four to six months.

We are currently assessing the damage and negotiating with our insurer, but a sizable portion of the losses, repairs, and restoration will not be covered by insurance. Additionally, we will need to make significant modifications to the building, to protect against the possibility of future flood damage.

I didn't think we would ever have to go though the same waters that we did about three years ago—though in the Lord's providence this is the case. But even though we have experienced both flood and fire in recent years, our confidence is all the more in the Lord, who alone is our hope and our salvation. Several Scriptures of encouragement come to mind:

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2)

"But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again" (2 Corinthians 1:9)

"We went through fire and through water,
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance" (Psalm 66:12)

May we have great confidence in "the place of abundance" that the Lord will provide in his grace and mercy, through Christ our Savior. We "trust in you, O Lord. . . . You are [our] God. [Our] times are in your hand" (Psalm 31:14, 15).

We are deeply grateful to each of you—for your friendship and partnership in our ministry, for your prayers in this time of trial, for your continued encouragement and help as we recover from the flood. Once again, we see this as an occasion to trust the Lord to accomplish far beyond anything we can ask or think—to continue faithfully providing God’s Word and gospel-centered resources to serve the church, to proclaim the gospel, and to reach a world that is desperately lost without Christ. May the Lord use this challenge to bring us closer to himself, for the furtherance of the gospel, and for the display of his glory.

With our great appreciation for each of you,

Lane T. Dennis, PhD

President and CEO, Crossway