Staff
Don Cross: dcross@indiana.edu
Bio: Born and raised on a grain farm Southern Indiana, and graduated from a high school with 60 students. Attended Vincennes University and came to IU-Bloomington in 1968. Served as assistant director of student publications in the IU School of Journalism for 33 years and retired in 2004. Family: Met wife (Jody) at IU in 1968. Married for 37 years (Jody is retired IU Art Museum Tour Coordinator; two grown children, Sara (married and working as an elementary school teacher in Sweden) and Joseph who is majoring in Fine Arts classes at IU and involved with local music groups.
My mother taught me Bible stories and “took me to church” as a kid. I was “confirmed” at age 13, but at 15, I stopped attending church and forgot about God. While taking classes at IU in 1975, the Gideons were handing out little green Bibles on campus and I grudgingly took one intending to throw it way. Later, after feeling depressed about life and the thought of death, I came across the green Bible and the words of Psalm 34 “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles…O taste and see that the Lord is good”. I began looking for God, reading the Bible and looking for people who were following the Bible. For the first time, Jesus dying on the cross for my sins became personal and changed my life.
Cheryl Massey: friendspeak2121@gmail.com
Bio: I was "born and raised" a Hoosier - I have lived in Bloomington all my life (except my 1st year of college). I spent 1 year at Harding University in Searcy, AR and then finished up and graduated from IU in 2000 with a degree in business management. I worked from 1998- 2007 at the Indiana University Foundation as an accountant (yes, I do enjoy balancing a checkbook). I have known my husband since I was a child and we joke that we have an arranged marriage. Kyle and I were married in 1998 and have 2 wonderful boys - Jonathan and Joshua.
I have grown up in the North Central church family. I remember when I was 12 hearing a lesson about Jesus dying for us and thought to myself, "what have I done for him?" - that is when I decided to be baptized. When I came back to IU I became involved with the Let's Start Talking program, which sends teams to other countries to offer English conversation through easy-to-read Bible stories. In 1999 I spent 3 weeks in Osaka, Japanand in 2001 I spent 6 weeks in Varazdin, Croatia. Since then I have trained several LST teams. I was thrilled to start FriendSpeak in 2005 at North Central because my job did not allow me to take off much time in the summer. I am blessed to now be part of the FriendSpeak staff!