We love teenagers and want to connect them to Jesus Christ. Cru has been around for over 60 years, and the LA/OC Metro team since 2013. Our team is made up of full-time and part-time staff members, interns and volunteers who join hands with parents, educators, churches and community leaders. We reach students for Christ and equip them to make a positive and eternal difference.
OUR STAFF
Hung and Angela Thach
Hung and his family fled from war-torn South Vietnam in 1975 and came to the United States and was sponsored by a church in Tennessee.
He and his wife Angela have been married for 23 years and have three children, Caleb, Brooke, and Jericho. They have served with Cru for more than 22 years and Hung currently serves as the City Director for the High School ministry of Cru in Los Angeles.
Their passion is to help bring the love and truth of Jesus to teenagers around our city and the world. Their family embraces the messiness of ministry and loves sharing life with the staff, college students, and teens in which they have privilege of serving and leading.
Susan Bendijo
The death of Susan’s mother at the age of six sent her and her siblings to America. It was a confusing time, but not long after something amazing happened. Susan’s older sister had gotten involved in Cru at her university, and heard the good news of Jesus’ love for the first time. That same night, she shared with Susan how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Susan was surprised Jesus wanted to be a part of her life, and was excited to say yes to him.
As an adult volunteering herself with the high school ministry of Cru, Susan saw the emptiness of young people who were growing up in a tough complex culture filled with identity issues, sexual pressures, substance abuse, violence and high anxiety.
She fell in love with the fact that Cru goes to the teenagers - their school - their world! Bringing Jesus! It was then that she knew what she had to do. She joined the work full-time, and is thrilled to show God’s heart to rescue the lost who are walking in darkness everyday (Isaiah 61:1-4).
Her passion is to share the Gospel of hope and love to young people, mentor them, and send them back on their campus to reach more and home to reach their families. “I have seen the goodness of the Lord and He will accomplish what He started in me!”
Brandt and Jessica Carson
In high school, Cru was instrumental in teaching Brandt exactly what it meant to have a personal, thriving relationship with God. After being discipled by Cru staff for six years, Brandt answered God’s call to move from Tennessee to California in the fall of 2013. Since then, he has been actively evangelizing and discipling students in the LA/OC high schools.
In the fall of 2014, Jessica was working as a crisis specialist with at-risk youth in the public-school system. At that time she felt called to share Christ with teenagers and immediately started volunteering with the High School ministry of Cru. That same semester, she felt the call to walk away from her “secure job and plans” and go into full-time ministry rather than pursue licensure for Social Work.
The Carsons joined Cru full-time and reported in August 2019. Their passion is to love, cultivate, and commission the high school students in the LA/OC area through relational evangelism and discipleship.
Casey Cashen
Casey feels called to go and fight for the broken-hearted, to help tear them away from the grips of Hell and destruction with God’s message of Love and Redemption, to pursue those who have been cast aside and thrown away by the world and let them know they are special in His Kingdom!
Casey volunteered with Cru from the moment he met and fell in love with Jesus in 2005 at the age of 24. God broke Casey’s heart over the lostness and desperation of teens and the realization that if we lose this generation then we lose our future! Casey has been blessed to be able to minister to so many teens and share the truths of Scripture through many outreaches and life-on-life discipleship.
In 2010 Casey joined staff to reach out to the millions of students in the greater L.A. area. He enjoys spending time with friends, reading, discussing Scripture, video games, counseling, the beauty of creation, prayer, and spending time with Jesus in His Word.
Dan and Pat Lee
Dan and Pat are both California natives. Dan started his career with the High School Ministry in Southern California in 1981, and served at Cru headquarters in Orlando for 20 years. He was delighted to come back to southern California in 2017 to join the LA High School team. He serves in administration and communications, as well as helping staff (local and nationwide) with their Ministry Partner Development.
Dan and Pat have two grown children and a granddaughter, Kyla, all in Florida. Pat spends her time taking care of her mom, Arlene.
Dan enjoys making all kinds of music and memorizing weird facts, such as the countries and capitals of the world.
David Potts
David saw great success in the restaurant industry in various eastern states. As a leader, he grew his businesses and connected with people from various backgrounds.
But in spite of his success, he felt something was lacking in his career and his life. How could he take the influence he had on people and direct them to Jesus? He prayed and trusted God with the next steps of his journey, and then one day it began. David ended a successful career and moved to California with only 5 boxes of clothes in his car, to serve the next generation. David started volunteering with Cru’s Los Angeles high school team in June 2017, and joined as a part-time staff person in March 2018.
He is thrilled to start spending his best hours helping young people find new life in Jesus Christ.
Spiro Raxiotis
Spiro became a follower of Christ at the age of twenty-two after a drug overdose and subsequent attempted suicide. He served on Parkcrest Church’s Celebrate Recovery ministry team for over 7 years, during which he led the teen version known as The Landing,
It was during that time his heart broke for hurt and lost teenagers, seeing his story in many of theirs. He came into contact with Cru High School at church and attended a student rally at a local high school. It was that day he heard the Lord call him to serve with Cru.
Spiro had been a stay-at-home dad for ten years. Choosing to join Cru has required a sacrifice for his wife, Jen, and two children, Joshua and Leah.
Living life on mission as a husband and father, he sees his role in gathering a family of children from a fatherless generation; expressing to them the love of the heavenly Father; and bringing them to his home as part of his larger family.
Jennifer Chan
Jenny repented and trusted Christ in late middle school through the intentional discipleship and care of her youth leaders. She has been passionate about loving and witnessing to young people ever since. In 2016, the Lord led her to CA to help plant a church and two years later she got connected to Cru High School. It was a match!
Jennifer nows serves on the Cru High School Los Angeles team as part-time field staff. Her prayer (along with her husband Scott) is to see Christ glorified as the gospel is shared and disciples are made on high school campuses throughout the LA/OC area, with the partnership of local churches.
Brandon Ingram
Brandon grew up in Birmingham, AL with his mother, grandmother and sister. He met Jesus in college and his life was radically changed. Jesus started to show him that he was loved and cared for despite his mistakes and fears.
On a trip to California he saw how God was changing the lives of teenagers through Cru. God began to stir his heart for the teens, and after a few months of prayer, he felt the Lord calling him away from his engineering career to join staff part-time with Cru.
Brandon was accepted as field staff in early 2018 and reported to the team in September 2019. He is excited to introduce students to Jesus and become a positive mentor and role model in their lives.
Caleb Thach
Caleb is a junior in college at Cal State Long Beach, pursuing a degree in psychology. He has been involved in high school ministry throughout his life and continues to desire seeing youth encounter God’s love.
After volunteering with Cru for two years, Caleb decided to join the Cru staff as an apprentice in the fall of 2020. He is excited to serve high school students and introduce them to Jesus.
Jordan Gavero
Jordan works with Cru's high school ministry in Long Beach, CA, and currently works closely with Fountain Valley High School and the Cru Young Men’s Bible Study in Long Beach. He loves working with high schoolers and sharing the good news of the Gospel, leading by example and sharing the love of Christ with them.
Jordan - “I am so grateful for your prayers and support! Please email me at jordan.gavero@cru.org for any questions. God bless you!”
Jihye Kim
Ji Hye Kim was born in Korea and raised in New York. After graduating from college, she went to Central Asia to reach Muslim students for Christ with Campus Crusade (2001-2004). In 2005, she joined full time staff with Campus Crusade and served college students in New York and California. During her academic sabbatical, she earned a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2015). In 2022, God called her to reach high school students for Christ so she transferred and began serving with the High School ministry of Cru in Los Angeles.
Jihye prays to know God more and love Him with her first love.
Jeanette Saxton
Excited to serve alongside Cru High School Ministry for the Metro-Los Angeles area Jeanette serves as a Virtual Executive Assistant. She joined the staff in March of 2020, and immediately knew the this new opportunity was a blessing that only God could have orchestrated “for such a time as this”.
Born and raised in the Central Valley of California, Jeanette, and her husband Scott, moved to Nashville, Tennessee in February of 2020. Without the promise of any particular plan for their move, they packed up their home and followed God’s call to move to Tennessee.
Nothing could have prepared them for what followed in the world around them after their move. The blessing that did transpire was an ever increasing trust in the Lord to supply all that they needed, and little of what they wanted. “You may never know that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have”. - Corrie ten Boom
As Jeanette virtually serves to be the “hands and feet” of God, to help WIN, BUILD, and SEND the high school team of Los Angeles, she fully trusts that the Lord has placed her just where she needs to be, for her good and for His glory. Join her in praying for Cru Metro-Los Angeles, that the Lord will continue to supply the workers for a harvest that gives glory to His Kingdom!