Like many Christians who come to college and are faced with an array of temptations and pressures, Ashley (pictured left) spent her first year at Davis navigating how to be a Christian in the midst of college.  Having tested the waters of the party scene, and weary from the world’s empty pursuits, Ashley entered her sophomore year hungry for something more—a deeper dependence and faith in Jesus.  She knew what she’d been doing wasn’t working.  So, looking to take her faith seriously and grow in her relationship with God, she immersed herself in the Cru community at Davis.  She began attending a Bible study for her major, joining the weekly prayer times held on campus, and learning how to engage in spiritual conversations and share her faith with students on campus.

In February, our ministry hosted an outreach using Perspective Cards (an evangelism tool highlighted in our previous letter) to surface students’ worldviews and share the gospel.  One aspect of the outreach was a challenge to our students to prayerfully consider trusting the Lord to try Perspectives with three of their friends over the course of two weeks.  Ashley was one of the 50+ students to participate in the outreach, and she took it a step closer to home:

“I have been praying for my brother to be saved for around 5 years now but I rarely ever talk to him about God.  We were challenged in the outreach to do Perspective Cards, so I decided to do them with my brother… He was curious to know more and came to church with me the next day where he prayed to receive Christ!  Not only did that transform my brother’s life, but my faith was radically changed as well.  God blessed me in my small step of faith, which has given me boldness and courage to keep taking bigger steps of faith.”

One of Ashley’s next steps is to go on a Summer Mission with Cru to South Africa.  Thanks for helping students like Ashley embark on the journey that is faith in Christ!

Clay Update

We are excited to share that this summer we will be leading Ashley and 9 other students on a Summer Mission to Grahamstown, South Africa!

In 2010, we were part of the first summer mission team from the US to the Eastern Cape of South Africa.  Our goal was to start an evangelistic movement on Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (1.5 hours from Rhodes Univ. in Grahamstown).

Since then, God has used teams like ours and year-long teams to bring hundreds of students to trust in him for the first time. Because of their desire to see the good news of Jesus spread as far as possible, many of these NMMU Cru students are now reaching out to other campuses in the region. There are currently 40 South African students involved in the ministry across four different campuses.

This summer our team hopes to come alongside these students to help launch an evangelistic movement at Rhodes University.  We’re trusting that the Lord will use our summer to help launch a healthy self-sustaining movement that will affect South African lives for years to come!

Prayer Requests

Praise God for Gabby who has begun a relationship with Jesus! Pray that she would stay connected to community and grow in her faith this summer.

Please pray for our students as they prepare for finals and head  into summer. Pray that they would be intentional with their faith and their time.

Pray for our team and us as leaders as we plan and prepare for our trip to SA. Pray that God would work in our hearts and the hearts of those we’ll meet.